"Hm~~ Hm~ HmmHmm~~~"

Kuro hums a tune which was a song his brother's and him liked in the past as he was changing into his battle gear.

"Kuro, what song is that?"

"Ah, this? It's called 'Ileojima jebal'[1]."

"'Ileojima jebal'?"

Kuro stood up as he finished gearing up.

"Well, it's a song no one but me is familiar of. I heard it from a group of passing adventurers when I got mad at Rai one time."

"Huh, never heard of that song."

*BANG*

A loud noise that came from the dressing room near them. It was Gran who opened the door loudly.

"Those words... They must be from an ancient civilization seeing as even I, a monster born with unquenchable curio-"

"Oh please, read a book first."

"As if you did!"

"It's undeniable that I'm smarter though."

As they messed with each other, Levy knocked on the door.

"Guys, let's go."

""" 'Kay."""

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"That's your battle gear, Kuro?"

Bea asked Kuro as she looked at him up and down.

Kuro was basically wearing a small, black, short-sleeves jacket with multiple pouches inside. Its sleeves reach down to his elbows. His left arm was wearing a gauntlet with a small crossbow, whose string isn't present, but rather replaced with a mana string instead. His right hand only had a small ring on the middle finger. On his waist, a bladeless hilt was present. He wore long dark pants, it was oversized to the point wherein his feet were covered. He also wore a dark undershirt.

"Why? What's wrong with it?"

"It looks... Bad. Really bad."

'Query: Even I, as your guide, has to say that it is also bad.'

'I didn't ask for your opinion, Guide.'

Kuro then looked back on his memories, to remember all his bad clothing choices. On his past life, he had a bad body figure as well as bad looks, so for him, he didn't care if his clothing choices were bad seeing as he'd look bad at anything. Right now, his face, though not princely nor handsome, was still quite decent.

"Meh, let's just ask Rai to change it later. I don't really care about my clothing choice, as long as it's functional and it fits my needs, it's good for me."

"Still... If we're going to be S-rank adventurers, we need to be role models!"

Bea's optimism made Kuro smile. Their dreams to be S-rank adventurers were supported by Kuro, who only wished to be a lower ranking one. His aim was to live normally and happily while achieving his contract of becoming the strongest one to wield his own full power.

As their laughs and voices echoed throughout the hallway, they finally reached the arena where they'll be tested. On the other side of the arena, there was 5 teachers. Most likely, they'll be the ones to test them out. Kuro then looked to the arena's seats. There, he saw more teachers, Merlin, some of the school staff, and Rai himself.

"Alright, remember the order?" Kenny asks as they stood at the stairs.

"Kenny will go first to test out the waters, then Gran will be next, he'll go ahead and show the teachers our speed. Then, we'll let Levy out next, she'll be the one to show the strongest one, and then Bea will surprise them with her mastery over all the elements, and then Kuro will do whatever he wants. You got that?" Rai asks them as he sat down with all of them.

"Wait, why do we need to surprise them?" Bea asks.

"Well, the goal isn't to defeat them or overpower them, it's to surprise them and get them to invest in you kids. All the teachers here are either ex-B-rankers, ex-A-rankers, or even ex-S-rankers. Getting them to teach you is much better than me teaching you kids. But Kuro wouldn't need that."

"Why?"

"It's because I'm sure he wouldn't need any. Correct?"

"Well... Meh. Too lazy." Kuro says as he starts to undress in his dressing room.

"That's Kuro alright." Kenny says with a disgruntled face.

"Yup, that's our leader. Lazy as always." Gran says as he shakes his head.

"Haha, now then, let me show you your opponents' profiles." Rai says as he took out a bunch of paper.

'How come he doesn't need any teachers? Is he already that far away from us?' Bea's thoughts of not catching up with Kuro began to plague her. However...

"Bea. Look, it's about to start." Kuro nudged on her with his elbow.

Kenny stood there in front of the teacher. The teacher he was about to fight is Elina Walfrud, of the 'Mage slayer' class. She was an ex-A-ranker and took on mercenary-type quests, killing many people deemed by the higher-ups as "worthless beings". After failing to kill one of her opponents, but instead of killing each other, had began to have feelings for one another, she quit her job and became a mother. She started to work in the school so she could also monitor and teach her child.

"Are you ready, kid?" The teacher asked as she took out her daggers.

Kenny then proceeded to take on his stance, releasing huge amounts of mana as he prepared himself, "Ready Ma'am!"

"START!" As Merlin shouts, a barrier was immediately erected around the arena's battleground.

Immediately, Elina dashed on to Kenny, aiming at his shoulders. Kenny immediately reacted by hardening his shoulders, but she then shifted her daggers in a flash, changing her target from his shoulder to his tendons instead. Kenny failed to defend it, and suffered a painful injury on his right foot. He then slammed down to her using his left fist, but she dodges quickly. As Kenny missed, the ground cracked immensely, and with this, Kenny injected mana releasing spikes from the ground, not letting her gain any time to take a step. He underestimated her however, as she stood in the air instead.

"Good reaction, immediately defending the targeted part as soon as I aimed for it is good judgement. However, you lack experience."

Kenny pants due to his injury being his first injury to hurt that much. The lingering pain was quite unbearable, especially since her daggers were placed with a paralysis enchant. Together with the annoyance of not being able to walk all that much, all Kenny could do was sit down. As he sat down however, he placed his injured right leg down below the earth.

Kenny opened his palms and started to clap his chest and the ground like a Gorilla would. As he beat the ground, he stopped with a satisfied look.

Elina then dashed on to his head, hoping to defeat him immediately. However, as she got closer, Kenny clapped the ground and she was suddenly met with a blast under her, covering her vision with dust. As she was still fixing her vision, another beat was heard and she face planted on to a huge rock in front. As she freed herself from it, she was immediately punched on the gut, and flew to the other end of the arena.

Then, multiple beats were heard, and Kenny started to chant.

"Mother Gaia, creator of this world..."

Elina then continues to dash on to him, only to be met with more dust clouds. Annoyed, she puts up a wind barrier around her.

"... Hear my heart as I beat my land..."

As Elina got close, Kenny immediately covered himself in earth and dashed on to her. With no way of stopping it, Elina had to jump up and get out of his way as he went to the other side of the arena.

"... Hear my plea as I declare my body onto the earth..."

"Tch, damn it."

Kenny took out the earth walls so he could breath more easily. However, Elina created wind slashes directed to him. Kenny blocked the majority of them, but he earned injuries due to some of them connecting.

"... I am Kenny Rockbourne, heed my commands 'Gaia's heart'!"

As Kenny beat the last beat, the earth spikes suddenly broke off, and drums formed by the earth rose up and lined itself in front and around Kenny.

"Eh?"

To Elina, who was prepared to take a full blow, was surprised by his sudden set-up. This was very unusual, considering he had chanted for some time.

To Kenny however, only gave him time to stretch, "IT'S SHOWTIME!"

Kenny then beat the drum once, and a punch out of dirt immediately rose and hit Elina. Elina, though she didn't fly away this time, was surprised. Kenny hit the drum again, and another fist flew out of the ground below her.

'I see... This is annoying!!!'

She then charged at him irritably. All Kenny did, was warm his body up... Then he played a song. It was one of the songs Kuro played in his hums unnoticeably [2].

With each beat, more and more fists flew out and tried to reach her, but to no avail. She was too fast. By the time she reached him, Kenny immediately sunk down along with his drum set and appeared at the other side of the arena. By the time Kenny reached the chorus of the song, the beats immediately hardened, the small fists that flew out of the ground turned huge immediately, and they were faster than ever.

Elina, surprised with the change, was suddenly overwhelmed by the amount of fists that flew from the ground, but her pride wouldn't allow her to lose that easily. Elina ran on the barrier's side as she tried to evade the flurry of fists. The ground wasn't safe anymore, and Kenny just passed through the first chorus. As he passed through it, the fists shrank a bit and also became a bit slower. This was her chance, using that, she stepped on the ground, and charged at him head first.

Kenny then dove back underground, but she was prepared for that action of his. She threw a wind bomb to Kenny's location, and by the time he pops up, he'd lose... Is what she expected. Instead, when Kenny rose up, he saw the bomb and hit it with his forehead. She was surprised, but so was Kenny. Kenny lost his rhythm, and because of that, his song stopped. Without wasting an opportunity, she dashed right to him, but he wasn't moving.

'What's he planning?!' 'If he just took on my attack like that, is he going melee?' These thoughts plagued her, and because of that, she had to think of countermeasures. In that instant, she threw another wind bomb, but Kenny took it again without flinching.

"Elina, stop the match!"

As she heard the sudden shout, she stopped as he had said. She looked around to see Kuro and Gran going to the arena.

"Merlin!"

Immediately, a hole in the barrier opened up. Kuro and Gran then went to Kenny, who proceeded to destroy the ground around his right leg and carry him.

"Eh?"

"Sorry about that Miss Elina, but my friend here ran out of mana."

"Eh?"

"So Miss Elina, what's the results?" Rai spoke, as he was next to them.

"Oh uhh... Question, what was that magic he did? He suddenly made drums and fists flew out, what was that?"

"Ah, that... That's an original magic that was made by me, but implemented by him. It makes use of rhythm, the better the rhythm, the stronger it is and the less mana it will consume. However, it could be easily stopped. If you were to interrupt him by him dodging or blocking an attack with his body, the rhythm will be broken and all of his mana will be consumed as compensation. I told him it was a last resort-type of magic, but I never expected him to use it so early on."

"I see... Wait, original magic?!"

-TBC-

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdUiCJnRptk

[2] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFYA7iYRrdI