After reaching level 4, I was finally eligible for the City Guard quest. It had been on my radar since the moment I entered the guild, and I couldn't wait until I could start it.
After taking the quest, the receptionist told me to come back on Monday of next week for the test. I needed to be in front of the guild office by dawn. It will be then that I will be introduced to my new teammates. As such, I had lots of time to practice my skills.
For the whole week, I've only trained my fire control. I wanted to be able to create any shape I wanted and maintain it. My progress had been slow, but at the end of the training, I was finally able to shape the flames I conjured. This added much fluidity that was lacking in my fighting style. With this newfound power, I knew I could be much more versatile and useful.
The day had come. The birds chirped while the sky was painted in all gradients of orange. I stood in front of the building along with three other teenagers. They were all much older than me. Ten years, maybe older.
"Ehh, kid. Are you lost? Why are you standing in front of the guild building? Tell me where you live, I can send you to you there. Your mommy must be worried."
It was a boy with spiky hair and a long sword sheathed to his waist. He also had a small wooden shield that he wore on his arm. As he said those words, he looked at me smiling. While I was infuriated that he took me as just another kid, I knew that my size wasn't really the best indication of my might.
I looked at him coldly and said. "I'm here for the City Guard exam."
"Huh?" The three collectively had the same reaction. It was the first time I got a clear look at their face. A girl in white robes, ruby eyes, and violet hair. A boy wearing chainmail and black boiled leather.
"What? I'm level 4 like the rest of you." Honestly, I was exasperated with their attitude. No reason to belittle just because I am younger.
The spiky head boy had an expression of disbelief in his face. He probably thought I was just joking and playing them for a prank. The girl, on the other hand, didn't know what to say and just kept fidgeting in her place. It was the dude covered in black that first spoke.
"We're sorry. We didn't mean to disrespect you. It's just that for someone at such an age to be so powerful, that's a talent you don't see every day."
The assassin dude seemed a bit more levelheaded than the rest of his teammates. After he spoke, the other two completely changed their attitude and apologized. Seems like he was the leader of the group.
Either way, I wasn't here to start drama with people. For the City Guard exam, we needed to work as a team.
"Oy, I didn't know that the job this time was to be a baby sitter. Kid, what are you doing here? You lost?"
A middle-aged man clad in leather armor came from behind us. He wore a smug face as he looked at me.
I didn't succumb to his taunts. While the comments from the party and their reaction did annoy me at first, that's because I knew that they were genuine. This, however, was different. It was just a poor man's try at taunting me. I wouldn't fall for such a basic trick.
"I may be a kid, but you definitely can't babysit me. An old man with two feet in the grave would have a heart attack at the most innocent of my mischiefs."
Neither he nor the party expected this comeback. They all looked at me as if I was some sort of freak, not believing what their ears just heard.
"Wow, that's a sharp tongue you have there, kid." His surprised face then cracked into a grin. "Sadly, it might be your downfall too. Say, kid, did you bring your rations with you?"
My face turned pale as a sheet, while his grin became bigger.
"Guessed so. No lunch for you, mommy boy." After he was done taunting me, he clapped and looked around.
"Now, your attention please, everyone. I'm not gonna repeat the instructions so listen carefully. To become a city guard, you need to understand how to work as a team. Your comrades need to be able to trust their back to you and you need to be able to trust them too. Else, everything falls apart."
He scanned all four of us with his eyes before continuing.
"The four of you will have until sunset to reach the guild outpost in the northeast. It is twenty miles away. To reach it, you need to go through the forest, graze its innermost part where the most horrific beasts resides, cross the river and dodge the magical traps littered around the forest. I'll be waiting for you there."
"You, you, you." He pointed at the three beside me. "Go inside and take your lunch." He then looked at me and smiled. "Good luck, mommy boy."
His annoying grin kept stuck in my head even as he walked out of the city. My three teammates came back with their rations and looked at me.
"Hey, you know, we can always share with you our food, you know?" The other two nodded with the assassin dude's suggestion.
"No need, we will reach the outpost before lunch. If we arrive before him, we can share lunch then. Else, we'll just eat dinner and go back home."
My confidence wasn't unbased. I had mana eyes. If I wanted to run away from the danger, nothing could stop me.
"You," I looked at the girl. "What's your name?"
"Eek! Eh, Ve-Velvet..."
"Okay, I'll be calling you Vel from now on. My name is Vor, Vor Saknave. What about the rest of you?"
The spikey dude was named Leo, while the assassin was Rev. After the introductions, we walked out of the city.
In our way to the outpost, I micromanaged every single decision the group made. I knew that I could leave nothing to chance, else some clutz might screw us over. I took the safest routes at all times, making sure to avoid places with corrupted mana. As such, we took a long detour over the inner forest and didn't go through any of the goblin areas. While we did end up encountering some beasts, I made quick work of them with my fireballs. There was no way in hell I could trust a bunch of teenagers to do anything well, so I didn't even bother giving them tasks. In the end, we arrived safely.
It took us six hours to reach the outpost. By that point, the cleric was out of breath and the other two bored out of their mind. Seems like even with his more calm personality, Rev was still a hotheaded teenager. Their complaints, of course, went on deaf ears. If I didn't take complete control of the group, who knows when we would have reached the outpost?
The guard was already waiting at the post by the time we arrived. He seemed surprised at first that we were able to make it all the way here in such a short time but he quickly regained his composure.
"Okay, now that we're done with the exam, can you give us the certificate and let us be on our way. The way back to the city is long."
The guard looked at me with incredulous eyes before bursting into laugher.
"Wait, don't tell me, you thought that was the exam? Hahahaha, you're too funny dude, didn't you read the quest? It clearly said that you needed to train for a week before taking the exam."
I wasn't the only one surprised. Even the spikey dude couldn't help but ask.
"But if that wasn't the city guard exam, then what was it?!"
The guard's grin didn't give me any good premonition. "You see, we instructors have a certain degree of flexibility on the way we do things. I just chose for the training to be done outside the city for a change. So yeah, our little test from earlier was just an appetizer. Hope you will enjoy your stay."
God, even with the more than a million words present in the English language, I couldn't string together ones that would describe how much I wanted to punch that grin off his face.
After that, hell ensued. We were ordered to be separated, no one should even catch a glimpse of another. If two were to be ever found together, they were both to be starved for a day. As such, I couldn't share lunch with anyone. The rest of the day was spent with me running away from sabertooth tigers and five-meter long snakes on an empty stomach. Trust me, it wasn't fun.
By the end of the day, exhausted from all the running, but mostly hungry, I ate with an ogre-like appetite. Screw manners, my stomach had been gurgling for the past four hours and I'm not one to refuse its call.
We were separated even at dinner time. I wasn't sure at the time why he would separate us like this. Wasn't the objective of the quest learning to work as a team? How were we supposed to work as a team when we're all separated?! Either way, there wasn't anything I could do. I already learned about the hell that was fighting with an empty stomach for the whole day and I wasn't going to experience that again.
By the break of dawn, horns sounded all over the outpost. Needless to say, I was pissed. I begrudgingly made my way to the gates, my muscles still hurting from yesterday.
Same as the day before, we were instructed not to interact with each other. Everyone got their rations for the day, and off we went. This time, I was sent to the depths of the abyss. I was supposed to survive one day inside the inner forest and kill a demonized beast. This. Was. Suicide. I, better than anyone, knew how much I sucked in close-quarter combat. Even with all of my training, if I were to encounter a demonized beast, I would just be overwhelmed with their speed.
But, orders were orders. If I were to stop here, then everything I had done would be for nothing. I wasn't one to back down.
I should have backed down.
By lunchtime, most people would be with their family enjoying a nice, warm meal. But for me, I was the meal. A berserk, demonized board had been chasing me for the past two hours by then. My only saving grace was that whenever it charged, it couldn't change its direction. Bad news was, I couldn't do much to it either. If I tried to cast spells at it, it would crush me with its charge before I could finish the chant.
That was when my legs gave up. Turns out that it wasn't the brightest idea for a mage to run at full speed for two hours straight. At that point, I accepted my fate. I was going to die under the tusks of a dumb boar that screamed higher than a little girl. What a pathetic way to go.
I closed my eyes and braced myself, fully prepared for the inevitable outcome. The boar screamed and charged, I knew the pain was coming so my whole body tensed. And then... nothing happened.
The boar screamed yet again, but this time, it was one of pain. I opened my eyes to see what was actually going on, but what I saw was something I could never expect. Familiar faces surrounded me, the instructor with the stupid grin, the spiky-haired idiot boy, the useless weak cleric, and the black assassin.
The three teens surrounded the boar from all directions. The spiky-haired boy, Leo was his name I believe, tanked the boar charges with his shield. A golden aura surrounded him as he screamed. The black assassin immediately dashed in and slashed at the boar with his sword. He enveloped it in a dark aura that cut through the boar's tough defenses. Leo joined in and stabbed the demonic beast's neck with his sword, killing it.
Vel healed and rejuvenated me while the other two cut the boar in pieces. All the while, the instructor who I still didn't know the name of, smiled at me.
"So, what do you think of your party, little kid?"
I didn't know what to say. What did he expect me to say? They saved me. Of course, I was grateful to them.
"I am grateful that they saved me-"
"No!" The instructor cut me right through. "That's not it. They could give two craps about your gratefulness. So, let me ask you again, what do you think of your party?!"
I was startled. I didn't know what to say. However, before I could think about them, words came out of my mouth on their own.
"They are strong," I mumbled.
The guard smiled before exclaiming, "Yes! Your teammates are strong. Never forget that. They are people that you can trust. Now, sit up. For failing to do your task, your penality is to carry the meat of the boar. Rejoice. If it seems heavy, just think about what would have happened if all that was to charge at you like a truck!"
So I carried the boar to the outpost. The rest of the day was then spent training with the team. It seems that the "rule" of being separated was something that was applied to me alone. For the past two days, they have been honing their teamwork under the guidance of the instructor. The rest of the week's training wasn't that hard. It was mostly about positioning, understanding how to play as a team, and mana management.
While I did train with the team in the day, I didn't spend my nights idling. I kept on working solo, training my mana manipulation and fire control. I couldn't slack in those departments if I wanted to increase my strength. With my current power, a baby dragon could sneeze and I would die. I needed to grow stronger. By the end of the week, I learned a new neat trick. If I concentrated the mana in my fireball, it would grow smaller but much more deadly. I called this new technique: Miniature Sun. I knew that its strength was still a far cry from its name, but its potential was definitely enormous.
The exam at the end was to fight a demonized bear. This opponent proved to be much stronger, faster and more versatile than the boar. It also seemed to have a weaker version of mana sense as it could sense us before we appeared. Or maybe that was just our smell? Who knows. Either way, thanks to Vel's healing, Leo was able to somehow tank the bear's ridiculously powerful attacks. His shield was completely destroyed by the end of the fight.
Rev worked as an offtank DPS in this fight, whenever Leo was in danger, he would come in and take his place. He parried the bear's attack using his sword and dodged them with his amazing footwork. All the while, I kept bombarding the poor beast with miniature suns and star-shaped fireballs. Finally, the bear dropped.
We feasted that night like we never did before. I couldn't get any booze, but the rest of them did and they had fun. Even the instructor joined us and started cracking jokes. Throughout this week, I really warmed up to him. His name was Jack and he was an adventurer before becoming a City Guard. He was definitely one of the stronger ones, if not the strongest. One time, he went a bit overboard with his explanations and shattered a large tree just with a tap. It was a sight to behold.
By the next morning, he gave us our City Guard Certificates and bid us goodbye.