Chapter 90 84: Adventurer Examination

"Excuse me."

Light filled my eyes as the flap of my tent was pulled up.

"Fuck, aren't you that kid from yesterday?" the intruder spoke, not letting me even collect myself as the harsh sunlight filled my eyes. "Dusk, was it? Did you seriously camp here all night?"

I sat up and rubbed my eyes.

"So it is," I said. "Am I first in line?"

"You are. Now get this thing away from here."

"Right, but who are you?"

"Did you seriously forget... No way, good joke. Get rid of this."

This bitch sure liked to boss people around. The intruder walked away from the tent and went inside the adventurer's guild, unlocking the door herself. Must've been the receptionist, then.

I looked at my hand and noticed that the glow from the 'system' was rather dim. Titania must still be asleep.

In no time at all, I picked up all my luggage and got out of the tent before kicking it away. The tent flew up like a kite and fell into the dumpster on the opposite end.

I wasn't going to sleep in a tent twice. I would make a shack instead.

Eventually, the door opened up and the aspirant adventurers were let inside. About two hundred people were guided to the vast third floor of the guild-house that was turned into a library.

"The first test is a written one. Please find your name tags and sit accordingly. The test papers are already placed there."

The applicants all coursed through the room while a man, who seemed to be the proctor for the examination, continued explaining the rules.

"The exam time is 10 minutes from when I say start."

I found my name just when the ridiculous time constraint was announced.

"It'll be graded right away, and if you get even a single question wrong, you fail."

A lot of people had stopped searching for their seats by then and were staring at the proctor. I was smarter than that so I quickly sat down when—

"Alright. Time starts now."

"HAH!?!"

Footsteps shuffled around the place as everyone rushed to get to their seats. Some who tried to sit on someone else's seat and change the name were kicked out by the proctors who had blended in with the test-takers.

Things were getting clearer about why the adventurer's guild let anyone assume any identity. They were screened thoroughly, from the fairies to the guild members themselves.

It was a necessary skill for adventurers to be quick on their feet, this was just one of those examples. Of course, honesty and trust were also important for people who entrusted each other with their lives.

I flipped the paper on my table and greeted the questions—Not.

It was empty.

There was some kind of trick they were pulling here. I tried to infuse both my mana and my ki into the paper, but nothing happened.

At that same time, a tall woman in a suit suddenly sat next to me. I took a glance at her name tag and her paper, just to check if she was in the same boat.

Dawn.

So that was the one who had stolen my name, huh? I would have gone out for blood if only there weren't like 420 of them.

"You shouldn't cheat," Dawn spoke, not turning at me.

Wow, adventurers truly were observant.

"You either," I said.

"Hmph."

Dawn harrumphed and looked away, and I did the same. We both had only moved our eyes just a tiny bit and were checking each other with peripheral vision. Of course, it was easy for me to notice a gaze unless someone was hiding their presence like a master, which neither of us did.

"Five minutes left. We are down to 130 people."

What happened!?

I wanted to see what was going on but didn't have the time. It was when I was about to write down some questions myself that a yawn resounded in my ears.

"Eugy? Aahm... it started already?"

Titania suddenly appeared atop the test paper, crossing her legs while stretching her hands above her head.

She then cupped her chin in her palms and kicked at the paper.

"Want help?"

"Think you can do something?" I whispered back.

Titania smiled and tapped her fingers on the paper. In the next moment, a reddish gleam covered the paper and characters started appearing on it.

"Your turn," she said before rolling away from the paper.

The words of the proctor made more sense now since there was only one question on the test.

[Q. What should you do when you meet an enemy stronger than yourself?]

"Hah!"

I scoffed. It was a question fitting the group known as adventurers.

[Answer. Run]

Two claps resounded in the room right then.

Everyone stopped and stared as the papers floated into the air and went toward the proctor on their own.

"The test is over. Out of 234, only 40 people managed to see their questions."

The proctor breezed through the papers in the blink of an eye as he took away a few of the forty papers.

"And only 30 gave the right answer to the single question."

Gasps rang out as he tossed the papers to the side and took a firm step ahead.

"An adventurer, no matter where, needs four things. And we tested three of them."

He pointed three of his fingers out as he walked around, eyeing who I assumed were the candidates that passed the test.

"One is wits, or the ability to handle sudden situations. The second and possibly the most important, your relationship with your guides, the system. And lastly, awareness of your capabilities."

The proctor then turned to the people that failed and smiled.

"I would suggest working on your relationship with the fairies. You can try again next time, but the contract can be broken at any time."

Hm? I spotted something wrong right there.

I turned to Titania and pumped my brows.

"Didn't you say it is an eternal contract?"

"Ours is!"

Before I could say anything else, the proctor clapped his hands again.

"Alright, failures. Get lost. The ones I call for, come along. We'll be testing the last of the qualities you need."

"Which is?" someone asked, provoking a loud chuckle from the proctor.

"Power," he said.

Perfect.