A spectral screen appeared in front of Shalen with a countdown timer of 15 minutes. She had 15 minutes to recharge herself and get her act together before the next round of opponents appeared in front of her.
"Haaash!"
Shalen took a long breath and crashed on the spot. She lay on her back and started breathing heavily. Her bosoms heaved as she took long breaths.
"This fucking test. Fucccck! My arm!"
Shalen gripped her left arm's shoulder with her right hand and attempted to snap her dislocated shoulder. When she did, waves of pain and misery crashed onto her already exhausted psyche.
The injuries sustained in the illusory space were real-like. The illusory space followed the logic of the real world. As such, there was no way to ignore the pain felt by the sustained injuries.
Shalen had been fighting with her injuries for quite some time now. She had suffered other minor wounds all over her body as well. Thankfully, the illusory space also included whatever she had in her storage space. It allowed her to take out a vial of recovery potion from her storage and drink it.
Shalen was no stranger to pain and suffering. She had been working in the Escalon guild for quite some time now. Her superior was the Paladin of Pain herself. She made all of her subordinates go through various tests and procedures.
Thus, Shalen's pain tolerance level was quite high. However, there was something wrong with the test she was currently part of.
The illusory space intensified the feelings of pain and suffering multifold than the real world. There was a reason it was called the Test of Bravery.
The participants would always hesitate to march forward the longer they stayed inside the test, even when they knew the feelings of pain and suffering were not real. The feelings of pain would increase as they got closer to scoring 100 points.
The awareness of reality didn't exclude the participants from feeling an extreme sense of dread for the next participants and apparitions that they would battle against. No sane person would welcome ten or 20 times the feelings of pain. Especially if the injuries were already dreadful enough in real life.
Shalen was afraid to take the test because she was afraid of feeling a heightened sense of pain. She also wondered how the Paladin of Pain Reva Rain would handle the test when she was the one who was at the receiving end of such a test.
Shalen had been sent here as a normal ranker to perform a recon mission for Reva Rain under the orders of the Escalon guild. The guild had become thoroughly involved in the affairs of the White Raven guild when it was approached by a very influential ranker.
This influential ranker owned a condor-type demon beast. He had told them that they needed to finish all the lower-ranked entities of the White Raven guild as soon as possible.
It appeared that this ranker belonged to the other faction of House Montmorency that had been excluded from the arrangements the three factions had made concerning Minerva's Utopia. Therefore, the ranker's faction wanted an in by breaking the current order of the set-up.
The Escalon guild was a normal guild on the surface that was involved in clean-up operations in the Badlands. At least that was what the majority of the populace was made to believe. But under the facade of normalcy, the Escalon guild had its fingers dipped in a lot of shady pies.
The guild was happy to take on the mission. Especially when it had designs of its own on the White Raven guild. It was like getting paid for something one liked to do.
Shalen was sent here to find out more about the separate dimension. She was also tasked with keeping a close eye on the White Raven guild by staying inside the city.
The reason Escalon guild was being cautious this time was because the previous team that was sent to mess with the White Raven team members who had ventured into the Monster Canyon was nowhere to be found.
An entire team of Escalon guild members disappeared into Monster Canyon. That in itself was not a strange event. Monster Canyon was called the graveyard of rankers for a reason. It would either make or break you. There was hardly any in between.
However, the guild found out that its team never even intercepted White Raven team members. It was attacked by a bunch of Orcs without them provoking the monsters in the first place.
All the attacks performed by these Orcs were targeted attacks. The Escalon team members were on the tails of the White Raven team members. Thus, they crossed the same region they did. However, it was only the Escalon team members who got jumped on.
Then again, the monsters in Monster Canyon were a weird bunch even by Badlands' standards. The Escalon guild had to move on from a substantial loss but they had to move on. That was especially true now that the money had been taken from that influential ranker.
The guild tried to intercept White Raven team members again after that event. However, they suffered the same fate. That's when the seniors inside the guild decided that they needed to reevaluate the battle prowess of the White Raven guild. They suspected that there were a bunch of experts protecting the White Raven members from the shadows.
With House Derringer and a faction of House Montmorency onboard, this was extremely possible. So, Escalon guild relayed the information they had collected so far on White Raven guild and sent it to the other faction of House Montmorency. Then it asked for the renewal of the initial plan.
To the guild's surprise, it was given sufficient time by the condor-owning ranker. However, he stated that he would send a bunch of people from his own faction to expedite the process when he sees it fit. He just wanted the Escalon guild to take the fall if and when the clean-up operation gets exposed to the two Houses.
Infighting was disastrous for the business. The other faction of House Montmorency understood that fact very well. It didn't want to take over a dying business.
The excluded faction of House Montmorency wanted the White Raven city to prosper even more than it was right now. So that when it takes care of Levine's faction, it would be handed a money-making machine in the form of Minerva's Utopia.
The Escalon guild was now stuck between a rock and a hard place. It couldn't back away from the arrangement. It could not proceed recklessly with its plan. All it could do now was figure out how to destroy the members of White RavRaven. That is, causing any ripples that might make the two Houses angry with the Escalon guild itself.
The Escalon guild and all its members were now walking on thin ice.
Shalen Croft was just another pawn in the big leagues' games. But she never had such a childhood when she wasn't used as a pawn. It was the same shit different day for her anyway.
"10…. 9… 8… 7…"
Meeli's emotionless voice was heard by Shalen when she was lost in her thoughts while lying down. She had recovered for the most part at this point. The frontal clash wasn't an assassin's forte. But that didn't make her quit the test. At least not yet.
