A grunt rang out, and the battle began.

“Old sir, I don’t think this is a job fitting your age.” Phillip, the copper-ranked adventurer lightly placed his halberd on his shoulder while grinning.

“How strange,” Roth replied, his benign smile not faltering for a second. “Some lovely children just told me that sixty-five is quite the youthful age.”

“Oh? You actually are young?”

At that, a certain adventurer applicant expressed her displeasure, but her words went unnoticed.

“Then, I won’t hold back,” with that, Phillip lowered his stance and clutched his halberd before pointing it forward. Roth smiled and narrowed his gaze.

The two of them disappeared.

Phillip held his breath as he lunged where Roth stood, only to find him gone. Behind him, a dozen daggers flew down on his body from all directions. Philip twisted his body and dodged most of them, knocking away the ones he couldn’t with the flat end of his weapon.

Phillip’s eyes swerved around the place as he flexed his muscles.

Roth had disappeared completely.

“Assassin type! I rather dislike those cowards!”

Philip stuck his gaze to the ground of the arena. The shadow of a blade entered the fringes of his vision.

Like a dancer, the adventurer twisted and turned, dodging all the attacks that came his way from their shadows alone.

Yet, Roth was skilled. No matter how many weapons he threw and retrieved, he showed no signs of appearing in Philip’s eyes.

‘Magic, or a blind spot.’

Phillip narrowed his subsequent actions with a cool temperance. He raised his halberd high—

“If you won’t come out. I’ll make you.”

—And smashed the halberd down on the ground.

“Mhm.”

“These bastards don’t understand moderation.”

The two judges on both ends sighed and shook their heads. In the blink of an eye, dust and debris filled the battlefield, rising from the ground as the single aura-infused swing of the halberd destroyed the entire ring. With his footing now floating in the air, Roth appeared again.

Yet, he didn’t seem fazed as he hurriedly kicked off the floating debris to jump back to the adventurer. He dived in front of the adventurer at max speed, stretching his weapon out.

“Not bad, Mister!” Phillip grinned and turned away. All the spectators were left in shock as Phillip willingly showed his back to the approaching Roth, but the impact they envisioned never happened.

Phillip casually struck his weapon in the air, and a second Roth was launched from the battlefield. The first approaching one disappeared in thin air, it was just an illusion that the aged assassin had used to distract his target.

“The match ends!” The proctor announced and magicians rushed to fix up the arena. Phillip walked over to Roth and helped him up with a bright smile.

“So,” the judge at the center, the manager of the Deep Down Town branch called out to Phillip. “What’s the verdict?”

“I say he has passed with flying colors,” Phillip grinned.

The judges nodded at his words and then the branch manager stood up.

“Applicant Roth, you are now officially an adventurer.” He then looked at his fellow judges and nodded. “From the three ranks you can receive as a starter, you will be assigned the second highest, an Iron rank.”

“Way to goo!”

The boy with the beanie screamed, and the audience followed. Cheers and cries broke out as the veteran and the newbie adventurer shared a handshake and left the stage.

The proceedings went by quickly after the stage was fixed.

As the judges had predicted, four more candidates passed the tests. A young wizard girl with pink hair whose face was completely covered by her hat was assigned the Wood rank, following a series of failures, the next one to pass was the golden-haired man in full plate armor. Women cheered loud when they saw his sharp face and kind smile.

“Your type annoys me the most!!”

His opponent was none other than the person who had constantly asked if Eugene was single after giving up on women, but had shut the fuck up after learning his age.

“You blame me for something out..zzzz Ah! Something out of… what was I saying?”

“Bastard!!”

To not many’s surprise, that match ended in the golden-haired man, Zechariah Arke’s defeat. But with his ability to transform his sword aura into pure lightning, he managed to leave hundreds of injuries on the adventurer, along with one on his image that would make women hate him after beating up someone good-looking.”

“Copper Rank.”

The branch manager announced and the audience cheered even louder for the highest-ranked applicant yet, and probably the only one for the entire test.

Another one was given the wood rank when the shark-toothed boy entered the stage. He was paired up against another copper-ranked adventurer and a thrilling battle raged.

A magician adventurer pitted against a boy who could transform his body into weapons. Eugene was vastly impressed when he saw the shark tooth launching his hair and turning them into tiny spikes. He managed to drive the magician to quite the corner, but was excitable and lacked foresight, causing him to fall for the trap laid out by the magician since the beginning.

The applicants were shaved off one after another and took the spectator stands until only a young boy with white hair and a beautiful, tall lady with a few inches on the boy were left on the stage. Her soft features that seemed to give out a mature yet charming look weren’t unnoticed by others, though shark-tooth still liked to call her an old-hag, she was anything but.

“Next, Applicant Dawn, and Silver-Ranked Praco.”

People gasped.

This was the first silver-ranked adventurer coming up in the exam. Silver ranks were special, they were overtly powerful to the point that new applicants did not even have the option to be directly registered as silver-ranked.

Even beyond their talents and strengths, the instincts and experience that such high-ranked adventurers developed with their life on the line against uncharted lands and unvisited dungeons set them and everyone above in a league of their own.

Silver, gold, and platinum were without a doubt elites amongst elites, but even beyond them, the Adamantium, Orichalcum, and Mythril Ranked adventurers were living legends regarded as VIPs all over the world.

“Hey,” The white-haired boy called out, leaning on his chin. “All the best,” he said.

Dawn was slightly taken aback by the sudden call-out from the boy who had chosen to stay out of all conversations yet. She didn’t know that once he had moved away, he was just unsure of who he was talking with earlier and thought it would be awkward to encourage people he hadn’t shared a word with before.

With only two of them left, it was easy for the boy to acknowledge her.

Dawn smiled. “Just watch this elder sister,” she said.

The boy only nodded in response.

Dawn came up on the stage renewed for the fourth time and met a smiling adventurer with eyes as thin as a line holding a sword in his hands. The adventurer who didn’t seem the least bit flashy was waiting patiently for Dawn.

“Tough luck,” Dawn announced. “You’ll be the first silver-ranked to lose in this exam.”

The adventurer tilted his head at her words and then laughed. “Lady, not a single adventurer has ever lost in front of an applicant in the entire world. And those are all copper-ranked.”

“Is that so? You’ll go down in history then,” the suited Dawn smirked and pulled out the hairpin holding up her long violet hair. With a flick of her wrists, the hairpin expanded and grew into a staff.

“Do you know what sets a silver-ranked apart from a copper-ranked?” the adventurer posed.

“What is it?”

“It’s…” the adventurer slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out a rectangular object as ominously as he could. “this guild card. Ours is made of silver. That’s it really.”

Dawn’s forehead scrunched.

Instead of waiting for someone to flag them in, she clicked her tongue and rushed toward the adventurer.

With her black hairpin-turned-staff, she went toe to toe against the adventurer and his sword.

An intense gust spread out and the spectators were slightly blown away as the two of them engaged in close combat that would leave knights frothing at their mouths.

The adventurer’s techniques were practical, honed by fighting dozens upon dozens of beasts, but he was left stumped.

This lady.

This monster.

Even though she swung her staff and twisted her pretty face in a grin suiting one of the many beasts he had killed, he was being vastly overpowered. Within those wild movements made to kill was a certain rhythm, a beautiful dance that held so much grace his practicability couldn’t overcome it.

“Tsk,” the adventurer clicked his tongue. The Ki coursing through his sword intensified. From the first stages of Charge and Aura to Projectile, and then Manifest.

His Ki took a fluid, physical form however he wanted and crashed into Dawn. Much to his chagrin, instead of being intimidated by the adventurer’s full power, Dawn too increased her output and reached the same stage.

“Manifest Ki!?” one of the judges exclaimed. “How in the world!?”

“Is that all you got?” Dawn shouted and continued swinging. The intense battle grew bloody as both of them piled wounds upon wounds on each other.

When the adventurer swung down, Dawn ignored the damage and stabbed. When he tried to block, she twisted her body to the extremes until a hit landed. She fought on and on until both of them were left panting.

“Crazy bitch…” the adventurer muttered, earning a click of the tongue from Dawn.

She suddenly stood up straight and scratched her hair, her violet hair turning red from the blood mixed in her hands. Though they had seen enough, no one wanted to interrupt the battle.

“Let’s end this,” Dawn muttered. She focused all her power in staff. The air around started contracting as she lowered her stance.

Meeting her sincerity head on, the adventurer did the same.

People watched with bated breaths as the amount of Ki surged through the skies.

They charged.

The two of them clashed into each other at once and a cloud of smoke arose.

A shockwave spread through the air from the sheer impact as everyone was completely blinded from the onslaught, everyone except four people and a fairy.

The cloud of dust slowly subsided.

A cracked battlefield came into view.

“I-It’s!!”

The proctor screamed.

“It’s a tie!!!”

For the first time in history, an applicant had driven an adventurer to a tie.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep