The two of us arrived in front of a large bustling building. The two of us wore disguises, hiding our faces since I didn’t want to be recognized outside of the Royal Academy. It could only cause problems later on.
"Welco to the rcenary Center! How can we help you?"
Alia smiled brightly and imdiately pointed in my direction. "We’re here to have him register as a rcenary."
However, even with the disguises, it seed Alia hadn’t quite understood my point. She was simply way too naive.
"Do you have any records that might be helpful in ranking you?"
I tilted my head, unsure what she ant by that, as Alia stepped in once more.
"We’re from the R-"
I put my hand on her mouth just as she was about to say that. I didn’t want people to know where we ca from. Otherwise, my hidden records would be here inside of the rcenary Database. I shook my head, realizing that I should have warned her before.
Still, I made the decision that I should be the one speaking from now on.
"No, I have no records."
The woman seed to find it strange but didn’t comnt on it, since I had just acted so rashly in stopping Alia from speaking.
"I see, then we will have to evaluate you by having a fight against one of our veteran rcenaries." She pointed to a small resting area where dozens of other people were already waiting, patiently waiting for their turn. "You can sit here and we will call you up when it’s your turn."
She gave us a small piece of paper with the number 67 on it as she greeted soone else.
The mont we sat down, Alia seed confused as to why I hadn’t let her tell the lady that we were from the Royal Academy. It was bound to make the registering process a lot easier.
"I don’t want people to know about it. I want to be treated like everyone else. That’s all." I smiled at her and said, "Please let do the talking from now on."
Alia found it strange at first, but seeing how I was so persistent with it, she finally accepted my wishes.
Surprisingly, the ti passed by quite quickly as I couldn’t help but listen to the people leaving the testing room. So were disappointed, while others seed extrely happy. However, what I found interesting was that no one had ranked above C-Rank, which ant that this test was probably quite hard.
"Number 67, please head to the testing room!" A loud voice echoed throughout the room as I imdiately stood up, with Alia cheering on before leaving.
I smiled at her and entered the room where a single person could be found inside. He was sitting down, seemingly ditating. He didn’t even look at , his eyes completely shut. However, even in this very position, I could feel every strand of my body screaming at to be careful.
’He’s strong.’
"So, you’re the next one," he finally said, still not opening his eyes. Then, without wasting another mont, he added, "Try to make stand up."
I was confused for a mont before realizing what he truly ant. He wanted to attack him and scare him to the point where he would need to stand up to defend against my attacks.
’Is he that confident?’
I had observed the other participants, and they weren’t exactly strong. But they should still be able to make him stand up.
"You can begin."
With a short nod, I dashed forward, hiding my presence completely as I pulled out the Lix Training Dagger and tried to cut off his neck. However, just as the dagger was about to cut his neck, he rose his right arm and blocked it perfectly, not wasting any movent.
’How did he block it?’ I frowned.
He had only moved his arm. He didn’t even have his eyes open...
"Let’s make this easier on you. Try to make open my eyes."
’What kind of rcenary is this? Why is he trying to tease ?’
"Am I allowed to attack with the intent to kill?" I coldly asked as I tightened the hold of my dagger.
The man didn’t have any reaction to my words as he quietly nodded, confident that I wouldn’t be able to kill him.
"What happens if I kill you?"
He burst out laughing. "You’re not strong enough."
"How do you know? I’ve only attacked you once."
"If you were strong enough, you’d have killed with your first strike."
’Is that so...’ I thought to myself.
[Shadow Manipulation]
I teleported to the other side of his body and swung the dagger at his right arm. However, once again, just as it was about to hit, he dodged.
I did it again and again.
But every ti, it wouldn’t work.
It was as if he could read my mind.
"Is that it?" he asked when I finally stopped attacking him relentlessly.
I didn’t say anything and decided to try sothing new. I wanted to attack him from different directions.
[Wind Burst]
A wave of wind was imdiately released from my hand.
[Shadow Manipulation]
I appeared on the other side and did the sa thing again. I continued to use [Shadow Manipulation] and [Wind Burst] over and over again, attacking him from all angles as I began to notice small cuts appearing over his body.
It was working. He wasn’t able to resist my attacks.
Normally, such a thod would have never worked, as most people would have run out of mana after a few seconds of attacking. However, with my limitless amount of mana, that restriction was not a problem at all. I could continue all day if I wanted.
It had reached the point where the veteran rcenary began frowning.
"Dual Affinity and a ridiculously large mana pool..." he muttered under his breath. "I now understand why you were so confident. However, I think you forgot sothing. I’m sitting down with my eyes closed."
Without saying another word, he opened his eyes as a burst of energy exploded within the test room, pushing against one of the walls.
"You’re the first person in quite a long ti who made open my eyes. Not bad, kiddo." The veteran smirked. "Let’s see if you can make stand up."
In the span of a second, I felt like I no longer had any chances at winning. My whole body felt pressured, my legs already giving out.
’Why is soone so powerful here?’
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