Sergei looked around at the faces of the new batch. It seemed the gods had provided him a bountiful harvest of talents this year. Countless headstrong idiots with freshly acquired power who thought they were the greatest thing since sliced bread. Too many idiots, if he was being honest. He’d placed a bet that there wouldn’t be any challengers left after twenty but there were over thirty lying crumpled around him.
Was he going soft? No, that was impossible. He’d kicked the first one clear out of the arena after all, the blame must lie with the rookies. Oh well, he’d just have to hold back less on the ‘breaking’ portion of training. Should help easy the sting of the fifty marks loss.
“All right, let me tell you shits how the next year is going to go. For the next six months you little pissfaces are mine. After that you get personal skills training by some of the best trainers on the planet. Their time and effort is ten million times more valuable than yours and if even a single second of their time is wasted the guild pays for it.”
“In one year fifty rookies will graduate to fully fledged adventurers. As you might have noticed, there are more than fifty of you here. That means that, no matter how many of you reach the end of the year, only the top fifty will graduate. So, as a personal favor to the guild, I am going to do my damn best to make sure that no more than fifty of you even reach the sixth month.”
The subtle shift of the rookies expressions from worried to fear made Sergei grin. “How am I going to do that you ask? Simple, I am going to break you. For the next six months your lives will be filled with the kind of pain and fear that even masochists would run from. Every bone in your bodies will be broken, every inch of your flesh will bleed. Your sleep, when you get it, will be filled with torment.”
“Fortunately for you, you do not need to experience any of this. You do not need to be scarred for life, physically or otherwise. All you need to do, is give up. At any point you can just say ‘I give up’ and all the pain will stop.”
Sergei smiled at the range of emotions present on the faces of the rookies. The most common was disbelief. Even after seeing him tear through a pile of their peers they still refused to believe him. That was going to change though, and right now he had the perfect opportunity.
“Johann Alltud, get your scrawny ass down here!!” He bellowed, surprising everyone.
A scrawny teen with a shock of blue hair reluctantly and slowly made his way over to Sergei, looking worried as to why he had been singled out. Not as worried as he should have been though.
Once the boy reached him Sergei grabbed him with one hand and plonked him down next to him with his hand on Johann’s shoulder.
Facing the crowd of rookies Sergei said “Johann here did a stupid thing. During his tournament this little idiot drove himself over the limits and ended up cracking his Mana channels, damn near crippling himself for life, all just to win a match.”
Turning to face Johann, his hand still on the rookies shoulder, Sergei asked him “Tell me, young Johann, why did you risk your channels just to win? Did you not know that there would be another opportunity to join the guild next year?”
Johann opened his mouth to answer but Sergei didn’t let him. Wrenching the young man closer Sergei screamed in his face “I DON’T CARE!!! YOU DON’T TRY TO KILL YOURSELF JUST TO GET INTO THE GUILD!!!”
Turning from the freshly traumatized youth Sergei smiled at the audience, who collectively flinched from his attention. “Rule #1: Don’t be stupid. There will be other rules that you’ll discover later, but that is the most important one. So, since the Captain Stupid over here has already broken that rule in quite the spectacular manner, he gets to be the first to run the Punishment Gauntlet!”
At his words there was a rumble as the arena shook. A long crack appeared in the ground, running in a straight line from the other end of the arena to just a few feet shy of where Sergei stood. The rumbling continued as the crack widened, revealing a dark rectangular pit in which objects could just about be seen.
As the pit continued to widen the objects below were revealed as they began to lift. Two walls stretched the entire length of the gauntlet and between them were various ledges, bars and columns. The entire thing looked like an obstacle course and had it been raised when the rookies arrived the someone would likely have already tried it out. Fortunately that had only happened once and now they always made sure it was hidden before the rookies arrived.
“Alright Captain Stupid, the aim of the Punishment Gauntlet is simple: start this side, get to that side. As soon as you reach the end the punishment is over and you can go about your day. Now, since you’re volunteering to show everyone how it works I’ll go easy on you, but next time it’ll be much, much worse.” Sergei gave Johann a look that made it clear that he should never let there be a next time.
The whelp gulped and nodded before walking towards the beginning of the gauntlet. Sergei was a tad impressed, usually his sacrificial lambs at least tried to argue against his sudden and unfair punishments, though admittedly this time it wasn’t even remotely unfair. If the idiot had done what he did during Rookies Hell Sergei would have booted him from the guild and banned him for life.
Sadly, it had happened before the stupid teen had come under his watch and the powers that be had decided that Johanns stupidity was actually ‘brave determination’ instead. Well, Sergei would certainly find out how determined the rookie was, that was for sure.
----------------------------------------
Things went wrong the second Johann stepped foot over the beginning line. In reality, things had started going wrong the moment Johann had been matched up with a potential finalist for his first match, forcing him to strain his mana channels early, which in turn led to them getting cracked in his final match and receiving this punishment. As such, things had been going wrong for a while now, it was simply that the moment he stepped over the line he began to truly feel the effects.
From a small, almost invisible rune on the wall to the right of him a fireball formed and flung itself towards him. The fireball was barely two inches across but fire was fire and Johann reacted in the most natural way he could, by diving forwards.
This was a mistake.
As he dove forwards and rolled to his feet several other traps went off, including a lightning bolt that happened to be aimed upwards. If he had been standing it would likely have hit his feet and sent him tumbling. As it was, with the way Johann was crouched after the roll, the lightning bolt hit him in a spot that made every man in the audience, even the sadistic Sergei, wince in sympathy.
As he was still convulsing from the lightning running through his veins a small explosion of air from a trap behind him sent him flying headfirst into a pillar. The pillar, despite seeming completely innocuous, blew up. The resulting explosion sent the tumbling fireball that used to be Johann clear out of the gauntlet to land in front of Sergei.
----------------------------------------
Sergei was shocked. He’d seen a lot of people run the gauntlet and he’d seen a lot of spectacular disasters come from it, but he’d never seen someone be ejected that quickly and that painfully before. The kid might have set a new record
Nudging the rookie prompted a gasping groan of pain. Looking up at the rest of the rookies Sergei said “Oh, don’t worry, he’s not dead. Those armbands of yours, beyond monitoring your every move and providing emergency assistance, have a special feature that transforms the damage from the gauntlet into pure pain. The enchantment was originally designed as a torture device, allowing torturers to inflict enhanced pain without worry of killing their victims. I decided it would be much better used as a teaching implement.”
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“The Gauntlet won’t kill you, no matter how much it burns, breaks and crushes you. Instead it makes you feel all that pain ten times over. You might be wondering what I meant when I told Captain Stupid I’ll go easy on him. That’s simple, from this day onwards each of you will be under a dampening effect, restricting your stats to 10 points each.”
With that Sergei pressed his thumb to a specific point on his own armband and sent a pulse of mana through it, activating an enchantment which in turn activated the dampening enchantments on all of the rookies armbands.
A wave of weakness rolled over the rookies causing many of them to collapse. About a dozen ended up collapsing forwards, falling on the ones below them and creating a domino effect that had half the rookies end up in a tangled wolfhound pile.
The sight got a chuckle out of Sergei who had always enjoyed the pain of others. Aiming his armband at Captain Stupid he activated a different enchantment, releasing the dampening effect on the rookie. Sergei may enjoy inflicting pain but he was a man of his word, until Johann had completed a run through the gauntlet he would keep his normal stats.
----------------------------------------
Johann struggled to get onto his hands and knees. The pain he had just felt was comparable to when he cracked his mana channels. If anything, the lack of actual wounds just made it worse, his brain not knowing whether he was actually hurt or not.
Before he could get his legs under him a hand grabbed him by the back of his shirt and lifted him into the air before setting him down on his feet in front of the aptly named Punishment Gauntlet. Looking to his right, and then quite a bit upwards, brought him to the grinning face of Instructor Sergei.
“Alright Captain Stupid.” Johann really hoped that nickname wouldn’t stick. “You still have a run to complete. Since I’m in a good mood I won’t reset the traps just yet, but you better hurry.” The smile on the mans face was pure evil.
Johann looked at the gauntlet stretching out before him and began to tremble but he walked forwards nonetheless. As much of a sadistic bastard as Sergei was, he was still an instructor. That meant he wasn’t actually trying to kill them, which meant there had to be a way to beat the gauntlet.
Moving carefully Johann scanned the walls and ground as he moved. The scorch marks from his previous attempt are still there, the sight of them bringing a flare of phantom pain from the memory. Studying the walls didn’t lead to much but after analyzing the floor near to the start Johann was able to discover that the middle tile was slightly raised. Pressing it with his hand did nothing but Johann assumed that was because the trap wasn’t reset yet.
Moving forward Johann passed the surprisingly intact pillar, the explosion apparently not damaging it in any way which Johann thought was completely unfair. If it weren’t for the armbands he would have likely been blown into multiple chunks, while the pillar just stood there acting innocent.
As soon as he stepped past the pillar Johann’s already slow speed became glacial, every piece of floor being checked, rechecked, triple checked and then checked again for good measure. He could not stress enough just how painful the traps were.
Thanks to his careful investigation he was able to discover another two pressure plates and an almost impossibly thin trip wire hanging at knee height. His first mistake of the new run came three meters after the pillar. Stepping between what he thought were two pressure plates he heard a click.
Raising his head he found an arc of razor sharp wind mana speeding right towards him. Ignoring the instincts screaming at him to dodge Johann braced himself. The wind blade cut across both legs, slashing through his skin and carving into his bone, or at least that was what it felt like. In reality the blade dissipated harmlessly against his clothes, delivering oceans of pain but otherwise doing nothing.
Johann collapsed to the side, his legs momentarily unable to support him as they shook from the pain. Landing on the raised tile next to him he was both relieved and annoyed when nothing happened, the trap trigger apparently a decoy.
Holding as still as he could Johann waited until the pain subsided and he could control his limbs again. Gritting his teeth he carefully stood, determined to finish the gauntlet as quickly as possible so he could go far away and just collapse.
The next trap he triggered came when he stood still for too long, adding another layer of difficulty to the gauntlet. After enduring the pain of his flesh searing off his bones Johann continued. A part of him wanted to just quit but the rest of him wouldn’t let Sergei win.
So he pushed on, his unyielding determination stubbornly pushing him forward through the pain. By the end he wasn’t even aware of his surroundings, his mind was dulled by the pain and his vision tunneled until all he could see was the arena on the other side. He didn’t even realize he was through until a pair of arms stopped him, Gloria’s face briefly swimming through his vision before he finally felt himself slipping into oblivion.
----------------------------------------
Sergei was grudgingly impressed. The little idiot was stupidly stubborn, and it would almost definitely kill him one day, but even Sergei had to admit he was impressed. If Johann didn’t get himself killed, and it was a pretty big if, then Sergei had no doubt he would end up one of greats.
Still, he’d never get there if Sergei didn’t first beat the stupid out of him, which Sergei would most definitely do. Turning from the sight of Johann being carried off by one of the healers and one of his friends Sergei faced the rest of the crowd.
“All right Slimes, you just saw what happened to someone running the gauntlet with their full stats. I do hope you can grasp just how much more painful it would be for the rest of you. Let Captain Stupids screams be a lesson to never do something stupid, lest you end up finding out just how painful the gauntlet is. Oh, and just to warn you, I find the act of complaining extremely stupid, worthy of two runs through the gauntlet. If you want to complain, quit.”
Sergei grinned viciously. “Or don’t, and give me some memories I’ll cherish for years to come.”
Sergei eyed the rookies, making note of their reactions. His skills let him analyze their body language at an incredible rate, a single sweep of his gaze letting him know everything going through their minds. Most were worried, a couple dozen were angry and he could already see a few who were ready to quit. The slightest push and they would crack.
Sadly for them, Sergei wasn’t going to bother with a slight push, he preferred to drop kick them off a cliff. “Alright, everyone head over to the barracks Anyone not there in ten seconds gets to run the gauntlet.”
After a brief moment of shock the rookies sprang into action, streaming out of the arena as fast as their legs could carry them. Withing moments the first had arrived at the entrance of the barracks, surprised to find Sergei waiting for them even though none of them had seen him pass them.
The last person barely made it in time, disappointing Sergei. “All right, this is your accomodation for the next year. All your stuff is currently in storage and will stay there until you leave.” There was a smattering of groans and more than a few expressions of disbelief along with one person actually going so far as complaining. It was under their breath but Sergei clocked it all the same, saving their punishment for the end of the tour. As much as he would have loved to immediately chuck another rookie in the gauntlet he had things to do.
“To preempt any stupidity, you have no assigned rooms. At the end of the day, or whenever it is I let you sleep, you go in, grab a room and sleep. Clothes will be provided. If you don’t like it you can either quit or complain, either of which will make e immensely happy. Over there” he pointed towards the mess hall “is where you eat, when and if I say you can eat. Now I want to make one thing very, very clear, if any of you disturb me when I am eating then I. Will. End. You. The rest of your very miserable time here you will learn exactly what I am like when I have no restraint. The food in there is too good for the likes of you and if you prevent me from enjoying it I will go above and beyond to make sure you never see food again without crapping yourself. Do I make myself clear?”
As one the group nodded. The sheer intensity in Sergei’s voice had shook them to the core.
“Good. I will give all of you until the end of the day to acquaint yourself with the facilities and the rest of the island. Dinner is at 8, lights out by 10. That will be all.”
Sergei watched them stand there confused for a few seconds as each tried to figure out what they were going to do before he grinned. “Oh, just before I forget. Daniel Ackerman, you made the mistake of complaining, one run through the Gauntlet.”
Sergei watched the rookie freeze for a second before he began protesting.
“Protesting punishment is another prime example of stupidity” Sergei cut him off “That makes it two runs, want to go for three?”
Daniels face went red but he gritted his teeth and turned around, slowly walking towards the gauntlet.
The words “Too slow Slugface” were the only warning Daniel had before he felt a massive impact slam into him, right between the butt cheeks, and send him flying towards the gauntlet. Sergei cheered when Slugface sailed through the entrance, activating several traps and beginning the deluge of pain.