“Dang,” Mil groaned. “I can’t believe we have to get ranked before we take on the garuda egg quest.”
“It’s a good thing there’s a rank assessment happening today,” Yulia replied.
They’d found the assessment hall just a short distance from the main street. It was a large space within a square stone building that reminded Mil of a training hall for soldiers. The high ceiling and tough walls both looked like they’d been fortified to keep spells contained. The floor was hardened dirt, and wooden training dummies were placed at regular intervals.
“I really hope we pass.” Mil took a look at the other examinees. There were a little over a dozen of them, and each looked like a seasoned fighter, a practiced mage, or some other form of veteran adventurer. “I’m not so confident...”
According to the staff at the Adventurer’s Guild, an adventurer’s strength was indicated by their rank, and there was a minimum rank needed for many quests.
Of the seven different ranks, platinum was the highest. The details didn’t really matter to Mil’s party as long as they could take on the garuda egg quest, so they hadn’t asked any questions. All they knew was that they needed to pass this exam to do the quest.
“I wonder what we’ll have to do... I’m worried I might fail...” Yulia was keeping close to Mil and trembling.
Kuro, on the other hand, was full of enthusiasm. “We just need one member of our party to pass, don’t we? Okay! I’ll make sure I pass!”
A woman dressed in the guild’s official uniform addressed the examinees. “The exam is about to start. There’ll be a measurement of your abilities, and then we’ll ask you to demonstrate your best skills or magic on this training dummy. The dummy is enchanted so as to absorb whatever technique you might use, and we’ll decide whether you’ve passed or failed based on the quantity of energy absorbed.”
Beside the woman was an elderly priest with a white beard. He stepped forward and said, “I am one of the goddess’s chosen priests. I’d like each of you to step before me in turn so that I might examine you before you attempt the practical assessment.”
This set off the examinees chattering to one another.
“A goddess’s priest? Only a chosen few get that title.”
“Isn’t this the priest that made an adventurer retire a while back when he branded him talentless?”
“Well, when a goddess’s priest gives an adventurer advice, there’s no ignoring it... I sure hope he doesn’t call me talentless.”
They were all in awe of the elderly priest.
Yulia whispered in Mil’s ear, “He said goddess’s priest.”
Mil whispered back, “Yeah, he’s got the same power as me.”
If the priest could likely see the stats of another, just like Mil, then this was sure to be a fair assessment.
“Ooh. Well, that should make it easy,” Kuro said. “I was ready to admit defeat if it was a written exam.”
“I’m still a little worried,” Yulia said. “Everyone else looks so strong...”
Mil doubted that either of her friends would fail, but at the same time, she wasn’t expecting this to be easy.
“All right, I’m first up.” The man who boldly stepped forward with an axe in hand looked like a fighter.
“Indeed... Let’s begin.” The priest held out his hand to examine the man.
Ngh. I wish I could see...
Mil wanted to examine the fighter herself, but then the priest might see her status window and realize she was a goddess’s priestess. Things could quickly get out of hand if he then guessed she was the missing princess.
I just want a quick peek... Mil was finding it hard to resist.
“Urraaahhh!” With a great roar, the fighter brought his axe down on the shoulder of the training dummy. He hit so hard that any ordinary dummy would have been reduced to splinters, but his axe bounced off with a metallic clang. Some sort of enchantment was reinforcing the dummy.
“That looks like a defense enchantment,” Yulia whispered to Mil. As enchantments were Yulia’s specialty, the young mage had better insight into them.
“Hmm...” The priest said. “You’ve shown promise, but your practical performance falls short.”
“Gah... Your dummy’s too hard, old man.”
“I suggest you return after more training. Next.”
It sounded like he’d failed because of the way his weapon bounced off. It might have been a different story if he’d at least scratched the dummy.
“I’m up next.” The next adventurer held a greatsword. But much like the axe, his weapon bounced off the dummy, resulting in his failure. The test was proving tough for everyone.
This went on with the next few examinees failing in the same manner.
“Next is...examinee number eighteen,” the woman from the guild called out.
“Ah! Th-Th-Th-Th-That’s me...” Yulia had been trembling the whole time, but now the color in her face was totally gone.
“Go for it, Yulia.”
“You can do it, Yulia.”
Mil and Kuro were cheering her on as she stiffly stepped forward.
“Uh-oh.” Before she reached the priest, she tripped after her own feet.
Yulia’s clumsiness set off a round of laughter and jeering from the other examinees.
“Ha ha ha. Are you all right, miss?”
“Maybe you ought to back out now.”
“She looks like a mage, but can she even cast a spell?”
Mil commented to Kuro, “I hope Yulia’s gonna be okay.”
“Let’s hope she can cast spells with trembling hands,” Kuro replied.
They sounded like concerned parents watching over their child.
“Let’s see... Your stats are... Oh?!” The priest broke into a cold sweat as he looked back and forth between his status window and Yulia’s face.
“Um... May I...use magic?”
“Her stats are h-hidden from me... How can her level be that high...?” the priest muttered to himself. Apparently, he couldn’t see any information in his status window.
“Um...” Yulia said.
“O-Oh... Let’s move on to the practical assessment.” The priest sounded like he was still in a daze.
All the other adventurers, who couldn’t see status windows, were still smirking at Yulia.
“H-Here goes...” Yulia took a breath then held out both hands.
A small fireball emerged from Yulia’s palms, but It was so tiny that all the examinees watching burst out laughing.
“Bwah ha ha! That little thing! It’s no bigger than a bean!”
“It’s about time you went home, miss.”
“You couldn’t even defeat a baby with a piddly little spell like that!”
As the adventurers were making fun of her, Yulia continued channeling mana into the spell.
Then one of the adventurers noticed a change. “Wait... Is it getting bigger?”
Yulia’s fireball was growing steadily, reaching the size of her palm then continuing on to get much bigger.
“Wh-What... How’s it so big?”
“How’s she still going?!”
“Stop!”
The adventurers were growing nervous. The fireball in front of Yulia had grown big enough to tower over a grown man.
“Flare impact!” Yulia cried as the fireball shot forward.
The fireball’s searing heat melted the ground beneath it as it flew straight at the dummy, then an earsplitting roar and a wave of unbearable heat shook the exam hall, knocking several of the adventurers off their feet.
Black smoke rose from the spot where the dummy had been. It was so thick that no one could tell what had become of the dummy at first. Then, when the smoke finally cleared, there was nothing left but a small crater. Not even ash remained.
The adventurers, the priest, and the woman from the guild were all left speechless with their mouths agape.
Yulia was the one to finally break the silence. “Um... Sorry for breaking it... Was that enough...? I was worried I might destroy the room if I made my spell any bigger...”
“Oh... Ah... Yes, you passed.”
“Thank you.” Yulia bounced up and down on the spot. “Mil! I did it!”
The woman from the guild put a replacement dummy in the middle of the crater then called on the next adventurer. “N-Next...”
“Oh, that’s me.”
Adventurer number nineteen was Mil. Naturally, Mil’s party members were going to be called one after the other since they’d all rushed in to register at the same time.
As Mil passed Yulia, she was pleased to hear her whisper, “Do your best.”
Mil bowed deeply to the priest. “I’m ready, sir.”
The priest cleared his throat then said, “Let’s begin by measuring your stats... Uhh?!” The priest stared at the status window with wide eyes. “J-Just what are you...?”
“Can I start now?”
“Y-Yes... But make sure you hold back a little.”
This time the adventurers paid attention to the priest’s reaction and started muttering to each other.
Let’s do this. I can’t let myself fail after Yulia passed. I know plenty of spells, but if it’s just about making the dummy absorb lots of energy, then it has to be...
She held out both hands. “Gravity gate!”
The gravity around the training dummy instantly intensified, its enchantment quickly giving up against Mil’s power. In no time it began to crack and snap loudly, then soon after it fell apart and the pieces slammed into the floor.