Chapter 17 - Knight Recruitment

2 days passed since the mission was handed out. The squad had long split up to begin their mission.

The bustling streets filled with excitement as the day of recruitment arrived, the large range of races and species ready to join the knights incited cheers and chatter. Many were excited and prepared, while others seemed intimidated and nervous. The festive atmosphere and local citizens encouraged and ignited everyone's fighting spirit with free drinks, leaving many to come just for the festivity rather than the actual knight recruitment.

Finally, the long-awaited time arrived, the gates of the castle creaked open as millions rushed in without hesitation; pushing and kicking their way into securing a spot. Leaving the slow and weak tumbling onto the ground.

"Ah..Ow…" a pathetic voice could be heard groaning, left behind by the trail of dust.

"Are you alright?" Another voice asked, lending out his hand, "Haha. It's going to be a rough day today,"

The person accepted the kind gesture and sat up.

"Wow, you're quite handsome aren't you," the helper lightly muttered with a slight nod, looking closely at his face, "The names Eidal," he stretched out his hand again,

The person looked up with an awkward smile and shook his hand, "Alastair."

"You better get going before the registration ends, Alastair," Eidal laughed, turning around, and also began pushing his way into the crowd.

Alastair quickly sat up, his façade instantly disappeared as he glanced down emotionlessly patting the dust off his trousers. However, the moment another person happened to look his way, the façade instantly went back on and he also started pushing his way into the crowd.

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The 100 registration tables were all completely queued up as thousands after thousands of warriors gave their name and strength.

"Table 62, Next!"

The queue slowly shuffled forward

"Table 88, Next!"

The line slowly shortened as the pace of the registration began picking up. Within a short span of 2 hours, all 100,000 people had been registered and were put into 100 groups of 1000 each.

"Group 41! Group 41 is over here!"

"86! 86!"

The voices shouted over each other creating another loud ruckus with ten of thousands of people running around trying to locate their allocated group.

"Ah! 97! Found it," two voices muttered at the same in the crowd.

They turned to each other and a smile appeared on their faces,

"Alastair!"

"Eidal!"

"You're in group 97 as well?" Eidal asked, giving Alastair a pat on the back as they walked to their group.

"Mhm." Alastair nodded nervously, a bright smile and eyes of fascination planted on his face as he looked around, intrigued by the swarm of people.

"Are you guys in group 97?" A deep voice called from behind,

Eidal spun around to see a dark-skinned, tall, around 2-meter bald man casting a dark shadow directly above them.

"A-Ah, Y-Yes Sir," he stuttered, slowly inching away.

"Right, then tick your name off here, please," The man quickly took out a piece of paper and a quill before handing it over.

Quickly finding their names and drawing a neat tick next to it, they handed it back.

"Thank you for your time." The giant nodded before walking away

"All of group 97 has arrived, please follow me everyone!" a female voice rang out as a giant double door slowly began opening automatically.

Eidal and Alastair's group slowly made their way into the building as the doors closed behind them.

The gigantic interior was decorated to the bare minimum with the stone walls covered in a mixture of deep and light slashes, whilst burn marks littered the ground and roof. The room was lit up with a few torches mounted onto a wooden plaque every few metres on the wall as a single chandelier lit up the middle.

"This is one of the Vesage Kingdom's many Training Halls." The voice began.

Finally being able to locate the origin of the voice, Alastair and Eidal focused their attention to see a long blonde-haired woman wearing iron-plated armor, standing in the middle of the room.

"I am Knight Silica." She proclaimed, "I will be your Head Examiner for today,"

Chatter filled the air once more.

"A girl?"

"Is the kingdom looking down on us?"

"She's pretty cute isn't she…"

"This test will be difficult, there will only be 100 people that pass it. The rest of you will be going home." Her voice boomed once more above the noise,

"Only 100?"

"I wonder what the test is?"

"This is going to be tough…"

Silica took another deep breath, "Quiet down! I will now explain the test! It is quite simple." She looked around, "Battle Arena. Fight among yourselves until only 100 people remain standing. Any weapon is allowed, however, killing will get you instantly disqualified."

A smile emerges from her face.

"Good luck,"

Her voice faded away as she suddenly disappeared from her spot.