Aisrin had become the center of attention for the rookies. He was stared at in absolute awe. A fire was lit under them and the rest of the first test passed the remainder of examinees.
The next test, every examinee tried their best to out do the other. Aisrin waited until last, observing, not the others, but the targets. The plain looking bronze targets seemed to have wards on them, so if the spell was cast half heartedly, or without putting their all into it, then the spell would get redirected away.
Before Aisrin could begin casting, a kid cloaked in white stepped forward and cast a massive wind spell, shattering one of the targets. Everyone was looking on in awe. Aisrin nodded, it seemed there was someone amongst the rookies with skill. Aisrin rose his hand up and charged up mana. Focusing on the middle of his palm. The air around him began to warp as the concentration of mana increased. The rookies began to back up, cold sweat breaking out on each of them.
"Shadow Wave." Aisrin muttered. A black wave blasted out from his palm in a beam of concentrated energy. When it impacted with the target the surrounding targets and area erupted and a shockwave blasted back towards the rookies.
"Sin, correct?" Agustus walked upto Aisrin and asked.
"Yeah?" Aisrin replied.
"Tone it down." Agustus said simply and they moved onto the next test.
"The final test, is all about your personal skills. There is a labyrinth entrance in the western district of the city. Find it, and bring something back. If you work better in teams, do so. If you're a solo type of person, let's see it. Depending on what you bring back, will add to your value. Now fuck off." Agustus had led the group outside the guild and left them with that explanation.
The fifteen rookies, excluding Aisrin, immediately began forming teams. Aisrin ignored them and began walking on his own towards the labyrinth entrance. Using his mana sense to guide him, he was able to pin point the entrance by its massive mana. The entrance was marked and guarded by soldiers.
"Here to explore the labyrinth? Are you an Adventurer? Which guild? I haven't seen you before." One of the soldiers stopped him and asked.
"Finishing the exam actually. This is supposedly the last test. Can you tell me anything I might need to know?" Aisrin replied.
"Ah, of course. This is the Labyrinth of the Temple of Greed. Monsters and magic beasts spawn continuously here. The treasures and materials brought out are quite valuable. Be warned, unlike dungeons, the moment you enter, you'll be teleported somewhere randomly instead of steadily going through floors.. Happy hunting friend." The soldier explained and stepped aside.
Aisrin nodded and stepped toward the Labyrinth.
"Wait! Sin-san!" A girl's voice called out.
'San?'
Aisrin looked behind him. The white cloaked kid from earlier was running towards him. Aisrin waited until she had reached him.
'I thought she was a boy...'
"What?" Aisrin asked.
"Hah, hah, hah, Can I join you?" The girl asked. She had a white mask over the lower part of her face, so only her ice blue eyes could be seen, as well as strands of white hair.
"Do as you wish." Aisrin shrugged and once again began walking towards the labyrinth entrance. The girl happily followed behind him. As soon as they entered, they were warped. When the discomforting feeling of being warped vanished, the two found themselves in a dimly lit stone walled room, a large guilded gold chest sat in the middle.
"Intriguing." Aisrin muttered.
"This looks like a trap room. See there? That chest is a trigger. If you open it, I'm certain we'll be set upon by monsters." The girl provided some insight.
"I see. Let's open it then." Aisrin nodded and waltzed right up to the chest. The moment he touched the chest, chains enveloped it and a lock appeared. The stone walls opened up and monsters began to flood in. Ogres, orcs, goblins, ghouls, and golems.
"Hmm... fifty? Yeah, not many people could handle that many." Aisrin drew his hand and a half sword and cloaked himself in lightning.
The girl was trembling in fear at the overwhelming numbers.
'Why did I follow this man? He's suicidal!'
Aisrin lunged forward into the fray. Hacking down monsters left and right. He sent an ogre flying with a punch and shattered a golem with a kick. Though the flesh monsters stayed down, the golems got right back up, and Aisrin was launched by an unsuspected punch by the golem he thought was dead. He slammed into a wall and fell to the ground. Two ribs were broken.
"Right, cores." Aisrin coughed, no blood was the only good sign.
"Water Whip!" The girl cast a spell and the approaching goblins were split in half horizontally by a thin rope of water.
"Oh? I might steal that idea." Aisrin commented. Aisrin stood up and held his sword out with his left hand and put his right hand on the flat of the blade.
He began focusing his mana in the blade. As his father once told him... he wasn't an emitter class, though he could learn it, it wasn't his specialty. Once he reached the level of mana he deemed exceptable, he began infusing the curse and fire elements. A purple flame began emitting from the sword.
Aisrin smiled, he added agility enhancements to himself as well as Lightning Cloak.
"Regret your decisions in hell!" Aisrin laughed and jumped towards the horde of monsters. The stone wall behind him that he used as a launch pad, crumbled from the force. His blade went through monsters like they were made of paper. The girl was casting magic continually, the fatigue evident in her stance.
Eventually only golems were standing before Aisrin.
"I don't have time to find your cores, so..." Aisrin snapped his fingers and purple flames began to devour the golems.
"Curse magic?" The girl had finally collapsed to her knees, watching Aisrin single handedly massacre the horde.
"Yeah. I'm not too keen on troublesome tasks like locating a core. So I just used curse and fire elemental magic to burn them until the cores were destroyed." Aisrin explained.
"But... you can't mix magic elements!" The girl protested.
"You can actually. It's just low on the success rate and high on the death rate. But, nothing ventured, nothing gained." Aisrin answered.
"So you chose to create cursed flames?" The girl questioned.
"Yeah, it's categorized under Poison Magic though. So technically it's a Poisoned Flame." Aisrin corrected the girl.
"Theres no such thing as Poison Magic though." The girl was struggling to keep up.
"There is. Once you've merged Curse with any other element. For example, of you take curse... and water... put them together, and it's simply 'Poison'." Aisrin demonstrated by having curse in one hand and water in the other, he put them together and a purple bubbling ball of liquid floated in his hands.
"The best part, is when you add Void to it... the outcome is 'Acid'." Aisrin further demonstrated. The color look of the ball didn't change, but the aura it emitted felt more dangerous.
"That's... impressive Sin-san." The girl looked dizzy. Aisrin laughed and threw the ball on top of a dead orc. Within seconds the orc was devoured without a trace.
"Now, that chest.... Nah, I'll take everything." Aisrin activated his Void storage and everything in the room was stored away.
"With this, I believe we passed right? How do we leave?" Aisrin asked the girl.
"Just say, 'leave labyrinth'." The girl replied. Immediately the two were teleported back outside.
"Had to leave huh? Don't fret, lots of Adventurers leave when things get too hairy." The same soldier greeted the two.
"Oh, no I already got what I needed." Aisrin opened his Void storage and reached in, lifting an ogre out partly. The soldier fell back, his eyes widened and face paled.
"You encountered a Ogre Troll and subdued it?" The soldier punted both terrified and impressed.
"...Yeah. Anyway, I'm going back now. Thanks for the info earlier." Aisrin waved and headed back towards the guild.
***
The reactions he got from the guild were the same as the soldiers... until he brought out the remaining forty eight plus the chest. The one he melted obviously couldn't be collected. There was also the stone of the crumbled wall.
"I can't believe you even collected this much magic stone as well." The receptionist and Agustus both were sifting through everything Aisrin and the girl brought back. Aisrin opened the chest, and pulled out mana crystals, gold jewelry, gems, a grimy book, a fancy sword, and a black ring, that he pocketed.
'That's seems interesting, I'll take a look later.'
"Well, with all of this... Obviously you both passed, but I told you to tone it down, Sin. You have no idea what kind of troublesome shit you put yourself in... you know... maybe it'll be best for you to experience that for yourself." Agustus chastised Aisrin.
"Well... do I get paid for this?" Aisrin switched subjects.
"Yes. But it'll take us a couple hours to process this. That grimoire we can't take, so you can take that back." The receptionist explained but declined the grimy grey book. Aisrin put it in his Void storage.
"Congrats on becoming Adventurers, Sin and Verenia." Agustus dismissed the two. Aisrin snapped his head at the girl.
"Verenia?" Aisrin muttered, the name striking an old wound.