Chapter 99 - Auction at Exam Site (1/2)

Ch. 99: Auction at Exam Site

“Thank you so much. I was worried that you would keep complaining and eventually say that you wouldn’t do it.”

Ivy, a receptionist girl at the guild, said with a smile on her face.

After talking with Lapis and deciding to take the exam the night before, when he told Ivy that, she let out a sigh of relief and smiled brightly.

Wanting to strike the iron while it was hot, Ivy took Loren and Lapis to a training ground near the guild where the exam was to take place.

“I’m also thankful that you responded so quickly. I thought it would take a bit more time.”

What Ivy was worried about were things that would’ve happened if Loren let Lapis do all the negotiating.

In that point, Ivy’s decision to approach Loren when he was alone was the best one, and Loren was impressed, thinking that she was indeed someone who had dealt with many kinds of adventurers through her job, but he guessed that it wouldn’t make her happy even if he told her that.

It would mean that her prediction that things could’ve been a lot messier was correct, after all.

“What would the exam be like?”

Lapis asked Ivy casually, not mentioning that she was thinking about doing everything Ivy was worried about.

Loren was about to wonder why a priestess of the Knowledge god like Lapis didn’t know that, but he immediately stopped himself, realizing that his image of priests of the Knowledge god was being poisoned by her.

There was no way a priest of the Knowledge god would know everything, and Lapis was just abnormal, so he knew that this natural expectation wasn’t a good thing.

“Let’s see. There’s no written exam. If there was, most people wouldn’t be able to leave copper rank.”

Unable to write.

Or read, or in some cases, there were adventurers who couldn’t do either, and that was a lot of people.

If there was a written exam for such adventurers, even getting to iron rank would be a difficult challenge.

For the higher ranks, there were written exams, but that was because to become a high ranking adventurer, you would need knowledge and intelligence as well as skill.

“So the exam is practical. You would be doing a practice match with a proctor that the guild provides.”

“Would Lapis be doing the same?”

To Ivy, it sounded like Loren was worried that priests, who weren’t really meant for combat, would have to take the same type of exam.

But in fact, Loren was worried about the proctor who would be going against Lapis, since she was a demon and was easily more powerful than he was.

If Lapis went overboard and twisted off parts of her opponent, it would be apparent that she was skilled enough, but the proctor would be in a pitiful state.

“It’s waived for priests and magicians. Instead, we have them show us a spell.”

The guild’s training ground was a large one-story building near it.

Inside was bare ground, and adventurers could go there to practice combat and magic.

Almost anyone could use it if they were a part of the guild, so it was used to train new adventurers or practice moving with new members, as well as experienced adventurers training novices.

Hot blooded adventurers didn’t use the facility much, so it was mostly used for rank-up exams.

“That’s going to be easy, but what about Loren’s opponent?”

Lapis looked slightly disappointed.

A short time before during their last two jobs, Lapis had regained both her arms out of her limbs and eyes that her parents had taken from her and replaced with prosthetics.

After that, she didn’t have a chance to test them out in combat, so she had been hoping to do so, but Loren was relieved that the opportunity didn’t present itself.

“Of course, we have information that Loren is a skilled swordsman, so we’ve prepared someone good.”

In a comical fashion, Ivy pointed to a person waiting in the training ground.

The man with a slime yet trained figure and red hair, opened his eyes wide in surprise when he saw Loren, and started looking between him and Ivy repeatedly.

“It’s new ace among the iron rank adventurers, Klaus!”

“Wait a second! My opponent for the mock battle is Loren!?”

As Klaus started panicking, a wondering face appeared on Ivy’s face.

As Loren guessed that she had somehow tricked Klaus into becoming a proctor without explaining everything, the conversation between the two proved that he was right.

“You didn’t tell me about this! I would’ve declined if I knew he was my opponent!”

“But I promised you that I’ll spend a night with you if you agreed to become a proctor and beat your opponent, didn’t I?”

“That’s what you said!”

“You’re the one who said that a copper rank adventurer was no match for you so I should wait with the key to my room, right?”

“Ugh…”

As Klaus was at a loss for words, Loren and Lapis’ cold glares pierced into him.

“Klaus, you’re the leader of a harm party including Ange as well as a knight and a magician, but have you been hitting on guild girls as well?”

“It’s one’s personal preference so it’s not something I can say about. But women will be the death of you, you know that?”