The Adventures of Rose Hood

“Well lassie, it seems like old Royce is friends with ya.”

The guild master was a dwarf by the name Mammon.

“How’s the lad doin’ these days”

“Sir Royce is doing well.”

“It seems you are too. Taking on a dragon at 19, frankly I would be more shocked if I hadn’t seen that display. As an A ranker m’self, it’s kinda concerning that a newcomer was able to dispatch the 3 Aces with ease.”

“3 Aces?”

“You hadn’t heard of ‘em? Well, they are incredibly powerful fighters, each one supposedly could dispatch an army singlehandedly. And they are in a team of power. They could easily beat anyone in the city, but you beat them easily.”

“I see, I didn’t realize they were that strong.”

“Well, the letter says to help you keep a low profile, but I doubt that’s going to happen now. First, you take down a lord, then you are escorted by Jalad to the guild, then you decimate 3 A ranks.”

“Sorry.”

“Ah, don’t worry. They attacked you.”

Mammon gave me a guild card at C rank.

“Here ya go.”

“Doesn’t it start at G or H?”

“Please, you took down 3 A ranks. If past C wasn’t based on performance in addition to strength. I’m sure everyone would agree with you becoming an A.”

“I feel like you are obsessing on me taking them down.”

“Cuz it’s such a unique event.”

“Ok.”

“Well, there’s a tourney that’s starting in the city tomorrow. I could sign you up for it. You’d have to fight in the prelims though.”

“I’m good with it.”

“Wonderful. I’ll sign you up, Mrs. Rose.”

Rose, that was my name, right. That will take getting used to.

Honestly, it was kind of embarrassing that I already was known, when Royce was explicit in keeping a low profile.

No matter. I’m an adventurer now, if someone tries to enslave me, the guild will stop them.

I just hope I can act not as strong in the tourney, so they think it was a fluke.

_

Prelims start today. When I enter the hall, I see a few people looking at me with disdain, but some people from the hall pull them back. There is one elf, however, that doesn’t have a partner to pull him back.

“Hey, kitty, this place is a bit high for you. Don’t worry, I’ll take you out quickly.”

“Hm, if you can beat me, I’m sure that you’d get a medal.”

“Hah, that confident, huh? I’ll show you that pure confidence will get you nowhere.”

“Then I suppose I should show you how important information gathering is.”

“Hah, looking forward to it. What’s your name, kitten.”

Kitten is a diminutive nickname for small adolescent catkins.

“Rose, Rose Hood.”

“Well, Rose. By your confidence, I’m expecting you to put up a good fight.”

“What’s your name?”

“Dallel.”

“Like Callel?”

“Ah, you’ve heard of my brother. Heard he was eaten by a dragon. Idiot thought he could control a mythic beast.”

“You seem happy.”

“Oh, please. My brother was good for nothing and a massive criminal. As the vice-captain of the guard and cousin to the king, he was a disgrace.”

“King’s cousin?”

“Yes, hmm. Now that I think about it, are you the catkin that managed to deal with that nasty lord in the line?”

“Yes.”

“Well, thanks for that. We’d been trying to pin him with something for ages. You may actually be a challenge.”

“I look forward to seeing you fight as well.”

“Well, remember, last 64 standing enters the next round.”

“Yes.”

There were over 1000 attendees, and the preliminary round was a massive free for all. The arena was adjusted to look like a city, and using sizing magic, they could make us all small. Not sure whether it’d work on me, if it didn’t, I could just use shift.

Luckily, there were no issues, but the thing I was most concerned about was the personal viewing thing. As I was a match for 3 A’s, a lot of guild workers obviously watched me, so I couldn’t throw it, but I couldn’t show my full strength.

“FIGHT”

I needed a way to counter everything, but this round allowed killing. Anyone worth their metal would go to kill me, but I could decimate them all.

A sword broke on my neck.

“What the he-”

I ripped out his vocal cords. He would live, but he needed healing. Well, so much for not showing my strength. The audience then knew I was immune to weapons, so those with telepathic connections could have told their contestants.

I needed a way to throw the attention to someone else, but a group of adventurers showed up.

“Flame erasure!”

“Snowstorm!”

“Earthquake!”

“Tornado!”

A mage group? Well, that would be easy to counter.

“Obliviate.”

All the magic fizzled out and stopped, the group, realizing that I had no weakness in my stance, began to flee. After all, the weapons broke, and I could counter magic. They had no chance. Of course, I couldn’t let them run.

“Frozen Desert.”

They looked at me in shock before freezing solid, once again, not fatal, but would require healing.

I was trying to be weak, but I couldn’t be taken advantage of.

“Detection.”

I could then see all contestants, it seemed they stopped going after me. They probably realized that it would be useless to fight me. The surprising thing was that both Jalad and Dallel weren’t heading to me. Wait, Jalad in the tourney? That was overkill. They probably both thought they could win and wanted me to get through on my own.

“There are 100 people remaining.”

Huh? Oh, the round is almost over. No one even came for me. That’s irritating. I showed off too much. I can almost feel Royce’s judgmental glare.

“Round is over! The roster will be made, and despite one of the winners not facing much competition, she really showed her strength.”

Yep, he was definitely going to flip.

We were returned to regular size and Jalad and Dallel looked lightly surprised that I made it.

“Well, kitten, it seems we’ll fight after all.”

“Looking forward to it, Pointy.”

We smirked and Jalad facepalmed.

“Great, 2 minutes of conversation and you two are rivals.”