9 Chapter 9 -> Paladin versus Monster
<< Notice. Good job. >> -> [Wisdom King: Raphael] or "Voice of the World" if specified.
<<< Hello master! How can I help you? >>> -> [Voice of Wisdom: Sophie]
' What?! ' -> used to symbolise thinking (used in convoluted sentences to help in understanding)
" Hello! " -> Speech.
<< Notice. Good job. >> -> [Wisdom King: Raphael]
<|< REDACTED >|> "Voice of the World".
<<< Hello master! How can I help you? >>> -> [Voice of Wisdom: Sophie]
' What?! ' -> used to symbolise thinking (used in convoluted sentences to help in understanding)
" Hello! " -> Speech.
* moments prior* -> Narrative use
< Greetings > -> TELEPATHY
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Blumund office of the Free Guild, a solemn-looking stone building that was 5 stories tall.
The whole lobby was packed with adventurers, who were getting ready to go onto the field and do their tasks, some processing tasks on counters, some just merely chatting.
The door suddenly opened. And while this was a frequent occurrence that should warrant no attention, every single adventurer there immediately snapped their attention to that door.
A single man walked in.
Head devoid of any hair. Eyes dark as the darkest of nights that seemed to resemble the void itself. His body for a lack of a better word was best described as: a god walking among us.
Or for the less refined - a huge motherfucker. Upper body threatening to jump out of his red, spandex suit with black sections around the collar and legs, white gloves, and white boots.
He leaked no aura for the world to sense, yet any living being, especially these adventurers who had their fair share of brushes with death, FELT it. The brains of many creatures, including humans, possess what is known as a "fight, freeze, flight mechanism" which activates upon any perceived danger. You getting in a fight with some human who is equal to you may warrant you to activate the "fight mode", or perhaps to flee, but when you meet a natural predator, all of that goes out of the window.
A regular human meets a huge polar bear at point blank range. Fighting is meaningless. Fleeing is impossible. You freeze. The brain practically shuts itself, hoping you survive by being invisible.
This is what these battle-hardened adventurers felt. That man… is a true predator.
The one who stood at the pinnacle.
He advances towards the line with steady, calculated steps that gave away some of his prowess, the sound of his footsteps reverberating through the quiet lobby.
Humans are naturally adapting creatures, so the commentary has long started, with the people not being shy to state their feelings out loud.
"Now this guy is manly!"
"That's some serious intimidation..."
"Who is this guy?"
"That guy is jacked!"
The unknown man, clearly not following his stereotype, seemed patient enough to wait for the line to end.
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After a while, he arrived at the counter.
The woman on the other side seemed keen on "closer observation", but as she was daydreaming, a deep voice interrupted her:
"I would like to register as an adventurer."
"Right... here's your paperwork", replies the blushing clerk.
The unknown man took the sheet and filled out his information.
Name: Jiren
Age: /
Special skills: Martial Arts Master, Battlewill, Elemental Magic, Flight
Birthplace: /
Department: Monster Slaying
"Are you sure about this, Sir Jiren? Monster slaying might be the most accessible, but it's also the most dangerous department!", says the clerk after checking out the written information.
"For the monsters.", replies the man, now revealed to be Jiren.
The lobby certainly heard that arrogant statement and were even more curious what this mean looking dude with his mean mouth can do in combat.
"Umm.. Right.. Well, I grant you permission to take the examination. You must attain a rank of at least D in order to become an adventurer, so I do not recommend this exam for not anyone not specialized in combat. The monster-slaying exam in particular requires at least D+, preferably C.
Are you sure?", asks the clerk.
Jiren nods.
The clerk stands up to bring an examiner.
After a few minutes, a scowling man arrived, now with two functioning legs courtesy of the B-ranked adventurer known as Rimuru.
"Hmm. Are you the one taking the test?", asks the examiner.
Jiren confirms.
"Follow me."
The test site was in a gymnasium-looking building. In fact, almost the entire lobby followed out of sheer curiosity.
"Once you earn an E rank, you'll have the chance to try passing for the D rank, then C-ranked exam as well. If you fail, you will not be able to take another rank-upgrade attempt until you regain your current rank and earn enough points.", explains the examiner.
"I understand.", responds Jiren.
"We will hold the examination inside this magic circle. We do have a safety barrier, but don't rely too much on it. Give me a signal when you are ready."
As soon as Jiren steps into the magic circle, a semicircle-shaped barrier materializes.
"Using your rank system, I would be classified as S rank. Do not waste time with redundant trials", states Jiren.
"Oh-ho? You seem oddly confident in yourself, shall we put that to the test, cocky one?"
"Go ahead.", gives Jiren a signal to start.
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Thegis, the examiner, has seen many arrogant adventurers so he promptly ignored Jiren's statement and spawned a Hunter Hound, a low ranked monster that barely qualifies for E-rank.
Jiren glared at the monster with a imperceptible yellowish flare.
…
The monster collapsed.
Jiren moved his gaze to the examiner who was experiencing deja vu at the moment.
Shrugging the mild surprise off, the next opponent Thegis summoned was a Dark Goblin.
Jiren glared at the monster.
...
The monster collapsed.
Now the surprise was very much present. The audience was frozen.
Weren't most of them present equal if not worse than the Dark Goblin he just removed instantaneously?
The examiner confirmed where the deja vu was coming from. Sir Rimuru was an adventurer who also one shot the testing targets, but this guy… just glared at it?
"Riiight. Group combat it is!"
Examiner spawns 3 Giant Bats.
You guessed it.
Jiren glared at the bats.
...
They collapsed.
"How is he doing that?!"
"Is he cheating?"
"No way!"
The audience clearly didn't understand what happened, they couldn't see anything, in fact no one did.
The examiner was oddly calm right now, he experienced catharsis in the form of Rimuru, what's to say some other guy can't do the same?
"Well done! I challenge you to face the trial of the B-rank!", said the examiner whose eyes now went a little bloodshot, prompting those watching to go get the guild master.
An evil creature appeared before everyone. A lesser demon, a monster with four wiggling arms.
"This monster is a Lesser Demon! It can nullify melee strikes! Let's see what you can do now!", shouts the examiner.
"The demon is here again?!"
"Like that Rimuru guy!"
"Huh, but that monster is for B+ adventurers???"
While everyone was mildly panicking, Jiren's simply stared at the demon who was starting to get unhinged. It rushed towards Jiren, ready to maim him to death.
Before the monster can even remotely come close to connecting…
something very "unexpected" happened.
it collapsed.
The audience was left shell-shocked. Moving their attention to the man himself, they noticed his irises subtly glowing with a yellowish flare.
"I will assume we are done?", Jiren simply asks the examiner.
Before the ruckus escalated, a man arrived at the scene.
"What is going on?", a rough voice halted the situation.
Fuze, the Grandmaster has arrived.
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Fuze's office - Jiren POV
"So what you are saying is, you glared at a Lesser Demon and it died?", said Fuze who was currently confused beyond reason. "There can't be more than a handful of people in the world who can defeat a Lesser Demon with a single attack, let alone a glare… Was that some magical attack? Even so... that's absurd...", sighed Fuze.
I suppose it is relative. For a regular human, even the lesser demon would prove impossible to defeat, having the capability of razing down a small city. However… That demon has 8500 EP compared to my millions. There exists no difference between an ant and a lesser demon power wise.
"You can view it as so ", I respond.
"You said you were S-ranked in strength?"
"I pass the criteria, yes."
"Well, you do need to go to the main office in Ingrassia with a suitable portfolio to reach that rank, if your words are the truth that is. Just from where did a guy like you pop out from?"
"Ur-Gracia. Left the country for traveling purposes."
"Ur-Gracia, huh? The country of the spirits…", Fuze ponders. "It would be fair to assume you have a contract with one?"
Jiren closed his eyes, as a golden spirit appeared before him. The spirit energy that was released out in the air was sufficient for Fuze to feel overwhelmed and almost gasping for air.
The light subsided, and the spirit went back into Jiren.
"You are… a Hero?", stated Fuze who was sweating buckets currently, both due to the pressure and because of what having a Light elemental entails.
"No. ", Jiren replied, opening his eyes.
"Huh. You're hiding it? I understand, sorry for meddling, Sir Jiren.", says Fuze.
Jiren, not bothering to correct him, continues:
"If that is all, I will take my leave. When will the card be ready?"
"Right. Congratulations on becoming a B-ranked adventurer and I wish you good luck in the future, sir Jiren. You can take your papers tomorrow morning, just use my name at the counter", Fuze stands up and gives me a hand to shake.
I stand up and shake his hand.
"Thank you."
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I take the adventurer papers and place them in a spatial dimension that I've opened using Spatial Domination as I get ready to fly.
A red aura covers my body as I burst through the air at hypersonic speeds which for all intents and purposes is less than jogging pace for my capabilities.
Due to the inherent fear of Majin in major cities, I had to come up with a solution to my predicament. Even if I am not a Majin in structure, I do appear to be one with my inhuman appearance.
Looking through my repertoire with Sophie, I've worked out a solution.
Due to my lack of shapeshifting, I've used light in the form of an illusion aura making my head appear to have human features. Hm. This face is oddly familiar…
Regardless, someone such as Milim would immediately see through it, but for city walks it is sufficient. In the end, it is just a way to lower inconvenience.
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For the remaining 5 or so days, I've mostly kept meditating at night, moving leisurely at day whilst observing what the slime does. It appears my warning did make him reconsider some of his decisions. Indeed, using the Farmus King's head as a blackmail material and torture was off the grid now…
The holy city Lune of Lubelius is just ahead. If that huge cathedral and rainbow barrier weren't indicative enough…
Before the entrance of the city I sense one of the strongest presences in the entire city which I presume is the "guide".
I drop down and start walking towards it.
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Hinata Sakaguchi POV
Luminus told me the visitor will arrive right about…
*A man pops in her vision*
now.
Hinata, as usual, analyzed the person's strength and searched for their weaknesses.
At first glance, she assumed it was a heavily muscular human but her unique skill allowed her to notice that this appearance was a mere illusion. The true appearance was revealed to her eyes.
What she saw was a humanoid monster with gray skin, eyes with black sclera and white irises that had circular ears. Frankly, it reminded her of the interpretation of how aliens would look like in her homeworld, Earth.
The being walked towards her with long strides that gave away no openings, clearly of someone who has trained.
"Stop. ", I ordered.
The being stopped.
"Are you the one I was told to escort?", I asked with a scrutinizing gaze.
His irises turned yellow and I felt an inspection. That's odd. That should not have worked as my body rejects any magicules…
I tighten my guard.
His eyes flash briefly, then return back.
"Correct", the being answers with a deep voice.
"Come with me", I commanded and turned back to enter the city, slow enough to notice his illusion appearing again.
I narrowed my eyes to observe his reaction to entering the holy barrier, but nothing happened. I continued walking towards the cathedral, particularly the underground section, to avoid casualties for what was about to occur. After all, the closer you go in, the stronger the holy barrier.
We arrive at the training grounds arena, the being ignoring the implications completely and merely following me.
"Enough, monster. I am Hinata Sakaguchi, captain of the Chief Knights of the Holy Imperial Guard, the faithful servants of Luminus in the Holy Empire of Lubelius. I pray our meeting will go smoothly, for it will not last. Prepare yourself. "
The being stood ominously without a guard up, waiting for the Paladin to start the battle.
The air changed.
The being radiated a mighty ambience of unyielding flames that felt as if they could burn through everything and everyone, making the very air around him move out of the way lest they give any inconvenience.
The Paladin radiated a holy ambience that disintegrated any magical force on contact; an anti-monster killing machine would give nightmares to the majority of the monsters on this continent.
She attempted to use Usurper, but all it returned was a "Blocked." practically confirming her suspicions that the being is on the same level as Luminus.
His existence value was at least above 10 million, at least 10 times greater than her own, making her furrow her brows and start thinking at a rapid pace to figure out a solution to her predicament.
Even though Hinata had hidden tricks up her sleeve, the probability of her winning against this one was almost zero.
But.
Moonlight, a legend-class blade, that was gifted to her by Luminus herself.
Hinata drew the sword.
The armor coating her - The Holy Spirit Armor, the original that was used by the Heroes of the past, built for taking on unbeatable monsters.
The light shrouded her, settling itself into the shape of a glowing light armor.
Now she was free of all restrictions and was stronger than a Saint in terms of force.
She needed all the power she could get.
Without a single word spoken, the battle began.
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She lunged forwards with the blade pointed towards a lethal point.
The blade hit the target head on.
But nothing happened.
The being just stared impassively at her, without any emotion in her gaze.
Hinata was shocked, but that didn't last for long, she went straight into it again, this time with countless slashes, which were practically blurs, winding the area up with wind and rubble.
She jumped back to assess the situation.
The rubble cleared.
She knew she hit every single hit, so why..?
Why is he standing like nothing happened?
The sword she had housed a scary amount of power, sufficient lethal force to cleave even ultraspeed regeneration users into half.
Yet it amounted to nothing.
It felt like a paper sword cutting into metal.
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"Spirit Summoning!", Hinata shouts and points at the being, summoning 5 elemental spirits.
The spirits were stationary for one moment, ignoring the order, but they suddenly activated, rushing at him. Suddenly, however, a wave of red aura burst out of the being, surgically destroying the spirits, just enough energy for it to suffice. A little less, and they would have survived…
Standing in the same duel like this makes me realize how unfair this is...
She understood the initial disadvantage from the start, with non-humans. Survival of the fittest was the rule of law, making it vital to set up all conditions you needed for victory in advance.
They were in a strong holy barrier that practically crippled monsters below A rank. Her prized technical skill was nullified. All of her perfectly executed strikes were useless. The opponent just stood still, taking it all in. It meant nothing.
If that is the case, there was only one answer left. To break out a move she never showed in public.
A move reserved only to kill.
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"I will attempt my final strike. If you can take this, then I simply give up.", said Hinata.
"Go on.", replies the being without any concern whatsoever.
A prayer was starting to be chanted in a clear voice. A white-rainbowish force was forming around her left hand, letting out a blinding light.
Particles fluttered around it, and then she imboud this mystical force into her Moonlight sword.
"Let me provide you a prayer to the divine. I hope and desire for the power of the holy spirits. Listen to my appeal and overcome everything in your way!
"MELT SLASH!"
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