Hero of Darkness

Chapter 21: Meeting an Expert

Kahn walked inside the adventurer association hall to register as an Adventurer.

Why did he choose this profession? Because it was his current best choice.

Mainly it will allow him to enter regions such as forests and dungeons where he could hunt for monsters and increase his strength by absorbing their skills and eating their cores. Also, no one would be asking questions about what he was doing in such places if he was a registered adventurer and had an ID with him.

And this was also a quick way to make money on the side. As working as a bodyguards like Elanev had suggested would restrict Kahn in many ways. Plus his income would be limited and there would be times he'd have to be escorting people or acting as security which would be a total waste of Kahn's time.

Even though the Flavot city was the best place for Kahn to build his strength, he won't be staying here long and would eventually leave for bigger cities and places where he could gain more power and authority. This city was going to be his first step in his journey.

Coming back to reality, Kahn noticed that many people sitting in the hall were looking at him with surprised gazes as if he had something they desperately wanted.

Kahn paid no attention to the greedy gazes and walked towards the receptionist counter. Exactly towards the same counter he went to the previous day to sell the cores.

As the old man watched Kahn coming towards him, he instantly recognized the young man and adjusted his glasses. But then he was startled after noticing Kahn's attire.

[What the..? Did he rob a bank or something?] he old receptionist asked himself.

"What are you doing here again? Didn't I tell you to hide somewhere for few days? Those people from the Groundhog adventurer team might be still looking for you." said the old man in a worried tone.

"If they want trouble, I'll give them one. Besides, I'm not the type to hide in fear from anyone." Kahn said as he rested his right arm on the counter, leaning towards the old man.

"Anyway, I'm here for my adventurer's license. You mentioned I have to take some kind of test, right?" asked Kahn as he remembered yesterday's conversation vividly.

"Ah.. Young people.. Always thinking too highly of themselves." the old man sighed as he took out some documents and gave them to Kahn.

"Fill these up and deposit 20 Silver Dramus for the test." said the old man as he passed on the documents.

"Understood." said Kahn and went to a vacant table to fill in his information. He wrote made-up details which were essential for approval and returned to the counter.

"By the way, what's your name old man?" asked Kahn.

"It's Malcolm. And stop calling me old man. Or you'll never get your registration done." said the old receptionist with wrinkles on his forehead, as if he hated being called an old man.

"Okay, okay. I got it. So what kind of assessment do I have to go through?" asked Kahn curiously.

"Nothing much. You just have to fight and last for some time against one of our instructors. They will also decide whether you are qualified enough to do work as an Adventurer like hunting in the forests or dungeons and even work as a bodyguard for commission." explained Malcolm.

"I'm ready when you are." replied Kahn in a carefree manner.

"Follow me." said Malcolm and took Kahn to the inner side of the hall and then they entered towards a small training grounds within the association building.

Kahn saw more than a dozen of people doing weapon practice and magic chanting practices under the instructions of people wearing the association uniform. These were obviously the instructors.

As they neared towards an open arena made specifically for combat practice, Kahn saw many people queued up in a line.

"Where's Alvin?" Malcolm asked the nearby instructor.

"He called in sick today. Saying he won't be able to come to work for few days." replied the nearby instructor.

"Sick my ass! He's probably still in a brothel and drinking even more booze to get over his hangover. That bastard is never reliable." shouted Malcolm.

Just then, a solemn voice came from behind where they were standing.

"Since Alvin is out, what if I do the testing today?" said an old man who had completely long white hair and a short beard. He appeared to be in his fifties.

"Arkham.. You? Nevermind, just go easy on the kids." said Malcolm as he shrugged his hands helplessly.

The other people around Kahn who also came for the assessment started cursing under their breath. Kahn who had extremely accurate hearing even for a long-range thanks to one of the abilities he absorbed from a bat-like monster, clearly heard everything they said.

"We're so screwed! This guy never holds back in a test. We had chances to pass in front of Alvin, but Arkham never approves of anyone." said one of the men.

"Who's he exactly?" Kahn intervened in their conversation.

"Don't you know? That's Arkham Holland, the A-rank Adventurer who is also a Grandmaster Rank Magic Swordsman. He's one of the 3 strongest Adventurers in the entire city. To get him as the instructor for our assessment is like hitting a stone wall with a pebble. Only God knows if we'll be able to pass this time." replied the man as his back arched like an elderly man.

To this revelation, Kahn felt very different compared to the others. Because unlike them who were worried about failing the test, Kahn's eyes were full of joy and expectations. Because he would get a chance to fight a grandmaster level swordsman which will help him improve his Weapon Mastery.

Kahn understood just from what the other guy told him that grandmaster rank swordsmen were very rare even for a city as big as Flavot City that was no smaller than big metro cities from his previous world. So naturally, this encounter would be a very rare chance to learn from an expert.

Kahn queued up in line as Arkham took a wooden sword from the weapon stand and started the tests.

Kahn was standing last in the queue and tried to get a good look at the combat test.

The old man Arkham held the wooden sword with a benign smile on his face, looking like a completely harmless elderly person who would even struggle to cross the street.

But just as soon as he started, Kahn's eyes widened with surprise and his Survival Instinct started alarming inside his head. Unlike the other people standing in the line, Kahn could feel the aura coming out of Arkham.

This gave a sense of dread to Kahn as he understood that the man in front of him was no joke. Just the aura he gave was more than enough to suppress Kahn on the spot who was at the end of the queue.

Arkham who was waiting for the first examinee to attack him suddenly squinted his eyes and looked at Kahn without making it obvious to notice.

He could feel Kahn trying to gauge his strength.

As soon as the first examinee charged at Arkham holding his giant axe and swung it with full force, the old man simply took a step back and avoided with a hair's breadth.

SHOCK!

Kahn was completely shocked!

To someone without keen senses, this looked like Arkham barely managed to survive the attack and luckily dodged it, but to Kahn who had his reflexes and senses reached to a level beyond normal people, everything was as clear as water.

Arkham didn't move to dodge at all, rather he was allowing the giant axe to pass close to him. It wasn't that his reflexes were weak, rather he was holding back his original speed to make it look like the attacker barely missed the old man.

Kahn kept staring at Arkham with an ogling gaze.

This man was a true expert!

In the next second, the examinee swung his axe at Arkham's head, trying to land a fatal hit.

Just as the axe came close to Arkham's face, he quickly flicked his wooden sword and the entire direction of the swinging axe was changed in just a second.

The axe landed on the ground with full force, the wielder also losing his balance and stumbling on the ground. Just as he tried to lift the axe again and move to attack, the wooden sword already landed a hit on his neck.

"Fail." said Arkham with solemn eyes.

The examinee hung his neck in embarrassment and left the training ground.

"Next!" shouted Arkham and the test continued.

And just as Kahn had expected, not a single one of these examinees managed to last in the test for a minute let alone land a hit on Arkham.

Let it be a close combat class or a long-range attack class like Mages & Archer, none even came close to make Arkham move more than 10 steps before he took them out effortlessly.

Finally, Kahn's turn came and he entered the training ground.

He didn't stand on a ceremony and took out his new long sword which was no shorter than 5 feet or maybe even longer. He held it tightly in both his palms, settled his footing, pulled the sword hilt close to his chest and pointed the sword tip at Arkham as he took a defensive stance.

Kahn looked at the old man with determined eyes and said,

"After you."