Ezra’s left eye twitched. Hadn’t he already done a duel a few weeks ago?

Dumrivil had his hip cocked out, head slightly tilted, and one finger pointed at Ezra. He’d also gotten a scarf at some point—a highly impractical one that flowed down to the floor.

God only knew how long he’d probably practiced that pose in the mirror.

Ezra stepped to the side. Dumrivil followed. Ezra jumped to the right. Amazingly, Dumrivil kept up and blocked him.

Ezra sucked in a breath and shut his eyes. He opened them.

“There’s very little reason for me to go along with…” He gestured at Dumrivil’s whole body. “Whatever this is.”

Not to mention…

Dumrivil - Knight - Legendary Hero of Heroism - Lv. 51

Level 51 was pretty high. Dumrivil may’ve acted like a joke, but that level was intimidating.

“You just waved at me generally!” Dumrivil said.

“Exactly.”

Ezra stepped to the side, and somehow, Dumrivil tripped over his own scarf and slammed his head into the ground. He quickly pushed himself back up and brushed down his clothing with his hands.

A few curious onlookers had gathered around to watch.

“Another fight?” a woman with armor said.

A man with a bandana grinned. “This is bound to be epic! The nameless merc vs the Whirlwind himself! I should sell tickets!”

Another man frowned. “A grand fight between an oversized toddler and a teenager with a grudge. I think we should get adult supervision.”

Dumrivil coughed into his hand, then looked at Ezra.

“If you fight me,” he said. “You’ll get a reward.”

Ezra started walking toward Prise’s desk. “I sincerely doubt that anything you offer me would be of enough value for me to consider fighting you.”

“Oh? What about a chance to rise through the ranks?”

Ezra stopped.

Prise shook her head quickly, her eyes wide.

Ezra turned around. “Explain.”

Dumrivil tossed a coin into the air, then caught it.

“The guild allows you to rank up by defeating other members of the guild. If the lower-ranked member wins, the higher-ranked member goes down a rank, while the lower-ranked member goes up one. There’s a limit on how often you can do it, of course, and nobody can force another person into a duel.”

Ezra’s brilliant mind raced through highly complex calculations in a moment. He soon arrived at a conclusion.

Annoying duel > endless rat-hunting quests.

Ezra sighed. “Fine, let’s get this over with.”

The guild let out a cheer. Dumrivil led the way to the arena—presumably the city square.

“I’m betting that the Nameless Merc crushes Dumrivil,” one person announced.

“I’ll take that bet! Dumrivil has a real shot, in my opinion. Even though he’s goofy, he’s still B-rank for a reason,” A young mage boy said. “Besides, that Nameless Merc just has a few quests to his name, that’s all.”

The other person snorted. “And a giant lizard kill.”

The armored man that Ezra had beaten up stepped forward.

“You’re both wrong. It will end with Dumrivil winning by default after a tie because the Nameless Merc accidentally hits someone in the crowd.”

“That’s oddly specific.”

“It could happen!”

They were soon in the town square. Now it wasn’t just the guild watching—but everyone in the city center. More than a few merchants had stopped and were staring at Dumrivil and Ezra. An impromptu arena was soon set up using a piece of white chalk.

In the background, Ezra could see Prise passing around… bags of popcorn? Making a little money on the side—Ezra could respect that. She turned around, revealing that she was wearing a shirt with the words ‘Team Nameless Merc’ with a picture of Ezra’s face plastered on it. Multiple members of the audience had similar shirts. A few were wearing ‘Team Dumrivil’ shirts instead.

Ezra’s facial expression froze.

What the actual hell? Who was doing this? Why would Prise buy one!?

Filamenta whispered in his ear. “Remember, try not to crush him too thoroughly. Remain nothing more than an idle curiosity, not an impossibility.”

Ezra shook himself out of his stupor and nodded subtly. “I agree. No point in playing all our cards here.”

Ezra took up a position at one end of the arena. He was thinking that he’d go back to the inn and get a nap after this. That sounded like a good idea.

A member of the crowd tried to do a crowd wave, then fell on his face. Another woman shouted, “Let’s go…! Um, never mind.”

Enthusiastic crowd.

A tumbleweed rolled by the middle of the arena and then bumped up against Prise’s leg. She reached down and poked it.

“Where did this come from?” she said.

Dumrivil took his position at the opposite end. He slouched his back, slid his left foot to his rear, and grimaced at Ezra. Behind him, his scarf billowed in a convenient gust of wind. He drew his massive sword—more a hunk of raw iron than anything else—and gripped it tightly in his hands.

“Well, let’s get this over with,” Ezra said.

Filamenta crawled down to his hand and then transformed into a needle.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“This is a waste of my power.” She glowed in time with her words. “I’m honestly embarrassed.”

For once, Ezra kind of agreed with her.

“Wait, is he planning to sew socks or fight?” someone said.

Villscha had wandered out at some point. He stepped out, a bored expression on his face.

“This is going to end entirely predictably,” he muttered. He then raised his hand. “Alright, start!”

Ezra stood straight.

Dumrivil squatted his legs.

“CRIMSON LOTUS PETAL STORM!” he said.

Dumrivil rushed towards Ezra and spun around with his sword like a spinning top.

Ezra stepped to the side, Dumrivil had no way to control his momentum and fell into the ground in a heap. He stood to his feet and glared at Ezra.

“Such agility,” he said. “Truly impressive!”

Ezra paused.

Wasn’t that too…

Slow? Surely a Level 51 was faster than this?

“Did you see how the Merc dodged Dumrivil’s famed CRIMSON LOTUS PETAL STORM!?” a young woman said. “Astonishing speed!”

“First of all, don’t yell in my ear.” The man next to her rubbed his temples. “Second, Dumrivil couldn’t even see where he was going with that move. Against monsters, it’s fine, but against humans, it’ll never work. For all his speed, the man’s an idiot.”

Dumrivil reared back his blade. “Prepare to taste my fury! AZURE DRAGON’S MAJESTIC ROAR!”

Ezra ducked down, and the sword sailed overhead.

Dumrivil pulled back his weapon. “FULL BLOOD DEATH BLOW!”

He threw his blade down and onto Ezra’s head—or well, he would’ve, if Ezra hadn’t stepped to the side. Dumrivil’s sword slammed into the pavement and cracked it apart.

“Oh come on, the city just replaced that!” someone yelled out.

“From my tax dollars too,” Villscha said.

This continued for about ten minutes, with Dumrivil shouting out and using massive swinging attacks, followed by Ezra dodging or ducking with ease. At the start, the crowd would let out a wild cheer with each attempt by Dumrivil to attack Ezra. As time went on, the cheers died down until everyone was just cringing at each of Dumrivil’s strikes.

“Well, I’m over this,” Ezra said.

He tossed out Filamenta at Dumrivil’s sword and activated [Bind]. A moment later, he recalled it. The two things that had been bound together—steel and air, hummed in his mind. He didn’t activate anything yet. He had to wait.

Dumrivil hadn’t noticed, he was too busy sweating and trying not to collapse. He growled and pulled back his sword for one final attack. He swung out his weapon. Ezra mentally activated [Bind], granting the steel the quality of air’s weightlessness.

Dumrivil’s eyes widened in shock as the sword suddenly lost all of its weight. The sword slipped out of Dumrivil’s hand and flew toward the crowd, spinning at the same time. Screams echoed out and everyone ducked down. The sword flew toward someone’s house, then smashed through the window on the second floor.

At that exact moment, Ezra could feel the threads sever between the air and the sword. There was a loud crashing noise from inside the house, and the blade could be seen falling into the first floor through the window. A man stepped out of the house with a shocked expression. He looked over at the crowd, then back at the inside of his house which had a sword jammed through his table and into the floor.

“Excuse me,” he said. “Can someone remove this from my furniture?

Dumrivil stared at the disaster with a pale face.

The crowd sputtered out a confused cheer.

“Nice one?” someone said.

A man went forward and patted Ezra on the back. “Well done!”

A girl was looking at Ezra with a rather… interesting expression. Ezra decided now was the time to take his leave. He stepped past the multiple people trying to shake his hands and went toward the guild hall.

“You think we should sell merchandise?” Filamenta said.

“No.”

Ezra was still kind of staggered by the whole event. He didn’t think he was that strong compared to his level, so what the hell had happened? Was Dumrivil just having an off day?

He stepped at the front desk. Filamenta transformed into her spider form and crawled up to Ezra’s shoulder. A moment later, Prise dashed back in. She was covered in popcorn crumbs and was still wearing a “Team Nameless Merc” shirt. She hopped over the front desk and stood opposite Ezra.

“Right, I assume you want that rank-up?” she said.

“Where did you get that shirt?”

Prise looked down.

“Oh, this? Some wizards started printing them out on the spot and just giving them out. I thought I should show my support.”

Some mages had skills related to… graphic t-shirt printing?

God, this system was stupid.

“Whatever,” Ezra said. “Yeah, I want that rank-up now.”

Prise nodded.

“Right then,” she said. “So I can rank you up one time because of you completing that Hornblower quest and managing to slay several in one go. Then I can rank you up one more time because of that duel. I should note that you’re not likely to get such explosive growth again. C-rank will be trickier.”

She pulled out some forms and wrote a few things down.

“Why didn’t you want me to fight him?” Ezra said.

“Oh, well…” She stamped something. “I’m about to let you in on a little secret. Don’t tell any of the newbies.”

She looked into Ezra’s eyes.

“Look at my right eye,” she said.

Ezra did as ordered. Across her right eye, there was a peculiar section of her pupil that looked almost robotic, seeming to expand and contract at random. Lines went through it, and if Ezra focused, he could see numbers flying across like a computer screen.

“What on earth?” he muttered.

“Neat, right?” she said. “[Basic Inspect]. All guild girls are given it so that we can advise adventurers.

Ezra’s heart dropped and he took a step back. [Inspect]!? That meant she knew his name—

“Relax,” she said. “I don’t know anything, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

Ezra paused.

“You’ve heard of the true skill, [Inspect], I think,” she said. “Don’t get them mixed, up, they’re not the same at all. [Basic Inspect] lets me see your level and a vague idea of your stats. That’s it. Your name, any of your skills and abilities—that’s all hidden to me.”

Ezra didn’t know whether or not to believe her. What if she was lying?

“She’s not lying,” Filamenta said. “Ezra, if she wanted to rat you out, she would’ve done so a long time ago. She truly doesn’t know anything.”

Ezra paused.

“Fine. If you say so,” he said.

Prise glanced at Filamenta.

“It was talking to you, wasn’t it?” she said.

Ezra looked at Prise, then shrugged. “Yeah, you already know that, though.”

Prise tilted her head. “Can she talk to other people?”

Filamenta was quiet. Ezra shrugged.

“I don’t know.” His vision snapped toward Prise. “Wait, we were talking about why you didn’t want me to fight Dumrivil.”

“Oh, yes!” She hummed and tapped her fingers against the wood. “[Basic Inspect], as I said, gives me some basic information about your stats and abilities. Dumrivil, too. And the only thing you have going for you is higher Dexterity and Wisdom. Dumrivil is better in every other respect. He probably has many more skills as well. I didn’t fancy your chances, even though I much prefer you to him.”

“Interesting,” she said.

“Yes,” she said. “It wasn’t a close fight, either. You had him cornered from start to finish—no, that’s not the right way of putting it either. It was more like… pest control, than anything else. It was so bizarre—he’s supposed to be a B-rank, right? And then, there’s whatever you did to his sword at the end.”

Ezra stiffened and looked toward a random corner of the room.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.

“Mm-hmm.”

Filamenta growled in his mind.

“You idiot. This is what happens when you don’t over rely on [Bind].”

Ezra turned toward her. “Hey, I didn’t see you objecting in the moment!”

Prise tapped her pen and both Ezra and Filamenta froze.

“It was all very strange,” she said. “Dumrivil seemed so much slower than he should’ve been.”

She shook her head and looked back down at her documents. She scribbled off a few things, then nodded. “Right, it’s all done. Congratulations on achieving D-rank, Ezra! You’re now counted among the top 40% of the guild.”

“That doesn’t sound like a lot.”

“Considering it normally takes about two years to achieve such a goal, I’d count it as a win. What you’ve done is so unusual that Guild Headquarters in the capital is probably going to investigate us for this.”

She sucked in a breath and snapped her fingers.

“Right, just so you know,” she said. “We aren’t cleared to offer the S and A rank examinations. Only headquarters can do that. Normally we wouldn’t be allowed to offer B-rank examinations either, but we’ve been given a waiver due to how many dangerous monsters there are around here.”

“Wait, exams?” Ezra said.

She winced. “No one told you? C rank and up requires a formal examination to prove your skills.”

Ezra clicked his tongue. “Well, that’s just great.”

“It’s not too big a deal, don’t worry about it. You’ll pass with ease.”

Ezra looked back at the bounty board.

“Enough guild talk. What’s the next mission?”

Prise rubbed her chin.

“You might have a problem there,” she said. “After festivals, business is usually terrible. I have a feeling you’re not going to find many jobs today, if at all. If my memory serves correctly, then there’s only one D-rank mission available.”

She stepped out and walked toward the bounty board. Ezra followed behind her.

“Your typical duties will involve defeating lesser monsters such as Grimwolves, protecting small villages against threats like goblin raids, and—“

She picked off a piece of paper and sighed. “Escort duty for people collecting resources.”

“What a pain,” Filamenta muttered.

Prise stopped and turned toward Ezra. She looked down toward Filamenta. “Huh?”

Filamenta turned toward Prise. “Oh, quit it. I’m not going to repeat myself.”

“Oh,” Prise said. “Looks like she can talk to other people.”