Calamity Upon This World

As Bella, William, and all of their spectators arrived at the basement room, William had a pretty similar reaction to Jasmine, but unlike Jasmine, William had a mask on, so he just appeared stoic.

Once they arrived, all the spectators took their seats among the guest chairs, leaving William and Bella alone in the middle of the room.

"Sir, here at adv-" Before Bella could start explaining the basics again, she was interrupted by William, as he said.

"Skip the yap, just explain how the test works."

"Ah," Bella was a bit surprised by the sudden rudeness of the man named John, but she didn't let it show on her face, as she said.

"Very well in that case."

"For this test, please choose a level between F and B rank, and once you've made your choice, you'll need to fight a beast of your chosen rank, and if you win, you'll be officially recognised as an adventurer of that rank."

"Do you have any questions?" She asked.

"No, and for my chosen rank, I'll go with B rank," William replied.

Bella smiled upon hearing his answer; unlike last time, she didn't try to discourage the man in front of her; she had already learned to not judge a book by its cover, and besides, just from what she had seen and heard about the man a few minutes ago, B rank should pose no problem for him.

"Very well, sir."

With that, she summoned a cube from her spatial ring and placed it on the ground.

Once placed, the cube grew in size; however, this time the cube grew much bigger than the one used for Jasmine's test.

That was because the beast they were using for this test was the strongest B-rank beast they had available.

Bella wanted to gain a proper understanding of the strength of the man in front of her, for which she needed a monster with high endurance.

Which is why the beast she had chosen was perfect.

As the exterior of the cube came off, a caged bear was revealed inside.

It was a bear who was over 3 metres in size and had thick brown fur along with a black X scar on its forehead.

The Thickmatte Bear was a unique type of monster they had captured on the neutral continent.

It was infamous for its monstrously thick fur, which was impossible to pierce, which resulted in its insane endurance.

It was also strong enough to snap an adult male in half like a twig.

And yet it was still treated as one of the weaker monsters on the neutral continent.

And according to some research, it was a particularly favourite food of dragons for unknown reasons.

Once the beast was on full display,.

"Hey, is that thing really a B rank?"

"It looks so tough."

"Yeah, I didn't think I could slay that."

"Isn't this a bit too unfair for just a registration exam?"

Many such murmurs could be heard among the observers of today's exam.

These murmurs did not go unnoticed by Bella, intending to quell the doubt she asked.

"Do you have any problems with your chosen enemy?"

"Nah, it's fine," William replied, not minding the difficulty.

"Since your enemy is stronger than the average beast everyone else fights, it's only fair that we let you re-assert the test in case you lose."

Usually adventurer guilds had strict rules of only letting each candidate take the exam once, but just like everything else, exceptions always existed.

Hearing her words, William chuckled as he boldly announced.

"Nah, I'd win."

Hearing his words for some reason, no one felt like he was bluffing but rather that he was just stating the obvious, and with that whole exchange over, Bella walked away, joining the rest of the spectators.

Once she was gone, the same golden barrier as last time materialised.

With the barrier erected, the bars containing the bear inside were opened, unleashing the wild beast contained inside.

Unlike the tiger that Jasmine fought, who was careful at the start and observed its enemy,.

The bear had no such thoughts as it ran towards William.

Seeing the charging bear, everyone was excited, anticipating a grand fight.

Unfortunately for them, William had other plans as a gigantic red magic circle materialised.

Its diameter covered the entire inside area of the barrier.

And before anyone could react, William cast his strongest fire magic (flame eruption) as a humongous pillar of flame covered everyone inside the barrier.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!

A deafening explosion erupted, causing a ringing noise to resound inside the heads of all of his observers.

Even the barrier that was supposed to contain the explosion had massive cracks on it, with the barrier threatening to break; however, it quickly repaired itself.

Once the smoke cleared, what caught everyone's attention was the pristine figure of Edge Lord standing unharmed in the middle of the barrier with not even a trace of dirt on his clothes.

And as for the bear, there was no more bear, and unlike the time with Jasmine earlier, where blood was splattered everywhere, this time there truly was nothing, not even ashes left.

The only word to describe the reaction of everyone observing the whole thing would be bewilderment, with most of them doubting their own eyes.

As William observed the reaction of his audience, he was once again reminded of why he fell in love with magic in the first place.

While yes, he could've still won even if he only used the sword, the fight wouldn't have been as one-sided, and it wouldn't have had the same effect on his audience.

While many argue and call theatrics useless, William would disagree with that.

His past life had taught him a very important and brutal lesson on repuation.

One he never intended to forget.

Another thought that was clawing at the back of his mind was about how easy it was and that even despite possessing enough strength for at least A rank, he would have to waste his time on B rank missions, which would give him fewer merit points compared to A rank missions.

But before he could fully delve into this thought, a voice called out to him.

"Hey boy, wanna skip ranks straight to A rank?"

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