“I think we need to find a few more quests to do while we are here.”

Seven walked in on Third already planning out their evening. They had already been in the woods adventuring but now that the team geared up for tougher fights there would surely be quests that involved the less explored sections of the woods.

The team was going to find the quests that specifically called out for the killing of creatures. Preferably masses of dryads, treants, and things that crawled in the dark of the inner and outer wood area. Even if they found that they couldn’t fight the inevitable monster that guarded the dragon’s treasure, they wouldn’t lose anything from completing quests along the way.

“Is that okay with you two?” Third asked Spark Joy and Roxxy nicely.

“Of course.” Spark Joy nodded her head. “We just came back to Lum so we still need to hand in our finished quests. We’ll also pick up a few more supplies since it seems like we’ll be in there a while.”

Third had already shared the dragon treasure quest details with them once he saw Attracting had left. Seven had given him permission, of course. She nodded and they decided to split up. Spark Joy would go with Third to where she had received the quests to see if he could also pick up some for the team. Luckily they would receive any quest he picked up while in their party as long as they accepted it. TidalWave and Archy wanted to have one last duel before going off to find quests.

“I’m going to walk around and see if I find anything.” Seven wanted to cool off after Attracting’s last comment.

“Oh-oh-oh,” Roxxy was shooting off words like a freight train. “I’ll go with you.”

“Is that okay?” Seven looked at her and Spark Joy. “Didn’t you need to hand in quests?”

Spark Joy sighed, then smiled. “I can do that. We did the quests as a party so it’ll still count.”

“Sure.” Seven thought that she could definitely use the company of the cheerful-looking girl.

“Yayy.” Roxxy followed alongside Seven as they walked outside.

The sight of a man in flowing gray robes immediately greeted them, blocking their way with a smile. Seven could tell that he wasn’t a player due to the colour of the name above his head. The name of the top of his head was listing him as a ‘Lum Magi Guild Attendant.’

“Miss Seven?” The NPC asked.

“That’s me. How can I help you?”

“I am Lass, an attendant of the Magi Guild of Lum.” Lass oozed formality as he spoke to them, “We would like to express our sincere apologies as we did not present to you a crucial service of the magi guild during your visit.”

“A crucial service?” Roxxy placed her chin over Seven’s shoulder and interrupted the conversation.

“Yes.” Lass seemed amused by her actions, “When Miss Seven entered our establishment the attendant at the shop determined that she was not yet at a level where she could participate in this particular service. A test of mastery which would allow her access to some of our more lucrative items and information. But recently our guild determined that this attendant may have been too hasty in their decision.”

“Third told you something to change your mind.” Seven realised what had happened.

Lass looked at her but didn’t confirm or deny her words.

“Oh-oh-oh, can I come?” Roxxy could smell adventure.

“Any friend of Mr Third and Miss Seven is a friend of ours.” Lass didn’t seem disturbed by the fact that she was a tank rather than a magi.

“A test, huh.” Seven shrugged Roxxy off her shoulder and walked towards Lass. “Let’s go.”

“So what kind of test is this?” Seven questioned Lass as they began the short walk towards the magi guild.

“The exact test differs depending on the individual, however, I can tell you that there will be three other individuals taking the test alongside you. If you score higher than them, then we shall see what we will do about it.” Lass was more accommodating now that she had agreed to take the test.

“I see.”

‘Three other people.’ Seven wondered if they were other players.

“What is the average level of the people taking the tests?” Roxxy had a sly look on her face as she shot out her questions to Lass.

“We grade the test on a scale from A to F, with a score of A being the best and F being the worst. We determine this grade by the individual score you gain out of a hundred.”

“So what is the average level of the people taking the tests?” Roxxy noticed he hadn't answered her question and asked it again.

“B” Lass replied curtly.

“So there is probably a target system involved.” Roxxy seemed like she was musing to herself but she secretly eyed Lass from the corner of her eyes, “Each person wouldn’t be able to be on the same range. That wouldn’t be a good indicator of base skill. So the guild might separate each test taker. Oh-oh, and maybe to gain a true understanding of skill and mastery they'll limit the test taker to their base attack or magic. Meaning they have to rely on the bare basics to destroy these targets.”

Lass’s eyes flashed as she went further into her train of thought but again he didn’t confirm or deny anything.

“Woah. Makes sense to me.” Seven agreed with her deduction.

Roxxy clenched her fist in victory as she saw Lass staying silent. She believed that she had deduced everything about this mysterious test.

It turned out that she was completely right.

“There will be one hundred targets. We will require you to destroy as many as you can with no set time limit. As a Nimble Mage we limit you to using only your basic magic blast.” Lass sighed as he saw Roxxy celebrating next to Seven.

They were inside a small room inside the magi guild. The entire place was coated in a shade of gray and seemed rather gloomy compared to the splendor of the entryway or the colours of the outside walls.

“All non-test takers will now leave the area. As the test administrator, I will stay with the test taker.” Lass looked pointedly at Roxxy.

“Okay-okay.” She replied in that rapid-fire manner of hers, “I can take a hint.”

Once Roxxy had left the room Lass double-checked the area around them and then smiled.

“The other test-takers are also ready.” Lass seemed to be in communication with other administrators as well as her, “We will begin if you are ready.”

Seven breathed in deeply. “I’m ready.”

A wand appeared in Lass’s hand and he waved it around the room. The entire space warped and transformed at his whim and Seven found herself in a large black space that seemed to span for kilometers. She could see in the black expanse one hundred targets. Some were so close to her that she could see they were simply balls of light that stood still and large. She could probably hit them even if she was barely trying.

After these balls, the next batch of targets was further away but continued to stand still. They were about the size of a rabbit being shot from a medium distance. If she hadn’t practiced accuracy then she would never have been able to hit these almost two days ago. The ones further behind were slightly smaller than the rest, and then the ones behind those were the size of leaves but were moving from side to side.

After that were a few more complex variations of movements, speed and size but Seven knew that shouldn’t even be thinking of those yet.

“You may start. Please try your best to hit the targets. When you are no longer capable of hitting these targets, the test will end.”

Seven could see there was a reason for the lack of a time limit. No matter how good she was there was no way for her to overcome a wall in skill so quickly. They would force her to stop once she had clearly hit that wall.

So she aimed for what she could hit. She smashed her magic blasts through the first few targets easily. It was as if they were giant balls bigger than regular humans at a close-range distance. Next, she breezed through the rabbit-sized balls sitting stationary at a medium range.

That made forty targets easily taken care of.

This was where it became tricky. She aimed her wand carefully as she faced the new set of targets. They didn’t move but they were smaller than rabbits at a medium-ranged distance. She took her time to aim and destroy every single one of them. Lass watched calmly as she took care of all of them slowly.

A few minutes later, sixty targets were down.

Now she had hit her wall. The next targets changed drastically in difficulty. They were as small as leaves and even moved from side to side at different speeds.

She hadn’t even been able to hit falling leaves at a close range until earlier today.

“Do you wish to stop the test, Miss Seven?” Lass had a completely even tone as she seemed to freeze in place.

“Is that what I’m going to tell myself?” She said out loud and seemed to startle Lass out of his emotionless bystanding, “Every time I hit a wall.”

She didn’t want to make excuses for herself. She knew that she had the tools to do this. The targets were moving too quickly for her to hit them with a straight shot. She would have to change the direction of her shots when they got closer to the targets.

The targets weren’t all the same distance away. There was maybe one or two closer to her compared to the others, but from there they simply got further and further away.

‘No, don’t focus on those ones.’ Seven mentally slapped her wrist. ‘Just the two in front.’

But these targets weren’t going down and sideways in random patterns; They were simply moving rhythmically from side to side. So if she could time them correctly she was sure she could hit them. It would require her to use her skills in a way that she never had before.

By now she was vaguely aware of Lass asking her more questions, but even that was fading away. She was concentrating solely on the targets closest to her.

Seven formed a focus point in a small section slightly in front of the moving targets. She could change the direction of her shots using this point. She closed her eyes and tried to imagine her goal. She could visualise the two moving targets and she stabilised the image in her mind. She could see the focus point that she needed to fire at to change her magic blasts’ directions. The targets moved in her mind in the same way, speed and direction that the real ones did. She focused and created a single trajectory that she would use to shoot her magic blasts.

And with her eyes still closed, she fired. Not once, but twice.

Her magic blasts flew true through the air and she could see in her mind that they were nearing the focus point. She started by sending her attack towards the first target. By the time it would reach the focus point she would have to move it slightly to the left to hit the target. She pushed this thought in her head into the focus point as the magic blast reached it. If she had done it correctly the magic blast would hit the target precisely.

She immediately ignored the outcome and instead prepared for the second magic blast.

She shot it out a second later. She needed to redirect the direction change of the focus point to the right. She pushed this thought into the focus point and the magic blast flew through it, flying off to the right as it changed direction.

She opened her eyes and then smiled. She had directly hit both of the targets. But she also knew something intuitively.

This was as far as she could go at the moment.

“Well then,” Lass could read her expression clearly. “We shall end the test here.”

Lass waved his wand and the room turned back into the small and drab gray coated space it had been before. He asked Seven to wait while he received the results from the other test-takers.

“Fascinating. Utterly fascinating.” Lass seemed to be very impressed with something, but she couldn’t figure out what.

“How did I go?” Seven didn’t care about the other test takers that much.

She had already gained a lot from this test even if she didn’t get any items from the Magi Guild.

“You hit sixty-two targets, Miss Seven. That gives you a designated score of D. Had you hit three fewer targets you would have received an E”

“What did you say that the average score for people taking this test was?” She asked Lass.

“B” He replied with a smile and her heart sank.

She had done far, far worse than the average.

“However, that is for the average test taker.” Lass tried to comfort her as he led her out of the room. “Let us meet the other test takers now.”

“Yes-yes, lets,” Roxxy joined them outside the room and she could tell that Seven wasn’t happy with her scores.

‘The girl really is an open book.’ Roxxy found it funny.

“Ah, here they come now.” Lass said as three figures materialised around them.

Seven’s eyes widened as she saw that every one of them looked familiar.

They were all her. Complete and utter replicas of her. Except that they seemed immaterial, almost as though they could phase out of existence at any moment. She could even see through a couple of them.

“You see.” Lass began to explain, “We do not test magi against their peers, not in this kind of test, we instead pit them against copies of themselves.”

“Won’t they get the same score then? What’s the point.” Roxxy asked.

“Yes. That is normally the case.” Lass pointed to the first figure, “This is the Seven we created to match her skills from a few days ago when she entered this continent. She scored an F. She could only hit twenty targets. In all honesty, it was one of the most spectacular scores we have ever given simply because it is so terrible.”

Seven blushed at his brutal honesty.

“And the others?” Roxxy was quick to change the subject away from this awkward topic.

“The second Seven,” Lass looked carefully at the figure and the two players followed his gaze, this one was definitely a little more substantial than the first, “Scored an F as well. She is the copy we created based on the Seven from a day ago. She destroyed forty targets. It is a terrible score if we were to look at all the scores of previous test-takers, but it is a massive improvement that is unmatched, at least in this guild.”

“But.” Lass immediately moved onto the final figure, it still seemed as transparent as a ghost but at least it didn’t look like a single breeze could destroy it, “This is the most fascinating of the test takers.”

“It’s her from today.” Roxxy guessed.

“It is her from the moment she entered the test room.” Lass corrected her guess. “She scored a D. She destroyed sixty targets. The first sixty targets are the easiest to hit and are also relatively stable in terms of skill. You would be hard-pressed to find a trained magi that could not hit all sixty. But from there, the difficulty ramps up tremendously. Only skilled magi can pass the sixty mark.”

“But I didn’t hit sixty targets.” Seven tilted her head. “I hit sixty-two.”

“Yes. You did.” Lass’s eyes glimmered with emotion for the first time since she had met him, “That means that you not only improved tremendously within the last few days that you began to practice magic but that you improved even in the few minutes that you were inside the test. A rate of improvement so quick it was visible to the very person watching you.”

Roxxy let out a whistle and looked at Seven with surprise.

“It is just as Mr Third had told us.” Lass smiled, “When he heard that we had not tested you because of our initial assessment of your skill he was quite shocked. Considering his high test score we were just as surprised by his assessment of you. So it was under his recommendation that we tested you, despite your current skills not being quite up to par with the original testing purposes.”

“What exactly did Third tell you guys?” Seven was curious.

“That you were a ‘monster’” Lass smiled.

He waved his wand and the three copies disappeared. Then he presented Roxxy and Seven with the results of the test.

[62 targets hit: D]

“This presents us with a dilemma.” Lass frowned, “We do not reward scores lower than that of a B. The reason for this is simply because we do not consider overcoming the obstacles present until that point worthy of a reward. However,” he gave her a small gray box from under his robe, “we had made a special consideration in this case. We cannot simply focus on the present, and the magi guild believes that your future will be something that we wish to see.”

[You have received the item; Lum Magi Guild Test Treasure Box]

“This treasure box is special,” Lass began to explain as Seven put the box into her inventory. “It can only be used by you. It contains the same test you took inside the magi guild just now, however, the treasure within will differ depending on your score. If you wish you may take the test again now and the treasure box will provide you an item that it deems a reward suitable for your score. Or,” His eyes shined, “You may wait until you believe the moment is right. Whether that is when you feel that you will score higher than a D, or even when you reach the peak of skill and wish to try and score an A. If you practice and take the test at those moments even we at the magi guild do not know what rewards will come out.”

‘I’d be stupid to take the test again now.’ Seven thought as she thanked Lass for his explanation.

She would definitely keep this on her until she had practiced enough to be comfortable getting at least a B. She didn’t know what she’d receive or what level she would be but she felt it would definitely be something good. She thanked Lass again and turned around to leave.

“B seems a little high for the average, doesn’t it?” Roxxy asked a final question to Lass.

“No.” His eyes gave nothing away, “It would be suffice to say… that to receive and A is a rare event reserved for only the greatest of mages. Your friend Mr Third received a B and did very well within the range of targets that constitutes a B score. However,” Lass said with total belief in the truth of his words, “He never had a single chance to reach the level of an A score. It was simply beyond him.”

“Wow.” Seven remembered the item that Third had gotten from the B grade score.

It was ridiculously good.

“He’s so strong.” Roxxy hadn’t seen Third fighting like Archy and TidalWave but she found herself gaining a new respect for her teammates.

Including the girl walking beside her.

“Let’s check up on the others.” Seven knew they had time left but she felt suitably rewarded for her endeavours.

Roxxy just seemed like she was having fun no matter what she did.

“Actually-actually,” Roxxy turned towards Seven as they left the magi guild entrance and entered the street outside, “Can you show me your practice? Is there a set training method?”

She was intensely curious.

“So you just have to hit the leaves as they fall?” Roxxy had followed Seven outside of the city after the girl had caved in.

Roxxy knew that she would get her way after pleading for ten minutes straight.

*BANG*

“Yup.” Seven jumped back from the tree and aimed her wand carefully at the falling leaves.

She carefully shot magic blasts from a mid-range at the leaves. Normally she would be using a focus point but she wanted to show off to Roxxy and she knew she would probably miss if she tried to change the direction of the shots. It was something she hadn’t completely come to grips with yet.

She hit three of the leaves.

Roxxy was impressed, “So how hard is the training.”

“Usually a lot harder. And I don’t hit a single leaf either.” Seven said truthfully, “Third has an ability that he can use to move the leaves and make them change speed and direction. When he’s here it becomes super hard. Also, I have an ability that lets me change the direction of my magic from going in a straight line to anywhere I want.” She considered how impressive her statement sounded. “Except that I can’t really use it. I’m just not good enough. But it sure makes the practice a lot more rewarding than what you see now.”

Roxxy tried to imagine what Seven was describing and found that she couldn’t, so Seven created a focus point and used it to change the direction of her shots. Of course, she missed every single leaf, but it still amazed Roxxy.

“That’ll be awesome when you can use it.” She could see Seven’s future potential as clear as day, “And that only got you a D in that test. What do you think the others would get?”

“Well,” Seven thought about it carefully, “It doesn’t surprise me that Third got a B. Archy can hit every single leaf and then some if Third isn’t manipulating them. Even then he can still catch the odd one. So I think he would also get a B. Maybe C if it’s really important that he can change the direction of his shots. Unfortunately, that’s something I think only magic-users can do.”

[You have received an invitation from team member ‘Third’ to take on the quest: Greater Dryad subjugation. Information: Kill 500 Dryads. Reward: ???]

[You have received an invitation from team member ‘Third’ to take on the quest: Greater Treant subjugation. Information: Kill 500 Treants. Reward: ???]

[You have received an invitation from team member ‘Third’ to take on the quest: Greater Wilder subjugation. Information: Kill 400 Wilders. Reward: ???]

[You have received an invitation from team member ‘Third’ to take on the quest: Lesser Wilder Archer subjugation. Information: Kill 100 Wilder Archers. Reward: ???]

[You have received an invitation from team member ‘Third’ to take on the quest: Lesser Magica subjugation. Information: Kill 100 Magica. Reward: ???]

Seven whistled loudly as they were both interrupted by a myriad of messages. Third had gotten them a series of quests. She didn’t even know how he’d managed to negotiate with the NPCs in the city to gain the quests but she guessed from Roxxy’s expression that Spark Joy had helped.

[You have received an invitation from team member ‘Archy’ to take on the quest: Greater Signet Woods 1 exploration. Information: Explore the Signet Woods Outer Ring and discover 10 kinds of plants. Reward: ???]

[You have received an invitation from team member ‘Archy’ to take on the quest: Lesser Signet Woods 2 exploration. Information: Explore the Signet Woods Inner Ring and discover 4 kinds of plants. Reward: ???]

[You have received an invitation from team member ‘Archy’ to take on the quest: Greater Signet Woods 1 discovery. Information: Explore the Signet Woods Outer Ring and discover 7 kinds of enemies. Reward: ???]

[You have received an invitation from team member ‘Archy’ to take on the quest: Lesser Signet Woods 2 discovery. Information: Explore the Signet Woods Inner Ring and discover 4 kinds of enemies. Reward: ???]

Seven sighed as more quests entered their vision. She was willing to bet that Archy had waited for the exact moment Third sent the quests to send his own invitations out. But at least with these new quests they wouldn’t be left wanting for anything to do if the dragon treasure turned out to be unobtainable.

“Woah.” Roxxy’s voice held admiration in it, “We’re going to end up so overleveled by the time we kill everything.”

They accepted all the quests.

[You have received the skill: Foraging. You may now uncover and pick up ingredients.]

“I think Third just hoped that even if we didn’t find everything we need to kill we’d still manage to get some done.” Seven started to walk back to the entrance of Lum.

Since they were the closest to the woods, they would wait a few more minutes for the others catch up. They all messaged each other and agreed to meet up and head into the woods.

It was time to find that dragon’s treasure horde.