Chapter 136: Manticore

A lance of water formed and launched toward the Manticore. It saw the incoming attack and used [Ground Shrink], dodging out of the way and sending an attack of its own. Its tail flicked as it sent multiple sharp spikes from its tail toward Sol.

'Is it me or is it smarter?'

The illusion enemies were getting stronger each floor, but it wasn't an issue because they wouldn't even dodge and attack directly, similar to the undead of the first to tenth floor of Necropolis. Sol didn't even have to think as he launched any kind of attack that they wouldn't bother dodging, but it appeared not to be the case anymore. Unbeknownst to Sol, these enemies he treated lightly have eliminated over a thousand applicants, with the floors that spawned multiple enemies being the toughest people faced. Just because they charged recklessly didn't make it less of a threat to other applicants, and they struggled when faced by multiple assailants.

With more applicants eliminated, the illusionists maintaining the formation could focus on improving the enemies for the ones that remained, increasing not only their intelligence but also reaction speeds and durability, increasing the threat they posed even further.

Though this didn't matter to Sol.

The spikes that flew toward him were reflected by the earth element Lipon as Sol followed up with [Ground Shrink] to immediately appear in front of the Manticore.

"ROAR!"

Sol shuddered from the roar but not because it frightened him, 'It's weird to see a human face produce such a sound.'

He jumped upwards and executed his recently evolved skill [Primal Rend]. Spinning like a saw blade, Sol slammed into the manticore. The manticore saw the attack coming and tried to move out of the way but was still caught inside it, getting its tail and back leg cleanly separated from its body.

Missing a leg and its tail, it roared once more in anger as it went into [Rage]. It lost what little intelligence it had and clawed toward Sol with its front claws.

Sol chuckled, "Thanks, you just made it even easier for me. [Harpoon]."

It sacrificed its intelligence for power, making it once more the same as the dumb enemies he had faced before. The water lance formed once more and launched toward the Manticore. In its anger, it didn't dodge and attacked the water lance with its claws.

The lance tore through the claw and pierced its entire leg, not stopping even when it reached its main body. The [Harpoon] spell's biggest strength was its penetrative power, drilling and tearing into whatever was unfortunate enough to be in its way.

The Manticore's eyes widened in pain as even with [Rage] numbing its senses, the feeling of its body being torn from the inside out was excruciating to say the least. Because of the complex formation and the objective of the test meant to be as real as possible, they simulated even the pain of the enemies. Fortunately for the Manticore, its pain didn't last long as the water lance pierced through its heart and ended its life.

In a burst of smoke, the Manticore evaporated. Sol turned off the Lipon and turned his gaze to the stairs of the next floor and noticed a door there as well.

'I see they didn't make it subtle.'

Just having a door would be enough to let the applicants know that it was the exit, but the creator of this illusion went further than that. Many signs and glowing lights surrounded the door with writing such as: "Exit here!", "Get out while you can!", and "Honey, time to wake up!".

A few made him chuckle, 'At least they had fun with it.'

After taking a few moments to appreciate the signs, Sol headed to the stairs. Obviously, he wouldn't leave the illusion; if he did, then he would definitely not qualify for the tournament, defeating the entire point of becoming a knight in the first place.

'Hopefully, the enemies become more interesting, kinda boring if it's just this…'

…

Outside the illusion, Zaman and the other illusionists positioned around the formation were viewing and managing the illusion. Most of the applicants have woken up by now and were escorted off the premises. A few made a scene and attacked nearby applicants still under the effects of the illusion out of anger from failing but were easily neutralized by the knights on standby. If they weren't able to defeat the enemies in the illusion, what hope did they have fighting against the knights who were much stronger?

As Zaman was watching, a few applicants still inside the illusion, a knight ran up to him.

"Commander, two have already passed the test! All the way to the first floor no less!"

"17 and 1318?"

"How did you know?"

"Those two are a special case, don't worry about it, take them to the headquarters; it will be a while until the other applicants start… oh? Someone just reached the 25th floor."

The knight who reported the two that passed was confused. Why did the Commander not care about the two who already made it to the 1st floor, and instead, someone who just beat the 25th floor? The knight understood it was extremely fast as well as it had only been 20 minutes, but it paled in comparison to the two that already defeated the entire tower.

Zaman knew what the knight was thinking, "We already knew of those two, so that much was expected. I didn't think someone else would reach the halfway point so fast. Did I make it too easy?"

Zaman looked up and saw how the number of applicants in the illusion had decreased by half, immediately shutting down that notion.

'241… He was one of the ones who were also able to resist the illusion.'

Feeling suspicious that another A-Ranker was taking the test, he scanned the area and found Sol's unconscious body. Though Zaman had no skills to view someone else's status page, he could sense the general strength from his many years of experience.

'He's not an A-Ranker… but he is much stronger than most B-Rankers.'

Zaman was elated by the fact that there was someone truly special within this batch of applicants. So far, he had been rather disappointed especially because of the high turnout this year.

Planning to watch more of Sol's performance later, Zaman manipulated the orb to show the towers of the two applicants that already completed the tower, at least what was left of them. The tower of applicant 17 was relatively intact, but it had a hole right in the middle of it leading straight through to the center. Applicant 1318's tower, on the other hand, was on fire, and not just one floor but the entire tower. What was on fire wasn't even the worst of it, as straight through the middle a large hole of melted stone shot down to the bottom of the tower.