[Arthur Leywin POV]
It's been two weeks since the incident at the Helstea Auction House, things were going back to plan, with my birthday being yesterday, meaning I was now 9 years old. I was still in shock from the bounty situation. My brother received a large amount of money from the queen, in addition to a sword and royal medal from the prince. It was a big problem when he spoke without thinking about also having a royal elven medal, at least he didn't put me in the middle and talk about my silver medal.
Anyway, Lilia and Ellie were doing well in the moments when we let them meditate alone, Tabitha and my mother were creating too many expectations for their awakening, while my father and Vincent were always giving us tips for our adventuring career that was going to begin. They both recommended using just one element or something, as well as keeping the masks on all the time, even when we go to sleep. I still hadn't decided what element to use in this adventurer carrier, on the other hand, Luz said privately to me, that he would use wind and plant, to pass as an elf and disguise himself even more.
As for our weapons, we decided that in missions with several people we would use the common swords, while in solo missions we would use our real equipment. Speaking of which, during the late nights in the Helstea family's backyard, when there were no people around, Luz informed me that he tested the ring and so far it had 5 forms: Gauntlet, Sword, Bow, Staff and Whip.
Any attempt to turn it into another piece of equipment either didn't work or turned into the closest of the 5 forms, but he theorized that maybe the ring is reacting to the stage of his mana core, as he told me he had a strange dream where he wore the ring to create a type of scythe. He didn't give me any extra details, just said it was too weird.
"We can go?" Said Jasmine, arriving at the entrance where we lived, and we went to her.
I was wearing a white mask with a blue mark on the left eye, along with a beige and black uniform, in addition to my dark as night cloak, Dawn's Ballad was on my waist, still looking like a simple black cane. Luz was wearing a white mask, with some little green stars drawn on it, wearing an outfit like mine, with the exception of his cloak that had the greenish side exposed, while the dark blue side was on the inside, like mine, he used his special weapon with him, the multi-item ring, which he decided to call it MW... that means "My Weapons"... and they said that I'm horrible with names...
Approaching the door, we saw our parents and the Helstea family. My dad patted my shoulder, while my brother got a tight hug from our mom and Lilia, and then Tabitha gave my hair a little pat, while Luz got a high-five from Vincent.
"Is everything with you??" our mother asked before we took a step out of the house, and we turned to her.
"Let me see, in my dimensional ring we have a bag of emergency money, our equipment, backpacks with water and food that last a long time.... those rings that Vincent gave us as a gift... The communication scrolls... And the gloves you gave us!" Luz replied, his voice was altered due to the mana ability of our masks.
These last three items he mentioned were the ones we got on my birthday, even though they were my gifts, everything was bought in double, because as Luz had been found on a date close to my birthday, they were also considering it as a party for him .
These rings that Vincent gave us were special, our mother also had one of these, the functionality is to shine in the color of the owner of the ring who is in danger or without mana flowing naturally. Red was my color and Green was my brother's color. There was also Yellow, but that was the color of our mother's ring, so it would not be very likely that we would see our rings glow yellow.
The gloves, were gifts from our family, they were fingerless left hand gloves that contained magic stones, which could be imbued with a spell to be used later. Each glove had 3 of these stones, and they were all filled with healing spells that our mother put on them.
And lastly, the scrolls were gifts from the Twin Horns before they left town. Our mother had a pair of these scrools, while Luz and I had another pair. Unlike the scrolls the royal family sent to him in the rewards package, these of ours turned to ash when sending and receiving messages, thus being single-use.
"You can relax mom, Luz and I are in Solid and Dark Orange, while Jasmine is in Dark Yellow and is an A-Rank adventurer." I tried to tell her, as I saw her shaking a little still.
"That and we'll be visiting you and keeping you updated in the days we can." my brother continued.
Ellie soon looked at us asking for a lap, and Luz lifted her into the air using wind magic. We both gave our little sister a kiss on the cheek and said almost in unison. "See you later, Ellie." She had such a cute smile...
He lowered her from the air and we went with Jasmine, getting into a carriage that would take us to the Adventurer's Guild that was located in the center of Xyrus City.
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The Guild Hall wasn't what I expected it to be. A vivid image of a place filled with thugs seated around wooden tables downing beer was what I envisioned. Instead, it was a building filled with prestige and luxury. A marble structure towered over us like a sacred museum. Once inside, it was clear the amount of work that had been put into the intricately designed interior. There were tables made from metal where I could see other adventures giving us a passing glance. The whole place had an ambience of extravagance that didn't suit me, much less some of the barbarian-looking adventures here, but I simply continued my stride.
"Welcome! How may I help the three of you?" The female receptionist's rehearsed smile gleamed a pearly white.
Luz raised his hand slightly as if to say something, but was interrupted by Jasmine handing the woman a paper. "I would like to sponsor them for a rank examination." Jasmine remained as usual, with an expressionless face and talking as little as possible.
The receptionist took the paper and ran inside a door, a few minutes later she returned asking us to follow her. Doing this, we walked around the back of the area where the receptionists were, until we went through a door just behind, leading us to a small room. The office had minimal decoration, there were two leather couches facing each other. Farther from the entrance, there was a dark wooden table facing us. A slender man was seated behind the pile of neatly-stacked papers, jotting down something with a quilted pen.
Due to the noise of his office door opening, he lifted his face towards us, I could see a sharp and angular face, he had black hair and sharp eyes behind thick glasses. He seemed to stare at the receptionist, waiting for her to say what she was doing there.
"A-Class Adventurer, Jasmine Flamesworth, has come with a request that these gentlemen could have a rank examination." The receptionist said looking a little confused by the situation, while the man simply made a motion with his hands.
"Yes, I know very well about Miss Flamesworth. You can wait outside, Mary." So the receptionist left the room.
"Miss Flamesworth, how are you these days? I met with your father not too long ago." The man said getting up from his chair and approaching us, Jasmine didn't do anything, just gave a slight nod, which looked more like a failed attempt to bow out of respect. I could see her hands tense. I think talking about her father gave her some sort of trigger.
"Anyway, it is a pleasure to meet you." The man shifted his attention to me and my brother, finally acknowledging our presence. "My name is Kaspian Bladeheart, and I am in charge of this organization. I take it that you two must have some sort of close relationship with Miss Flamesworth. Is there a name I can address you by?" He gaze darted up and down as he quickly assessed us.
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[Luz Leywin POV]
"Yes, I know very well about Miss Flamesworth. You can wait outside, Mary." Said that man, while gesturing with one hand, making the receptionist leave the office.
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The world around me seemed to stop, my head turned to the receptionist leaving the office, and for a second, I could see her changing places with a silhouette of Maryliny, and soon after everything went back to normal.
"Is that bizarre dream from two weeks ago still affecting me so much? Oh my god, what chaos... I hope I don't get visions like that during battles or something... I have to remind myself, Mary is a pretty common name... I think... my emotions shouldn't be triggered just by hearing that name... Well, I just hope this ends soon." My thoughts stopped for a while, so that I could pay attention around, I can get back just in time for that slender man to introduce himself and ask for our names.
"I go by Note." Arthur answered him directly, apparently my brother's creativity with names is horrible. I mean, did he choose this one because of the symbol on his mask?
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Bladeheart. You can call me Diamond." I said in a playful voice. Diamond was a nickname they used for me in my original world, as my last name was Jaymonds and the place where I trained the most was in a mining zone in the capital. So this joke nickname of a gemstone that ended with "mond" was created.
His gaze widened, but soon returned to normal. Maybe he was expecting different voices than we have thanks to the modifier on the masks. "Okay, Mr.Note and Mr.Diamond, we will precede with Miss Flamesworth being your sponsor. Do you know how that works?"
Arthur shook his head, while I shrugged, as if I knew more or less, so we let him explain how it would work, apparently Adventurers of Class B and above could sponsor new adventurers, so that they start at higher ranks than usual. Besides, to see the rank that the adventurer really is, a test involving fighting is done to demonstrate practical knowledge.
"Now, judging by the weapons you carry, I can assume you're both fighters or augmenters, correct?" He said as he looked at the common swords that Art and I had on our waist rests.
"Yes." we replied in unison.
"Okay! Usually, there would be a quick application along with an inspection on your mana cores before the exam, but since it is Miss Flamesworth here sponsering, I will waive that." He continued as he opened another door at far end of his office. "Mary, take these three to the examination hall."
With that said, the receptionist who was waiting outside reentered the room and asked us to follow her again, we walked down a long hallway that had no window. During this period, I had visions again, and instead of the corridors of the adventurers' guild, I found myself in a place with walls of monotone colors, just white quartz and black onyx.
Arthur and Jasmine were still visible in my delirium, but they were slightly transparent, while the receptionist was once again the silhouette of my Mary. At the end of the hallway I could see a dark-haired, light-skinned child. It seemed to move its arms as if asking me to speed up my walk, but soon the delirium ended, with a bright light covering my eyes.
We have arrived in a kind of arena or a theater, there weren't many people in this place. There were at least ten people in the seates that appeared more like exaggerated stairs, while in the center of the arena there were two others.
The receptionist, before leaving us there, said that it was recommended that we stay seated, as there were many people taking the rank exam today, and we would just have to wait for our names to be called. With that said, I thanked her for the information and we went to sit down.
I stood between Jasmine and Art, with Sylvie coming out of my brother's cloak and jumping onto my lap, as if for affection. I did as she wanted, thus creating an involuntary smile of mine.
"Here, my child." I could hear Sylvia's voice in my mind as I gave her daughter a light pat. Really this old lady dragon was imagining that those hands were hers and not mine.
I was able to hear the voice of the person who was testing others at that moment, it seems that whoever he had just tested passed with Rank D, and now called a girl who was even in my field of vision at the moment, with her appearing to be a Conjurer, besides having a cloak that was pretty silly. With that appearance and way of walking, it was easy to see the laughter and teasing they made from the audience.
"What a waste of time... Her existence almost makes her fail."
I heard someone saying this next to me and I turned around slightly so that it wasn't obvious I was looking for someone. I saw that the owner of that voice was a boy almost the same age as me, he had short blond hair, but that hid his ears, his eyes were green and he had a permanent smirk on his face. With chic clothes and equipment, all that was needed was a giant neon sign written 'noble' to make a perfect scene.
I noticed that his essence was of the worst kind. I would say the level of arrogance, greed and superiority he exuded was so great that I would like to spank him, but I know that after that nothing would change. So I decided to ignore him.
The girl who was in the arena at the time put on quite a show. She looked like she wasn't good at defensive spells, which is something essential for a conjurer, but she demonstrated immense skill in efficiently using mana and attack speed.
"Miss Diane Whitehall, you were amazing in your last moves, even though at first you showed little use of real magical defenses. But you're still eighteen years old, I can see a future in you. Being a solid orange stage water mage, I judge you to be a Rank C!" The person testing her said, apparently there was one person of each type for the tests to go toe-to-toe, since the person who was testing people before was sitting in a corner.
"Next! Elijah Knight!" The Conjurer examiner annouced.
"Here..." A couple rows away to my right, a boy that looked even younger that the blonde trash noble, stood up. He had short black hair that covered half his forehead, and he had a serious look behind his glasses, which made him look much more mature than his likely age.
I tried to look at his essence, as I did with the blond noble next to him, but when I did everything went black, I could see nothing, only a cry of suffering and grief could be heard in the distance. When I tried to deactivate my essence vision, I saw him in dark armor of an appropriate scale for his size, he had a friendly smile on his face as he faced me, reaching for me with his hand. Looking around, I realized that I was lying on a yellow grass, and that he was helping me to get up, but when I tried to make any sudden movement, the vision disappeared, and he was returning to his seat.
"What was this?" I spoke quietly to myself, but it seems my brother heard.
"Yeah, I can't even explain it, the boy didn't even have to go down to take the exam and was put as a Rank B. Apparently he's only 10 years old and has some type of status." Arthur answered me, leaving me in shock. Is this what I missed while I was in my another little delirium?
"Next! Lucas Wykes!" The female conjurer examiner continued.
"Hmph! Guess it's finally my turn!" The blond-haired noble boy from before jumped up from his seate posicion and leisurely made his way down to the stage with a staff in his hand.
The examiner looked down at her notes but this time, her voice sounded evidently surprised. "Lucas Wykes, 11 years old. Conjurer at the... light orange stage! Single specialization in fire."
TA FCK?!? That noble brat is in the light orange stage, while I, who used various mana purification strategies, and absorbed a core of a light yellow stage royal guard, am still in solid orange?!? How many magic drugs did this crazy bitch use?!
His exam started, and wow, I hate to say this, but that plague seems to know how to use various spells in a creative way, but that was very aggressive and there was such an excessive and unnecessary mana cost, that even a lazy man would know that this would be stupid to do in moments of real danger, where stamina and amount of mana are what matter.
The examiner classified him as for the B-Class, but the way he reacted showed that he didn't even care, having a confident and stupid smile on his face. As if he was just there to show off and not be a high-ranking adventurer, however, I could notice a slight hate coming from him, as if he thought he would go better.
The male augmenter examiner stood up and gave a paper for the female conjurer examiner, as they casually high-fived, now switching places.
"Next examinee, Note! Please come down!" he bellowed without looking up.
Jasmine placed a hand on my brother shoulder. "Good luck."
"Yeah, Note, good luck my boy." I spoke the same way our father would if he were here, causing him to laugh and walk down to the arena.
Arthur arrived there and stood with his common sword while the examiner would advance against him. It didn't last even a minute, and the agile movements together with my brother's counter-attacks, made them both stop in the middle of the arena, with Art's sword touching with the blade at the other's throat.
"Enough!" a voice interrupted. "Stand down, George. I'll be the one to test this and the next examinee."
I managed to look in the direction of the voice, it was Kaspian. But wait, "this and the next"? So I'll be next and have him testing me out too? Great.
They seemed to be talking something, I couldn't hear, but I was curious about something, so I looked at Jasmine and asked. "What is Kaspian's Adventurer class?"
"AA-Class." She responded in the usual way.
"But.. isn't this something exponential like.. one AA-Class equals at least 10 A-Class?" she nodded with my question.
I was pretty shocked by this idea, I mean, my comparison of nearby adventurers was just Dad Reynolds being a B-Class and Jasmine herself being an A-Class. So think of someone who would need at least 10 Jasmines to match? It would be interesting to see. But now a thought came... Could I be considered an even bigger class using all my techniques?
Well, putting that aside, I looked back at the arena, now it was time for the next battle, Kaspian Bladeheart versus Note.