'He definitely pulled some strings here, there is no way any other Novice-Ranks could complete this mission, not even Elvina when she was a novice rank'

Revlo said in his thoughts as he assessed the difficulty of the mission written on a piece of paper that he held.

{Kill 10 Trolls}

It was a pretty straightforward mission, it was a subjugation quest, it didn't contain any other info or any other complex instructions or descriptions.

It was no wonder that Revlo assessed that not even Elvina could complete this mission, even if she had the power to rival against Expert-Ranks as an Intermediate-Rank, 'killing' and 'rivaling' are completely different things.

Trolls, they are rated in being at least an Intermediate-Rank, it was a monster more terrifying than the usual horned bear or goblins.

Even though it was only at the Intermediate Rank, its extreme regenerative abilities makes it difficult to kill, you need to be at least an Expert Rank to successfully slay it.

Revlo even wondered if the guild gave him the wrong mission due to its difficulty but his name was clearly written on the back of the paper.

Revlo looked at the instructor with a questioning gaze, the latter shrugged his shoulders with an apologetic expression, it looked like he too was puzzled by the mission that Revlo received.

'What are ya complaining for? The difficulty of the missions assigned to the test takers is proportional to their abilities, a typical mission for a novice-rank would be too easy for you, also you have a third class master-ranked horned following you around, taking down 10 trolls is not impossible for you'

The guildmaster's voice resounded inside Revlo's head, it looks like he sent a mental transmission to him and explained the reason for the degree of the difficulty of his mission.

It was not illegal for beast tamers to use their tamed monsters to fight on their master's behalf in this test, after all, taming beasts and monsters is what monster tamers do and their main ability, Revlo assumed that Browny would not be allowed in the test which is why he was flustered that he was given such a difficult mission.

'We couldn't find a harder mission for you, sigh'

The guildmaster said in his thoughts, he didn't send a mental transmission on this one.

He was unable to find a mission difficult enough to pose a challenge for Revlo, a master rank dealing with a bunch of intermediate-rank was overkill, he assessed that unless an unexpected situation occurs, Revlo was pretty much guaranteed to complete his mission.

'However don't get too full of yourself, even if you completed the mission, there is still a chance that you could fail the test'

The guildmaster warned Revlo via sending a mental transmission, there had been many instances where someone failed the test even if they succeeded in their mission, the criteria to pass the qualification test is not the completion of the mission but it was rated by their performance instead.

The process and the steps you took to complete the mission were important, the decisions you made, adaptability, and the ability to remain cool-headed and rational in a situation and how you handled it was the true criteria that determined if a participant passed the test or not.

Obviously, completing the mission would give you a higher chance of passing and the ones that failed despite completing the mission were rare cases.

Nevertheless, Revlo nodded to the guildmaster's warning and set off immediately to hunt down some trolls.

'And oh, try to take down a single troll by yourself, don't let the horned bear do all the work for you'

The guildmaster sent one more mental transmission to Revlo as the latter exited the area.

Then dozens of holographic screens popped up in the facility, surprisingly, the people that were inside the screens were the participants of the qualification test, they were being recorded by a member of the guild that followed them around, they were all strong, at least expert-rank so they were able to keep up with the participants, they were also masters of stealth as well.

Hendrick didn't even bother to spare a glance at the other screens and just watched at two particular screens floating in the air that broadcasted Revlo and Meona running outside to carry out their missions.

'Let's see what you are capable of then, Revlo Mason'

The guildmaster inwardly said.

'I am also looking forward to your performance too, Meona'

It was obvious that he has to cheer for his disciple as well.

Revlo and the other participants went their separate ways to carry out their missions, some stayed in the town while the rest left through the main gate.

Revlo was the only one that went in a different direction though as he went back inside the guild's headquarters.

"Ah, sir Revlo what are you doing back here? Don't you have a mission that you have to do for the qualification test?"

The receptionist that received Revlo earlier asked while being confused, the rest of the crowd were confused as well, what was he doing back here?

"I want information about trolls, their location or if there are any dens nearby" Revlo said.

"Huh? why are you asking questions about trolls?" 

The receptionist asked back, obviously, a novice-rank like Revlo shouldn't have anything to do with trolls, these are monsters classified as intermediate-rank after all.

"I don't know where they are, I figured I could get information about them here, it beats running around blindly looking for them" Revlo said.

"Wait, is your mission something had to do with trolls?"

"You could say that, yeah"

The receptionist didn't ask further, sending a glance to the man wearing a cloak that had the guild's emblem imprinted on it, he was one of the guild's staff members that will score Revlo's performance in the qualification test, he didn't say anything and just nodded at her.

She rummaged through some files and found a document that contained information about the trolls.

"Here, in the southeast, there is a village that is only a 30-minute walk away, there is a troll den nearby, the only reason the trolls had not attacked the village yet is probably because of the village chief but you'll definitely find a large group of trolls there"

She said while her fingers pointed somewhere on a map.

"In this part of the forest, there was a report that a group of trolls was spotted, it hasn't been confirmed yet but it doesn't hurt in taking a look"

She moved her fingers and pointed at another spot on the map.

"Now this caused the guild a lot of headaches, just near the lake, a goblin den and a troll den somehow merged, and surprisingly, they were not in conflict with each other, usually, monsters that lived in colonies tend to be very territorial but somehow they managed to work together seamlessly, this situation is very abnormal"

"I don't recommend going there though, even super first-class expert ranks or master ranks would have to be careful there"

'It's unnatural that something like that would happen, it's probably the work of a strong being' Revlo thought.

She then continued to talk about various locations where trolls got spotted or any known gathering points that were reported.

"I think that's about it" she said.

"Thank you for the information" Revlo said his gratitude as he exited the building.

"No need to thank me, it's my job after all" the receptionist said with a smile.

He passed through the town gates and he saw that a different set of guards were now guarding the entrance.

He didn't look back and continued to run forward.

'What amazing stealth magic' Revlo inwardly praised the guild staff that was following him around.

A while ago when he looked back, he lost sight of the staff member the moment he exited the town, he could still sense his location but Revlo couldn't help but be impressed at the man's stealth ability.

'A dark magic user huh, looks like it is an ability to hide in the shadows.. no he actually fused with it'

Revlo said in his thoughts while looking in a certain direction, his eyes glowed in a strange light.

'He spotted me?'

The guild staff said as he was shocked when Revlo was looking in his direction.

'It's got to be a coincidence'

He denied that possibility, it was a reasonable line of thought, his stealth magic could fool even the guildmaster albeit only for a while but no matter how much of a genius Revlo was, at end of the day, he was only at the novice rank, he couldn't possibly find out his location, he remarked that it was a coincidence.

'But just in case'

He adjusted his position, originally he was always hiding on the left side of where Revlo was so he moved to the right side.

When he looked at Revlo again, his eyes widened into a full circle, Revlo shifted his head and was still looking at him.

'It can't be'

His inner voice was trembling a bit, if it happens once, he could remark it as a coincidence but if it happens for the second time...

'No, he is probably on the lookout for trolls, that is why he is looking around, yeah, that's got to be it'

He continued to deny it, there was no way that a kid who is only at the novice rank could possibly see through his stealth magic, so he moved again and this time, he was hiding in the front.

But then Revlo shifted his head to look at him again.

'He could actually see through me'

He could deny it the first time and the second time but such a coincidence happening for the third time... it was getting harder and harder to remark it as a coincidence.

'How? How did he do it' 

The man screamed in his thoughts, the confidence and the pride he had towards his ability to erase his presence slowly got shattered by a 9-year-old, he has many questions in his mind.

He didn't change his position this time, he stared Revlo in the eyes as he was trying to find out how Revlo was able to see through his magic.

But when he tried to peer into Revlo's eyes...

*tremble

The man visibly trembled as his stealth magic almost got canceled out when he lost concentration for a moment.

It felt like he just stared into the dark void that was slowly sucking him in like a vacuum and he quickly moved his gaze away from Revlo eyes out of pure instinct.

'What was that?' he yelled in his thoughts.

He looked at his hands and just found out that they were shaking, not out of excitement but out of instinctive fear.

'So that aura that he released in the guild earlier wasn't a coincidence as well... this kid, who is he?'

He clenched his fist tightly in an attempt to stop himself from trembling.

During this seemingly long and lengthy process of the guild staff member slowly losing his confidence with his stealth magic, Revlo was running around the forest, using his magic senses to find trolls.

He had already gone into 2 different gathering points where trolls were reportedly spotted but unfortunately, luck was not on his side and failed to spot a single troll.

When he was looking at the guild staff earlier, he was trying to find out how his magic worked, Revlo got pretty annoyed when he kept moving around but he returned his focus in completing the mission.

He encountered many different types of monsters along the way but he completely ignored them, Browny was intentionally emitting strong killing intent to drive them away, he had to conserve his mana as much as possible to save them up to battle the trolls.

He was approaching the third gathering point, he put down the map in his hands and on the horizon, he could see a waterfall with a cave-like structure just behind, he spread out his magic sense and immediately spotted a single troll.

It had green and gray skin with big ears, at first glance, it looked like a tall goblin, it held a wooden club covered with spikes, it had a hunchback posture while dragging a corpse that left behind a trail of blood.

Revlo was inwardly elated that he finally encountered a troll, then his eyes moved to look at the corpse that the troll was dragging around.

A frown appeared on Revlo's usually expressionless face, the same thing happened to the guild staff member hiding in the shadows as well.

'A dead adventurer' Revlo thought.