Test chapter 2 (Patreon)

I wanna see what class he gets too, so I had to write out a little more before I focused back on Dao.

“Okay. That about wraps it up. You’re cleared for the competitions.” The doctor dismissed me from the tent.

I stepped out to the next section. It was practical application.

There were stages set up right below the penthouses and as we came out of the evaluation we were paired up for combat.

“Alright, this way. You’ll be paired against this lady here. Charlotte DuVell. Grab a weapon if you want one, they are blunted for this.” An attendant waved me over to a stage.

I passed a rack of practice weapons and picked out a short sword that was about the length from the tips of my fingers to my elbows, a little longer and not as curved as I was used to, but a few twirls of it in my hand and I was good with it.

Then I picked out a simple straight knife for my other hand.

Perfect.

DuVell… the name echoed in my head a few times before it rattled something loose. Wait as in the leader of Verdant Sky? They were a famous guild both because they went extremely deep in the dungeon and because the guild was pretty much Marcus DuVell’s harem.

I reevaluated the girl across from me.

She looked a little unkept, with wild orange hair and some simple fur armor with a battered wooden staff.

But her eyes were bright with intelligence.

A pair of furry ears popped up over her head, not her ears but a bunny looked like it had nested in her hair.

“Hello.” She said quietly as she reached up to grab the bunny. “I’m Charlette and this is Bun-bun.”

The bunny had me a little off kilter. “Nice to meet both of you.”

“Good luck.” She put the bunny on the ground, it looked soft and fluffy, certainly not dangerous. But the way she put it in front of her made me feel like she was going to use it to fight.

I bowed to her. “Good luck to you as well.” I couldn’t help but glance up into the pent houses were the Pendulum representative was clearly watching me.

Sorry Charlotte and Bun-bun, but I need to put on a good show.

“Bun-bun. Go.” Her hand glowed with a spell and little Bun-bun wasn’t so little any more.

The rabbit had grown to the size of a dog and it’s little squeak had become a growl.

She was already classed and judging by her supportive magic and her woodland friend, I’d peg her for a druid.

Bun-bun shot forward at me, the cute little rabbit was out for blood.

“Sorry Bun-bun.” I parried its teeth, spun and kicked it in the side before darting forward.

In a duel like this, it was important to go for the supporter first. She couldn’t have had her class for long and I was sure she couldn’t have too many tricks.

Especially the way she gripped her staff to swing it like a baseball bat.

“Scree!” Bun-bun wasn’t having any of this shit. The rabbit was fast recovering from my kick and racing back to Charlotte to protect her.

It came with a flash of claws from its from feet putting itself between my strike and its supporter.

If these blade had been real, Bun-bun might not have made it.

But they weren’t and I caught the rabbit on the shoulder as it tried to body check me away.

Sheer instinct I stabbed several times with my knife before pushing off of Bun-bun and sliding back, twisting my sword into a reverse grip.

“If this were real combat, Bun-bun would be dead.” I reminded her.

“Heal.” Charlotte raised her hand and another soft green glow covered Bun-bun. “There. That would get him back on his feet.”

I frowned. The advantage of having a class would be obvious to those watching. Either way, I didn’t mind more time to show my skills, I had barely even gotten started. “Fine.”

“Bun-bun. Go.”

The rabbit blurred as it shot forward at me again. 

This time rather than going straight for its supporter again, I engaged directly with the rabbit.

My blades met claws and teeth in a rapid staccato exchange of blows with Bun-bun. I dodged and spun over it dragging my blunted blades across its body several times, matting down its fur and even causing the rabbit to limp despite lacking an edge.

“Heal.” Charlotte shouted again her brows pinching down into a frown. She couldn’t have much mana and it showed as she looked unsteady on her feet.

Now was my chance while Bun-bun healed and she was running low on mana.

I darted past the bunny, slipped over to Charlotte’s side and drew my blunt knife by her throat. “My win.”

The girl sighed and opened her arms. “Bun-bun it’s over.”

The rabbit shrank as it hopped over and bounded into her arms before chattering at her.

“No. He’s not so bad. This was practice and I’m fine.” She could speak to her companion and it spoke back causing her to look up at me. “Apologize to Bun-bun. Prove to her that you aren’t so bad or she’ll hold a grudge.”

I felt a little awkward, but I smiled and put on my best face for this. “Sorry, Bun-bun. It was just practice. See, the blades are blunt and your master is okay.”

Charlotte turned the rabbit around. “See. He’s not so bad.”

It chittered again and she shook her head before placing it back into her hair. “Sorry. Bun-bun is sort of a sore loser.”

Bun-bun sounded like she was angrily refuting her statement, but circled a few times and laid down.

“Hi. I’m Ken.”

“Charlotte. Oh. Look’s like we have a guest.” She looked over my shoulder.

A woman with a sharp jaw and noble features stood behind me focusing mostly on Charlotte, yet I felt quite a bit of malice towards me coming from her. “Charlotte DuVell. Haylon Academy formally invites you to join us. Your dungeon stone is just a formality since you have already activated your class.”

“Okay.” Charlotte just nodded. “Let me go do the dungeon stone and then I’ll get my stuff.”

“Congratulations.” I felt snubbed by the Haylon Teacher, but wouldn’t let it bother me. “They are an incredibly academy.”

The teacher glared at me and spoke her words with a strange level of force. “Good luck on your dungeon stone.”

It didn’t feel like she was wishing me luck, but trying to give me an ill omen. Maybe the Haylon women have something against guys?

Charlotte and I stepped off the stage for another staff member to step up with two wrist bands.

I glanced up to see the Pendulum representative laughing with the Haylon teacher as she returned.

He glanced down at me and gave me a wink with a thumbs up. It only seemed to infuriate the Haylon teacher more.

Strange.

I slipped the wrist band on. It was a C.I.D. Class interface device. It tracked your stat sheet and kept the United Guilds updated on your information as well as monitored you during a dungeon dive.

It was how we could reliably know what happened in the dungeon and interact with the options given to us by our classes.

“I’ll go first. Good luck.” Charlotte nodded to me and stepped over to the dungeon stone.

Another examinee was stepping down.

As she stepped up, her CID dinged and a little card with her stats showed up in front of her. But then on the big screen of the stadium it gave everyone a look at her stats.

Normally that information would be private, but here we were trying to show off.

Charlotte DuVell

Class: Druid

Level: 1

Experience: 10/100

Strength: 8

Agility: 8

Stamina: 9

Magic: 18

Mana: 10

Spells:

Enlarge

Heal

My eyes popped out of my head. Her physical stats were normal, most people here would probably range from seven to ten. But her magic, it was through the roof for someone at level one.

I shook my head wondering what the DuVell family had done to train her magic like that.

“Congratulation. Charlotte DuVell has been picked up by Haylon Academy.” An announcer was smiling as a different woman in Haylon colors came up and shook Charlotte’s hand before leading her off.

I tried to center myself taking several deep breaths, but my body was shaking and the stadium suddenly felt a hundred degrees.

Reaching up, I almost pulled at my collar but stopped myself and instead marched forward. This would be it.

My class, my future.

There were a little set of steps to ascend the dungeon stone and I took them eagerly feeling it as soon as I stepped on the stone.

Magic of the dungeon went through my like I’d just been hooked up to a car battery. But rather than paralyzing me it energized me.

It made me feel like I could do absolutely anything.

The grin couldn’t fade from my face and I heard the crowd grow quiet.

What sort of amazing class was I blessed with?

But I froze when I looked up at the scoreboard. Then I double checked the CID on my wrist.

Ken Nagato

Class: nkkjaoihh

What?

Someone was shaking my shoulder. “Sorry. You need to get off the stone for the next person.”

The entire stadium was quiet, staring down at me with pity.

My class changed, turning into real letters. Aberrant.

“What is this?” I asked the attendant, confused.

“The CIDs aren’t perfect. Sometimes there are classes it hasn’t seen before and it doesn’t know how to interpret the data coming from your body.” The attendant couldn’t meet my eyes.

I turned up to the penthouses where the representatives were, at the hope one of them would come to tell me that I’d made it. That this wasn’t a deal breaker.

But the Pendulum representative looked away from my gaze as did everyone else except the Haylor representative.

If looks could kill I’d be dead a thousand times over, brought back to life and tore apart by the anger in her eyes.

She turned and barked something at someone behind her in the shadows there was a brief exchange where it looked like she told someone else to do it. Then that someone stepped forward too fast for me too see before they shot up into the air.

Holy crap.

What level did you have to be to move so quickly and jump like that?

Sure some of them had jumped down before, but this person practically flew.

It wasn’t until she was before me, that I realized who it was.

Mistress Crimson. In her signature dungeoning outfit made of ancient red dragon hide with a belt and a blade strapped to a cocked belt on her hips. I had no doubt why the world over adored her. She was even hotter in person.

Then there was the intensity in her eyes as they glowed from some skill as it felt like she was staring into my soul.

Curiosity over came me and my eyes flickered over to the huge TV on the stadium wall.

My stats had been replaced with hers.

It nearly made my jaw drop. She had so many achievements and titles that the board didn’t even have space to get to her actual stats.

But one thing made my heart beat with an intensity I didn’t know it had. A little hope blossomed in me.

Malinda Crimson

Class: Aberrant

Level: 57

Achievements: Dragon slayer, Greater Demon Slayer, Solo Adventurer Level 50, Queen of the dark…

My eyes focused back on her and her lips curled up in a smile that didn’t dim her intensity at all.

“Would you like to join Haylon Academy? I’m teaching there this year and I’d like to offer you one of the seats in my class.” Mistress Crimson extended a hand.

The announcer said something but it was quickly drowned out by everyone else in the stadium. The entire crowd, no it felt like even beyond the stadium, the whole country was in an uproar.

For my part, I was having trouble thinking. The world’s best damage dealer was an aberrant class like me and they wanted to teach me to adventure.

I…I… I completely short circuited.

Only brought back by the waiting intensity in her eyes.

“Yeah. Of course. I’d love to.” I said, but I couldn’t even hear myself over the stadium as the announcer seemed to crack up his volume to speak over the noise.

“For the first time in history, Haylon Academy is accepting a man. Not only that but he’s gotten the attention of THE MISTRESS CRIMSON!” The annoucner tried to rally the crowd to new heights and succeeded as I thought I was going to go deaf.

Crimson grabbed my hand and tugged my stunned ass into motion with a smirk.

***

Earlier up in the Penthouse

Headmistress Marlow was splitting her attention between the examanees and the crowd up here with her. A lot of familiar faces sipped wine and chatted, checking the TV in here as it displayed prospective student’s stats along with the stadium’s big screen.

The combat practice was boring. Very little of what they showed there would still be there after the month in any of the academies.

No, it was all about potential with their classes.

She could teach any girl that stepped into the hallowed halls of Haylon to be an adventurer, but she couldn’t teach people a new class.

It was the foundation and it meant everything.

Which was why everyone was congratulating Barret and Pendulum as he just came up with an unconscious berserker.

Nothing else mattered except that he had an exceptional class. One that if trained properly would dive well into the depths of the dungeon and pull out rich rewards.

“I want him.”

Headmistress Marlow turned to see Crimson staring down at the wake the berserker had made in the crowd. Her eyes glowed blue with some perception skill.

She didn’t ask, it was rude and besides, a woman of Crimson’s skill would have a bag of tricks so deep it didn’t matter.

“Him?” The Headmistress frowned. “You agreed to teach at Haylon. It is because of you that we’ve accepted an exchange student from the elves, part of the United Guild’s deal to open negotiations with the elves again after the last debacle.”

“I. Want. Him.” Crimson punctuated each word with a finality that felt like gongs ringing in the Headmistress’ ears.

“We’ll see how he performs here and what his class is.” Marlow couldn’t tell her ‘no’.

The woman beside her was a monster.

It wasn’t public knowledge just how far down the dungeon she had gone. That and she had solo’d dungeon floors that the top guilds brought two teams down for.

While everyone celebrated her as ‘one of the best’, the Headmistress and anyone else at the top of the adventure scene knew that was a blatant lie. She was on an entirely different level from everyone else.

That came from insight, intelligence and skill that surpassed anyone at Haylon by a large margin.

Someone who could solo floor bosses beyond the 50th level of the dungeon deserved the respect of a floor boss.

So, she couldn’t tell Crimson ‘no’. She could only pray that the powerful adventurer would grow bored of whatever had caught her eyes.

“Well, if it isn’t the mighty Mistress Crimson.” Barret, puffed up fresh from his acquisition of the berserker was bold enough to try and greet the star of the party today.

Everyone had been fawning over Crimson, but she treated many of them like she didn’t even see them.

“If you pick up that boy into Pendulum, I’ll come teach as long as I get to be his teacher.”

Marlow nearly fell over when she heard Crimson.

“You can’t.” Marlow stopped herself. “The elven diplomats are bringing over their daughter. Half of the reason they are coming is that you agreed to teach her.”

Crimson didn’t care.

But Barret at least had the presence to realize what he could potentially damage if he messed up the negotiations with the elves. “Let’s see his practical. Oh. I know her, she was on the watch list.”

The three of them looked down at the practical stages where a girl that The Headmistress had already had her eye on went up against him.

She’s a DuVell, Haylon has trained three of Marcus’ daughters. If this one was as impressive as the rest, the boy didn’t stand a chance.

Besides, she was already a cinch for Haylon, she’d follow her sisters.

“Let’s watch this. From his brief encounter with the berserker, he seemed like someone had trained him well.” Barret said while he sipped his wine and mulled over his decision.

Crimson was so focused on the boy, that the headmistress leaned back around her and she didn’t seem to notice.

But Barret did and she shared a moment with the Pendulum Recruiter that promised him death if he so much as tried to tempt Crimson away from Haylon.

“He fights well. Assassin trained. But he has a nice spread. Certainly has been taught archery too, but no magic yet.” Crimson read the boy like a book. “Stiff style, formal enough that I expect it’s older. His family probably skipped the dungeon for a generation and it’s his grandparent that trained him.”

Barret’s eyebrows rose at her specific assessment just from watching the boy tussle with a rabbit.

Venturing that deep in the dungeon gave someone like Crimson a frightening level of insight. Which meant that there was something special about the boy.

The headmistress felt like Crimson was only becoming more fixated on him. Why did he have to be a man? If it was a girl, she would have snatched him up in an instant, satisfied Crimson and be done with it.

But Haylon had never taken boys into the academy. Girls were just so much more level headed in the dungeon. Marlow believed their way of doing things was right.

She had been distracted and when she looked again, the boy had his knife to the DuVell girl’s neck.

“I’ll be back.” The headmistress jumped down from the penthouse, it was a three story fall and though it strained her knees it was expected. In many ways it was a show of force for the academies.

She landed on the stage behind the boy, staring at the back of his head. Just what made Crimson so curious about him?

He was apologizing to a rabbit for crying out loud!

But she straightened herself up as the DuVell girl noticed her.

Lifting her chin high, the headmistress looked past him. He was a problem for later. “Charlotte DuVell. Haylon Academy formally invites you to join us. Your dungeon stone is just a formality since you have already activated your class.”

“Okay.” Charlotte just nodded the girl looked a little slow. “Let me go do the dungeon stone and then I’ll get my stuff.”

“Congratulations.” The boy at least had some sense. “They are an incredibly academy.” He said.

Marlow turned to him and forced the words out despite hating every fiber of his being. “Good luck on your dungeon stone.” Hope your class is worthless and Crimson moves on.

She silently wished for his misfortune before activating a skill and jumping back up to the penthouse.

“Don’t be too harsh on the boy.” Barret laughed as Crimson fixed the headmistress with a warning glare.

“Crimson. Haylon has never accepted a boy before.” She reminded the adventurer.

“Pendulum could take him off your hands if it is that big of a deal. Besides, haven’t you been getting some bad press lately for the all girls school? Maybe you could do it as a PR stunt?” Barret played both sides, which meant that he knew he’d be crucified if his meddling interfered with the elven ambassadors.

Crimson didn’t speak, only glared at the headmistress who couldn’t tell her ‘no’.

“Druid. Not bad magic at all. Those DuVells are always pretty magic inclined though.” Barret made awkward conversation, not yet ready to depart despite the air between her and Crimson.

“Let’s see what this boy is all about.”

Marlow was curious too, so when the garbled letters that she knew would solidify into Aberrant showed, she nearly choked on her wine.

Even Barret completely dismissed the idea of him at it.

An Aberrant was a mystery box, one that no one knew how to handle. Maybe there was some hidden gem among the few Aberrant classes that showed up every year, but it wasn’t worth it for any of the academies to put forth the investment when they didn’t even know how to train them.

Maybe Crimson would lose interest.

She checked over her shoulder at the woman who was only smiling even broader at his class.

Damnit.

The boy was lost, looking hopelessly around and up at the penthouse. Everyone else was turning away, but Marlow was gritting her teeth.

“Get him.” Crimson demanded.

“I won’t be the one to ruin a history of tradition. Not for an aberrant, you do it.” In Marlow’s anger she snapped at Crimson.

For a moment the older lady felt like she was back in the dungeon. She’d stopped pushing her dives after her party was crushed by a boss on the 43rd floor.

Meeting Crimson’s eyes was like she was back there staring down the giant that had killed her party and left her with a nagging hip wound. She hadn’t thought she was going to get out of the dungeon after that.

The despair the dread of dying flooded back into her with that simple glance from Crimson.

“Fine.” The brooding monster of a woman flashed a smile as she moved faster than Marlow’s eyes could track and disappeared into the air above the stage.

The headmistress could only shake her head and rub at her temples as she tried to dismiss the fear that Crimson had shaken loose.

That was when Crimson landed and she got a rare chance to see such a high level adventurer’s sheet.

Only her jaw dropped with the rest of the stadium and no doubt the world. Since when was Crimson an Aberrant Class?

Sudden new interest filled the Headmistress as she winced at the deafening boom of the crowd. Fucking brat just made history. She wasn’t sure if he was the luckiest man alive or the unluckiest.

Either way, he was officially Crimson’s problem.