Duster Exam (1)

The rest of the week passed quickly, and Ataru could tell that his training was paying off. Rune had to actually take a step or two every now and then to knock him on his behind now. It wasn’t much but it felt like massive progress. And now, him and Rosalind found themselves traveling to Ironvien Mountain for the Duster Exam. Multiple carriages carried the entrants, over three hundred people in total. Ataru got a good look at quite a few entrants, there were a lot of people around his age, some even younger. “So uh, just how old do you need to be to become a duster?” He asked Rosalind, who was sitting beside him.

“At least fourteen, though your rank cannot be increased beyond rank 1 until you are at least eighteen.” Rosalind peeked out of the back of the carriage. “Many of them must believe now is the best time to strike out on their own. There is no war, no conscription, after all.” He watched her violet hair flutter against the wind. His desire to help her had only grown with time, at first it was out of obligation. For someone like him, with nothing left to live for, the least he could do was be of use to someone else. But now he found himself wanting more. “Ataru look, the mountain!” She pointed forwards, his eyes followed and he saw it, a massive feature of land. Ironvien mountain was huge, not quite as large as Everest is on his world, but it was impressively wide. Greenery covered most of the mountain, creating a verdant forest on its surface.

“Wow, this world just keeps surprising me.”

They eventually reached their destination, stopping near the foot of the mountain in a field of grass. Standing on the plains were three people ready to meet them. One was a tall young man with slicked back, black hair. He wore a long robe and carried a white crystal staff in his right hand. Hovering to his right was someone Ataru had to squint to fully see the details of. By all accounts it appeared to be a fairy, no more than a foot long, with shimmering wings that gleamed in the sun. And the final man that met them was a towering individual clad in onyx armor, a dangerous looking battle axe attached to his back.

As the crowd of would be dusters all settled into place, the fairy hovered forward and spoke, his voice surprisingly deep in spite of his childlike appearance.

“Welcome all, to our little impromptu exam. I know you all may not like that you have to deal with this, you might think it’s unfair that the dusters before got a ‘free ride.’ But too damn bad! It’s a dangerous world out there, and you all are gonna have to earn our respect before we give you your badge!” He motioned for the man in the robe to step forward, and they exchanged a few words beyond the hearing of anyone else.

“So he’s a fairy, right? A real, actual fairy?” Ataru whispered to Rosalind.

“Yes, he’s the Aegis guild manager of Frontier city, surprised? Fairies don’t often leave their home, let alone enter positions of influence. But Rhopal is a special case I suppose.” She then pointed to the man in the robe.

“That is Strix Ether, he’s a rank 4 duster!” Rosalind said, excited.

“Oh, what about that guy over there?” Ataru pointed towards the man in black armor. Rosalind’s excitement vanished. “That’s Hector Trine, the King’s general. I don’t know what he’s doing here.”

“Alright! So here are the rules!” Rhopal yelled out. “You’ll all be going through a series of challenges that we’ve prepared, at the end of these challenges you’ll receive a mark. If you manage to get all of them, you pass! You’ll all also need to find a partner, that’s groups of two! A duster needs to know how to work with others after all!” He nodded to Strix, who raised his staff in the air. A golden brown aura radiated from the tip of the crystal staff before he slammed it into the ground. The earth began to shake, and the ground behind the examiners opened up. A stone building began to rise, until its full form was within view, and the shaking stopped. It was at least forty feet tall, and over four hundred feet wide. There were multiple entrances into the smooth stone building, each around ten in length and width. “Your marks are at the end of this gauntlet, you’ll have to deal with whatever’s inside. A few rules, no attacking each other, you have two hours, and no destroying the structure! Your time starts now!” He yelled.

Nearly every entrant rushed towards the many entrances, a few of them seeming to not agree with their partner on where to go. “Ataru, let’s go!” Rosalind ran forward, he followed after her. As they approached one of the many entrances they heard an argument break out.

“Pick another hole Hero!” A man yelled as a familiar figure in silver armor. Rune was standing in front of an entrance with two stocky men blocking the way. A woman in a brown robe was standing by their side, seemingly taking cover behind Rune.

“The Hero, why are they here?” Rosalind asked, stopping in her tracks.

“We don’t want you stinking up our chances, what are you doing here anyway!?” The large man continued to yell. “Maybe that rumor is true huh, that you can’t use the holy sword anymore! Gotta take a job as a lowly duster now!?”

Usually Ataru would have done something, but Rune was the last person on the planet that needed his help. Rune simply looked at the various entryways before silently walking to another, their partner following behind.

“Those two are really banking on the ‘no attack each other’ rule, huh?” Ataru shook his head before turning back to their own entrance. “Let’s go.”

“Yeah, we can’t waste time here.” Rosalind rushed forward into the gauntlet. Inside they both quickly realized that there was no lightsource, as they ran inside they eventually were running in the dark. “Wait, stop!” Rosalind grabbed hold of Ataru as they both halted. They could hear screams ahead of them. She quickly created a plume of blue fire in her hand to create light. Ahead of them they saw multiple entrants fighting with something in the dark. One of the people ahead lit a torch, and it became much clearer what they were dealing with. Shambling through the hall were skeletons made of soil and rocks. A few of the entrants that had already been knocked out were then dragged through the walls, which morphed like mud as they were dragged through.

“I guess that’s a failing grade for them…” Ataru remarked, taking his bat from his back.

“Let’s try not to end up like them.” Rosalind pulled her staff from her magic storage.

“I’ll take the front, back me up!” Ataru yelled as he ran forward. One of the skeletons turned to face him, he swiftly swung the bat at its head, knocking it clean off. Two more attempted to flank him, only for bolts of lightning from Rosalind to tear through them. As they ran forward, more skeletons melted through the walls behind them. “Keep running, there’s no point fighting!” They both continued through, only stopping to deal with skeletons directly in their path. Eventually they reached an opening into a larger area. The skeletons in the hall backed off, not bothering to follow them further. The room ahead of them seemed clear, at least until another entrant and his partner ran past them. The floor suddenly buckled as if it were made of jelly before it sprung up, knocking the man into the air towards the right wall. The wall opened up, and promptly swallowed him whole. His partner attempted to grab his arm to pull him out, only to be pulled inside as well.

“Wow, sucks for them. Uh, they aren’t dead, right?” Ataru asked, looking around the room.

“I would assume not, isn’t this entire exam meant to prevent future deaths?” Rosalind said, kneeling down to look at the floor.

“Got any ideas? I don’t suppose we can fly across?”

“I have a feeling the room might simply grab us out of the air, even if we could fly.” She answered. Ataru pulled a pebble from his pocket and tossed it forward into the room. The floor sprung upwards, knocking the pebble into the wall before it even hit the floor.

“Yup, that’s a no go. What type of magic is this, anyway?”

“Earth magic for sure, though I’ve never seen it manipulated like this before.”

“Hmm.” Ataru threw several pebbles into the room, all of which were caught by the morphing floor. He squinted his eyes at the wiggling form of the stone.

“Have you ever had frozen jelly, Rosalind?” He asked.”

“No? Why are you asking about–” She shot up, patting Ataru on the back. “Of course. I may be able to freeze the room, but it’ll require a lot of mana. Hmm, I could simply freeze a path to conserve mana…” Rosalind gripped her staff in both hands. The tip of the staff glowed a bright blue before she tapped it to the stone floor. Ice crawled along the ground, creating a path across the room. They quickly sprinted across as the ground warped and cracked as it attempted to spring upwards. They made their way through a tunnel where they entered a small enclosed space. On the wall in front of them was a stone lever.

“So, should we pull it?” Ataru asked.”