[Jasmine Flamesworth POV]
I was excited to see these two boys' exams. Since the incident at the auction house, I already knew that Luz was at least amazing in terms of magic variety, and those techniques of his creating ice using the lack of mana from wind and fire were unimaginable, but in theory it made a lot of sense. On the other hand, I had so far not seen Arthur fighting, just throwing a few punches with his hands imbued with ice and lightning, in the same incident. So seeing how he evolved now, after the ambush that happened 5 years ago, was something I was excited about, but still, I managed to hide those feelings just to myself.
"What is Kaspian's Adventurer class be?" Luz looked at me asking me, seemed curious.
"AA-Class" I simply replied
"But isn't this something exponential like... One AA-Class equals at least 10 A-Classes?" I nodded with his question.
Soon we started seeing that Kaspian Bladeheart vs Note battle. They didn't seem to move at first, just picking up their weapons. Arthur used a short sword, while Kaspian used a rapier. I could feel a characteristic presence of Bladeheart, it looked like he wasn't going to take it easy, since he was up against someone I was sponsoring.
The fight started with Kaspian making the first move, running towards Art, with his blade being propelled trying to attack him, but Arthur managed to dodge it just a little. After a few moves, Arthur managed to make an attack in the direction of his opponent's head, the way Kaspian was wiping his face with his hand, it looked like he had just hit it.
As the battle progresses, I could hear the metal noise of their blades hitting each other, for later, take strides backwards as if they were having the same ideas of combat.
Arthur seemed to have had a problem with his right hand, causing him to change the hand that held the sword. Meanwhile, Kaspian seemed to be getting more serious and advancing with more will against him, it looked like the rapier was being used to shoot sharp wind bullets. Note managed to dodge some projectiles while others were deflected by his sword. To shortly afterward advance against Kaspian at a high speed, it seemed that he had augmented his feet.
No... it felt like there was something else...
I immediately noticed what it was, Arthur put his right hand on the blade of his own sword, imbuing it with flames, and then seemed to create small explosions in his feet, propelling himself against Bladeheart. From the famous Kaspian's expression, he didn't expect any of this from him.
After managing to dodge, Kaspian used wind magic that caused the entire arena to be awash in steam, hiding them from us. Being able to hear more noises from the blades colliding with each other, in addition to the voice of the guild manager in fury.
"Pierce those who stand against me!" He roared as his rapier became more visible inside that steam. Continuing the spell. "Skyfall Torrent!"
"Screw this!" I could now hear Arthur exclaiming, also releasing a spell to counterattack. "Thunderclap Impulse!"
It seemed that that spell increased the user's agility much more, as Arthur started to dodge all of Kaspian's blows from that moment on. Finally that steam disappeared, showing everyone there an impressive scene. Kaspian had his rapier's blade close to Arthur's throat, while he had his blade in a position that could cut off the head of the guild manager.
"Whaaaaat?!? Impossible! This magic seems so advanced! How could a commoner use it!?" I could hear that blond nobleman who was tested before, watching that scene with surprise. Was that 'Thunderclap Impulse' some complex magic I didn't know?
Kaspian began to speak his judgment. "You seem like a very interesting type, and you also seem to be holding your own against me. As if you want to be put on a low rank. Unfortunately, I'm the type that loves to see adventurers push themselves to the limit, so I'll put you in the highest class I can put someone in them first rank examination. Note, A-Class!"
I started to clap my hands towards the arena as Luz stood up and handed me Arthur's mana beast. Even before being called, he knew it was his turn, already starting to enter the arena and walking past Arthur. The two gave each other a high-five, with Kaspian looking seriously at the young man that was arriving.
Arthur came back to me and I handed him his bond. He looked kind of tired. "Wow, I didn't expect someone like him at first, I've been controlling myself not to use moves from other elements." He said it very quietly just so I could hear as he sat down next to me.
"Oh, and to warn you, 'Diamond' is thinking about using wind and plant in this new career. So if he uses the second one, don't be surprised." He said still whispering to me.
"Plant?" I looked confused at Arthur, but he just shrugged and we were seeing what his brother's exam would be like.
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[Kaspian Bladeheart POV]
"Note. A-Class!" I exclaimed, causing several people in the stands to be shocked, but soon my gaze went straight to the next one, who I didn't even have to call and was already heading down to the arena. He and Note looked pretty close, high-fiveing each other as they switched positions.
"Diamond! It's time to judge your exam, ready?" I said panting a little still from Note's exam, seriously, I expected something amazing, but that was much more interesting.
"A minute please!" He said, as he threw his sword away, it stuck in the ground away from us.
"So he lied? Is he a Conjurer?" I thought to myself, but soon I noticed that he pulled out of his dimensional ring, a beautiful sword with a reddish base, the way it was structured looked like a perfect balance between a rapier and a classic sword.
"To fight someone so important in the adventurers guild of Xyrus. I need a blade to match, I call it Redyspier. I hope it's okay for me to use it in this exam, after all it's not naturally enchanted." He said it in a way that I felt was a mixed of respect and arrogance.
Saying in advance that his weapon has no spells inside was something I wasn't used to see. But maybe I was wrong, Diamond could be the kind of gentleman that I don't see normally in these years.
"I accept your change of your blade for this fight, the one I'm using is my favorite, so I don't see why my opponent doesn't have the same choice. Without further ado, let's BEGIN!" I said as I start to augment my rapier with wind mana, then swinging it so that it lunges through the air and fires sharp bullets of wind.
To my surprise, he also seemed to be doing the same attack as I was, but unlike my more intense thrusts, the air thrusts he made felt fluid. Our wind bullets kept hitting each other in midair, causing a high-pitched noise.
But then I stopped and lunged at him, using my blade still imbued with wind. Diamond seemed to hold the hilt of his sword tight with both hands, just waiting for me to approach, and when I attacked, he protected himself by using his own blade to stop mine.
Then he took two steps back and jumped against me, still holding the sword with both hands, looking like it was going to slash vertically. His attack left him too open for me to hit him, so I tried to lunge at his stomach, but something strange happened.
Against anything logical in that situation, he seemed to spin around, jumping in midair, thus dodging my attack and landing behind me, giving me a quick horizontal slash. Feeling my back being hit, but luckily my outfit had enough layers to protect me, in addition to my mana reforcement through my body.
I quickly turned around and started using my technique I'd used earlier, saying the spell out loud. "Pierce those who stand against me! Skyfall Torrent!"
I started to make numerous thrusts with my rapier in the areas of Diamond's stomach and chest, my blade was blurry as the movements were so fast. But I soon noticed that I was hitting a mana barrier of wind created by him, which suddenly expanded, hitting my body and knocking me backwards.
I didn't even have time to react, and after being thrown back, my opponent propelled himself towards me. I could feel that the technique he was using was not something simple, it was as if he created a vacuum under his feet and then was propelled by the air that filled that empty space.
Already close to me, he gave me an attack, again with his sword going from top to bottom, and I defended myself as fast as I could, holding my rapier by the handle and blade so I wouldn't fall after defending, and with that, my left hand started to bleed a little.
"Ha! Now for my grand finale!" He said with an intense gust of wind surrounding the entire space of the arena, and when I realized, there were 5 Diamonds there.
"W-What? Is he a Illusion mage?!" I had this thought as my eyes widened at this. This was clearly an illusion spell, a branch of deviant sound magic that naturally only elves have.
Four of the Diamonds came rushing towards me and I tried to defend their blows, I could feel that they were really intense blows, that is, I couldn't tell who the real one was just by defending, because these illusions are camouflaging wind attacks inside them. The most that could help me would be to hear the sound of blades clashing, if it's a sound of metal, then I would be defending an attack from the real one.
As I defended myself, I ended up hearing that one of the swords that was trying to hit me made a metallic sound when it hit mine, I quickly tried to hit him in the stomach, but my blade went through, but how was that an illusion?
That's when I was knocked down by a strong kick to my back, and I noticed, that sword I hit was real, but It was being held by an illusion. While the real Diamond was taking again his sword and aiming it at my face, without making any more moves, as if he was satisfied with showing me that.
I just dropped my rapier and he tucked his sword inside his dimensional ring, reaching out to help me up. I accepted the help and gave a light cough, patting my clothes to get the dust off.
"I can see that you have an incredible mastery with the element of wind. In addition to having a great reaction time. Your attacks seem to open up too much to be attacked, when in fact you do it on purpose to catch enemies unprepared. Honestly, I would put you at the same rank as me, AA Class... but as I told your friend, the most I can give you in your first exam is rank A. So, Diamond, A Class!"
With that sentence said, I had finished the exams for today, I could see several people in shock that were leaving the arena, but my eyes were glazed over what I had just faced. He was heading back to Miss Flamesworth and Note, and apparently Elijah Knight also approached them possibly to greet them due to what they demonstrated.
I on the other hand went straight to my office to rest, sat in my chair and took a long breath at what I had been through, then heard someone slamming the door. They sounded like George and Mary by the voices.
"Come in." I announced and soon the door was opened with the two people I was waiting for. They entered my office and closed the entrance.
"Boss, what the hell was that? 2 B-Classes and 2 A-Classes one after the other? What's up with these people?" George asked in a curious and surprised way by what he saw, after all I tested the last two mentioned, and I didn't seem to have done well against the last one.
"Well, you know about the event that took place half a year ago, don't you? The inter-race tournament." I asked and they both nodded in agreement.
"So, within the tournament there were several elven and dwarven representatives. And as the guild was helping in this same tournament, in a way not yet official for the rest of the population, we began to accept elves and dwarves as adventurers, unlike before." I continued to build this line of reasoning for both of my co-workers.
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"In the case of Elijah Knight, he is one of the representatives of the dwarves, he came from one of the noble families as far as I have information, and he awakened a few months ago, so his core is in dark red stage, but the dwarve nobles insisted in putting him in B Class. The rest of his origins are a mystery for me." With my answer, George seemed to understand the situation better.
"In the case of Lucas Wykes it was to be expected, for being part of a noble family famous for having plots involving power and glory, after all his brother became a private guard of the King if I'm not mistaken. But I think his power comes from the fact that he is half elf, according to reports, his mother was an elf slave who is currently dead for having done her purpose." I continued to talk and I could see a look of disgust on my secretary, Mary's, face.
"What about the other two strangers? Diamond and Note?" Mary replied a little afraid to ask about it.
"Mary, as you well know, Diamond and Note went to take the exam because Jasmine Flamesworth is sponsoring them. We don't have any data regarding them, the most we have is what was presented to us in their exams. One is more on his own things and beware, the other is a complete opposite, likes to show off and doesn't mind attacks that can hurt him..." I said with a long sigh.
"If I had the power to do... I'd even put Diamond in an AA-Class or maybe S-Class." With my last sentence, both of them were wide-eyed.
"Is he really that's strong?" Mary asked.
"Well. I wasn't prepare for the things he did, but if I was, I still think that he would have more tricks that could stop me any moment." I answer her.
After a few minutes talking to them, when they were about to leave my office, we heard a knock on the door.
"Let me see who it is." My secretary said as she approached the door.
"Any appointments scheduled, boss?" George looked at me as he asked the question, I just shook my head.
"Hello, how can I hel-?" She interrupted her own sentence, looking surprised. "Mr Diamond, what do I owe you for your visit to this office?"
Was it the adventurer Diamond? Hm... What else does he want? And from the way Mary said it, he must be alone...
"I would like to speak with Mister Bladeheart regarding a whitelist, if he's busy, I can come another time." Diamond's distorted voice was heard, while I still couldn't see him because Mary had left the door ajar.
"Hm... come in, adventurer Diamond, I would like to know what you have to say." at my speech, Mary opened the door fully and let Diamond in.
He was still wearing that characteristic mask of his, along with that cloak with a mixture of green and blue colors. As he walked into my office he studied both Mary and George with those bright eyes, and approached the chair opposite my desk. As he sat down he took off his hood revealing dark hair with some colored streaks at the ends.
"So, adventurer Diamond, did you comment there at the door about a... Whitelist? Could you elaborate more on your request so I can see if it's possible?"
"Mr. Bladeheart, I wanted to come here to ask permission to perform dungeons alone." He said with a distorted voice showing seriousness.
"Sorry to intrude, boss. But doing dungeons alone is dangerous anyway, no matter your class!" George exclaimed, I just sighed.
"Well, with your adventurer class being A, but I personally consider you more than that, I can say that at most you could go solo expeditions in E or D rank dungeons, the others dungeons would require the presence of at least a party member." I replied to Diamond with the same serious tone.
"But, could I use my influence to skip these requirements and be allowed to carry out expeditions in... at least... rank B dungeons alone? For what I felt that Elijah Knight is in dark red stage, but he still went to B class. So if he used his influence about this, there would be no problem to me using my influence in other things in the Guild." When he said that, I got a curious expression on my face, but not just me, even Mary and George were also like that.
"And what kind of influence do you have, since you're a masked and novice adventurer?" I asked the same question the other two were thinking, but soon my face went pale as Diamond took a small box from inside his dimensional ring.
"Well, my influence is great enough that what I'm going to show here will have to be kept secret. What I will say here must never be said to another person without my consent, not even between you. So can I show you this influence of mine now? Or are you going to ask your co-workers there to leave the office?"
What he was saying made me feel a shiver down my spine, his words were not just showing options, but order in having to choose between them and there was nothing else to do. I waved my hand for George and Mary to leave the room and they did, but right after that I felt sound magic being used around us.
"Is this thing that intense that he needs to create a sound barrier? What's so surprising about this rookie?" I asked myself inside my mind, while remembering how was his exam.
He then open that box and what I saw made me freeze in place, my eyes glazed over it. Inside it were 2 golden medals with marks, and by the symbols on them I could recognize well, one was the royal symbol of Sapin, while the other had the royal symbol of Elenoir. I was in a cold sweat at that time.
"As you can see, I have connections with the royal families of the elven and human realms... To tell you the truth, I'm more intimate with the Eralith than the Glayder. But that's a little detail..." Diamond said as I managed to get it. hear a faint laugh of pride coming from under his mask.
"AND... Are you telling me you're a noble in disguise?" I looked at him with my expression still in shock.
"Not exactly, I'm considered an elven noble, but in the case of the Kingdom of Sapin I'm considered an ordinary person. Since the medal of connection with the Glayder was not given to me by the king, but by the queen and their children." With that answer I was now understanding two things about Diamond.
The first, he was someone of great importance, but who apparently likes to hide his true ID for the world. Second, Elenoir's royal family considers him part of their realm, while on the human side, the King doesn't consider him that important, but the rest of the Glayder royal family did. And that can only mean that...
"You are an elf and even though you have connections with both royal families, you keep yourself away from the greedy hands of the King of Sapin... any details out?" I asked and the answer the adventurer in front of me gave was just a slight laugh as he nodded in agreement.
"You really can connect the dots pretty quickly, great. I'd like to use my power as someone personally connected to the elven and human realms to gain access to some advanced dungeons." He said closing the box and putting it inside the dimensional ring.
"Hm... I see, but I should make a call to confirm this, no?" I said getting up, but soon after, the adventurer seemed to stop me.
"As you said... I want to get myself out of Blaine Glayder's greedy hands. So you'd better not communicate with him about me, especially since he doesn't even know about this medal, only the queen and their children know about this. But not try to hide me completely from him, since it'll make him more curious." When talking like that, his reaction seemed logical.
"As for the Eralith royal family, I'm sure you could communicate with them and ask about me, but they don't even know my current name as an adventurer, only that I would become one." He continued to speak and I took a deep breath.
"Look... you having these medals, but not letting me get in touch with at least one of the royal families... It makes me have doubts about the veracity. But I saw during our fight that you're the type who hates hiding things when they need to be showed, and you like to show off when you have an audience, even if you've hidden some tricks up your sleeve, I can feel it coming from you." I said getting back to my seat.
"Hmm... for greater confiability, how about I speak my common data? Of course, I won't say name, age and stuff like that, besides, you already found out from the things I said that I'm an elven representative in disguise." Diamond said and I gave a light laugh.
"Okay, it could be, what are you going to tell me?" I said smirking at him.
"Well, I don't just use blades, I'm the kind of person who has mastered all forms of battle, as you never know what weapons you'll have in your hands in times of danger." what he said made me just nod and let him continue. "Besides that, I'm an augmenter, but who has the theoretical knowledge necessary to cast spells like a conjurer. My current core is solid orange... And I have control of 2 elements and 4 deviants."
"2 elements and 4 deviants? I know that you are a Wind Augmenter with sound deviant... but I can't understand this logic about the other things..." I raised one of my eyebrows, now I was doubting his sincerity.
He stood up and backed away from the table, creating a sphere of wind in one hand and another of fire in the other. That made me get up to say something, but he soon looked like he was going to show more. With that, the flame in his hand turned bluish, but it didn't feel warm, but cold. Creating with the blue flame a floating icicle of ice, I was perplexed seeing that, but before I opened my mouth, the flame turned green and he raised that same hand, making decorative plants inside my office move upwards as if he powered them. Lastly, he undid all spells except the sound barrier in the room and his body filled with lightning for a few seconds, but then they disappeared.
I just stared at it in shock and started to speak my mind, without any filter. "WAIT! An elf that controls fire!?! And on top of that electricity?? And ice??? Only Humans can have ice deviant! The plant deviant is okay!! But you're a plant deviant while controlling fire! T-That's..."
"The biggest break of common sense in the magic world... Yes, I know, the Eralith family said the same..." Diamond said with a proud laugh as he sat back down.
"Yeah, you can use information from my deviant elements as a way to describe me to the Eralith family, so they can confirm that I have connections with them. But not with the Glayders, none of them know about the plant part." He continued to say, shifting in his chair.
"I-I don't know what to say... Seriously!" I said still in shock and sitting up again so I wouldn't fall over.
"My masteries in Elements... I could say it's 100% Wind and Fire, 75% Sound, 50% Plants, and between 25-50% Electricity and Ice... with all this knowledge about me and the fact that you already considered me an AA-class Adventurer when I only used the wind element... So you can say, what's the maximum rank of dungeons I can do alone, don't you?" even though I don't know what his face looks like, I could clearly feel that he was smiling broadly, as if he were a great warrior who just spoke about all his power, and the opponent would already want to give up a fight.
"..." I was silent for a moment and I sighed, this adventurer would be able to enter a B rank dungeon and play with the monsters there without being afraid... and well, if the mastery of these elements are correct in the way that he said, the only thing that could trouble him would be an extreme amount of powerful monsters attacking him in a tactical way, which is something unimaginable to see happening in dungeons rank C and below, and a little rare in dungeons with rank A or B.
"You have my permission to participate in A-rank dungeons alone at most, but lest I leave empty-handed, I would like 80% of your profit from monster item sales."
"Honestly for me it's pretty good, but does that include mana beasts' cores?" I took a deep breath at his question.
"Regarding mana beasts' cores, when it's mana beasts above rank B... I'll want 50% of them. Bellow rank B you can have 75% of them."
With my proposal he got up and walked to the door. "I think we are in agreement with everything, but remember. Don't tell anyone about anything I've talked about here, the MAXIMUM you can say is from this 'contract' we have in relation to what you get out of it."
I got up going towards him and held out my hand, he understood and gave the hand a tight squeeze. But soon I feel the atmosphere inside the office being extremely calmer and lighter, which left me with a confused face.
"Oh, sorry, I had my killer presence active since I arrived at the guild... Oops." He answered me as if he read my mind and then left undoing the sound spell.
"Wait... so this tense feeling I've been having since this morning was him...? But... what is the area of this killer presence?!" I thought with an internal panic.
Apparently I accepted a monster as a new member of the guild... If he does very well in the dungeons he intends to do, maybe I'll pull the strings and promote him to higher ranks... At least that way, no one of rank AA or higher will want to see his bad side...
Oh my god, am I really worrying about who's going to get in that adventurer's way? What a chaotic situation.
Wait a minute... Is adventurer Note like him or just a friend who doesn't know about Diamond's true identity? I think now I have someone to look in boring moments.
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[3rd Person POV]
After leaving Kaspian's office, Luz went straight to the waiting area. In addition to Jasmine Flamesworth and Arthur Leywin, there were two more members, Elijah Kight and Diane Whitehall. They all seemed to be leaving the guild area and heading towards the portal to Beast Glades.
Arriving there a guard was waiting for them and before opening it to let them into the portal, he took their identification and read it aloud.
"Jasmine Flamesworth, Wind Augmenter A Class, Dark Yellow Core."
"Diamond, Wind Augmenter A Class, Unknown Core."
"Note, Fire Augmenter A Class, Unknown Core."
"Diane Whitehall, Water Conjurer C Class, Solid Orange Core."
"Elijah Knight, Earth Conjurer B Class, Dark Red Core."
The guard said and then looked at the group. "Any misinformation on that?"
"No sir, it's all right. 3 A Classes, 1 B Class and 1 C Class." Luz said with his voice still slightly altered, and so the 5 went together to the Beast Glades.
"Remember, we are forming this group just because we are new to this adventurer thing, everyone can help each other and when someone feel that the group is stopping the own progress, the person can split up, but anyway, if this person wants to return to the group, there will be no problem, understood?" Luz asked Diane and Elijah, who seemed to accept this proposal.
"Hm.. Diamond, why did you take so long at Mr. Bladeheart's office...?" Said Diane in her kind of shy and awkward way.
"It was nothing, I just went to make some arrangements with him regarding when I go exploring dungeons alone." He answered her, but was soon was slapped on the back of the head.
"Are you really going to do this? I mean, we are left in Jasmine's care as her disciples." Arthur said, he was the one who slapped.
"Relax, when the time comes I'll go to E and D rank dungeons only, and everytime I go to a dungeon without y'all, I'll tell you." he was a lying, but with that information came a relieved sigh from Arthur.
"Okay, let's train, a little before we start some quests, after all, this idea of L-...Diamond in creating such a group was great." Jasmine almost spoke the adventurer Diamond's real name, but managed to reverse it... a little.
"Yes, let's go!" Elijah and Diane said in unison.
In this way, Luz and Arthur's adventurer career began, at least already having some companions so that what could be complicated before, now would become easier.