A new day began, the weather was lovely, the whole town was in a good mood that day
Teras woke up, he wasn't aware that the tall man was watching him all night, Cromi woke up too, she excitingly hopped around the room, she was thirsting to go outside, so did Teras so he quickly got ready and left the room
They went to the quest center, he once again asked the same young girl at the bar
"What was I supposed to do again?"
"You have to find a guard and tell him to guide you to the exam's location"
Teras thanked the girl and apologized for his forgetfulness and left the center
He searched but couldn't find a single guard, as most of them had already taken a lot of other people to the exam, he then decided to go to his last resort
The entrance of the town, he quickly found a guard, unthankfully for him the guard was the same guard that he saw yesterday, the one that he blinded with the thief's gadget
"Hey sir, could you please take me to the exam area?" Teras asked while trying to hide his face
"Of course my child, you just have to tell me your name to verify that you are part of the exam"
Teras hesitated but in the end, he went with it
"My name is Teras"
"Oh there you are, fine now follow me" The guard said while checking a list of names
Teras did as he said, in the way to the test Teras was enjoying the view, a crystal clear water separated the town from the full of beautiful flower slopes, there were a lot of children playing around the street and a lot of friendly cats around that the locals seem to take care of
'Such a peaceful town' He thought
"Do you by any chance come from Thrisk?" The guard asked
This question caught Teras off guard and foolishly replied
"Yeah, I used to live there with a friend of mine, why do you ask?"
The question instantly was answered in his mind, it was a trap question, he thought, and he was right
"Do you happen to possess some sort of blinding device?" The guard asked
"Let's not beat around the bush, you know that I'm the same guy as yesterday, as for your question yesterday, yes it was human blood, the blood belonged to a thief that attacked me on my way here, it was purely self-defense and nothing more" He told to the guard
"I see, then why did you run away?"
Teras answered humbly this time
"I panicked, I didn't know if you would have believed me, so naturally, I ran away"
The guard didn't say anything he just kept on walking, Teras did too, Teras was feeling awkward, the tense conversation that happened a minute ago transformed into a silent walking in a matter of seconds so he didn't really know how to react, he just endured the silent and kept on walking, eventually, they reached the area
"Go inside the building and tell them your name, also I will not report you to the other guards, but I will tell you something you need to know, no murder is justified, even if it was self defense you had to stop him without killing him if you can't do that then don't call yourself an adventurer" The guard told him before leaving
Teras felt the same way he felt when the tall man said a similar thing about him, he didn't know if he agreed with him or not but the only certain thing was that he felt sad. In the end, Teras went inside and told a guard his name
"Go inside that room, the lesson is about to start"
Teras quickly entered the room, there were a lot of desks one behind another, most of them had been taken by people, some seemed like friends, others like complete strangers
Teras was looking for an unoccupied desk, he didn't have great experiences with new people so far, he eventually found what he was looking for, he took a seat and waited for the teacher to enter then a random girl sat next to him
Teras then noticed the girl, she was a beautiful dark-haired girl and yellow eyes, she seemed quiet at the start but she was the complete opposite of what Teras thought
"Hello, what's your name? Oh sorry, where are my manners? My name is Cara how about yours?"
She seemed sweet so Teras answered
"My name is Teras, nice to meet you, Cara" He said while shaking her hand
"Woah I just noticed your eyes, they are red, they seem like they are fogged they are quite gloomy, but wait you aren't a demon, how can that be?"
"Weird thing to say to someone you first meet but it's ok, you seem sociable, to be honest, I thought you would be a cold person"
"Well my friend told me the same when we first met, oh by the way my friend are those at the front desk"
She then pointed at the desk, 2 guys were sitting there, it was a tall buff guy with brown hair and a blonde guy with a good amount of muscles
"Are you a party of 3?" Teras asked
"No, not yet but we are considering making a party when we get our approval"
Teras was thinking of asking them to join their party but he hesitated
Suddenly the teacher then entered the room, she was a tall woman with long brown hair and beautiful green eyes, the room went quiet, and everyone sat down
"Welcome everyone to the adventurer's exam, the exam is a 3 week-long exam that trains you to become a great adventurer, we will teach you how to use mana, the power of cards, and of course how to fight, you will live in a camp, this camp will contain 2 dorms that you will live, the dorms are separated by gender, we will supply you with food for the first 5 days, then you will have to make food for yourselves, we will hold tests for you daily if you perform well on them your score will raise if any of you slack then your score will go down, the students with the higher score will graduate the test and will be put into their deserved rank, lastly if you cause any damage to the property or injure one another you will be penalized, did you got all that? Even if you didn't I will not repeat it, now follow me! I will take you to a station, and you will wait there until carriages come to pick you up and drop you off at the location of the dorms"
The teacher then started to walk to the exit and the students followed
"We better get moving" Cara said to Teras
"Yeah! I agree but don't follow me, I want to ask the teacher a question"
Cara was curious about the question but she didn't ask, Teras then quickly ran in an attempt to get closer to the teacher but there were too many people, and he couldn't pass through them, he then enhanced his legs and jumped above the students and landed in front of the teacher
"Oh? it seems someone can already use mana" She said
"I wanted to ask you a question" Teras said
"What's your question?"
"Are animals allowed?"
"Hmm, people don't usually bring animals here but fine, just make sure to not bother the others"
Teras was happy to hear that
"Thank you very much ugh.. what's your name ma'am?" He asked her
"My name? I'm Recka, make sure you don't forget that"
'Her name is pretty familiar she also reminds me of someone' Teras thought but didn't think stress it
Recka then continued to walk in the direction of the station, they walked for some minutes and eventually reached the station, everyone tried to form groups, Teras was searching for Cara, since she was the only person he knew, as he was searching he heard a voice screaming
"Teraaaas!!!"
He turned around and to his surprise, Cara was jumping and waving her hands around in an attempt to capture his attention
"Cara there you are! I was searching for you"
"Me too, come with me I will introduce you to the others" She said
She then grabbed Teras's hand and took him to the place where her friend had gathered, this embarrassed Teras a little because the 2 of them were sticking out from the crowd, they had a lot of eyes on them
"There you are Cara this must be the person you have been talking about" The buffed man asked
"Yea his name is Teras, Teras this is Har"
"It's nice meeting you"
"Yea me too"
'Wait she said her friends were 2 people why are they 3 now?'
He thought as he noticed another girl besides the blond man, the man seemed happy
"So are you gonna introduce the others?" He asked Cara
"Oh yea sorry, the blondie is my childhood friend Ronie and the girl is a brand new person we just met, her name is Lia"
The girl was a short-haired girl with brown hair and brown eyes
"Nice to meet you guys I'm Teras"
Both of them greeted him with pleasure, the crew talked about their adventuring experience and got to know each other better, eventually, some carriages came to pick up some people
"Move your asses! a carriage can hold up to 6 people so make sure you are enough people to leave" Recka said to the students
"Guys let's take a carriage quickly, so we can reach the dorms first "
Cara told to them, they agreed so they quickly occupied a carriage, they told the driver to start so he did
"Nice now we will 100% be the first to arrive" Cara said
"Does it really matter if we arrive first? I mean it's not like we have an advantage or something" Teras said
"Are you stupid? We obviously have an advantage such as the bed picks, we can also scout the place, and much more!"
"That's true" Lia said as she laughed
"The beds are definitely going to be a challenge for me!" Har said as he laughed, Har was taller than your average person and wider too
"I never had such a big group of friends! I'm very excited to see what this test holds for us, and I can't wait to become a great adventurer!" Ronie said with a smile
Teras couldn't do anything but smile, after all that happened moments such these helped him cheer up a bit
After some time they reached the dorms
"Let's go and pick the best beds! After we are ready lets meet up in this big field" Cara said with a smile before going with Lia inside the dorm
Everyone went into their dorms, the rooms had a lot of lockers on the walls and a lot of beds too, he saw an unclaimed bed next to a window and claimed it
Before they could settle down many carriage arrived full of people and with the carriages Recka came too, she entered the boys' building
"So boys, I will tell you the same thing I told the girls, sleep early so you have energy for tomorrow and after you left your stuff in your lockers, then go to the launch area so you can enjoy your free lunch, that's all from me for now, see you there" She told them
Everyone slowly went outside, and so did Teras with his new friends
"Hey hold it there" Ronie told him out of the blue with a serious expression
"What is it?" Teras asked
"What's up with you and Cara? Do you two know each other?"
"Cara? Why do you ask?"
As soon as Teras said that Ronie tried to attack him
Teras enhanced his body with mana to block Ronie, the difference between a mana user and a non-mana user was great so the attack didn't harm Teras too much
Teras didn't hold back from attacking, he kicked Ronie's stomach sending him back and before he could recover Teras jumped on top of him
"Why are you attacking me? You were happy the whole time" Teras asked confused
"Once I learn how to use mana I will win and get back Cara's heart!" Ronie said angrily
...
"Excuse me?" Teras was speechless
"What? Weren't you flirting with Cara? I know Cara is the kind of girl to like a strong man so you using mana and all... Wait..." Ronie struggled to complete a sentence
Teras got off Ronie
"Do you like Cara?" Teras asked breaking the silence
Ronie panicked
"N-N-No, what m-makes you believe that?"
Teras started laughing before saying "Let's go eat idiot!"
"N-No wait... I have to apologize for my actions" Ronie said as he bowed his head
"Forget about it dude I said is fine!"
Teras said as he tried to leave but Ronie held his hand
"This might have been a stupid mistake but what is very real about this is that I want to get stronger than you! I can tell by your eyes! You have a fire only the strong ones have, I once had the pleasure to meet Tokkou, he had the same fire in his eyes you have, I want to have those kind of eyes too, so please, work with me so I can get stronger than you! So I can protect everyone I love!" Ronie said as he fell to the ground
'Is he stupid?' Teras thought as he watched Ronie
He wondered that because Ronie was dismissing something, he already had a fire inside his eyes, one that burned with passion, one that could not be ignited by external sources
"Let's get stronger, together!" Teras said as he offered a hand at Ronie
"Yeah! Together!" Ronie said before taking his hand
...
"Hello guys" Ronie told everyone
Teras and Ronie just arrived at a table where the others were sitting
"Wait did you guys fought, why are your clothes beat up?" Har asked
"It was nothing, so what are we eating?" Teras asked as he stomach growled
Everyone sat on the table and ate the premade meal the guild had prepared for the test takers, it was a simple dish or rice and chicken
The place was filled with smiles and ambition, it was a fresh start and a well deserved break for Teras
...
Night came and everyone went into the dorms, nobody wanted to stay up late because they were excited for tomorrow so sleeping early was the only way to make this tomorrow come by faster
But something was off...
"Why did you run away from me?"
Said the tall man while looking at the boy's dorm