章 100: Don't fool around at the adventurer's guild, please! part 4

"The name's Risa, but you can call me whenever you want"

A devilish smile appeared on her face, her fangs seem prominent but besides that she looks just like a regular human. A very naked human.

"Don't mind miss Risa, I'll be in charge of today's test"

Lorenzo said nonchalantly.

"Uh? you want to fight old man?"

She got close to Lorenzo and looked up to him, he was only a bit taller than her though.

"Who are you calling an old man, we're on the clock here so you should act professional"

"I'm being professional here, I need to properly asses the new adventurers in case I find someone delicious, errr I mean, someone strong"

"Fine, you can look, but please don't intervene until its over or I'll tell boss you're obstructing my work"

The sole mention of the adventurer's guild boss was enough to calm her down. Her expression stiffened and her right eye twitched for a few seconds.

Lorenzo guided us towards a straw mannequin, there was a table with a sword, a knife, a spear and a bow.

"Everyone pick a weapon of your choice and hit the mannequin however you like, without activating any skill. In case you're wondering, these are low level weapons with the sole purpose of testing your fighting prowess, so don't even try to steal it"

"Why would someone even try to steal crap like that"

Luke sneered, earning him a lustful gaze from Risa.

"As you said, they may be crap, but it's a lot more than the usual starter weapons of adventurers. Most rookies come here with just a stick on her waist, others with stones, as if that wasn't enough most of them are kids. I don't really care if they steal this weapons, but it's bothersome to go to the storage to grab spares"

The first one to hit the mannequin was Luke, he grabbed the sword and hit the mannequin from above wielding the short sword with both hands. It looked somewhat comical since he was all serious and even took a fighting stance with what can only be described as a toy sword.

Both Lorenzo an Risa reacted with a crooked smile as if they had expected it from the begining.

The next one was Bob. He grabbed the sword too but used it with one hand. He walked slowly towards the mannequin and hit it in the side causing the wooden pole where the mannequin was hung to break.

Both instructors seemed to be really surprised at his strength and Risa's eyes became sharp.

Since Sera didn't have any experience with any sort of weapon and the only thing she was familiar with was the knife she grabbed it. She used to help in the kitchen peeling vegetables while chatting with her sister, but she never even tried to stab something in her life.

She grabbed it with her right hand and put her index finger on top of it as if she was about to chop some carrots and walked forward.

Risa let out a snicker as she saw the weird grip Sera had on the knife and no one was surprised when she barely even damaged her mannequin.

I'm the last one and judging by their reactions so far ti seems this test is comprised of three parts. First they see what kind of weapon they choose, second, they pay close attentions to the way they face the mannequin and last, they watch the damage output.

I grab the spear since it's the weapon I'm most familiar with and I walk forward, take a low stance and stab the mannequin from bellow.

Both instructors let out a disappointed sigh.

"From what I've seen, you all took this test seriously and that makes me happy. You, the big one, you really got some strenght don't you?"

Lorenzo said speaking to Bob, but before he could reply Risa walked towards Luke.

"Hey blondie, why did you pick the sword if you're not familiar with it?"

"What do you mean?"

"I could tell from the start that none of you have any fighting experience, but at least they chose a weapon they were comfortable with. You, instead, picked a sword even though you can't properly wield it"

Luke's face became red as a tomato.

"Stop saying nonsense, I can properly use a sword"

"You're strong, but if you're so stubborn I wouldn't want you on my team. Thieves shouldn't wield swords, next time pick a knife instead and you'll see the difference"

"Hey Risa! What did I say about not interfering? Next time I'll go straight to boss"

"Just what you'd expect from the favourite"

She sneered at Lorenzo, this time he did look uncomfortable when hearing he was the favourite.

For the next test we were supposed to throw something at different targets. There was a stone, a knife and a bow with arrows.

"Now please, throw a knife to each target, try to hit the the red spot at the middle"

This time Luke hit the first target very close to the middle, he hit the second target almost on the outer rim and he miss the last target completely.

"An average performance, I can't say I expeced anything else from blondie"

Risa mocked Luke who seemed to be stressing up quickly.

Bob hit the middle target and the farthest one, but he missed the nearest target by a huge margin.

"That's unexpectedly good"

The female instructor smiled. Lorenzo clicked his tongue at his nosy coworker.

"Don't you have anything else to do? why are you bothering me at this hour?"

"Do you really want me to say it in front of the new recruits. In that case I'll..."

"No, that's ok. Just keep quiet"

Sera missed the three targets, but she was really close to hitting them.

"Not bad miss"

Lorenzo praised her.

It was finally my turn and I was eager to show my impresive marskmanship with my aim skill, they didn't say I couldn't use it after all. It's not like I can turn it off, it's not a special ability like Luke's single strike. It just activates whenever someone takes aim at something.

I threw the knives at the respective targets and hit bullseye on every one of them, but the knives didn't stick on any. My strength was nothing compared to Bob's or Luke's after all.

"wow, that was bad. Like, really bad. I've never seen even a child failing this test, but this might be the first time ever"

Risa said, I thought she was mocking me and turned to face her but she looked honestly surprised.

"Don't get discouraged boy, there's still a chance for you to prove your worth."

Lorenzo tried to lift up my mood, but it's not like I was discouraged, im outraged!

"I don't understand, what did I do wrong? I hit all the targets"

"While it's true that you did as you were asked, and didn't fail to hit the targets. The tasks don't matter at all, what matters the most is our own appreciation of your skills and how you put them to use"

"It's my appreciation, you're just a bystander Risa. But, yes, what she says its true. You may think the most important thing is to accomplish the task provided, that would be true if this was a quest since it won't matter how do you do it, as long as you finish the objective you would get a passing grade. But this is a test, and this tasks are just a means to an end, you could say it's for teaching purposes. Most adventurers learn the most valuable lessons not in the first day of work, but on the test"

After that he took us to a a corner of the courtyard. There was a bowl of water and a bear tied to a post.

"Now you're supposed to use your skills however you see fit on this bear, don't worry about harming it because you're most likely too weak to do any damage without weapons"

Luke, who was frustrated to no end by Risa's constant mockery took a step forward and rolled up his sleeves. He lowered his center of gravity and faced the bear upfront.

He used consider, stealth and tried to activate backstab but since he didn't have a bladed weapon with him he wasn't able to. Instead of giving up, he got close range and performed an excelent hand chop to the bear's neck. It writhed in pain, but was unscathed.

"Wow! that was actually pretty good mister Luke!"

Lorenzo said after checking again his notepad with the adventurer candidates names.

"Yeah, blondie got some balls, to face a bear close range with such confidence. Maybe he's not a lost case after all. If he put a bit more strenght to it, maybe the bear would've been knocked out"

Luke smirked at Risa feeling proud of himself and surely thinking it was to be expected from a hero like him.

Bob simply boosted his strength and hit the bear on the snout. It was a powerstrike and the bear yelped and wiggled from side to side almost falling to the ground, but managed to hold his ground.

When it was Sera's turn she was trembling and didn't want to get close to the bear. She looked at me, I think she's asking for permission to use magic instead of skills but I shake my head. We decided to keep anything related to magic hidden until we see someone outside our party casting magic.

"Don't push yourself miss Sera, you already passed and if you forfeit this quest you'll simply join as an F rank"

Lorenzo placed a hand on her shoulder, but she quickly reacted and pushed it aside.

"If that's ok with mister Ryu..."

"Of course Sera, there's no need to go that far. Can I skip this task too?"

"I'm sorry boy, but you can't forfeit... If you do, I would have to fail you. This would be the first time for me failing a healthy young man, even kids pass this test so I'm sure you can do it. If you're too scared maybe you're just not cut to be an adventurer"

"Uhm... I don't doubt I can do it, it just feels bad to hit a defenseless creature for no reason"

Lorenzo and Risa were left speechless.