"Now stop being so dramatic and let's get registered."
The first part of becoming an adventurer is registration. It's not much paperwork, but an inconvenient amount. They make it as short as possible because a lot of people who become adventurers come from poor families and can't read.
It starts simple: your name, birthday, and birthplace. These three things are needed to identify if you're a criminal anywhere or if you're using an alias. The next form is a waiver that gives the guild consent to evaluate you, and they are not liable nor can they be held so for any injuries, trauma, deaths, or anything in that category that happens to you during your time as an adventurer.
It was just pages explaining that any bad thing that could happen isn't their fault, seeing as you become an adventurer out of your free will and accept any risk by signing this paper. Samael finishes reading and is slightly annoyed.
"Is all of that really necessary?"
The receptionist scratches his head while slightly embarrassed.
"An adventure attempted to sue us in the past, so now we have to take precautions."
Samael signs the paper and turns it in. he looks at Ezra dilly-dallying and annoyingly points towards Ezra's empty paper. Ezra smiles at him.
"Oh yeah, I'm already registered. We're required to do so when we're kids in my family."
Ezra signals to the receptionist.
"Just give me a temporary plaque, the same rank as his after he's done with his evaluation."
Samael glares at Ezra and smirks.
"Who says I won't rank higher than you?"
Ezra smirks back at him.
"No offense to you, Sammy, but I don't think you have what it takes for that."
Samael is visibly more annoyed than ever.
"Don't call me Sammy! Let's wager on it then, if I rank higher than you, you'll have to follow my conditions, and if I don't, I'll have to follow yours."
Ezra ponders, and then a maniacal smile grows on his face.
"You know what, fine. Here's my conditions: if you lose, you'll have to carry all of our luggage and supplies alone the whole trip. No horse, and you'll be pulling the wagon."
Samael is taken aback by the evil conditions.
"What? Are you scared? You sounded pretty confident earlier."
Samael's eye twitches.
"Alright, let's do this! If I win, that condition applies to you."
Historically, it's been proven time and time again that there is no stronger driving force than the pride and ignorance of a man.
Samael is escorted the the evaluation area. He bets a brief on the different ranks.
*Samael's summary of adventure ranks*
Wood(1-4)- regular person.
Bronze(1-4)- top athlete.
Silver(1-4)-superhuman.
Gold(1-4)-Trained Superhuman.
Platinum(1-4)- Beastly.
Diamond(1-4)-Legendary Beast.
There are more ranks, but the highest this adventurer guild could give is diamond. Anything higher than diamond must be evaluated at Rociziar.
The evaluator is a seemingly young boy with purple hair; he has a large black hat and oversized robes.
"We will evaluate you in four categories; you get a grade for each category, then we give you an overall grade based on those categories."
Samael nods his head and prepares himself.
"The first test is endurance."
The boy points towards a tub of light blue glowing liquid.
"Undress, then head into the center of the pool. This section uses a slime familiar to attempt to pierce through you from all over, and we grade you based on how much energy the slime consumes to pierce through your skin and muscle."
Samael's face drops, and he makes it very apparent that he does not want to enter the liquid.
"Stop whining, it's not as bad as it sounds. You don't feel a thing, and the slime has healing properties."
Samael grits his teeth and steps into the pool. After a couple of seconds, the pool glows bright, and the examiner gives him the ok to leave.
"See, simple. Your endurance rank is silver 1. Next is strength."
He escorts Samael to the next room, and the room is empty and bland. The only thing in the room is a strange-looking dummy.
"This dummy is filled with a non-Newtonianfluid, it's something engineered by the magic tower association, and we commissioned them to tweak it a bit for us. This part is pretty straightforward; you use your pure brute strength and punch the dummy with all of your might. No techniques or enhancements. Cheating this part is just cheating yourself as an adventurer. If the dummy turns yellow, that's wood, brown is bronze, red is silver, and blue is gold. Anything past that breaks the dummy, and we'll evaluate your strength in a different way."
Samael has always been curious about how strong he is. He never struggled carrying things adults struggled with; everything just seemed light. At one point, he made money by arm wrestling adults who were none the wiser. So this was his perfect opportunity to see just how hard he can hit.
He approaches the dummy with unbound confidence, prepares himself, and takes a deep breath in. He pulls his fist back and prepares to punch with all of his might. And as the punch flies towards the dummy, cutting through the wind, he feels a sharp burning pain in his arm, it's as if he's almost forgotten. He threw a punch with his dominant arm, the same right arm with severe burns and injuries.
While he doesn't get a clear punch due to the pain, his hit still lands, but not with all he wanted to give. He was disappointed, believing that if he had been asked this before the injury, he could have done much better. Now all that's left is embarrassment and a bad taste in his mouth.
"Silver 2, let's move on."
Samael walks into the next room, and he's met with a door that has a strange formation of crystals, circles, and writing around it.
"Next is your dexterity. Walk into the door, and once you enter, run full speed with all of your might, don't bother pacing yourself, just run as fast as you can for as long as you can. There's gonna be tokens thrown at you, collect as much as you can without slowing down."
Samael nods his head and goes through the door. He's met with a clear blue sky and a field of grass. Samael is determined to do his best in this field. Growing up, Samael was always fast, using that to get a lot of jobs done quickly and in bulk. He's never struggled getting places on time because he was always able to get there in a couple of minutes, sometimes even seconds.
And when he ran, he never felt tired; the wind never resisted him, it was more like the wind ran with him. But his whole life, he's never run full speed. Honestly, he's never needed to, he's never run for his life, he's never run like he meant it. There was never a point in his life where he had a high stake and minimal time, because his whole life, he was fast enough to make up for any time.
This is his redemption, this is where he knows he won't fail. Samael has never doubted his speed; that's something he's always been confident in. He gets into a running position; he can feel it. The wind flowed through his ears, touching his face. He's excited, and it feels as if the wind feels it. He sees it, a straight path, all he has to do is run, no one to stop him, nothing in his way, he's ready to run completely free.
And so he runs. Samael speeds through the field in a straight line. Samael never realized how much he loved running until now. It's so freeing, the wind isn't resisting him but making way for him and surrounding him. He feels it in his hair, his nose, his eyes, and he feels free.
But the real trial begins, as he speeds up, tokens begin to fly towards him. Firstly, it's one at a time, but as time passes, the tokens multiply. It gets to a point where Samael's catching 20 tokens every 5 seconds, and the time windows are getting smaller and smaller.
But Samael is loving it, he's having the time of his life. 5 seconds turn into 4, turns into 2, and eventually he's catching 20 tokens a second while maintaining his top speed. But it happens again, his body betrays him, one again that dammed arm of his foils his plans. His momentum is broken, and a door appears in front of him, and he's sent flying through.
"Gold 4, I'm impressed."
For a second, Samael felt defeated again, but it was quickly overshadowed by the joy he felt while running; he didn't know he could go that fast or even react that quickly. And he feels in his bones that he could have done better, he's excited, he's excited to grow, he's excited to run like that again.
The examiner escorts Samael to the final room. It's a large space without windows, just lanterns and walls. The examiner clears his throat.
"This is the final part of the evaluation. This is where we grade powerful and dangerous. Your great power is. Whatever you show me in this room is completely confidential, and I will be personally testing the extent of your solra, aura, or mana. To ensure the confidentiality of this part of the evaluation, we will take an oath. Do you know how to, or do I need to explain it?"
Samael looks at the evaluator with an embarrassed look on his face. He clears his throat and turns away from the evaluator.
"I'm not a user of any of the great powers."
For the first time, the evaluator, who was expressionless for the whole evaluation, makes a face of shock. He composes himself and clears his throat.
"Then, unfortunately, by law and the strict rules of the adventurer guild, I cannot rank you any higher than bronze 4."
"Fuck."