Chapter 47 - Testing

Chapter 47: Chapter 47 - Testing

The Imperial Administration Bureau was a monumental structure made of polished obsidian stone and white stone that towered over the surrounding district.

As Vincent followed Maelle into the foyer, he paused himself, confused at the sight. The interior was surprisingly empty and silent, save for the rhythmic clicking of heels and the soft scratching of quills from a few clerks behind the counters.

"That’s weird. I kind of expected this place to be packed with a bunch of lively, loud people talking about monster hunts and taking quests off a giant wooden bulletin board."

"You are thinking of the Adventurer’s Guild." Maelle corrected him.

"This is the human branch of the Imperial Bureau – a government facility for civil registration and legal documentation. There are also other separate, dedicated branches throughout the city pertaining to the beastkin, elves, and dwarves, etc."

"Ah, right. Bureaucracy. Boring in every world."

They walked up to an open reception desk. The middle-aged clerk behind the counter looked up, saw Maelle, and instantly stood at attention, bowing deeply.

"Y-Your Highness Princess Maelle! How may the Bureau serve the Royal House of Ebonspire today?"

"Send an urgent messenger to the Imperial Academy immediately. Inform my personal maid, Gwen, that she is to meet me here without delay. She is to bring a cloak and enough coin as well."

"Right away, Princess!" The clerk frantically scribbled a note onto a parchment, handing it to a waiting page boy who darted off through the side doors.

"Thank you. Now, inform the General Manager of this branch that I require his presence. We will be taking our business of registration to a private chamber. "

"Y-Yes, Your Highness!"

"Pssh. Ok, Karen."

Maelle stopped, narrowing her violet eyes at Vincent. "Who is Karen?"

"Inside joke. Don’t worry about it."

Within minutes, a well-dressed man with slicked-back hair and a sharp mustache came rushing out from the inner offices, wiping sweat from his forehead with a silk handkerchief.

*Ahem* "Y-Your Highness Princess Maelle! What an honor to be in your presence! I am the manager of this Bureau, Gable. I was told you required a private registration?"

"Yes. Due to circumstances, I haven’t been at the Academy for the last few days since summoning my Familiar here. I require a full registration, an updated Citizen Identification, and a private classification assessment."

"A-A Familiar registration?" Gable’s eyes darted toward Vincent standing casually beside the princess.

"... Pardon me if I’m incorrect, but this young man wouldn’t happen to be... S-Sorry, that’s a silly thing for me to say–"

"He is the Familiar I summoned, yes."

Gable visibly suppressed a jolt of shock as his professional demeanour kicked in.

"Very well, Princess. Right this way please."

Gable led them down a long, carpeted hallway on the second floor into a private room.

He produced a blank, glowing parchment scroll and two silver needles.

"First, the legal binding verification," Gable instructed, giving the needle to Vincent and Maelle. "A single drop of your blood onto the parchment will permanently bind your profile to Her Highness’s record."

After Maelle dropped her blood onto it, Vincent pricked his finger next, and let a single drop of his blood fall onto the scroll.

The parchment flashed with a bright golden light, absorbing the blood before transforming into a sleek black card that had the official crimson crest of the Ebonspire family.

Gable handed the card to Maelle. "Your Familial Identification has been updated, Princess. He is now legally registered under your name."

He then turned to a rack of magic testing equipment. "Now, for the Familiar classification. We must determine his primary functional combat archetype. Does he specialize in Attack, Defense, or Support?"

Vincent raised his hand casually. "Do all three count?"

"Young man, Familiars only specialize in a single archetype. Two if they are an exceptionally gifted magical beast. We must pick one."

"If he says he belongs to all three, then he belongs to all three," Maelle cut in, leaving no room for argument. "Test him in all three categories, Gable."

"Your Highness... surely there is no need to waste your precious time. No creature or entity over the last millennia possessed complete mastery over Attack, Defense, and Support. Let us simply pick his primary affinity and call it a day–"

"Either test him in all three, or I will report your incompetence directly to the Magistrate."

"P-Protocol shall be followed immediately! Right this way to the combat testing hall!"

Next, Gable led them into a massive, fortified arena which was on the third floor.

With a nervous wave of his hand, Gable summoned his own magic circle. Out from the glowing runes stepped a ferocious, scale-covered beast, boasting razor-sharp claws, leathery wings, and two abnormally huge, protruding front teeth.

"This is my personal Familiar – a Wyvern," Gable announced proudly. "I call him Bucky, because of his unique front teeth. He is a B-Rank attacking class type."

Bucky lowered his head toward Vincent, letting out a soft, high-pitched, squeak that clashed with his terrifying appearance.

Vincent’s eyes lit up in wonder. "Hey there, Bucky. What big teeth you have."

*Ahem!* "The Defensive Test shall begin first! You must defend me from Bucky’s assault for two full minutes without executing any counter-attacks against him. If Bucky breaks through your defensive layer, you fail. Do you understand?"

"I just gotta defend you? Understood," Vincent nodded, taking a few steps back to stand beside him.

Gable raised his hand. "Five... four... three... two... one... BEGIN!"

Bucky let out a fierce roar, whipping his wings up in a gale of wind as he charged straight at them with terrifying speed, his claws raised ready to strike.

Vincent didn’t drop his posture. He casually stood beside Gable with his arms crossed. Right as Bucky’s razor-sharp claws were inches from hitting them, Vincent’s brown eyes flashed with a shimmering, ethereal blue light.

BOOM!!!

A translucent, golden-and-blue barrier came into existence, completely blocking the Wyvern.

Bucky his body into the barrier with a heavy thud and rebounded backward.

Gable’s jaw dropped while Maelle simply watched with mild surprise.

Annoyed, Bucky roared again, unleashing a frantic flurry of claw swipes, tail whips, and biting attacks against the shimmering barrier.

Clang! Clang! Boom!

The barrier didn’t even vibrate. Not a single crack appeared.

Vincent looked at his fingernails and yawned. "Tick-tock, Manager. Time is running down."

"Bucky! Go all out! Break that barrier!" Gable ordered, giving a binding command.

Bucky his head reared back, his throat glowing a bright molten colour before unleashing a swirling torrent of scorching fire directly onto the barrier.

Flames engulfed the entire defensive zone, burning violently for nearly a minute straight.

When the fire finally died down, Vincent and Gable were still standing there unharmed.

Vincent snapped his fingers and the barrier dissolved into thin air. "Two minutes up, Manager. Defensive test complete."

"Y-Yes. I... I see. Impressive. Extremely impressive... Next is the support test. You must apply an enhancement buff to Bucky that measurably increases either his attack power, speed, or defense. Multiple buffs may apply."

"Uhh..."

Gable smirked, regaining some confidence. "What? Can’t do it?"

"No. I can do it," Vincent clarified, stepping forward toward the panting wyvern. "It’s just... casting supportive buffs on others is still a work in progress for me. Hold still, Bucky."

Holding Bucky’s snout gently, Vincent deliberately pricked his thumb against one of Bucky’s oversized buck teeth, letting a single drop of divine blood slide into the wyvern’s mouth while channeling a tiny fraction of his power.

FWOOSH!

Bucky’s eyes burst into a blinding golden light as a swirling, translucent aura of blue and gold energy erupted around the wyvern’s body.

He let out a deafening screech of pure, unleashed power, launching into the air and flying around the massive arena with blistering speed.

Gable was nearly blown off his feet by the wind pressure. "W-WHAT IN THE WORLD DID YOU DO TO HIM?!"

"I buffed him."

"YEAH, NO SHIT!" Gable shrieked, ducking as the hyper-buffed Wyvern zipped past his head like a jet.

"I’ve never seen him move like that in my entire life! For now, your Support Test will remain incomplete until we test the final parameter, but we will move onto the Attack Test now!"

Gable pointed a trembling finger at the flying beast. "For the Attack Test, you must subdue–NOT kill–Bucky in his current enhanced state! Think of it as a friendly spar! Beat him within two minutes, and you pass!"

"Got it." Vincent nodded, turning to face Bucky.

Taking three strides back, Gable began counting down. "Five... four... three... two... one... BEGIN!"

BWOOSH!

In a blinding burst of celestial light, Vincent unleashed his divine form. Glorious, feathered white wings exploded from his back, his brown hair turned into ethereal blue, along with his eyes.

Before the wyvern could even process what was happening, Vincent reappeared from above, tapping Bucky lightly on the snout with two fingers infused with divine power.

"Adios, muchacho."

BOOM!

Bucky went shooting down from the air like a meteor, crashing heavily onto the floor and rolling three times before crashing into the wall, leaving a giant hole.

Lading softly on his feet, Vincent winced awkwardly. "Oops... sorry."

"BUCKY!"

Gable scrambled across the floor in a panic, sliding on his knees to the unconscious wyvern’s side. "NO! BUCKY! TALK TO ME!"

"He shouldn’t be dead... probably."

Bucky let out a dizzy, pathetic little squeak as his tongue lolled out of his mouth. He was fine, just dazed.

Gable let out a huge sigh of relief, clutching his heart.

He looked up at Vincent with wide, terrified eyes, trying desperately to maintain his professional facade. "Y-You... pass the Attack Test... Now... for the final Support parameter... heal him!"

"Right."

He pricked his thumb again, and gently pressed a drop of blood onto Bucky’s forehead, channeling a gentle wave of soothing divine power.

’I really need to find a better way to do this.’

SHINE!

The dizziness left Bucky’s eyes. He popped right back up onto his feet at full strength, tail wagging like a puppy as he happily leaned down and began frantically licking Vincent’s face with his huge tongue.

As Gable stood frozen, he slowly turned his head to look at Vincent’s majestic wings, his blue hair, and his glowing eyes.

"What... Just who are you...?"

"Who am I? I’m just your friendly neighbourhood familiar, Angel-Man."

"A-Angel-Man???"

"There," Maelle interjected. "He has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he fits all three categories. Proceed with his ranking classification so that we may leave."

"R-Right! Yes, Your Highness!" Gable scrambled to his feet, frantically digging through his coat pockets until he pulled out a perfectly clear crystal orb.

He held it out to Vincent with trembling hands. "P-Please... pour your mana into this assessment orb. It will rapidly change colors to reflect your magic capacity and potential. Once it settles into a solid color, that shall determine your official rank."

Vincent took the orb in his hand. "What are the ranks and colors?"

Maelle offered a faint, secretive smirk. "It doesn’t matter. If what I know about you is correct... the orb will break."

"WHAT?! Break the orb?! Your Highness, that is impossible! The assessment orbs are made of refined dragon-crystal! Only the Legendary Hero from half a million years ago ever managed to shatter one!"

"Wait... the previous Hero had a Familiar?" Vincent asked Maelle.

"Yes."

"Really? What was it?"

"It was a legendary, disaster-class EX-Rank Leviathan," Gable explained, his voice full of reverence. "Simultaneously an ocean and sky dragon of catastrophic proportion... the Hero named her Levana."

"LEVANA?!"

Vincent slapped both hands over his mouth as his mind exploded in chaos.

’Levana?! You’re saying the small fish that lives in my dad’s fishbowl is a Leviathan monster?!’

*Ahem* "Young man, shall we proceed?"

"Yeah... yeah. I overreacted a bit. Sorry. Let’s just get this over with."

Vincent focused his inner power and slowly poured it into the clear crystal orb.

SHEEN!

The orb ignited like a dying star. Colors flashed violently across its surface, blasting through the ranks at terrifying speed!

Gable stared in terror as the magic capacity shattered through S-Rank, SS-Rank, and spiked straight into SSS-Rank.

Suddenly, the orb began to violently vibrate, swirling with a dark, ominous crimson cloud. Cracks spread rapidly across its surface like a spiderweb until–

CRACK! SHATTER!!!

The dragon-crystal orb exploded into sparkling dust particles, dissipating harmlessly into the air.

Gable fell back onto his butt, pointing a shaking finger at Vincent as his voice squeaked. "Y-YOU’RE... YOU’RE–?!"

"An EX-Rank," Maelle finished with a satisfied smile.

...

Vol 1. End