Evil Avalon - Volume 2 - Chapter 11

Chapter 11: The Rank-Up Exam - Part 2

“Wh-Who the hell are you?!” screamed the proctor.

The woman dressed as a ninja simply stood there smiling, her hands on her hips.

She wore a side slit miniskirt with tight fishnet stockings beneath. Her red kimono parted in the middle, accentuating her large breasts, and she had a floral-patterned half-width obi tied around her slender, sexy waist. Although I couldn’t see her face hidden beneath a mask, her voice, mannerisms, and the look in her eyes told me she was a stunning beauty.

I noticed she wasn’t out of breath, which was odd considering the speed at which she’d come running toward us. Perhaps her level was even higher than level 20.

The proctor didn’t share the new arrival’s calmness. Far from it, he was clearly agitated because his reaction suggested the two weren’t accomplices. If they had been, I might have had no choice but to pull out my secret weapon.

“For the last several years,” the woman told the proctor, “you’ve committed theft, assault, rape, and many other violations of the guild officials’ code against students of Adventurers’ High, haven’t you? The thing is, the guild has put out a quest to investigate these crimes.”

Apparently, she’d discovered that the perpetrator had targeted only Class E students. As the perpetrator only attacked during rank-up exams, she kept an eye on the list of registered candidates. She believed she would catch him in the act if she waited long enough.

Wait, he’s raping people?! I thought, disgusted. I’m not in any danger, right? I mean, I’m a guy...

“Aren’t you glad I turned up, kid?” the woman addressed me. “This one likes his men big, and that cute face of yours would have given you quite the ordeal.”

He’s a monster. Lock him up and throw away the key!

“Hmph, did it make you feel big, a Fighter like you going after weak little Newbies?” the woman taunted.

“Ha!” the man snorted. “And you’re nothing more than a Newbie. For a second there, I thought you might be serious.”

It seemed both had cast Basic Appraisal on each other. The woman’s well-toned body clearly didn’t belong to a Newbie, so she must’ve been disguising her stats with Fake, like me. I’d thought most adventurers dropped skills like Basic Appraisal and Fake when they broke past level 20 to free up valuable skill slots for important skills... Maybe her character build focused on fighting other adventurers like mine, or perhaps she kept the Fake skill for covert activities, true to her ninja appearance.

“Adventurers’ High is the root of all evil,” declared the proctor. “And I will purge the world of every rotten person associated with it with my own hands. If you’re going to stand in my way... I won’t hold back.”

“So, that’s why you rape people? You’re nothing but a pervert.” The woman began laughing at the proctor.

The proctor screwed his face up in contempt for her. He unleashed his Aura, seeming convinced of his victory. Regardless, the ninja kept smiling as if his Aura were only a light breeze. She was at least ten levels higher than him, so his Aura had no effect. At this point, the proctor would’ve had to consider whether she was persevering through the Aura by sheer will or if she was truly stronger than him. Naturally, the former was what he appeared to believe.

They stood facing each other, both smiling. The fight would begin any second... But there was something I wanted to clarify.

If the ninja defeated and arrested him, I would fail my rank-up exam and get nothing for the exam fees I’d paid. I wanted to see whether we could come to an arrangement first.

“Sorry to butt in, but what about my exam...?” I trailed off.

I explained to the ninja that the rotten proctor had torn up the document they had assigned me to retrieve and changed the exam to a one-on-one fight. Since I didn’t want to duel another person in single combat, I asked the ninja if she’d let me take him to the guild after she defeated him.

“No way,” she replied. “I don’t have time for that. You found him before me, so I’ll let you take him on if you want.”

“Huh? You want me to defeat him?” I asked.

“If you’re not strong enough to take him down, then sit down and watch the professional at work like a good little boy.”

I exhaled as this was becoming a huge pain. She was a stranger, so I would’ve preferred not to let her see me fight... But it might be better for me to take down the proctor.

“Okay,” I said, relenting. “I’ll deal with him. No need for you to stick around.”

I hoped that she’d take the hint and leave, but...

“Ooh?” purred the ninja, her eyes glowing with intrigue. “Have you got a trick up your sleeve? I can’t wait to see it!”

Oh, for God’s sake, I thought.

“Ha! You think you can defeat me? I’ll take you both on!” exclaimed the proctor.

The proctor continued showering us with his Aura, which had no effect except to piss me off all the more. I was ready to explode because I came here for one reason: to take an exam. Why did everyone need to make things so difficult?!

Would I be able to get by without using Manual Activation? The ninja surpassed my level, so there’d be no problems as long as I could keep her quiet.

“That’s settled, then,” I said.

“Just you, kid?” asked the proctor. “That’s a shame. I wanted to save you for the main course. Ah, I know! I’ll only beat you half to death, then I can enjoy you later.”

The vile proctor licked his lips and began to slowly approach me, stopping to face me when he was five meters away.

Everything’s his fault, I thought, so there’s no reason to hold back on him.

First, I checked him out with Basic Appraisal. He had the Fighter job and strength listed as “pathetically weak,” which meant he was at least five levels lower than me, level 14 or lower. He only knew three skills, one of which was Basic Appraisal, meaning I had nothing to worry about.

However, the information I’d gleaned might not be accurate. He could be using the Fake skill, like the ninja and I were, to disguise his data, making discerning his true strength almost impossible. Manipulating your data was standard practice for those who primarily fought against other adventurers because false stats made opponents underestimate you. In that sense, Basic Appraisal wasn’t an accurate measure of strength.

For this reason, I kept an appraisal wand in my rucksack that could see through disguised stats. But the proctor didn’t seem like the subtle type, so I was confident he wasn’t faking his stats.

“Tell you what,” offered the proctor. “I’ll give you a handicap. I won’t attack you for the first ten seconds. You’re too low level to understand right now, but I’ll demonstrate how much stronger I am.”

Why was he so utterly convinced by what he’d seen from Basic Appraisal? Fake was the very first skill every Thief learned, and Thief was a run-of-the-mill job. It was like the idea that I’d faked my stats hadn’t even occurred to him, which was bizarre.

He strolled over to a spot two meters away from me, not drawing his weapon and lying down on the floor. Clearly, he thought he could dodge anything I threw at him. I wanted to wipe that arrogant smirk from his face.

“Are you gonna be okay?” asked the ninja with concern, placing a hand on her cheek. “I wonder... Are you faking your stats?”

If I were level 5, I probably wouldn’t land a single punch on him. But I was at level 19. He’d have a tough time dodging my attack and a rougher one if he kept his guard down.

I leaped forward. Even though the proctor wore light armor of mithril alloy, a thin leather piece held together the torso component, and said area would be vulnerable to a strong attack concentrated there. I instantly crossed the two meters between us and drove my fist into him, striking his solar plexus. The sensation in my fist told me that I’d hit my mark.

“Oof!!!”

A direct hit from my full-strength punch, with all the weight of my physical enhancements, dealt the proctor a severe amount of damage.

I made him fly backward several meters, where he sat clutching at his stomach with a look of incomprehension. He appeared to have trouble breathing, but I would not show mercy to this prolific criminal. I struck him again.

While he sat there in agony, swaying, I kicked his head and forced him to the ground. I stomped on his right ankle, breaking the bone. There was no way he could get away now. Next, I broke his right shoulder to make sure he couldn’t activate any skills, just to be safe, and I grabbed him by the collar.

“Pay attention to what I tell you,” I warned. “If you put up a fight, I’ll break more of your bones.”

The proctor yelped.

I explained I would call guild officials here, then ordered him to confess to tearing up my assigned document when they arrived, including all his other crimes.

He didn’t reply to my order, only whimpering and wailing.

“What do you say?” I pressed, my tone threatening more violence.

“Y-Yes! I’ll... I’ll do it!” he said as he cried, suddenly more receptive. “Please don’t hit me again!”

He continued with his annoying screams and cries after that, so I hit him once more and knocked him out.

I looked down at him and tutted. “Good armor like this is wasted on a rapist.”

“Why don’t you take it for yourself?” suggested the ninja. “For your troubles. He’s in no position to complain.”

His armor was the type adventurers around the level 15 mark frequently wore, and it would cost several million yen to purchase new. Leaving the armor with a rapist would only make it easier for him to commit crimes, and I helped myself to his armor to put it to good use. I could get the felbull gloves and boots dry-cleaned, and the rapier was a fitting weapon to keep.

“You don’t go in for half measures, do you?” said the ninja with a chuckle as she watched me eagerly strip the man and equip my looted armor. “What I cannot get my head around is how you know the Fake skill...”

Because she used the Fake skill too, I couldn’t figure out why that would surprise her.

“You can have him and do what you like after I’ve reported to the guild officials,” I told her.

“But you’re the one that defeated him...” she started. “How about this? I’ll give you half of the quest reward.”

She explained that if I gave her my terminal’s contact details, she’d share her reward once she had turned in the quest. The reward was over a million yen, so I happily accepted. And all that money for knocking out a level 14 nobody! I’d found another reason to want to increase my adventurer class.

We sat down and chatted to kill time before the guild officials arrived. The ninja revealed she belonged to a state-affiliated clan that assisted in guild-related investigations that weren’t public. She also wasn’t allowed to tell me the name of her clan.

I’d assumed organizations like that would exist, but I hadn’t thought this sexy ninja would be a member of one. I got her to disclose that her adventurer class was of 4 and that she belonged to a clan composed entirely of Thieves.

So she’s class 4?

Classes 1 and 2 were essentially bestowed as titles, so the highest class was effectively class 3. Therefore, class 4 was the second-highest and carried influence at the Adventurers’ Guild. She appeared to be around level 25 as well, and a person so strong wouldn’t belong to any ordinary clan.

And so, we continued talking about nothing in particular until the guild officials I’d contacted arrived. I filled them in on what had happened as they took the proctor away, and the ninja confirmed my version of events, making everything go smoothly.

When it was time for her to leave, she winked at me and said one final thing that caught my attention, “Before I forget... One of our trainees is a student at Adventurers’ High. Say hi to her if you see her.”

The trainee was apparently a cute girl, though I doubted I’d get a chance to meet her. No one knew Class E for being members of powerful clans.

I’d recorded the proctor confessing to tearing up the document I was supposed to retrieve for the exam and headed to the Adventurers’ Guild to hand that in. The extra hassle bothered me, but I didn’t want to lose my shot at ranking up.

Unfortunately, they told me my exam results would depend on the verdict at the proctor’s trial, which was at least a year away. There was no way I could wait that long, so I gave up on arguing, mourning my loss of nine thousand eight hundred yen.

On the upside, I’d gotten some new armor and couldn’t grumble too much. I could always return to take another exam when I had the time.

Cheered up, I decided to return to school in the morning for the first time in quite a while.