Early TBAGM Vol. 2 Chapter 2 Part 2

Full title: The Banished Advisor’s Guild Management

Note: If you found any typos/mistakes, pls write them in the comment. Thanks.

Translator: Canon

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“Now then, we’ll begin the practical exam.”

Ellis and the others had moved from the classroom to the training grounds, the very place where Ellis had once destroyed the Orichalcum mannequin.

“For the practical, you’ll use attacks appropriate to your own profession to destroy that target. Healers and rear-line support will go later, stand down for now.”

About ten of the roughly sixty examinees stepped back.

The targets were wooden, the same type Ellis had practiced on for three years. The distance was thirty meters, well within range for standard magic, and a perfect run-up for gladiators.

“We’ll go in order of exam numbers. Use any spell or skill you like to damage the target.”

Ellis’s exam number was last, so she would also take the practical last.

“Alright, I’ll go first!”

Brimming with enthusiasm, a young man stepped into position; one of those who had mocked Ellis earlier. Confidence practically leaked from his expression.

“Heh heh heh, feast your eyes on my magic.”

He thrust his right arm forward and spread his left hand up to half-cover his face.

“By the blessing of fire, burn all to cinders with my searing flames!”

In a pose that was… questionably cool, he began his incantation.

(Whoa. What is that… how lame.)

Ellis recoiled at the sight of a mage preparing to cast. In “Veiled Moonrise,” Ellis was the only mage; before joining, she had trained on her own and hardly worked as an adventurer. She had simply never seen a mage chant before.

Of course, the chant itself was legitimate, though the stance was clearly the young man’s personal flair.

“【Fire Cannon】!”

Shouting the spell name, he launched the blazing sphere that formed before him.

The fireball was larger and faster than 【Fireball】.

When 【Fire Cannon】 struck the target dead-on, it vanished with a soft hiss.

(Huh? Did it fizzle?)

The unexpected result made Ellis tilt her head.

The target wasn’t shattered or even charred through, just nicely browned on the surface. Yet the examinees reacted in a way utterly different from Ellis.

“““Whoooooaaah!”””

A beat later, a roar of cheers went up. The examiner joined in with a round of applause.

“As expected of Lucas. They don’t call you a rising star for nothing. Using 【Fire Cannon】 at D-rank—impressive!”

“Ah-ha-ha, don’t praise me for something this minor.”

The young man—Lucas—scratched his head, cheeks a little flushed.

Seeing that, Ellis only grew more confused.

(What? What’s going on here? Why is everyone praising him when it didn’t even break?)

To Ellis, destroying the target was a given. Yet he was being praised for merely scorching it.

Her mind brimmed with questions.

“I can’t beat that…”

“To scorch the target, that’s terrifying power!”

“Guys like him are the ones who get into guilds…”

Examinees showered Lucas with accolades; none seemed to harbor even a shred of jealousy.

(Maybe the target’s been imbued with mana or something?)

The very idea that a wooden target wouldn’t be destroyed by fire magic was strange. That was a mid-tier spell above 【Fireball】; its internal formula was more complex.

And even that couldn’t break the target. The result was more than enough for Ellis to start doubting the target itself.

“By the blessing of water, drown the foe with the waters of the abyss!”

While Ellis puzzled over it, the next examinee began a chant.

It looked like they were about to use 【Water Cannon】, the superior version of Ellis’s own 【Water Ball】.

A higher-tier spell than her own, Ellis watched with a touch of anticipation.

“【Water Cannon】!”

The conjured sphere of water was indeed larger than a standard 【Water Ball】, and it blasted toward the target at multiple times the speed.

Splash!

“““Wooooooaaah!”””

“To think there’s someone besides Lucas who can use a mid-tier spell, this exam’s got a bumper crop.”

Again, cheers and praise rained down on the caster of 【Water Cannon】.

For the record, the target wasn’t damaged a single millimeter. It only got wet.

“E-Eh…?”

Even Ellis couldn’t help letting a sound slip.

At some point, Lucas had sidled up beside her and spoke with a self-satisfied grin.

“Ah-ha-ha. Didn’t think there’d be another who could cast a mid-tier spell besides me. Well, still a step below me, of course.”

“…”

Lucas twined a lock of his golden long hair around a finger as he boasted, eager to flaunt his strength. None of his words, however, reached Ellis’s ears.

Her attention was wholly fixed on the 【Water Cannon】 that had just been unleashed.

(If it’s water magic, I’m certain I’m stronger.)

Having seen 【Water Cannon】, Ellis was certain of it: she was absolutely stronger.

“Because there’s no way you should still be a D-rank adventurer.”

Ellis was finally starting to understand what Mr. Lloyd had meant.

“Uraaaaaah!”

Zhak!

This time, a hulking man with a greatsword put a slight cut into the wooden target.

Dozens had struck that target already, but he was the first to mark it. Naturally, the examinees’ reaction swelled.

“That gladiator’s insane!”

“He jammed a longsword into the target! Isn’t this the first time it’s been damaged?”

“Exam number 32, name’s Rack. Gotta remember him, he’ll be famous someday.”

“So the target really could take damage.”

Thus the practical kept moving along.

“Lastly, exam number 72.”

“Yes.”

Called by the examiner, Ellis answered and took her position.

The examinees watched her with snickering smiles.

“Huh? She pulled out a staff! Don’t tell me she’s going to cast.”

“What magic could ‘three points’ even use? Somebody stop her.”

“Ha! Maybe she’ll just whack the target with the staff.”

Hearing them, Ellis curved her lips into a fearless grin.

(I’ll make them all eat their words!)

No one had told her to hold back.

So “full power” was the only thing in her head.

She leveled her staff parallel to the ground as if to spear the target, and began concentrating mana into its tip, to unleash the strongest 【Water Ball】 she’d ever cast.

(I’ve started to get it lately.)

Until a short while ago, Ellis had thought that power was everything.

But there were other axes: size, speed, density. Only recently had she grasped how deep a single spell could be. That was why her 【Water Ball】 had sublimated to SS.

Pouring three years of effort into it, she released 【Water Ball】.

“Se-yah!”

With that tiny shout, the target shattered to pieces and fell.

Everyone’s eyes widened at the unbelievable sight, but they quickly talked themselves down.

“...Huh? Did the target just pop?”

“Well, more than sixty of us have been hitting it. Must’ve been worn down.”

“Ha! Perfect timing. That actually startled me.”

Wearing wry smiles, the examinees spoke up one after another.

To their eyes, it looked like the target had simply broken on its own; there wasn’t any sign of collateral damage around it.

But two people there noticed how abnormal it was.

“You’ve gotta be kidding…”

One was the examiner.

He wasn’t an adventurer but an employee of the Adventurers’ Association. As an examiner, however, he possessed the highly-valued skill 【Judgment】. Any cheating would be exposed instantly; conversely, achievements invisible to others would be recognized without fail.

Understanding that, Orgus had appointed him as today’s examiner.

“Hurry up and use a different target already.”

“Why’s she looking so pleased? She hasn’t even fired a spell.”

“This is honestly hilarious.”

To the examiner’s eyes, something had indeed been visible, just barely.

From Ellis’s staff, a 【Water Ball】 exactly the size of the target shot out, pulverized it, and then, right at the wall, the 【Water Ball】 abruptly vanished. He saw that strange scene.

Naturally, it wasn’t a speed D- or C-ranks could track.

(Wh-What?! Why are they acting like I didn’t do it?! You all saw it, right?! Is this bullying?!)

Ellis hadn’t imagined her spell was so fast it couldn’t be perceived. She assumed everyone was colluding to spite her.

If the target no one else could break had been destroyed, their pride would be in tatters, so surely they were trying to drag her down.

But the examinees who truly hadn’t seen it tried to hurry the bewildered Ellis along.

“C’mon, just move to the next tar—”

“Silence, all of you!”

“““...Huh?!”””

The examiner cut the man off with a yell.

The sudden shift left the examinees dumbfounded.

Before they could make sense of it, a woman stepped into the training grounds.

“Ellis, are you about fin—wait, what is this?”

“Ah, Ms. Mint!”

A beauty who made all eyes turn, clad in garments that evoked a witch: Mint, the nation’s foremost mage. She was also the Guildmaster of “Greenpeak,” ranked seventh, and “Veiled Moonrise” and “Greenpeak” were allied.

The instant she entered, the gloomy air flipped.

“Lloyd said Ellis was off taking her advancement exam, so I came to pick her up and… this looks bad?”

Mint and Lloyd had been in regular contact since the showdown with “Oni’s Fang.” As allied guilds, member exchanges were fairly active.

Among them, Mint and Ellis seemed especially compatible; they trained magic together almost daily.

Today as well, Mint had gone to “Veiled Moonrise” to invite Ellis, but she wasn’t there, so Mint had come to meet her when the exam should be ending.

“Ms. Mint, the other examinees are bullying me.”

“““...Huh?!”””

At Ellis’s words, the examinees made odd little sounds.

They remembered their insults and whispers from moments before and turned pale.

(So she’s connected to the scariest witch…)

(A-Are we in trouble?)

(So that’s why a scrub like her even got to take the test… No, forget that—this is bad.)

They began to quail before the overwhelming authority of an A-rank adventurer. It wasn’t exaggeration to say Mint’s word could decide their fate.

“I did properly destroy the target, you know? They’re saying they ‘couldn’t see it’...”

Ellis complained to Mint.

That attitude didn’t sit right with Lucas, who cut in.

“Lady Mint. May I speak?”

“Mmm… what is it?”

Mint sounded already annoyed.

Pointing at the pulverized target, Lucas said, struggling to steady his hand,

“Let’s be reasonable. She never even released a spell. Everyone present can testify to that. Yet she claims the target that shattered on its own was her doing?”

Hearing that, the examinees who’d fallen silent out of fear of Mint began muttering their agreement.

“Yeah, I saw it too.”

“It’s foxes who borrow tigers’ authority that really tick me off.”

“Tch. So what if she’s chummy with Lady Mint.”

They started to unite again.

Watching them, Mint pressed a finger to her temple and muttered under her breath.

“I knew it would turn into this…”

Taking Ellis’s expression, the examinees’ comments, and the shattered target all in at a glance, Mint grasped the situation instantly. The intact wall was strange, but Ellis belonged to Lloyd’s guild; it was easier to accept that normal people couldn’t make sense of what they did.

“Just to confirm, does everyone share that opinion?”

““Uh, um…””

From the back, a young giant—the only gladiator who had put a crack in the target—and the examiner raised their hands at the same time.

“M-Might’ve been my imagination, but I saw it.”

“I did as well. Likely thanks to 【Judgment】. I can’t comprehend it at all, and yet I was made to understand.”

The two reported, cautiously, to Mint.

Seeing them, Ellis nodded, satisfied.

“That’s right. Of course it was me. Hurry up and admit it.”

“““...Eh?!”””

The examinees couldn’t hide their agitation.

No wonder, the opinion of one of the strongest among them and that of the examiner overseeing the test both differed from theirs.

“Well, looking at the situation, those two are probably correct.”

“W-Wait! She didn’t even say an incantation!”

Lucas said and tried to cling to Mint.

But the examiner immediately interjected to stop him.

“You lot were probably too busy raiding dungeons to watch it; the showdown between ‘Veiled Moonrise’ and ‘Oni’s Fang.’”

The match had been broadcast across the realm via transmission magic. But everyone gathered here was D-rank. If they didn’t dive into dungeons and work every day, even a modest living was out of reach. So even with a huge event like the showdown going on, they’d been down there, fighting monsters for dear life.

“I’m only remembering it now, but looking at her, the resemblance is definitely there.”

“It can’t be helped. My face hardly ever made it on screen.”

Ellis spoke up to back the now-understanding examiner.

The broadcast “cameras” (magitools) only moved when someone started chanting or showed signs of acting; otherwise, the footage team’s iron rule was to keep the lens on the most famous figure, to secure steady highlights efficiently.

Which meant most of the cameras had been fixed on Nero.

In the middle of that, Ellis had unleashed a colossal spell without a single chant. As a result, her face—and information about her—hadn’t really spread.

“““...?”””

In short, the examinees neither knew Ellis nor how gifted she was.

Giving voice to what they were feeling, Mint addressed Ellis.

“Some of them just can’t accept it yet. Ellis, would you do it one more time?”

“Understood.”

Ellis returned to her mark and took a casting stance.

(Well, Mint’s watching too. This time they’ll acknowledge it.)

Even now, Ellis still believed they’d deliberately agreed to deny her. In her eyes, she could track 【Water Ball】 perfectly. In the others’ eyes, it was simply too fast; that was the gulf between their ranks.

Ellis once more fired 【Water Ball】 from the tip of her staff.

“Hah!”

Bang!

The instant she let out a sharp shout, the target burst apart like an explosion.

Watching the scene, Mint let out a low groan.

“Haah… Lloyd, honestly—you’ve gone and taught Ellis another technique that makes her stop being human…”

It was a sight so outrageous that even Mint—who could use every spell—had to rub her temples. The two who had raised their hands earlier now wore expressions of certainty. But for the rest, seeing the same thing twice didn’t help; what you can’t see, you can’t see.

“A-Again?! Lady Mint, you saw it, right? She didn’t even release a spell!”

“I saw it too! She’s obviously got some trick working behind the scenes!”

“A target breaking without a spell being cast? That’s impossible!”

Without contact to the upper-rank adventurers, they were still shackled to the notion that magic absolutely required both formula and chant. No matter how many times Ellis demonstrated, they wouldn’t notice.

Mint turned her gaze to the tall youth beside the examiner.

“Mr. Examiner, that examinee’s name?”

“Exam number 32… Rack.”

“Then Rack—starting today, you’re B-rank.”

Mint stated it as if it were nothing special.

“Ah, got i—eh… eeeeeeeeeeeeh?!”

The shock hit Rack on a delay; his brain needed a moment to catch up. And before the other examinees could react, Mint turned to Ellis again.

“As for Ellis… A-rank should be fine, right?”

“Thank you, Ms. Mint!”

Ellis bowed as if she’d been waiting for those words.

Of course, this venue was for promotion to C-rank. Producing a B-rank—or an A-rank—wasn’t something that happened. As a formality, Mint checked with the examiner.

“That works for you, yes?”

“Y-Yes. If you hadn’t said it, I was just about to recommend it myself.”

The examiner answered with a wry smile. He had never before seen an adventurer so far beyond his remit.

The examinees, who had been listening in a daze, finally began to process what they were hearing.

“““H-Huhhhhhhhhh?!”””

A jump straight from D-rank was unheard of, let alone producing an A-ranker, of whom there were only a few dozen in the entire realm.

“Lady Mint! That’s taking things too far, isn’t it?!”

Lucas protested, snorting through his nose. Mint had expected as much.

“Ellis, make it easy to see. Manifest the spell without firing it.”

“Easier to see? Like this?”

Ellis didn’t fully grasp Mint’s intent, but she did as told, She snapped her fingers, and manifested the magic. She’d practiced holding a spell without releasing it countless times against Nero.

“Wha—h-how… how is this even…?!”

Lucas fell on his backside at the bizarre spectacle spreading before him.

A few dozen 【Water Ball】s had suddenly appeared in front of Ellis, some large, some small; some bobbing in place, others spinning in tight orbits.

“Th-That’s chantless, isn’t it…”

“And she’s even rewritten the internal formula…”

“Even with a basic spell, manifesting that many at once should be utterly impossible for a human…”

At last, the examinees began to mutter, as if things were finally clicking.

“I can’t believe it. Ellis, you learned to freely dispel your magic?”

“Yes. I worked it out so I wouldn’t destroy the wall.”

“And you make another monstrous technique look easy…”

Mint blanched at Ellis coolly accomplishing yet another feat. But the one who took it hardest was Lucas: he’d fainted right where he sat, the shock of Ellis’s magic too much to bear.

“Well, the exam wrapped up then. I’m borrowing Ellis now.”

With that, Mint took Ellis by the arm and led her out of the advancement-exam grounds.

Thus Ellis’s promotion exam came to a close.

At that very time, Nick and Elna were finding themselves in similar situations.

†

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