(Morcster Chef) - Malissa's Exam - Ch. 63 (Patreon)

“A good start!” He boomed. “Aggressive. I like it, but can you keep it up?”

He waded towards her, the axe swinging back and forth before him. Malissa was forced backwards, dipping and dodging to keep the wicked blade of the weapon away from her. She lashed out when the opening arose, but her attacks were unable to do more than draw the slightest amounts of blood. They fought for several minutes, neither being able to gain any real advantage over the other.

“You’ve grown more adept at avoiding my strikes,” the man yelled, twisting out of the way as Malissa thrust a dagger towards his stomach. “But you need to do more than that. If an enemy just can’t hit you, it’ll go after your team. Make yourself a threat!”

Malissa skipped backwards to avoid a wicked axe strike that hammered into the dirt where she’d been standing. She bared her teeth and dashed forward, her silken clothes fluttering around the woman as she started to spin.

The examiner’s eyebrows rose as she transformed into a tornado of steel and descended upon him. Several of her blades sliced into his chest before the man forced her back with a brutal swing aimed at her chest.

“Impressive,” he admitted, adjusting his grip on the axe. “For a G ranker, that’s surprisingly good. But can you still dodge when you’re doing that?”

He leapt forward, bringing the flat side of his axe crashing down towards Malissa’s head. A smirk crossed his face as Malissa’s spinning stopped. It was too late to jump to jump out of the way.

The woman’s eyes met his just before the weapon was about to connect. Then the force of the impact shook the axe, traveling down the warrior’s arms.

Malissa didn’t move. Genuine surprise crossed the man’s face. The axe trembled several inches above the silk clad woman. Her hands were crossed above her head in an x shape, where she’d blocked the hilt of the axe.  She shifted to grab the weapon and ripped it free of the man’s hands.

“Well…damn,” the examiner said. “Didn’t expect that. I don’t have anything to say there. Well done.”

“Does that mean I pass?” Malissa asked as she dropped the axe to the ground.

“You passed the combat part,” the man said, scratching the back of his head. “Actually, you passed it when you did that spinning move. That’s not something most F rankers can do, so I’d say you’re clear there. I just got a little bit carried away. It’s been a while since I fought a youngster that surprised me. You’ve obviously put in the work to improve.”

“I appreciate the compliment, but I’m a little more concerned about the ‘combat part’ you’re talking about. Is there another part to the test?” Malissa asked.

The helmed man burst into laughter. Malissa frowned and arched an eyebrow as she waited for him to collect himself.

“Of course there is,” the examiner said. “Fighting prowess is important, but warriors need more than muscles to be effective members of a party. You’ve clearly trained your strength since the last time we met. Why?”

“What do you mean, ‘why’? I was too weak last time,” Malissa said.

“So you only trained to pass the promotion exam.”

“No – I mean, I suppose,” Malissa said, trailing off and frowning.

“So why do you want to pass?” The examiner asked. “Let’s say you pass the exam right now. Why do you care?”

“We can’t go to the next dungeon if we don’t pass the promotion,” Malissa said.

“And? Is getting to the next dungeon your ultimate goal in life?”

“Well, no. But I can’t let my team down,” Malissa said, her eyes narrowing. “I need to pass so we can all progress.”

“Better,” the large man said, nodding slightly. “So your goal is to not fail your team. That’s good. But… what about when you master that dungeon? You’ll eventually be back here for the next exam. Why?”

“…to do the next dungeon?” Malissa asked, less confidently this time.

“Why? Is the purpose of your life to rank up and beat harder and harder dungeons?”

“Forgive me, but I don’t understand the point of this,” Malissa said. “Don’t get me wrong – I see what you’re getting at. You want to find out my life goal, or something along those lines. But an adventurer’s job is to clear dungeons. That’s what we do. It doesn’t matter why we do it.”

The large man sat down cross legged in the grass. He put his hands on his thighs and nodded for Malissa to sit next to him.

“It does matter. You are correct about clearing dungeons being your job, but the reasons you do it are very important. A man with great combat talent but no goal in life will burn out and become useless. If you are only working towards the next tiny goal each time, your inevitable end will be failure. Every man and woman, adventurer or not, needs a true goal to work towards. If your heart’s desire is ultimately to destroy monsters, then that is fine. So – is that your goal? This is the second part of your exam. Tell me your ultimate goal, no matter what it is.”

Malissa opened her mouth. Then she closed it. Her lips twisted into a frown and she rested her chin in a hand.

“What’s your goal?” She asked.

“Training new adventurers,” the man replied. “When I was younger, I wanted to keep everyone safe and protected from harm. Of course, that’s hardly a reasonable desire. However, I realized that I could train others. Each person that I taught could protect people, so the more I instructed, the more innocents were safe.”

Malissa considered his words for a while. They sat silently for several minutes, watching eachother.

“I don’t know,” Malissa finally said. “I want to clear dungeons to protect towns from monsters that escape, but… I don’t think that’s all I want to do, either.”