Once Damion graduated from school, Ms. Teft took him to the local branch of the Adventurer Association to be licensed. Licensing was officially just considered a formality to stop people with no skills from trying to prove themselves and dying needlessly, but Ms. Teft advised Damion to take the licensing seriously. Damion was not sure what to expect, as Ms. Teft kept tight lipped about it, but he suspected he would have to somehow prove his skill.
The Adventurer Association is responsible for the distribution of missions to guilds in the city as well as testing new applicants and for the promotion tests for existing adventurers. There are two types of licenses, mage and knight. Damion was going to be testing for a knight's license today, but he could not help but wonder how the association would react when, in a few years, he returned to get his mage adventurer license.
"Alright for a knight adventurer license, I need your training knight's certifications that you passed your page and squire trials," a woman at the front desk told Damion as he stepped up to her and handed her his registration papers.
Damion was confused by this, since Ms. Teft had trained him, he had not gone through the traditional training methods of knights. Ordinarily one started as a page and once their training knight thought they were ready they would become a squire and then be promoted to a knight and be allowed to join one of the orders of knights.
"I handled his training personally," Ms. Teft said as she passed her identification over the clerk.
The clerk was about to object, but once she read Ms. Teft's identification card, the clerk was stunned into silence.
"Not a problem at all," the clerk managed after regaining her senses. "Has he joined an order?"
"No," Ms. Teft answered.
Damion knew joining an order would allow him to get missions from those orders that he could complete. But it was also a big commitment. Joining an order was essentially joining the army, until he fulfilled his term of service, he was the order's to do with as they pleased, which included all sorts of mandatory missions for the order, even suicide missions against large beast waves were a possibility. Orders served to protect the people, often at the cost of their own lives. This was the code they had lived by since ancient times, before the first mages ever appeared.
The clerk stamped Damion's registration form and handed it back to him before pushing a button on her desk. Behind her a door clicked open and Ms. Teft began walking towards it and Damion followed behind her.
The trio walked down a long hallway until they entered a small room with three doors on the far wall. The clerk motioned to the first door and Damion took that to mean he was supposed to enter alone. As Damion opened the door the clerk spoke up.
"The first trial is to make sure you can properly channel your mana into your artifact for use in combat. All you have to do is charge up your artifact and hit the test dummy inside."
After hearing the clerk's instructions Damion was relieved. Ms. Teft had been tight lipped about the tests to get his license and he was afraid he was going to have to figure out the tests on his own.
Inside the room Damion saw the test dummy, which look like a statue of a man holding a sword and shield. The dummy was slightly larger than Damion, but otherwise was fairly average looking.
"You may begin." Damion heard the clerk's voice after the door behind him closed.
Damion drew the sword Ms. Teft had provided him. He had learned a fair amount about artifacts and their grades from Ms. Teft's lessons over the years, but he did not know the grade of the sword she had gifted him. Artifacts were graded much like mages and magic talent. F Rank being the lowest, climbing up to A and then S. Supposedly there were ranks above S, but whenever Damion asked, Ms. Teft would tell him that until he reached those heights the knowledge was just useless to him and to focus on growing stronger.
Not wanting to waste time, Damion channeled his mana into the sword which caused the enchantments on it to glow. Damion took a few quick steps towards the dummy and slashed with his sword across the dummy's chest. The dummy was sent flying backwards, but after it bounced off the wall it returned to its original position and appeared to be completely unharmed to Damion's surprise.
"That attack registered a magic power level of 72. Good work. Please move on to the next test room." The clerk's voice said over the intercom.
In the next room there was no test dummy. The room was empty, but on the walls and the ceiling were a number of holes about the size of Damion's fist. On the floor of the room was a red circle that appeared to be a boundary of some sort. Damion was about to take a closer look at the holes when he heard the clerk's instructions.
"Your goal this time is to avoid being hit by the rubber balls being shot out of the holes for as long as you can. You must remain within the red circle, but you may use your artifact to block and deflect the balls. The test will begin in five… four… three… two… one…"
Right after the clerk said one the first ball was shot out from the wall in front of Damion, heading right to towards his face. Damion quickly ducked while trying to keep his eyes on the ball. Right when the ball hit the opposite wall another ball was launched out, this time from one of the holes in the wall to the right of Damion.
This time Damion was forced to dive out of the way as not just the second ball was coming towards him, but the first had bounced off the wall it hit and was heading back towards him. The first ball did not appear to have lost any of its momentum and Damion quickly realized how dire his situation was. From the first ball launched to the second was only a second or two, if Damion only dodged, he would quickly be overwhelmed.
The third ball was launched from the ceiling causing Damion to roll away putting him dangerously close to the edge of the red circle. Another ball whizzed past Damion's head as he got to his feet and drew his sword. He was not sure if that was the fourth or the fifth ball, Damion could not keep track of all of them anymore.
Damion swung his sword horizontally taking out a ball before he spun left and brought his sword down on another. Just as he was about to mentally celebrate, Damion saw two balls launch out of two holes on the wall opposite of him. However, before Damion could bring his sword up to block them he felt the sting of something slaming into the middle of his back sending him stumbling forward.
"Twelve balls, not bad for your first time," the clerk's voice came over the intercom. "Move onto the next room when ready, it will be a test of real combat."