Rio woke up early on the day of departure.
The room was spacious, filled with dark furniture. The room's walls were painted green and white. There was a lamp beside his bed and a fan on the ceiling, which was created by him with Angela's help.
He left his bed and went to the washroom to freshen himself.
After coming down the stairs, he found Iki in the kitchen. "You could have left the breakfast for me to cook." Rio said, looking at his watch. It was nearly 6:30 am.
In Galen, people hadn't developed much in the field of science and craftsmanship. The pocket watch was crafted by Rio after Kal had given him the materials, and his personal Forge Mastering lab to work on.
With Angela's help, he had found that the time gap between the day and night and among the days in a year was the same as Earth. After knowing the time difference, he had an easy time crafting the watch.
Iki looked at him and smiled. "Today you will be going on a long journey. You should save your strength as much as you can."
Rio had told Iki that he would go on a long mission and not an S-class quest.
'The more you know, the more danger you are in. Moreover, she might see me as a monster if she knew about my stuff.' Rio thought and sighed deeply, he let her make breakfast.
He went to his room and made a quick call to Kal saying he was ready.
"Also, I would be wearing a mask to hide my identity," Rio said.
"Okay, I will let the guards know."
Rio ended the call and started moving his weapons inside his storage ring. Rio kept the gun on his hip and wore the black leather jacket, and tight pants which he would have sworn were jeans.
He came down and ate his breakfast. Iki had made his favorite omelet rice, which he had taught her to cook.
An unwritten law ruled over the dining table. Less talking and more eating, as the mouth was busy stuffing food.
"When will you return?" Iki asked, after taking the dishes from the table.
"I don't know, it might take some time. But I will try to come back fast. It all depends on my luck." Rio had explained how the quest was about finding something important but didn't tell Iki the details.
"Mm... Okay," she said, not knowing what to say further.
"You are wearing the pendant I gave you, right?" Rio asked.
He had given Iki a pendant as a safety measure. The pendant would create a barrier around her when she would be in danger, and create a signal for Rio to open a Dimensional gate leading to where Iki would be.
"Yes! I am still wearing it." Iki blushed and showed Rio the pendant. Iki liked the pendant a lot as it was a gift from her big bro.
"Keep wearing it until I return. For your safety," Rio nodded before leaving the table.
He washed his mouth and was about to leave from a Dimensional Gate he had just created when Iki pulled at his shirt from behind.
She gave Rio a box, which he politely took and kept inside his storage ring.
"Lunch for you, and only you got it!" Iki replied to his silent question, half blushing and half smiling.
"So that you would think of me even in the wild." Iki was almost as red as a tomato if she didn't know that getting red would make things more awkward.
Rio ruffled her head and kissed her forehead. "Thank you little one. But you know, I always care about you."
Rio went through the Dimensional gate and landed in front of Kal's room. He swiftly wore the mask and knocked on the door.
Kal opened it and asked him to join him inside. He went to the training hall and created a Dimensional Corridor leading to the nearest branch of the Adventurers' Association.
"You sit somewhere and wait until I fill up the papers," Kal said, before vanishing inside a room.
"Also what name are you using?" Kal asked, poking his head out of the door.
"Zephyr." That was all Rio could reply before Kal went inside once again.
'Maybe the paperwork takes a lot of time.'
Rio went and sat on a bench looking at the people around him.
There were a few tall guys with heavy armor, standing beside each door. Rio assumed them to be the guards. Some people were huddling in front of a big board, which Rio guessed to be a taskboard.
'This place sure is similar to those games back on earth.' Rio sighed, bringing back old memories he spent with his friends.
A young woman walked up to him and asked. "Are you Mister Zephyr?"
Rio nodded, to which the young woman replied. "The test might take some time to start. Would you like to witness other's tests?"
Rio furrowed, he had not expected a test. "I was not aware of any tests when Sir Kal invited me to receive the quest." Rio said. The test was just a minor inconvenience to him.
"Allow me to explain in that case." The woman said, clearing her throat. "As we have no previous records about you in our database, we need to make an account for you. A test is necessary for account creation, and to hand over quests to you, we need an account."
Rio nodded, the conditions were relevant and expected. "Can you please enlighten me about how this test works?" He asked, receiving a nod from the woman.
"The test is pretty simple. We would choose our mentors from the association to fight you. If you defeat an A-class adventurer, we would consider you as an A-class. It is the same for every class of adventurer. If the pupils feel that the test was not fair, they are eligible to challenge the recently selected adventurers. The rule is the same as before, only the mentor will be changed by the person you challenge."
Rio nodded to her and thanked her for the good demonstration. He decided to go and see how other people attend the test, he might gain some insight into the battle and know what to expect.
Rio entered the room from where the arena-like stage was visible. Waiting for his turn, and looking closely at the moves of each mentor.
.
.
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