In the next few days, Zoro spends a lot of time in the training centre to spar with local swordsmen. He gains a lot of experience by fighting different people.
But there's something that gets him curious. No one in the training centre uses chakra during their spar even though he saw them use chakra when they just practiced their swings.
Then he finds out that it's forbidden to use chakra blades to fight in this training centre because this place is also a school facility where a lot of children are studying. So they can't use chakra to avoid causing accident.
Although they can't use it even if they want to. It's rare to find people can use chakra on their swords. Normal swordsmen like them don't know how to do it and they don't have enough chakra even if they know the technique anyway.
It's rare for independent swordsmen to be able to use chakra blades. They don't even have proper swordsmanship skills as they are usually self-taught and don't have good teachers. Their skills come from experience.
"Well, we actually still can use real blades to spar without using that training ground. People usually just do it in the forest outside the town. However, unlike the training ground, there is no one to supervise the match and there's no medical facility. So it's more dangerous in case accidents happen. Some people actually get seriously injured and there are even death cases from this kind of training. That's why there aren't many who do it anymore. At most they are just training alone using real blades on dummies or trees."
Zoro just hums at it because now he knows that these guys may be the strongest people here aside from the official samurais that are working in this town as official guards.
But there are many who are still walking the path of swords despite that. At least the country doesn't try to block that too. They know if their samurais aren't enough to do all the jobs all over the country, so they need independent swordsmen.
Even most of the city guards are not samurais. The samurais hold high positions in the guard corps and will only handle difficult situations that can't be handled by normal guards.
That's why it is quite easy to find jobs even as independent fighters or they are often called mercenaries. Merchants crossing the forest often hire these mercenaries through the town's authority.
They can hire the mercenaries personally, but the risk of being scammed is high. If they hire through the official organization, then they won't need to worry too much because the government will be responsible for the mercenaries they assign the jobs to.
"So this is how they hire guards in a country without ninjas."
"Well, this is actually also how they do things in shinobi countries. There just won't be enough shinobis for every little job out there, especially in rural towns. Hiring shinobi is expensive, you know. So unless it's very important or they have money, merchants won't usually hire shinobis for their escorts. Mercenaries are enough most of the time. Besides, not only more expensive, shinobis are also prioritizing missions that are given by their countries over personal requests."
"Oh, make sense."
Zoro is currently in the job quest office. He has registered as a mercenary because he needs to earn money.
There are ranks here, just like how shinobis are divided into ranks like Genin to Jonin. Here, they just use stars to represent ranks. Zoro is the lowest ranked mercenary, a 1 star.
The jobs he can take are menial things like delivery inside the town, cleaning a house, or carrying luggage. These jobs' pays are low, but he needs to do them to raise his rank.
There aren't many who are willing to do it like Zoro. Others usually prefer joining high-ranked mercenary groups. It's easier to get money by joining these groups because they can take high-level jobs already as high-ranking groups.
But Zoro doesn't want to join any group because it will restrict his freedom. Besides, doing hard but low paid jobs was what he did in his previous life, so it's not a problem for him.
After doing quite a lot of menial jobs for 2 weeks, Zoro finally can take a rank-up test. They do rank-up tests once every month, so Zoro needs to wait for it. It's like how genins need to take a test to be promoted to chuunins, but it won't be that hard.
To be a 2-star mercenary, Zoro needs to have a decent battle skill because starting from 2-star, there will be jobs that include fighting. Escort jobs are also starting from 2-star, depending on the possible danger.
The test is simply a battle against an examiner chosen by the Job Office, which is a high-ranking mercenary. Zoro and the others who take the test don't need to defeat him, but the officials on the side will judge whether they have sufficient skills or not through the fight.
Unsurprisingly, Zoro is the youngest to take this test although there are many kids his age who work as mercenaries. But they usually can't fight and only stay as 1-star mercenaries to do menial jobs.
Zoro is the 1st to take the test. He gets on the stage to fight the examiner. They will use wooden weapons prepared by the Job Office.
"Huh? 3 swords?"
Everyone is surprised when seeing Zoro takes 3 swords from the weapon shelves. Then they start snickering when seeing him bite one of the swords.
"Oi, oi, kid, are you here to play?"
"If you are here to play around, then don't. Go home now before you get hurt."
"You look ridiculous, so you better stop, hahaha."
Zoro ignores the mobs and focuses on the incoming match. The examinees aren't really sure about this test now, but they still decide to continue.
"Start!"
As soon as they start the test, Zoro charges at the examiner. His speed surprises the examiner who wields just 1 sword.
The examiner thought Zoro is just another curious kid who has just learned one thing or two and thinks he is already strong. That's why he was planning to show Zoro how dangerous real battles are.
But it all changes the instant he blocks Zoro's right sword horizontal slash. The examiner is a high-ranking mercenary who has done a lot of life and death battles, so he could react to Zoro's attack even though he was surprised.
Still, he never thought that Zoro's attack could push him back. Even if he was taken by surprise, he is still a powerful swordsman and his body is a few times bigger than the kid in front of him.
"You, just who are you, kid?"
"Roronoa Zoro."
After saying that, Zoro charges again at the examiner who now doesn't dare to underestimate the kid in front of him. Zoro keeps sending attacks after attacks while the examiner can only defend.
Although Zoro only uses 1 hand to hold each sword, the examiner still needs to use all his strength to block just 1 sword. He can't understand how a kid like Zoro can have this level of strength.
Although he isn't as strong as official samurais, he is still a high-ranking mercenary that has fought many strong opponents. Yet he is being overwhelmed by a kid not even half his age.
The instructor is determined to not lose and sends a full-power attack. He raises his sword above his head. Then to everyone's surprise, he uses chakra on his wooden sword.
This guy is one of the few independent swordsmen who can use chakra on their blades. The officials actually forbid the use of chakra in this test as this is just a 2-star promotion test.
But before the officials can stop the battle examiner, Zoro also uses chakra on his swords, surprising everyone. It stuns the officials and they forget to stop the battle.
The battle examiner swings his sword down while grinning when he sees Zoro's chakra blade technique. Zoro is as calm as ever as he blocks the vertical swing by crossing the swords in his hands. Then another surprise comes.
Zoro pushes his opponent's sword to the left while swinging the sword in his mouth. This sword isn't coated with chakra and everyone thinks that it's just a gimmick.
So they are really surprised when the examiner is sent flying 3 meters to the right when the sword hits his left side. He even drops the sword in his hands because his left arm was hit and gets hurt.
"H-he can swing that strongly with his mouth?"
"Just how strong are his teeth, jaws, and neck to be able to do that?"
The official examinees decide to conclude the test because the battle examiner can't continue with an injured arm. Besides, just being able to trouble the examiner was enough already, but they wanted to see how strong Zoro really is.
Zoro is also happy they didn't stop the fight in the middle. That examiner is the strongest opponent he has ever faced so far, after all. But he's still not strong enough to make Zoro use his full power.
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Chapter 37. Konoha
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