The scene people witnessed a while ago in the practical examination arena was something they couldn't believe, even if they wanted to.
The opponent was a young boy, an archer no less.
His bow was normal too, nothing grand like high magic channeling or something like a magic bow.
It didn't have Mana conducting properties, at least not that the others could sense.
And the examiner was a good [Rank-4] knight, someone who had just defeated a worrier of much higher strength than the boy, at least visually.
The boy looked normal in everyone's eyes, someone who just wanted to play around or something like that.
He looked at least good enough that they knew he will pass out the exam, even with just a mere rank at the very least.
They believed he could be just that, nothing more, nothing less.
For an archer, fighting against a swordsman, a high-ranking knight, no less, was laughably impossible in their eyes.
But... they witnessed something unreal today.
Or more like they didn't even witness what the hell had happened there.
The boy came to the stage, stood before the examiner, who was quite serious even though he was up against just an archer, and then the red lights turned green.
Then, the boy just stood there…
He did nothing and just stood on the spot he was standing, and somehow the arrows in his quiver started declining.
They didn't understand what was happening but, even before they could understand anything, they saw the boy walk down the stage without looking back at the examiner.
It was something like those no-look things and they still had no idea what had just happened in that place, but... then they saw it.
They actually heard it first, and that diverted their eyes away from the boy and they saw on the other side where the examiner should have been.
He should have been there, he was just there a moment ago but, that place was empty and they could see where he was.
This surprised them even more than the boy walking away and… this scene in front of their eyes was something unfathomable.
The examiner who they had seen for some matches now... was plastered to the wall of the arena, almost cracking the thick walls.
There were many arrows stuck to his body, and they all looked just like the ones the boy carried.
They were dug into his body, and if looked closely, they all were precisely dug in the non-vital points of the body, so even after there were more than fifteen arrows, he didn't bleed like the hunted prey he should.
There was blood, but it wasn't much concerning.
He was fine and after a while, things calmed down. They took him to the medical center, the special one, obviously.
The spectators were speechless and confused, and chaos erupted among them.
People were asking what happened, how the hell the things happen that happen, and the one that was asked the most was... 'who the hell was this boy?!' as well as the girl with him.
They didn't know anything about this pair and there was nothing they got, even after asking the others present there.
The noises, shouts, and chaos the boy caused before vanishing from the arena were very rare things on the testing ground.
They naturally couldn't ask the examiners so, the last thing they could do was to go the fuck out of this ground this instant and sell this hot information.
This wasn't just shocking for them, the appearance of such an amazing archer and mage would naturally attract the attention of great people, and guilds, and naturally, the association was first in line.
Everyone would want such remarkable talents almost comparable to the twelve geniuses.
This would be a hot topic as soon as the information gets out and naturally... the association had no plan to let that happen.
They had called the first dibs and there was no way they would let others have such exceptional assets.
And so, even before the people could stand up and leave the place they sat on, the entire pavilion was covered by a strange yellow fog.
A yellow fog came out of nowhere and as soon as the ones in contact with this inhaled it, they fell silent as their eyes went blank.
The examiners already knew what was going to happen in this place, so they had already taken their leave.
People covered in black clothing, holding blue crystals that glowed with a strange light that had a stage magic circle-like shape on it, appeared out of nowhere and surrounded these people.
They were strange people and the way they masterfully surrounded this stage was astonishing.
And by that time, the three of them were still standing in this place, watching these strange things that were going on in these testing grounds where they evaluated one's adventurer rank.
Though they saw all this without being affected by this fog because of some strange barrier that came out of nowhere and though it was their first time seeing these personally, the boy as well as the receptionist knew who they were.
These people looked like assassins, or at least mages, from the looks and covered faces but, one thing was the same in them.
There were many mages among them that did something with the crystal and from the official records that only an employee would know, the receptionist with them knew that these people were higher-ups of the association.
The boy naturally knew about them too, which was a strange thing but, aside from the young mage girl, no one would know of that fact.
The clothes they were wearing while doing this strange thing looked like some kind of uniform and the symbol on the chest area of these uniforms had a strange hexagon star.
Most of them had one star, but there were some with two stars and a single person with three stars that looked over everything happening in this place.
They had appeared in this fog out of nowhere and the things they did in this strange fog that made these people freeze and almost unconscious while still standing in their spots were definitely strange...