There’s an entrance exam? I thought to myself. I didn’t think Alberto mentioned this to any of us at all. He did not seem to be surprised, however. Why am I surprised? They need to keep up with the quality somehow. I pondered myself. What exactly do we do in the exam? If there was any written part assessing our knowledge of monsters, I would struggle with it. I did not have much experience with fighting monsters, the Giant Eagles were the first monsters that I successfully killed. I thought of Chelsea and Vesper. I don’t think they have any experience fighting monsters either. Where are they now? What are they doing? They might have escaped from the clutches of the cult or they might have been executed or become slaves. When Alberto suggested that we should become adventurers, I was a bit taken back. I want to get to Cevine and start looking for them instantly, but I guess there are steps to this. It pained me to think of these things, as I tried to divert my attention to the surroundings instead. We were sitting at a circle table. Alberto was sitting opposite of me and Fayette was on the table. I was surprised they let her sign up, considering her size. She was only a bit bigger than my hands, about 8 to 9 inches tall. She looked bored, her aura of light slightly dimmed, her wings were down. She put her hands up, trying to fix her red hair that got messed up from the chase. For someone that was able to fly, she wasn’t very fast at it, perhaps it was because of her size.
“Aren’t pixies supposed to be a bit taller than this?” I asked her.
“I’m still growing! We don’t stop growing until we reach adulthood, which is in like 100 years or so.” She answered, a bit annoyed. Right, pixies.
It was interesting, how humanity was the most advanced civilization, yet they never lived as long as the other races. Elves can live for a long time, some surpassing a thousand years. Dwarves are more closely related to humans, but they still live significantly longer around 300 years. While humans could get to 100 or maybe 120 at most, those were wizards who actively sought out to lengthen their lives. On the more extreme side of that, some dark wizards tried to achieve immortality, by any means possible, however, none had ever succeeded as far as humanity knows. They lived separately from each other as well. Elves roamed the Forest Country of Pliyca, while dwarves swarm the caverns of Oswait, and there are uncolonized areas where other species like pixies or spirits live as well. The different species did not get along, but they chose to live in peace anyways. However, tensions are usually high between the species, I hope a war will not come, or maybe I hope it will, more jobs for mercenaries like me.
“It has been a whole hour! How long do we have to wait for?!” Fayette groaned out while laying down on the table. It has indeed been a while, perhaps they were trying to find someone available to find us.
Alberto sat there without saying a word. He was examining the surroundings. There were two big old wooden boards facing opposite of each other on either side of the walls. Each of them was filled with quests, from gathering herbs to subjugating monsters. The quest papers had different colors, some of them were bronze, some of them were silver, and very few of them were platinum colors. Was Stratford an adventurer? As I was pondering in my head, a man came out from the door behind the reception desk.
“IVO! ALBERTO! FAYETTE! ELEN! ABROS! YOUR TURN!”
Finally. We all stood up and walked to the reception. There were two other strangers with us. They do it in batches of five. I assumed that Elen was the woman with dark hair and a magic book, and Abros was the man with the same features with a spear on his back. They did not look very strong, about average from what I could see in the adventurer’s guild. The people in the guild did not have many notable people either, most of them had bronze badges on their chests. As we were walking in, the man that was calling us stopped me with his big hand.
“Give me that ax, we have axes in there. You won’t be a true warrior if you rely on magic weapons. I will give it back after the exam,” I looked up to his eyes as he was talking. He was much taller than me, about the size of that mercenary that I defeated in Barrsons Harbor. I reluctantly gave it to him. But it was understandable, they were trying to assess our skills, not how good our weapons were. We walked into a ginormous, indoor arena with a clear glass ceiling. The glass ceiling most likely was reinforced with magic to avoid any incidents. The wall was made out of hard concrete, cream-white. There was a sitting area surrounding the arena, making the arena into a circle. There were weapon racks near the entrance of the arena. I walked over to it and other people and grabbed a big battle-ax. It was not very well made, the weight distribution was not very practical, making the ax’s balance wobbly. However, it was enough for me to use. Alberto went over and grabbed two daggers, as expected of an assassin. I tossed my necklace over to him, and he nodded his thanks to me. His blades were quite dull, so maybe magic could help him out a bit. Fayette did not grab anything, it seemed like she could cast magic without a wand or anything similar. The other people got to keep their equipment because they were standard.
“Everyone get in the sitting area until we call you down for your combat exam.” The examiner said. “Abros, you are up first.” He said.
The examiner took one of the long words from the weapon rack. Abros got into position on the rocky floor of the arena. Before entering the arena himself, the examiner flicked his finger, as the arena changed. Grass started growing from the ground, the ceiling started to change as well. The arena got dimmer as the sky got darker from the clouds. The arena changes. Abros frowned as felt the rain touch his hair. The examiner pointed his sword at Abros.
“As an adventurer, one must be able to fight in any terrain. Attack any time you want.” He said at Abros.
Abros then charged at him. Idiot, why are you charging him from that far away? The examiner had time to prepare, so he stepped aside, and swept Abros’s legs. The kick and the wet floor caused Abros to fall on his face, but he recovered quickly as he got on his feet. He tried to take a swing at the examiner, but he blocked it with his long sword and instantly threw out a counter-attack, aiming at Abros’s hand. Abros failed to dodge that, as he fell to the ground. The scenery went back to normal, revealing the original arena with the rocky floor and the glass ceiling. Abros went up to the sitting arena, as the examiner prepared to call the next name.
“ALBERTO DECIMUS!” The examiner screamed out. Alberto calmly stood up.
“Guess it’s my turn now,” He said. I could see a slight grin on his face before he started moving his lips. He was chanting something. They got into positions, thirty feet away from each other. Alberto pulled out his dagger and got to a stance. Can the examiner spot that Alberto was chanting a spell? If he did, he didn’t seem to care. The arena changed to a desert, as the sun seemed to burn as hot as Barrsons Island. The fight started as Alberto became invisible. That would have been very effective against Stratford, but the chanting time takes too long. However, the examiner seemed to know where to hit. The footsteps. Because of the arena’s terrain, he could see where Alberto was. Even though his parries were on point, Alberto seemed to be faltering against the examiner. Strength different. The examiner suddenly jumped back. Did Alberto try to slash him?
“Stop. It’s done,” He said.
What? It has been barely three minutes. Did he think that Alberto was not a good enough fighter for him? I was a bit disappointed, as I wanted to see more about how Alberto fought and how the examiner fought. Alberto stopped the invisibility as he walked up to the sitting area, feeling content. He sat down right next to me.
“He’s strong, as strong as Stratford I would say,” Alberto said and nodded while looking at him. “I don’t think you would be able to beat him,” Looking at me now, and grinning. I did not appreciate the mockery, but then I realized that might be true as he called my name.
“IVO CADMAN!” The sound of my name ringed through the air. It really was…anxiety-inducing. I walked down to the arena, Fayette was cheering me on, and Alberto was looking attentively. We got into positions. That long sword looked bigger now that I’m standing so close to him. I want to win and get the highest rank. Sweat ran down my cheeks as the arena changed. The ceiling was no longer a sky, but instead, it looked to the concrete now. The ground became as flat as a glass pane, as the area became like an empty room. He charged at me as the fight started, but I was able to block it with my battle-ax. His momentum was so large it knocked me back, but I was still standing. I see, this arena puts the examinees to wherever they are worst at. There was nothing in my surroundings that I could use to my advantage, so there was only one thing I could do. I charged at him, swinging my ax as it got to its reach. He was able to block it alright. I swung my ax again, this time vertically, hoping that he would block it, and he did. I used all my strength to dive my ax into the ground, hoping it would break the ground and stick in there, but it did nothing.
“Creative,” He nodded at me. “Stick it to the ground, locking my weapon there and go for unarmed attacks. That would work with soft grounds, unlike this one.” He said like he could read my mind. I was angry at that as I did not like him knowing my moves. I moved in for an attack again, but this time, he stepped out of the way, as I could not stop myself in time, he hit me with the handle of his sword.
“It’s over, get back to the sitting area.” He said. The arena became normal again as disappointment and anger came to me.
