95 Chapter 95. Class Change Tes

The interior was huge, but it looked more like a tavern than an academy. A long bar at one side of the room supplied beverages to rough-looking men sitting at tables scattered around the floor. All of them were NPCs; he was the only player inside the room.

Jack looked around the room, at a loss as to where he might find this Gruff guy. As he was looking around awkwardly, a female warrior in thick battle armor approached.

"You lost, kid?" She asked.

"The guy at the door said to look for Gruff? I am here to apply for Warrior class," Jack answered.

"New blood?" The woman gave him a playful smile.

"Come with me," she said and waved for Jack to follow her. They passed the rough-looking men who made several crude remarks.

"Lovely bunch, aren't they?" The woman said to Jack.

Jack did not comment.

She led him to an opening at the far side corner; beyond was a smaller room with a filing cabinet and a work desk filled up with stacks of paper. It looked like an office. A muscular man with a stern face, half-covered by a thick mustache, sat behind the work desk. He was scribbling on a paper when the woman warrior and Jack entered.

"Boss, we got a new one who is interested in being a Warrior," the woman said to the man behind the desk, who stopped writing after hearing it.

"It has been a while," the man said as he put down his pen and took a long look at Jack.

"An outworlder?" He said with a frown.

"Is there a problem?" Jack asked nervously, worried that his status as an outworlder might complicate matters.

"No, not a problem," the man said with a wide grin. Jack was confused by the erratic display of emotions. The man then turned to the woman, "you know what to do."

The woman chuckled and exited through a door on the opposite wall. The man stood up and came over to Jack. He offered his hand for a shake. Jack took it.

"You look like a strong man, as befitting of a warrior-soon-to-be," the man said as they shook hands. "I am Gruff. I will be the one processing your application. Come, have a seat."

He moved a wooden chair from beside the wall to the side of his desk. When Jack had seated himself on the chair, Gruff returned to his desk chair and took a new set of papers out of a drawer.

"This is just some formalities for administration; I'll just ask you a few questions to collect your data," he said.

"All right," Jack replied.

Gruff started by asking his name, class, and level and then his age, height, etc. This tedious paperwork began to feel much like real life. Did he seriously have to go through this to change his class? After what seemed to be a never-ending QA session, the female warrior came back into the room. Gruff looked questioningly at her; she nodded. His face twitched as if he might be smirking; Jack couldn't be sure due to Gruff's mustache.

"All right, we are done with the administration," he said to Jack, rubbing his hands together gleefully. "We can now proceed to the testing session."

"Test?" Jack asked in surprise.

"Yes, a test," Gruff said. "You don't think you only need to fill in some paperwork to become a Warrior, do you? You will need to pass a test."

Peniel hadn't mentioned a test. He asked her in his mind, 'Peniel, is this true?'

To which she replied, "Yes. Good luck."

Jack was speechless. The Fairy still liked to give half information.

"All right. How does this test work?"

"Simple," Gruff said with a smile wide enough to be seen behind his mustache. "You just need to survive."

Jack was perturbed. The test was something dangerous?

"Come," Gruff gestured for him to follow as he led the way through the door the woman had been using.

They immediately entered a much larger room, almost the size of the tavern-like foyer he had passed through. However, the shape of the room was unusual. It was wide at the side where they stood, but it narrowed in a trapezoid shape.

The length of the room was divided into three sections differentiated by color. The section closest to them had blue flooring. As the room narrowed, the following section's flooring was green. The furthest and narrowest section had red flooring. Beyond that was a platform bearing a giant statue depicting a warrior in complete armor.

There were multiple wooden puppets along the walls of the colored sections; each puppet was holding a weapon. Jack did not doubt that this test would involve these seemingly immobile and harmless puppets.

"So, what should I do here?" Jack asked.

Gruff chuckled, "you just need to make your way to the other side and then kneel under that statue there."

"That's all?"

"That's all," Gruff confirmed.

"And those puppets around the room will just stay quiet?"

"What do you think?"

Jack was dejected; Gruff seemed to enjoy the probability of Jack getting a beating and losing the test.

"Their weapons seem to be real. Will they stop if my HP is almost out?"

"Normally yes," Gruff replied, "but for outworlders, no."

"What? Why?" Jack was bewildered.

"Because your kind will come back to life. Losing will cost you one of your levels. If you don't have anything to lose, then what's the point of the test? A Warrior is someone who braves through dangers and still laughs about it!"

The female warrior returned, followed by some of the rough-looking men who had been hanging out in the tavern-like foyer. They lined up at the back of the room in silence as if waiting for something.

"You can start at any time now," Gruff said as he saw that Jack was still not moving.

"What are they here for?" Jack referred to the rough-looking men who had just entered.

"They are just here for the show," the female warrior answered. The men started grinning and whispering among themselves.

"Show?" Jack asked.

"Don't mind them," Gruff said. "It has been some time since someone applied for Warrior class, and they are just bored. Go ahead now!"

"Yes, we don't have all day, boy. The sun will set soon. Let's get the show started!" One of the rough-looking men said.

"Quiet, you lot!" Gruff reprimanded.

Jack stepped to the edge of the blue floor. Before he entered the area of the blue floor, he turned to Gruff and asked, "What's the condition for failure?"

"If you get killed," Gruff answered. "or if you come back to this area without reaching that statue."

"Can I retry again if I fail?"

"Of course… After one week passes."

One week? That was enough time for Jack to increase several levels. Unless he purposefully didn't do anything to level up, but that would be an absolute waste. Therefore, he could not afford to fail here. Jack took out his long black sword.

'Any advice you can give me for this test?' He asked Peniel.

'Don't die,' she answered.

'Figures,' Jack said as he stepped onto the blue floor.