Chapter 26: Four Fast Rounds and a Miracle Recovery!
Lucien kept his expression neutral. "...I’m listening."
Zalor’s smile eased into something more genuine. "Relax. I’m not here to cause trouble, Luc"
He leaned back slightly. "I just heard about you from Kael."
"The loud Asura one?"
"That’s the one." Zalor almost smiled. "He hasn’t shut up about you since your first dungeon run."
"...He really tells everyone?"
"Everyone," Zalor confirmed. "I am quoting him by the way, ’Some lunatic cleared his first dungeon, killed a mutated Goblin King, and somehow got a Gold Chest.’ He’s been barking about it in every tavern within walking distance."
Lucien exhaled slowly. ’Damnit Kael, of course he has.’
"So you tracked me down based on a bar story."
"Tracked down is generous," Zalor said. "I figured you’d show up eventually for a rank upgrade from the way Kael talked, I just didn’t expect it to be my first day checking the evaluation room."
He shook his head slightly. "Kael really wasn’t exaggerating about the luck, apparently."
They talked a while longer Zalor filling him in on Kael’s usual haunts, Rika’s reputation as one of the more reliable D-Rank party leaders in the city, a handful of D-Rank dungeons worth checking out once his license updated.
Zalor recommended a place called the Sunken Cathedral, apparently its rich in soul attribute resources, and another called Ember Hollow, known for fire based and resistant loot.
’Good information, especially the soul attribute maybe I can find resources to invest in Seraphina, and because soul attribute loot is rare.’ Lucien thought, filing it away.
’And a genuinely useful contact, apparently, made entirely by accident because Kael can’t keep his mouth shut.’
They exchanged contact details just as a guild staff member’s voice rang out across the waiting hall.
"Luc Voss head to Arena Three for your evaluation test."
"That’s me," Lucien said, rising.
Zalor nodded toward the arena doors. "Good luck. Try not to die, Kael would never forgive me if I let his lucky charm get killed on a rank-up test."
---
Arena Three opened into a sealed combat chamber, stone walls reinforced with faint mana runes, a single figure waiting at the center.
Darius Ironhorn stood nearly two and a half meters tall, dark crimson skin stretched over dense muscle, two enormous horns curving back from his skull while a thick scar ran across one eye, old and pale against his skin.
He studied a floating tablet, then looked up at Lucien.
"You registered," he said, voice flat and gravelly, "three days ago?"
"Yep."
He glanced back at the tablet. "And have only completed one dungeon since?"
"Also correct."
Darius’s single visible eye narrowed slightly. "...Interesting."
"Not exactly a ringing endorsement,’ Lucien thought. ’But not a rejection either, I’ll take it.’
"There’ll be Four rounds," Darius continued, businesslike.
"Beginner, Mid, High, and Peak D-Rank. Winning each fight, earns that rank’s license tier. Altough these are simulations they behave exactly like the real thing, react exactly like the real thing and hurt exactly like the real thing. So even though you can’t die in here, injuries are still possible so please sign here."
He held out a waiver. Lucien scanned it standard liability language, the guild absolved of responsibility for injuries sustained during evaluation,etc and after reading it thoroughly he signed without hesitation.
"Step in," Darius said, gesturing toward the arena floor. "Left entrance."
Lucien walked in. Across from him, a massive gate began grinding upward.
---
Round One.
A Dire Wolf padded out from the shadows Beginner D-Rank, lean and grey, teeth bared and eyes glowing faint amber.
Lucien tried using his Sanguine Perception ability but when he looked a the wolf he could sense nothing, no blood, no blood flow only its heat beat was simulated.
Lucien didn’t move, he let it close the distance, watching its gait, the shift of muscle before it lunged.
’Sword manual, don’t fail me now.’
The wolf sprang.
Lucien stepped once, blade rising in a clean arc, and the wolf’s head separated from its body before it even landed.
The corpse burst into blue light particles, dissolving into nothing.
"Round One: Clear." A voice resounded in the arena confirming his victory.
The audience murmured, unimpressed, already shifting attention elsewhere.
Darius made a small note on his tablet, expression unreadable.
---
Round Two.
The gate opened again, revealing an Orc Warrior with thick, corded muscle, a massive axe gripped in both hands, Mid D-Rank aura pressing down the moment it stepped through.
It charged immediately, giving him no time to think.
’Seriously, just what you would expect from the way it looks.’
’Alright, let’s not show off too much.’
Lucien drew a thin thread of stored blood from his reservoir, near-invisible, and looped it around the orc’s ankle as it closed the distance.
The orc’s stride caught as it stumbled, axe swinging wide, balance thrown for half a second.
Half a second was enough.
Lucien closed the gap and took its head clean off before it could recover.
The body dissolved into blue particles.
"Round Two: Clear." The same voice as before resounded in the arena once again.
Murmurs rippled through the crowd this time, sharper.
"Blood based skills?" someone muttered.
"No mana signature, though," another voice said. "Barely used anything visible."
Darius’s pen paused over his tablet a beat longer than before.
---
Round Three.
The gate ground open, and something fast tore out of the darkness, a Shadow Panther, sleek black fur rippling with shifting shadow, High D-Rank power radiating off it in waves.
It blurred forward before Lucien could fully process the movement.
’Too fast for normal eyes to keep track of.’
He barely got his sword up in time, deflecting a slash that would’ve opened his throat, the panther already gone again, circling, vanishing into shadow and reappearing from a different angle entirely.
’Can’t track it visually, I’m not fast enough so I’ll need another way.’
He reached inward, toward Sanguine Perception, and the world shifted.
Even simulated, even artificial, the panther carried a heartbeat, a fast, erratic pulse of false-life pounding somewhere beneath its shadowy form.
’There it is.’
He tracked it now, not with his eyes but with that steady, thudding rhythm, and turned half a second before the panther’s claws would have caught his back.
They caught his shoulder instead.
Pain seared white-hot as claws tore through flesh, blood spraying across the arena floor.
Lucien gritted his teeth, spun with the momentum instead of against it, and drove his blade upward through where the heartbeat pulsed strongest.
The panther convulsed once, then dissolved into blue light.
"Round Three: Clear." The same voice confirmed again.
Lucien staggered slightly, breathing hard, blood soaking his shredded shoulder.
He reached for his reservoir instinctively, drawing on Sanguine Rebirth, and the wound began knitting shut before the audience’s eyes, torn muscle sealing, skin smoothing over, the bleeding stopping entirely within seconds.
Silence spread through the stands.
"...What was that, are vampires supposed to heal do fast by drinking blood?" someone whispered.
"I heard that vampires healing factor normally increases with higher earned bloodlines, but I don’t know if uts true or not." someone else said.
Darius’s single visible eye had gone very sharp, tablet forgotten in his hand.
---
"Final round," his voice echoed through the arena, carrying none of its earlier flatness.
The massive gate across the arena groaned, straining against something far larger than the previous three combined.
Heavy footsteps thundered from the darkness beyond, each one shaking dust loose from the ceiling.
The audience leaned forward as one.
A gigantic silhouette began emerging from the gate, broad-shouldered, towering, crimson tusks catching the arena’s dim light as it stepped fully into view.
***************
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