Chapter 33: Do What You Can
Three days had passed since the start of the examination, and the examination was starting to increase in complexity. Some of the applicants were mentally exhausted, and evidently too inexperienced. It made sense—not everyone had higher rank friends or family to keep them safe while they got their first monster kills. For some, this was their first experience fighting monsters. Those with experience with monsters had a better chance to pass, but if Sen’s first failure was any indication, wasn’t always the case.
A few leaders emerged from the applicants, mainly Vallis, Sen, and the runic teenager that had glared at Sen—Malik Fenhu. He was Mona’s nephew, but it was clear there was no favoritism (if anything, she was harder on those three. According to Nara’s Chinese mother, it meant she cared). He had genuine skill in combat, the level of the other leaders of the generation. He wielded a conjured halberd for self-defense, but primarily used fire and light spells to annihilate enemies from a distance, then dashing in to secure kills on anything left alive.
Part of the rivalry he felt towards Sen, Nara theorized, may have been their tangentially similar essence sets. Malichai (Malik for short) Fenhu had Light, Zeal, and Potent for the Wrath Confluence. While Sen had Might, Balance, and Zeal for the same Wrath Confluence.
Nara thought it was rivalry. The past few days he had glared at Sen at every chance, completing contracts in a clean sweep then stalking up to Sen to say a few challenging words. It was an exhausting way to live—why were all the current descendants of the large families of so competitive? Was it an adventurer thing?
Otherwise, a crush? The fangirl/fujoshi/shipping part of her whispered, low and seductive and entirely detached from reality. Reality wasn’t so fun though. Really, how often did rivals and enemies become lovers? Bah. Boring. The logical part of her mind was a killjoy.
Nara was assigned her next contract. It was a stone rodent, a large, rodent creature with incredibly hard skin that her sword could not puncture. It was otherwise a non-threat to her, but it was too heavy to pick up, and too sturdy to kill. The creature sacrificed mobility for speed, waddling more like a mole than a rat to charge at her in slow motion, screeching something terrible, like its windpipe was made of sandpaper. Maybe it was.
“So how am I going to kill this damn thing...?” She thought, smacking the top of the thing with a staff form Nirvana with a satisfying thunk thunk. The rat thing screeched again, and scrabbled with the intense speed of a bowling ball pushed by a toddler. How threatening.
This was one for the brains, not for the brawn. Thankfully, she had both (metaphorically), and an idea obligingly popped into her head. Thank you, brain (metaphorical).
She transformed Nirvana into a shovel and began to dig. The rodent attacked her ankles, and she nimbly stepped around it like she was dodging a fat, angry chihuahua. After a little while, the hole was already too deep for the rodent to escape. Unlike a mole, it didn’t have any ability to escape.
She held up her shovel approvingly. As expected, shovels were the best.
“Hmm, but wait? The dirt will absorb the water.”
She conjured a heavy plastic tarp, sliding it and wiggling it into place under the heavy rodent. The heavy tarp didn’t rip and held up beneath the scrambling rodent monster.
“Take the cumulation of mankind’s knowledge and our greatest apocalypse—plastic.”
Then, she stepped out, and filled the hole with water. She had stored more than enough water in her Astral Domain inventory to fill up this small hole by visiting the ocean and stealing the water from it.
“Aiyah,” she sucked air through her teeth. “I’m starting to feel like I fight like a serial killer.” She stared at the monster drowning within the small pit of water. She didn’t feel any pleasure from watching it struggle and die (in fact, it was relatively disturbing, but she knew better than to look away from a monster during a test), so that was some consolation to her morality.
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-You have killed [Stone Rodent]
* 10 iron spirit coins
* 1000 lesser spirit coins
* 1 monster core (iron)
* 8 earth quintessence (iron)
* stone rodent meat (iron)
-Loot has been added to your [Astral Domain].
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At least, she hadn’t killed any people.
That was a harrowing thought she immediately shook from her head. The had the rather sinking sensation that it would be inevitable: Her conversations with others told her as much.
When Nara returned to the skimmer, she couldn’t read Mona’s expression. Was it disapproving or approving?
“Was that fine...?
Mona kept her face neutral, but Nara sensed the mild disapproval. “You drowned a monster to kill it; why did you choose that method?”
“They still have lungs at iron rank, right? And it can’t escape the pit I dug.”
“Ordinarily, I wouldn’t approve of this method,” Mona said, furrowing her brow. “When you need to protect people from monsters, you don’t have the leisure to wait for it to drown.”
“Well, my other thought was to teleport straight into the air and drop it onto some rocks to kill it, but I couldn’t lift the damn thing…but you…you weren’t expecting me to succeed?” Nara realized.
That elicited a small smile of approval, at least. “At iron rank, essence users have many weaknesses,” Mona said, “I wanted you to be aware of one of yours. If you cannot damage your opponent, you cannot stack your affliction nor your damage. Consider purchasing equipment that may cover this weakness of yours in the future. You may not need it in later ranks but spare no expense when your weakness is clear and solvable.”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“I understand,” Nara said, “I’ll look into purchasing some additional equipment in the future.”
Mona nodded, satisfied, and assigned another applicant to a contract.
Nara was surprised to see just how much the ability to use skill books had paid off. The adventurer hopefuls from ordinary families displayed far less proficiency in combat. There were a few standouts, some Nara recognized from around the Academy. A rust-furred leonid, Gento, utilized flaming fists to nimbly bore smoking holes through monsters. He fought like a boxer powered by jet engines, each punch lethal and powerful. His kicks too, tore through monsters with aggressive power and precision. Between the examinees she had seen fight so far, his abilities were by far the greatest spectacle of brutality and gore, monsters splattered into smoldering unrecognizable piles of flesh, bones, and fur on charred dirt and grass.
“Oh, I like him,” Vallis said, stroking her chin. “I want him for my team. You’re not interested, Sen?”
“I’m recruiting Nara and her team member,” Sen said. “I will not flaunt the guidelines of manners and decency.”
“The guidelines of manners and decency? That exists for recruitment?”
“It’s uncouth to try to recruit multiple, disparate groups of people simultaneously,” Vallis explained, “If they both say yes but you only wanted one member, what then? Some might still do it, but that’s a quick way to make trouble.”
“At least,” Sen said, crossing his arms in disapproval, “I wasn’t raised to behave so boorishly.”
The day wore until the sun began to dip over the forested horizon, striping the land with streaks of light and shadow.
“Another contract, for a full group,” Mona said as she displayed for the group to read. “Some shadow weavers have been spotted in a nearby forest. It’s an important location for local lumbering operations. I’ll let you all discuss whether to accept this contract.”
“If we don’t accept it, then what?” An applicant asked.
“We come back tomorrow and finish it then. If the exam needs to be extended, we do so.”
That elicited some groans, which Mona quelled with an arching eyebrow.
The applicants divided into two dissenting groups. The first group wanted to complete the contract now and end the examination on time. They argued that expediency was an important factor to consider for adventurers and may be a quality they were tested on. Urgent contracts with time limits, such as escorts and bandit subjugations, were a common variety of adventurer contract. This group was headed by Raja, who roped in other lesser nobles that sought to prove themselves, and other non-noble examinees that agreed with his more logical points.
The second group had Sen, Vallis, and Sen’s rival or admirer, Malik.
Nara was still undecided. She checked her archives for the Monster Compendium Amara had purchased for her from the Magic Society. It was a magically linked copy to the Magic Society’s master copy, and updated itself when the original was altered. It was a thin slate or light but strong material, like aluminum. It resembled a kindle; she was able to access an index which led to other pages of material, or flip through the pages one by one. Used to the electronics of Earth, she had gotten used to the magic controls. Many other important documents in Erras functioned this way, with a master copy and updating linked copies, such as the Essence and Confluence List and Essence Ability Index, both of which she had copies of as well.
Shadow weavers, she read to herself, are spider monsters that manifest in dark places such as dense forests and caves in moderately sized groups. They are dangerous at night, in the dark, or in complex terrain, demonstrating remarkable intelligence for their rank. The ability to set web traps which can entangle adventurers to finish them off with a potent poisonous bite marks them the single highest cause of iron rank adventurer deaths...Oh.
She got it now: They were supposed to refuse the contract. She glanced at Sen, remembering some of his words on why his first party failed. Everyone had been a highly motivated, high performing headstrong challenger, always wanting to push harder and harder. In the past, Sen would have pushed his team to challenge a contract like this, one posed in a disadvantageous situation, and resulting in his initial failure. It seemed he had learnt his lesson and was solidly on the side of rejection now.
This may have also been a test of preparedness. Chelsea had explained that every adventurer should purchase a Monster Encyclopedia as she unabashedly tossed Nara her copies. The static copies were far cheaper than the expensive, self-updating slate she had. It was the price of an ordinary book, and wasn’t much more than her world comparatively. Purchasing a new book every few years was enough to stay on top of things and wouldn’t put an adventurer out any cash. Most adventurers, once they could afford it, purchased a self-updating copy since it was worth the expenditure for the convenience. Nara wondered if she should share her information, but she received a slight head shake from Mona when they met eyes.
Of course: Part of the test was figuring that out for yourself. She had been right earlier; this was a test for the brains—that the overexcited youth could rub a few braincells together and generate forethought for self-preservation.
Some others had figured it out, pulling out their book or slate copies and quietly sitting aside as the last few people argued. Vallis had figured out the test early on, but she was acting as a representative and couldn’t just sit aside quietly like Nara was. She also may have just enjoyed the arguing, especially since she was on the right side.
“Then we’ll be the one to go,” Raja said pompously. “The rest of you are cowards. These are just some measly spider monsters. I do not care that it is their nest. I do not care that it is at night. I am above the rabble unable to surpass their fears. In fact, I am thankful for the opportunity to demonstrate my superiority. And those with me—” he swept out an arm “—are the same.”
He tried to look haughtily down at Sen, but Sen was taller than him. Nara looked down; He had arched himself on to his tippy toes, gaining a few inches of precious height.
“You may be noble in blood, but it is clear you are common in spirit. Instructor Fenhu, we, the strong, will take on this contract.”
Mona was exceptionally good at hiding her disappointment. It seemed she already knew Raja’s personality and expected this outcome. His skills were adequate for an adventurer, but his decision making was problematic. If he was born into a noble family of a less prominent city, he may have passed. But Sanshi was the gold medal standard for raising adventurers, up there with other famous cities such as Saggia and Rowan. Passing such a poor adventurer would be a stain on their worldwide prestige and honor.
Iron rank essence users, amped up on pride with their newfound iron rank powers, made poor decisions. She’d have to let them learn the hard way.
She inclined her head to approve their action, “Then go ahead and kill the shadow weavers. I expect success after such prideful words, Raja. Try not to disappoint your family,” she added, just to further rile him.
Raja eyes contained held-back rage, stoked by the flames of the rivalry of the great families. But Mona was a silver ranker, and silver rankers were respected. No matter how prideful he was, Raja could not escape the tyranny of rank. To Mona, killing him would be like swatting a fly with her bare hand, more disgusting to her than troublesome.
“Yes, Instructor,” he seethed, then gestured to the four that agreed with him, “The five of us is more than enough. Just you wait and see.”
“I’ll certainly see,” Mona said plainly, unbothered.
The conversation had already sent them into the first few hours of darkness. Stars appeared as light faded, the light blue of the horizon diminishing to blue darkness.
“...Should we go with them?” Nara asked Mona.
“Oh? What’s your reasoning?”
“Theoretically, if this was a real contract—and you said we should treat it as such—we shouldn’t leave them to die. All 15 of us fighting have a better chance than just the 5 of us. At the least, we can haul them out of there in a hasty retreat. Or maybe someone here has an ability to let us see in the dark. Then it wouldn’t be so bad.”
“You have a shadow and flame familiar, is that right?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think you can assist their retreat?”
“Um, I can't see in the dark. If I could, I might be able to do something." She had an inkling of what Mona wanted her to do, and regretted speaking up. If work had taught her anything, it was that those who spoke up got assigned more work. Idiot. Now she had ample chance to fuck the whole thing up. She should’ve just sat back and cruised.
Too late for regrets now. Mona had tossed her a pair of goggles. They looked like ski goggles, with a reflective surface and a strap around the head. The material wasn’t rubber or plastic, but she had no idea what this world’s equivalent was.
“Night vision goggles. Can you help them out with that?”
“I think I can manage,” she confirmed reluctantly.
“Do what you can. For what you can’t, that is my role.”