: First Test

The next morning.

"Thank you. Who's next?" The lady at the reception desk called out as she looked out from behind her station.

At first, she didn't see anyone.

"Cough*"

Looking down, she met a pair of green eyes. At first, she was surprised but as a professional, she didn't show it on her face and gave a customary business smile.

"What can I do for you today." She continued to look at Kayda, waiting for her response.

Kayda took her ID from her pocket and slid it onto the desk in front of the lady.

"I would like to re-register."

The lady took the ID and checked over it.

Name, Silas Octiva

Age, seventeen.

Checking the age, the receptionist looked at Kayda again with a sharp pair of eyes. She didn't physically look sixteen but maybe it was because she wore that mask? No, she carried herself in such a way that she felt older.

Seeing that, she continued checking the ID while getting a scroll of paper.

After verifying the ID and confirming its contents, she slid both the ID and the scroll of paper to Kayda.

With a smile, she straightened her back while explaining things. "Please fill this out and bring it back. You will be re-tested for your adventurer grade around noon as you have been inactive for too long."

With a nod, Kayda received her ID and the scroll of paper before walking off.

She could finally calm her racing heart.

Earlier the night before, she had gone to see someone about recreating her old ID card that she had used as an alias in Zedrul.

The reason being is that if she had issued a brand new card, she would draw unwanted attention. Having a completely brand new card with no information on the holder or past history was suspicious. And it drew in unwanted attention.

It's like putting a sigh on your back saying 'look at me, I'm hiding something.'

But thanks to her recreating her old card she used under the identity of Silas, she was able to give a background history on herself and the types of missions she took up along with the fact that she was inactive for an entire year.

Since she hadn't signed into any guild for a year, they would take her name off the adventures list making her past status invalid.

But that wasn't all she was worried about.

When she had used this alias to sign up as an adventurer, she had still been brand new to the whole quests system and the process she had to take.

So when she was captured as a slave, she had no clue as to what had happened to her previous identity.

Did the slave traders obtain it? If they did, did they erase her identity? Or did the people hunting her find it to make a connection?

There were so many risks in using this previous identity. But at the same time, it also came with benefits that could help her with her future plans and reconnect some old connections.

That, and she was on borrowed time. She couldn't afford what precious time she had left wasting it on worrying when she could use it on acting. With only a year and a half left until she turned nineteen, she needed to gain more power to take down her enemy.

And her enemy wasn't just anybody. It was the church of Ithi. One of the main Goddess' of the five continents.

It was practically a impossible fight. Assassinating the emperor would be easier than the revenge she was seeking out.

Fighting a person would be easier. Someone she could solely focus on. But what she was fighting wasn't a single person. It was a religion. A cult.

Cut down the head, and a new one would appear. Publicly defy them and a whole continent would be after you. Because religion runs deep. It is the pillar of the people and the belief that they worship.

A power greater than that of the emperor.

She was practically fighting the Goddess herself.

But she couldn't give up. They took something from her. Something that wasn't just a part of her but the reason she had lived.

And when she lost that, she had wondered the world like an empty husk, grasping onto any type of rope just to convince herself to keep breathing. Even if that rope was nothing more than a thin thread. But even the world had to cut that from her. But now, she finally had something to grasp onto. And she wouldn't let go even if it cost her life.

At this moment though, she was equivalent to a small flea. And a flea can do nothing more than irritate its host before it's squashed.

She wanted to do so much more than irritate.

Taking in a breath, a light burned within Kayda's eyes.

She waited patiently for time to pass before noon finally came. This was her first step to gaining power. No holding back.

"Miss Silas?"

Kayda looked up at a receptionist who had come to see her.

"The examiner is ready for you now."

Kayda nodded and followed her deeper into the building.

After traveling deeper and deeper into the building, they made their way to a door. "He's waiting inside. He'll give you the rest of your instructions." With that, the lady walked off.

Opening the door, Kayda entered into a wide open room that was as large as a palace ball room.

Only, instead of fancy decor and lovely chatter, it was quiet and hollow. The walls plain and made of stone, tempting one to put a scratch on it.

looking closer, she saw how the walls were made of a smooth white stone while the room itself was brightly illuminated by mana stones hanging overhead acting as sunlight.

Standing in the center of the room was a man.

He seemed amiable with a calm and aged face that could be no more than forty.

He stood there with his arms crossed and his eyes sharp and focused. Training on her.

He only spoke a few words. "Come to the center of the room"

It was commanding and hard. But Kayda did exactly as he asked.

At first, she easily started to make her way over. But slowly, she realized that with each step, the air seemed to get heavier.

Not even halfway through, did she feel that large stones were pressing down on her shoulders like iron weights to restrain her.

Sweat started to form from her pores, but she didn't believe that she could give up like this.

Steadily breathing, she took one step forward at a time. The weight around her pilling on by the second.

Slowly, she felt her back bend and her lungs retract. The pressure was getting to be too much.

Looking up, she tried to look at the examiner but sweat kept making its way into her eyes. She couldn't give up here. Not yet.

Every second felt like an hour. And every step seemed to drain her entirely until every muscle burned intensely.

Only fifteen steps away from the examiner, and Kayda was dragging her feet, getting ready to collapse at any second, but she couldn't allow it. She couldn't allow herself to just stop!

She had faced much worse in all her years of living. She was not going to let this be one of the things she falls to.

The examiner looked at her with narrowed eyes.

Before him was a small girl. Sweat had clouded her eyes and the pressure had weighed her down into a pathetic state with her back hunched and her hands almost touching the ground in a crawl.

She was obviously pushing herself to the brink of exhaustion while trying to force her way through this first test, but even then, she did not stop.

He had seen adventurers before her who had entered this room. Men and women alike who had come with confident smiles on their faces and arrogance within their stride.

But slowly, they succumbed to the pressure. They had not even moved halfway through the room before falling to their knees. Saying the pressure was too great.

And that was what he had expected today as well.

Some child of a girl who had bitten off more than she could chew. Who would at most only take ten steps before caving in.

But right now, was a girl, covered in sweat and soaked into such a disheveled shape that it was unsightly. But she didn't stop.

Instead of feeling revolted by the sight of sweat dripping off her body and her hunched up form, the examiner felt a quiet stir awaken inside him. Something he had not felt in a long time.

Slowly, his lips moved.

A sadistic grin began to form.

Raising his hand, the pressure in the room intensified.

Kayda instantly fell to her hands and knees. Gasping for air that seemed to be squeezed from her lungs. But she couldn't stop. She wouldn't

The examiner felt a sick sense of excitement watching her crawl before him. When was the last time he felt something like this? Felt this sense of excitement that was devoid from his life for so long now?

Unable to resist, he once again raised his hand and the pressure in the room increased.

Kayda finally collapsed. Air escaped her as her mind went blank with only the function of trying to get air back into her lungs.

But slowly, that was taken from her and the light was consumed from her vision.

Until finally, she passed out.