Gale was woken up suddenly early in the morning, being gently shaken up by Sofia. She was visibly very excited, and it took Gale a couple of wake-up seconds to remember why… Today was the day of the adventurer’s exams! This was Sofia’s goal when she entered the academy, and now it was Gale’s too. For this they had been training hard the st couple of months. Once they get their licenses, they would be able to freely travel the world and cross most territory borders! They held each other’s hand excitedly, and kissed lovingly. After that, they got ready, having decided today to wear their regur training clothes as a final sign of respect for Professor Aberyth’s training and everything that had happened during these past months together.

  All the student’s had breakfast together as usual, but it was clear to see that today was a special day, and no one was going to train. Only the girls intended to take the certification exams, since Saku and the twins were still some time away from finishing their training and the only one who was almost graduated too, Teb, didn’t need it as he was traveling under his boss’ traveling merchant license. Still, it was a special occasion and most of the town would be around to watch their performances, excited for the yearly entertainment of these practical tests.

  Professor Aberyth entered the building as they were finishing cleaning up after breakfast, asking them to get ready and come with him to meet up with the members of the adventurers guild. Seemingly, they had already sent their front runner envoy to the city, and were starting to set up their camp for the next couple of days, just outside the entrance to the city. Following Professor Aberyth, they exited the main entrance to the town and saw their camp, still halfway done, just off the main road. Some locals were also helping out with the process, most likely to speed things up. The members of the guild all seemed to be wearing a full metal pte armor with an accompanying metal sword, most likely steel, creating a formidable sight. Only one of them was wearing a different attire, with a less bulky armor and carrying the colors of the institution, mainly grass green and light brown. He seemed to be leader of this group, composed of 7 people in total. They had set up two gigantic banners with the fgs of the guild, a light brown intricate circur emblem on top of the grass green background. Behind them, a few carts were parked, most likely what they used to carry their materials and supplies.

  As soon as they got closer, the leader stepped froward to greet Professor Aberyth, seemingly personally acquainted with him. “Esteemed Professor Aberyth, such a pleasure to see you again!”, he greeted warmly, although Gale got an unpleasant feeling from his words, as if he was lying.

  “Ushter, what a surprise! It is always a…” he fake coughed, “… a pleasure, indeed.” With that, he turned around and raised his voice a little “Students, this is the Astidia’s vice guild master of the adventurer's guild, John Ushter. Ushter, these are my students, which you can see are more than usual. The two girls here are actually interested in taking the exam today.”

  “Two at the same time, huh? That’s unusual. Still, I’m sure you are more than capable of passing the exam. But that’s for ter. Professor, as the letter said, I have come in person to this location to request your official assistance. First, the unusual block I told you about, to perform the requested tests.” With that, he gave Professor Aberyth a small package, which concealed the item. “And for the… other matter, please follow me to the cart over there. Your students should remain here, surely you understand”.

  Professor Aberyth followed the man to the furthest cart, mostly covered with a big cloth. As he took away a corner of the cloth to allow Aberyth to peek inside, Gale could distinguish some wooden bars, thus making the cart actually a mobile cage. The contents really piqued Gale’s interest: a gigantic shadowy shape, seemingly sleeping. A small draft of wind blew up momentarily a rger section of the cloth, and Gale could more easily identify the figure. But what she saw next froze her in pce, her blood running cold. She could never forget what that was. Sleeping inside, with its gigantic head resting close to the uncovered corner, there was a gigantic, multi-eyed head… Another goril-like monster, like the one she had killed with Zack in the forest, months ago. She started trembling, but knew that she needed to talk to Professor Aberyth, having them close was extremely dangerous.

  “Gale, what’s wrong?” Sofia asked, clearly worried at how much her demeanor had changed. “You turned pale in a second”

  “I… I need to talk to Professor Aberyth right now!”, she said hastily, before running towards the professor and the vice-guild master. Sofia followed, confused and worried, while the other students just stayed in pce, unsure what to do. As they approached the cart, the men stopped talking and turned around, slightly startled.

  “This is a private, official conversation! What brings you two…” Ushter started saying.

  “I know those things!”, Gale immediately shouted, interrupting his annoyed bbbering. “I… killed one of them before, with a friend, in the forest south of Astidia” She did not intend to eborate any further on one of her most terrible memories, nor did she want to remember the face of her deceased friend or… them, so she stopped talking at that point.

  The vice guild master was momentarily dumbfounded by her statement, after all, there were absolutely no records of these beings in any official channel. Professor Aberyth took the chance to try and ask further information from Gale., noticing that she looked quite troubled.

  “Gale, could you eborate on what you know about these… beings?” Aberyth asked, trying to explicitly avoid the details of whatever had happened.

  “They were smart for a beast, and fast. Strong, incredibly strong. I saw it…” Gale paused for a second, ”squash someone like a fly with a single arm. It also took a full tree as a club… Also, those eyes give it almost no blind spots. They’re terrifying.”

  Ushter interjected at that point. “Well, yes, all the information fits with what we could observe from the specimens. Specially the squashing thing… We lost three men capturing these 6, if it wasn’t for the tranquilizer drugs our whole expedition might have gotten obliterated, as much as it pains me to say. And you cim to have killed one with your friend? You are a magical novice, even if your magic is strong these creatures are..”

  “Small correction”, Aberyth interrupted, “she didn’t know how to use any magic before coming to learn under me. That means, she did it WITHOUT using magic”.

  “We...well”, she rushed to interject, “my friend was a self-taught earth magician, he delivered the killing blow, I was merely the decoy, dodging its hits and punches. I did slice a hand clean off..”

  “Preposterous! That is a tall order even for a B-rank adventurer, and you cim to have done it even before learning any magic??”

  “Let’s leave it at that”, Aberyth finished the conversation. Ushter was getting more worked up, and he feared Gale might be pushed to corner if this continued. “Still, slightly changing topics, I am of the opinion that these beings need to be sacrificed for safety’s sake.” He made sure to raise a hand and cut off the objections from Ushter. “For our safety and yours, of course. I can study the corpses just fine. Now, don’t we have an exam to prepare? Gale, Sofia, please return to the rest of the students.”

  As they returned, Gale could tell the disdain from Ushter for her, probably believing her to be some kind of self-aggrandizing liar, and it’s not like he made any effort to hide it. She already hated the guy.

  *******************************************

  An hour or so ter, a circur fenced area had been designated in the center of the guild camp, the examination grounds. Surrounding it were most of the town’s citizens, excited for the performances to come. In the center stood Ushter, reading out loud from a parchment between his hands, surrounded by two of the metal-cd adventurers. In front of them, three people stood nervously: Sofia, her girlfriend Gale, and a man they didn't know, more or less 25 years old, with brown eyes and hair, dressed in comfortable clothes. It seemed he had come to take the exam from a small town at the other end of the ke, and was mostly self-taught.

  As Ushter babbled on about something reted to the duty of an adventurer and whatnot, Sofia’s attention was focused on her girlfriend. She still seemed quite shaken after the previous conversation. And if she herself was still a bit frightened by the sight of such monster, she couldn't imagine what it would be like to face such a creature in combat. The things Gale had had to endure in her life… She realized then that actually, Gale didn’t tell her almost anything of the months previous to joining the academy. Were they full of experiences like that?

  “… and that’s what any adventurer should keep in mind at all times. Now, thing being a C-rank examination procedure, there will be three tests: a written test, to prove their adequate knowledge of basic ws and regutions; a physical test, to show their physical capacity; and a fighting test, to demonstrate the future adventurer’s appropriate fighting prowess. Each of these capacities are essential for a future adventurer to have. To pass the exam, the candidates need to be able to complete all three tests. As every year, failing just one of the exams could still lead to a D-rank adventurer license if the performance in the others is satisfactory enough, and excelling in all three could award a B-rank license. For any further exams, ranks B and up can only be examined in the central headquarters of any country, or in rare occasions be awarded from special requests.”

  After a small break, he added. “Are the three participants ready?”

  “YES”, they said at the same time.

  “Good. Then, let’s begin the first exam: the written test”.