Donna Dorondo had always believed that children were the future.

When he realized at an early age that he lacked the talent to reach the top of the mountain, he turned his full attention to helping to train the next generation, so that they might achieve heights that he never could. He had spent years, working tirelessly to help train the youth of Aressa, and had helped raise most of the kids who eventually became C and even B-rank heroes.

It had always gave him a feeling of pride to see his old students surpassing him, and it had always broken his heart to watch them die.

Yes, children were the future. They need to be protected. They needed to learn that no matter how strong or invincible they thought they were, there was always someone stronger. It was to teach them this harsh lesson, before it was too late, that Donna Dorondo had become the registration examiner.

For years, he had taught his children this valuable lesson, but just the previous week, he had that lesson turned back against him when a child made him eat so much dirt that he ended up gaining a level in [Earth Magic]. Now, after disappearing for three days, Fran returned, with another young girl wanting to take the entrance exam.

Donna Dorondo had to admit, he swallowed hard at the thought of what was to come. His armor still hadn't been repaired yet, since he couldn't afford to on his teacher's salary. He'd need to find the time to do some real missions in order to scrape together the funds. But he couldn't back down. He couldn't show fear. There were too many people who still looked up to him to give them courage. He wouldn't run away from a fifteen year old girl.

"I'm your testing examiner, Donna Dorondo! The contents of the examination are easy. You have to fight me. If you're defeated too easily, you don't pass!" Donna shouted, hefting up his axe, ready to fight for his life...only for the girl to take a step back.

"W...wait a second. You're joking right? Isn't this too much?" Art said, backing away from the Kijin, her entire body trembling.

Donna almost staggered from surprise. While this was the normal reaction that he got from children, he had been expecting something different. "If you don't wish to fight, then give up on becoming an Adventurer."

"But that… that's not fair." The girl said, tears coming to her eyes. "Yo… you're just a big fat jerk! Picking on people who are smaller than you! You're shameless!"

Donna grimaced a little at her shouting. This was always the worst part of the… "Awhhh." Donna choked as something slammed into his stomach with enough force to cause his knees to buckle. The Kijin could taste blood yet again as his mind whirled, trying to figure out what had just happened.

"Geez, you're perception skills my really suck." Art said as the scene of the girl crying dissolved before his eyes to see the girl standing in front of him with her arms crossed and a cocky smile on her face.

Illusion magic? Fucking hell is with this kids? That punch felt like it had come from another C-rank Adventurer, if not B-rank, and he hadn't been guarding at all.

"Man, what a let down. I was hoping I could have a real fight." Art said as she turned away from the man, walking casually back towards the door with her hands behind her head.

"Hold it." Donna said as he pushed himself back to his feet. His HP recovery was already fixing the damage her punch had caused. She stopped and turned around to see him lifting back up his axe. "This examination isn't over yet."

"Oh, a stubborn one. Well, I can deal with that. Let's see you get up after this one." Art said as she lifted up her hands, one becoming shrouded in darkness, while the other glowed with a bright light. "Darkness and Light, meld together then shatter!"

A spell, and considering the amount of power coming from her, it was a strong one. Donna didn't recognize it, but he wouldn't let her finish. Activating his [Flash Step] he rushed forward, swinging his axe… only for it to pass harmlessly through the girl's body. Another illusion? When did she cast it?

"Rend the world of stillness and bring the rush of destruction!" Art's voice came from behind Donna, forcing the man to plant his feet in order to turn around. It was too late to stop the attack, but perhaps he could block it with his axe.

Only when he turned around, axe at the ready, no one was there.

"[Winds of Chaos]!" Art shouted, her voice once again coming from behind him. She had thrown her voice, tricking the man into showing her his back. Donna didn't have time to react as the spell slammed into his back. White and black flames tore his back to ribbons, and caused pain to rush through his entire body.

The man was half lifted off of his feet and thrown by the force of the spell, and his HP dropped like a rock. The loss of HP had been large enough to trigger Donna's [Recovery] skill, which quickly worked with the rest of his regenerative based abilities to rapidly recover his HP back to healthy levels, bring him back up to 300 HP in a matter of seconds.

Damn, that had been even stronger than Fran's magic had been. He had almost had to fall back on his [Revival] skill to save his life. Not only was the girl physically touch, she had powerful magic as well.

"You know, using [Illusion Magic] is no fun when people don't even try to see through it." Art said as Donna got back up to his feet. "Let's try this then." Donna watched as the girl pulled out a black short sword from her belt.

Donna hesitated. He couldn't be sure that the girl didn't just have him under another illusion, but even if she did, he would have no way of telling. It had been his Achilles' heel. The thing that had forced him to give up on his dream of being a top adventurer. He lacked talent when it came to detection based skills, causing him to be nothing more than a liability at times.

It didn't matter how much he tried, he wouldn't be able to see through the illusion. So he had no choice than to trust his eyes and let himself be thrown around. It would be a battle between his regeneration and her mana pool. He just had to hold out until she couldn't cast any more illusions.

With that thought, he charged, swinging his axe in an over the shoulder swing.

*Thud!*

Donna's axe came into contact with the short sword and the girl bent her knees a little to help absorb the momentum before pushing back with all her strength. She had been real… and so was what had just happened to his axe. Donna watched as the head of his axe was cleanly cut in two by the short sword and sent spinning through the air.

"Wow, mom sure knows how to make a sword, huh." Art said as she stood proud, looking at the black blade with a wide grin on her face before turning to look at Donna. "So, did I pass?"

"Ah… Yes."

"Sweet! You hear that Fran, I passed!" Art cheered, and jogged over to meet her little friend.

"Flashy." Fran said.

"What? Can't a girl just a little fun? It wasn't like that old guy was ever going to be a challenge anyways. Who cares if I was a little wasteful with my Mana." Art said crossing her arms, a sort of pout forming on her face. Fran didn't reply and after a second Art let out a sigh. "Fine, fine. I'll not underestimate my opponents in the future, no matter how weak they seem, are you happy now?"

Donna felt like crying.

"Ahaha… funny thing. It happened again." Donna laughed awkwardly as he stood by the Guildmaster's desk with his broken axe.

"I can see that." Klimt said, rubbing his temple as he looked over at the blue haired human girl who now sat opposite of him, with Fran standing close by her. "What a week?"

A second one. Fran had disappeared for three days without a word and returned with a second unusual child in tow. As if Fran's existence wasn't already confusion and worrying enough, now there were two of them.

"Well, let's get this interview started. What's your name."

"I'm Art, nice to meet you." The girl said with a cheerful smile.

"You're age."

"15."

Klimt thought he might have heard Donna whimper.

"I see. And you are a friend of Fran's?" Klimt said, breaching the subject.

"You bet! I've known Fran as long as I can remember. She's like a sister to me." The girl declared. Klimt's eyes went to the quiet girl to check for a reaction. ...Well, her ears might have twitched. Maybe?

"Then you were also trained by the same person?"

"Yeah, I trained with mom, and believe me when I say it ain't easy. Sometimes I swear that mom is a demon in disguise. Even Fran and I working together can't get a single solid hit on him." Art said giving a heavy sigh. "He's a really hard ass when it comes to training, but it's only because he cares, you know?"

"...Mom?" Klimt repeated, as he tried to process the information he had just been told. Fran could fight on the level of a B-rank Adventurer, so a high A-rank would be capable of outperforming her to that degree, though it becomes harder once one is outnumbered.

"He tries to deny it, but he is totally my mom." The girl declared crossing her arms and giving a sharp nod. "Only a mother could cook the way he does."

"...I see." Klimt said, biting the inside of his lip as this new statement was fed into his list of paranoid theories.

Klimt had seen the 'Demon Hunter' and 'Dragon Hunter' jobs on Fran's long list of job classes, which would imply that Fran had the 'Demon Slayer' and "Dragon Slayer" titles. This meant that at some point in her life, she had sole killed at least one demon and one dragon. As soon as he realized this, Klimt started to try to wrap his mind around how such a thing could possibly be real. Even among A-rank Adventurers, "Dragon Slayers" weren't exactly common. There were probably only ten or eleven in the world, including Amanda and a pair of old retirees.

His first theory had been that Fran was a child experimented on and trained from birth in the kind of harsh conditions that could forge such a warrior by some country in order to use her as a weapon. Though that seemed unlikely, as why would someone go through the kind of effort needed to train someone like that and then just release them into the open? And if one was to go through all that trouble, why use a Black Catkin? While Klimt didn't believe that the Black Catkin were any weaker than any other race at the early levels, there was the issue of the hiverto unbroken level cap for them. If one wanted to create the top tier or warriors, wouldn't another race be a better choice?

The second theory was that Fran possessed the blessings of multiple Gods. She had the job option of Priestess and Chaos Priestess, implying she was at least blessed by the Goddess of Chaos. It wasn't impossible for her to have received blessings from more Gods, though Klimt had never heard of such a thing happening. And what were the odds that the Chaos Goddess, Warrior God and Magic Goddess all took interest in the same person? Not impossible, but unlikely.

His third theory was that Fran had at some point in her life attracted the attention of 'Archer', an irresponsibly powerful spirit who became her guardian spirit, taking refuge inside of her body. This actually made some sense, as the girl could already see spirits herself, and if her 'spirit guardian' took possession of her body and slayed the Moonlight Dragon, it would be treated as though Fran had performed the job herself. Such things weren't even uncommon among elves, with one in three elves possessing a guardian spirit, though Klimt had to swallow hard at the thought of the kind of spirit needed to let a child overpower a Moonlight Dragon so quickly. It would have had to be a Divine level spirit.

This theory was just blown out of the water by the existence of the second student of the elusive teacher. However, what the girl said actually provided evidence towards Klimt's final theory.

She had called this Archer person 'mom'.

Klimt believed that there was a real possibility that Fran was not a real Black Catkin at all, and that she was instead a homunculus in the shape of one, created by Archer, a powerful Alchemist, through the use of [Alchemy] and [Life Magic]. This was mostly because of her expressionless nature, but it made sense when you considered her unlikely number of [Skills]. Homunculi could be created around artificial Magic Stones, containing any [Skills] that the maker wishes, depending on the materials and knowledge they have access to. This would explain Fran's unusual magical talents, as well as the new girls. Klimt didn't think he had ever heard of a case of a human possessing both Light and Dark Magic before, as well as Illusion Magic.

The fact that Art called Archer 'mom' could imply that he was the one who gave them life. Though this line of thought still ran into the giant question of 'why'. Why would someone spend the tens of billions of gorudo required to create such powerful homunculi, only to let them run around and join the Adventurer's Guild? The Adventurer's Guild was far too public to be worth going through that kind of trouble for spying, and the two draw far too much attention for spying anyways. Normally, when someone her stories about people dabbling in this kind of magic, it was always about creating monstrous creatures, strong as any A-rank beast, to be released upon an enemy country, not to make two cute little girls.

Perhaps there was no nefarious purpose behind it at all. Maybe whoever did it created them out of love. Or maybe it was just an Alchemist being an Alchemist, doing things because they could without ever stopping to ask for a reason why.

Money certainly didn't seem to be an object to this Archer person, as both girls carried magic weapons that were easily worth 10 million gorudo a piece, at the very least. Though Art's weapon wasn't so absurd as to possess its own appraisal block, even if it was still a 'named item' of such high power as to make Klimt's eyes nearly pop out of his head when he appraised it.

Midnight's Tear

Attack: 1050 Mana: 350/350 Durability:2423/2500 Mana Channel: B+

Effect: +10 to all stats, [Darkness Reinforcement], [Chaotic Harmony], [Demon Edge]

"Well, like I said before, we aren't going to turn away talent." Klimt said, rubbing his temple as he brought out the clipboard and handed it to the girl. The spirits were still not making a fuss, so everything was hopefully alright. "Just fill this out and give it to Flannel at the front desk." Art took the paperwork with a blank expression passing over her face. She stared at it for a moment before her shoulders fell and a look of misery came over here. "Is… something wrong."

"I… uh…" Art flushed before mumbling so quietly that even Klimt's elf ears almost couldn't pick it up. "I can't read." Fran walked up to the girl and pulled on her sleeve, before reaching out a hand for the clipboard. "Thank you."

"Nn." Fran said as she started to fill it out for the older girl.

...Unusual, but not that outlandish, by comparison. The girl would probably need to get a Job class after this was over, giving Klimt a chance to gauge her skills again, since appraising her came back with clearly false information, saying she was a level 30 with low stats and no skills. He didn't know what she was capable of, but he was pretty sure nothing would surprise him, not after Fran.

That was what he believed, until the crystal ball had a malfunction and exploded.

"Um… We can totally pay for that… right?"

"Hhh…"

"That was a pretty heavy sigh, Donna. Something the matter?" Herbent asked as the dwarf sat down next to the Kijin, before spotting the man's axe. "Wow! What happened to your weapon!?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Donna said gloomily as he reached for his drink.

"Fran?"

"No, Art."

"Who's Art?"

"Apparently, Fran's friend and teammate."

"...There are two of them now?" Herbent paled as Donna nodded his head.

"First my armor, now my axe. I'm kind of doubtful that it can be repaired." Donna mumbled. He had back up equipment, and back up back up equipment, of course. He was a professional. However, it wasn't as high of quality. Nothing he had lost was magical, or super expensive, but his old stuff held sentimental value. He had worked hard to keep it in good condition throughout his semi retirement. Now, all of it was wrecked, along with most of his dignity.

He had always felt hope and pride whenever he saw the talented youth pass him by… but 12 years old was too early. His heart couldn't take it.

"Uh… Donna." Herbent said, pointing down to the other side of the large man.

He turned his head to see Fran standing there, holding up the pieces of his axe while mumbling a spell. Donna watched as his weapon pieced itself back together into a singular solid form.

"Nn." Fran said, holding the weapon out to Donna.

"Ah… thanks." He said, taking it but not quite believing his eyes. When had the girl learned [Smithing Magic]? It hadn't been performed at the low level either. It should have cost more mana that a singular person could have. Most Magic Blacksmiths had to supplement their own mana with Mana Crystals in order to perform even simply repairs with pure magic. Seriously, what the hell!?

Then, a hole opened in space and a large bag fell out, hitting the floor with the rattling sound that Donna knew from experience meant armor.

"Sorry." Fran said, though she didn't sound like she meant it. But with the words... or word said, she turned around and walked back to Art before the two of them left together.

Donna looked down at the bag before opening it up. "This… this looks just like my old armor!" Shouted in surprise. It was so much like his old armor that he could barely tell the difference, even though it was made out of different materials. How was that even possible!? Donna smiled as he lifted up the chestplate. "You know, those kids are alright."

"...They are going to be the death of us all." Herbent said with a sigh before showing at the barkeep. "You hear that!? I'm probably dying soon, so keep the alcohol coming!"