Upon hearing that I collapse on the floor of this strange place. Both of us are splayed on the ground face up, staring at the floating cubes in silence. It takes five maybe ten minutes for the guild staff to bring us down.
So it's been thirty minutes huh... It must be since I no longer feel that power surging inside of me.
White clothed healers with giant blue flame emblems on their backs fill up the room.
Looks like they're going to have their hands full.
Well it's to be expected, most of the applicants including myself were horribly injured. It was only the seven supporters behind the counter that were okay, everybody else was wrecked, utterly decimated.
To think a single adventurer did all this to us... Will I have that kind of power in the future?
Alongside the healers that have flooded the room is the white or silver haired lady from before. The one who told us about the trials.
Another interesting thing I noticed is that the room got even bigger to accommodate the influx of people. Is this the work of the dimension scatterer?
Once brought down from the strange room we both received medical treatment. I'm basically good as new now, and the black lines are no longer on me.
Presently, I'm resting on one of the chairs, waiting for everyone else to get healed.
The silver haired lady says:
"Those who want to leave can do so now, nobody is forcing you, nobody is mocking you and nobody is looking down on you. Whatever you choose, you will be respected for your decision."
The room fills up with chatter after she says this, but as expected nobody left. I mean why would they? After hearing all of their back stories they have more than enough guts to go through with this.
If anything, I'm the strange one. I decided to become an adventurer on a whim after all.
"Very well, your injuries will be healed, make sure to use these quiet few moments to rest up."
Yeah, rest up! Maybe that's not such a bad idea.
Yawn~
I'm so exhausted.
Zzz
"Haalo ooo haffa moof too anuda ayria"
...
What sort of strange spell am I listening to?
"Pwee meester waykcup!
Wait is someone talking to me? Why does it sound so strange, did I fall asleep?
My eyes open to a blinding light, well blinding to me, normal to everyone else probably.
When the heck did I fall asleep?
"Please Mr, I've been told to take you to the other area so that your name can be registered." She says with a seemingly nervous expression.
Why's she so nervous, is something going on?
The young woman has short brown hair and brown eyes. She's well dressed, wearing a white button up shirt with a short tie around the collar and an open vest on top.
She's kind of cute.
Hmm she's dressed like a receptionist, is she a receptionist?
There's a rectanglular metal pin badge ontop her vest, it bares the guild's symbol.
"Hello sir-" I interrupt her groggily saying 'Yeah, yeah, I have to follow you right.' while wiping off the drool from my right cheek.
"Yes that's right" she says with her soft voice. It's kind of soothing to listen to.
Damn, that fight was absolutely draining! Just how tired was I that I don't even remember falling asleep?
Sigh~
Well the sleep was good while it lasted.
She starts walking somewhere and I follow right behind her. The room's no longer congested, it almost empty even so most people have gone to this "other area".
'Uh so where are we heading?'
"We're heading to another room to get you identified."
Yawn~ I'm so sleepy.
Wait what? I'm getting Identified? What am I, a criminal?
"Oh yeah, yeah, that makes sense." I say pretending to understand anything that's happening.
But because I'm a bad liar, she says:
"We'll be registering your names and faces here at the guild. You know for identification purposes, it makes this whole process more orderly and organized. Also we'll be going to a venue."
'A venue, what for?'
"That's because lady everest plans on giving a speech."
'Ah that makes sense... Um who is she again?' I say fearing that she had told me already but forgot due to being groggy.
"You know, you don't have to pretend to know everything. She's the lady with the white hair, she's in charge of the whole testing process."
I've been pressed about that, how do you describe that, is her hair white or silver?
I've mentally been calling her hair silver colored because saying it's white hair might make it seem like she's a grandma.
I should probably focus on what this lady's saying, she's giving me some juicy exposition.
'Uh can you please repeat what you said, I kind of zoned out after you said "testing process".
"Ah I see... Well I didn't actually say anything important. I was just congratulating you on your success so far, I know it couldn't have been easy."
'Oh thanks, I think you're doing a great job too.'
Shit!
Why did I say that? That's like when someone says happy birthday to you and you say it right back.
"Oh, how so?" She says with a curious look on her face.
Damage control time!
"I just realized that it couldn't have been easy organizing this. Everybody at the guild must be working really hard today, including you."
She seems to blush a little before saying "I don't really do much, to be honest I haven't really done much today, I've kind of just been handling menial tasks."
'Wow how modest!' I pause, taking a deep before shouting:
'THE GREATNESS OF THE GUILD STAFF TRULY CAN'T BE UNDER-ESTIMATED!-'
She puts her hands over my mouth preventing me from screaming even further. She then says:
"Why are you being so loud? Tone it down."
Pulling her hands from my mouth I smile saying 'See you just did something.'
"What are you talking about?" She says with a look of profoundly confused look on her face.
Maybe I rub people off the wrong way sometimes—this reminds me of when I was browsing through books at the guild and I jumped backwards because of how expensive everything was.
'You just calmed an unruly applicant, so don't say you don't do much.' I say with a smile one my face.
"I- um..." Before she can continue I say 'Not only did you calm a rowdy applicant you also woke up said applicant from their sleep, which trust me I know... Couldn't have been easy.'
'So chin up, I don't have to know you to know something's bothering you. When I was sitting with drool slipping from my face I noticed you were a little tense.'
"Thank you, I've been on edge all day because it's such an important day, I'm a new hire at the guild and I don't want to mess it up somehow." She continues by saying:
"I used to want to become an adventurer myself, but I realized I don't have the talent for it, so I settled for the next best thing, helping them-"
Hmm, why'd she stop talking?
She quickly bows as she says:
"Ah I've over-shared, I'm so sorry, an applicant shouldn't be concerned with my personal baggage. So please focus on the upcoming trials and forget I said anything."
What kind of situation even is this? Why's she being so awkward, it's not like I complained about it or anything.
Guess I'll just have to play along.
I put my hand on her shoulder saying:
'No that won't do, you've ruined my speech with your little ramble. I need some compensation for this'
She gets up from bowing position, her eyes widened in what I assume is fear.
I look her straight in the eyes and say:
'What are you going to do about my altered mood, which will undoubtedly affect my performance?'
"...."
"What do you want me to do" she says in a nervous tone.
Sigh~ she's really helpless.
She stares at me with an anxious face, nervous anticipation has clearly gotten the better of her.
'Well I want three things...' I pause pretending to think.
'First, I want you to smile more' I pause again taking note of her surprised expression.
It's a funny face she's making, it's as though the weight of the world got lifted from her shoulders, like she had just found out the extremely bad news someone told her was a lie.
'that way you'd be happier! Second, I want you to stop being so jitterish... And lastly you shouldn't let people throw bullshit at you or exploit you. You didn't even do anything yet you were ready to give in to my requests.'
Her mouth is wide open. I think she doesn't know what to say. Neither of us speak a word to each other after that, we just walk in silence until we reach a pair of black doors.
"We're here, you should enter." She says.
'Oh, yeah... I didn't really know because we've been walking for a while.'
The doors have handles. Nice.
I open the door then enter an extraordinarily spacious room filled with loads of people. Not like that's the first time this happening today.
Several people are lined up in long queues, probably waiting for the whole identification thing, and I'll probably have to join one of the queues...
Sigh~
As I walk to what I think is thesmallest queue a voice erupts from behind me saying:
"I never said thank you!"
I look back to see who it is.
It's the lady from before...
'Well... Thank you for thanking me!' I say as I wave her goodbye.
What a nice little encounter that was! I can't help but think to myself with a smile on my face.
She seemed to be out of breath when she said that. Don't tell me she ran from wherever she ran from wherever she was just to tell me that?What an interesting lady.
What an interesting lady indeed.
To my surprise the queue ahead of me gets shorter rapidly while simultaneously getting longer behind me. It take a few minutes but eventually I'm the second person in line and the guy in front of me is huge, like really huge, maybe 12ft tall or something!
Not just that, he's freakishly muscular as well. He reminds me of Hank. Just as I think that I hear "My name is Hank" followed by a flash of light.
Before he can exit the queue I grab him by his hand.He lets out an angry grunt.
"FOR WHAT REASON DO YOU DISTUR-" he says before cutting off his sentence.
"IT'S YOU! PUNY HUMAN!! I DID NOT THINK WE'D MEET AGAIN SO SOON!"
My soul leaves my body as my feet lift up from the ground and the air is forced out of my lungs.
Damnit—why must he be so strong? Just a hug from him could kill me!
Once he's done squeezing the life out of me, he drops me down gently. He's about to say something when he's interrupted by the man behind the counter.
"You know you guys can do your whole buddy buddy routine anytime right? Move out of the way big guy." He says in a harsh tone.
THIS FOOL IS GOING TO GET US KILLED!
HANK PLEASE DON'T GET MAD, PLEASE DON'T GET MAD, PLEASE DON'T GET MAD!
If he loses his temper there could be a lot of murder happening around me, and I definitely don't want to see that.
Surprisingly he exists the queue without making a fuss. Hmm, maybe he's not the big brute I imagined him to be, I think I owe him an apology.
"Age and name!" The man says with a look of utter disinterest.
I'm 17 and my name is Zachary Haze.
"Look guy, I'm not trying to hear your whole backstory okay? Just say 17 and Zachary Haze, no need for all the extra talk."
But you're saying a ton of unnecessary words right now! You said more than me.
"Ok, relax your face pal. Just in case you're stupid and don't know what I mean by that—no smiling, no frowning, no making any funny faces or making wmyexpressions at all! Just keep it neutral kid."
'Ah, alright.'
"No need for the extra words."
He seems to pull on something beneath the counter causing a sudden flash of light to appear.
'What was that?'
"Nothing to worry about. NEXT!"
And just like that I'm out of the queue. I search for Hank, well it's not much of a search since he's the biggest person in sight.
I think he has spotted me as well considering the fact he's waving at me. I walk over to him then he says "We have to find seats!"
We make our way to the center of the area with chairs, a whole lot of chairs.
Didn't that lady say something about a venue? There are a ton of seats but no stage. As if to answer my question, a huge stage emerges from the ground. To be more accurate a large chunk of the floor rips from the ground and floats in the air.
WOAH! ISN'T THAT A BIT TOO DRAMATIC?
Hank is mesmerized by the whole thing as well, his jaw is barely on his face at this point.
"PUNY HUMAN WE ARE SITTING IN THE FRONT ROW!"
'Huh? No we're not-' before I can finish speaking he wraps his arm around my body then jumps to the front row.
Gosh that startled me!
'S-so what now?' I ask.
"We seat and wait!"
Cool...
He's been entranced. He looks like an excited child eager to see what will happen next and it's totally understandable, that was quite the spectacle.
I wonder what she's going to say?
After a few minutes all the seats get filled. Ms Everest pops out of the floor of the stage, and Hank loves it. A stage popped out of the ground, a lady popped out of the stage... Makes you wonder what's going to pop out from the lady.
Well I guess kids maybe. W-wait no that sounds wrong, like you can't deliver in front of an audience. Hank snaps me out it by saying "Pay attention it's starting!".
"FLEDGLING ADVENTURERS! IF YOU'VE MADE IT THIS FAR YOU'VE DONE GREAT!" She takes a breath after shouting this.
She countinues by saying "I know it couldn't have been easy, no, I know for a fact it was hard because that's the point. The past trials have been designed to test your grit, your toughness, because at the end of the day adventurers don't give up!"
"At the beginning of this day there were ten thousand of you adventurer hopefuls, now there are only three hundred left."
The audience is clearly shocked by this news, at least that's what the symphony of gasps tells me.
"Those of you that remain have shown real guts, real gumption! And as such you're already adventurers in our eyes. That's why we made you go through the identification process, you are all officially guild members"
N-N-N-NO WAY! SHE'S JOKING RIGHT? OH MY-
I'd probably collapse to the ground if not for the fact that I'm already seated.
I'M IN A GUILD, AS A MEMBER, I'M ACTUALLY A GUILD MEMBER THIS CAN'T BE REAL. IT'S TO GOOD TO BE TRUE!
IT CAN'T BE TRUE!
I pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming. But nothing happens, I'm still here at pure flame guild, living the greatest moment of my life.
"Now that you're guild members, I'm obliged to divulge the fact that these tests have nothing to do with your rank in the guild, as that will be decided purely by merit. Instead it'll decide your grade.
Depending on what rank of adventurer you end up becoming, your grade will be a stamp of quality on you. So if you do well now, you will have more opportunities in the future."
So our scores affect our quality? So adventurers of the same rank can have different qualities... I'm not exactly sure what that entails but I think I get it. It's like how fruits of the same size and tree are picked differently depending on blemishes.
"So without further ado, let's announce everybody's scores so far."