-Ren's POV-
I was standing in the testing arena of The Cuties, the day was going the same as usual. People come and get wrecked in this place, some might join but others don't make it. One hell of a job though, paying 1000 dollars per test with no taxes at all. I am an adventurer, but this type of job is also good for relaxing and beating the shit out of newbies.
It's already evening and, there she stands, the final candidate for today who appears to be the same age as me, which was a surprise to me. 'Why the hell is she becoming an Adventurer at that age? Or is it that she wants to change Guilds?' I think, because people start their journey as soon as they turn 18. It hasn't been that long since the first monster showed up but generally 18 is the age when people get to make their own decisions.
We both get ready as the testing will soon begin. I take up my usual stance, first, defend to gauge out the enemy, then take the right openings to deliver the blows, and knock them out. I observe Lily, whose name means a flower but she does not look that beautiful, although she does look a bit cute.
She takes up a boxing-like stance which has a lot of openings and stands there, as if waiting for me to hit first, seeing that she was not going to attack me first, I comply with that request by first using a body enhancement spell that immediately makes my power double up, with my reflexes and my speed going up a few notches as well. I move out and land a side punch to her ribs but she dodges it by a hair's breadth at the last moment. 'It might have been a fluke because dodging like that is only done by veterans or people with high levels.' After seeing her dodge it like that I immediately retreat a few steps and beckon for her to come.
She complies with running towards me and ducking down at the last moment to sweep me off the floor using her legs, but I take a few steps back and see her standing again in that boxing-like stance. 'This will be a good fight.' I thought to myself.
-Liz's POV-
I observe as Ren retreats from the floor sweeping move that I just did. She seems like a good fighter with experience, knows when to retreat and when to get a hit in but still not at the level of even my subjects on Elanoir, they would've definitely wiped the floor with her by now or probably would have killed her.
She moves again and comes straight at me, trying to punch right on my face but I block it by raising my hands and slide a few steps back (on my own), so as to show her that her punches work on me because I had seen her using a body enhancement spell. After this the next few minutes go with both of us gauging each other, basically me playing along by dodging, blocking and attacking. The next thing we both know is we are moving speedily exchanging blows with each other that even the judges have a hard time trying to figure out our moves.
-Judges POV-
There were only three judges in the testing site and all three were pretty much bored with the candidates so far as they were inexperienced and couldn't do shit against Ren, so even Ren had to hold back from seriously injuring them. It has been a boring day for them, not having seen a single good fight. The candidates may be new to being an Adventurer or even be veterans but as judges, their job was to observe and evaluate, so far, it was only meager.
"So who's the last candidate for today?" asks Judge A
"It's a woman, name's Lily, age 35, just moved into L.A, no family" answers Judge B
"And why does a woman at the age of 35 want to become an adventurer? Or is it someone who wants to change Guilds?" asks Judge C
"No, she's a fresh one. Maybe her abilities blossomed late or her circumstances didn't allow her to become an Adventurer early on." says Judge B.
They kept discussing a few possibilities but came to the conclusion of financial issues and waited for the test to start.
-A Few Minutes Later-
The judges are shell-shocked by the display of Lily and Ren as they exchanged blows with each other at such great speed that they found it difficult to trace their moves. It was not like the judges were normal people either, they are veterans in their own way but the fight happening before them seemed more like an action film. They found it difficult to believe that this type of fight was being fought by a woman who just now wanted to become an adventurer but alas it seemed that the guild had just found a golden goose right now, who would be giving them so much profit, if she ever entered the battlefield and rose to high level with her talent.
"Are you all seeing what I am seeing?" says Judge B.
"Yeah, that sure as hell ain't a newbie fighting there" says Judge A.
"True, that right there is a fight between two veterans who have fought countless battles, and know what to do in any given situation" says Judge C.
"Maybe it's because Lily has talent in fighting." says Judge A.
"We have to get her anyhow!" says Judge B.
"I agree with you but we have to wait for the mana test as well" says Judge C.
"Still we will get her even if her mana capacity and power are just above the margin we want, hell if it even comes close to it, I will pull a few strings and get her in our Guild" says Judge B
As they discussed these things the fight came to an end. One of the Judges still had their own doubts as to why a 35 year old woman has fighting skills on par with veterans. Why did she consider joining this late and a bunch of other questions. But he didn't bother with it for long and gave it up to her having talent for fighting.
-Ren's POV-
-A Few Minutes Earlier-
'Damn this is getting difficult, it's as if she's a machine who only knows how to work efficiently and to not make any mistakes, like she's programmed to do this. Even if she did make a mistake, it was hard to follow up and hit her'. I was at my wits end as this battle which started with gauging each other out is coming to an end after exchanging a lot of blows after fighting for 10 minutes. 'I should end this now', I try to do a feint but she quickly catches it and holds my arms, sweeping me off the floor with her legs and throwing me in the wall a few meters away from where we were fighting. 'Fuck I wouldn't have done that feint if I was going to be thrown in a wall'. I think and brace myself for the impact.
-Liz's POV-
'This fight's been going for 10 minutes now, I should end it'. I see Ren rushing towards me thinking the same thing, to end it with this move. She throws a feint at my side but I grab a hold of her arms amidst the feint and using my legs I sweep her off the floor, over my shoulder and throw her judo style into the wall a few meters behind me. I obviously threw her gently because I did not want such a capable woman to become a meat paste.
I stand at the side of the arena watching as the healers rush to Ren's aid and quickly peel her off the wall. 'I guess I went a little overboard' as I see the fire lit under the eyes of the judges, who are staring at me, like I was some kind of lottery prize to them.
'I don't want to deal with the questions they have but how am I going to explain all the speedy shit that I pulled off'. I became a bit over excited while fighting Ren 'Fuck!'.
"Miss Lily, shall we move to the Mana Testing?" says one of the judges, who I assume is their leader as he gives me a money grubber look.
"Sure but what about Ren?" I reply while glancing at Ren who is unconscious and is being treated by the healers.
"They will handle it properly, we should move to the mana test as its already late for us to be doing this work but as we have seen your potential, we want you to become a member of our guild by the end of today" says the leader of judges while eyeing me like I am some kind of golden goose for them. 'I guess I am a golden goose for them after the show I put on. Things have blown out of proportion but there's nothing that I can do now. I should just go along with the flow and sort it out later on.'
They lead me to the other side of the arena with a door in the wall, where the mana testing will be done.
I stood there in a room with a punching bag and a blue orb sitting in the middle of the room on a stand. It was a mana core, probably that of a B Rank monster. This blue orb may appear simple but is the most important thing for a mage, as this orb is the foundation of all their spells and as for monsters, it is their lifeline.
"Miss Lily, please walk up to the orb and put your hand on it and release mana pulses in short intervals, with this we will be able to observe how much mana capacity you have and stop sending mana pulses when you are at your limit." Sending mana pulses was not a big issue for newbies as they had been training themselves for the test, but for Lizandra, this type of thing was as easy as breathing but, it also came at the cost of being able to destroy surroundings.
I do as the judge says but holding myself back when sending the mana pulses because even one percent of the mana pulse I send can destroy this whole room. I keep sending a mana pulse in short intervals for two minutes as I watch the mana core of a B Rank monster being filled to more than half its capacity and stop right then and there. I look back to the judges who are all smiles by then probably because I went above the margin for mana capacity.
"Well done Miss Lily, now launch your spells at the punching bag, I know you might be confused as to why a punching bag is used for measuring power but fret not as the punching bag is made of special materials from the dungeons which can withhold the power of even S Rankers, this punching bag measures the firepower you have with the damage you can deal. There is a counter near it which will tell you about your damage dealing capabilities." I watched in fascination as this type of thing was never invented on Elanoir, there we had the standard mana crystal for measuring everything about your mana capacity and the firepower.' New World and New Things huh'.
I walk up to stand in front of the punching bag a few meters away and prepare a spell using the chants that I had seen some of the adventurers do in their testing in the videos that I watched on the flight to L.A.
The spell I'll be using is a simple wind blade spell that will deal damage to the bag. I held back while launching the spell because I did not want that punching bag to be split in half and cause more problems for myself than I already had.
As the mana blade touched the punching bag leaving a sizable gash on it, I saw the numbers on the counter go up and stop at around 80000 which was an average number for top B rankers and bottom A rankers. I did the same things for a few minutes using the different wind spells, ice spells and the result is the same as it was before, around 80000.'I'll have to keep this persona if I become famous, ughh… such a pain in the ass this adventuring stuff is'. But it is necessary for my plans.
The judges quickly noted down the numbers each time I hit the bag and told me to just wait in the lobby for the final results of the tests.
I looked around the lobby around me while sitting on a chair in the waiting area, taking out the phone, I saw that it is already 9:10 pm and surfed the internet for a while as I wanted to know how the S ranker did in the Mana test, I quickly found the results because these kinds of things were a sensation for the internet and also they made the adventurers more famous as guild PR promotes them using this information. 'So a bunch of these S rankers have the power to level a whole city huh'. The average number of mana tests is around 200k which is a lot higher than the A rankers who are around 100k.
I sat in the waiting area for half an hour while surfing the internet about information on the Rankers and finally I saw one of the Judges coming to me with a woman who appeared to around the age of 20 with a cute face, standing at 5'8 feet in height, white color tone to her body, an hourglass figure, black hair in a short wolf cut, with brown eyes.
"Miss Lily, please meet our esteemed Guild Master, Luna." And the Guild Master of The Cuties, one of the most beautiful women is here in L.A. right in front of me, what a coincidence, or is it now? I had seen some of the information on Luna, as she would become my boss for sometime. The records of her work were really good and it was astounding that a woman around 20 years old could do so much work in such a short time and even build a Guild of her own.
"Let's make this short for both of us, do you want to become a member of our guild or not?" 'And she happens to be the blunt type as well, just like Ren.' She puts her hand forward, likely to greet me.
"Sure, why would I not want to work with a guild like yours." I say while shaking the hand she had offered to me and giving her a polite smile.
"Good, give her the contract and we'll negotiate if you have any problem with it, take your time but not too long" Luna says to the judge who immediately hands me the contract. I take it and start reading the clauses, thoroughly.