“Kurat!” She calls over one of the guys, who was sparring. “We got another one, please give him an assessment.”

The man walks over. He is pretty tall and has a way too deep blue color in his hair and beard to seem natural. Most of the naturally occurring colors, even if bizarre by the standard of my old world, has a very light shade to them. I wonder if he dies it? Does hair dye even exist?

“Greetings, I am Kurat” He says, extending one of his hands, which I meet in return.

“I am Yian.”

“Kurat here is our go-to assessor for anyone with gifts.” The lady who guided me explains.

“Does that mean we will spar?” I ask.

“Ahhh, there will be that too, but we start by assessing whether you can carry yourself correctly and how hard you can hit.”

To be honest, I feel like going all out. Something about spending all that time in low gear, not braving much. I have since been acquiring all this new magic and I experienced its power with my newly invented running technique. I want to go all out.

“Not to sound arrogant, but…” I feel myself starting to retreat, because of how outrageous what I was about to say sounded in my head.

“Don’t mind it, spill your heart, lad!” Kurat encourages me with a big smile and I go for it.

I am long past being challenged by a single person I think. “Can I… Fight everyone here at once?”

Upon hearing my words, Kurat’s smile fades into a thin line bent downwards, the lady who guided me gave a gasp and others around who caught wind of it turned their heads.

Kurat’s smile returns once again. “Ha, young’uns, am I right?” As he exaggerates a laughing pose and turns to the other men, who laugh with him. I don’t bother correcting him. According to Patir, they could ask for my age, due to how young I look. If they do, I am supposed to say that I am 16, so that I can harness the most time without it being suspicious that I don’t look older as time passes.

Kurat turns back towards me and narrows his eyes once again. “You’ll get the highest assessment possible as long as you beat me in a spar. Is that not good enough for you, kid?”

I was disappointed. Of course they wouldn’t agree to such an outrageous idea. I accidentally sigh.

“Now listen here, you little shit!” Kurat was ticked off by it and approached me aggressively. Damnit, I didn’t intend to anger them.

“Sorry! I will be honored if you had a spar with me!” I try to correct my behavior. He seems to cool off a little.

“Whatever, fetch some training gear from over there and let’s get started.” He practically talks through his teeth. He is really pissed.

“What about the preliminary assessments?” The lady asked, but Kurat simply shaked his head.

“Boy may be stupid, but no one is going to pull off such a stunt without at least some talent. What’s his gift?”

“He didn’t say. It apparently has an obvious weakness, if you know how it works.”

“Much like mine, huh?”

I come back to the chatting pair with a wooden sword and shield. They spoke quite loudly so I heard their conversation even the 30 feet or so I was away.

“Right, get ready. We will start in 3, 2, 1.”

As the countdown finished, I thought he would rush at me, due to how pissed he seem, but he doesn’t. He instead steps firmly, one by one, each foot sneaking his position closer to mine, displacing the sand that makes out the ground of the yard. Guess I will test him out.

I use a light bestowal and aim for his shield with full physical force. But it was like hitting a brick wall. While the arm buckled a little under the strike, it didn’t push him back one bit, even though this would have send most men flying. I smirk a little. I may have found another like Spetus.

I don’t long to think, as he quickly swings his own sword after receiving my strike. I could easily dodge it, but I move my shield to block it to feel his strength. It barely registers, though. Just the strength of an adult man. It leaves me somewhat disappointed.

I think of ending it quickly and bestow my legs and my sword-arm moderately. I dash within his striking distance, past his shield and turn to deliver a heavy slash to his back, buck while body shakes a little under the contact, but again he stands firm, his feet not giving in. I am a little intrigued.

He turns to face me after I delivered the slash. “Impressive speed and power. If it were real swords, I would already be dead by now.” He seems a little dispirited. “Guess you win… Or, are you up for a little challenge?” A smirk appears on his face.

“Sure.” Might be interesting.

“If you can knock me off my feet, I will make sure you are first rank by today.”

“I couldn’t get first rank normally?” I ask.

“We normally demand five year’s experience of leading parties for first ranks, since they are often looked up to as leaders and will have to take on such roles at special requests.” He looks over at the lady who guided me and she shakes her head. Indeed, in my imagined backstory for this interview, Patir had me be 16, who delved into the dungeon alone at 12 and started leading parties one year later. That would only give me three years of experience.”

“But we can always fudge some paperwork. Now come, strike my shield with all your might!” He seems excited. He did feel insanely sure on his feet. Heavy too, like I was trying to knock over a house by swinging this wooden sword at it. I look at the sword and discard it, as I had a feeling it would break.

High-level bestowal is over my legs, gaining speed, and I prepare to unleash the same on my right arm. At the same time, hardening is cast on both my legs and the arm I am going to swing. I close the distance in a fraction of a second, using the momentum to carry my super-charged fist towards his shield.

As my flesh makes contact with the shield, it splinters, it meets the arm underneath and pushes it all the way to his chest, where it rests against.

I feel enormous resistance, but he rises nonetheless. I feel like I am uppercutting a building and succeeding. But something is wrong.

As he is going flying, so is the ground beneath my feet. In fact, the sand almost clings to this feet, sending not only him, but a massive half-sphere of sand with a hole from where I was standing flying.

It felt like a few minutes, but I guess it lasted less than second. Kurat had spectacular been knocked on his ass and a large chunk of the courtyard had followed.

“Argghhhh!” I hear a scream after he landed. “My arm! My frigging arm!”