Bro, I'm not an Undead!

The burly Evaluation officer patted Skullius’ shoulder with a pride, awaiting his response.

“I wanted to be evaluated just like everyone else,” Skullius replied.

“Heh! Good, good! That’s the right attitude! I even got the sense that you are quite experienced in battle. Restricting my movements before going in to attack. You’re quite sturdy for an Energy Former too. I must admit, if I wasn’t me, I probably would have been killed while still trying to figure out what was going on. Haha! Now tell me. What is that darkness and that flash of compressed mana that hit me?”

Skullius smiled coyly as he kicked away the sword he had used to almost slash the Evaluation officer’s head.

Ah~. Slashing. A job that Skullius could only enjoy in his Discount Human form.

The tactic he had used was something he had formed after the man had told him about the evaluation.

Naturally, with someone like this, he had chosen to keep his distance as he was well versed in long range attacks.

Using [Evil Darkness] to restrict the burly man’s movements after striking him with the condensed ball had been a combo he had thought fitting as in the next moment, he followed up with [Manassault], shooting a powerful, speedy strip of compressed mana that had hit the officer just as he was trying to exit the dark prison._.

It hadn’t come as a surprise to Skullius that this guy would be able to move inside the cloud of darkness. His affinity with [Evil Darkness] was still low and he had to rely on its more rudimentary effects rather than its actual abilities for the time being as he didn’t know what they were yet.

After knocking the man backwards with [Manassault], Skullius had condensed some more darkness to form a whip that pulled back the man from being flung outside the dark cloud’s area as he then rushed forward with the passive effects of [Great Rush] which boosted his speed.

He had drawn a sword from the walls with a whip darkness, courtesy of his improved mana stock which boosted his reach capabilities.

Unfortunately, as he was about to land a critical blow, he had been struck by an open palm which effectively ended the evaluation.

“The darkness is uh… an element I can manipulate. It has special effects like holding down weaker opponents. That flash of mana was just a condensed attack of mana. Nothing much about it,” Skullius replied to the man’s question.

He figured he might as well reveal tidbits of his abilities. Even if they were shared, they weren’t anything too amazing from what he had seen others do over the past few days.

“Is it? That is incredible! I have not heard anything about manipulating darkness. Your expelling of mana in such an intricate way is also splendid. Emitting raw mana with such control and over such vast distances is something Arma Users like myself cannot do easily, especially short term. That’s something mostly seen with mages. Are you a mage or a shaman?”

“Mage,” Skullius said with a smile.

After witnessing how much value was placed on Energy Formers, he gladly took the opportunity to fool everyone as one.

He was an Insurgent Magnus. A hidden class not bound by class categories. He could be anything he wanted! Though they were possible repercussions due to his stunt yesterday, he would figure that out later.

The evaluation officer burst into laughter again as he struck Skullius’ back multiple times, making the Discount Human very uncomfortable.

“Come, let’s get you your license! I thoroughly misjudged you. You deserve that much right away!”

The two walked up the stairs again with Skullius bearing a nervous face. The jolly man beside was quite proud as he had scouted Skullius, who would no doubt be a wanted man by every Guild.

Skullius had been hoping this man was a sockethole. He couldn’t afford to be as brutal with his words as he had been with Gruff though, as it could obliterate his chance of getting a license.

He also felt like pulling out more high quality dead cores wouldn’t work on this guy.

Then again, this man didn’t seem like he was merely being kind to him.

The Capital service and the Guilds Association always had an unseen rivalry when it came to the quality of the combatants under them.

Naturally, Energy Formers were the prime indicator for quality.

There were only six Energy Formers in the city. Three belonged to the Mercenaries Guild and the others to the Capital service.

With this, Skullius would break the tie! At least that was what the officer thought. When everyone realised that the idea Ark was gone, along with its two baby mages, that would all change.

“Could you not announce publicly that I am a… you know?” Skullius asked as the two reached the door to the hall.

“Well. I cannot exactly help with that as it’s not my decision in the end. At best, I can delay it. You won’t hear your name for the entirety of today at least.”

Skullius nodded as the two re-entered the hall that was thinning out as people went on to carry out requests. Few were already returning, but the space was clearing as much work remained.

The two returned to the woman behind the counter who, upon seeing Skullius’ face, had a bad feeling.

‘Why do I feel like something isn’t right?! Did Jac get bribed or something?’ she thought as she turned to the man whose name was Jac with a frown depicting how betrayed she felt.

The burly man reached her behind the counter, leaning in and whispering in her ears.

As he did, Skullius who waited behind the counter received a sly glance from the man as he told the woman what he had seen.

‘Hmm? I have really bad feeling about this.’ Skullius thought as he narrowed his eyes.

Upon hearing what Jac had to say, the woman’s eyes ballooned as she looked at Skullius in utter shock and surprise.

She shot up from her sit before pointing at Skullius and screaming in a loud voice, “You’re a mage?!”

“…”

The Discount Human could only open his mouth in a dumbfounded gesture, slapping his own face mercilessly afterwards.

It was his turn to look at Jac with eyes that depicted how betrayed his felt, the man he glared at wearing the same sly smile as he shrugged.

“I tried to tell her but… as you can see…” Jac loosely defended himself, his words clearly a lie as he hadn’t even bothered to stop the woman.

Then… the real mess began.

Every single mercenary in the Guilds Association building turned as they looked at Skullius with greed and wonder!