The reason I, unlike Clovis, was not up in arms about the prospect of being stabbed was simple: I agreed with Alyona. I wasn’t looking forward to potentially getting hurt, but I thought her methods, while brutal, were smart and effective. Most people are too soft for this line of work; they get squeamish at the sight of blood and panic whenever anything unexpected happens. Her way of testing new adventurers was a good one for weeding out the weak-minded, a category which Clovis continued to prove he was a member of.

  “This is ridiculous!” he exclaimed.

  “If you have a problem, then leave,” said Alyona. “Otherwise start strategizing. You’re wasting precious time.”

  Clovis’s face swelled up like a purple frog and for a moment it seemed he would start shouting. Instead, he deflated with a hiss, and turned to face us.

  “Let’s teach that bitch a lesson,” he said. “No matter who she thinks she has backing her, she can’t be doing things like this. We need to wipe that arrogant smirk off her face.”

  Al, Pierre, Christine and I looked over at Alyona’s stony expression, then back at Clovis.

  “Well we won’t be able to ‘teach her a lesson’, but we might be able to surprise her at least,” said Pierre. “Here’s the plan-”

  “I know a very powerful fire spell, [Fire Tornado],” interjected Clovis. “It will take me a few seconds to spin it up to speed, but once it’s out, it’s not easy to stop. If you can keep me safe while I prepare-”

  “Won’t work,” said Pierre. “She will target you first if you try something like that, and there won’t be much we can do to stop her. And there’s the issue of friendly fire.”

  “I have excellent control over my mana. There’s no need to worry about getting hit as long as you stay out of its way.”

  “No,” said Pierre. “No [Fire Tornado]. Stick to small spells at first. As I was telling Lucy earlier, if we coordinate your spells and my arrows, it will be much harder for her to block them. Al will try to keep her busy up front, and Christine will be sneaking around and looking for openings. She’s not great in a straight fight though, so she likely won’t be doing much here.”

  “Sorry,” she said. “All my skills are geared toward stealth and movement.”

  “So it’s up to us to do the brunt of the battling,” continued Pierre. “You got that?”

  “I still don’t see why I can’t use [Fire Tornado],” said Clovis. “You all seem so certain it won’t work, but your only plan is to wait for her to take us out!”

  “You can’t because I said so,” said Pierre. “Part of this test is listening to us, the more experienced adventurers. I don’t have time to explain everything. So listen, and follow our orders. Understand?”

  “...Fine.”

  “Alright then. Here’s the plan. Al will try to keep her occupied up front. She’ll let him do it for a little while at least. In the mean time, we need to find openings to attack from a range without hitting Al. That means we need to move, and take angles. I’ll go to her right, you guys go to her left.” He pointed at Clovis and I. “She can’t see on that side, so you’ll have a better chance of hitting her. Try to time your attacks with mine. Christine will be behind somewhere. Don’t worry about hitting her for today. If she gets hit by one of you two, it’s on her.

  “Don’t do anything reckless while we fight. The outcome of a battle is decided in an instant. If you do something stupid and she takes advantage of it, and mark my words, she will, the test will be over, and you’ll get a very low grade. You got all that?”

  “Yes,” I said.

  “Hmph,” grunted Clovis. “Okay.”

  “Good. Then let’s get started. I don’t know how much time we have left, but I’d rather not find out. Wait for Al to make the first move, then start. Don’t attack early.”

  We broke our huddle and got in our positions; Al walked up to face Alyona directly while Pierre, Clovis and I fanned out behind him and Christine slunk off into the shadows along the arena’s edge. For a few seconds, everything was tense as Al drew his ax and looked back to make sure he was ready. Pierre nodded back, and without hesitation, Al swung at Alyona’s armless side and the fight began.

  I never saw her draw her blade, but nevertheless, the ax clanged off it a foot from her ribs. Pierre shot an arrow at her hip as Clovis and I fired our own offensive spells at her other side. We didn’t time it well though, so she easily deflected them all in turn, while simultaneously dodging another swing from Al.

  The fight went on like that for a minute or so, with Christine occasionally dashing in to swipe at Alyona’s knees or arm. Nothing we did had any effect on her, and she seemed almost bored as she led Al around the arena in a violent waltz.

  As we fought, I tried moving around to find different angles, using illusions and delayed spells to mask my location, but the effect was ruined by Clovis following at my heels, firing indiscreetly.

  “Split up,” I hissed. “Pick a different angle. She keeps blocking us both at once.”

  He ignored me, his face set in a determined expression as he stared at Alyona.

  Another minute passed with the only change being Clovis’ frustration growing more visible. His face turned red and glistened with sweat and his spells became less controlled and coordinated, some of them missing entirely.

  “Hey, watch it!” shouted Al as a fireball soared over his head.

  “This isn’t working,” muttered Clovis.

  “Don’t do anything stupid,” I warned.

  “Protect me,” he said.

  “What are you-?”

  I didn’t need to finish my question. It became obvious what he was doing when he started gathering his mana into a column of flame in front of him. Alyona noticed too, and a split second later, she kicked Al’s shield, sending him flying backward and turned to face the fat noble. Christine dove in to try to take her attention off us while Al got back on his feet, but Alyona brushed her aside just as easily.

  The half-elf then tossed her sword up into the air, drew a knife from her hip and threw it at Clovis. I tried to intercept it with a basic shielding spell, but it broke through like the spell wasn’t there, and buried itself in his shoulder. He screamed in pain, and his column of fire dissipated as he clutched at the wound.

  Alyona caught her sword again as it fell, then dashed toward him. She never made it, because by that time, Al had recovered and come barreling in to intercept her. While the the two clashed again, with Pierre providing covering fire, I ran to Clovis, picked him up, and got him away from the melee brawl.

  “What the hell were you thinking?” I demanded.

  “She- she threw a knife at me!” he said.

  “Yeah, no shit, Sherlock.”

  I dropped him on the ground where he landed with a plop, looking undignified and indignant, then turned back to the fight. Alyona had returned to her former, passive battle style, and she was locked in an engagement with Al once again. I started to run to the side to get an angle again, but I heard Clovis moving behind me and turned to see him standing again, and fuming mad. His face was redder than a tomato, and his hands were trembling.

  “Are you going to keep fighting?”

  He responded by launching a fireball at Alyona and Al. Alyona stepped back, avoiding it entirely, but Al was not so quick, and got hit by the edge of it, charring his armor.

  “Oi!” he shouted. “Watch where you’re shooting!”

  Clovis ignored him and continued to launch spells at Alyona, completely disregarding his surroundings. At first, Pierre and I tried to support him, with me blinding her and trying to send my [Laser] into her good eye and Pierre cutting off her path to us with his arrows, but without Al to stop her up front, she was getting closer every second, and Clovis had his feet planted.

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  “Stop!” shouted Pierre. “What are you doing?!”

  “Stop, dumbass!” I said.

  But our words never made it through to him. Whether he was ignoring us on purpose, or whether he was simply so mad he couldn’t hear us, I don’t know. I never bothered to ask, and I don’t think he was too interested in sharing it with me after what I did next.

  Seeing that he had completely lost his composure, I realized that we had no chance of any kind of success in this test if he were allowed to continue. For a moment, I considered just letting Alyona “kill” him to take him out of the fight, but then had a thought that intentionally letting a party member “die” would reflect badly on me, so I took matters into my own hands and ran up and punched him in the face. His jaw snapped and he fell to the ground, unconscious, two of his teeth bouncing in the dirt nearby.

  I didn’t mean to hit him that hard. I did intend to knock him out, but I didn’t actually want to inflict so much damage on him. I hadn’t really gotten a chance to test out my newly boosted [Strength] yet so I underestimated how much power I had. Fortunately, he was still out cold, so he couldn’t feel all the pain he was in, and Alyona did get to heal him before anything permanent was done, but I did feel a twinge of guilt, seeing him lying there with a misshapen chin and blood pouring from his mouth.

  I had no time to ponder my guilt though, because as an added benefit to taking out a mutinous party member, my action had also stunned Alyona, creating an opening for me to attack. I sent a [Laser] at her eye and a [Stone Bullet] at her stomach. And followed that up by drawing one of my knives from [Inventory] and throwing it.

  She leaned her head to the side to avoid the beam, and brought her sword up to stop the flying rock, but she must have been too bewildered to accurately gauge my knife’s trajectory, because she didn’t bother to block it, and it flew past her side, cutting her shirt open and drawing a few drops of blood.

  The spectators, who had been laughing after I knocked Clovis out, collectively gasped when this happened. I continued launching spells with support from Pierre’s arrows as Al tried to reach Alyona in time, but after getting hit, something about her changed. She swatted Al’s shield aside, and stabbed at his throat.

  “Dead!” she shouted.

  Christine came next, but Alyona knew exactly where she was, and slashed down as she dove in.

  “Dead!”

  I’m not sure what happened after that. All I know is that I was the next to “die”, and that she hit me really hard in the head. I didn’t wake up until after she healed me, which was after she healed Clovis.

  “You awake?” a voice said.

  I shot up and looked around to see myself surrounded by adventurers, trying to get a closer look. Al was crouching next to me, and it was his voice that I had heard when waking up.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “The test is over,” he replied. “‘Yona just healed you and Clovis up and she’s about to announce the results. See, there she goes?”

  He pointed as Alyona walked out to the center of the arena, clutching her injured side and cleared her throat. The crowd around me, which had been talking excitedly, quieted down so that they could hear what she had to say.

  “The applicant test has now concluded. Clovis Satie, step forward!”

  Clovis, who was still just as red with anger as he was before, stood up, his face covered in blood, but his jaw back where it belonged.

  “Clovis, while your magic was powerful, it was unrefined. However, it was not as unrefined as your mind. You lost your composure and harmed your teammates. You refused to listen to orders from your superiors. Your own teammate had to incapacitate you to stop you from getting your whole party killed. You are unfit to be an Adventurer. Your application is rejected.”

  “That was not a fair test!” he shouted. “I never got a chance to show what I could do!”

  “Oh, you showed very well what you could do,” she replied. “You have failed. Your attempt will be recorded in official guild records, and you will not be able to reapply until a month has passed. You may now leave.”

  “I’m telling my father about this!” he said. “You will face consequences.”

  “We shall see.”

  Clovis stormed off back to the guild building, still in his torn, guild-standard robe and disappeared inside. I never saw him again after that. Thankfully, he didn’t remember me punching him, and no one told him, so I never had to face any petty retribution. A few years later, I got curious and looked into what happened to him. His lawsuit against Alyona went nowhere and he disappeared in a Dungeon in Claude on his third dive after getting his license at a different branch.

  “Lucille, step forward!” called Alyona. “You performed well for someone so inexperienced. Your instincts were good, and you remained calm under pressure. You saved an injured teammate, and were later able to make a difficult decision regarding your own teammate. However, you went too far. The injuries you inflicted on him had a possibility of turning deadly if not treated as quickly as they were.”

  “I didn’t mean to hit him that hard,” I said. “I’m not used to my [Strength] yet.”

  “I understand,” she said, nodding. “However, whether it was intentional or not, it happened. You have passed the test as rank four, but you are not allowed to enter the Dungeon until you can control yourself.”

  “How will you determine when that is?”

  “James can clear you. Until then, I advise you devote yourself to training.”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  “You did well, Lucille,” she said. “I expect you to rise quickly, but don’t get ahead of yourself. Make sure your fundamentals are sound. Now, if that’s all, I’ll be going. Have a good day.”

  She went back into the main building, still clutching her side, and as soon as the door closed behind her, the adventurers present clamored forward all talking at once, making it impossible to respond to answer any of them.

  “That was hilarious!” exclaimed one.

  “I can’t believe you actually hit ‘Yona!” said another.

  “Yer strong fer a mage,” said a third. “I wish I could get away with punchin’ one of ‘em noble cunts.”

  “Do you already have a party waiting for you? We are also rank 4 and we could use a skilled mage.”

  “What were you doin’ before learnin’ magic that made ya so strong?”

  “Where the hell did you get that knife?”

  It went on like this for a few minutes, and I endured it with the occasional thank you and a few slaps at hands getting a bit too close for comfort, but after a little while, they all dispersed, leaving only a few people from parties interested in having me join them. I rejected them as well, and soon, the only ones left nearby were Al, Pierre and Christine.

  “We’re a rank above you, but I’d love to have you with us, when you’re allowed,” he said. “We’ve never had a consistent mage in our group before, so we’ve had to deal with randoms, and they can be really hit or miss. You seem reliable, so if you want to, we have a slot open for you.”

  “I’ll consider it, thanks,” I said. “For now though, I won’t be joining any parties. I’m going to focus on training so that I can go into the Dungeon.”

  “Good idea,” he nodded. “You don’t have to answer right now, anyway. It’s just something to keep in mind for the future.”

  “Hey, how many times did you level for that?” asked Christine? “‘Cause I leveled once just for participating in injuring ‘Yona, so I bet you got a lot.”

  I had been ignoring the System notifications so that I could pay attention to my surroundings, but with most of the excitement dying down, I finally had time to check, and I had indeed leveled up. And not just once either. Knocking Clovis out and landing that one small cut on Alyona had apparently been worth a full ten levels, and I jumped straight from level 16 to 26.

  “Yeah, four times,” I said. I didn’t want them all to be aware of exactly how low my level was, so I reduced the number to seem more believable. “Level 32 now.”

  “Damn, nice,” she said. “You’ll be catching up to us soon. We’re all around 45.”

  “I’m level 47,” said Al.

  “I said ‘around’.” said Christine. “For the record, I’m also level 47.”

  “No you’re not,” said Pierre. “You just hit 44 the other day.”

  “I was lying to make you feel better, Mr. 43.”

  “Bullshit. And it’s 45 now.”

  “Guys,” said Al, stepping between them. “Good work, Lucy. You did really well today. Better than I expected.”

  “Thanks,” I said. “You guys did well too, I guess. Alyona’s really strong though. Also, why didn’t she heal herself?”

  The trio’s expressions turned grim, and Pierre beckoned for me to lean in close.

  “She’s an oathbreaker,” he whispered.

  “A paladin who broke their oath to their god,” added Christine, seeing my confusion.

  “I understand that part,” I said. “James mentioned it too. But what does that have to do with her not healing herself?”

  “Healing skills are gifts from the gods,” explained Pierre. “But breaking a paladin’s oath is the same as abandoning your god, and your god will in turn abandon you. Oathbreakers cannot be healed by skills.”

  “Oh.”

  “Don’t go around telling people about it though,” said Christine. “She doesn’t like it when people discuss her past.”

  “I won’t,” I said.

  “Well, I bet you’re probably feeling pretty tired after all that,” said Pierre in a normal voice, leaning back. “And now that Yona’s hurt, there won’t be any more tests for today. So what do you say we go grab a bite?”

  “I guess I could eat,” said Al.

  “I’m still full from breakfast this morning,” said Christine with a smirk.

  “I'm not hungry either,” I said. “And I want to stick around to train for a bit.”

  “Training?” asked Christine “After that?”

  “I need to be able to control my strength,” I said. “And I feel fine. No need for any rest.”

  “Are you sure?” asked Al. “She hit you pretty hard. Even if it doesn’t hurt anymore, I know even the best healing magic can’t fully fix head injuries. You should still take the day off, just to be safe.”

  “I’m fine,” I said. I really was. Alyona’s healing plus my own [Rapid Regeneration] had me in tip top shape, and even if I did lose a few brain cells from the concussion, I had plenty to spare. “I’m going to stay to train. You guys can go out to grab some food on your own.”

  “Well, if you say so,” said Pierre, his stomach growling. “Let’s go guys.”

  “Wait, Lucy, are you sure?” asked Al.

  “Completely,” I said. “Enjoy your meal.”