".. if you see it's not working, don't hesitate to withdraw." I looked with a smile at wolf beastkin warrior clad in leather armor as she instructed her minotaur companion. Judging from a collar, the Minotaur was her slave.

"See? This is what I meant when said that you care about me. Don't worry, Master, nothing can stand against my swords." said the minotaur with a grin while tapping his 'swords'.

Do all minotaurs treat Greatswords as one handed weapons?

"It's .. it's not like this .. I just don't want to lose all the money I spent on you." she said with a red face.

As a girl in love, I recognized another. Despite her act, she treats him with care. They reminded me of us while I was still a slave. From her scent, body language, I'd say one month till they hit the bed.

As we were waiting for the start of test, I was observing other participants. By now there was nearly twenty of us. Two of them were slaves. One was the Minotaur I just observed, while other was a female Orc. She wasn't as lucky with Master, the elf treated her no better than a dog.

Judging from the gazes of three orc warriors, I could guess that the elf might receive a beating at the end of test.

"My name is Ardmor, you may call me "Red". " suddenly a Minotaur clad in Heavy armor shouted at us. I guess his red skin was a source for the nickname. I never saw them with red skin, some rare variant? "I will decide if you passed the test so you will do good by remembering it. Now when I ask, state your class, role in a party and your way of fighting so we can assign your opponent accordingly. And don't even try to say something like 'I act alone'. Depending on the request, you often will have to work with others. We can't allow you to shame the name of adventurers by hitting the allies. This is especially the case for mages, as their spells can do a lot of harm if used without care."

Everyone started to describe themselves. They were scouts, rangers, warriors, or berserkers. The elf with orc slave was actually a summoner.

"My class is Reaver, can deal damage at melee and with recently acquired guns, from range as well. Usually, I keep the attention of enemy on myself." I said when it was my turn, and summoned 'Hano' type gun. I plan to use guns often so there was no point in keeping them a secret.

"Reaver?" the Minotaur looked at me confused.

"Hmm, a warrior that can use mana." I said and summoned 'Phantom claws' on the hand with gun.

"Unique class? Well, it doesn't matter for now." said the Minotaur and looked at Phoenix.

"A wizard, attack with fire magic and guns." said Phoenix and summoned a 'Hano' type gun as well.

After few more warriors and the human mage, Red finished with the list.

"Ok. With this, we can start. Follow me" said Red and all of us followed him through the gates that lead us underground.

*

"As adventurers, there are two type of enemies that you will face. Those are monsters, predators or just dangerous animals. While other: Bandits, assassins, spies and other criminals. If as an adventurer you falter when it's time to act, a life of innocent might be lost." said the Minotaur and gates behind him opened and a group of people in shackles were brought by city guards.

"The life that adventurers protect depends on their ability to act when it's needed." said Red then looked at people in shackles and started announcing the names. "Those are criminals sentenced to death for the crimes they committed. Just in case, we even checked them with the help of Pixies .." he continued talking while I looked at the criminals.

Yes, this is a different world. I can understand the reason behind it, but .. But there is no way such thing would happen in my old world. While I have no problem with killing .. it leaves a bad aftertaste .. basically, we will kill only based on his word. We were not there when Pixies confirmed their crimes.

"Make sure to use 'analyze', those names were announced for a reason." I said to Phoenix while looking ahead. Four of 'criminals' had different names from the ones announced. Just how many tests did they hide in this one act? At least we don't have to do it in public, but I guess that would be a poor show.

All of us had to kill one criminal each. The one in front of me had the same name as one announced, so he should be the real deal.

"What was the crime you committed?" I asked him out of curiosity.

"I am innocent, they got the wrong guy .." he started deny. But I stopped listening. He was a good liar, my lie detection even faltered a bit, but from his scent, heart beat, and body language I could still detect it.

Lie Detection reached level 2. Lie Detection reached level 3.

I guess level one was good only for people who seldom lie.

With one claw of summoned phantom claws, I sliced him in half. Guards did nothing .. even when people with wrong names were killed.

"Why haven't you killed him?" asked Red while looking at Phoenix.

"His name on 'analyze' doesn't match with any of announced names." and as Phoenix said that, the Minotaur smiled from ear to ear.

"Fuck!" cursed one of the dwarfs and quickly used 'analyze' orb on the corpse and immediately sighed in relief.

"Yes, you are right. Though all of them were criminals, you didn't knew that. This was a test as well. While in combat you will have no time to check for their names, nor will it tell you if they are criminals. This was not a death and life situation, the least you can do is to check if you kill the right guy." said the Minotaur and looked at the others.

"Some of you were lucky and I can't do anything about it, but I hope this taught you a lesson to be more careful." he said and then looked at the orc slave.

Her elf Master passed the test only by luck, but it was the end for her. In the end, only she and a fox beastkin warrior failed the test, human mage passed it by checking the name just like Phoenix.

*

"♪ On behalf of Adventurers Guild, I welcome you all to the ranking tests. Today those brave men and women will try to prove they are worthy of being called E rank adventurers." when we returned to our seats, on a special podium near the Arena, a dryad in a fancy dress shouted to the crowd. Her voice could be heard all over the place, must be effect of some enchantment.

"♪ Rank E represents reliability, experience, teamwork and .. strength! Only with strength can they defend those in need. Only with strength can they defeat monsters that still roam our lands since the days of 'Dark Ages'. By fighting monsters here and now, they will prove that their strength is enough to be .." she continued after the crowd cheered.

"Just how much gold they make from this?" whispered Phoenix while looking at hundreds of people.

"Enough to cover the cost of capturing monsters alive, organizing this .. and a 'bit' extra." said Red with a grin. He was nearby and overheard Reveon.

"Ok, listen up guys and girls. We will soon start individual fights where you will face a monster or monsters alone. The Arena is protected by a powerful barrier so you can go all out without worries of harming someone outside. As long as you are within the Arena, shouting 'Retreat' will teleport you there, this will make you fail the test, but if you can't handle the opponent, your life might be saved." shouted the minotaur again when the dryad was finishing with her speech.

" .. ♪ Our first participant will be Mauro. He is a beast tamer and his two trained wolfs will help him in the fight." announced dryad and from our side a man of wolf beastkin race left to the Arena with two large wolfs following close by.

"♪ Beast tamers are versatile and can be scouts or even vanguards during the battle. He will face a level eighteen Direbear!" said the dryad accompanied by cheers.

When beast tamer reached the center of Arena, gates opened and a large bear entered our sight. Even on all four, it was two meters tall, and red glowing eyes made it look demonic.

Without any signs or commands, both of wolfs charged at the bear from two sides. One of them was snow white, while another black. The bear roared and then sweep with his claws at the white wolf. The wolf jumped back and avoided the strike while black wolf used this moment to bite its leg.

The beast roared from pain and sweep at the black wolf that injured him. While black wolf jumped to the side to dodge, it was now white wolf's turn to bite at the leg. It was hit and run tactic, and with one wolf covering another, very effective. Beast Tamer wasn't sitting idly and the moment any of his wolfs attacked fired an arrow.

From beast thrashing around, he missed eye just by centimeter, and the arrow barely pierced the skin. With timing matching injuries made from his pets, the bear paid him no mind, and after few failed attempts one arrow finally managed to pierce the eye.

*ROAR*

The bear went berserk and after setting his eye on the Beast Tamer charged at him with a fury. Injuries on his legs slowed him down considerably and wolf's never stopped making new. Seems the Beast Tamer knew they can't seriously harm it and aimed to cripple him from the beginning.

After one more arrow managed to pierced the last eye, it was only a matter of time before the battle is over. Neither bites nor arrows could deal serious damage, and the direbear died only from bleeding out.

"♪ What a wonderful battle. Those wolfs were trained well. But this is only a start. We still have much more battles to watch. The next is Elmor!" shouted the dryad with an excited voice.

Elmor was a slave minotaur I watched at the beginning. I couldn't help but chuckle when looked at his Master. The girl was biting her lips from worry as looked at his departing back.

" .. ♪ as Berserker he will face a group of direwolfs." finished the dryad when I looked at the Arena.

Gates once again opened and three Direwolfs slowly walked out, their gaze was quickly directed at the Minotaur. They were oversized wolfs, only a bit smaller than a horse. I already fought against some in the dungeon. Basically, a direwolf is just bigger and faster wolf. Well, maybe ordinary wolf can't jump from tree to tree like some monkey, but other than that it's a wolf.

The direwolfs started slowly circling him from all sides, but still not attacked.

The Minotaur leaned head from one side to another, making cracking sounds in the process, pulled out both two-handed swords and after looking up roared from the top of his lungs.

As if the roar was a command to attack, two direwolf's charged at him from two sides, while the last one only made preparations to charge waiting for an opening.

With a spinning motion, Minotaur was swinging his swords forcing wolfs to dodge without rest. The dance continued for a while till one wolf was a bit late to dodge and the sword pierced through the chest. Another wolf charged again and caught his free hand with the sword.

With one hand caught by direwolf, and the sword of another stuck in a corpse, it was a perfect opportunity for the last wolf and he charged with his jaws wide open.

Minotaur quickly leaned and stabbed charging wolf with his horns through the throat, then with a sharp movement of the body tossed the wolf into the air at least two meters high and released a loud roar. He slowly looked at the last wolf that was still holding his hand with teeth and grinned. He released the sword still stuck in the corpse of another wolf, grabbed with now free hand the top of wolfs head and with both arms (one on top of the head, other still in the jaws) turned his head upside down.

Impressive, it could be done better, but nonetheless impressive. When I looked around, expressions of everyone said they were of the same opinion.

"♪ Just as expected from a minotaur, impressive display of strength." Finally recovered the dryad.

"So, how was it, Master?" asked minotaur after returned from Arena.

"Let me look at your wounds!" almost screamed wolf girl.

"This? It's only a scratch .." said Minotaur, but I quickly lost interest in their chatter when I heard next words of the Dryad.

"♪ Next is Reveon Sile'dur .."