It was the third day of the night cycle. Five months had passed, and Gilly had fallen asleep while reading. The candle beside her fell on the table. The fire had engulfed all the books but stayed like that, not burning a single book. This caused the room to have a bright yellow glow to the people on the streets. Valmor and his daughter had just done the day's work. Passing by, they had noticed it and approached. On entering, their eyes lit up as this was something that Ephini’s mother used to do a lot.

The name was flameless magic, and it was used by a mage to read at night. She tapped Gilly gently, but she did not respond, being deep in slumber. Ephini put out the fire, and using a blanket, she covered Gilly, closed the window, and exited with Valmor, who was too surprised to even move, reminiscing on the days his wife read long into the night. Leaving Gilly in a pitch-black room, they both headed to their respective quarters.

It was the first day of the day cycle. The day had finally come for Gilly to take the adventurer’s exam, which will determine her rank, and she had a spar with Zin at the training ground. At two opposite ends, stood a girl and a young man with a lot of people around, forming a big circle of about 60 meters. They were the guards and other individuals who were training a while ago but had to stop to watch a spectacle between a student and her teacher.

Zin, on one end, had a wooden sword pointed at Gilly. This was the final guidance he would give her before the exam in the afternoon.

She dashed forward, leaving a gush of wind as she approached Zin. Letting out a horizontal sweep with her sword. This was met with a parry by Zin. She jumped back and repeated with varying steps from a different direction. Zin had not moved all this while meeting every attack with a parry. She jumped back a few meters, staring at Zin before her image became blurry, and all that could be heard was the whistling of wind. Zin immediately dove, bending over. Gilly’s figure appeared, sweeping by with a forward thrust.

This continued until Gilly used a technique she had seen to do called meta slash. She proceeded with a quick draw of her sword. Zin took the blow head-on, clasping the sword firmly between his palms. Gasps and cheers here and there were heard as that was the end of the spar; twenty minutes had elapsed and she had learned a lot. For one, Zin did not move or attack; he only defended as promised. Patting her on the head, he smiled and gave her a thumbs up. She followed up with a smile filled with teary eyes as the crowd dispersed, for it was lunchtime in the afternoon.

When she was done with Zin, after listening to his suggestion, she headed out to Valmor's office, where Ephini would be waiting with the examiner sent from Loran to the regional headquarters of Adventurers and the seventeenth province of the neighbouring kingdom, Asram.

Now, unlike other professions such as explorers and alchemists, adventurers were special. Just like mages, they had to prove their power to the world by gathering strange and important resources for civilization. Since this task was extremely dangerous due to various monster and terrains, they had to pass a specific test to determine their ranking on what level of task they could start with.

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Adventurers starting with big egos mostly don't live long, and this has been the saying by adventurers for hundreds of years. Ephini sat, with a worried look on her face, with another lady across from her who had red hair and gray pupils; she wore an indifferent expression, constantly staring at the door. Gilly walked in, and the expression on the red-haired lady's turned into disgust.

"Is this her? You’ve got to be kidding."

She stood up and stompped her way out, slightly glancing at Gilly before slamming the door behind her.

Valmor stood at a corner, now visible to Gilly, shaking his head slightly.

"What's wrong?"

She was always carefree at such times, and Ephini could not help but shake her head.

"She will be your test instructor."

She sighed, covering her head as she exited the room, leaving Gilly more confused. Valmor broke the silence with a brief history of that woman. Her name was Hilary, and she was the head captain of the noble guards in Loran, a province in Asram located south of their village. She had graduated from the Adventurers Academy nine years ago and was in the same class as Zin and Ephini. The problem was that she had a big ego. Since she was born, she was hailed as a genius in combat and magic, even comparable to the princes Astoria and Vincent. They had all been in the same class with Zin and Ephini back in their adventuring days.

She had always been first in all she did and was always praised by all, but in the academy, no matter how hard she worked, she always came in second after Zin. He paused looking at her, who was listening with all concentration to their conversation. She had not known much about her teacher, who was around the same age as her in terms of look.

For Hilary, being first meant everything to her, but out of all one hundred and sixty-seven matchups with Zin, she had never once won. Ephini bested her in magic, and Astoria outclassed her in battle prowess. This made her very envious of them, especially Zin, who had never used magic once in their duels but had always beaten her with pure physical strength.

Gilly's eyes widened with surprise at that last statement; she understood fully well that the reason she was here was to test who Zin and Ephini had trained.

"On normal occasions, the test is done by someone in Hunter's class, but for them to send an Apex predator class is just unheard of."

He looked disturbed, wondering if Gilly would be able to pass or would wait till the next month.

Gilly closed the distance between them, imitating Ephini's smile, which made her look weird, and responded.

"If Zin and Ephini are that great, then I mustn’t fail; if not, it will tarnish their reputation, right?"

She was carefree, but she at least knew what was at stake. Valmor could not help but smile back at her, seeing her try so hard to look confident even though her hands were visibly shaking behind her back.

"Just do your best and don't hold back."

He then walked out of the room, with Gilly following closely behind. At the intersection just before the hill, there was an open field where matches and duels were held. This was where the test was held for all adventurers and mages. A lot of people had gathered hearing that Gilly would be taking her test today. A lot of chatter as the anticipation filled the air. Zin and Ephini stood on the east side of the field opposite the hill, and Zenora had just caught up with them.

"Have you been running around again?"

This statement from her master made her body go numb. Ephini could not help it since she always loved to run around and explore; the only worry was that she was too young and might be kidnapped since Elven slaves were highly sought after. Valmor, the head of the town, had just arrived, signaling the beginning of the exams.

With a single gesture of his, the hill went silent. This followed with a speech on the exams and the conduct of both the examiner and the student. Hilary interjected, raising her hand; this caused everybody present to look at each other as the murmurs grew louder. Valmor gave her leave since this was also the right of an examiner.