Chapter 101

Chapter 101: Don’t fool around at the adventurer’s guild, please! part

Risa’s loud laughter resounded in the courtyard.

“Bwahaha, that was a good one kid, you really are something!”

But Lorenzo was dead serious.

“What do you mean by that?”

“It’s just an animal that’s been chained up with the purpose of training, it may be a strong creature but it has no means to defend itself. I’m not scared, I feel pity”

“What you say its true but this is actually a high level beast taken from the far south region, it looks anything but harmless. While this may seem to be a test to try out your skills, it’s real intent is to assess people’s courage. A lot can be said from the way they approach it, if they boldly move forward they get perfect score, hesitation and mistakes due to fear lower the score and forfeiting is failing”

“That may be so, but I come from the south and I’ve faced this kind of creature before”

.....

On the way to Celarent I was still afflicted with my bad luck since I didn’t have any holy water on me, it was as if every creature alive was after my blood.

“And now you say you’ve faced a wild one before, stop you’re killing me”

Risa held her stomach in laughter, but Lorenzo remained completely serious.

“Listen boy, saying you’ve seen one and survived is one thing, but to say you actually killed one. There’s a limit even to lying, get out of my face”

“Wait, mister Lorenzo. What he says is true, I was there. He killed it by himself without any help”

Luke said with conviction.

“I can’t believe such thing, this may be an F rank beast, but it’s way more than any of you would be able to handle in the wild. If you had said you ganged up on it I may have believed it... What were you doing at the time? Why didn’t you help him out?”

“Because I was fighting one too”

He crossed his arms trying to look cool.

“Tell me the details please”

“We were on our way here from Ironwoods, we had just left mountainside when five or so bears came running towards us. Since they were too many, everyone had to fight, we unsheated our weapons and took a fighting stance, I don’t know what was Ryu doing or how did he manage to kill the bear because I was too busy dodging”

“So, how did you do do it? uh?”

“Well, the exact method I used was not as elegant as you may think. I tried to hide under a tree but I fell on the ground. When the bear was about to attack me I simply pointed the spear towards the bear and it impaled itself. Then I stood up, went behind it and finished it with my knife”

“Really? you got a nice sword, why would you use a knife?”

I really don’t want to tell them I couldn’t even draw my sword and that my weapons were soaked in poison. If they learned about the curse it may end up in them rejecting me because of the high risk of dying, on the other hand, if they learn about the poison I would be giving out one of the aces up my sleeve.

“Because it’s sharper than the sword”

I handed the knife to Lorenzo who looked at it closely.

“It doesn’t look special at all, more so it’s really fragile, but it’s sharpness is impressive”

“Yeah, it’s made from obsidian, but since it breaks easily it’s not suitable for battle”

“I have an Idea Lorenzo, since your test is no longer viable, what do you say I spar a little with him. If you don’t like what you see you can just fail him”

Lorenzo pondered for a short while and nodded.

“Fine, you can do it. Listen boy, you’re free to refuse, but I’ll be honest here I’m not buying your story, so if you refuse I’ll fail you”

“I’ts ok, as long as i’m able to join the guild I don’t mind”

“I won’t go easy on you kid, you’re just too shameless”

Risa walked towards me with a gentle smile on her face and whispered in my ear.

She led me to an open space and pointed and rested the huge sword in her shoulders, I unsheathed my sword without problems since it’s properly soaked in holy water and took a fighting stance.

I thought she would pounce on me as soon as Lorenzo gave the go, but she just stood there in waiting leaving me no choice but to approach her. I’m more accustomed to fighting defensively so I’m at a disadvantage here.

Luke always complained when sparing with Bob that he showed no openings and I didn’t know what he meant by that, but now I completely get it. She’s just standing idle, she’s just looking at me in the eye, but I feel I don’t have any chance of landing a proper hit.

If I try a horizontal slash she can just take a step back and If I hit her from above she would just block me and counter with a kick. An inmense pressure starts building up inside me and I feel weak on my feet, but I don’t lose grip on my sword and walk forward.

I try to activate my consider skill but instead of the usual system message, a health bar was displayed in a lively green color, and her name appeared behind it.

The intense pressure that kept me from walking towards her dissipated gradually easing my walk towards her.

Her expression suddenly went from arrogance to surprise and then... fear.

“You! what are you doing? what kind of skill is this!?”

Taking the chance she gave me I hurry up my pace until I’m running full speed, but before I was even able to rise my sword.

“I yield!”

She yelled and Lorenzo was left dumbfounded, Sera started clapping in joy.

“With this, I’m glad to say all of you passed the test. You’ll be under the care of an instructor for a while but if everything goes well you’ll become proper adventurers”

Bob and Luke both ended with a D rank, but Sera and I became F rank. I was a bit disappointed by this but Luke was furious. He complained about not being able to take proper quests from the start, but Bob calmed him down saying that he shouldn’t skip the tutorial. Luke laughed at his comment and said he was right.

When Ryu’s party left the adventurer’s guild Risa was left alone with Lorenzo and they went to the tavern to grab a drink.

“I must tell you Risa, you didn’t strike me as a kind person. You’re finally maturing into a proper woman”

“Shut up you old man, you’re making nonsense”

“Don’t try to hide it, you went easy on him”

Risa’s face froze up for a second and she gulped down her beer.

“That’s not what happened, I’ve never felt something like that before”

“That mysterious skill? was it that strong? I felt compelled to ask him but it’s rude to do so, especially since I’m the one that should teach him to keep some tricks up his sleeve”

Lorenzo was intrigued.

“I’m not sure. I actually don’t know what kind of skill he used and that’s what scares me the most”

“But you’re a ranger, you always manage to at least understand what kind of skill is used”

“What I felt... It’s hard to put it into words. I’m usually excited to face battle anytime and I’m not scared to get a little hurt either, even when facing stronger enemies I never hold back. But this guy gave me the creeps. It was an unpleasant feeling that made me shudder, I felt cold and hot at the same time and felt paralyzed”

“Isn’t that something like killing intent? you think he’s an assasin? that would be impossible since his card showed he had no class. While it would be possible to hide his class, there’s no way it can show a wrong one or show classless when he has one”

“I know, I didn’t expect things to go that way. I tried to use killing intent to make him piss himself in front of his companions... but that wasn’t killing intent. I could’ve sworn there was...”

“What? tell me”

“Nevermind... I must be crazy. Anyways, I call dibs on him!”

“Uhhh? I was the instructor in charge of taking their test so I get the first pick”

“Come on, don’t be like that with a lady, Lo-ren-zo”

She said in a seductive voice while leaning close to him, as soon as her breasts pressed against his arm he blushed.

“I won’t go back on this, but I guess it would be ok to let him choose his instructor. I’m actually more interested in Bob and Luke, they may be a bit weird but I’m sure they’ll earn me a huge comission”

Lorenzo sighed thinking on his money problems that forced him to work as an instructor instead of going in adventures and taking quests and took a sip of his beer.