Otherworld Adventure

'Phew... that was close.'

Cecil had barely finished the last exam. The spell he picked was the intermediate spell Float. This was the only intermediate wind spell on the desk and although there was another intermediate earth spell, there was no way he could actually use it.

So Cecil could only bite the bullet and try to use Float.

Since he couldn't use the wind element it was hard for him to imitate the float spell with his non-elemental attribute.

He panicked a bit and spent 10 minutes memorizing the chant and devising a plan to deceive the examiners.

In the end, all Cecil could do was chant the spell and use mana burst to jump into the air. After he reached high up into the air, he then sent a continuous stream of mana shooting onto the ground below him.

This way when he descended from the air, he would descend slowly, making it look like he was floating in the air.

Float was only a spell to help spell casters glide in the air. It's not like they could use the spell to fly around, so eventually the caster would still descend to the ground.

If Cecil tried to glide around in the air, it would spell his doom since he would immediately fall to the ground.

So instead of moving around, he just stayed in place while descending slowly to the ground.

The examiners didn't see anything amiss except for the old lady who narrowed her eyes at Cecil when he descended to the ground.

Cecil was panicking inside, but kept a poker face. The old lady only chuckled and announced that Cecil passed the test.

Cecil was sitting on the floor while he thought.

'Phew, good thing I didn't get caught... When are the fighter division examiners going to get here?'

Not long after, the door in the room where the previous examiners were at opened.

Cecil observed from the other side of the window that 2 burly, muscular men came in with a s.e.xy harpy lady.

The examiners all had weapons strapped to their backs or waists and they were fully geared in their armor.

Cecil stood up in attention. He could see that the examiners were sizing him up.

Soon a lazy female voice rang throughout the room.

"All right~ Cecil was it? Let's get your test over with~"

Cecil was caught off guard from the lazy voice and stuttered in reply.

"Y-yes!"

The muscular tiger man on the harpy lady's right stepped forward and shouted.

"FIRST! The Mana Affinity test! Which category's body strengthening can you use?!"

Cecil grimaced at the loud voice that came ringing into the air. Cecil responded seriously,

"Earth and Wind."

"Hooh? Let's see it then!"

Cecil got in a stance and quickly activated Mana Burst. With the surge of mana, Cecil disappeared from where he was standing.

"OH! Wind Element's Shukuchi huh!"

The examiners could only see a blur moving around the room, the tiger man immediately yelled.

"That's enough! Next EARTH!"

Cecil's body immediately appeared in the spot where he was previously standing. Cecil deactivated and reactivated Mana Burst.

This was to trick the examiners' eyes since every body strengthening technique would always be accompanied by a surge of mana from the caster.

This time Cecil didn't do anything and merely stood in place.

The Giant who had kept silent since the start of the exam spoke slowly.

"...Vajra?"

His deep bass voice rumbled in the air. Cecil merely nodded in reply.

Vajra was an Earth Element body enhancing technique that reinforced the body's defense towards all types of attacks. You wouldn't see the effects unless the person using the technique was assaulted.

The giant nodded and turned towards his two companions and gave them a slight nod.

The harpy lady's voice rang once more in the room.

"Okay~ first test finished~ Now onto the last test, the mock battle~"

The Harpy Lady waved her arm and the room was immediately cleared. The desk and orb sank back into the ground and a large cage rose up slowly in the middle of the room.

Cecil looked at the cage and saw a Metal Boar raging inside.

'...C class... what am I even expecting?'

Cecil just gazed dully at the monster, not bothering to take up any stance. It was only a C-class monster, so there was no reason for him to be afraid or even take things seriously.

Cecil and Lucia have been facing off against B and A class monsters since their debut as adventurers.

Cecil had even taken down a B-class monster right when he arrived on Alterna, so a C-class monster was no threat to him.

The examiners were surprised seeing Cecil's lack of reaction, they even picked up a hint of disdain from his eyes.

The boar roared and raged. It was constantly slamming its body onto the bars of the cage.

The harpy quickly asked in a somewhat serious voice this time.

"Examinee Cecil~ Are you ready?"

Cecil didn't mean too, but he involuntarily yawned.

He quickly stopped himself from yawning and with tears in his eyes, he replied quickly.

"Yes!"

The examiners only thought was 'Did this kid just yawn?'

After receiving Cecil's confirmation, the harpy lady waved her hand again and the cage immediately collapsed.

The Metal Boar sensed that it was finally free from its confinement and charged out of the collapsing cage.

It took a look around with its blood shot eyes and spotted Cecil who was in front.

"OH NO! We forgot to give the kid a weapon!" frantically shouted the Harpy lady "Damn it! It's because of that kid's lack of reaction that it slipped my mind! Quickly! Quickly stop that thing!"

Just as the examiners were about to abort the battle, they saw Cecil rush at the boar.

"What the– this kid!"

But what happened next caused the harpy lady to quiet down.

BOOM BANG BOOM BOOM THWACK

*SQUEEEEEAALLLL*

Cecil was using his martial arts to thrash the boar around the room.

When he arrived in front of the boar, Cecil gave it an uppercut with his mana empowered fist.

When the boar was lifted off the ground Cecil jumped up and slammed his elbow into the belly of the Metal Boar. He rotated his body and sent an axe kick on to the boar and slammed it back onto the ground.

With the axe kick, the Metal Boar was embedded into the ground, but Cecil picked it up and sent the boar crashing back into the collapsed remnants of the cage.

After he was finished, Cecil turned towards the dumbfounded examiners and simply said.

"Done?"

The Giant wasn't so surprised. After all, he saw Cecil using 'Vajra' and he knew immediately that Cecil would win the fight even without a weapon.

Vajra was a high level earth element body enhancing technique that was leagues above the basic and intermediate earth element 'Metal Skin' and 'Mountain Body'.

Vajra not only upgraded the caster's bodily defenses, but literally turned the casters body into a weapon.

So why would a warrior need a weapon when his body itself was his weapon? The giant was also a master at using Vajra so he knew immediately that Cecil's battle style was close to his.

Coupled with the 'Shukuchi' that Cecil used in tandem with Vajra, the outcome was expected. Only the Tiger Man and Harpy Lady were gaping in surprise.

The Giant clapped his hands and said, "Well done examinee Cecil, I look forward to you participating in my class."

His words immediately broke his companions' astonishment. They quickly composed themselves and announced that Cecil had passed the fighter's exam.

Cecil bowed and thanked the examiners politely, "Thank you."

Cecil then turned towards the door and walked out of the room.

'Phew, that was easier than expected. When was the last time I took care of a small fry C-class?'

When he arrived at the hall, he saw Lucia leaning on the wall waiting for him.

"Hahaha, what took you so long, slowpoke?"

"Tsk, the 3rd magic exam gave me a bit of trouble."

"Oh?"

Lucia was a bit surprised, but then thought of Cecil's plight. His inability to use elemental mana.

"Nahahaha~ good thing you didn't get caught! Right, stupid?"

"Hey, I didn't get caught so how am I stupid?"

"You're stupid because I say you're stupid, hahaha~"

"..." Cecil slump his shoulders while staring at Lucia.

"Alright, let's go! Let's go eat now! I'm starving! It's because you took so long, stupid Cel~"

"Yes, yes... let's go now. By the way, when are the results going to be announced?"

"They'll post the successful candidates on the large bulletin near the entrance of the Arks Academy district tomorrow."

"Tomorrow huh... Guess we should start packing our bags later."

"Yup! There's no doubt we've passed! So after we eat, we should let some of our friends at the guild know and thank the Ironforge family for taking care of us."

"Oh yeah, since we'll be living on campus we're gonna have little to no contact with the others outside huh."

"Yup, yup, let's hurry then, it's already past midday!"

Lucia and Cecil were heading towards the first floor, but behind them a certain princess was listening in on their conversation.

Elizabeth had just finished her exam and was astonished to find the two foxkin from earlier finishing long before her.

She wanted to go over and greet them, but the two seemed to be in their own world prompting others to not go and disturb them.

"Hmph... how confident, but that's expected of them... time to go home."

Making sure that the two fox kin from earlier had already gone down to the first floor, Elizabeth Arks walked up to the higher floors of the building.

When she arrived at the rooftop of the building, she jumped up into the air and from her back a pair of draconic wings spread out.

She flapped her wings and flew higher into the air. Elizabeth made sure that she was far above the clouds so as to avoid drawing any attention from the people down below before flying towards Angla City's Royal Castle.