[Test 1][Time Remaining: 43 Hours]

I use enemy detection to navigate through the rest of the rat dungeon avoiding as many monsters as possible.

By the time we make it to the boss room I can sense over 30 teams scattered across the wasteland behind us. It seems our detour allowed for a lot of other parties to catch up.

We enter the boss room.

It’s a dark and damp cave-like room. I instantly hear the scraping claws of rats coming our way.

Maria glows blue and looks at me.

“I’ll handle this one.”

I nod.

A wave of rodents appears from the backside of the cave followed by their leader. It’s a giant mutant rat, similar to the one we fought on that hill earlier.

Maria charges forward freezing the oncoming wave while jumping through the air and aiming her sword at the mutant’s neck.

*SHINNNNGGG*

She turns to me with a grin as the large rat’s frozen head falls to the floor shattering into ice.

“Three down”

I walk over to her and reply.

“Seven to go.”

The rats begin to disappear. We collect the mana crystals while waiting for the transfer magic to kick in. Moments later, a white light brings us to the next floor.

The sky is bright blue and there isn’t a cloud in the sky. The grass is short and light green. It’s covering rolling hills with occasional trees.

I smile.

“Now this is more like it.”

I use enemy detection and inspect to quickly survey the area.

It seems like there’s a decent amount of monsters in the area, but they travel in groups of 1 or 2 at most. They’re all between levels 90 and 110. I can only sense 6 teams ahead of us at the moment. That is, in this dungeon anyway.

We begin walking forward.

After about 20 minutes of peacefully taking in the artificial sunlight and beautiful blue sky our first pair of monsters appear.

Two light blue globs of liquid creep over a hill in front of us. I turn to Maria.

“Slimes. I’ve fought these before. Physical attacks won’t hurt them, we’ll have to use only magic.”

She nods.

“Got it.”

Without much effort, we both run up the hill and destroy the slimes in our path with Fire and Ice.

We continue running forward deeper into the slime dungeon. That peaceful walk was nice, but It’s time to pick up the pace again.

I continue leading the way to avoid nearby teams. Our path isn’t exactly straight, but Maria doesn’t seem to mind. As we approach the boss room I sense a team of 3 standing in place.

I use inspect and enemy detection.

[500m]

[Lv. 266]

[Lv. 259]

[Lv. 255]

I turn to Maria and point out the specs of people in the distance.

“We have company. Looks like they’re standing outside the boss room.”

She nods and we slow down to cautiously approach them.

[300m]

I can vaguely make out a glowing grey portal in the distance now. They’re not jumping through for some reason…

[100m]

Maria and I point our swords forward and continue to walk slowly at them. The level 266 steps in front of the others and raises his hands in the air.

We walk within talking distance and he yells out. He’s visibly out of breath.

“P-Please, could we ask you to do us a favor!”

It’s a man carrying a silver sword on his back and is dressed in standard leather and steel armor. He’s a bit shorter than me, with short black hair and brown eyes. As we approach, he keeps his hands raised. The two men behind him don’t say a word. They seem tired too, it looks like they’ve been running for a while.

I raise an eyebrow and use appraisal on the 3 of them.

[Lv. 266]

Active Items:

[Steel Sword] +250 Strength

[Leather Chestplate] +150 Defense

[Steel Wrist Guards] +150 Defense

[Enchanted Leather Boots] +200 Speed

[Ring of Protection] +35% Defense

[Rodrigo’s Silver Bracelet]

Active Skills:

Team Buff[All Stats +25%]

Crafting

[Lv. 259]

Active Items:

[Steel Sword] +250 Strength

[Leather Chestplate] +150 Defense

[Leather Wrist Guards] +100 Defense

[Enchanted Leather Boots] +200 Speed

[Ring of Protection] +25% Defense

[Rodrigo’s Silver Bracelet]

Active Skills:

Swordsmanship

[Lv. 255]

Active Items:

[Heavy Steel Shield] +300 Defense

[Leather Chestplate] +150 Defense

[Leather Wrist Guards] +100 Defense

[Enchanted Leather Boots] +200 Speed

[Ring of Protection] +25% Defense

[Rodrigo’s Silver Bracelet]

Active Skills:

Body Hardening

Extreme Defense

“What do you want…?”

The three of them seem to be your run-of-the-mill, middle-aged, small-town guild hunters. They may be decent fighters, but nothing special sticks out to me. This is so odd…

The man in front speaks again.

“Please defeat the slime boss for us, we’ll do anything!”

He bows.

“I-uh-what?”

“….”

I turn to Maria, she shrugs, then I turn back to the man with a confused look on my face.

He speaks.

“None of us have any combat magic abilities. We can’t defeat this boss with just our swords.”

I chuckle, then Maria chimes in.

“We should just kill them now! Sending these three back to the start would be a better use of out time, I mea-“

I cut her off mid-sentence while pointing my sword at the leader’s neck.

“Let’s hear them out. We’ll do it, what can you give us in return? She’s right, you may be better off leaving this exam if you came this ill-prepared… but I’ll help you if you can help us.”

I grin.

The man smiles back thinly and turns to his teammates. They sift through their item boxes and pull out a few bottles of potions.

I shake my head and roll my eyes, then point to his left hand.

“How about that ring? You said anything.”

The man gulps, then nods slowly and takes off the golden ring containing a small dark green gemstone on the face of it.

“Very well.”

I motion for him to place it on the edge of my blade. He does and I bring the ring closer to put it on. It magically fits next to my other ring and I grin as I feel the effects of its defense buff.

I turn to Maria.

“You want anything?”

She eyes the men up and down then replies.

“Give me your MP potions. I want at least half.”

They hand Maria 7 MP potions in total. She sighs, then puts them in her item box.

“This will do. Let’s kill the boss before another team comes along.”

I nod.

“Agreed.”

The three men look at us with hopeful eyes. I guess we were their only chance of getting through this dungeon.

All 5 of us step into the slime dungeon boss room.

The room seems to just be a smaller version of the dungeon we just left. The grass is green and short. The hills raise up around us in all directions creating an arena-type environment.

Moments after we enter, a large blue glob of liquid appears. I use inspect.

[Lv. 151]

Maria grins.

“I got this.”

I nod.

“Go for it.”

She begins to glow bright blue while running at the slime with her blade out in front.

*SHINGGG*

Maria slices the slime in half. The points of contact begin to frost over and consolidate into Ice.

Instantly, the blob freezes into a solid and falls to the ground in two parts. She brings her blade back around and shatters the Ice to bits.

Maria holds up four fingers, then points one down to the floor.

I yell back and smile.

“Six to go.”

We all walk over to her as the fragments of ice begin disappearing. The team we came with hasn’t said a word since we entered this room. I see the two men take off their rings and hand them to their leader.

The white light appears and we’re all transported to the next floor.

*CLANGGGG*

I roll my eyes as I activate body hardening to block the sword being swung at my back.

“Seriously…?”

The team leader staggers backward with fear in his eyes after his failed attempt at a surprise attack.

I look at Maria, then briefly take in the new landscape of a mountain range dungeon.

“You were right. These fools weren’t ready. We should have saved the time and killed them earlier.”

She grins and starts glowing blue.

The man speaks.

“H-How? I-I’m sorry. Just how strong are you two?”

I ignite my blade into flames and motion for Maria to handle the other two men. She nods and I walk towards the leader who tried to stab me in the back, literally…

He raises his sword and I activate berserker while continuing to cover my entire body in flames. I sprint toward him and instantly land a hit across his chest. My speed is in another class than his…

I turn back to see the man still standing, but flames are burning brightly from his chest. He turns to me with bloodshot eyes and starts glowing bright yellow.

“YOU AREN’T GOING TO TA-“

*SHINGGGG*

I launch another attack before he finishes his sentence. A blow straight to the neck. He dissolves instantly in a bright flash, being transported back to the outside world. I turn to Maria and see two statues of Ice in front of her.

She laughs.

“I think we should just leave them.”

I nod.

“Good idea. Serves them right.”

We leave the frozen men behind and begin walking deeper into the new dungeon. I use enemy detection to scope out the landscape and sense 8 teams ahead of us. One of them isn’t too far away, and there’s a hunter with a higher level than me…

I grin and point to a rocky mountain in the distance covered in dark green pine trees and small boulders.

“This way, another detour. Get ready for a real fight.”

Maria nods and turns to me as we depart.

“Sure, let’s do it. But umm, I’m curious about something…. What was the ability you used to block that sword attack earlier?”

I stop walking to look Maria directly in the eyes. She speaks up again.

“Jay… Do you have a third skill?”