Pandora Unchained B1C23 - Assessment

Sorin returned to the Adventurers Guild shortly before seven. The mission counter was finishing off the last of its paperwork was about to shut down for the night. The Adventurer’s Pub had just served its first few customers of the night, and it wouldn’t be long before the place was filled with rowdy drunk adventurers just back from completing their missions.

Haley’s office was tidy as always, though the papers on her desk had been reorganized over the course of the day. Interestingly enough, a whole pile dedicated to her brother, Stephan Sebastian York.

“I might seem heartless on the surface, but my family sent Stephan to me for a reason,” said Haley, noticing Sorin’s gaze. “He was coddled in the big city and learned to fight by killing demons in the arenas. He might think he knows a lot about adventuring, because he’s studied up on it all his life, but that’s all-book smarts. It’s in the field where you really learn what’s important.”

Sorin nodded. “I understand. It’s the same in the Kepler Clan. You can pass all the exams you want, but it’s when you fail to save your first patient that you learn how lacking your skills really are.”

“Hopefully, Stephan won’t need to go through such a traumatizing experience to grow up,” said Haley. “But as adventurers, it’s a given that we’ll see some of our comrades die.

“Now give me 300 gold coins so I can explain myself to the Guild Master.” Sorin winced, but he handed over a 500-gold card and received two 100-gold cards in exchange. “The tests need mana crystals to operate, so don’t think I’m ripping you off.”

She led Sorin to the back of the Adventurers Guild where its training and assessment facilities were kept. The coaches and teachers that normally operated in this space were long gone, giving the two of them free reign on the guild’s ample equipment.

“First things first,” said Haley. “The brute strength assessment. The average human male can lift around 150 pounds without any training. A cultivator can lift twice that, and the amount normally increases by 10% with each cultivation stage in the blood thickening realm. You can go ahead and show me what you’ve got.”

Haley pointed to a barbell fitted with rune-carved weights. These were variable weights that would adjust depending on the user’s strength. Sorin went ahead and lifted the barbell. It was a strenuous lift, but only about 80% of his limit, as controlled by the runes on the barbell.

“535 pounds,” noted Haley. “B-Class Strength.”

“B-Class?” asked Sorin.

“Less questions and more testing,” said Haley. She then brought him over to a series of pullies and had him test different sorts of strength, including leg strength, arm strength, and even grip strength.

“All right, its time to explain how the Adventurers Guild evaluates cultivators,” said Haley. “It’s actually my York Clan who devised the system, and it’s very different than your Kepler Clan’s system, which only measures soul strength, mana density and mana capacity and assigns them a score of average, above average, excellent, and genius level.”

“So you won’t be measuring those?” asked Sorin.

“I will be, but only later,” said Haley. “And I’ll be using Adventurers Guild notation do so.”

“In short, C class is just average among cultivators. B class is 10% stronger, A class is 30% stronger, and S class is 50% stronger and up. You technically fall between B class and A class overall in strength. Your grip strength, by the way, is S class.”

“What about someone like Stephan?” asked Sorin.

“S-Class, obviously,” said Haley. “And we’re using his human form, not his shifted form, as the standard. In his shifted form, he’s several times stronger than in his unshifted form. Its similar to how a cultivator would channel mana through a technique or use a skill.”

She then led Sorin over to what looked like an iron maiden. “You seriously want me to step inside that thing?” asked Sorin.

“Relax,” said Haley. “It won’t hurt. Much.”

Sorin had his doubts but did as he was told. The spiked coffin shut overtop him, and magical spikes slowly settled onto his skin and pierced it at equal intervals. A mana-based fluid swept through once his wounds were fully healed and repeated the process twice more before he was finally free.

“Your defence isn’t bad,” said Haley, looking at the data she’d recorded. “B class. You fare much better than Lawrence, who has E class defence, or Daphne and Gareth, who have F class defence. As for physical regeneration, you’re surprisingly S-Class. You’re better than Stephan in that regard, since he’s only A-Class.”

“How do you evaluate regeneration?” asked Sorin.

“We record your healing rate from the spikes and extrapolate,” said Haley. “But in general, the difference in regeneration is much more pronounced than the difference in strength for cultivators. Most cultivators have C-class regeneration, though mages are an exception, since their mana regeneration seems to interfere and knock it down to F-Class.

“B-Class physical regeneration means a cultivator can heal muscle damage. Those with A-Rank regeneration can heal skeletal damage and some minor nerve damage. As for S-Rank, it’s theoretically limitless. Nerve damage and internal organ damage can be healed. Note that I say healing and not regeneration – you lose a body part, and it’s gone for good.”

Next, Haley led him to a small, unlit room and closed the door. The floor and walls lit up with targets, and Sorin was told to hit them as quickly as possible to test his reflexes. This was followed up by a rigorous speed examination, which tested not only running speed, but also limb speed and climbing as calculated by impact.

“Speed and reflexes are also B class,” said Haley. “Though arm speed is halfway between A-Class and S-Class.” She gave him a strange look. “I’ve never seen anyone with results like these but lets continue the tests before making a determination.

The physical trials were over, so Haley brought Sorin to the Mages Guild. Two hundred gold coins changed hands, making it clear that it wasn’t the Adventurers Guild’s tests that was expensive, but rather, the Mages Guild’s tests.

It was common knowledge that mages burned through money. Properly training in their arts required wands and spell books, and most importantly, repetition. The amount of repetition one was capable of was directly corelated to the amount of mana potions one could purchase and imbibe. The latter was a physical property that couldn’t be changed, while the former depended on the size of one’s pocket.

“You must be familiar with this test,” said Haley as she led Sorin to a rune-covered orb. “But I’ll refresh your memory just in case. We’ll use this orb to measure your mana parameters. You’ll pour mana into it from your body and won’t stop until you run out. I’ll feed you a mana potion, and then you’ll do it again two more times.”

Sorin nodded and stepped up to the orb. Poisonous mana moved into his hands and rapidly entered the orb. He continued squeezing mana out of his blood and into the orb until finally, his blood went dormant.

“Drink,” said Haley, pushing a potion into his hands. Sorin did as he was told and recovered to a full state before pouring mana into the orb two more times.

“Now this is interesting,” said Haley. “Mana storage, S-Class. Mana Density, A-Class. Mana Regeneration, B-Class.”

“Why is that interesting?” asked Sorin. “I always outperformed my peers on mana parameters.”

“Your mana regeneration and mana density aren’t that impressive,” said Haley.

“We assessed physicians, not mages,” Sorin pointed out.

“Just so,” said Haley. “The mark of a good mage is S-Class mana density, so you don’t stand out in that regard. But what reallysurprises me is your mana storage.” She showed him a figure on her assessment sheet and a note beside the entry. It was five times higher than the average amount for his cultivation level. “Basically, the amount of mana you have is monstrous. It’s not even on the same level as other people’s. You can’t recover it quickly, and have a lot more to recover, but even so, this is a very good result.” She shook her head. “I think I’m beginning to see why you wanted this off the books. The Mages Guild would be all over you, by the way. In fact, I recommend you join them when you have the coin.”

Sorin shook his head. “I’m rubbish on mage potential.”

“Even so, the sheer quantity of mana you have is enough to make a bone forging mage jealous,” said Haley. “And that’s when you’re only in the blood condensation realm. Now let’s go through a few formalities before I finalize my assessment.”

Haley first had him juggle crystal balls with his mana and manipulate them. In terms of mana manipulation, he was A class due to the sheer amount of practice he had. In terms of mana flow, however, he was only B-Class. This was because mana flow was evaluated based on the number of open meridians in one’s body. While Sorin had opened his main meridians, his extraordinary meridians were still shut.

Finally, they performed the mage potential and soul test. “I told you, my soul is strong, but my mage potential is rubbish,” said Sorin. “There’s no need to waste good coin on this.”

“Less talking, more doing,” said Haley, shoving him into a coffin-like box.

Sorin was familiar with this test. He engaged his spiritual senses and blasted past the initial layer of resistance. He then did his best to feel out at the ‘stars’ that had appeared in his periphery.

He started off with the nearby stars, as this was the limits of the runes he had sensed during his examination in the Kepler Clan’s faculties.

To his surprise, sensing these runes was quite easy. Did the Ten Thousand Poison Cannon even transform my soul? thought Sorin as he expanded his search range. He identified many unfamiliar runes and marked until he could no longer find any more runes to identify.

“Soul potential: S-Class, as expected,” said Haley, reading form her report as he emerged form the box. “Mage potential: B-Class. Notas expected. What level were you in the Kepler Clan’s assessment?”

“Average,” said Sorin. “I barely managed to sense anything.”

“Then something’s changed,” said Haley, slapping down her assessment. “Something big. Because B-Class is the cutoff to become a mage.

“Moreover, your results are quite frankly anomalous. You’re good at quite a few things, but you’re not bad at anything. You should know that there’s an old saying from the ancient world: the heavens give as much as they take. Mages are well off in terms of mana, but physically, they’re garbage. It’s the same for warriors. My brother, a genius beastshift warrior, is no exception.

“In fact, in all my years as an assessor, I’ve never seen anyone with all their scores at B-Class or higher. I’ve seen people that are all around garbage at D class, but never someone like you. You’re basically a monster, Sorin. It’s probably something you want to keep to yourself going forward.”

Sorin licked his lips. “It seems I gained a lot more form my wish than I expected. I hope you’ll keep this secret for me.”

“My lips are sealed,” said Haley. “It’s very beneficial for my brother to have such a versatile teammate. That being said, we’ll now move onto the next part of the assessment: career recommendations. I’m sorry to say that I can’t recommend anything to you. You’re more than capable of filling any role, and that includes the role of a warrior.

“That being said, I have some general advice for you: if you start wearing anything heavier than leather armor, you won’t be able to cast any spells you learn or use your speed properly. Your mana flow will become inhibited. It’s the same with your hand speed – don’t use anything heavier and longer than a short sword because your hand speed is your strong point, not your strength.”

“Understood,” said Sorin.

“The most important advice I have for you is this: you might not be bad at anything, but you can’t dabble in everything either. Choose a path and commit. Also, remember that your element is poison; you can technically become an alchemist or a mage with your parameters, but you need to decide if that’s really the best use of your talents.”

“I understand,” said Sorin. “And thank you for the assessment and the advice.”

“The pleasure is all mine,” said Haley. “By the way, are you interested in adoption into my York Clan? It might be politically difficult to pull off, but I think the rewards will be well worth it.”

Sorin shook his head. “I’d rather not trouble anyone over my personal matters. It makes more sense for me to keep my original name and not rock the boat too much.”

“Suit yourself,” said Haley. “And another thing: the guild master sent me a message while we were performing your assessment. Are you willing to start causing trouble for the Medical Association tomorrow?”

Sorin raised an eyebrow. “That was fast. What did Marcus do to provoke the guild this time?”

“He sent a rat to sneak a peak at your personnel files, which is unacceptable,” said Haley. “We fired the employee but can’t directly retaliate. Therefore, indirect retaliation is the best we can do.”

“Then count me in,” said Sorin. “Marcus has been a pain in my ass ever since he arrived. But don’t get your hopes up – I’m afraid he’s not an easy person to bait.”