Volume 3 Chapter 2: Part 3: Promotion Exam

The day of the promotion exam arrived. Onyx looked at Rena, "Did you get everything you need?"

"Mmhmm, master. I have everything right here." Rena said as she patted her bag. Onyx nodded, "That's good. Let's set off now." For these last few days: Onyx and Rena split up to find their own equipment. They have prepared everything they need for the exam.

They were going to leave the inn now. They walked downstairs, and Onyx saw Mary moving crates. Seeing this,

"Let me help you out." Onyx couldn't stand there and not help. He took the crates off of Mary's hand.

"Ahh, Onyx. You don't need to do this. Don't you have a promotion exam today?"

"It's fine. We've gotten up early. We still have a lot of time before we need to be there. So let us do this for you." Onyx didn't hesitate as he moved the crates into the kitchen.

"You don't have to worry about it, Mary. Master is usually like this." Rena was of the same thought and helped out too.

"We're done now." It didn't take them even half an hour to finish, "Mary, we'll be off." Onyx swung the bag onto his shoulders, ready to set off.

"Wait, Onyx! Take this with you." Mary came out of the kitchen and handed Onyx a basket. Onyx looked inside to see there were a bunch of sandwiches made.

"It's not that much. But this should be enough to get all the energy you need. You guys will need all of your strength for your promotion!"

Onyx and Rena smiled, "Thank you very much. We'll come back as soon as we can." The two of them left the inn after saying their goodbyes.

"Mary made a lot for us. Let's eat it when we meet the other people on our exam."

"Understood." The two weren't going to the guild building to meet with them. Instead, the two headed to the front gates. Madelyn told him they had to arrive at the gates as the merchant would be there, ready to set off.

And there was. In front of the gates, there was a large wagon and a couple of people standing around there.

Seeing Onyx and Rena coming towards them, one of the people asked, "Are you guys joining us on our promotion exam?"

The man looked to be in his mid-thirties. He wore full iron-plated armor and had a giant shield tightened to his back.

"Mmhmm." The person's expression brightened, "That's good! I'm going to be your comrade this time. My name is Nigel Shea. A pleasure to be working with you."

He extended his hand to greet the two. Onyx extended his hand back to him, "Same as well. My name is Onyx." Gazing at the others, "Is everybody here yet?"

Nigel shook his head, "No. Including you guys, we're still missing three people."

"I see." Onyx frowned a bit. But Nigel understood his expression; "Don't worry. We have 10 minutes left before we set off. For now, let me introduce you to the other members today."

Onyx nodded, and the three walked over to the group. There, the two saw another two people. One man and one woman.

"Are these two coming with us, Nigel?" The man was the first one to respond. He looked to be the same age as Nigel. However, he wore leather instead. A ranger type? Onyx thought.

"Yep, this here is Onyx, and the other is Rena." Nigel introduced them to the man.

Hearing their name, the man slammed his hands together out of realization, "Oh! Wait! You're the super rookie!"

Super rookie. Onyx scratched his head and gave a wry smile. He was called that nickname from time to time. Well, every time whenever he went to the guild hall.

He was called super rookie because it didn't take him even a day before he reached his promotion exam.

"Hey, cool it. Think about how the two would feel." Nigel scolded him, seeing how excited he was.

"You knew?" Onyx asked Nigel. He scratched his head in embarrassment, "Yeah. I saw you when you beat up Galven. But I didn't think you wanted to be called "super rookie," so I tried to remain calm."

"Thanks." To be honest, Onyx had a hunch that Nigel knew. His expression was a little too surprised when they said their names.

"Sorry about that. Got caught up in the moment."

"It's ok. I've gotten used to it."

The man smiled, "Name's Cyrus Bradshaw. Good to be working with you!"

"Onyx and Rena. Same here."

"Ahh, the second super rookie." To think both of them were here.

Now it's Rena's turn to be embarrassed. If Onyx was the number one super rookie, who followed after him is Rena! Her fight with the proctor was already known to everybody in the guild.

"And hello there." After Cyrus, Onyx greets the other person. Compared to Nigel and Cryus greeting them calmly, the woman stood far away from the rest.

"Heeee!" And when Onyx extended his hand to the girl, she quickly ran away. She ran to the opposite of the wagon!

"..." Onyx's expression froze. Am I scary? And it's not just running away; she has her head stuck out from the side, checking on Onyx from second to second. It reminded him of prey being cautious of a predator. After a few seconds of analyzing him,

"Willa. My name is Willa Levine." The woman spoke up in broken sentences. Onyx greeted gently, "It's a pleasure working with you."

Willa nodded a bit, "S-same."

Onyx didn't talk to her about anything else. Not unless he wanted to scare her some more.

"Don't worry so much about her. She was like that with me too. I think it's just because we're new people." Nigel added while Cyrus sighed, "It was much worse when she did it to me." He turned to Willa, "Is it because I'm ugly?!"

"Heeee!" Willa quickly hid behind the wagon again!

"Stop scaring the child!" Nigel smacked the back of Cyrus's head. He turned to Onyx, "You should also meet up with the person we are protecting today."

And on cue,

"Hello, I'm the merchant you'll be protecting today." An old man came down from the wagon as he introduced, "My name is Morgan. A pleasure."

"Good morning, sir." Onyx greeted back.

"Is that everybody?" Morgan asked.

Nigel informed him, "There should be three others coming with us."

"I see." Morgan sighed in relief as he apologized, "Sorry about this, but we'll be late in traveling. The second wagon's wheels are rotted. My employees are getting a spare wheel right now. We can set off after we fix it."

"Understood."

...

"Where are these fools?" Nigel frowned. Half an hour. Morgan and his employees finished setting up the second wagon.

To think some people were late on the day of their promotion exam. What do they think this is?!

"Should we get going now?" Morgan asked, realizing the three hadn't arrived yet.

"Can we wait a bit more?" Nigel asked. He hated doing this. But he had to do it because having more people would help out with the promotion.

"Ahh, am I late?" Before Morgan could say anything, one arrived. The person who came was another woman.

Nigel turned around, "Yes. Yes, you are."

"Sorry about that. As long as you guys are here, then that's good." The girl didn't even look at Morgan and Nigel's scowling face as she walked over to the group.

"..." Are you really going to act like this? Onyx frowned as he watched how she reacted. He looked at Nigel, who was apologizing to Morgan. While he did this, the woman spotted Onyx.

"Well, hello there. What's your name?" The woman gave a light smile as she walked over to Onyx.

"Onyx." His voice was frank and curt.

"That's a cool name. My name is Tricia Gray. It's great to be working with you, handsome." Tricia grabbed onto Onyx's arms.

And the next second, Onyx shrugged her grip off, "Good to know." His voice continued to be frank and curt. There was no need for Onyx to be focusing on her.

Ohhh. A cold and handsome guy. I like that. Tricia smiled mischievously. She had never seen somebody this handsome before. Turning over to Nigel,

"So when are we going to go now?"

"...There are still two people missing." Nigel sighed. What is with these people?

...

Ten minutes later,

"Mr. Morgan, don't you think we should be moving right now?" It was Onyx's turn to say it.

"Wait a moment, Onyx. Shouldn't we wait for the other two?"

"But it looks like they aren't coming." Madelyn kept emphasizing to him to get here early. She made sure to drill it into his mind.

"I hate waiting for them too." Nigel frowned.

"But this is just absurd now. If those adventurers can't even come on time for their promotion exam, they shouldn't be getting promoted." Onyx scoffed.

Tricia was already cutting it close. She came in the nick of time.

"And we can't really wait any longer. The monsters aren't going to be doing that for us." Monsters have to sleep and wake up too. Right now, the sun was still coming up. So it was the perfect time for them to set off without any monsters coming their way.

Morgan interjected, "We can wait another ten minutes. But after that, we have to go." Even he knew about time. Morgan didn't want to deal with the monsters, even with a large group like this. He had precious cargo.

"Fine," Onyx said nothing else. But with that, it was decided.

"Hah, these fools." Nigel shook his head in dismay. "Alright, let's set off now. We can leave them." He could tell the others were being patient. But asking for any more would be too much.

"Sorry about the wait, Morgan." Nigel apologized.

"It's ok. Now, let's set off!" The wagon began to start. And they were out of the gates. Right now, the 6 people were split up in the two wagons.

In one wagon: it was Onyx, Nigel, and Rena.

And the other one: Cyrus, Tricia, and Willa.

"Sorry about all the wait." Nigel bowed his head towards Onyx. But Onyx waved his hand,

"It's ok. You thought about what was best for the team. However, you have to realize when there are times when you have to cut losses too." If there was one bad apple in the bunch, why keep it?

As Onyx said this, he looked at the back, "Actually, maybe the bad apples are planning to stay much longer."

"Wait! Wait! Waaaait!" As the wagon continued down the road, they could hear people shouting.

"Don't tell me." "Yep. Morgan, you should probably stop the wagon, or they'll keep shouting." Onyx joked. And Morgan stopped the wagons, allowing the two figures to catch up.

"So, who are you guys? Why are you guys following us?" Cyrus looked at them with a whimsical expression.

"Hah hah." One of the guys caught their breath before shouting, "We are here for the promotion exam! How could you leave us like that!" His face was plastered with a scowl and disgust.

"Oh, so you guys are the ones who came late. Didn't know?" Cyrus chuckled lightly. He knew who they were: he just wanted to mess with them.

Nigel scowled back at them, "Get in the wagon now. Or do you want us to leave you guys again?!" How dare they think they're the victims of this? Who do they think they are?! Nigel was about to curse them out, if it weren't for him being one of the oldest members.

"Ughh. Fine." The guy scoffed. It seems he had more to complain about. But nobody wanted to hear it. The two got split up, and the one Onyx got was the silent person.

When the guy walked into the wagon, his expression darkened as he shouted out,

"Why is a white devil here?!"