Chapter 708 Big Leagues’ Gas
A spectral screen appeared in front of Shalen with a countdown tir of 15 minutes. She had 15 minutes to recharge herself and get her act together before the next round of opponents appeared in front of her.
"Haaash!"
Shalen took a long breath and crashed on the spot. She lay on her back and started breathing heavily. Her bosoms heaved as she took long breaths.
"This fucking test. Fucccck! My arm!"
Shalen gripped her left arm's shoulder with her right hand and attempted to snap her dislocated shoulder. When she did, waves of pain and misery crashed onto her already exhausted psyche.
The injuries sustained in the illusory space were real-like. The illusory space followed the logic of the real world. As such, there was no way to ignore the pain felt by the sustained injuries.
Shalen had been fighting with her injuries for quite so ti now. She had suffered other minor wounds all over her body as well. Thankfully, the illusory space also included whatever she had in her storage space. It allowed her to take out a vial of recovery potion from her storage and drink it.
Shalen was no stranger to pain and suffering. She had been working in the Escalon guild for quite so ti now. Her superior was the Paladin of Pain herself. She made all of her subordinates go through various tests and procedures.
Thus, Shalen's pain tolerance level was quite high. However, there was sothing wrong with the test she was currently part of.
The illusory space intensified the feelings of pain and suffering multifold than the real world. There was a reason it was called the Test of Bravery.
The participants would always hesitate to march forward the longer they stayed inside the test, even when they knew the feelings of pain and suffering were not real. The feelings of pain would increase as they got closer to scoring 100 points.
The awareness of reality didn't exclude the participants from feeling an extre sense of dread for the next participants and apparitions that they would battle against. No sane person would welco ten or 20 tis the feelings of pain. Especially if the injuries were already dreadful enough in real life.
Shalen was afraid to take the test because she was afraid of feeling a heightened sense of pain. She also wondered how the Paladin of Pain Reva Rain would handle the test when she was the one who was at the receiving end of such a test.
Shalen had been sent here as a normal ranker to perform a recon mission for Reva Rain under the orders of the Escalon guild. The guild had beco thoroughly involved in the affairs of the White Raven guild when it was approached by a very influential ranker.
This influential ranker owned a condor-type demon beast. He had told them that they needed to finish all the lower-ranked entities of the White Raven guild as soon as possible.
It appeared that this ranker belonged to the other faction of House Montmorency that had been excluded from the arrangents the three factions had made concerning Minerva's Utopia. Therefore, the ranker's faction wanted an in by breaking the current order of the set-up.
The Escalon guild was a normal guild on the surface that was involved in clean-up operations in the Badlands. At least that was what the majority of the populace was made to believe. But under the facade of normalcy, the Escalon guild had its fingers dipped in a lot of shady pies.
The guild was happy to take on the mission. Especially when it had designs of its own on the White Raven guild. It was like getting paid for sothing one liked to do.
Shalen was sent here to find out more about the separate dinsion. She was also tasked with keeping a close eye on the White Raven guild by staying inside the city.
The reason Escalon guild was being cautious this ti was because the previous team that was sent to ss with the White Raven team mbers who had ventured into the Monster Canyon was nowhere to be found.
An entire team of Escalon guild mbers disappeared into Monster Canyon. That in itself was not a strange event. Monster Canyon was called the graveyard of rankers for a reason. It would either make or break you. There was hardly any in between.
However, the guild found out that its team never even intercepted White Raven team mbers. It was attacked by a bunch of Orcs without them provoking the monsters in the first place.
All the attacks perford by these Orcs were targeted attacks. The Escalon team mbers were on the tails of the White Raven team mbers. Thus, they crossed the sa region they did. However, it was only the Escalon team mbers who got jumped on.
Then again, the monsters in Monster Canyon were a weird bunch even by Badlands' standards. The Escalon guild had to move on from a substantial loss but they had to move on. That was especially true now that the money had been taken from that influential ranker.
The guild tried to intercept White Raven team mbers again after that event. However, they suffered the sa fate. That's when the seniors inside the guild decided that they needed to reevaluate the battle prowess of the White Raven guild. They suspected that there were a bunch of experts protecting the White Raven mbers from the shadows.
With House Derringer and a faction of House Montmorency onboard, this was extrely possible. So, Escalon guild relayed the information they had collected so far on White Raven guild and sent it to the other faction of House Montmorency. Then it asked for the renewal of the initial plan.
To the guild's surprise, it was given sufficient ti by the condor-owning ranker. However, he stated that he would send a bunch of people from his own faction to expedite the process when he sees it fit. He just wanted the Escalon guild to take the fall if and when the clean-up operation gets exposed to the two Houses.
Infighting was disastrous for the business. The other faction of House Montmorency understood that fact very well. It didn't want to take over a dying business.
The excluded faction of House Montmorency wanted the White Raven city to prosper even more than it was right now. So that when it takes care of Levine's faction, it would be handed a money-making machine in the form of Minerva's Utopia.
The Escalon guild was now stuck between a rock and a hard place. It couldn't back away from the arrangent. It could not proceed recklessly with its plan. All it could do now was figure out how to destroy the mbers of White RavRaven. That is, causing any ripples that might make the two Houses angry with the Escalon guild itself.
The Escalon guild and all its mbers were now walking on thin ice.
Shalen Croft was just another pawn in the big leagues' gas. But she never had such a childhood when she wasn't used as a pawn. It was the sa shit different day for her anyway.
"10.... 9... 8... 7..."
eli's emotionless voice was heard by Shalen when she was lost in her thoughts while lying down. She had recovered for the most part at this point. The frontal clash wasn't an assassin's forte. But that didn't make her quit the test. At least not yet.
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