Bab 23: The Lovlarix Recruitment (1)
Zed goes to the bathroom to wash his face, Just when Zed get up from the bed, Fabiola's shaky voice creeps to his ears.
"Zed your back... the tattoo... its...its changing"
Zed run to the bathroom to see his back in the mirror.
When he sees his back, it is true.
The tattoo on his back is changing from undead to the monster exactly like in his recent dream a doppelganger.
Now Zed is convinced, his dream is related to his power and tattoo but he doesn't know what the changes in his tattoo mean.
Zed is puzzled and decided to investigate it if he has the time.
Unbeknown to him the doppelganger tattoo on his back glow and release a bit of threatening aura.
Two days have passed since the dream Zed has.
This is the day that Zed and Fabiola will go on the journey to the Taztarus Kingdom.
Early morning, Zed and Fabiola already waiting in an inn near the city gate waiting for the other youth to arrive and proceed to their journey.
All the candidates who will attend Lovlarix Recruitment will go together in luxurious carriages with an Eplodon City flag on top of it. The carriages are so big that it can fit fifty people, Wild Beast rank Disaster Bull will be the one who will pull the carriages.
After waiting for thirty minutes, All the candidates have gathered.
There is a total of ten people who will be joining the recruitment this year, some like Zed bringing their loved ones, some are alone, some look confident, some look nervous. Eplodon City is a small city so they only have ten slots for Lovlarix Recruitment.
There are familiar faces in the ten people that gathered, There is the blond girl and the young master of Caulrett Household.
There is one that caught Zed's attention, He is a strong build man although he is way lacking compared to Zed, He has a blue staff on his back, something about him tells Zed to keep his guard up, there is an Amberborne symbol on his chest meaning this man probably the blond girl's brother.
The man glanced at Zed who is looking at him, He was shocked a little then he harrumphs in disdain.
After all the candidates gathered, Maxwell gives Zed the requested Water Skill.
The skill is offensive water manipulation called 'Water Spike Flux' it is a skill that will summon spikes of water from the ground to pierce the enemy if the user mastered this skill the water spike after piercing the enemy will turn into a flux of water that will intrude the enemy's body and then make it explode.
Maxwell then tells them to get in the carriages to be on their way to the Taztarus Kingdom.
Eplodon City is quite far from the Taztarus Kingdom, it is about three hundred kilometers apart. It will take at least ten hours to get there.
On the way to the Taztarus Kingdom, there is no mishap happened.
The journey is boring and Zed only sleeps on Fabiola's thighs. Looking at Zed who is enjoying his sleep in Fabiola's thighs, the blond girl clicked her tongue in displeasure.
After nine hours, the Taztarus Kingdom can already be seen from afar when suddenly, "AMBUSHH!!" the driver screamed on top of his lungs.
Zed snapped back from his sleep and rush outside with his spear, so are all the other people inside.
The carriages are surrounded by at least thirty people, they wear a red headband on their head looking like bandits.
Zed then looks around trying to find the city lord because the city lord probably can help him handle these bandits, but to his confusion, the city lord is nowhere to be seen.
"Ho, The Eplodon City is one of the smallest city under Taztarus Kingdom authority, you guys just walk the wrong path", The bandit's voice makes Zed refocus on the situation.
'Thirty bandits all of them are either in Knight rank or Senior Mage rank, No one in my side has reached their level only I can compete with them' Zed quickly thought.
The bandits waste no time, Their mages chant their spells and shower Zed's team with their fire spells, 'Flamethrow'.
Looking at the incoming attacks, Some candidates lost their spirit and collapse on the ground while some with a bit more of willpower stood still using their shield or protection spell.
Three candidates decided to run for it.
The blond girl is scared shitless but then her brother makes her snapped out of it, "Cathleen use your protection spell to boost my shield spell".
Meanwhile, Fabiola uses water frevor to protect herself, The water frevor create a bubble-like around her signing high level of comprehension and control towards water frevor.
Zed move fast, He immediately uses his Skill, "Thermopylae Shield!".
Just as Zed activate his skill, A projection of three hundred Spartan appears with their shield in front of them using a phalanx formation covering the entire candidates, The aura of the three hundred spartan suffocates the surrounding people making them stiff.
When the spells are near, the projection of three hundred Spartans shouted, "HAAUU!! HAAUU!! HAUU!!".
BOOOM!!
The attacks from the bandit's mages make an explosion upon contact with Thermopylae Shield.
Smoke covers the whole place making one cannot see what's in front of them.
As the leader of the bandits walks forward, a thunder sound was heard. A shadow flew past him at high speed and a painful scream follows after.
Looking back, The leader was shocked.
Five of his men pierced through by a black spear and stuck at the nearby trees.
A monstrous man emerged from the smoke, his eyes are glowing blue with murderous aura around him, "You guys do really know how to lighten up the mood, I was bored as hell in there, Come on give me some entertainment"
The ground below Zed's feet crack apart, it didn't stop, the crack widened and extended forwards bearing the full might of Zed's power.
After his principle breakdown, Zed comes to conclusions, and one of them is to not showing mercy to whoever tries to harm him.
He thinks that he is too soft and needs to kill more people so he can get accustomed to it.
With his new principle, Zed's murderous aura is intensified that bring a spark of terror into the battlefield.
The leader is angry, he then charges with all the other knight rank fighter to fight in close-quarter combat with Zed while the mages will help as a backup.
Zed takes out his other spear, circulate his madman rage skill and charge forward like a beast, His momentum sent two of the charging bandits knocked back.
An intense fight breaks out.
Zed's spear-wielding is on a whole new level, He easily maintains his distance to benefit from the spear's advantages.
Zed is stuck in a fight with five people with a crazed look on his face.
He thrust his spear forward to the leader but the leader managed to swiftly avoid it and send a counter-attack, Zed tries to avoid it but his feet are caught by a hand made of rock that is restraining him from avoiding the leader's blow.
Having no time he raises his hands to block the leader's sword.
"Clangg!"
The leader was shocked, 'how come his sword is deflected by this guy's hand' he thought.
The other bandits use their skills to lock on to Zed, "Sword Pentagon Trap Skill!!" in a flash four swords slash down at Zed that leaves no room to escape.
Zed use Thermopylae Shield to block it but some attack manages to slash him at his leg.
Then he did a cleave with his spear.
The four bandits knocked backwards with a big wound on their chest that is oozing blood.
Zed jumped backwards to make the distance between them.
The onlookers are dumbfounded, Zed display of skills is way out of their league. 'How come he is so powerful when he is only fifteen years old' this thought passed by everyone's mind, even Maxwell is surprised by the skills Zed has, 'Even I'm not his match' Maxwell thought.
Cathleen grip her hand with a determined look, 'I need to surpass him'
The leader than stopped, "Who are you, young soldier?" he asked in the midst of battle.
"Zed Lenvers" replied Zed with a flat expression on his face.
"Well, how do I put this, this is the first test of Lovlarix recruitment it is a mental test. We are all Knight rank or Senior Mage rank because we need to suppress the candidates and test them if they have the will power to fight back or a coward, But I didn't expect there is a young expert among them. You five passed" said the leader pointing at Zed, Cathleen, Cathleen's brother, Fabiola and young master of Caulrett household.
Hearing this, Zed isn't surprised because he's suspicious by the missing city lord. Recovering from his stance Zed then replied, "The green hair girl is not a candidate".
The leader raised his eyebrows, "Really? What a shame we can make an exception for that girl though".
"She..is...NOT...a...candidate" Zed answered while emphasizing every word he said.
The leader can feel the hostile aura from Zed so he decided to not pry into it anymore, "From here you can enter the Kingdom and go to the Lovlarix Training Ground".
Maxwell then reappear inside the carriages with a smiling face then he instructed the chosen candidates to enter the carriages while the rejected candidates will be left behind.
Zed then pull Fabiola inside the carriages and resume his sleeping on Fabiola's thighs, Fabiola can only shake her head and stroke Zed's head.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone