030: Recruit Assessment 1 (Please continue reading!)

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[Richard: Assets, 63 silver and 35 copper]

......

Richard closed the system panel and clicked his tongue. “No wonder doctors are said to be high earners.”

At the Charlie Psychological Clinic, Dr. Richard only provided treatment. He sold neither medicine nor medical equipment, nor anything else of the sort.

Even so, just two patients had brought him an income of twenty-six silver coins.

And treating those two families had cost Richard nothing more than a few cups of calming flower tea and a little time.

The twenty-six silver coins were practically pure profit.

“My assets are not far from reaching a gold coin,” Richard said with a smile.

What did possessing a gold coin represent?

It meant having the qualifications to live in the inner city.

At the Old Shock Tavern, for instance, a drink cost two or three copper coins.

To earn a single gold coin, they would need to sell several thousand, perhaps even tens of thousands, of drinks.

And if one counted only the profit from a gold coin, that number would have to multiply several times over.

Richard, on the other hand, needed only to take a few more jobs.

“Close up. Close up. I’m done for today.”

Performing surgery on his clients was quite exhausting for Dr. Richard as well.

If the Charlie Clinic continued developing in this favorable direction, he planned to introduce an appointment system.

Patients would need to book an appointment before they could enter and enjoy Dr. Richard’s professional psychological counseling services.

That would not only allow him to arrange his work more efficiently and reasonably, but also let him make another bit of money from registration fees. Ahem.

……

At eleven in the morning,

Richard put on his gentleman’s hat, took up his cane, and walked from the outer city into the inner city.

It was the weekend, and there were noticeably more pedestrians on the streets.

Along the way, Dr. Richard strolled and observed his surroundings, unhurriedly making his way to the Maple Leaf Detective Agency.

The maid at the agency was already quite familiar with him. The moment she saw his face, she stepped aside to let him pass.

Richard went upstairs and entered the underground training room through a concealed door.

A sumptuous meal had already been laid out on the floor.

Without wasting any time, Richard ate his fill.

Although he had not gained any attributes through the system, the feeling of strength filling his entire body was unmistakably real.

After resting briefly, he changed into his training gear and performed his own warm-up exercises.

It was not long before Major Freya arrived, dressed in her military uniform and boots, with a wooden sword in hand.

Only then did Richard remember that yesterday he had lain down before completing the transaction.

“This woman isn’t like Mary. She likes to settle accounts afterward……”

Richard’s new-recruit training had become hellishly difficult precisely because he had offended Freya.

Earlier, he had asked Mary what new-recruit training was all about.

Mary had not explained the details, but she had told him that new-recruit training was intended for recruits—in other words, ordinary people with little military knowledge.

As long as they were serious and obeyed orders, the difficulty would not be too great.

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As a result, if Richard did not spend money every day to purchase stamina, he feared he would have collapsed and died right there.

She called that “not too difficult”?

So Freya was definitely taking revenge under the guise of official business.

At that moment, Freya said calmly, “Today’s training will be changed. We’ll begin with physical conditioning, then I’ll teach you swordsmanship.”

Freya activated a mechanism, and obstacles such as walls, crawling nets, and ropes emerged throughout the training hall.

“This is the most basic course. Go try it by yourself first. Come back to me when you can complete it in under a minute.”

Richard nodded. “Yes, Major.”

One second, two seconds, ten seconds passed.

Freya frowned slightly. “What are you standing there for? Or are you trying to stall for time?”

Richard hurriedly sprang into action.

It was not that he was deliberately stalling. He was waiting for Freya to increase the difficulty.

He knew his own abilities best. From start to finish, he had a good chance of completing the course within a minute.

So, judging by Freya’s usual methods, there had to be additional conditions later.

Perhaps added weight.

Or perhaps a blindfold.

Freya excelled at making things unnecessarily elaborate.

But there was nothing?

Richard charged forward, muttering inwardly.

Then a sharp crack of a whip rang out nearby. Freya said, “Having you figure out how to finish in under a minute on your own was also a small test. Since you failed, the training will be changed directly to a weighted march!”

Richard: “……”

All right. He had overthought things.

Or perhaps he no longer had time to think about them. Completing this damn test was the urgent matter at hand.

Then Richard discovered that he had overestimated himself.

The course used for training was approximately four hundred meters long.

Richard remembered that the track-and-field record for the four-hundred-meter run was still over forty seconds.

But there were consecutive obstacles in front of him, so this four-hundred-meter course was essentially a hurdle race with several additional plus signs tacked onto the difficulty.

In other words, Freya had directly assigned Richard a standard equivalent to the world record of his previous life.

Damn……

On his first lap, Richard finished in roughly three and a half minutes.

Major Freya did not even spare him a proper glance from outside the course.

After resting for a while, Richard entered serious mode and tried again.

His time decisively improved to two minutes and twenty-five seconds.

He had given it his all on that lap, yet he was still more than halfway from the target. That meant his approach was wrong.

So, over the next stretch of time, Richard went to each obstacle individually, working separately on conquering the walls, ropes, and everything else.

An hour later, he tried again.

Like the wind, Richard shot forward from the starting line. Two steps carried him up the wall, and with a mighty leap he continued racing ahead……

Before long, he reached the finish line. His time soared once again—to one minute and thirty-six seconds.

This time, he had moved more smoothly than ever before.

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But the result was still somewhat short of Freya’s standard.

Again!

One minute and twenty-eight seconds.

Again!

One minute and thirty-eight seconds.

Again!

One minute and forty-five seconds.

……

His times were getting worse and worse.

Richard was genuinely exhausted now.

“Huff, huff, huff!……”

As he gulped down air, he caught sight of a pair of familiar military boots.

Freya said expressionlessly, “It seems I overestimated you. I thought this test would not be particularly difficult for you.”

Richard: “Huff, huff……”

At that moment, he really wanted to exchange for a dose of Mary’s Time, then run the entire course with the power of an eighteenth-level Flame Knight and viciously wipe that woman’s smugness off her face.

Unfortunately, the secret of time—and the fact that he possessed the system—was the greatest secret among all of Richard’s secrets.

He could reveal the former once he had grown strong enough. But the system was something Richard intended to take with him into the grave.

He had not forgotten that gods existed in this world.

Perhaps those ancient beings had fallen into slumber, silence, or near-total weakness.

But if a god set its sights on a human being, the best possible fate Richard could hope for would be to become nothing more than a complete tool.

So he did not argue with Freya. He merely continued recovering his strength and gathering his power.

At the same time, Richard recalled his most recent attempts at the obstacle course.

“I’m now less than thirty seconds short of one minute.

“At most, I can save another two or three seconds on the flat stretches.

“But at the obstacles, if I can save just two seconds at each one, that will be enough to complete the task.”

……

Ding-dong~

Notification: You have received the quest [Stage Test 1].

[Stage Test 1]: After several days of new-recruit training, your instructor, Freya, has issued your first recruit examination. Complete it according to the requirements.

Quest rewards: Current experience +50%, one increase to all attributes, and an increase in Freya’s favorability.

……

Richard wanted to replace the final reward with money. Experience or attributes would do as well.

“Huff, huff……”

Richard said silently, “I was planning to clear this hurdle today anyway.

“Now that a quest has appeared, I have even more reason to do it.”

Richard climbed to his feet and got back to work!