Souta was standing in front of the Adventurers Guild. Behind him were the members of the Dark Oculus and Lanny group. They were here to watch him and support him in his advancement exam.
"I didn't think that you would try to become a B-rank at this moment, captain," Ginvi said from the side as he combs his mohawk style green hair.
"Yeah, but I think you'll pass the exam without any problem, captain," Jagret said.
"Yohoo! I wanna take the exam too!" Bryan said with an excited expression.
"It's too early for you Bryan. Come back if you have the same power as captain." Brando said to Bryan while shaking his head.
"Brother Souta! Good luck! I'm cheering for you!" Cl.u.s.ter said as she raised both of her hands in the air.
Souta smiled and said, "Let's go." before he entered inside the guild building with the rest of his comrades. During the past two days, his skill had grown. He could feel that his sword skill was improving with Saya's tutelage.
He still hasn't learned any powerful skill as Saya was training his sword mastery but it was enough for him. Her inner consciousness was different from him, no, it was different from all weak people. The time in Souta's inner world was the same as the time in the real world. There's no difference but the time in Saya's inner consciousness was five times faster in the real world.
She said that creature that reached god-level has this kind of inner consciousness. In other words, Saya was a god being she died.
This was the reason why the wielders of the vajra sword were all skilled fighters.
The adventurers inside the guild turned silent when Souta and the rest entered inside. All of them looked at Souta's group and started to murmur.
"Hey, is that the group who subdue a third evolution White Jade Spider?"
"Yeah, yeah, I heard that they are all C-rank!"
"What?! Is that possible?! A group of C-rank subduing a level of that monster!!"
"Maybe, they saw that White Jade Spider was injured when they found it!"
"But they said that they killed it inside the dungeon!"
"They only got lucky!"
"Nah, I don't think so. If you're here the other day then you will find that they had a record of saving a small dukedom from a third evolution monster. So it's their second time killing that level of monster."
"Really?!"
"Yeah, I couldn't believe it too."
"Ignore those people," Souta said to his comrades as he strode towards the reception. His comrades simply followed him.
"Um... I want to take an advancement exam for B-rank?" Souta said to the receptionist as he placed his adventurer's ID in front of her.
The beautiful elf receptionist was surprised when she heard Souta's words. She snapped out of her thoughts when Souta called her once again.
"Um... C-Can you please wait for me? I need to talk to the management about this." The receptionist said to him.
"Okay." Souta nodded as he understood her job. She needed to report this to the one who handled the advancement exam so that they could record it.
The receptionist left after taking Souta's ID. If Souta passed the exam then they needed to change his rank in his ID so it's natural that Souta has to give it to her.
Souta didn't have a problem with it. He was sure that he passed the condition to take the exam. He had a clean record of one hundred percent rate in completing all the quest that he took.
He talked to Lumilia and the rest while waiting for the receptionist. The adventurers around were quietly talking about him.
After a few minutes, the receptionist returned with a man with wolf ears and tail.
"So you're the one who's going to take the exam?" The man asked Souta.
"Yes, I'm the one," Souta said as he observed the man. His senses told him that this man was either at the peak of C-rank or B-rank. As expected of the branch in Eternal Empire.
"We have a simple test in this branch to see if you're qualified to become a B-rank or not." The man turned and said, "Come follow me at the back of the guild."
Souta nodded and followed him. Lumilia and the rest also went with them.
"Oi! A B-rank test!! This is interesting!! It's rare to see a B-rank test!"
"Yeah! Let's watch too. It's been four months since I've seen someone take the advancement exam in this branch!!"
"Time to see if that brat is a B-rank or not!!"
The rowdy adventurers started to talk to each other. They were breaming with excitement as they followed Souta's group.
...
Souta and the rest arrived in the huge arena behind the guild's building.
Powerful barriers were erected all over the place. It was to protect the structure of this place and prevent the exam from causing casualties. The one who created these powerful barriers was the guild master of this branch. The guild master was a powerful peak A-rank mage.
'An A-rank was just a butler of princess Alea. It's not that much.' Souta thought but he knew that he had no way to defeat an A-rank with his current power. He didn't even have a way to crack these barriers.
"So what's the test?" Souta turned to the man.
"Simple. You need to defeat this monster." The man said before he clapped.
"Hmm...?"
Souta looked at the arena and the gate at the side slowly opened. Then, a powerful third evolution monster called Gleaming Stripe Lion appeared on the stage. Thick chains were restricting the movements of the three-meter tall lion.
Lumilia and the rest of the Dark Oculus were shocked. They didn't expect that the test was to defeat a third evolution monster.
"Relax, that's not a real third evolution monster," Souta said to his comrades.
"What do you mean?" Bryan, Brando, and Lynn were confused at his words.
"It's simple. Look at the forehead of the lion. You can see that the monster orb is gone. The guild probably took it out so the lion couldn't muster the power of best feram at that condition." Alice said.
"Yeah, Alice is right. You have keen eyes. I'm sure that you notice it too Lynn." Souta spoke mildly.
"I see. So that's why I felt that it was different from White Jade Spider." Lynn breath a sigh of relief.
"Also, the eyes of the lion are lifeless. It's the eye of a dead creature. Must be an undead." Lumilia added.
"Yes, nevertheless, this would pose a problem to people below B-rank." Souta nodded before he looked at the man.
The man said, "You can go inside the stage. After that, I will release the chains that are binding the movement of that lion."
"Okay." Souta nodded as he followed the man's instruction.
...
Hundreds of adventurers gathered in the arena to watch Souta's advancement exam. They were excited as they watched Souta entered the stage.
Souta looked at the giant lion in front of him before pulling out the [Vajra Sword Saya] on its sheath.
'You can handle it, right?' Saya's voice sounded.
"Yeah, it's not a problem for me," Souta said in a low voice as he circulated his mana inside his body. He could handle this monster without using [Possession] and [Soul Blood Mode]. It would be overkill if he used those two.
"I heard that you're a tamer. You can summon your pet if you want." The man said to Souta.
"It's okay. I'm fine on my own." Souta shook his head and said.
"Well, I'll release the bindings." The man nodded and the chains around the giant lion started to break. After a few seconds, the lion was free.
"It's not bad." Souta grinned widely as ten blacks balls appeared behind him. Then, a black cloak formed on top of his leather armor.
[Gravitational Ball] and [Shadow Cloak]
The lion quickly charged towards Souta at high speed. Despite its huge body, it could run this fast.
Swoosh!
The lion raised its huge paw and swung it towards Souta.
Souta jumped backward and the paw crashed on the ground creating a small fissure.
Bang!
[Agility Boost], [Strength Boost], [Cat's Speed], and [Triple Muscle Strengthening]
Using these skills at the same time, Souta zoomed the distance between him and the lion in just a second.
Swoosh!
"Eat this." Souta gathered his mana in the sword and swung it. A red slash appeared on the cut the body of the giant lion.
The lion was undead so it couldn't feel any pain. It opened its mouth and tried to bite Souta. But Souta already expected it so he used [Air Walk] to move his body in the mid-air.
Swoosh!
"Let me finish this." He landed on the ground fifteen meters away from the giant lion.
The lion was about to charge toward Souta but it stopped. It felt its body became heavy for some reason. It didn't know that the ten gravitational balls were above, increasing the gravity several times.
Then, the ground turned black and several black tentacles rose.
'Ufufu, is this your favorite spell? Do you like tentacles?'
Souta ignored her and used the spell that he didn't use before.
[Dark Cloud Hunting]!
A Black mist spread out and covered the entire stage. This spell reduced the opponent's senses, magical attack, physical damage, and movement speed while it increases the caster's darkness attribute spell by thirteen percent.