"Wouldn't those kinds of herbs be pretty abundant in the beastmen's territory?"

Jezzel says "Probably, but they don't harvest them to sell and we can't send people into their territory to get them."

"Hm, that is probably something I could change in the near future."

Jezzel says "That would be amazing if you could."

As we enter the room I see that there are about two dozen occupied beds out of fifty or so. The five adventurers that Jezzel introduces me to are all grouped together and they look pretty bad. All of them have large areas of bandages that indicate big slashing wounds, they look like they survived going through a shredder.

We talk for a few minutes and everything they say matches what I encountered with the bird-things. The adventurers continuously warn me about how blindingly fast the things are and how they couldn't even see them most of the time. After listening to their warnings for a while I ask about the types of things they normally deal with as adventurers.

It turns out that this group has never faced a monster before, they normally just deal with bandits. It is only on very rare occasions that a monster wanders out of the beastmen's land that the adventurers have to fight a monster. The last time it happened was before this group became adventurers so all they know is from stories they have heard.

It is no wonder they got mauled so badly, fighting humans is nothing like fighting a beast. I didn't know that the Illium guild was so different from what I think when I hear adventurers. After talking with them a little more I find out that this is only the case in Illium, the guilds in the other nations fight monsters regularly.

Maybe I should suggest to Ambrose that he set up some kind of exchange program so his people get better experience. Then again if the beastmen become more active near the border because of my plans then they won't see any beasts here anyway. I will forget it for now, I can always suggest changes later if it becomes an issue.

Since I don't need anything else from the adventurers I signal Jezzel and shortly we say our goodbyes. She then takes me to a small room with just a chair and a desk, then she hands me a packet of papers. A quick look through shows it is a test, this is not going to go well because I haven't studied.

As I sit down and start going through it I quickly realize I am going to fail it, I don't know Illium's or the guild's laws. I end up just answering whatever makes the most sense on about seventy percent of the questions. Maybe, if I am lucky, and the laws are based on common sense, I will pass, but I doubt it.

As soon as I am done Jezzel takes the test from me and grades it, then hands it back to me. When I look I see a score of sixty-eight, not a passing grade, but when I ask her about it she tells me not to worry. She tells me that the written test is only a formality, if I do well on the physical test the rest won't matter.

So she leads me to a different set of stairs that go down and down, and we are soon lower than ground level. Eventually the stairs let out onto an arena, quite a bit larger than Lord Shendaw's. In the stands I spot Ambrose, Roddick, and Borrik as well as a couple of dozen adventurers.

I am guessing that word spread about someone trying to test in as a top level adventurer. On the arena floor four men with practice swords are waiting for me, and as I walk out to meet them Ambrose heads down to join us. On the far side of the arena is a boulder the size of a VW bus which I'm guessing will also be part of my test.

Ambrose says "Hello, Ash. These four gentlemen are combat instructors for the guild and are here to help test you. For safety's sake I am going to ask you to defend only, the four of them will attempt to hit you for one minute."

"Fine."

The four testers give Ambrose incredulous looks at hearing the instructions but they don't argue with him. They take positions all around me and at the signal they begin attacking me, and I simply lean out of the way of their attacks. For the next minute I dodge every single attack they throw at me, and I do it without once moving my feet.

*DING*

Congratulations! Skill Evasive Steps has progressed to level 3!

Evasive Steps

Level: 3

Agi +12

The art of not being where they think you are.

To be honest I feel kind of bad for the testers, especially when they realize they couldn't even make me move my feet. Those watching have a mix of shocked and amazed expressions, except the guild masters, they look like they expected it. I notice Borrik looking smug and collecting coins from a few other people, looks like he was placing bets on me.

Ambrose says "Well, I guess we should move on to the strength test. Ash, if you would kindly demonstrate your strength on the boulder over there."

"Am I lifting it, throwing it, or destroying it?"

Ambrose says "Ahem, whatever you want to do."

As I walk over to the boulder I remove my manacles and place them in my pouch, I want to test my strength. So I move to the boulder and push one arm into the sand under it and my other arm up the side. The balance is going to be the biggest issue, but as I lift the boulder I manage to get it up onto my shoulder.

As I stand up with it on my shoulder I realize that it is not balanced enough to lift it above my head. Just standing straight with it on my shoulder should be enough, as I look around to check I see nothing but open mouths as everyone just stares at me. Guessing that is good enough I set the boulder back down gently, but then I decide I want to test one more thing.

Motioning people to clear the stands behind the boulder I wait until they are clear and then I punch the boulder with all my strength. There is a low rumbling boom and then there is dust and rock fragments going everywhere. I did not know there was a shield around the arena until I see stone shards bouncing off of it.

Then I see several larger shards rip through the shield and decimate the stands behind the boulder. It is a good thing those people moved or there would have been casualties. As it is I think it might be a good idea if I don't hit anything full strength unless I want to kill something.