Chapter 23: Mercenary Test (Part 3)
Many hesitated to jump inside of the vats of poison. Even Sol found himself thinking about it for a second.
Except, he wasn't thinking of the fear of jumping into the poison.
Instead, he was thinking of the half a century of isolation cultivation that he had done in the Million Years Nine-Colored Poison Cauldron of the Demon Lord Heimrach.
Sol, who at that time was Atlas, forcefully 'borrowed' the cauldron that weighed over 100,000 tons on his shoulder and carried it across the continent, accidentally spilling some of the most powerful poison one could imagine across the land.
Safe to say, it got him into quite a heap of trouble, but that wasn't before he spent 50 years cultivating inside of it to gain full immunity to all poisons.
By the time he had left his isolation, the cities that he destroyed were already built back up, and his actions were slightly blurred between the lines of history.
Still, he was punished with 1000 more years within the Million Years Nine Colored Poison Cauldron.
Unfortunately for everyone else, Sol drank the entire cauldron to avoid the punishment...
***
At that moment, Sol jumped into the hole in the ground below him. It was about 5 feet deep and was filled with a very bright, radioactive green poison.
The poison bubbled and popped like a boiling soup, but was cold to the touch.
As soon as Sol jumped inside of it, he felt a horrible burning sensation travel through his entire body.
All of his pores felt like they were being attacked and expanded. The poison was trying to force its way into his body.
It felt gruesome, like jumping into boiling lava. However, it didn't have much of an effect on his actual physical body.
Others also entered the vat, but immediately exited it. The pain was far too much to bear.
Some even dipped their toes in and decided that it was enough for them.
Many others, however, withstood the pain due to earlier trauma or mental toughness.
Sol had both of these qualities. As the minute that he had to stay in the vat slowly moved on by, he mused just how much more painful the Nine-Colored Poison was.
Compared to that, the poison he was currently sitting in was like a soothing hot tub.
The minute passed by without any trouble, and Sol stepped out of it drenched in the poison.
Before he had any time to rest, he was immediately faced with a wild beast to fight.
It was a wild boar with fire sticking out of its two front canines that bulged out from its mouth.
Sol looked around, seeing that he was the first out of his vat. 'Looks like they will have us fighting in the same area, so it will get slightly chaotic.'
They then looked over at the stalls containing the other wild beasts at the edge of the stone chamber.
They were being released early at that moment before the others could finish their time in the vats of poison.
'But it seems these beasts are trained, so it should be fine.'
At that moment, the 5 people who had stayed in the vats suddenly climbed out of them one by one.
"You! Failed!" The knight said to one of them.
"You as well! And you too!" Soon enough, all of the testees from the vats were deemed to have failed.
That meant that Sol was the only one left within the area, with 6 beasts storming toward him.
"Hey! Who released the beasts early!?" The knight exclaimed, looking around in confusion.
The knight then spotted a rather ugly-looking man near several levers to the side that controlled the beast stalls.
The man who was previously in charge of the beast levers was laid out cold on the ground.
"You..." The knight said under his breath, "I thought you exited the testing chamber!" The knight jumped off of his platform and began walking toward the ugly man.
The crowd cleared the way for the tall figure. They watched as the ugly man, who had an arrogant smirk on his face, lifted the leftover levers.
The knight immediately turned to face the beast stall at that moment. the 4 other beast stalls were unlocked.
Now, 10 beasts ran toward Sol with an intent to kill.
"Damn it! You will be punished for this!" The knight exclaimed, angrily stomping toward the ugly man.
At that moment, the two friends of the ugly man from before stepped in front of him.
"You think this will be enough? Failed testees... get ready to face the might of a true Mercenary." The knight lifted his sword up and turned his head around past his shoulder for a split second.
"You!" He addressed Sol, "Try to run around and avoid the beasts while I deal with these hooligans!"
Sol answered without any hesitation, "It's alright! I'll have fun taking care of these animals." He smirked, unsheathing his Flame Sword.
The knight dashed forward with a blade in hand. The two men at the front ran with daggers in their hands, but those daggers were swiftly knocked up into the air with one swoop of the knight's sword.
The knight then slammed the blunt side of his giant broadsword into one of the men with full force, throwing him across the room.
The man who was hit tumbled across the ground before finally skidding to a stop over 50 feet away.
The knight didn't halt, kicking the next man down before approaching the ugly man at the back.
"W-wait wait wait! I just wanted to get revenge! Spare me!" He screamed for his life, his hands placed above his head.
"Huh?" The knight hesitated slightly.
A sly smirk appeared on the ugly man's face at that moment, hidden by his hands.
He rose up, grabbing a dagger in his inner shirt pocket before swinging at the knight's neck, which wasn't protected by armor.
Through his helmet, the knight's eyebrows furrowed. The ugly man's blade clanged against the knight's chain-mail-enforced neck as if he hit another plate of armor.
"W-what?" The ugly man stumbled backward, his eyes widening in shock.
"Enhancement Ether, fool. You truly do not know the limits of real Mercenaries." The knight raised his sword above his head at that moment.
*Bang*
*Boom*
*Woosh*
Loud booming and whipping noises echoed across the chamber.
The ugly man and knight turned to face Sol at that moment, as did everyone else in the room.
Sol's Wind Blade sliced through multiple beasts as he jumped over attacks and slid left and right to continue maneuvering through the horde.
As he swung his sword, large flashes of loud-sounding flames soared out over 6 feet high from his blade, tearing through the beasts with ease.
With one last swing, a Grass Wolf's head was chopped off and burned to a crisp before falling onto the ground and rolling to Sol's feet.
He sheathed his blade at that moment, panting slightly heavier as that took some wind out of him.
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