Infallible Oathbreaker

With these auspicious words, the old man left the room. "If I kill them, they can"t kill me." Darius wasn"t sure why, but these words struck a chord with him, reaching the deepest recesses of his mind. He kept saying them over and over again.

Darius also noticed that the old man said "them". In other words, "them" could be anything. Darius quite liked this mantra. As someone who valued his life above all else, killing others to save his own skin was something he was more than capable of. Unbeknownst to the young man, a vicious glimmer ran through his mind as he thought about the upcoming test. He didn"t know it himself, but he was looking forward to the test!

The third exam was similar to the previous one. The duo was dropped in a seemingly random location without any information on what to do. Under such circ.u.mstances, it was clear that they only had to dispatch their enemies to pa.s.s.

As the heir to the emperor, all Lara had to do was pa.s.s three tests, and she would qualify to inherit his position. Then, that would be that, yet the previous night, she had received a notice that three more tests had been added to their schedule. As a budding royal, she had her own information network and a plethora of subordinates, so it wasn"t a surprise that she would receive advanced information about the testing schedule; she just hadn"t expected the additions to be so difficult, not to mention that the information would come with a caveat.

The last three tests were optional for her but mandatory for Darius. Nevertheless, partic.i.p.ation in the fourth test and the later ones came with incredible rewards she found difficult to resist. However, she was in no mood to rejoice the vast possibilities. It was clear that these tests were meant for Darius and that she was just a fortunate bystander.

At first, she had been outraged and humiliated, but after some time had pa.s.sed, she remembered what Darius had done to those jade sea serpents. Her humiliation quickly turned into plain shock. She couldn"t get around how someone as weak as Darius could become so powerful in one day.

"Is this the power of the Indomitable ability?" She murmured as she gazed out onto the gra.s.sy plains ahead of her. There was only green waving gra.s.s for as far as she could see. Cool winds blew from time to time, swaying the weeds like an orchestra of nature.

Lara only spent a moment to observe her surroundings before quickly turning her attention to Darius who stood right beside her.

The moment she took a look at those limpid eyes, she knew that something about him had changed, but she couldn"t put her finger on it. He had zoned out the moment they had arrived, staring into nothingness, but had snapped out of it after a while.

"Welcome back to Earth," said Lara sarcastically.

Darius laughed shyly and coughed. "h.e.l.lo, your Majesty? Or is it your Highness?" Darius asked in a high pitched tone.

"What kind of idiot are you?" mumbled Lara as she slapped her own forehead. She felt aggrieved that such a fool possessed such power while a princess as gifted as she was had to play second fiddle to him. She sighed in resignation and decided to focus on the task at hand. She had attained an Honour level ability, so her foundations were solid. She was confident that given enough time, she would become stronger than Darius. She failed to take into account, however, that Darius would get stronger in time as well.

"Focus, Darius, focus!" Darius kept mumbling to himself in order to soothe his fraught nerves. He tightened his grip on the hammer as he focused on their surroundings. Lara did the same but to no avail. For the first few minutes, nothing happened. After a while, Lara started to lose her patience and decided to explore the area.

"Hey! Where are you going?" asked a nervous Darius. There was something about their surroundings that made his nerves stand on edge. As time went on, he instinctually felt as if he approached the jaws of death. It was an unpleasant feeling, yet he could do nothing about it. Lara"s sudden action of walking away did nothing to calm him down. In fact, it made him feel even more nervous because he suspected her next actions would activate the trap.

"I"m going to explore. Standing around doing nothing has done nothing to help our cause," Lara said in a confident tone. Darius wanted to retort, but he had nothing logical he could say to refute her argument. They hadn"t been given any instructions or any objectives, and unlike last time, no spirits attacked them of their own volitions.

"This is supposed to be a test, one that focuses on combat, yet we were placed in the middle of nowhere. We have to be proactive and gather information if we want to finish the test sooner," said Lara confidently. As soon as she had finished speaking, she turned her head back and looked at Darius.

What greeted her was the sight of a terrified Darius. His face was pale, and his lips quivered. She wanted to ask what the problem was when she saw him point to the ground beneath her feet. At that very instant, a premonition of death washed over her body, causing chills to run up her spine.

Despite being an extravagant princess, Lara had a plethora of battle experience; she was by no means pampered and protected. She had taken the lives of both spirits and men many a time in order to train herself. She was accustomed to killing intent and bloodl.u.s.t, so much so that she had developed a keen instinct like any other distinguished warrior would develop after the baptism of a thousand battles.

Many a man could feel the towering shadow of death looming over their heads, but few had the ability to react instantly in order to escape, and Lara was one of those few.

Without even looking down at what Darius was pointing at, she activated her secondary ability, Double Critical. It was an ability that doubled her reaction and movement speed. Using this newfound speed, she leaped from her position and flitted toward Darius"s position.

Every ability had a primary and secondary ability. Indomitable was no different. The elder had explained that Indomitable"s abilities were a bit special. The first one, Imperishable, made one"s mind immune to mental attacks while inciting one"s bloodl.u.s.t and cognitive abilities. The second ability Overdraw increased one"s all-around sensory and physical abilities, allowing one to fully use one"s innate bodily talents.

Darius was not a fan of the fearlessness side effect of Imperishable, so when they had arrived at their new location, he had only activated Overdraw. The elder had spent quite some time teaching Darius how to use the abilities separately. The elder had warned that Overdraw must be activated from the get-go while Imperishable was something that had to be handled with caution.

As Lara had started walking away, Darius"s senses had started tingling, and his ears had started to pick up a vibration from the ground. As the seconds went on, his ears had zeroed in on the ground directly underneath Lara. It had been a shuffling noise akin to one moving large mounds of dirt. His sixth sense had started to scream danger, leading to Darius feeling extreme fear and pointing below his counterpart"s feet.

The old Darius would have turned tail and run at that moment, but within that split second, his instincts had changed from "I need to run away" to "I need to warn her." Within that short instant of time, Darius character was revealed: he saw Lara and himself as one ent.i.ty. It never even occurred to him that he was doing something out of character.

Darius could hear the rumbling of the earth beneath her feet intensify. He wondered whether he would even get a word out before she was attacked by whatever was coming. To his surprise, she reacted immediately and managed to leap away just in time. Within a split second, she was already beside him.

"Fast!" Darius did not have time to marvel more at her speed. It was here that…

Boom!

…

"What did I ever do to deserve this?" Darius screamed as he ran at full throttle away from the monstrosity chasing him. It was a spirit that looked like an earthworm, with its mouth"s circ.u.mference covered in sharp teeth. This mouth was actually just an opening at the front of the worm while the teeth acted as drills, allowing it to freely move through the earth like a fish swimming in water.

The worm was incredibly thick. Each hole it created through its pa.s.sing was at least three meters in diameter while it was at least twenty meters long. Its size wasn"t the worst part. For the life of him, Darius could not figure out why the worm was chasing him!

At first, it had appeared under Lara, who had swiftly dodged its attack, but then the worm had single-mindedly rushed at Darius, completely ignoring the la.s.s.

Darius cursed his misfortune as he ran for dear life while Lara ran after the duo. Like Darius, she was also confused. From time to time she would catch up to the worm and cut it with her two swords, causing some minor wounds here and there, but her taunting did nothing to sway its actions.

She was well aware that Spirits had the habit of targeting the stronger person first, but that was only if the gap was significant enough, which she did not think was the case here. Spirits had the ability to judge a human"s strength with their beast-like intuition. Both Darius and Lara were humans of the first step of power, Courage, but Darius was a two-star Spiritknight while Lara was only a one-star Spiritknight. This difference made Darius the primary mark; thus, for its survival, the worm had designated him as its target since while finis.h.i.+ng off Lara, Darius could come in like the old fisherman stalking the oriole.

Lara knew that Darius had received two Dantians in the Knighting ceremony, but she believed that he, like most people, could only absorb one Dantian, so she was unaware of his current greater level of power that justified the Spirit"s decisions.

Thanks to Overdraw, Darius was incredibly fast. That coupled with his incredible desire to live allowed him to pull out quite a bit of his body"s full potential strength. Multiple times did the worm come close to consuming him, only for him to accelerate and dodge it just in time. Along with Darius"s mysterious ability to sense the worm"s presence underground, Darius had managed to survive his desperate flight. Lara could not understand how he was doing it. After all, he was merely a country hick with some n.o.ble blood in his veins, yet as time went on, Darius"s ident.i.ty had become ever more of an enigma to this arrogant princess.

Boom!

Darius narrowly dodged the worm"s materializing from the earth by rolling forward. "This thing is getting closer!" Darius started to get nervous because his chances of survival seemed slim.

Attack? Of course, the notion had briefly entered his mind, but his cowardice would not allow it. Unlike Lara, he was no seasoned warrior after all. Why, just a few days ago, he had never even been in any lethal battles of any sort. While screaming, he would look back from time to time, only to despair upon observing Lara"s futile attempts at injuring the creature.

His cowardice overshadowed his logic, and he completely forgot that he was far stronger than she was, neglecting the fact that he had wiped out the Jade Sea Serpent by himself.

From time to time, a burning sensation, akin to a searing heat, would flow from the hammer to his hand. This was the hammer trying to activate the primary ability of Indomitable: Imperishable! Yet, Darius would have none of it. As far as he was concerned, running away was the only way to survive, so using the experience he had gained from the elder the previous night, he completely suppressed Indomitable, keeping only Overdraw active.

Lara was faster than Darius, so it was quite easy for her to catch up to him. She stayed a few meters away for good measure and yelled, "I have a plan to kill this worm, but for it to work, I"m going to need your help!"

Darius looked sideways for a split second in order to reply, but his feet immediately tripped on a rock. At this point, the worm underground shot upward. It had felt the vibrations from aboveground indicating Darius"s perilous situation. It accelerated with intense vigor, seeing this as its only chance to get rid of its p.r.i.c.kly enemy. Darius cursed as he fell to the ground. All he could do was brace himself and roll up. His concentration had lapsed, and now, all he could think of was how he was about to die.

"Look out!" yelled Lara as she saw him fall in the most unfas.h.i.+onable way possible. She had no doubt that the worm would take this opportunity to strike. She wanted to help, but Darius was in no way important enough to her for her to risk her life, not to mention that she was anyway too far to do anything measurable. Considering what little damage she had caused the creature, she felt a pang of powerlessness overcome her at this instant.

Darius"s lapse of concentration, fortunately, occurred when the heat was once more conducting from the hammer. Before he could react, the heat flowed into his arm and spread through his whole body.

"Oh no!" Darius screamed inwardly, but it was too late. The bloodl.u.s.t was already getting to his head. He felt his blood boiling as an intense rage washed over his heart. At the same time, a powerful clarity stilled his mind. He clenched his teeth while his eyes instantly became bloodshot. From the center of his body, he felt the power of Overdraw increase along with his sudden emotional stability.

Overdraw was designed to work best with Imperishable, so the effects of Indomitable could only truly display themselves when both the primary and secondary abilities worked in tandem. The worm rose up, about to swallow Darius and a whole pile of earth along with him, when the young man swiftly reacted instead of falling into a lapse of panic like the creature expected.

Using his free hand, he slapped the ground, using the opposing force to propel himself sideways. There was a loud noise from the impact, indicating the true strength applied by the young man.

Darius was propelled ten meters within an instant, shocking the observing Lara. The worm roared in triumph, only to realize that it had solely swallowed a chunk of earth. It squealed in anger and violently shook. The squeal was loud enough to make Lara wish she could cover her ears as she rapidly backed away. Nevertheless, her years of combat training allowed her to resist despite the grimace she wore.

Darius seemed unfazed as he slowly stood into a steady stance. He had a deadpan expression as he calmly observed the wiggling worm with his bloodshot eyes. He tightened his grip on his hammer as a plan of action quickly formed in his mind. As he was strategizing, the elder"s words from this morning echoed in his mind, "Kill them before they kill you!"

…

The basic premise seemed simple enough: kill your opponent before they killed you, yet the truth was that actually fulfilling the idea was far from simple.

"Princess, throw me one of your swords! Hurry!" Darius bellowed as he readied himself. Lara heard the boy as she had put down her hands, exposing her ears once again. The worm had stopped squirming and now prepared to retreat underground once more.

Lara questioned Darius"s motives, but a glare from the later completely subdued the former. Any doubts she had about his actions disappeared as she looked into his bloodshot eyes. His Indomitable skill was in full swing, visible from the bloodl.u.s.t he oozed, yet the young man seemed eerily calm. He seemed extremely relaxed as if he were in his own backyard. Were it not for his feral grin or red eyes, she would have thought him to be in a normal state of mind.

The stark contrast between his general appearance and countenance overwhelmed Lara. Before she knew it, she had already thrown her sword to the young man.

She was shocked by her own actions. After all, two swords were always better than one. By giving him one of her swords, she weakened her own battle strength, not to mention that the worm could attack her at any moment. After all, there was no guarantee that it would continue its sole pursuit of Darius. Despite her logical reservations, the young woman had unconsciously thrown Darius her sword without hesitation.

As the sword was in mid-flight, Darius ran toward it. His keen intuition and senses were keeping track of the worm"s whereabouts underground. It was a simple-minded creature, thus its attack patterns were rather easy to read. Darius snorted as he ran to the sword. Just as he was about to reach it, the worm burst up from the ground!

Darius was expecting this, so he nimbly circled the creature, arriving quickly by its side.

Boom!

With a swing of his hammer, he smashed whatever portion that had come up straight into the ground. Except he didn"t retrieve his hammer. The worm"s top half remained embedded in the ground with the hammer above it.

Thanks to the hammer"s special enchantment, only special means could be used to lift this. Darius knew this from experience, and the elder had given him even more information regarding this. The elder had said that this fact had applications for battle, and Darius was using one of them.

Since he had the worm pinned, Darius quickly turned and lept into the sky. By the time he had landed, he had Lara"s sword in hand.

He slowly made his way to the worm"s head. It wriggled and tried and much as it could to get out of its predicament but it was all in vain. Lara was not sure how he had done it, but he had somehow managed to incapacitate the worm.

"His strength is indeed nothing to scoff at." Thought Lara as she walked toward Darius. She marveled at the sheer force of the blow, in which he had blasted the worm into the ground. Plenty of earth had scattered while the worm"s upper body was entrenched into the ground. Lara could not help but wonder where all that strength came from.

Granted, Indomitable boosted one"s physical abilities, but it could only bring out what was already there.

The human brain limited the amount of strength one could use from their own body. Overdraw removed those limiters while drawing on the body"s vitality, converting it into raw power.

"Just what kind of foundation does this boy have? How much training did he have to go through to achieve such monstrous strength?"

In this day and age, there were plenty of people born with unique talents. One of them being inborn strength. Those with inborn strength would have the strength of a tiger at the tender age of ten. By the time they reached adulthood, they could even match the strength of an elephant! Without any training!

Their bodies would naturally be incredibly large and muscular as a result. Yet Darius was nothing like that. His build and size seemed normal. He was quite fit, but it was hard for her to see how muscular he was as she had only seen him fully clothed.

While these thoughts were swirling in Lara"s mind, Darius had already reached the head of the worm. He used the sword to tap the creatures hard carapace as if to test something. It only left a small dent, but it was enough to confirm what he was thinking. By this point, Lara was nearby. She saw his actions and saw the dent. The tap was slow and casual, but the dent caused was similar to one of her full strength blows, as the dent it caused was only slightly smaller than the ones she had caused on the creature. While Lara was marveling at the young man"s strength, the worm decided to shriek once more.

The noise was quite deafening, causing Lara to once more cover her ears and back away. Darius seemed unaffected as he simply took a few simple steps. Once he had chosen his spot, he relaxed his shoulders and gripped the sword with both hands.

He closed his eyes and calmed down for a moment, in an attempt to ready himself. When Lara finally reached a comfortable distance, she removed her hands from her ears and focused Darius. The screech from the worm was still uncomfortable, even from almost 100 meters away, but Lara bore with it. She put all her attention on Darius, as his recent actions caught her attention.

"Don"t tell me he wants to cut it?"

Lara found the notion absurd. As far as she was concerned, he was strong but not that strong. However, Darius couldn"t care less about her thoughts. He opened his eyes and raised the sword above his head.

He stepped forward and struck down.

Swoos.h.!.+

Lara rubbed her eyes in confusion because she could have sworn that the sword and Darius"s arms had disappeared for a moment before they had appeared once more thrust into the ground, but that was not what shocked her; the shrieking had stopped. Since she was standing at the side, she could not see clearly, but the sword seemed to be submerged in the worm. This and the silence could only mean one thing. The worm was dead!

…

"The heavens have eyes! They have not abandoned my family!"

The Emperor stood up and roared with laughter. James and Peter, Lionel"s two older brothers, had wry smiles on their faces, while Lionel"s face was deathly pale. The third test had ended, and the results had been spectacular.

Darius had once again single-handedly dealt with a spirit in a most spectacular fas.h.i.+on. The Emperor had a smug grin as he returned to his seat.

"Lionel, my son, accept your fate! Haha!" The Emperor"s laughter was like the sound of death creeping closer and closer for Lionel.

"My life of luxury! Gone!"

Lionel did the best he could to prevent himself from wailing in misery, lest he lost even more face. Rarely did his plans end up blowing up in his face especially in such a spectacular fas.h.i.+on. Thanks to Darius"s efforts, he was now in the running for Emperor directly in compet.i.tion with his sister. His sister was still the favorite by a long shot, but this result forced him to act the part of a prince.

Gone were the days he could fool about. Gone were the nights he could disappear where and when he pleased. Gone were the days he could come up with random excuses for skipping training…

As Lara and Lionel were twins, their talents were not far apart. In fact, Lionel knew quite well that he could best his sister in terms of talent for battle, even at that very moment despite his consistent skipping of practice. He just did not want it to be revealed. In truth, Lionel was already a Spiritknight. He had chosen to find himself his own Dantian in an attempt to convince his father that he was not qualified for the test and thus have the Emperor help him find a subst.i.tute. Under normal circ.u.mstances, becoming a Spiritknight before the test disqualified one, but the Emperor would have none of that. He had forced Lionel to swallow a pill that temporarily made one a normal human again, much to the latter"s chagrin.

Lionel was neither a coward nor was he untalented, but he had managed to fool his family into believing otherwise. Now, his years of effort had been thrown down the train by an una.s.suming hick from the countryside. Now, he had to reveal his true talents. If not, his life would become even harder, and the reason for that was sitting right next to him.

Contrary to what most might think, the one most unhappy at the current turn of events was not Lionel, but his eldest brother James!

James was eyeing his father"s throne, and he had already secured Peter"s support. Lara, however, was like the sun, melting any chance he had of seizing power. James had come up with many schemes to take her life, but he would only act once she became a Spiritknight. As a Spiritknight, she would be thrust in many a battle, willingly or not. Not to mention that she was anyway a battle maniac and would probably actively seek out these perilous encounters. There would no doubt be plenty of opportunities to get rid of her in the near future.

Lionel was a wastrel, so James had not seen him as a threat… until now.

The only person who had noticed James"d true intentions was Lionel himself. Despite his lazy nature, there was no doubting the boy"s cunning nature. Part of the reason he had intended to bow out of the race for the throne was his understanding of his brother"s unrelenting avarice.

Lionel was content with not having to look after his own neck. However, he had now no doubt entered James"s radar. James was greedy, but it was Peter who was the real problem.

Peter unconditionally followed James. It had been so ever since they were young children. James was more of a warrior while Peter was, much like Lionel himself, more of a schemer, except that he was even more devious.

It was Peter who had discovered the clause that allowed for Lionel to use a subst.i.tute. He had informed Lionel, who had taken the hint, and immediately acted on it. Little had Peter know that his discovery would set into motion a chain of events that would rock the entire empire!

Now that he had entered James and Peter"s sights, Lionel had no choice but to fight for power in order to better protect himself. If he did not, he would be forced to work under his brothers, which would only make it easier for them to "take care" of him.

Lionel was lazy, but he was not subservient. If he could not lead a life in luxury, then he would lead a life of power. He would be d.a.m.ned if he had to submit to his older brothers, and they knew that very well.

James had had a sleepless night the day before, but now, his greatest worries had truly cemented in reality. He glanced at his brother who understood the gesture.

Peter looked at Lionel and said, "Welcome to the fold, brother. We expect much of you."

Lionel laughed powerlessly and shrank into his seat. He sighed in resignation upon realizing the situation he was in. Nevertheless, Lionel was, after all, Lionel. It only took a few moments, but a plan quickly formed in his mind.

He sat up straight while a regal disposition oozed from him. This change caught the attention of his brothers. James stared at Lionel, obviously challenging him to enter a confrontation.

Peter simply smiled and stared at his younger brother. The message was simple: you are either with us or against us. Lionel took a sideways glance at his brothers; he particularly focused on Peter. For a moment, the atmosphere thickened as the brothers read each other"s minds. It was as if sparks flew between the two.

James was displeased about being overlooked by his younger brother, no, enemy, but he shrugged it off. After all, it was merely Lionel. What could he do? All the crafty plans in the world meant nothing in the face of absolute power. After a moment, he continued observing the battle.

Peter did not underestimate Lionel as much as James, but he still did not regard him as a worthy opponent, mimicking James"s actions.

The Emperor was no fool; he was well aware of what was happening, but he pretending as if he saw nothing. The wily old fox was definitely up to no good because a subtle grin suffused his face.

Lionel"s plan was meticulous, but it required a lot of steps to be taken, and the key was right in front of him. Lionel"s eyes zeroed in on Darius"s visage on the screen.

"The test has ended. Please rest for a few hours. The second test will begin soon," An emotionless voice resounded throughout the field.

The test had ended as soon as Darius had taken the worm"s life. They were then teleported from the test site to what seemed like a resting room with luxurious chairs and refreshments. It even had boxes packed with medicine that allowed one to heal themselves. Darius was unfamiliar with how to use these, but thankfully, Lara was quick to help.

She felt disgraced that she had been so useless in the previous exam, so the least she could do was help the seemingly lost Darius.

Indomitable"s effects had long since subsided since the moment the worm had been slain. Under Lara"s instructions, Darius went for medicines that rejuvenated his stamina. Indomitable was known for taking quite the toll on the body. In fact, Lara was amazed that Darius could still stand, only appearing slightly fatigued. As time went on, Darius was becoming less and less human in her eyes.

Each of the boxes were filled with vials containing colourful liquids. The liquid Darius aimed for was sky blue, emanating an odd blue light. Darius opened the vial and sniffed its contents. It had quite a refres.h.i.+ng smell, one that helped him relax. Confident that it was not poison, Darius drank the contents in one gulp. A soothing wave of calm spread over his entire body. Indeed, he was tired, but he was not as tired as Lara believed. He was more distraught than tired.

Darius lazily sat down on a sofa while allowing the medicine to take effect. He thought about the recent events that had occurred to him.

The elder had told Darius an interesting piece of information the night before, information he hadn"t trusted until now.

Indomitable had different effects on different people. The common shared traits were bloodl.u.s.t and mental clarity, freeing one from negative feelings such as fear and so on, but the degree of change depended on one"s personality.

Darius was a coward and quite shameless; he put his life above all else and avoided confrontation as much as possible. He would only enter a fight if he was one hundred percent confident in winning. The elder had stated that this same trait would remain even in his Indomitable state. He would still have a desire to battle, but his caution would be in part retained, preventing him from becoming recklessly crazy.

Take Lara, for example. She was a battle maniac with a fiery temper. If she had an Indomitable ability, she would have constantly been in a battle craze, having little to no regard for her safety.

Most Spiritknights had a warrior"s disposition. They had an innate desire for feats of strength and victory. This would result in almost every person who possessed the Indomitable ability to be an Asura on the battlefield, risking their lives to rain death. Darius, however, had no such disposition. The combination of his cowardice and cautious personality coupled with his strong desire to live prevented him from going over the edge.

At first, Darius had thought that the elder was b.u.t.tering him up to get him to use Indomitable more often, so he had hesitated, but after his experience with the worm, he felt more sure of the old man"s conjecture.

When Imperishable had activated, Darius had retained a clear state of mind, driven by cognitive reasoning. The only difference between him and his normal self was that his cowardice had been replaced with a desire to battle.

Normal Darius"s default thought pattern was "run at the sight of danger" whereas Indomitable Darius"s train of thought was "eliminate the danger with as little risk and effort as possible."

Recalling the previous incident when he had been under the Indomitable state, Darius felt this to be true; thus, he decided to test his conjecture. He calmed himself and gripped his hammer as he activated Imperishable. Bloodl.u.s.t took over his body as an overbearing wave of calm surged through his mind. He took stock of his surroundings and immediately simply concluded to… do nothing.

Indeed, his final thought was to do absolutely nothing. At least for now, there was no enemy to battle. To prepare for his next battle, it was best to recuperate and shut down Imperishable.

Overdraw tired the body while Imperishable tired the mind. Thus, after a few seconds of activating Indomitable, Darius shut it down. When he came to, he was gobsmacked. He was surprised that he had not done anything crazy. He had even feared that he would have attacked Lara who was seated nearby due to his desire for battle, yet he had quickly surmised that she was of no threat to him, or at least the other "him" had.

"So, it is just like the old man said!"

Darius was elated by his discovery. This meant that his chances of survival were actually better than he had thought. Not to mention that Imperishable behaved completely different when he was out of battle as there was far less of a bloodrush and instead more of a soothing feeling, Indomitable"s bloodl.u.s.t did not mean a loss of rationality. Anger had different ways of expressing itself, and Darius was the type to silently bear anger. When he became truly furious, he became even more coldly rational.

"It seems that Indomitable determined that I had no active threats nearby, so there was no need to enter a state of battle. Amusing, truly amusing."

While Darius was playing around with his ability, Lara sat quietly, observing him. She watched his eyes become bloodshot and his body ooze killing intent, but it was only for a few moments. After scanning around the room, Darius returned to normal.

Lara was not sure what he was doing, but she was glad that he had not lose his mind. Lady Farah was known for entering a frenzy the moment her Indomitable skill activated. Although it was not known exactly what happened when she activated it, historians a.s.sumed that it was likely for her to attack random people who were closeby, especially those that were seen as threats. This behaviour was akin to how a spirit chose its opponent, so it was debated quite often by scholars.

Lara frowned for a moment when a disturbing thought entered her mind.

Does he not see me as a threat? Not at all?"

Darius was messing around with multiple thoughts when several footsteps caught his attention.

"Hhm?"

He looked up to see Lara walking toward him.

"Wow, she is really hot."

Her luscious curves and short black hair hit Darius"s hot spot. Granted, he had never previously even communicated with a woman of the opposite s.e.x who he was attracted to, but he was now at that age.

When he had first met Lara, her fiery words had caused him to brand her as dangerous, causing him to lose any romantic thoughts he had about her. In his mind, even fantasizing about her had become taboo. Her previous threat did its job, tempting Darius to cover his lower region, cower, and hide any feelings. However, after remembering that she was not a threat, he calmed down.

As he stared at her, his intuition indeed suggested that she held no malice toward him. That coupled with the fact that she was weaker than him caused him to lower his guard.

"Ah, wait, she is royalty. How am I supposed to greet her?"

By the time Lara stopped beside him, Darius was at a loss. To her shock, the latter stood up and bowed. Halfway through his bow, he felt that it wasn"t quite right, so he decided curtsy instead.

"Wait, that"s what girls do! Maybe men should salute?"

The result was rather odd. Embarra.s.sed, Darius thought of kneeling to atone for his previous foolishness. He half-knelt, slammed his fist on his chest, and hit his head against the floor.

"Since I don"t know which one it should be, I"ll try them all. At least one of them should be right."

"Darius Omen greets your majesty, Princess… Princess… uhm…"

That"s when it struck Darius. He didn"t even know her name! At the orphanage he hadn"t paid much attention during social studies, so he didn"t even know who in the royal family held each rank, let alone their names.

Darius odd stunt shocked Lara speechless. She had wanted to inquire about his past and so had decided to approach him. Lara had done her homework on him, but she had wanted to understand him as a person and possibly recruit him into her retinue. She was creating her own faction of talented young people, and her plan was to make them her va.s.sals once she became Empress. A powerful ruler needed powerful subjects. Darius was more than qualified in terms of talent. The only question was: what was he like?

She remembered how cruel she had been to him; thus, she had hastily decided to make amends in order to better recruit him later. Although she still felt that he had deserved it, he was no longer the same nameless weakling who she had previously mocked. He was a bonafide Spiritknight, one her age and much more talented, so he warranted her respect. Little had she known that within a moment, he would once again succeed in making a fool of himself.

It only took a moment for Lara to realize what had happened. She giggled, amused by his antics. At first, she had thought that he would be somewhat scary now that he had come into his martial prowess, but it seemed that he was nothing like what she had imagined.

"Your majesty is for my father. Your Highness is what you ought to use for me," She said with a melodic chime of laughter. Darius rose up, embarra.s.sed. He felt ashamed that he had used the wrong phrase. He obviously ignored that his gestures had been even worse.

Lara did her best to stifle her laughter; it would not do to alienate a potential ally. She had never seen a man attempt to curtsy before. It wasn"t even a custom for females in their kingdom: women simply bowed their heads. Thus, she found his actions hysterical. Nevertheless, she had not come here to mock him, so she coughed and introduced herself, "I am Lara Farlene, First Princess of the Pazhe Empire, Heir to the Throne. It"s a pleasure to meet you, Darius."

She extended a hand to him. Darius appeared to enter another bout of confusion. Hence, she decided to help him out.

"Just shake my hand. No need to be very formal with me. Treat me as you would any other person equal to your own station.���

Darius sighed. It was as if a truly ma.s.sive weight had been lifted off his shoulders. She was a Princess. n.o.bles were known to be cruel, so he had imagined that royalty would be even worse. While there was Lionel, he had met Darius under special circ.u.mstances. Therefore, the Prince"s station had never bothered Darius. After all, how could one take him seriously when he had such a shady disposition?

Darius shook her dainty hand. "Haha, that makes things simpler then. It is an honor to meet you, Lara."

Lara was surprised by how comfortable he was with being informal with her. Most people would find it difficult: after all, she was still a princess! However, Darius took to it like a fish in the water.

"It"s not a bad thing. It"ll make it much easier to deal with him."

Lara herself was a straightforward person, so she appreciated such behavior.

Darius sat down and gestured for her to sit beside him. The couch was quite s.p.a.cious, so it wasn"t a problem. The two exchanged some small talk for a while, gradually lessening the distance between them. The more she talked to him, the more she liked his straightforward nature. Few people had ever acted so naturally around her. In fact, only her family had ever treated her with such familiarity. Darius was like a breath of fresh air to her. On the other hand, Darius enjoyed their chat even more.

"It seems she isn"t as scary as I once thought."

Darius had never before had a long casual discussion like this with a peer, let alone a girl, so he appreciated it quite a bit. The fact that he was attracted to her was just the cherry on top.

The duo talked about many things. Lara was curious about what it was like to live like a normal person, and Darius was curious about what it was like to be royalty, so they had plenty to talk about.

"So, Darius, tell me: how did you become so powerful?"

"Eh?"

Darius enjoyed the conversation with her quite a bit, almost reaching the point that he fully immersed himself within it. However, Darius was, after all, Darius. In the deep recesses of his mind, he kept asking himself the same questions.

"Why is she being so friendly to me? What"s her objective?"

Due to his past experiences, and his recent incident with Lionel, Darius had started to more often think the worst of other people. As they talked, he kept wondering why she was talking to him.

"Is it because she is attracted to me?"

It took only a second for him to trash that foolish thought. His intuition told him otherwise, and he found it hard to disagree with. After all, what was there to like about him? It certainly seemed that there wasn"t enough to attract a Princess. He was cowardly, poor, and not particularly charismatic. Granted, he was now somewhat strong, but surely that wasn"t enough to warrant a princess"s attention… or was it?

Hence, when she had asked him how he had gotten so strong, the gears in his mind had entered overdrive.

"As a princess, she must have access to a wealth of information. She should know plenty of methods to get strong. A country hick like me, on the other hand, knows nothing."

Many ideas went through his head until one idea stuck out like a sore thumb.

"She wants to know the source of my strength!"

Nevertheless, she was not the only one curious about this matter. Darius himself wasn"t quite sure. He had even asked the old man about it the night before.

"If one spent every day doing what you did for hours on end, it would be weird if they didn"t become strong."

This had been the elder"s answer. Darius had not been satisfied with it because he had suspected that the old man had still been hiding something, but he had kept his reservations to himself. After all, if Darius truly had a technique that made it easy to obtain strength, he would attract far too much attention. He doubted that he could smoke the information out of the wily old fox so easily.

"I should just be honest. Well, not too honest."

Darius was someone who prided himself in his ability to avoid confrontations of any kind; thus, he had come up with many ways to avoid difficult questions. After all, his daily hammering of the anvil had been bound to have captured others" curiosity, yet so far, no one had ever managed to get a single peep out of him. Well, except for that old man.

"To be honest, Princess, I"m not sure myself. I just do some simple muscular exercises. Before this test, I didn"t even know I had this much strength."

The truth mixed with lies was always the best combination. Darius was not a social person, so he was not confident about lying convincingly. The solution he came up with was half-lying. Hopefully, that would prevent his body from unconsciously revealing his falsehoods. The action he performed with his hammer every day was a muscular exercise of sorts, but it was by no means simple. Before the test, Darius had also been unaware of his strength, so that much at least was also true.

He had had an inkling that he was stronger than the average person, but he had not believed that it was to this extent.

The elder had explained that becoming a Spiritknight had unlocked the latent potential hidden in his body, producing his explosive strength. Darius was not knowledgeable on the topic, so all he could do was helplessly accept the elder"s words.

He didn"t really feel that much stronger, but the old man had had no answer for this, so Darius was not sure either. Darius didn"t buy the elder"s lackadaisical explanation, but there was nothing he could do, so he had moved on.

The answer was actually quite simple. Using the hammer every day had granted Darius a sublime control over his strength. He didn"t simply hit the anvil ten thousand times a day. He also aimed to produce a certain sound, which required delicate control over his body.

The action of raising the hammer and striking the anvil involved every muscle in his body. Hence, over the years, Darius had developed an incredible subconscious control over his body.

Nevertheless, due to his timid nature, Darius always held back in whatever he did. Be it at the orphanage or at Sahid, Darius had tried his best to not garner any unnecessary attention. Thus, his brain would translate this hesitation into his actions, resulting in him not exerting his true strength.

The extent of his childhood trauma also played a part in this. His cowardice was deeply rooted in his mind and now a part of him. There were many unforeseen side effects of this, the reduction of his strength merely being one of them.

The elder had believed this to be so but had decided against telling the boy, believing it to be counterproductive.

All that Darius knew was that if he wanted to, he could exert incredible strength. In fact, he had used his room"s summoning function to have many odd objects brought to test out his strength after the elder had left.

He would clap his hands and summon metals and objects that he had thought would be either heavy or hard. The results had been quite surprising, and the boy had been shocked by his own strength. While he had not had much time to truly discover his limits as it had already been morning with the test having been only a few hours away, he"d managed to break quite a few valuable metals. At the time, he had put his embarra.s.sment at the back of his head and focused on his constant priority, staying alive.

"Really now?"

Lara crossed her arms over her bountiful chest and scrutinized the boy from head to toe. Lara considered herself a good judge of character, but she could not find anything wrong with his expression.

"There is no way a country hick could outsmart me, so he must be telling the truth."

Her pride refused to let her believe that Darius was good enough to pull one over her, so she let it slide.

"So, the source of his strength is inherent. He either has inborn strength or a powerful bloodline or maybe even both."

Since talking to him was not helpful, Lara smoothly changed topics, which Darius happily obliged. The two chatted for quite some time until an emotionless voice entered their ears.

"Please prepare. The fourth test is about to begin. This test is quite dangerous, so take this time to mentally prepare yourselves!"

Kylian and Donald were seated in their private booth, preparing to observe the fourth test.

"The first three tests were rather straightforward and fit what you"d usually expect from beginners, but for some reason, someone with an incredibly high clearance managed to throw in two more tests. You know what that means, right, Buddy?" Donald"s chuckle echoed through the room.

Kylian maintained his usual somber expression as he replied to his compatriot.

"It means someone else is observing him. The question is, who?"

Donald shook his head, "Even Katya, that brat, has no idea, and you know who is her backing. If he was actually able to subvert her authority, he must be something special. Should we make a move?"

Kylian thought for a moment and shook his head. "No, not yet. If our ident.i.ties were revealed, it would cause a fuss. It"s better to observe this boy longer from the shadows. For us to personally make a move, it has to be worth it."

"Aren"t you worried that someone will make a move for the kid before we do? He doesn"t seem bad. If we were late, it would be a problem," said Donald warily.

Kylian crossed his arms and snorted in disdain. "Even if the emperor himself had designs on the boy, he would be powerless. The only person to worry about is the person who subverted Katya"s authority. I would like to see who would dare challenge what I, Kylian Laporte, have set my mind on."

Donald snickered at his friend. "You know, referring to yourself like that makes you sound arrogant."

Kylian ignored Donald and focused on the task at hand. Observing Darius was his firm priority. He had no time to waste brain cells on nonsense with his garrulous companion.

Donald sighed in resignation and relaxed in his chair. "Kylian"s arrogance will definitely cause him issues. This is why I don"t like dealing with n.o.ble-born people."

…

Katya sat in her chair, closely observing the screen ahead of her.

"This is not a test fit for mere inductees. What is that old man thinking?" She slowly tapped her armrest as many thoughts ran across her face. A smile exuding devilish charm rested on her face while she thought of the possibilities of what would next happen.

"Well, at least this a.s.signment wasn"t nearly as boring as I had thought it would be."

Katya licked her lips in antic.i.p.ation. Her a.s.sistants could not help but gulp at her actions. They were straight women, but they were still enchanted by her beauty, which seemed to transcend common sense.

"Let the games begin."

…

Man"s greatest fear was the unknown: this was a commonly acknowledged fact. Darius had had no idea what the next test would be like, but something about it had made him uncomfortable. He was not sure what it had been, but he had suspected that something would be different. When he was teleported to the test location, he was instantly horrified that his intuition had been right.

The duo was sent into a swamp-like environment. The ground was covered in damp soil, with the jungle around them providing zero visibility. Darius did not hesitate to instantly activate Indomitable.

This time, the blood rush came in full swing. His innate senses picked up countless signs of danger in the environment. His eyes became red while his heart rate sped up. His testosterone levels shot through the roof, but his mind remained clear. Killing intent oozed out of his body like lava from a spouting volcano.

Lara was bathed in the radius of Darius"s killing intent, but she was not the target, so she remained unaffected. On the contrary, it was sort of comforting. Knowing that she had a worthy compatriot in such a scenario was a good feeling.

Unlike Darius, this test was voluntary for her. She had taken it because of the rewards that had been offered. Hence, she had initially a.s.sumed that it would be exceedingly difficult for her, especially if the test had been tailored for someone of Darius"s caliber. However, Lara was not one to give up easily. If she had surrendered to her fears, she would not have reached where she was today.

"Attention, the goal of this test is to capture the flag. A powerful spirit and its minions are guarding this flag. Your objective is to take said flag from their possession. If one of you takes possession of the flag, the test can be considered to have been pa.s.sed. The test can also be pa.s.sed by slaying the powerful spirit. Warning: the spirit is a two-star variant of the Courage step, so tread wisely. Begin!"

If Darius had not been under the Indomitable state, he would have no doubt cursed his ancestors. The old man had explained the rankings of Spiritknights and spirits, so he had a rough idea of what to expect from this formidable spirit.

The explosive shrimp was a one-star variant, and it had already been monstrous. Variants were spirits that had gone down a unique evolutionary path, carrying with them incredible power that surpa.s.sed their levels. A two-star variant could be as powerful as a normal three-star spirit.

Lara shuddered to think of the consequences if they were to battle it. She was far from being able to battle a two-star spirit, let alone a two-star variant. She looked over at Darius, wondering what his thoughts were. After a moment, she could not help but ask, "Darius, do you think you can take on a two-star variant spirit?"

Darius looked at her with his crimson eyes, sending chills down her spine. His bloodl.u.s.t was not focused on her, but it still made her feel uncomfortable like she was being stared at by a powerful predator.

"Depends on the type of spirit it is. Before we make any plans, our first objective is to find out what kind of spirit it is and its capabilities. How is your knowledge of spirits?"