Dawn broke on the city of Western Feulac, much like any other day. Clouds moved through the air as they always did, riding on currents of air seemingly without a care in the world. The planet continued to rotate as it sped its way through space, moving at speeds its inhabitants couldn’t even imagine, like it always did.
In reality, the day was in no way different from any other, except to the people living in Western Feulac, for on this day the trials for the Adventurers Guild opened.
The Adventurers Guild Entrance Trials, known as AGET, were a series of challenges designed to test every aspect of the potential applicants, from their combat abilities to their problem solving skills. Every year hundreds of people from all ages and all backgrounds entered.
Only fifteen were accepted.
The tradition of only accepting fifteen carried over from the guilds founding, the first Guildmaster believing that quality would prevail over quantity. In a time when ‘safety in numbers’ was the name of the game, the idea of limiting the number of accepted applicants was ridiculed by the other guilds. Now, thousands of years later, the Adventurers guild stood tall while the naysayers lived on only in the pages of history books.
“For the love of my left nut, how am I still tired? I slept for thirteen hours!” Torin exclaimed.
Torin ducked under Gloria’s punch, his training showing itself as he seemed to only realize what was happening after he’d already dodged.
“Wait, did you just try and punch me?” He asked.
“No idea what your talking about.” Gloria responded.
“Yeah, I didn’t see a thing.” Johann said, lying through his teeth.
The three of them were currently standing in Kern’s basement training room, waiting for some sort of surprise that he had gone to fetch. When Kern had revealed the training room he had set up in the basement both Torin and Johann had been flabbergasted, they hadn’t even known there was a basement.
Granted, it wasn’t a particularly impressive basement, packed dirt making up the walls and floor, but it was a decently large space that was currently filled with all sorts of training equipment that the three of them had become intimate with over the last five months.
Torin was just about to retaliate to the punch that he was pretty sure had happened when Kern reappeared in the room, startling the trio. A second later another pair of feet appeared at the top of the stairs as Melissa entered the room without the theatrics of her stealthy husband.
Once the two of them stood side by side they broke out into smiles, pride in their hearts as they looked at the three teens in front of them.
“Congratulations, you survived basic training!” The sentiment might have been nicer if it hadn’t come from the man that had tried to kill them.
“Okay, okay, I know I’ve been driving you hard, but before you start plotting your revenge, I have bribes.” The wide grin on his face made the three of them want to punch him, but the mention of bribes had them interested.
With a flourish like a theatrical mage casting spell, Kern opened his hands to reveal three rings sitting in the palms of his hands. It took them a second, but when the three teens realised what the rings were their eyes widened as shock filled them.
“Is, are they, are those Inventory Rings?” Torin asked, voicing the question that sat on all of their minds.
Rather than answering, Kern tossed each of them a ring. Of course, he couldn’t let the opportunity go by, so he tossed them with enough force to seriously hurt.
Five months of training wasn’t for nothing though. Torin with his high agility simply snatched the ring out of the air with contemptuous ease. Gloria was nowhere near as fast as Torin but her battle awareness and instincts were leaps and bounds ahead of his. She was already moving before Kern had even thrown the rings and managed to move her hand into the path of the ring, making catching it simple.
Johann did not catch the ring. He lacked both the speed of Torin and the instincts of Gloria. He still managed to snap up a [Mana Barrier] in the half second it took for the ring to reach him. The barrier shattered immediately but it was enough to sap the projectile of its speed, the ring falling to the floor with a small clink. Despite the impressive casting speed Johann still felt a bit embarrassed as he scrambled to pick up the ring.
He didn’t need to worry though, as neither of the other two were paying attention, their focus reserved for the small band of metal resting in their palms.
As they held the rings they could feel the magic contained within. A small pulse of their Mana was enough to confirm the nature of the rings as their minds were pulled into another space in the brief moment their Mana was connected.
Seeing the wonder and shock evident on the teens faces Melissa spoke up with a smile. “I realize it’s a bit late, but we hope you enjoy the birthday presents.”
It was traditional that, on the eighteenth birthday, parents would give their child a gift suitable for their chosen class. Inventory Rings, being that they could contain large volumes of items with only a thousandth of the weight, was a shockingly expensive way of covering all bases. The perfect gift for a rich parent who didn’t care about their child, or an immensely loving parent who wanted the perfect gift for budding adventurers.
“Aaand, That’s Not All!! If you look inside your rings right now, you’ll also receive a little something extra!” Kern was hamming it up to the max, taking advantage of his wife's good mood and his kids distraction.
The three of them returned their attention to the rings, ignoring Kern's cringe-worthy display. Within each of the rings they found various items such as foodstuffs and bed rolls but placed in a corner separate from all the rest, lay one item that stood out.
For Johann, a quarter staff made of wood so green it looked like it was freshly cut. For Torin, a dark brown recurve bow with a string that shimmered faintly in the light. For Gloria, a targe shield made of wood with and edge plated in metal and several runes engraved on the inside.
“Okay, from youngest to oldest. Gloria, your shield is made from hardened iron wood and engraved with the retribution enchantment. The shield passively absorbs a portion of the hits that strike it and, once activated, it will release the stored energy in a cone in front of it. If you time it right it can massively increase the power of your shield bash.”
Gloria looked at the shield with tears in her eyes, her one hand idle tracing the runes that were carved on it.
“Torin, your bow is also made from iron wood but it has been treated with a special resin to help it blend into darkness. The bow hasn’t been enchanted but the string is made from my arm hair.” Torin yelped and dropped the bow, making Kern roar with laughter, right up until Melissa hit him with a silencing spell.
“Relax honey, it’s not made from his arm hair, that’s just your father being silly.” Kern’s face portrayed a look of devastation, which Melissa completely ignored. “The string is made from the sinew of a Basilisk and has a low chance of imbuing each arrow with a paralytic effect.”
Torin picked his bow back up and, after carefully studying the string just to make sure, he started testing its draw weight.
“Johann, your quarter staff is made from the remains of a living Pearwood. It is incredibly resilient and can be used as a melee weapon if needed but its real ability is that it can increase the resilience of any nature spells that are channeled through it, making spells like your grasping roots that much more effective.”
Johanns mind was a whirl with ideas on how to use and abuse the staffs ability while he idly spun it around in his hands.
Melissa looked at her two, no, her three kids as they each were lost in their own worlds and cleared her throat to get their attention. “My lovely husband wanted to say this next part but, as he’s currently unavailable,” everyone pointedly ignored that fact that Kern was still in the room, “as a final reward for your training you may now look at your status sheets.”
The three immediately excited and wasted no time in doing so. Before the training had begun Kern had made each of them swear not to open their status sheets until after the training so none of them had a solid idea how far they had come.
Status
Name: Johann Alltud
Age: 18
Race: Mixed (Elf/Elemental)
Class: Druid lvl 1
Title: None
Health: 100
Mana: 280
Stamina: 80
Attributes
Strength: 7
Agility: 9
Vitality: 10
Dexterity: 14
Perception: 14
Control: 21
Power: 28
Skills
General:
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
-Animal Taming lvl 1
-Mana Barrier lvl 3
-Basic Mana Bolt lvl 2
Class:
-Grasping Roots lvl 2
-Weather Attunement lvl 2
-Animal Attunement lvl 1
Mastered:
Plant Attunement
Basic Mana Manipulation
Traits
Elemental Mana Pool
Calling of the Arch Druid
Johann looked over his status and marvelled at his progress. Thanks to the intense physical training his attributes had increased by 6 whole points. Even if it was mostly in his physical stats it was a ridiculous increase. Granted, they were low to start with so it was a lot easier to increase than his magical stats would be, but it was still incredible.
The thing he was most proud of though, were his skills. To get not just one but two skills mastered in just five months was almost miraculous. Whatever complaints he may have had about the training, and they were legion, he had to admit it was effective.
Status
Name: Torin Alltud
Age: 18
Race: Mixed (Elf/Elemental)
Class: Ranger lvl 1
Title: None
Health: 120
Mana: 55
Stamina: 170
Attributes
Strength: 14
Agility: 23
Vitality: 12
Dexterity: 15
Perception: 14
Control: 9
Power: 11
Skills
General:
-Basic Footwork lvl 3
-Basic Mana Manipulation lvl 2
-Empty
Class:
-Basic Archery lvl 8
-Basic Inspect lvl 1
-Simple Animal Bond lvl 1
Traits
Heritage of the Elven Ranger
Torin looked over his status sheet with no small amount of satisfaction. Every single one of his attributes, apart from the magical ones (and who needed them when you had a wonderboy like Jojo nearby?), had gone up at least by one point, his Strength, Dexterity and perception all going up three whole points.
He was definitely still going to get his revenge but, looking over his progress, he felt that maybe it wouldn’t include horrific stabbing. He’d probably limit it to only ‘mild’ stabbing.
Status
Name: Gloria Megrathin
Age: 18
Race: Rakshasa
Class: Warrior
Title: None
Health: 160
Mana: 25
Stamina: 90
Attributes
Strength: 14
Agility: 10
Vitality: 16
Dexterity: 15
Perception: 9
Control: 13
Power: 5
Skills
General:
-Pain Tolerance lvl 2
-Basic Mana Manipulation lvl 4
-Empty
Class:
-Basic Shieldwork lvl 3
-Basic Mace Wielding lvl 1
-Basic Battle Awareness lvl 8
Traits
One Mind, Many Forms
Gloria looked over her Status sheet and idly wondered how long it would take before she could beat Mr. Alltud in a fair fight. Her skills and attributes were increasing nicely but if anything her battle awareness let her realize more and more just how wide the gap between her and the elf was.
Just who was this elf, what was his story? One day she would stand before him as an equal and on that day she would ask, this she swore.
The elf in question, his lovely wife’s spell finally wearing off, cleared his throat. “Okay, okay, as much as I’m sure you’d like to proclaim how amazing and awesome you are, we don’t have the time. The sign-up for the Trials begins soon and I did not spend all that time turning you from weak little children into greatness incarn- hey wait a minute, come back here! I haven’t finished talking yet!”
Kern stared at the departing backs of the teens, his shoulders slumped, before he turned to his loving wife, tears in his eyes. “Why honey, why do they never listen to me?”
Melissa lovingly stroked his cheek. “Because your an idiot.” she responded before walking away, leaving a grievously wounded Kern clutching his heart and collapsing to the floor.
He stayed there for a few seconds before cracking an eye open. Seeing no sign of his wife he quickly jumped to his feet, grumbling about his evil wife and unfaithful children..
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The three of them raced towards the main square where the Trial sign ups were located, Malek and Sharptooth the Destroyer racing along with them. While Kern had been whipping them into shape, sometimes literally, Melissa had taken over training the wolfhounds.
Even though the Adventurers Guild were primarily responsible over dungeons maintaining a complete monopoly over them would be … problematic. Instead, a select few dungeons near each city was made available to the public, albeit with some restrictions. Beyond restrictions on what a person could bring in and out of the dungeon the main restriction was power.
Whether they were a noble born warrior or a dirt poor clerk, everyone had to prove they had the power to defeat the most common dungeon monsters, known as mobs, before they could be let in. As an Advanced spell enchanter, Melissa passed the test with ease, letting her and the two wolfhounds use the dungeon. It was there that the training took place.
The wolfhounds didn’t need training in killing, they had plenty of instincts, but they did need training working together with a bipedal partner and, thanks to Melissa’s highly adaptable toolkit, they got plenty of experience working with a partners that used different methods of fighting.
That, and they got plenty of monster cores, allowing them to strengthen their bodies and have a nice snack at the same time.
The training wasn’t all that evident but as they ran alongside their bipedal owners the two wolfhounds found themselves far more responsive and connected to them than ever before.
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As it turned out, the three definitely did not need to run. They arrived almost half an hour early and there was still almost a hundred people lined up before them. What really annoyed them though, was the site of Kern seated at a nearby cafe, casually sipping a coffee and reading a book as if he had been there for so long that he needed something to do in the meantime. The casual wave as he noticed them glaring at him didn’t help.
It took another hour before they were finally at the front of the line, a bored clerk seated at the table with several stacks of documents placed to the side of him. Taking a quick disinterested glance at the three of them, the clerk deftly grabbed three forms from various stacks and handed it to them.
In a voice as bored and professional as his posture, the clerk said “Push a little Mana into the form and accept the prompt, it’ll fill out only the necessary information, nothing more. Make sure not to push too much Mana in or the forms will combust.”
The three of them did so, the System filling out the forms like magic, and they handed them over. The clerk looked over the forms and his eyebrows rose in the first emotion that he had displayed other than boredom, surprise.
“Impressive, a Ranger and a Druid, both level one, in the same party as a Rakshasi Warrior. Now that is not something you see every day. Wait, the two of you are brothers? Never heard of a noble family by the name of Alltud, must be new. Alright, before there’s any confusion, the Adventurers Guild does not give special compensation to anyone, no matter their lineage or how much money they have, got it?”
Johann and Torin nodded, neither of them bothering to correct the clerk. If he believed they were nobles then all the better, it was as good a disguise as any.
"All right, everything looks like everything else is in order so I'll just go over a few rules. Rule 1: all participants must compete using their own power without outside help. That means no Pets, Potions, Scrolls, Talismans or buffs that you haven't cast on yourself. Runic Tattoos are allowed if you can prove you were the one who applied them. There is also a 50 gold limit on equipment. If you try and enter with more than fifty golds worth of equipment you will be disqualified with no exceptions."
"Rule 2: no fighting with other participants outside of the Trials. If we find out that you are the reason another participant failed to show up then you will be disqualified, and we always find out. Do you understand these rules as I have explained them?"
The three nodded.
“Good. Come back to this square at noon, that’s when the Trials will start. If you’re not here then don’t worry, there is always next year.” The clerk chuckled at his own joke before calling out “Next!"