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Karna carefully studied the people gathering at the enormous training field. The number of immortals wearing the same armor as she and her friends had on was rather shocking. She knew from experience that the number of immortals in the Divine Planes was much larger than one would assume at first glance, but there were over ten thousand new recruits gathered here, and nearly all of them were immortals. Even if this batch of recruits was much larger than usual, she knew it was beyond unusual for so many to enter training in a single year even during heavy wartime.
The Host didn’t recruit just from immortals, though only immortals were deployed to the frontlines. An army needed personnel other than soldiers as well though, so those under the tenth rank were not turned away. They were simply used for other purposes and support roles. For the same reason, none of these recruits would be turned away now that they had enlisted. If they didn’t meet the requirements for some reason, they’d simply be given further training to bring them up to par, or they’d be used for support purposes as well.
Since all the recruits were wearing very similar armor, it was harder to tell the difference between them. That was on purpose, as the Host wanted to project an image of invincibility where another soldier would just take the place of any who died or was wounded. It also helped eliminate any discrimination, though even that only held while they were wearing the armor. It was also impossible to entirely eliminate all the differences, as it was hard to hide wings or the fact that you didn’t have legs, even if the helmet and armor hid any obvious features like horns, ears, and tails. Someone with sharp senses could also always tell the details of the one wearing the armor, as it wasn’t designed with camouflage in mind, but not everyone shared that ability.
This was the day the testing was supposed to begin, and by the end of the day, they would be divided into training units. At least in theory. That assumed the Host was prepared to test so many applicants in such a short time, though Karna had a fair bit of confidence in the Host's abilities in that regard. Say what you will about the rest of the Divine Planes, but the Host had always been competent and well-organized. It had to be to stand against the scourges for so long. As far as Karna was aware, there had never been a time when the Host had been truly losing against the powers arrayed against them. Part of that was because the gods were using the external threat of the scourges to foster internal unity and could mobilize the gods themselves in an emergency, but that was only a part of it.
A man wearing a golden armor without a helmet, flanked by two silver-armored companions ascended to the small podium in front of the ranks of new recruits. The man launched into his spiel without much preamble. “I am General Augustine, though you’ll most likely learn to know me as the bastard who runs this torture center. You have all enlisted in the Host for various reasons, but right at this moment, those reasons have stopped mattering. Your ass is now mine for the foreseeable future, and I will forge you into something the Host can use. There will be no quitting allowed. Your background doesn't matter. Your history doesn't matter. Your family most bloody definitely doesn't matter. It's not your pappy or mommy that enlisted, but you. That means you're the one who's going to do the work and earn the merits personally. However, you're all pretty bloody far from earning jack shit. Know this. The only things I care about are your abilities, and how much you apply them. Only results matter."
He took a hard look over everyone. “You’re almost all immortals or just about to become one. There shouldn’t be a single one among you that can’t deal with that. If there is, that attitude will soon be hammered and beaten out of you. I did tell you I would forge you, and sometimes that means literally. Now, as most of you might be aware, you maggots are all a varied bunch, and there's only so many things you're useful for, and in some cases that use isn't as cannon fodder. So, what's going to happen next, is that we're going to sort you according to your skills and abilities. No, we're not going to ask you. I just told you that only results matter. I don't care if you claim to be a genius in fire magic or bloody crocheting. Only. Results. Matter. And this will be your first chance to show results, so don't bloody disappoint me. I know, that's a bloody low bar, but some people manage it every bloody time."
One of the two silver-clad warriors stepped forward. “We’re going to divide you into smaller groups since there’s so bloody many of you lot.” He seemed to share the speech patterns of the general. “We’re going to have to rotate you from one place to the next.”
The third silver-clad person made a gesture, and Karna could sense light magic cast at everyone on the field. A floating colored light appeared above everyone's head, and the same kind of lights appeared on the different sides of the field where a senior recruit was waiting. “Now, if any of you are too dim to understand what to do next, I’ll be really bloody disappointed.” The general stated with a voice that implied he was quite certain someone would do just that.
To the general's surprise, the gathered recruits all managed to sort themselves into groups, though it was rare for someone who was a complete dunce to manage to make it all the way to immortality. Not that the general hadn't seen a fair share of immortals who acted like they had no brains to speak of, but that kind of stupidity existed everywhere. It had more to do with a lack of common sense, selfishness, and wrong kinds of incentives, than a genuine lack of intelligence. Someone could be extremely smart in the academic sense, but if they had no real experience of common sense, then they could act like a rank idiot when confronted with a situation that didn't fit their skillset or pre-conceived notions.
Karna was in the same group as Envy, though Hope and Valor had been assigned to a different group. The senior recruit leading their group was taking them a fair distance from the gathering place, which made her realize that either this pocket dimension was much larger than she’d assumed, or it had been expanded specifically to account for the large influx of new recruits. It was extremely doubtful they’d spend their entire training time here, as in the few days they’d spent in the pocket dimension so far they had seen only a few hundred recruits.
As if to spite her assumption about this being a newly created area, their group was led to a well-worn arena of sorts. The arena was made of magically reinforced stone that still bore the telltale signs of countless years of training that had left its scars on the stone. The arena was also odd in the sense that it wasn’t designed for an audience in mind. There were no stands, and the arena portion itself was divided into several separate portions by walls that could be moved, removed, and replaced at will. There was a single observation platform above the whole thing, where trainers could observe everything going on in the separated rooms below. The observation area was blocked from sight, but Karna could sense several relatively strong immortals present with her other senses.
The senior recruit stopped in front of the arena and turned towards them. "Make ten lines. Each line will stand in front of one of the glowing glyphs on the floor." He gestured towards a line of glyphs carved into the stone floor. "When the glyph glows, that's the signal for the next one in the line to enter your assigned room in the arena. There are small guideposts to lead you there, but we will expect you to memorize the glyphs and the corresponding spots on a grid within a week, as the same signals will be used elsewhere. You will have to find the most expedient way to your assigned spot on your own in the future. Once you enter your assigned room, announce your name and follow any instructions given. Do so promptly, as we don't want this whole thing to take longer than it has to. Now line up!"
Karna was the first on her glyph and was soon summoned by its glow. As instructed, there were slight glowing signs to guide her to the correct place, which meant she had to take the long way around to the other side of the arena. Once she entered the assigned room, a silver-clad instructor was waiting for her. “Recruit Wrath, reporting for testing.” She declared firmly.
“Ah, I got the princess then.” The large and wide-shouldered man responded with at least a bit of curiosity in his voice. “I won’t treat you any differently though. Pick a weapon from the practice weapons on the walls. No one will get to use their own weapon during the tests. Can’t have anyone perform just because daddy bought them a shiny sword.”
She simply thrust her hand out and a slightly curved but long blade flew into it. The weapon was made of wood, but not just any wood as no standard wood would be able to handle impacts caused by the strength of an immortal that got serious. The dark wood had lines of divine power running through it. The instructor continued. “This test is one of your skills with a weapon. You can use any sort of power you possess to enhance yourself, but no magical spells, or abilities that simulate such effects. Those things will be tested later. This is about your ability to swing a weapon. Ready? Go!”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
The man dashed forward and made a probing strike with his own weapon. He was moving quite fast even by immortal standards, but not at his full speed. It would’ve been a poor test if he simply overpowered the recruit right from the beginning. Karna obliged and matched his speed and met the strike with her own. As the trainer noted her matching him, they started to quickly increase the speed, the strength their blows carried, as well as the complexity of their techniques. It took less than a minute before their fight was already at a level of mid-level immortals that weren't using specialized techniques and just pure skill. Slowly and surely Karna started pushing the trainer back as she could still increase her pace, while he couldn't keep up anymore.
“Halt!” He called out. “That’s good enough. I recognize you could defeat me, and that’s all the information we need for now. We might finish this at another time with our power at full use, but that’s not necessary for now. Instead, follow this to the next testing site.” Another glowing orb appeared and started leading her away.
As soon as she left the arena, the orb took flight, assuming she could follow, and she was led to a temple-like building where other trainers were waiting and prepared to test recruits. Another recruit from the previous testing site had already made it here before her, though she didn’t recognize the man. She was waved down by another silver-clad trainer that wore the same armor under what seemed to be almost glowing white priestly robes.
“This testing site is about your abilities with holy power and any supportive abilities you might possess. Lay your hands on the altar please.” The instructor told her, and Karna obliged, already recognizing the altar as something that would measure her affinity and holy powers.
“Hmm?” The priestly man seemed a bit surprised by the result. “What’s your name?”
“Wrath.” She stated simply.
“Ah, princess Ynnead.” The man seemed to ignore what she’d said and just jumped to the more recognized name. Not that she didn’t understand, as the name Ynnead had been assigned by the Emperor, so that’s what they’d use until she got powerful enough to force the change. “That explains the result I suppose. You have unfathomable affinity with holy power, especially the more warlike types of power. Knowing your mother and your chosen nomenclature, that’s expected. However, you have no power from the gods. You haven’t sought out a blessing?”
“I have not. Political reasons.” She explained curtly.
"Well, with affinity like this, I wouldn't be surprised if you manifested your own Divinity soon enough. And it's not like I don't understand you're in a complex situation. Still, as a cleric of the Host, I must encourage you to seek out a blessing from a god, as it would increase your power. Do you have other supportive magic that you can use?" The priestly man asked.
“I’m an expert at using Qhaysh, as well as all the supportive elements. I’m also attuned to every element to the highest degree. I’m aware of most of the supportive arcane spells, even if they aren’t my first go-to solution in normal circumstances. My healing abilities are understandably more limited, though that doesn’t apply to self-regeneration. I’ve got some druidic spells, but they won’t match a dedicated holy healer. Disrupting enemy magic and curses on the other hand is something I excel at.” She listed off the main points.
"Good to know. Your defensive magic abilities will be tested later, but it's always good to find someone who excels at countering magic. Those will always be in high demand." The man smiled a bit sadly. "There will always be more spell-slingers than those that know how to counter such magic without resorting to a barrier. I'll ask you to cast some of your supporting spells on the targets here."
He led her into a room with lines of simulated patients suffering from various illnesses and issues. Karna allowed her magical senses to sweep over all of them, which was a little difficult as these were all illusionary patients and she was almost immune to illusions, but she could allow herself to be affected to an extent. As she cataloged all the various problems, her hands worked quickly drawing magical formations as curative and decursive spells were sent towards appropriate targets, while the druidic healing spells aided with injuries and wounds. Her magic was effective, but she had to work many times harder than someone who could rely on the curative power of the gods, which was the difference between divine and arcane magic.
“Good enough, you can stop.” The trainers said. “You’re clearly skilled, and we can use your abilities when in a pinch. You can move on to the next testing site by following the orb.” Another glowing orb led her away.
The next two tests were simple fitness and endurance tests. Testing such things for an immortal wasn’t a simple affair of course, so they’d been forced to wear suppression bracelets while under the effects of heavy gravity spells. She effortlessly aced both of those tests of course. The next battery of tests had been much more interesting, as she’d finally reached the section where her magic was tested. The first one tested their precision and sensory abilities with either magic or if they had similar skills with Qi or other powers. They had to hit rapidly appearing targets in a room filled with obstructions, and there were targets they were penalized for hitting, so area of effect spells were out.
She had almost closed her eyes as her senses enclosed the entire area, and as the targets materialized, she’d summon small and precise spells to destroy them. The testers were quite nasty though, as the targets changed as the test proceeded. Not only did they become more numerous and more of the friendly targets were mixed in, but the targets also became tougher to destroy. You needed more powerful spells for each target. Karna had the advantage of having her mana so pure and concentrated that her spells were inherently more powerful, so she wouldn’t have had to change her spells, but she obliged the spirit of the test and shifted to using the True Dark element which simply disintegrated each target.
"Well. I'll have to congratulate you, princess." The instructor in charge of the test reluctantly admitted. "I haven’t seen a full score from a fresh recruit in a while. Ah, wait. I heard there was another full score in another room about an hour ago.”
“Out of curiosity, who got that result?” She inquired. The odds were that person would be a reincarnator.
"I can't remember the name. Probably they didn't mention it. Some sword-wielding woman. Really skilled one too from what I heard." The instructor shrugged and summoned the mandatory glowing orb. “Now shoo. I’ve got a buttload more recruits to test.”
The next test was another one she quite liked. She had been brought to an array that would transport her to a simulated battlefield between two armies. "This task is purely magical. I can sense you're a mage, which is why you're taking the test in the first place. You aren't allowed to use any other abilities aside from magic, and your performance will be strictly monitored. Your job is to kill as many enemies as possible. The array is created so that the enemies will attack you continuously and never stop. Your allied forces will keep the enemies at bay to an extent you'd expect from a normal group of Host's forces, but eventually, they'll be overwhelmed. The trick is to kill as many enemies as possible while prioritizing enemies that are about to breach your defenses. The longer you can keep your allies alive, the longer you’ll have to blast enemies, and the higher your score. When either all of your allies are gone, or you get ejected from the array for taking damage yourself, the simulation is over. Damage taken is not real, but pain and exhaustion are, so be careful.”
These kinds of arrays were a bit of a rarity, as they transported you into a place that was similar to a pocket dimension, but not quite. The array could control everything that happened inside and could theoretically create any sort of situation. Any cultivation done in this kind of array would be wasted, but you could gain battle experience, which was what they were mostly used for. As she was transported inside the battlefield, she immediately noted that her allies were perched in a defensive position on a hill. They were surrounded on all sides by what could be considered stereotypical Netherworld forces consisting mostly of various undead and constructs. There was no time wasted as the undead were already surging forward.
“Right. I suppose it’s time to show off a bit.” She decided. She’d done well so far, but she hadn’t really been showing off. It was time to start earning that glory that she was here for.
She activated her Domain, which vastly increased her spellcasting speed and control, as well as supplying her with an almost endless supply of mana for as long as the situation allowed. She didn’t activate the Domain fully, as that would create a Reality Marble around her, messing up the array, so the effects were a bit more limited. Then she drew heavily on the power of the True Dark, the one element she was most familiar with, and cast one of her favorite anti-army spells.
At first, it didn't look very impressive as it seemed she'd just released a host of black wraiths that rushed towards the enemies and entered their bodies. Those affected suddenly withered as any lifeforce or magic animating them was drained away, after which a pair of such dark wraiths exited the victim’s now dead body. Those wraiths then jumped to new targets and repeated the process, doubling their number on each jump. She also kept releasing more of the black wraiths periodically to target enemies that got too close to the defenders. As each wraith only took a few seconds to kill their target, depending on their target’s level, in less than a minute the number of wraiths had ballooned so much that any enemies the array spawned were wiped out faster than they appeared.
The really nasty thing about this spell wasn’t the speed at which it could kill targets. Dropping a meteor on an army worked even faster after all. What made it so nasty was the amount of control she had on the spell, which meant no collateral damage to friendlies, something that often plagued powerful spells, and the fact that very few things could stop it. Stopping the spell was actually very simple, and the strongest enemies could resist the effects to an extent, but actually stopping the wraiths required you to figure out how they worked. No shield would stop them, and shields were the most common way to defend in a battle between armies. Of course, the fact that this enemy was simulated meant that they had no one able to figure out a counter, nor did they have enemies strong enough to resist the effect. Eventually, the array had to concede that just spawning more enemies would not work, and the program ended, ejecting her out of it.
“What the heck happened?” The trainer asked as she was ejected. “The array is fritzing out and running out of power.”
“I believe my magic might have been a little too effective.” She smiled inside her helmet a little smugly. “My score is still shown, is it not?”
“Y-yes. That can’t be right…” The trainer started to suspect something had gone wrong.
“I’m sure you’ll find out the score is legitimate, if you truly did monitor the whole thing as you mentioned.” She retorted, knowing her performance would be reviewed. “Now, the next test please.”