This time, he is gone for about a minute before returning with a rather nasty looking creature that doesn't seem to be based on any animal for which I know the name. Somewhat humanoid, with two legs and two arms coming off of its body, it is a rather hideous sight. And its similarity to humans ends there; the creature has no head, only a body with the limbs coming off. The entire creature is colored with a patchwork of green and brown flesh, all looking rather diseased. I see no eyes or ears on the creature, only a comically large nose plastered on to the front of the body.
Staring at this nightmarish embodiment of a 4-year-old's drawing, I cannot help but laugh a little. My beast-taming friend gives me an irritated look, but I could care less. Why should I care for the judgment of an idiot? The guy won't even let me kill the monsters in a strength evaluation, for goodness' sake!
I shoot a small metal ball right at the creature, which leaps out of the way with surprising nimbleness, landing on its side before rolling back to its feet. [It seems that its odd shape gives it some movement advantage in battle.]
Its spindly arms flailing, it barrels towards me. I make a quick jab at it, but it only rolls out of the way and takes the last step towards me. Using my abilities over wind, I fling myself off of the ground, barely avoiding the swing of its diseased arm with three-inch-long fingernails.
[I don't need you diseases, you nasty creature. Still, I better start paying a bit more attention, it would appear that there is a great deal of variety in the creatures this guy can throw at me.]
Not that this creature is a particularly [difficult] fight. After a few tests, I am able to confirm the range of its rolls. By casting a fireball spell at it while modifying the earth around it at the same time to make a mud trap, it has no choice but to roll into the mud. Once it is frozen for a moment, I have no issue with fully imprisoning it in the dirt. I most certainly could have beaten it using simpler methods; I am strong enough to turn this entire courtyard to run, considering that this thing never jumps, such a method would have worked perfectly well. However, I wanted to have the feeling of setting a trap for this vile creature, who could blame my methods for defeating it? After all, sometimes the fun way is not the most efficient method, and sometimes there is no joy in winning through brute force.
The next creature is very reminiscent of a bat, albeit a very large bat, with truly massive fangs and talons at that. While such a creature may pose a sizable threat to someone with no ranged methods, to me, it is exceptionally easy to trap it in a constricting vortex of wind.
Next up is a tortoise, which, other than its predictably high defense, possesses the ability to breathe out a ray of very unconcentrated lightning elemental particles. While still enough to electrocute a normal human, by forming a metal orb off to my side, the attack is diverted.
I place the slow moving animal in a large orb of flame, and, hearing its croaking cries, the beast tamer quickly declares me the victor yet again. He scoops up the tortoise, apparently having no issue with what must be a significant weight, and rushes out through the gate from which monsters emerge.
He doesn't return for a few minutes, though when he does return, he has a monster at his side. This monster is, simply put, a goblin. It stands about three feet tall, with light green skin, a hooked nose, pointed ears, and yellow eyes. It wears rather simple clothes of a rough brown fabric. Unlike the previous beasts, the goblin stares at me intelligently.
"My apologies, I had to see to the tortoise's care, I'm sure you understand. Now, here we have the last challenge to be declared C-rank, you must defeat a healthy adult male goblin in battle. Know that this goblin is a full citizen of the empire if you kill him intentionally, you will be charged with murder. Now, begin."
[Citizen? Murder? I wouldn't expect the empire to give citizenship rights to intelligent non-humans, after all, they are the most significant user of non-human slaves across the entire world. Well, I guess you learn something new everyday, eh?]
The goblin's eyes lock upon mine as he draws a thin sword from his side. The sword is only about three two-and-a-half feet long, meaning that I am certain to have a range advantage in this matchup.
I snort, quite literally looking down on this pitiful creature as I take up a defensive stance. Let it not be thought that I am underestimating my opponent! However, this really is a colossal waste of my time to fight such a weak opponent, I think that my easy victory over that C-rank Toril should be adequate evidence as to my ability.
I turn the ground across the whole of the courtyard to a thick mud, causing the annoying beast tamer to look at me with some surprise. [What, do you find such a basic display of elemental manipulation ability to be impressive? Pathetic fool! Wasting my time, underestimating me, do you [want] me to snap you like the twig you are?!]
The goblin tries to extricate itself, but, in my mercy, I decide not to toy around with a sentient being any more than necessary. Once it is imprisoned in mud across its entire body, I send in a fireball to bake the earth. The entirely immobilized goblin is then met with a pummeling of golf ball sized metal orbs until the dazed beast tamer calls an end to the battle.
I wash away the earth covering the goblin with a strong blast of water, unveiling a badly bruised little creature. I had been careful to avoid the head, though, so his injuries hopefully shouldn't be anything too bad.
"Are you going to give me an opponent that is more of a match for my level, or not? You continue to waste my time, over and over putting me in a position in which I must torment weak creatures because you refuse to accept my power."
"It is our policy, all adventurers must be able to defeat the monsters set out before them, such a measure is in place to ensure that any adventurer sent out by the guild is capable of performing the mission. What if we were to certify a mage at A-rank because he can defeat certain creatures at that level, when he would be handily defeated by other creatures of B-rank?"
"Surely the guild knows the power and abilities of its members, why not just deploy a group of adventurers with different specialties to accomplish a task? The current system encourages generalists, capable of overcoming any situation they may encounter, instead of specialists which may be far more powerful in some areas than others. What is better, five specialists who are masters in each of their fields, or five generalists who are decent at everything, but, due to not focusing their efforts on any one thing, are incomparable to the specialists in that area?"
"You seem to think yourself so clever, the Imperial Adventurer's Guild has already considered that, we still chose to prioritize generalists. Unlike in the western nations, where there is a surplus of adventurers who can work together to compete for limited jobs, in the Eastern Empire, there is a greater demand for adventurers than supply, it is not usually possible to deploy a party of adventurers, generalists take the priority. This has the additional effect of our adventurers being the strongest in the human world, an S-class adventurer is able to compete with S-class specialists with foreign nations in their specialties while still being equally mighty in a great range of areas."
"If you say so. I still insist that this is a colossal waste of time. Let's move forward, chop chop, I don't want to be here all day."
[Heh heh heh… it really is too much fun to be an insolent prick, though this behavior is a bit extreme for me, normally I exert a bit more control over myself, hmm… well, this is undoubtedly more fun than my usual demeanor, let's keep it going for a while!]
Apparently I am the only one to enjoy this experience, however. The idiotic beast tamer seems to have a hard time controlling his rage, his face taking on a deep red color, a vein pulsing in his forehead. "Stop making things difficult, or I'll invalidate the results of this evaluation. You may be considerably powerful, but I am a member of the administration of the adventurers' guild, I demand a greater degree of respect than what you have thus far shown me. Understood?"
"I suppose, but I really am pressed for time."
"Well, then, stop interrupting our evaluation." Saying this, he heads back through the gate behind him, his goblin friend limping along at his side.