Walking inside the room, the smell he had experienced earlier intensified by ten. It was like entering a room of five men covered in sweat from head to toe. Needless to say, it was nauseating.

  Putting his shirt over his nose to try and dampen the smell, Damien looked at Russel and saw he was doing no better than himself. “Gular,” Russel said aloud, making the man walk out of an adjacent room and allowing Damien to see him.

  The first word that came to mind when looking at the man in front of him was “Big.” Gular was so big that Damien was forced to look up at him. Sensing Damien’s gaze, Gular glanced over and scanned him up and down.

  “So you are the one taking the test, I would say sorry for the mess and all that, but… I don’t really care. Anyways, let's get this over with. I want to get this over with.”

  ‘Well, at least we can both agree on one thing, that being getting this over with.’ Damien wanted nothing more than to get out of this gas bomb room. “So, how will this test work, and what exactly are you testing? Maya said it had to do with perception or something like that.”

  “Good Maya already explained so I did not have to, but yes, I will be testing your perception. All I need you to do is spread out your perception. Leave the rest to me… also try not to freak out or scream, my ears are rather sensitive to sound.”

  While Damien felt his words were weird, he still followed the man's instructions and spread his perception out to his maximum. Seeing Damien ready, Gular started his process. Long string-like lines started to spread out from every inch of his body, these strings spread out in all directions before attaching themselves to Damien’s perception.”

  This attachment or connection could be felt by Damien, and the feeling was anything but good, in fact, had it not been for his exceptional willpower, he would have done everything he could to get away from here. He could understand why Gular asked him not to freak out, as the feeling was certainly unpleasant.

  After a few minutes, Gular’s ability was fully attached and his hand raised before starting to write with rapid speed on a piece of paper in front of him. Glancing over, he could see that Gular was writing down what he assumed were the parameters of his perception.

  “Quite impressive,” Gular said before picking the paper up and handing it to Russel. “Well, that is that, now I have to ask you to kindly exit my room.” Damien was surprised at the quickness of the test, but nevertheless, he quickly left, wanting nothing more than to get away from this smell.

  Looking over at Russell, he asked about the result of the test. However, instead of getting a response, Russel simply looked at him with a shocked expression before letting out a light chuckle.

  “Kid, your results are going to bring you a lot of trouble.” Russel then handed the paper to Damien for him to examine.

  “15km.” Damien, however, was unsurprised by this result, after all, it was his perception, and he knew how far it could and couldn't go. “Well, what now?”

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  “Now we go back to Maya, show her the results, and then you get your license.”

  “That’s it? The tests were rather basic, no? Also, I feel like someone could fake their results using skills, items, or artifacts that boost their abilities, no?”

  Russel smiled at his words before shaking his head. “We are not stupid, Damien, believe me when I say this, we have our methods, and it is close to impossible not to be found out if someone tried to do so. Many people have tried, and all of them have failed.”

  Damien nodded his head, having no reason not to believe in him. Before long, Damien was standing in front of the task board, looking over the many options available. Most of them were options he was completely uninterested in, such as searching for certain plants or escorting someone from one town to another.

  Suddenly, one of the quests caught his attention, ‘Track down a wanted criminal named Zorak. ’ Underneath that was a picture of the person in question, along with his known abilities as well as other information such as his age.

  However, the thing that caught Damien’s attention was not been the man himself but the place where he was most likely to be located. A smile formed on his face, and he quickly grabbed the quest before looking for others in that area. After some time, he selected three quests, each located around the same place.

  Happy with his choices Damien made his way back over to Maya to show her the quests so she could authorize them, one of the rules for the guild was that upon selecting a quest you would need to show the worker at the front desk each quest you wanted to do before also showing them your license so they could make sure you were doing quests at or close to your rank.

  Looking up, Maya saw Damien approaching her, and a beautiful smile formed on her lips. “Well, I assume you have made your choices.”

  Damien simply nodded his head before handing over the three slips of paper.

  Turning her attention to the items now in front of her, Maya began to read over them before suddenly freezing, her eyes narrowed in disbelief. “Damien… are you sure you want to choose these? Before you answer, let me warn you, the place you will have to go to complete them is not somewhere many people go.”

  Seeing Damien unperturbed by her words, Maya sighed and tried to explain further, however, everything she said was already known to him since Shade had previously told him about it. “Maya, I will be fine, I took these quests fully knowing that where I am headed is not safe and is out of reach of the kingdom.”

  Hearing his words, she could not help but think he was a little in over his head, even people two ranks above him had died there in the past. Damien going there was basically suicide in her eyes… Nevertheless, the quest rank was the same as his, so she could only authorize it and hope he survived.

  “Well, I want to tell you to stop, but I know it's not my place to tell you what you can and cannot do. With that being said, I hope that should you face something above yourself in strength, do your best to survive and then come back, there is no penalty for not completing a quest, and remember, your life is more important than whatever your motives may be for taking on such a dangerous mission.”

  Damien smiled at her words. It was nice to see a random stranger genuinely worried about him, even if she had motives of her own. “Thank you, Maya, don't worry, I’ll be sure to take care of myself and maybe even surprise you.”

  Turning around, Damien headed for the door before hearing Maya’s voice from behind. “Good luck!”

  After walking outside, he looked around, trying to see if Shade was still there however, the man had disappeared and was nowhere to be found. Spending a few moments waiting to see if he would turn up, Damien eventually decided to stop wasting time. After all, he needed to improve his strength quickly, otherwise…

  Letting out a sigh, he made his way out of the kingdom and followed the map installed on the bracelet he had received earlier.

  Steeling his resolve, Damien whispered to himself, “It won’t be long, Ela, until then wait for me.”