The Asshai's Bloodmage

 The day of the test had arrived, we were all in front of a mid-level Tower. Eight floors stretched towards the sky and there were another 8 underground. I took a quick look and noticed that almost all of the 59 pairs formed already had torches in their hands ready to use, those who did not have torches in their hands had them in their bags or equipped on their backs ready to be lit. There would be 2 senior students who would wait inside each elevator and 4 people would do the test simultaneously to ensure that there would be no problems when it was time to escape, with so many people and so few elevators.

As soon as the first two pairs showed up, there was a draw and both were sent to the upper floors. Less than 10 minutes later, the first pair came out and presented 11 seeds that were burnt on the outside, the seeds were the size of a fist and their shape was somewhat rounded. The second pair came out 12 minutes later with 13 seeds. Soon it was the turn of the next two pairs. Again in the draw, one pair fell on the upper floors. While the other entered the second underground floor. In 8 minutes, the underground duo came out with 14 seeds. While the upper floor duo came out with 9 minutes and 10 seeds. The results didn't change much, as the duos continued to enter, everyone prioritized a fast time.

That was until a duo went to the 7th underground floor, only 1 of the men came back this time and he was seriously injured and only had 4 seeds. Soon several murmurs began among the participants and it was confirmed that the mutant leader creature was on the 7th underground floor. Everyone was now hoping they wouldn't go to that floor and some started saying that it was better to go down to the eighth floor and take the test there, or go up to the sixth, it would take longer but be safer. As soon as 13 duos passed the test, the draws began again. Two duos from the Order passed with great points, one of them being the duo of Jack along with his younger sister who had the water element Karyne, and Zhang and her dornish assistant.

In the next batch, 3 pairs from the Order passed with good points, one of them was Omar and the older sister of the water Katya, the other pair Liza and Aisha, both were armed with artifacts from the Order and the last one was Zaya and one of the passengers. Luckily, none of them fell on the 7th floor. Furthermore, the pair that fell this time on the 7th floor were the Yun brothers. But they came out unharmed and carrying one of the largest amounts of seeds so far.

They probably went down to the 8th floor. In the third round, my pair had not yet been selected and I was worried about the scarcity of creatures depending on the floor we went to. Jhon and Vitarys passed with Ted and his brother getting very high scores as well. The last two pairs were formed by the single passenger who used to be a mercenary and the former prostitute, to increase their chances we put two artifacts from the Order in their hands. And their scores were not so bad compared to other pairs that were already near the bottom of the table.

It was only in the fourth round that the blacksmith and I were called. Bad luck fell on our team and we were drawn to the 7th floor. Inside the elevator the senior disciple said: "The moment the doors to the 7th floor open I will start the timer, the moment you return to the elevator and report that you have completed the test I will stop the timer." We nodded in agreement with the time rules and the blacksmith said:

"Boss, should we go to the 6th floor?"

"No need, if that mutant creature appears we will test the new weapon on it… Always stay behind me, let my crow collect the seeds on the ground and leave your artifact to ensure our escape."

The blacksmith waved, and as soon as the doors opened I walked quickly and looked around, there was a disgusting green liquid on the floor and traces of dried plants and vines all over the floor. There was no sign of any life there, I looked back and saw my blacksmith with a torch in his hand, I waved and sent my raven to fly to the highest level of the floor to look for the creatures, and in less than 30 seconds we heard his familiar "Caw ". I followed the direction of the sound and found 4 creatures together and without thinking twice I used my strongest spell:

"Fire Breath!"

I blew the flames and turned my head so that the flames of fire burned all 4 enemies at once, in less than 3 seconds they all turned to dust the crow flew collecting the 4 remaining burnt seeds and giving them to the hands of the blacksmith who kept them in her bag as we continued walking. We soon found another group, this time there were only 3. I drew the Valyrian Steel sword and cut the bodies of the "plant men". The blacksmith approached the cut bodies and brought the torch closer, quickly burning them to ashes. We had 7 in less than 5 minutes. I searched for another 30 seconds and found two more, cut one of them down and then drew the test gun. It was a smaller pistol made of metal with a thicker barrel. I shot the last creature and the huge bullet slowly came out sticking into its body. Soon a huge flash of light illuminated her body and she was burned in less than 5 seconds.

We collected the 2 seeds and now we had 9. As I looked at the still burning "flare" I was pleased. Made of gunpowder and metal powder, it was the most primitive flare used by mankind. We had two versions, the pistol version that could burn and illuminate for 25 seconds and the stick version that could burn for 3 minutes. As I continued walking and the flare gun ran out I used the baton version and threw it in front of me to help light the floor. We were in a hurry and needed the last creature to get back to the elevator.

The light began to burn and it was like a powerful spell of light. This finally revealed 4 more creatures which I went ahead and eliminated using "Fire Breath" again. When the crow was collecting the 4 new seeds that now totaled 13. From behind an overturned table a vine-like tentacle quickly came out tying me up and immobilizing my body, the grip was so strong that I thought it would kill me just with its strength.

The blacksmith screamed when he saw me immobilized and being lifted off the ground, at that moment my body turned into a purple liquid and disappeared from within the vines. I reappeared less than 10 feet away and waved my hand, throwing a fireball onto the table that turned into a massive bonfire. The fire made the creature hiding behind the table reveal itself. It had the same shape and size as the others we have seen so far but it was in a quadrupedal position and had a kind of bulb on its back from which the tentacles came out.

As soon as she came out from behind the flames, she used her tentacles again to try to grab me. At that moment, my crow, which was on my shoulder, flew towards the attacker, using its lethal claws to injure one of her eyes, which looked more like yellow amber. I took advantage of the distraction and used my last breath, burning her tentacles completely. Before the fire could reach her body, she abandoned her tentacles like a lizard abandoning its tail and escaped the flames that followed the tentacles.

In the place where they were, we saw 4 new ones growing quickly along with her struck eye. Both were regenerating very quickly. Without waiting, I took out the second pistol that was loaded with the other flare and shot her. She let out a huge scream, which quickly began to attract more creatures in the surroundings. Without waiting, I threw my second fireball at her body and saw her finally succumb to the two combined flames and turn to ashes.

In the end, all she left behind was a burnt seed, larger than the others, and a translucent green crystal. I grabbed both of them and started to run back to the elevator. I had no more flares other than the two prototypes and I was also out of spells, I gave the signal to the blacksmith and he used the artifact to create a wall of fire that blocked the creatures while we entered the elevator. As soon as we announced that the test was over, the senior disciple announced that our time was 6 minutes and 47 seconds.

I breathed a sigh of relief, we got 14 seeds, including 13 normal ones and the extra one from the mutant leader. The time was good too, compared to the numbers so far, we will be in a good high position without risk of disqualification. After exiting the tower I went to the senior disciple outside the tower and we handed over all 14 seeds, when he looked strangely at the largest seed I told him that it was the leader's seed.

His eyes widened before quickly adding more information to the log. After the fourth and fifth rounds the test finally ended at 4:00 PM, and we all returned to the tower where the results would be announced. When we returned, the names of the 110 who remained in the Garden of Beasts were released. We could see eight disciples with their heads bowed leaving the hall to go to the dormitory to collect their personal belongings. I waved to Vitarys and Zhang and they went after them to secure new members for the Order.

Last month we held a recruitment at the Tower of Sages bringing in 10 new disciples and this week I received positive responses from Natasha and the brothers of Pentos who I am sure are Masters due to some additional information I obtained from Black Cat. With these 8 we should finally have the manpower to take care of the tower, the shop and our island that also needs our protection, since we have many resources there as well.

This will give the members of the tower more time to accumulate more free and private knowledge and focus on their own learning. This would be much more valuable in the long run for the growth of the Order. Another detail was that the blacksmith and I came in first place, earning an extra free knowledge each. I told him to choose a fire-elemental book that would be useful for defense or movement, and I used mine to get another earth spell. I couldn't learn it yet, but it was good to start accumulating the next spell books. With the main topic of the Garden of Beasts resolved, all that was left was to study. Time was valuable, and today I had once again seen several limitations in my combat style: the lack of a defense spell, few attack spells, few spells to save life. And the fact that normal firearms had zero effect on these plant monsters and many others in Asshai shows that despite having helped me so far, their use had ended...

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