A loud sound, like drops of water falling into boiling oil, echoed in the smoky room.
Hot. Kayla frowned as she noticed the boiling steam surrounding the entire testing room. She waited anxiously for the steam to disperse, wanting to know how the lava drake turned out.
Even though she had been a little distracted by the voice in her head that kept telling her negative things, she had paid some attention to Ethel's struggle.
And to say that she was surprised was an understatement. Although she knew that Ethel had never gone all out against her, she never expected that she would have held back so much.
The way Ethel moved and cast hundreds of magical spells was beautiful, she always knew when to retreat or attack, forming a perfect balance in which she was never in danger.
That sense of struggle was something acquired through experience, unlike her, who could do something similar thanks to foresight.
Not to mention her ingenuity when it came to fighting... Although it had taken Kayla a while to understand what Ethel was trying to do with the snowball, she understood it in the end and was amazed by the intelligence of her friend.
Now the only thing she worried about was whether Ethel's plan worked.
And as if not to make her wait any longer, the steam finally dispersed, showing Ethel and the lava draco.
"Wow…" Brice, who was next to her eating a meat skewer she gave him, sighed in amazement.
He could not understand Ethel's plan, so he never waited for the sight before him.
The lava drake, a monster that was once flaming and alive, was now trapped in a kind of black rock that wrapped around its body.
And Ethel, the cause behind this, was standing in front of him while creating a magic circle over him, murmuring some words.
"Icy guillotine"
A guillotine blade formed in the air and cut down on the lava lizard's neck, breaking the black rock before splitting the dragon's head from its body with ease.
Bam!
The lava drake's head fell heavily to the ground before dispersing into pixels.
Ethel turned around, her skin red from the heat of the steam, and she smiled at them as she approached. "Ready!"
Kayla, who had been somewhat depressed, was finally able to find some encouragement and smiled back at Ethel. "I did not wait for something less!"
"I also have to congratulate you, Miss Ethel, I honestly hadn't expected you to defeat the lesser draco in the end." Ahmed approached and smiled at them. "Very few people can pass the test to become a five-star D rank since in this battle they will fight against a monster that counters them in some way."
Kayla and Ethel finally understood. It had seemed strange to both of them that in the final test, a monster appeared that was not affected by Ethel's ice. For a moment they believed it had been sabotage.
"Ugh... it was certainly a difficult test, if I hadn't had that spark of wit, I might have had to give up" Ethel sighed. The draco, who was obviously several dozen levels above her, was basically immune to her spells.
This would have been a match that he normally couldn't win.
"But you beat him, so it doesn't matter if you used your wits. Not everyone could be able to defeat that draco." Kayla smiled as she wiped Ethel's sweat with a handkerchief.
"Thank you" Ethel just let Kayla clean her up while she closed her eyes. "…And tell me, are you going to take the test now?"
"Uh? What do you mean? Of course, I'll do it!" Kayla smiled. However, Ethel could tell that her smile was not so sincere. Although she was not fake, she was hiding something.
She opened her mouth and wanted to say something, but she finally shut up. I'd better follow my original plan and take her around the city later... The reason for her sadness is not important right now.
Minutes later, Ethel, a little cleaner than she was before, was in a corner of the testing room next to Brice watching Kayla as she warmed up a little in the center of the room.
"I'm going to start the test to see if you are suitable to be an F-rank adventurer without stars, ready?" Ahmed looked at Kayla with mixed feelings. He still wanted to believe that Kayla was a commoner like him, but the fact that Kayla had a last name was an undeniable fact of her nobility.
"Of course!" Kayla nodded. But he suddenly seemed to hesitate a little as he opened and closed his mouth, but finally asked something that he had been thinking about for a long time. "But before that... tell me, if I manage to reach the E-rank tests, will I be able to fight against that green skin?"
Kayla tried to sound as calm as possible, but you could still sense a bit of murderous intent in her voice.
Ahmed frowned at that but still responded. "Yes, that's a standard test, almost everyone has to do it."
"Okay…" Kayla smiled, causing Ahmed to would shudder a little. Although Kayla had smiled normally, there was a hatred and coldness hidden in her smile that could not be hidden.
It was lucky that Ethel could only look at Kayla's back at that moment because she would no doubt be very worried if she saw that kind of smile on Kayla's face.
With no more time to waste, Ahmed made some signs again and five wolves appeared on the other side of the room.
"Begin" Ahmed raised and lowered his hand, And along with the sign, the five wolves seemed to gain life and began to move.
The five of them seemed confused at first but quickly ran over to Kayla when they noticed her.
Kayla watched the wolves carefully and used analysis on them.
[Wolf &#/(]
"Sigh...seriously, I think I would have preferred to choose another class if I had known it would end like this." Kayla hated the fact that one of her class abilities was useless.
But despite everything, what she just said were empty words. If she were given another chance to choose a class, she would still make the same decision.
I guess it's time to start... Kayla blinked and suddenly, ghosts identical to wolves appeared in her vision.
With foresight activated, Kayla was now able to predict the wolves' every move with ease.
Not wanting to waste any more time, Kayla took out her silver sword from her storage ring.
She watched without moving as the wolves approached little by little, eager to destroy her body. In seconds, one of the wolves, faster than her companions, caught up with Kayla and lunged at her.
However, Kayla still didn't move.
Brice's eyes widened in disbelief. He was about to scream but quickly noticed that Ethel was extremely calm. So after thinking about it a little, he decided to stay silent.
As for Ahmed, he was a good distance away from Ethel, so he didn't notice her calmness and panicked. Although the wolves were certainly illusions, this place gave them a "physical" body temporarily, so they could cause harm and even kill people if they were not careful!
He was about to yell at Kayla to be careful, but he was soon stunned.
Kayla, who had not moved until now, suddenly took a step to the left, easily avoiding the wolf.
As the wolf passed her, she swung her sword and split the wolf in two, turning the wolf into pixels that scattered into the air.
Brice and Ahmed were stunned when they saw that. The way Kayla dodged and slashed at the wolf was incredibly carefree, as if the wolf, who would normally cause some trouble to people on her level, was nothing!
"I guess there was no way this monster's mate was normal…" Brice muttered as he looked at Ethel.
"Nmm? Did you say something?" Ethel looked at Brice with a sharp look.
"N-nothing!" Brice trembled as he met Ethel's gaze.
Ethel ignored Brice again and focused on Kayla's fight, the outcome of which was already set in stone.
Without any accident, Kayla defeated the remaining wolves with ease. She didn't even have to use her synergy or accelerated thinking, much less the enhancement effect of her sword.
After cutting the last wolf in half, Kayla looked at Ahmed and waited for her to begin the next test.
Ahmed smiled bitterly at that. Yes, she without a doubt is a noble. That level of confidence and power is not usually found in a commoner.
But despite having all those thoughts in his head, he continued his work. He no longer cared whether Kayla was a commoner or not. And even if she was, someone as talented as her didn't need her care.
So she made hand movements again and a new monster appeared on the other side of the room.
A boar with giant horns appeared, static.
Kayla didn't want to waste any more time and urged Ahmed to hurry up. Soon, the boar was defeated with the same ease as the wolves and a new enemy appeared.
This continued to happen until Kayla reached the five-star F rank test.
This time, she finally appeared as a rather troublesome enemy.
A three-meter stone golem, quite wide, appeared in the white room, making Kayla frown.
"Fuck, this is going to be complicated…" Although the golem wouldn't cause him much trouble with her slow speed, it would certainly be a tough nut to crack with her large body made of stone.
"Hey, don't you think they're too evil with this, why do monsters always appear that are one's weakness?!" Kayla complained as she looked resentfully at Ahmed.
"Haha... I can't do much, this is part of the test to get five stars. Believe it or not, becoming a five-star adventurer is extremely rare, regardless of rank." Ahmed avoided Kayla's gaze.
"First of all, people usually rank up by surpassing the maximum level of their rank before becoming a five-star adventurer because of the high difficulty. HenceThere is no point in complaining, it is like that for everyone."
"I guess…" Kayla looked at Ahmed suspiciously but ended up believing him. It wasn't like it made any difference whether he was lying or not.
So without further waiting, Ahmed gave the signal and the golem began to move.
This one, unlike the other monsters, didn't seem confused when he was able to move and started moving toward Kayla immediately.
Although his slow body prevented him from arriving quickly...
Kayla sighed, annoyed. She knew that more than difficult, defeating the golem would be annoying.
So without any other options, she took out a metal staff from his storage ring and began to move it skillfully. The cane had been one of the weapons she learned to use in her training with her grandfather.
Ahmed, who was watching her, nodded his head. It would certainly be much easier to defeat an enemy like the golem with a blunt weapon. However, that would only happen if you were just as skilled with a blunt weapon as you are with your sword.
Something Ahmed seriously doubted. It was extremely rare for people to be skilled with various weapons, however, Kayla quickly shut him up.
Moving the staff in circles around her, Kayla approached the golem, which was still a few meters away from her even though it was running at her maximum speed.
Soon, she arrived in front of the golem. And as if he had been waiting for her, he raised one of his arms and slammed it against her.
But Kayla, with foresight, already knew that would happen. So he easily dodged the attack by jumping back.
Bam!
The golem's blow made the room shake slightly, but without paying attention to that, Kayla took advantage of the fact that the golem's arm was on the floor and jumped on top of it.
The golem tried to shake his arm to send her flying off his arm, but he was too slow. Within seconds, Kayla had already reached the head of the golem and circulated a large amount of mana throughout its upper body.
Kayla pulled her body back and hit the head of the golem with her staff, causing pieces of rock to fly all over the place.
The golem trembled slightly and if she had a voice, she would most likely be howling in pain.
He tried to get Kayla out of her head, but Kayla, with foresight, was able to dodge every blow the golem threw at her head, hurting himself in the process, and continue with her task of hitting the golem's head.
The golem even tried to shake off and throw Kayla away. Unfortunately for him, Kayla was always one step ahead and held on tight moments before the clashes, managing to hold firm on the golem's head to return to her task of brutally hitting the golem's head.
So several minutes later, full of bumps and shocks, the golem ended up turning into pixels.
"Finally…" Kayla sighed in relief. Her entire body was drenched with sweat from having been hitting the golem's head for so long.
Although she wasn't sure, she could swear that she had hit the golem more than a hundred times, and only then did the wretch's head break!
"Congratulations, it was certainly a very interesting way to defeat the golem." Ahmed felt the corner of her mouth twitch. He had never seen someone defeat a golem in such a simple and rustic way!
Normally people destroyed a core that was in the golem's stomach, instead of using brute force and destroying the hardest part of the golem, the head, where the magical inscriptions that allowed the golem to move were located...
"Thank you, but please let's move on to the next test, I want to finish this quickly" Kayla spoke as she took out an energy drink from her special ring, which according to Grandpa Aaron, was excellent for taking away tiredness.
And just like he said, Kayla was soon as good as new and ready for a new battle.
"Are you sure you want to start the next test as soon as possible?" Ahmed looked worriedly at Kayla. The girl had only rested for a few minutes...
"Yes, in fact, I'm quite eager to do it." Kayla nodded seriously. It was truly something she was waiting for.
Ahmed sighed and made the next monster appear.
Soon, a familiar yet unknown enemy appeared in front of Kayla.
"...I never expected to meet your kind so soon" Kayla looked at the hobgoblin in front of her.