Suddenly being in a different place was very disorienting. The fact it was still the same time of day was a little reassuring but the fact the buildings around him were built differently was not. He was in a training yard of some sort with some very crude buildings made of wood surrounding it. He could see people practicing their range and close combat skills. Some were practicing with stationary targets while others had targets that were dodging. Some even had targets that would strike or fire back at them.

“So this is where we shall do your assessment. First catch this.”

The strange man threw an orb to him. Out of reflex, he grabbed it. He was lucky that the man threw it gently so it hadn’t triggered his defensive auras. Zapping the man from an important house, would probably not be conductive to his plans of hunting in peace.

The orb quickly started getting brighter and brighter. So bright in fact it was hard to look at. Relief came only when the thing shattered. Relief from the light. Not relief in general. In fact it made him even more nervous. The man he saw tested the orb had barely glowed. And now he broke his. And what if it was expensive.

‘What the hell does that breaking mean’

‘It means your mana capabilities are way to damn strong for someone at your level’

“I have never seen someone below level 30 break one of these before. It's ok though. I have another that is designed to withstand people up to level 100.”

The man tossed another orb to him but this time he was smart enough to dodge it. It landed on the compacted dirt with a loud thud. It sounded heavy and thankfully also sturdy as he hadn't heard any cracking.

“I really just want to hunt. Thorough tests aren’t needed. I can hunt just fine. Don’t have any lofty ambitions.”

“Come now. I am not going to take no for an answer..”

As he spoke another man teleported behind him. The newcomer used the same manner that left no traces as far as he could tell but still the first man turned towards him instantly.

“What do you want?”

“I am just curious to see what was so important that you would abandon a meeting about a world threat. Really though, recruiting some low level was more urgent.”

“Pssh. Nothing was or is going to get accomplished in that meeting. But also yes. I believe this man has the potential to help expand the influence of the house. I will probably be sponsoring him.”

“Ridiculous. If he has so much potential he should be able to defend himself from a guard.”

The angry man pointed at one of the guards that was patrolling the outskirts of the training area. The guard marched over quickly.

“Kill this man.”

“Wait…”

Was all he could out before the guard swung his sword at him. The guard had moved so fast, and it was such an unexpected turn of events for him, there was nothing he could do to save the guard's life. As soon as the guard breached his aura with his sword, A massive discharge of electricity struck him straight through his chest. The hole in the guard's armor had a cherry red ring.

It was all he could do not to gag on the smell of cooked flesh

“What the fuck is wrong with you.”

He couldn’t believe he was actually yelling at the scary people but they made him kill a man and had tried to order his death. He was done. Clearly the soft approach had failed. He wondered if he could take them If the need arose. He had no idea what their level was. Even after gaining levels from the guards death they were still too far above him. But he also couldn’t see the level of the guard he had killed either so that clearly wasn’t a determining factor .

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Completely ignoring him, the man that had ordered his death continued to talk to his assessor.

“ I will concede you might be right about him having potential but still not more urgent than the meeting.”

huh

“I pulled him out of a hunters guild. They would have offered him a lucrative contract and if he agreed on the spot we would have lost him.”

“I doubt they would have given him that lucrative of terms. He managed to kill a guard way above him in level so I will concede he has potential but you make him sound like he has the potential to be our next champion.”

‘Is this normal?’

‘I am not that familiar with human customs but I don't think so.’

“He broke the assessment orb. Of course they would offer him good terms on the spot. And now you have probably soured him on our house because you are too damn careless with people's lives.”

“You're so over dramatic. It's of no consequence and you know it.”

The second man pointed his staff and the burnt husk that was once a guard. A white sphere engulfed the body before changing shape to that of the guard standing. As the white light faded it revealed a whole, but very disoriented, guard.

“See no harm done.”

“Just because you can resurrect someone doesn’t mean their death isn’t going to cause harm. Especially to our image to our hopeful recruit”

He was happy to have not killed someone but the guard being alive again was concerning as well. He wasn’t sure what the repercussions would be for killing someone, even if it was in self defense, and he didn’t stay dead. He did know however that he needed to get away from these people.

The problem was even if he could take them, which was a complete unknown, he also didn’t know how many people he would end up killing. Which meant he didn’t know how many levels he might gain very quickly. If what happened on the first day happened while he tried to escape, he knew he would be screwed. Since there could be no good plan, and these people seemed to be too busy arguing to pay him any attention anyway, he just started walking away.

“See what you have done. Now he's trying to escape.”

“Does that really count as an escape? He is just walking. It's more like he's just taking a tour of the grounds while he waits for you to unbunch your knickers.”

They casually followed him as they continued their argument. He honestly wasn't sure what he was doing at this point since they were clearly paying attention to him. He continued walking though in hopes he would find something that would be helpful to him.

They seemed content to just keep following him and bickering. He kept walking until he found a small library. At least by his world's standards. He had no idea how it measured up in this one. He grabbed a book at random and started reading.

Like seriously if something urgent was supposed to be going on why is he not going back to it

The book was a dreadfully boring thing about titles and protocols of situations with the nobiles of this house and others. He skimmed the book enough to know that he didn’t want anything to do with nobles. Putting it back he grabbed another and then another.

Every book was boring . It was all rules and regulations in some form. It's like this room was a parody of a place he should enjoy. He chuckled at the thought that a library should be a place he enjoyed with how much flak he gave his reaper.

This world better not be all this boring.

“Ok these books are boring. Can we just get this assessment over so we can get to the part where you make me an offer, I politely decline, and we go our separate ways.”

His attempted executioner scowled as his assessor laughed.

“No need to assess you any more, I will just make you the offer. I will sponsor you. You will go to our training grounds that will get you up to level 50. You will be given an allowance. And I will demand nothing from you.”

“Demand, so you will make requests of me.”

“Of course but it will be up to you to say no if you wish. Once you are level 50 we can negotiate our terms again. I am sure you will see the benefit of staying with our house and gladly commit to us at that time.”

Probably going to offer me someone's hand at some point. I skimmed enough from those damned boring books that that is how houses gained loyalty from important outsiders.

“Well how can I say no to that? So what happens now?”

He suddenly found himself in another strange place.