[3.13]
'An improvement of... .52.' Place mentally measured his growth as he wiggled his fingers.
'It really doesn't feel like it.' He let a small smile slip onto his face, proud of his current state.
Beside him, his examiner was not so calm, and with good reason.
"Three?" She murmured.
The test's normal passing point was just 1.1.
Place's score was almost thrice that.
"A punching force of one means that you can break your enemies' bones if they're unprotected. You-that-THREE???!!!"
She let out a shrill, almost-shout at the end.
She calmed down and marked it down.
"What a waste, what a waste." She mutterred, and Place's smile slipped off of his face.
The other strength test passed similarly, with Place scoring more than enough to pass with a full score.
Now it was time for the combat test.
Someone brought in a full rack of weapons and armor, and helped Place put on everything he needed.
Amythrall watched in silence as the rack was removed from the ground, then evaluated Place's equipment.
He was wearing light armor, the only bits of metal were a chestplate, and arm and leg guards. The rest was thick leather.
He was holding a spear and shield, and had a backup sword strapped to his hip, and another backup weapon, a dagger, strapped to the other side of his hip, and she was sure she had seen him slip some more into his boots.
The shield was small, she had not seen such a shield before, but understood it's advantages now.
It's small size allowed him more mobility, and it was strapped to his arm, allowing him to use the spear with both hands, or tri-wield with two one-handed weapons and a shield.
Place checked himself one last time, then stood at attention.
"I am ready."
Amythrall nodded. 'I've seen noble knights less equipped.' She remarked to herself.
The normal knight had some armor, a main weapon, and a backup weapon.
Even the fully-equipped knights only had a bit more armor and a shield.
She drove away her thoughts.
"I am going to create a golem out of the ground, and it will attack you without pause. Let me know when it gets too much for you, and the test will end. Okay?"
"Hmm." Place let out a deep grumble before speaking. "I understand."
Amythrall nodded and started casting her magic.
Magic flowed from her into the ground, and a patch started glowing.
The glowing part started to move up, starting to coalesce into a vaguely humanoid shape.
The golem was a bit more than two meters tall, but for all its height, it was far too thin.
Its torso had the same thickness as its limbs, which were not much thicker than a normal person's.
'They are made of stone.' Place reminded himself. 'And held together with magic.'
It had no head, only a glowing spot between both arms.
Place slightly lowered his stance.
'It should be much lighter, I need to know its speed, I can probably push it but i need to findawaytobreakthestonespearmightdoit-'
Place's thoughts rapidly accelerating thought paused as the golem started to move, and he prepared for it to make the first move.
It turned slightly, so the glow was pointing towards him, then stretched out its arms and started walking towards him.
The golem took a few steps, then staggered into a charge, arms still outstretched.
Place immediately took a few steps back as he came up with a response.
As soon as the golem drew close enough to hit him with its arms, he side-stepped out of the way and used his shield to slam into its shoulder, pushing it off balance and sending it crashing into the ground.
'Very light.' A sense of strangeness went through him, it was too light, too easily pushed.
His movements did not pause. Before he could finish his thoughts, he was already on top of the golem. He gave it a kick to flip it over and expose the glowing spot.
He grabbed his spear with both his hands and drove it down and into the glow.
The golem did not react as the spear pierced into it.
The glow dimmed as light flowed out of it into the air.
Place withdrew his spear and took a few steps back, ready for any sudden change.
"That was it." His grand-uncle called out.
Place turned to him, not understanding.
"That was the exam, there's no more." There was a distinct tone of joy and pride in his words.
Place blinked and relaxed. Uncle wouldn't lie to him.
'That was it?' Place stared at the golem, which had started to collapse.
'That was easy and simple. Killing a boar is harder than this!'
From the time the golem had started to move till the time he had pierced its 'head', it had not even been ten seconds.
'About eight seconds? Give or take a second.' He marvelled at the speed at which the test had ended.
He looked at his examiner, who was openly gaping.
She noticed him looking at her.
"Ahem!" She cleared her throat.
"Congratulations, you have passed all of our tests..." She gave a glance at the golem's remains. "With full marks! You are hereby admitted into Ortis academy's 'Elite' class!"
Place let a grin form on his face.
'Mission complete.'