There were a total of 61 examinees who passed the first round. Except for the homegrown ones, the examinees were mostly from various places, mostly villages that surrounded Lotus Town.
There were also plenty from further in, even Towns. Guilds naturally had to make the tests uniform across branches, otherwise biases and unfair practices would be normalized in time.
This was why only border town branches, aside from the cities, had the right to test members. Anyway, the danger zone had to be part of the job, and it was not practical to hold these tests for those deep in the safe zone.
It was another reason why there were far fewer adventurers than there were mercenaries. Adventurers must have knowledge of the danger zone, and therefore had to be tested there, unlike mercenaries, who could be tested anywhere with a guild branch.
The fact that they frequented the danger zones and had a more difficult entry threshold made adventurers revered amongst the general population.
