Trials

I walked through the mess of tables where the patrons of this inn where sat. The other four followed me through the door, when they came in, the onlookers didn't know who to look at.

I still had most of the attention centered at me. I was the biggest, probably the most hulking among us all. I glanced at my biceps for a moment and realized that I really did have big muscles.

The patrons were clad in armor, some dusty and broken while others shined and looked pristine. A few brave souls were looking at me, Diplomat and Yeti with smug faces while others looked at Snake with lustful eyes.

Snake, being accustomed to this back on Earth when we were still fighting in the wars, had grown to tolerate them unless they made a move against her or any of us.

I reached the counter where I assumed the receptionist or someone similar would be.

Then I realized, I couldn't speak this world's language. Hell, I have never spoken at all since we got here.

The receptionist over at the counter was trembling. She was either fearing for her life or intimidated, maybe both.

I gestured Diplomat to come and take over talking for me and he walked in front immediately.

"Hello there, milady," Diplomat said. The rest of us stood behind him in a curved line forming a sort of shield to protect from attacks on any side.

Some of the patrons released themselves from their attention towards us and continued drinking and eating. As Diplomat started his talk with the receptionist who was obviously blushing right now as compared to when she was looking at me, the people in the inn's lobby were more diverse in equipment and looks than when I first looked.

There was a surprising number of women within the groups of men. Some were wearing odd clothing I could describe us something from a fantasy convention back on Earth. The hair colors were diverse as well, green, blue, red and golden sprinkled about.

I then noticed, nobody had black hair.

"It's odd that nobody has black hair," Yeti said, noticed it as well.

"They all look ugly and some are scrawny," Snake said.

"When has anyone looked handsome for you, pretty face," Yeti teased.

"Shut up, prick," Snake retorted.

"By the way, how is the little girl holding up?" Yeti asked.

"She's doing fine, well, she's standing behind me right now but I think she is doing fine," Snake said as she turned her head to look at the little girl who was indeed standing behind her, holding onto her back.

I thought everything would go on smoothly from this point onwards but of course, that wouldn't be the case.

[Warning: body movements of the group in front are becoming odd. They seem to be holding onto their weapons, mainly swords. The only female in the group is holding onto a sort of staff. I have categorized it as a magical weapon, please be cautious]

"Oh great," Yeti said as he frowned at the group Eva was referring to. The group consisted of 3 men and 1 woman. Upon further inspection, they were the ones who stood out most among the patrons. The three men were all clad in full armor with different colors but weren't wearing any helmets. The woman was wearing a sort of purple robe whilst wearing an odd wizard hat.

"Great, now we have the three stooges and their grandma," Snake said, frowning at the woman with the staff.

"They don't understand what we're saying so they're probably thinking of it right now," Yeti said.

"These dimwits, I hate their faces," Snake said.

I could see a bitter atmosphere fill the room as the standoff between us and the group ensued. Tensions rose until I thought it was at the breaking point when one of the men stood up from his chair and walked towards us.

"Excuse me, miss, I would like to know your name," The man said while massaging his hair.

"Ah yes, so he's an idiot," Yeti said and then smirked.

The man looked at Yeti offended and decided to try and grab Snake's hand.

[Snake, you're ordered to cut off the man's arm if necessary]

I didn't really order that, it was just a thought but it works too.

"With pleasure," Snake said. A smile appearing on her face, her eyes turning bloodshot red. The man froze in his place. He felt a fear he never knew existed that pierced his heart and messed with his mind. He began to sweat profusely, slowly, he backed out.

"Hm, coward," Yeti said.

The man then returned to his seat, embarrassed but it seemed like the fear had faded and was replaced with a hurt pride.

"These buffoons surprise me, hell, is this really what it's like in a medieval society?" Yeti said.

"Don't ask me, ask a historian," Snake said.

"I see you lads are having fun with the locals," Diplomat had just finished talking to the receptionist. We all turned around to look at him, the receptionist was considerably sweaty.

"What the fuck did you do to that girl's head," Snake leaned in near Diplomat's right ear with a menacing look.

"I charmed her, as usual," Diplomat shrugged her off.

"How the hell did you even manage to charm her with such a underhanded knowledge of their language?" Yeti asked.

"With help from Eva of course, she showed me possible sentences and words I could use," Diplomat answered.

"Great, we have pretty boy and super computer in tune," Snake said.

"How is that a bad thing? Anyways, back to business. I decided that we would find a job here in this Port City before anything else," Diplomat said.

"That's all well and good but I think we should discuss this somewhere private, these fellas over at their tables don't seem welcoming," Yeti pointed out.

"Right, well then. Let's go outside and find a good place," Diplomat proposed.

"Can't we just stay in a room in this inn?" Snake asked.

"We're broke," Diplomat answered.

Yes, we were broke.

We all got out of the inn and found ourselves back the vibrant and alien streets of the port city of Graven.

As we walked through the edge of the city, we found ourselves near the city walls.

"So this port city is walled off, it must be strategically significant?" Yeti said.

"Must be, why would they invest in such a expensive defensive structure," Snake said.

"Well, there are less people here, so I'll start discussing what I got from that receptionist," Diplomat said.

"Go on,"

"Beyond these walls is a forest simply named "Great Forest" it's a forest not teeming with the usual wildlife we see back on Earth or the taiga but instead is full of 'monsters' or so they call the creatures," Diplomat said.

"Monsters? Like, the goblins we encountered back at the taiga?" Yeti asked.

"Yes and no, I asked the receptionist about the monsters and she explained that the monsters here at the forest are what they call 'common' monsters while the goblins at the taiga are 'rare' monsters. Furthermore, there are also other kinds of monsters like feral orcs, horned wolves, and the most dangerous of them all, slimes,"

"That last monster seems underwhelming," Yeti said,"Slimes, from what I know, are the weakest among fantasy creatures,"

"How do you know that, Yeti?" Snake asked.

"I remember reading about them when I was young," Yeti answered.

"You remember your childhood?" Snake looked confused.

"I think so,"

"Anyways," Diplomat continued, "This wall serves as protection against hordes of monsters that might appear from time to time. She told me that there were more kinds of monsters but to know more, we must inquire at the Hunter Guild,"

"Hunter Guild?" Yeti asked.

"A Guild for people they call hunters. They are said to be people who hunt monsters for a living, do job requests, basically glorified mercenaries with a twist," Diplomat said.

"Sounds boring," Snake said.

"Are they the ones manning this wall?" Yeti asked.

"No, the local militia provided by the Empire man these walls. They number two thousand in total, quite a few in number," Diplomat said, "This city is at the northernmost tip of the Empire's territory, literally at the very back of the frontier. Only monsters pose a threat,"

"So, are we going out to inspect these monsters?" Snake said as she took out her knife.

"You're going to scare the little girl with that thing," Yeti warned.

"Nope, she's been holding onto her own knife since we got out of the inn," Snake said. We all then looked at the little girl.

She was holding knife, playing with it with shining eyes.

"I.. see.."

"If we register minto the hunter guild. We may be given jobs and more opportunities to understand this world further, shall we go?" Diplomat asked.

"We need Ghost's approval for that," Snake said.

All of them looked at me, waiting for my approval.

Well, if that was the most advantageous. Why wouldn't we?

[Ghost approves]

"Alright then! Let's head to the Hunter Guild and register as Hunters," Diplomat announced.

"You'll be doing all the talking though, we can understand but can't speak the language, you know," Yeti said.

"I know, I know. But all of you need to learn it eventually or else we'll have troubles in the long run," Diplomat said.

"Roger,"

-

We arrived at the Hunter Guild building not too long after. We were greeted by a receptionist who explained to us we needed to undergo a series of tests to see if we were eligible to become hunters.

We left the little girl to their care for awhile. They lead us to a wide room that was located under the main building. There, we were asked to show our combat and magical abilities.

Diplomat explained to the instructors that we possessed no magic power so we couldn't cast magic. This greatly upset most of them but they still let us do the physical tests and combat tests.

The tests were mainly focused around hand-to-hand and close quarters combat using swords but we were given free reign to choose whatever weapons we wanted.

I asked Eva to warn the group not to use any of our rifles but instead use daggers or our bare hands instead to avoid unwanted attention.

The first to take the physical exam was Diplomat. He was asked to do fifty pushups which he did without even breaking a sweat. He was then asked to run a distance equivalent to 1 kilometeras fast as he could. They said that the record was 57 seconds. They belittled Diplomat, saying that without magic to enhance his running, he'd probably fail.

They were dead wrong.

Diplomat finished in just 30 seconds.

Snake finished in 34 seconds.

Yeti finished 46 seconds

I finished 32 seconds.

They all had their jaws open. The remaining physical trials were merely a breeze for us. Lifting, jumping, crawling, dragging a boulder, even Snake thought it was easy.

Up next was the combat test.

They asked us to act as a group which was a surprise, we were told we'd do the combat tests individually.

The instructors then gathered around in a circle and started chanting. A large circle appeared on the floor below them with letters and symbols drawn inside it. They then jumped away and a creature manifested over the circle after a brief flash of light.

"We have summoned this Class A monster. We never thought we'd get the chance to use it, if you defeat this, you'll be given a sure Platinum rank!"

The creature was two times bigger than me, had monstrous muscles and a bull's head.

"Behold! A minotaur!" The inspectors cheered.

"They think we'll fail," Snake said.

"Let's show them what we can do," Yeti said.

"Let's go!"

The four of us split up and surrounded the minotaur. It then swung its fist at Snake. The swing was faster than expected but Snake managed to dodge it and grab onto the back of its hand.

Yeti then charged at the beast and pounded his entire body into the minotaur's left side before Diplomat slid in and kicked its left leg out of balance, the result was that the minotaur fell down to it's right.

The inspectors looked in awe and terror as the famed beast they were so proud of was restrained by three humans.

"M-monsters.." One of the inspectors said.

They underestimated us. We were taller, stronger, and smarter than the average man. We were no ordinary humans.

We were soldiers of the United Bloc.

I stepped over the creature's chest and walked over to its head. As it struggled to breath, I gave one final look to the instructors watching. I gave them a good frown that sent shivers down their spine.

Diplomat, Yeti, and Snake all smiled.

I clenched my right fist and launched it at the minotaur's face.

Blood splattered all over the floor, our faces, and clothes. Its head reduced to a shadow of its former self.

The three then let go of its motionless corpse and stood right beside me.

The instructors were speechless.

"And with that out of the way, you are now Platinum plate hunters! You can check the board over to the right to check for available jobs you can take with your rank, thank you,"

The reception bid us farewell with a pretty neat voice. Diplomat gave his thanks and we all headed to the board of jobs.

"Nice, so we get the hardest jobs," Snake said, excited.

-

[Have you seen anything like them?]

[No, of course not! Not only did they break all the records set before by the diamond ranks, they took down a Class A monster!]

[They're a valuable addition. Even though they do not possess any magic, these strangers will prove to be beneficial to the guild]

[I'm not even sure if they're human.. I looked at them closely, they were taller, bigger.. they're unnatural!]

[Do you think.. they're the mythical demigods?]

[If they are.. then the Empire may have a chance of bringing back the southern territories]

[We must first watch them closely, if they prove themselves to be even more powerful than the diamond ranks, we will promote them to mithril and send word to the Emperor]

[But if they are nothing more than fakes, we'll deal with them accordingly]