Chapter 16: The Test, Part One

"Okay, listen up!" Cara called out.

All of the students were gathered at the Academy's gates. Around them were many regular citizens, watching with wonder as the teachers and students stood in public view. Cara was giving everyone the rundown of what would be happening.

Rin was here, dressed in the leather armor that Maria had purchased for her, and feeling like she was about to throw up.

"Each of us is going to take one of you on a trip into the woods near the city. We picked out a few spots with some monsters. You're gonna go in, clear them out, and come back. Simple, easy, understood?"

Everyone nodded and Cara kept going.

"That's it. All you have to do is take out the monsters we tell you to. If you succeed, we'll give you passing marks. If not, you fail the test, but you get to try again two weeks from today. Finally, listen, if things go south, don't worry, we will step in and save you. We're not about to let you die out there, okay?"

Maria stepped forwards then, holding a list.

However, Rin noticed that she looked... quite angry, for some reason. Regardless, she cleared her throat and said:

"Mannon paired all of you up already. The first ones to go will be Rin, Varyn, Lisa, and Dylan. Varyn, you're with me," Maria said. "Lisa, you're with Harriton. Dylan, you're with Eli. Rin, you're with... Cara."

She basically spat the word out.

"Those of you who are first up, move to your assigned teacher. We'll all be leaving right now. The rest of you, wait back in the academy. This should only take a few hours."

"Whatever," Seth said, turning away and walking back into the building. Sarah, Elisa, John, Carla, and Alea all followed him.

Eve flew over to Rin and took one of her hands.

"Good luck!"

"Thanks," Rin smiled at her and the fairy waved at her before flying away.

Just like that, the only students left were those who would be examined.

"Alright, kid," Cara said to Rin, gesturing for her to follow. "Sooner we get this done the better."

Rin looked back at the others who had been chosen. She hadn't spoken to them too many times, but she felt compelled to say something anyway.

"Good luck," She said to her fellow students, before walking away, with Cara.

And so, Rin followed behind her teacher, feeling like her heart was going to burst out of her chest any moment now with how nervous she was. [Holy shit, it's happening, it's happening.] This had been nothing but a fantasy for her just an hour ago, and now, she was on her way to fight monsters.

Cara didn't say much as the two of them moved through the streets, drawing the eyes of everyone who saw them, though they were mostly looking at Cara, who was dressed in her black armor.

Rin suddenly felt just a little lesser, wearing only her leather chest piece and those gauntlets she received from Maria.

When the two of them arrived at Libera's northern gates, that was when things truly became real for Rin. As the doors opened and Cara led Rin out of the safety that the city represented, Rin took a deep breath.

"How are you feeling?" Cara suddenly asked as they walked out onto the road.

"Uh... Nervous," Rin replied.

"Good," Cara responded. "Nerves keep you on your toes. Overconfidence is always worse than being overly cautious."

"So... You got any tips for me?"

"Sure, I'll explain a few on the way. Up ahead, we're gonna turn left and head into the ruins nearby," she pointed towards it, "once we're in that area, I'll tell you how I want you to handle things. I want my words to be fresh in your mind by the time you're fighting."

Rin couldn't help but look around a little. She'd been outside of Dren, sure, but that was only when she took the Railroad over to Libera. She hadn't actually walked and taken the time to see the sights. Now, though, she could afford to do that.

And, as she looked north, her jaw dropped as she saw dozens of objects that were spread out in front of her.

"Rin?" Cara asked, looking back. "What's the matter?"

"Are those... Cars?"

"Yeah, haven't seen one before?"

"U-Uh, no, I have, but... There are so many!"

"... Yeah," Cara replied nonchalantly looking back towards the north. "Apparently, before the Split happened these things were all over the place. That's why these roads are so wide, actually, it's cause there would be multiple of these on a street at a time."

"No way!"

Cara smirked at her.

"You calling your teacher a liar?"

"I-I mean, it's..."

"I'm kidding," Cara told her.

That was new.

"Anyway," Cara continued, "if that surprised you, be ready to keep your jaw from hitting the floor because the Old World is just... something else."

"Damn... Okay then."

Sure enough, as they walked between the trees to the left, it took all just three minutes before Rin saw something that topped the cars from before.

"W-Whoa..." Rin stopped. Cara, maybe anticipating this, stopped as well.

"Told you."

Rin had no idea what she was seeing. Towers, buildings taller than any she'd ever seen, and entirely made of glass and strange-looking metals were spread all throughout the lands ahead, in the distance.

It was far, far from here, with a bright green landscape and a few small hills blocking the way to that land, but Rin could tell that there had used to be a city of sorts there.

"Cradle is a little bit like that," Cara said as Rin walked up to her. "Except the buildings are way smaller."

"Have you been to that place?" Rin asked her, pointing ahead.

"Of course. Those ruins are home to some dangerous monsters. Inside the buildings, it's dark and damp enough to give a lot of creatures a good enough reason to stay. So, don't misunderstand, it's fine to admire those ruins from afar, but if you ever actually find yourself in any ruins like those, expect to find more enemies in one day than you normally would in a month."

"... Okay," Rin nodded. "Understood."

The two of them continued, deeper into the forest northwest of Libera, where they encountered nothing but tall trees for dozens of minutes, until finally, Cara lifted a hand, signaling for Rin to stop. The raven-haired girl did just that and Cara moved behind a tree, gesturing for Rin to follow her. Rin hid behind her and then, she heard it as well.

It was a soft thumping noise that gradually became louder.

"Hm... Probably either a golem or a giant," Cara said as she looked out for the source of the sound.

Before too long, it made itself visible in the distance. Rin saw what could only be described as a series of boulders stacked on top of each other, vaguely in the form of a person, with a large glowing blue sphere in its chest, walking around slowly.

"Ah, a golem," Cara confirmed. "A Rank B creature. Their stone bodies are incredibly hard to break without something like a hammer or lightning-based spellsigns at hand, but you see that sphere? That's its weak point. You break it, the golem dies. But it's not just gonna sit there and wait for you to do that, hence why it's so dangerous."

Rin was stunned as she saw this high-level creature walk by. This was it, this was what she signed up for. Maybe not today, but someday in the future, those were the kinds of monsters she'd be fighting.

"Come on, let's keep going."

Again, they continued on their path once the golem was out of sight. Rin took a moment then to look around and simply absorb everything that was around her. The world was so different from what she had grown up around. In Dren, you could count the number of trees with your hands, but here, all she could see was green.

"Hm?" Cara spoke up. "Hold on... I think we have a little bit of company up ahead."

"How do you know?" Rin asked.

"I can hear some monsters ahead."

"Seriously?" Rin lowered her voice, trying to see if she could as well.

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"You'll understand once your career really gets going," Cara replied. Then, she narrowed her eyes, nodding to herself. "Yeah. A couple of creatures up ahead. Let's get closer."

Stealthily, the two of them approached the source of the sound, ending up close enough to where Rin could also hear them now. There were two animalistic voices coming from a small clearing up ahead.

Finally, they saw them as they rounded a few trees.

A pair of small, humanoid creatures were taking bites out of a deer's corpse, using strange-looking knives to cut into it. They had red, scale-covered skin and long claws at the end of their fingers. Rin herself was fairly short, and she felt like she could tower over these things.

"Kobolds," Cara stated. "Maybe strays from the nearby camp."

[Huh. So, those are kobolds. Those things are what I'm hunting?]

"Oh? So, what do we do?" Rin asked.

At that, Cara looked over at her, pausing for a second.

"... Actually, this works out well," Cara said before turning towards her, whispering. "I'm gonna take one out, but then, you're gonna fight the other one."

Hearing that, Rin felt her heart rate speed up a little. Apparently, her anxiety was so obvious that it prompted Cara to keep going.

"You haven't had a real fight to the death against anything yet, have you?"

"... No," Rin shook her head.

"This is the best chance you'll get to do so in a controlled environment then. So, it's what you're going to do, and hopefully, once you get some blood on those knuckles, all those jitters and butterflies that would have come out at the camp will be out of you now, instead. Understand?"

Of course, she did. It was logical, after all. But, Rin still couldn't help but feel nervous.

"Hey," Cara put a hand on her shoulder, "you've got this. Maria trained you, didn't she?"

"Y-Yeah."

"Then it's all a matter of putting her lessons into practice. Remember your fundamentals, and remember, this thing is going to try to *kill you*, Rin. Show it no mercy," Cara stated before she began walking over to them.

She unsheathed her greatsword, which she was carrying on her back, and casually, she stabbed through the head of the kobold on the left.

"Ugagh!?" The one on the right squeaked out as Cara kicked the left-hand kobold off of her sword, allowing its lifeless body to fall to the dirt.

It looked back, at Rin, and then back at Cara, before turning around and trying to run away.

"Oh, no, you don't," Cara said before, in a flash, she appeared right in front of the kobold, and it fell back.

Perhaps, understanding that it had no way out, the kobold raised the knife it had been carrying. Its face turned angry, and Cara took a couple of steps back.

The kobold turned towards Rin, and put its knife in between them, hissing.

"Okay, go ahead," Cara told Rin. "Take this thing out."

And so, gulping down some built-up saliva, Rin took a deep breath as she raised her fists, and found them to be trembling. As weak as the creature looked, Rin still felt scared. Scared that she would mess up, scared that the kobold would somehow surprise her.

The kobold though, which had been trying to escape earlier, this time, ran straight at her.

Rin froze up, forgetting everything she'd learned at that moment, and the kobold managed to stab her in the gut. The pain she felt was the sharpest sensation she'd experienced in years.

The kobold took that chance to trip her back and tackle her, but then, Cara walked up and picked the monster up by its neck.

As Rin looked down at herself, bleeding from the wound it had caused, she panicked.

"Rin," Cara said as she drew a spellsign in the air, that the rookie didn't recognize. In a few seconds, as the kobold choked and flailed wildly, Rin's wound was healed. "Get up," Cara told her. "The only way this thing dies is if you kill it. Get your fucking act together."

Cara's voice cut through all of Rin's worries at that moment, as she felt the relief of her wound being healed.

With the initial shock of the fight out of the way, Rin stood back up and, again, put her fists in front of her as Cara let go of the kobold, and it gasped for air.

No thoughts passed through Rin's mind as she then steadied herself, taking deep, rhythmic breaths. Cara backed up. As the kobold noticed that Rin was standing up again, it lunged for her.

This time, Rin didn't freeze. Instead, she pulled a hand back and nailed the kobold in its dragon-like snout.

"Agh," Rin hissed in pain as she felt her hand burn a little from having hit solid bone. Like Maria had told her before, punching things hurt, and even though she'd prepared for this feeling, it was still different, since this punch was thrown "for real", one could say.

Still, the kobold pulled back, stunned.

"Good, keep going!" Cara said, and now, Rin felt a small fire starting in her heart as she ran up and gave the monster a roundhouse kick to the head.

"UAGH!" The kobold fell to the ground, dropping its knife.

"I-I did it," Rin realized.

"No, you haven't," Cara said as she crossed her arms.

"Huh?"

"It's still alive."

[Oh... Right.]

Looking back down at it, the kobold was struggling to get up. Rin breathed in for a second, watching it.

"How do I...?"

"Well, you're a hand-to-hand fighter, aren't you?"

[Ah,] Rin thought. [I'm going to have to beat it to death.]

Noting that, Rin raised a foot in the air, preparing herself mentally to stomp down on this thing's head.

However, Cara stopped her.

"No. Punch it," Cara said.

"W-Why?"

"It's more personal," Cara shrugged. "All the more reason to get it out of the way. I want you to look this thing in the eyes, while you do it, Rin," Cara stated. "I want you to see it at its weakest and snuff the life out of it, slowly. You know why?"

Cara looked down at it with disgust.

"Because if the roles were reversed, it wouldn't hesitate to do that to you. No, actually, it would take things slower. Beat you, toy with you, torture you in all sorts of ways, and then it would kill you as soon as it got bored with you. So, don't ever feel mercy for these kinds of creatures, Rin. They deserve none."

Nodding slowly, gulped and crouched down beside it. The kobold reached for its knife, but Rin took it and threw the thing away. Then, she looked back at Cara for the last time, and the older adventurer nodded.

And, with that, Rin reared back a closed fist and brought it down on top of the kobold's head. Rin could feel its skull fracture. She did the same thing again, and dark red, almost purple, blood came out of its mouth. Again, she hit it and the kobold flinched, shaking as it tried to raise a hand to defend itself.

Rin stilled for just a moment before hitting it again, and again, and again. Eventually, she went from pity to frustration as her fist was covered in its blood.

"Just... die... already!" Rin said as she kept going, until, maybe fifteen punches later, she saw that the creature finally stopped moving, and wasn't breathing.

She stared down at it, a broken mess of a monster, reduced to such a state by her own hands, and she puked.

The smell of blood got into her nostrils and her stomach couldn't handle it. Cara came over and grabbed her hair, pulling it up as Rin emptied the contents of her stomach onto the dirt beneath her.

"Good," Cara said as Rin coughed, finishing up. "Be thankful you got this out of the way here, Rin, and not at their camp. I'm going to be there to help in case anything goes wrong, but in all this time, so many things could have happened. A stray arrow, spear, a spell, all sorts of bullshit could have caught you off-guard while you were contemplating whether those kobolds deserved to die or not, and I could have been left to drag back a dead body to Libera."

Cara helped her up as Rin wiped her lips.

"Instead, you got your first kill here, and you're going to do just fine at the camp thanks to that. I promise."

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