As it turned out, the large metal door behind Natalya’s desk opened up into a gargantuan underground room. The floor was all white tiles made from a material that looked like a mixture of rubber and plastic, but was as hard as concrete. The walls were also coated in the stuff, the ceiling lined in large light panels, and all along the side of the room was a single connected, raised platform which eventually circled the whole area, accessible by a staircase at either end of the room.
“Wow, this place is impressive,” I said.
“Glad you like it. It’s our testing area, but it also functions as a practice and training room as well. Come on, let’s get a better view.” Barry, Natalya, Clara and I all took to the raised platform that basically functioned as a viewing balcony.
“So Natalya watches from here, and she can assess everyone?”
“I can watch and assess multiple people at once, yes. I have a limit though which is based on… factors I was told to keep hidden for now,” she said the last part quickly after looking over to Clara.
“No, it’s okay, you can tell Adam. He’s one of us,” Barry said. “In fact, should he accept, I’m hoping to have him be the Deputy-head of Paragon Guild.”
“Me?!”
“Yeah, who else would I pick? You’re the only other person I trust to do the right thing.”
Horrible misplacement of trust.
I thought, not even knowing at the time how much that would come to be true. But if Barry was extending trust to me like that, there was no way I wouldn't accept it. It just meant more opportunities for me.
“Thank you Barry, I’d be honored.”
“We haven’t even done his assessment yet,” Clara said from behind me. Her tone was warm, but artificially so. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves right now.”
“Fine, fine,” Barry rolled his eyes and wagged his head playfully. “Always worrying about the minor details, this one. But okay, we will wait until you’re officially assessed, and a member of the guild, and talk about it then.”
“Humph,” Clara sounded behind me once more, but said nothing.
“In the meantime, Adam, watch the Hunter assessments with us and tell me what you think. I feel like you might notice something we could miss. So tell me if you think someone stands out to you in any way.”
“Uh, okay, I can do that.”
“Great,” he threw me thumbs up before turning to the large crowd of hopeful future guild members down below. “Alright then everyone, go to your assigned locations and let’s begin!”
***
“D-Grade; Offensive Output - D, Durability - D, Speed and Maneuverability - C, Threat Coverage - F,” Natalya spoke quickly as another assistant typed away on a tablet.
The person she was using her ability on was a ranged fighter that was using thrown projectiles which she created from slips of paper and controlled with her mana. The woman looked only slightly disappointed by the result as it was relayed back to her down below.
“F-Grade; Offensive Output - F, Durability - D…” Natalya continued on giving a reading of another fighter. This one was a man who looked to be a melee class, and was panting, down on one knee in front of Francis in another part of the room.
Some classes and abilities were easier to test than others. Ranged fighters would attempt to hit targets set a distance away, or hanging from drones that were moved around in the air. Melee fighters were harder, as there weren’t any robotic training dummies to fight against, and while stationary dummies worked for some, others had skill that required living targets. So some needed to fight another Hunter to show their skills.
Francis became the tester for the melee fighters. Huwett the tester for ranged and dexterity based fighters, when needed. Norton was at the far left side of the room, overseeing the healers, who were showing their healing magic and skill on Paragon Guild members that were willingly being injured for the assessment.
I gave a silent prayer to my Sponsor in thanks for not having to be one of those volunteers.
Vasquez was helping in overseeing the mages. Giving input on casting technique and mana control. All of it went rather smoothly.
The very next melee fighter to be tested was one that I thought would show some real skill. Through my [Aura Mastery] I could see his power rivaled Francis’, if not even stronger. Francis' aura was wild, chaotic in was that made it flicker and shift erratically. While this man was different, his aura more smooth, flowing and swirling under control.
He carried a thin sword, one that looked more made for thrusts and stabs than slashes. His armor was barely protective at all by first appearances, being only dark blue leather that appeared thin and flexible. But I could guess that it was enchanted in some way.
“Jonathan Staix, Epic Class, Estoc Lancer,” the man said as he positioned himself in front of Francis.
Once their fight began, the reason for the man’s class made some sense. He used his sword like a spear, piercing and stabbing with a reach that Francis had some trouble dealing with. His movements were graceful enough, with footwork that brought him rapidly in and out of striking range to keep offensive pressure while staying outside Francis’ ability to counter attack.
It was a good fighting strategy, and highly effective in one on one melee duels. But as I watched the two, I couldn’t help but frown. Jonathan was moving far faster than Francis, and attempting some rather deft strikes, but his mana movement was very reserved. Whatever skill he used for his footwork and dashes felt underwhelming given his class’s Epic tier status.
Eventually, Francis was able to figure out his rhythm, and disrupt the man’s attacks after activating his red mana-field skill, bringing the fight to a rather fast end with a series of four axe blows that nearly took the man’s arm off.
“C-Grade; Offensive Output - B, Durability - D, Speed and Maneuverability - C, Threat Coverage - C,” Natalya said after their fight.
“Hmm…”
“You notice something?” Barry turned to me when I responded to Natalya’s assessment.
“I don’t know, I thought the Estoc guy would do better.”
“C-Grade is actually rather good,” Clara stated matter of factly. “Francis is rated just barely B-Grade himself, with all his experience and rewards from your guys’ fights and dungeons. Norton is considered C-Grade, but his healing is A-Grade, while his low scores in other categories bring him down. For now at least.”
“Still, I don’t know,” I said.
As someone who held back their own skills and abilities for weeks now, I knew how to recognize someone else doing it, especially when that person was weaker than me. But the question here was, why? If he wanted into Paragon, why hold back in the assessment?
I decided to keep an eye on him for now. Perhaps he was like me and I could recruit him myself. Maybe there was something else going on.
“Victor Greene, Epic Class, Tempest Mage,” the man with the little electric lizard on his shoulder said as he stepped in front of Vasquez.
This man’s aura was about as strong as the other C-Grade mage recruits that had been tested so far. His aura might have been a tad stronger, but not by much.
His assessment went about easily, showing his melee ability with his staff first, which was lackluster, even when he added lightning to his blows and strikes. He just didn’t have the strength and dexterity to give his melee attacks a truly powerful
oomph.
But his magic spellcasting was different. He activated a lightning spell, firing off bolts of thick magical energy that hit the arranged dummies easily. Then the little lizard on his shoulder finally did something, the static around its spines intensified, and its eyes glowed yellow as Victor cast his spell a second time.
The result was impressive. The tiny six-legged freak-thing somehow boosted Victor's spell, not only increasing the number of lightning bolts he made, but enhancing their damage output as well. He practically fried the dummies entirely on the second attempt, throwing bolts of power as thick as my forearm into each one of them.
“B-Grade; Offensive Output - B, Durability - D, Speed and Maneuverability - C, Threat Coverage - B,”
“That creature on his shoulder,” I muttered,”it made that much of a difference?”
“Companions can be rather impressive, yeah,” Barry said. “Love to get one of my own. Maybe next time we do a Dungeon I’ll get one in a reward drop.”
“Same, I’d love to get something like that,” I nodded in agreement, but my thoughts went to the egg still sitting in my inventory.
Hatch soon little buddy, you’re gonna be one hell of an asset.
“Alright then, let’s get down there,” Barry clapped my shoulder and started walking towards the stairs.
“Down there for what?”
“Your assessment, obviously.”
“But why are you coming?”
“You think we will let you fight Francis? Nah, you’d beat him before Natalya can get a full reading on you,” Barry explained.
“So then…”
“So, you’ll be fighting me.” He smiled.
***
Barry’s sword sliced the air just in front of nose, missing me by the sheer width of a few cat whiskers. It was close enough that I felt the breeze that followed the swing caress my eyebrows and help dry the bead of sweat that was already running down my forehead.
How kind of him.
The follow-through of the Paladin’s strike came with a heavy blow of his large kiteshield. I angled both my sword and my body to help push away the large metal slab, sending it to my left. I responded with a high kick aimed at Barry’s head, ready to bring my boot hard against his helmet.
He ducked, causing my leg to sail over him. Continuing my momentum, I spun with the attack and brought my other leg up and forward in a bit of an awkward hook kick that caught him high on the shoulder pauldron.
Barry stumbled a step as I landed back on my feet and dashed at him once again. He recovered in time to block my blade and send a swipe of his own, making it my turn to duck. I stabbed at his chest, timing the attack just as I released a pulse from my [Aura Mastery], buffeting him with a strong spiritual pressure.
His eyes widened in surprise and he swept his longsword up, forcing my thrust to travel wide above his shoulder. I drew the weapon back quickly as he tried to trap it with his shield and sent another kick at him, reverberating against his plate armor on his left leg.
We fell into a bit of rhythm after that, parrying, dodging and blocking almost in turn. Eventually, we seemed to reset again as I attempted another straight thrust at his chest and he moved to sweep it up and away.
“Got you,” I muttered with a grin.
As his blade touched mine, I let go of the hilt to my weapon, allowing it to be flung into the air above our heads in a spin. But Barry also met no resistance with his upward movement, causing him to raise his blade higher than he wanted, opening himself up fully while trying to rebalance on the back foot.
[Barry Schilling - Lvl 11; Marked to Die]
I could see in his eyes that he felt Death settling its awareness on to him. My eyes narrowed and my fist shot forward at his head. My knuckles howled in pain as my punch slammed against his helmet, but I knew I did some damage as his head was rocked sideways.
A knee to his chest plate came next, then another punch to his head. Each attack rang across the vast testing area as flesh met metal. The third punch sent his helmet flying a dozen feet away in a clatter, revealing Barry’s shocked and stunned expression.
Then I held out my hand to my left just in time to catch my sword as it fell back to the ground. I brought the blade across my body and downward, aimed at Barry’s skull. Somewhere off on the raised platform, I heard a gasp.
Then a bubble of force sprung from the Paladin, intercepting my sword with a loud
clang.
The second thrust was also blocked, then the third and forth, the translucent field refusing to give way to my strikes.
Barry stood straight again, readying his own sword.
“Fuck!”
Golden energy shot through his blade as he brought it down towards me. The attack was faster than before, and filled with a pressure that sent my survival instincts blaze, let alone the warning I got from my [Aura mastery] skill.
As always, I had been downplaying my stats through the fight, just as I always had, but I was just fast enough to react and I leapt backward, avoiding the [Holy Strike] that tore through the tiles of the floor and into the reinforced concrete below. The resulting explosion of golden holy mana sent fragments and dust outward in a spray.
I took a knee as I landed twenty feet from him, my breath coming in large, exaggerated gasps then held up my hands as I inventoried my sword.
“That’s all I got, you win.”
A smattering of claps and cheers went up from the watching crowd, as everyone had paused their assessments to see Barry fight. The many Paragon Guild hopefuls happy to watch their future Guild Head show off his combat skills.
“B-Grade; Offensive Output - A, Durability - D, Speed and Maneuverability - A, Threat Coverage - B,” I heard Natalya call out from the viewing platform.
Shit, did I show too much?
I was hoping to hover somewhere between C and B-Grade, but it sounded like I was on the higher end of B-Grade based on Natalya’s assessment. It wasn’t the most ideal outcome, but I rolled with it anyway, plastering on a happy smile as I looked at Barry.
“Not bad, eh?”
“Not bad?” He yelled back. “That was great, your spinning kick thing, I need to try that. And the trick with letting me disarm you, that was genius.”
“I had to try something to get through your defenses, I was getting nowhere,” I laughed and wiped a hand against my sweat soaked forehead.
“I was slightly worried about trying [Holy Strike] against you,” he walked toward his fallen helmet and bent low to scoop it up. “But turned out you’re faster than even I—”
“Look out!” Clara suddenly shouted from the platform.
Barry looked up in time to see an Estoc being thrust directly at his face.
1.22 Passing Grade