Re-opening his eyes, Chronos could now see himself walking into an adventurers' guild in a somewhat rundown town. As he walked up to the counter, he focused on the time vision.
Jack arrived at the counter of the adventurers' guild, a chill travelling down his spine like he was being watched. Turning his head around discreetly, he found no one looking in his particular direction, and ignored the feeling.
'I might be losing my touch.'
The young woman at the counter smiled at him with a typical customer service smile.
"Hello, sir. How may I help you today?"
Jack focused on the young woman. He was in a hurry, and he had no time to waste with possible tails on him.
"Hello. I was told this is the place to get registered as an adventurer. I would like to register."
Some people around him glanced at him, finding it odd for an old man to register as an adventurer, but it was none of their business.
"You have come to the right place, sir. But there are a few tests before you can register. Are you confident in your ability to pass them? Not to sound insulting, but we rarely get new adventurers with your… life experience."
Jac chuckled in response.
"No need to sugarcoat it, young woman. I know I am old. But I can probably give a run for their money to anyone in this room."
Some of the younger, more hot-headed adventurers in the guild were half tempted to try out the old man, to put him in his place. But some more seasoned folk held them in place.
Even if his level and strength looked more than average, appearances alone couldn't fool the older adventurers.
They could feel the aura of death around the old man. An aura that couldn't be obtained by farming for a lifetime.
This man had reaped enough lives in his life to form a natural pressure around himself.
Jack smiled as he noticed the older adventurers' actions from the corner of his eyes.
'A shame. It would have been excellent exercise.'
The woman at the counter felt the rise in pressure around the old man, and no longer doubted his claims.
"Right this way, sir. We will test you on the grounds out back."
Jack nodded his head, following her around the counter and through a door at the back of the room. The door opened out into a closed courtyard, with walls about eight feet tall.
The yard seemed unnaturally large, compared to what it looked like from outside the building, but he didn't care to ask why.
"What do the tests consist of?"
But before the woman could turn and answer, a rugged man walked toward Jack from the side of the yard. His brown leather jacket, coupled with his crop top haircut, as well as the eyepatch on his right eye made him look like a trained fighter.
Jack could already feel a similar pressure coming from that man as the one he exuded himself.
"I'll take it from here, Jacqueline. Follow me, sir."
Bringing to the back of the courtyard, the man kept glancing back toward Jack. Once at the end of the courtyard, he pointed to a small pedestal.
"Put your hand on this. It will gauge your strength through your stats and then assign you a testing course difficulty."
Jack nodded his head, walking up to the pedestal. He touched the top of it, and it suddenly showed his stats.
Of course, he was still level one, so all his stats were still level one, too. The trainer looked at Jack with a suspicious gaze.
Once the pedestal hid his stats again, Jack heard a notification ring in his head.
*Adventurers' guild test started. Difficulty set. Level 1; Hard mode.*
Jack frowned, but he expected as much. The pedestal saw his stats, but it most likely also checked many other things.
Turning to look at the trainer, he noticed the man had backed away to the wall. A small veil of blue separated them.
A loud gong noise brought his attention toward the middle of the courtyard. When he turned to look, he saw scarecrows had popped out of nowhere.
A message was shown in his sight.
*Defeat the three scarecrows to clear the first phase of your test. Time limit: 1 minute.*
As he finished reading it, the three scarecrows in question started shuffling around, at around the same speed a normal person would jog.
'That's it? I hope this test actually challenges me in some way, if this is the hard mode.'
Scanning them, Jack almost sighed in exasperation.
*Training Scarecrow*
Level: 1
Grade: Common
HP: 25
He understood that under normal circumstances, a level one player could only do around ten damage, with a standard starting weapon. But the weapons he had bought were a little more powerful than that.
His rifle, in particular, could deal thirty damage, flat, without considering his own damage in it. So he could theoretically one-shot them.
Noticing the timer had already started, Jack stopped wasting time.
Pulling out the rifle, he aimed and shot three times in rapid succession, hitting each dummy squarely in the face, dealing seventy points of critical damage on each.
The timer stopped, swapping out to a large 'Congratulations' message. As the Scarecrows disappeared, another set of them appeared, this time five of them, wearing ragged armour.
Jack also noticed they had higher levels, making them harder to kill. But they were still target practice, as far as he was concerned. He reloaded the three bullets he used and got ready.
Not a moment later, the timer started, showing only forty-five seconds, and he shot six times rapidly. All his shots went for the four scarecrows in the back, which were wearing cloth and leather armor.
He took out all four of them, his critical damage chewing them up quickly. But instead of reloading, he swapped out his rifle for the gun and dagger he had, and dashed forward.
Striking with the dagger on the metal armoured scarecrow, he was surprised when it raised its arm that had a shield on it.
'So it's not just for show. Good.'
He combo-ed a rapid succession of dagger strikes and gunshots, getting a few good hits in, but dealing much smaller damage than he had done with the rifle. But he still overcame the scarecrow promptly.
As they disappeared again, Jack turned around.
"Listen, sir. I can feel you glaring at my back. If you want to fight me that bad, step in here and let's skip this farce of a test."
The trainer grinned from behind the veil, walking up to the pedestal. After tapping it a few times, he interrupted the test.
He walked across the veil and pulled out a similar weapon layout as Jack.
"I was hoping you would say this. You are suspiciously stronger than your level shows. Are you a spy?"
Jack chuckled. He expected the suspicions, but he didn't expect the man to be so overt about it.
"I guess you'll have to beat the answers out of me."
The grin on both men's faces was that of anticipation as they charged at each other. But before the clash happened, Chronos was once again ejected from the time vision.
"Where are all these monsters coming from, and how do their fates tie to mine?"
He couldn't help himself any longer, feeling excited for the first time in so long, and he jammed his hand into another thread.
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