Heavy Metal

"The guild is pulling a scam again."

"Be quiet. What if they hear you?"

"But how else do you explain this? Only one person passed, and that guy doesn't even look strong. I bet he's all skin and bones under that armor."

Rusty didn't turn his head as the whispers continued around him. The moment had come for him to step into the spotlight. He moved forward, the sound of his armored boots pressing into the dead grass surrounding the makeshift arena. The murmuring began to die down. Bets had already been placed, and clearly not many believed he had a real chance at victory.

His opponent, a man named Melville, stood off to the side holding a half-eaten piece of bread. After every fight, he would wander away and grab something to eat. His build was lanky, which didn't make much sense. With the amount of food he consumed, he should have been much heavier, yet somehow he stayed thin.

" ( •̀⤙•́ ) "

"I agree. They aren't taking us very seriously, but that's a good thing, Gleam."

His ant companion was perched on his shoulder and jumped to the ground for the time being. This challenge wasn't only about personal fighting skills, and using tamed monsters was perfectly acceptable. Not everyone excelled at solo combat, which made this test feel somewhat odd. A person specializing in a support class would certainly struggle against a close-range fighter, but perhaps those individuals were undergoing a different kind of assessment. From what he had seen, every participant in the combat test so far had been some type of fighter.

"He has a class that I haven't seen before…"

While observing from a distance, he decided to take a closer look at the man's class. Since the man was not currently engaged in combat, he felt confident that no one would notice he was gathering information about his next opponent.