Chapter 846: The first day of the evaluation trial (part 24)

The "mercenary" category has a surprisingly big enough variety of different possibilities.

A lot of people look down on mercenaries because they most of the times lack a backer, but at the same time all of the bigger forces "need" them, because of the righteous faction’s treaties which requires justification for a battle in the open, most of the times conflicts between sects are solved with short timed skirmishes which are consciously ignored by the other righteous faction forces.

So, that’s when "mysterious" enemies with no affiliation come in handy, mercenaries are used to do the dirty work of those from high moral standing most of the time.

Unlike evil cultivators who are unpredictable and might not only turn back on their employers but even use the chance to cause trouble in the territories where the righteous treaty keeps things relatively in peace, which would result in the force who caused that to be purged by everyone else, mercenaries on the other hand are on a grey line, they are loyal so long as you pay the appropriate price and since they don’t have a backer the chances of them trying anything funny are low.

The previous is of course the life of the bottom tier mercenaries, and so those kinds of jobs are usually given to exiles, rogues and those that live hiding from the consequences of their past actions, these kind of mercenaries act alone or in small groups where birds of a feather flock together.

Next you have the average mercenaries, in this category you usually find those that rose from mortal backgrounds by stumbling upon the cultivation world but lacking the talent or introduction to join a proper sect or force, they form groups for self-protection which in turn also ally with other groups, that is the origin of forces like the mercenary alliance back at the four heavenly quadrants.

That being said talented people can be found everywhere and so among mercenaries, elites are bound to appear as well, unlike those in the middle, they form select and small units and rather than going for quantity focus in quality, they move in small groups or even alone which is something they have in common with the first category among mercenaries, the reasons are completely different though.

For that same reason, Vera had committed the huge mistake of thinking that Cassandra was a loner who took dangerous missions, it was understandable, since the green-haired female leader’s only permanent teammate was Lauren.

The brothers and the middle-aged man, have coincided with her in work a few times before, but they weren’t of the same category as Cassandra, they weren’t loners either though, but belonged to a large group without any personal ties between its members, they just grouped for self-protection, and everyone had their own objectives, like Andre who gathered intel for his revenge for example.

The tanned man and the others were also mercenaries who had coincided with Cassandra but unlike Andre and the brothers, they didn’t know the green-haired girl’s actual position in the mercenary world.

And now, reality was slapping Vera right on the face, because she tried to undermine the authority of someone who amusingly enough, let alone herself or even her father who was the supreme elder, but even the patriarch of her clan would have had to treat like their direct superior the moment that pendant of hers was revealed.

"You sneaky bitch, if you had such a thing why didn’t you say it, I would have...", before Vera could finish lashing out at Cassandra, she was interrupted by the latter who kept that pendant in her pocket and then took out another two with different symbols but with a similar pair of words engraved "Honored Guest", evidently Cassandra as an elite mercenary had a wide network, as a proof of how good she was at doing her job.

"You would have wagged your tail and kept your funny ideas to yourself, until there was even a small chance to stab me in the back, like earlier with Jen, I gave you the benefit of doubt and while we didn’t get along, I still ensured your safety as a part of my temporary team, but not anymore and since you can’t provide anything of value and no one will know how you died in here, this is a goodbye", said the green-haired female leader as she reached her hand at her metal spiked whip.

In truth, with that honored guest pendant, even if Cassandra killed Vera in front of her father, forget about getting angry or trying to get revenge, he would have had to beg for forgiveness from the one who killed her daughter, the difference in standing was that big.

Of course it’s not like such a thing has unlimited uses and wouldn’t use such a privilege for a nobody like Vera, so getting rid of her in this place where no one will know how it happened, was like a free cake falling from the sky.

"H-Hey, stop her, so what if she can provide more intel, you won’t be able to lay a finger on her right, I’m different, if you take me in, then I’ll be...", Vera’s last straw of hope which was selling herself for survival, didn’t even need Aster to answer, her words stuck in her throat as she was given a deathly stare by whole bunch of fierce girls.

Some also stared daggers at Aster though, like a certain ligress girl and the purple lightning princess, they of course knew he wouldn’t spare Vera for such a reason, but couldn’t help but get angry over the fact that he was given the offer, it was as if they were saying "It’s your fault for looking like the kind of guy who would do such a thing", which made the black-haired dragon youth chuckle to his insides.

’I already said that I wasn’t interested in her though’, jokingly thought Aster.

"Booom!", before Vera could overcome the fear that the glares of Sarina, Aria and the other girls caused her, Cassandra’s whip was tensed and lashed at her neck, wrapping itself around making the spikes pierce her throat, she was dead the next second.

"And that leaves us with only you, there are only a couple of minutes left so, are you going to speak or do I have to make you do it?", said Aster to the blond-haired leader, who in response shouted.

"I-I would have tried to kill the dangerous ones like that white-silver haired lady and the blond lady with green eyes, the others would have been captured, at the very least I wouldn’t have laid my hands on the captured ones that I can say for sure!!!", he screamed while closing his eyes afraid of dying with them still open.

’Well, I guess being a coward saved his ass...’, thought Aster, amusingly enough he wasn’t lying, for someone that took the role of a leader and who had a decently high battle prowess, Ryan was too afraid of dying, being careful is not a shameful thing, but he was honestly pathetic, not like that poses a problem for Aster, the easier he is to use and control the better.

"Where do you come from, there is no way you are a mercenary?", couldn’t help but ask Cassandra, Ryan looked tough and he even had Xander an assassin from an evil sect working under him, but he turned out to be a disappointment.

"I’m the young master of a middle-ranked force from the Golden Treasury divine firmament...", said Ryan as he looked at the ground not daring to even gaze back at Cassandra.

"Huh, so he was just a spoiled bastard playing tough all this time!", exclaimed the younger of the two brothers, which was amusing considering how afraid he was of Sarina even currently.

Aster who raised an eyebrow at Cassandra was met with the green-haired female leader sighing as she explained.

"The Golden Treasury firmament is the smallest known divine firmament, all the sects and forces there work as merchants and since the nobles native to that place have access to the safest large scale space storage treasure known, which was inherited to them by their founding king, they also function as a bank of sorts, in exchange they are given protection by the largest and strongest divine firmaments, but as a condition nobles and their relatives can’t become fighters nor are they allowed to take sides in any conflict", she said.

Basically, they met the son of a noble who wanted to become a warrior, learned about it but had zero experience in terms of fighting, so he was just cosplaying as a veteran leader, he was a paper tiger, which explained a lot.

That doesn’t mean he came to this place to die, but his bodyguards probably got separated from him, so he built a new team with himself as the center.

’Mmm, I guess he faked it good enough to trick others into believing he was the real deal, that’s a good quality for a merchant’, thought Aster to then say.

"Fine, I guess we can get some nice ransom for you, you better spit every single piece of intel about your "teammates" later", he was going to spare him anyway, but it’s better for Ryan to not know that.

"Y-Yes!", shouted Ryan which made the other two who were spared, namely the stone axe guy and the shield one feel dumb, they were duped by a rich second generation.

Leaving aside the prisoner selection event, Aster looked upwards and saw the blue flaming board appearing above the platform.

"Looks like time is up", said Aster.

[The battle time has ended, further attempts to fight won’t be allowed from this moment onwards, the winner side will receive their rewards at the end of the day while the losing side will either be rewarded, given nothing or will be penalized depending on their respective evaluation]

After reading the message from the blue flaming board, Aster directly said.

"As you can see, I have a little situation which needs your help in my hands, some members of the enemy group want to join our side which means they will have to return with us instead of going back from where they came, it shouldn’t be a problem now that their former supervisor is gone, right?", Aster’s casual tone didn’t match his words.

’T-That blue flaming board can kill other supervisors!’, inwardly screamed Ryan, Cassandra and the others were also taken by surprise over the previous.

[How did you know that?]

The blue flaming board didn’t answer Aster’s question but instead made a question itself, to which Aster softly laughed as he said.

"There is this "refreshened" sensation coming from you currently, which I only noticed when we met again after the resting days were over, it was probably caused by the death of the red lightning cloud, so the crystal bush that used to manage them should be gone now as well", Aster had a "knowing" smile as he spoke.

[...]

The blue flaming board remained silent for a second as if it didn’t know how to react to that, but ultimately answered.

[Teleporting them costs the same whether it is back from where they came or to where your group lives, also normally these matches would require all the participants to physically gather in the same place, annexing the losing side was originally a possible thing to begin with, so I have no reason to refuse, however, you can’t take that centipede with you]

Aster already expected the previous to be the case, though the blue flaming board probably needed the group under its supervision to clash with the group under the supervisor it was targeting in order to be able to get rid of it for the good, it still maintained its integrity when it came to the events of this place.

Sure, it could be flexible with an ally like Aster and the girls, but it wouldn’t outright break the rules, which was fine, since originally this place was meant to benefit the participants instead of exploiting them like the other supervisors had been doing, in fact it was the unwavering integrity of Blue Sky what made Aster decide to side with the blue flaming board for the good.

"My cute juniors have taken a liking to that centipede, and that guy seems to be rather intelligent for not being a spirit beast despite having spirit energy in its body, so why don’t we take it as a "pet" of our camp, at some point we’ll have more like him appear right, as both enemies and possible allies, so it wouldn’t be against the rules to have him join us in the open when the time is right, I just ask for my group to be allowed to meet him from time to time, to keep him well-fed, and for training purposes", said Aster to then add.

"Of course, I’m not the type to only ask from others without giving in return, next time I can join the other "battlefield" as compensation, what do you day?".

The other "battlefield" Aster was referring to was naturally the fight between the blue flaming board and the supervisors it targeted, yes in plural, Aster guessed that not only the crystal bush just died but some other poor bastards either joined him or surrendered to Blue Sky’s authority.

He could make such a bold claim because even if it wasn’t a fight in his territory and he was a copy, Aster still drove away the gray tomb supervisor with his sword, so your average supervisor was not a match for him.

[Merits will be needed to come into the space where the centipede will be kept, I’ll add the option to your monolith, if there is nothing else, prepare to be sent back to your camp]

"Deal", said Aster to which the blue flaming board added.

[Further details will be discussed privately later, I’ll look forward to our next cooperation]

And with that the deal was sealed, leaving a strong impression in Cassandra and the other new members of the group, as well as the new former enemies turned into laborers after the proper contracts were stablished between the respective parties and Aster with the blue flaming board acting as witness, it didn’t take long since Cassandra and the others were basically going to become teammates directly in a similar standing as Fawn, while the other three were in a similar position as the black horses with the exception of Mule who had proved his loyalty by fighting the king of fangs, or James who had also earned a place in the camp.

’He can negotiate with a supervisor’, is what they were all thinking, naturally with different reactions, Cassandra was interested in what gave Aster the standing to talk with the blue flaming board in equal terms, Lauren’s eyes were sparkling as she gazed at Aster’s sword, the brothers were taken aback and Andre while focused in his own things, was indeed surprised, as for Ryan and those two, they were horrified after realizing that they tried to fight against someone that could do such a thing.

And now they considered themselves to be really lucky as they got to live to tell the tale.

’Dad, the world outside the Golden Treasury divine firmament is such a scary place...’, thought Ryan as they were all enveloped in a dim blue light before disappearing from this match area prepared by the blue flaming board.

"Crack!", once the participants left, the sky above the platform cracked and a chaotic scene which pictured a plethora of different places, such as a rock cave with a throne room inside of it, a lake which had an ice castle at its bottom or a crystal palace, all of which were half destroyed and burned in fierce blue flames, was revealed.

[I was planning to bring up the subject myself but he took the initiative of doing so, I don’t believe for a second that he didn’t notice what was going on in the sky given that he has those dangerous eyes... was he being "considerate" to show goodwill to an ally?] wondered the blue flaming board before the blue flames which had half destroyed the previously mentioned places, suddenly multiplied their fierceness by dozens of times.

"Booooom!", everything engulfed by the blue flames was reduced to ashes on the spot, as a sign that the blue flaming board had... restrained itself while Aster and the other participants were here.

....

After a second in which everything the ones who participated in the match could see was blue, the scene changed and while Aster and the girls of the sect were welcomed with the familiar sight of the center of the camp where the monoliths were, for Cassandra and the other newcomers, things were different.

"Woah, is this really a camp made by mortals, it looks like an actual town", said the badger orange-haired Lauren as she looked around, what’s more just by doing so she was met by quite a few strong auras, because the girls that remained behind obviously were watching the match while eating some snacks since earlier.

"Welcome back senior brother!", exclaimed the girls of the sect in unison, before Mikaela who was left in charge clapped her hands to get their attention.

"There, you could welcome him, now go finish your daily tasks already, otherwise we won’t be able to all have dinner together", said the core elder of the white sword faction, which earned her a few complaining mumbles from the girls of the sect.

"That’s not fair, I bet others like sister Agnes and Espi will stay and listen to the story directly from senior brother’s mouth", said a girl from the green lotus, to which the "accused" in other words the sporty sun diamond princess and the little wyrm answered.

"Don’t use me as an excuse, I watched the match while doing my chores to finish early, you little girls were the ones who got enthralled in the projection and sat to chat and have snacks for two hours", said Agnes as she approached Aster only to be met with an accusatory gaze from her cousin, which made her realize something she had unconsciously blocked from her mind.

’Wait a second if they watched the whole thing then...’ the poor purple lightning princess was struck right where it hurts when she heard a few girls saying.

"It was worth it though, sister Agnes missed the part when senior brother carried sister Valentina on his back~", then as if to put the last nail to her coffin, Mikaela added.

"It was indeed an interesting match", she said as she slightly smiled at her childhood friend.

’Ahhhhh!’, once again, Valentina screamed to her insides while maintaining her responsible older sister front.

"You can gossip later, go and finish your missions, I... need a bath, you organize the newcomers", said the purple lightning princess to Mikaela, as she left towards her room, trying to not look to be in a hurry.

"Hissss~", then it was the turn of the little wyrm to come and welcome Aster, Espi jumped into the air and landed her upper body on Aster’s shoulder to then cutely hiss at him, that meant something along the lines of "I want to participate in the next match please~".

For that enthusiastic little wyrm, it was too much of a "torture" to see something so fun happening and being unable to participate, not to mention that Kana went but she stayed behind, well, the other option was for her to accompany Alice’s group but the little wyrm kind of didn’t want to be in a group with the dragon princess, without either Aster or Kana present.

"A snake, there are animals here and what the hell is that!", exclaimed the younger of the two brothers as he saw the komodo dragon king who was coming to greet Aster and the others, alongside Guardian as well as Fawn and the giant eagle.

"Hello sister Guardian, mister komodo dragón and miss Regina~", said Kana as she happily went to the lynx’s side and then climbed up to the back of the giant komodo dragon king.

’A spirit tamer... no, those are mortal animals, I thought that little girl was a spirit tamer given how she was interacting with the centipede, but it seems she has some interesting ability instead, there should be a spirit tamer in here given the tendency to have animals as members of the camp though’, thought Cassandra to then gaze at Aster from the corner of her eyes.

"For now, all the participants can go refresh themselves, and rest until dinner time in an hour or so, James I’ll put these three under your command for now, miss Cassandra and our other new teammates, miss Mikaela will accommodate you for now, we can talk about the future later after dinner", said Aster.

The match wasn’t especially exhausting but they were indeed covered in dust from walking through the desert and then the fights at the platform.