141 [Bonus chapter]Joining the Army (4)
They introduced themselves to Erlan, and he scanned each one of them. When his gaze stopped in Arthur’s, he felt a strange feeling of danger, but that couldn’t be possible.
A youth was in front of him, and he had spent years on the battlefield. How could that feeling come from that person?
He tossed that to the back of his mind and continued to explain how the test would work. Just like Giullis told them, they had to hunt a beast around Slyvian.
Erlan grabbed a few papers which contained a realistic drawing of the beast, as well as a description. Then, he put these papers facing down, and waved his hand, casting a minor wind to rearrange the papers.
“Now, each one of you will come here and choose one of these papers, and that would determine what beast you’ll be hunting.”
Arthur allowed them to go first, to choose their papers, and waited by the side. When he was on his turn, he noticed that there were more papers there than there were people.
Even after the other elves got their papers, there were still at least 7 papers there. Wasn’t it supposed to be one for each of them?
Without another option, he grabbed one paper, turned around, and saw the beast he had to hunt.
‘Lava Worm.’
Giullis saw the paper, and could not help but feel sad about his student. The Lava Worm was the strongest beast around the area, and even the generals couldn’t take it lightly. Why was that type of beast there? In all the other recruitments, nothing like that happened. All the others got weak beasts that were like their level of power.
They were concerned, but Arthur jumped with joy. With his Dragon Fire Body, he had a huge resistance to fire, which would be great when facing that beast. Also, he had an idea in his mind to eat the beast’s core, and try to absorb it to complete his sunlight essence.
Well, he called it sunlight because he mostly increased it using the sunlight energy, but it was more like a fire essence, and anything similar to it would work. But as he read more about the beast, he frowned.
Based on what the paper said, that beast was incredibly strong, and it was not something a trainee like him should face. Obviously, he was beyond that, and killing that beast wouldn’t be hard, but if he was truly just a trainee, then he would be dead.
He scanned at the other elves, who had smiling faces after witnessing his bad luck. Although it was not bad luck. The moment he looked at Kymil, he saw how he looked the other way, avoiding his gaze.
“So you asked your papa general to screw my entrance test. Don’t worry, I’ll eventually find a good excuse to kill you.” Arthur thought.
Giullis was also feeling something was off, but did not say a thing while they were all there.
“You’ll have 7 days to finish this. Meet me in here with proof.” Erlan said.
They all left the palace before that, and a guard scouted them out. Giullis stayed longer to talk with his brother, but the rest of them did not have the rights to stay in the palace for long.
All the elves returned to the inn. Giullis showed them to rest in their rooms. Arthur did not have that problem, so he went out and hunt that beast as quickly as possible.
“Aren’t you going to rest? I heard you’re facing a powerful beast.” Kymil said.
He tried to mock Arthur, but that did not work. Arthur just ignored him and went to do his own business. The first thing he needed was a map of the surrounding area.
According to what the paper said, as well as the name of the beast, the Lava Worm lived inside caves near volcanoes. Arthur did not know where a volcano was, but for that creature to be in the test, then surely a volcano was nearby.
The elves used another type of currency, one that Arthur did not have. He thought that would be a pain in the ass, but the vendor inside a small shop he went to was an angel.
“It is just a map. Take it.” The vendor said.
pᴀɴ(ᴅ)ᴀ ɴoᴠᴇʟ In his mind, Arthur was a homeless person without money, and he even thought of helping to give some, but Arthur grabbed the map, bowed, and left the store. He recorded that man’s face and promised to himself he would pay for it later.
After that, he left the city, and went towards the woods. According to the map, there was in fact a volcano not that far from the city, but it would still take him 2 days to reach it, and that’s considering Arthur’s extraordinary speed.
If he was a normal trainee, he wouldn’t even get to the place where the beast lived before the 7 day mark Erlan gave. Someone plotted against him, but still wasn’t decisive enough to kill him. The purpose was to fail the test, but return alive.
Even if that was the case, Arthur would still get revenge, because if he didn’t, then they would keep plotting against him.
~~~~
The trip went well, and after two days of running through the woods, Arthur found the volcano. He did not fly to avoid turning into a target. Someone from above could not see it clearly with the immense trees that covered the area with leaves, but someone down there could easily spot someone flying.
Also, during his trip on the ground, Arthur found some traces of elves around that area, and one night he even spotted a dark elf, just like the ones he saw near his settlement.
Arthur thought of attacking one to find out more, but his priority was to first kill the Lava Worm.
“I’ll kidnap one after I’m done with this.”
The teleport skill also was really helpful, and Arthur would use it when his legs got sore. He only used it from time to time to speed up the trip, but also maintaining a good amount of mana if things went the wrong way.
“Let’s kill this thing.” Thought Arthur as he looked at a small entrance to a cave at the bottom of the volcano.