—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
—————————————————————–
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
We were guided to the training grounds by Servisso, where we watched him exchange a few words with a man.
Soon, a muscular man approached us, drawing his weapon.
“Well, I hear some impressive newcomers have arrived. Looks like I’ll have my work cut out for me today.”
He looked at us calmly and opened his mouth.
“So, who wants to be assessed first?”
“I’ll go first.”
Baldur was the first to step forward.
“Ah, you’re the slave who’s being registered?”
Slaves could register as mercenaries with their master’s permission.
Especially since Baldur was a lower expert, registering him would be helpful.
‘Besides, I had agreed to treat him properly as a person, even if he was officially a slave.’
I had no intention of denying him this.
“Let’s see… Lower expert. Being an expert means you can use aura, so let’s see your skills.”
The man who stepped forward as the examiner enveloped his rather large two-handed sword with a faint aura.
‘Is he matching him?’
It was exactly a lower-level aura.
“Come at me.”
Instead of answering, Baldur surrounded his sword with aura and rushed towards the man.
Although the man was large, Baldur was no small figure either.
However, there was a difference in the weapons they handled.
Influenced by Kayla, Baldur used a sword and shield, while the examiner used a fairly large two-handed sword.
As a result, the sparring proceeded with Baldur safely blocking the opponent’s attacks and looking for openings.
After exchanging blows a few times, the examiner nodded slightly as if satisfied, then suddenly shouted and struck Baldur’s shield.
“Ugh!”
A noise unlike any before was heard, and Baldur was pushed back greatly.
Fortunately, he didn’t fall and regained his stance, but the examiner shouted as if no more was needed.
“Advanced! Next!”
Baldur seemed a bit disappointed but rotated his shoulders widely and returned, and then Athena stepped forward.
“A woman. Hmm, intermediate…”
He nodded slightly after glancing at her weapon and equipment.
“You seem like a thief or assassin type.”
“I’m confident in direct combat too.”
The man smirked at her bold words.
“Well, with that skill at your age, you ought to be full of confidence. Alright then, come at me.”
This time, an intermediate-level aura bloomed on his greatsword.
Seeing this, Baldur bit his lip lightly.
A slightly different attitude from before.
In the past, he wouldn’t have shown such a reaction…
‘Well, it’s a good sign.’
Feeling competitive meant he had motivation.
It could go in a bad direction, but Athena or Kayla should be able to manage that much.
Whew.
Athena, who let out a short sigh, approached her opponent with a strange gait.
Her completely silent footsteps and minimized movements gave the impression that they were seeing a ghost.
The man’s expression became serious at this strange sight.
Swish.
A short clash of blades ensued.
However, Athena was different from Baldur.
Unlike Baldur, who had shown a steady, stable performance, Athena moved quickly and silently, avoiding the opponent’s attacks by a hair’s breadth while aiming only for vital points.
Especially, as if the opponent’s giving her distance was a mistake in itself, she never left her own range and aimed for the opponent’s life at every moment with strange body movements and quiet but quick footwork.
Sweat appeared on the examiner’s face.
Clang, clang, clang!
A series of clashing sounds continued.
Indeed, the examiner wasn’t just for show.
Despite being in a very disadvantageous situation, the man continued to avoid Athena’s attacks while threatening her at every moment.
However, Athena was clearly dominating the flow of the battle, and the man seemed to be on the defensive.
But Kayla seemed to think differently.
“She’s lost.”
I didn’t deny Kayla’s words.
It was true that Kayla’s eye for combat was better than mine, and I had also been feeling something off.
‘She’s maintaining the offensive, but in the end, she’s not landing a single hit.’
It fundamentally meant there was a difference in skill.
Sure enough, before long, thinking she couldn’t narrowly avoid the man’s wide swing like before, Athena immediately abandoned her range and retreated far back.
“Whew. It’s certainly tough when you give up your distance. Pass.”
“…Mister, it’s advanced, right?”
“Well, who knows.”
The man looked at us as if he had no more business and asked.
“So who’s next? I’m tired, so I’d like to finish quickly.”
I looked at Kayla, and she stepped forward silently.
I had intended to ask her thoughts, but it seemed she wanted to spar while she still had stamina left.
‘Well, it’s easier for me to prove myself.’
I shrugged my shoulders briefly, and the examiner frowned and said.
“Sigh. To think I have to face another advanced right away… Servisso, I’m taking tomorrow off. Have someone else do it tomorrow.”
“Sure thing.”
“Let’s finish this quickly.”
A dense, well-formed advanced aura rose from the man’s sword, and similarly, a dense advanced aura rose from Kayla’s sword.
Thud.
Kayla dropped her shield to the ground.
Then she gripped her sword with both hands and looked at her opponent, and the man smiled wryly and said.
“Thank you.”
Unlike before, there was no invitation to come at him first.
They looked at each other for a moment, then leaped almost simultaneously, and their swords met.
A sound incomparable to before echoed through the training grounds, and after a brief contest of strength with their swords locked, they lightly separated.
“I’ve lost. Tsk. Even if I was at full strength, it would have been hard to win. Are those two your disciples?”
“I did teach them.”
“I thought so. I saw some similarities… You’re impressive for someone so young. Looking at your movements, I see orthodox techniques, but there’s also a sense of overflowing experience, giving me the feeling that I’m seeing a seasoned knight. But you’re too young…”
Moreover, Kayla had abandoned her shield and didn’t use high-speed movement.
She probably didn’t even use her mana heart properly.
He might not have known these details, but he seemed to have noticed that Kayla hadn’t shown her full strength.
The man shook his head briefly as if giving up on understanding and said.
“Of course you pass. It seems a new ‘top-tier’ has appeared.”
He wasn’t talking about the realm.
He meant a named, or top-tier mercenary.
“There’s no such rank, Mr. Brenel.”
“Don’t be so stiff. You’re not usually like this.”
“I’m in the middle of official business now.”
“Tch. That’s true, but…”
The examiner shook his head and looked at me, saying.
“You said you were a warlock. Tsk. Let’s finish this quickly. You said you were a necromancer, but I don’t see any undead… It’s difficult to get corpses right away, so how about some other type of magic…”
I immediately pulled out four Living Armors from my seal.
Hmm.
The examiner’s expression hardened.
“Where did you get those…”
“Well, let’s call it an artifact. It can store some undead. It’s not very large and can only store undead, but…”
I couldn’t hide everything.
Nor did I intend to reveal everything.
I revealed only as much as I could while keeping things appropriately hidden.
If I completely hid my strength, I would be looked down upon or have restrictions on my actions, and at the same time, it would be difficult to build a reputation.
‘Well, honestly, even showing this much will probably shock them.’
“…A necromancer who can store undead… That’s quite threatening.”
“It has been very helpful.”
After briefly fighting with my Living Armors, the examiner nodded.
“Indeed, your impressive. Even an intermediate mercenary would have a hard time defeating a single Living Armor alone. And with the necromancer’s support on top of that… You pass.”
Befitting a member of the Mercenary Guild, he seemed to know quite a bit about warlocks.
‘Well, if I revealed all of my strength, I could probably handle most advanced experts.’
Kayla was an exception.
With her mana heart and high-speed movement…
She would be difficult for even most top-tier experts to defeat alone.
“Good work. You all pass. Hmm, looking at your composition, are you planning to work together?”
“Tch. It won’t be easy to get requests for a while. Warlocks are hard to trust. I recommend focusing on monster subjugation quests from the guild for now.”
I showed a slightly surprised expression at the examiner’s words.
“What, is it strange that I would give advice to a warlock?”
“Isn’t it natural?”
“I’ll be honest. I don’t like warlocks much either. How many people actually like warlocks? But if it’s a skilled team, that’s different.”
He glanced briefly at Baldur, Athena, and Kayla in turn.
“For some reason, they’re acting with you… and I hear that slave Baldur is your property?”
“That’s right.”
“There seems to be some circumstances… In the end, if those three act with you, we should try to keep you as much as possible. I belong to the Doriem Mercenary Guild, and if the guild’s power grows stronger, it’s good for me too. And…”
He continued, studying my expression slightly.
“You seem quite useful too. Warlocks are dangerous, but they’re certainly strong. Considering the artifact, you’re even more special. And you don’t seem as crazy as I thought, so what can I do? We have to keep you.”
“…Thank you for your advice.”
“Well, even so, many will despise you and curse behind your back, but that happens everywhere, so I’d like you to operate in this area for a long time if possible.”
“I have no plans to leave for a while. I heard there’s a lot of work around here.”
“That’s true. If you build trust, even a warlock can receive quite a few requests.”
With that brief advice, saying he was dying of fatigue and wishing us well, the examiner left.
Then Servisso looked at us and said,
“Please follow me. Now that the assessment is over, I’ll explain about the issuing of your mercenary badges and fees.”
Servisso said it would take some time to issue the mercenary badges and told us to come back in two days.
“In the meantime, I’ll guide you to an inn where you can stay.”
Normally, we wouldn’t get such treatment, but they were treating us as advanced mercenaries.
“It’s difficult to create an official team. While we don’t interfere with private parties, only those endorsed by the guild can establish officially registered mercenary groups.”
“To get the guild’s endorsement, we need to consistently complete official requests, right?”
“That’s correct. You need to meet the minimum number of requests at certain grades. There’s also a mandatory activity period. There are exceptions, but…”
“It must be that dangerous.”
“That’s right. Urgent requests or high-difficulty requests with few volunteers carry bonus points.”
“It must be even harder for warlocks.”
“…That’s true.”
Distrust and discrimination against warlocks occurred everywhere.
But it was fine.
Eventually, once achievements piled up, they would have no choice but to endorse us.
Moreover, even for a warlock, as long as I was a 4th class magician, the guild would have to protect me from excessive discrimination.
‘Advanced mercenaries receive special treatment after all.’
It wasn’t for nothing that I joined the Mercenary Guild after becoming 4th class.
“The fee is up to 30% for high-difficulty requests and as low as 20% for easier ones when going through the guild. If you receive the guild’s endorsement, it can be reduced to a maximum of 10%. You can accept private requests without going through the guild, but in that case, it won’t be recorded in official records.”
‘That’s the industry average.’
The fees were high, but in this world, brokerage work was certainly risky, so this was average.
No, for such a large mercenary guild to set fees at this level, it was honestly conscientious.
‘When entrusting work to untrustworthy individuals, if something goes wrong, the losses are no small matter.’
If such incidents occured, the fees might be greatly increased when trying to receive requests in the future.
It could go up to a maximum of 90%, at which point it would be better to go to a mercenary guild in another region.
‘While mercenary guilds exchange information with each other, if you go far enough away, forging an identity isn’t that difficult.’
Come to think of it, we were also a case of identity laundering.
The Mercenary Guild tacitly turned a blind eye to this.
In fact, they didn’t properly check our identity tokens, and even though we wrote names different from those on the identity tokens in the documents, they accepted it.
Instead, if it was discovered that we had caused trouble elsewhere, we might receive penalties depending on the branch manager’s discretion.
Anyway, while the fees were high, it wasn’t all disadvantageous for the mercenaries.
If a client refused to pay after a request was completed, the guild would pay and then collect from the client, and as trust built up, the fees could be greatly reduced.
Therefore, even though the fees were expensive, no mercenary complained about them.
In addition to that, we heard basic explanations about official requests put out by the guild, designated requests where clients specify mercenaries based on reputation, and open requests from individuals or groups, which made up the largest portion of requests.
Since it was all information I already knew, I listened half-heartedly.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
