Ch 28: The Ascension Test (3)

Asperogas mainly attacked with its multiple vines to inflict some kind of wound. As all the vines and many thorns coated with a powerful poison, getting wounded by one would directly inflict the poison status on a person. This poison was also quite troublesome as a person needed to drink not only an antidote but also a potion to cure paralysis to completely get rid of it.

So facing it Jack was doing his best to use his high agility to dodge all the vines and to cut them off as fast as he could. But this plant-like monster was capable of regeneration so it was not doing too much damage to it.

Other than the vines, there were multiple faces on the plant. Those faces were releasing poisonous gas which made it harder for Jack to close the distance between him and the monster.

As a scout, the weapon he was best at using was daggers. He not only used daggers to fight in close quarters combat but also used them as throwing weapons. He had a lot of daggers stored in his inventory too. Actually as he had not cleared too many dungeons and had only low ranking dungeons in his list, his inventory was not very large, and that was completely filled with daggers.

He did not only have regular daggers but also several magical ones. As he was dodging the monster and was doing counterattacks whenever he got a chance, he suddenly found a golden opportunity. If he threw a dagger following this chance then he would be able get a clean hit on the monster's main body.

Immediately he took out one of his best magical daggers and took aim. It was a dagger that he found in a dungeon after clearing it. It has an enchantment called "Scorching Flare" and it was extremely effective on plant based monsters.

And just as he expected, Asperogas was unable to withstand the "Scorching Flare" and burned to a crisp after a little bit of resistance. Just like that Jack was able to pick up an easy win. It might look like he won with the help of a magic artifact, but if it was anyone other than jack, that person would not be able to do what Jack did.

...

After Jack it was Goul's turn to take on his opponent. He would be facing the minotaur in a battle. Both of them used axes as their main attacking weapon and Goul had an extra shield.

This battle was going to be a frontal combat with two strong warriors going against each other without holding anything back. It was definitely going to be a very exciting battle.

Just as everyone expected, as soon as the minotaur came out of the cage, both of the warriors started to exchange blows head on.

The minotaur was larger than Goul as he was a dwarf, so it looked like the minotaur would have an advantage but in reality Goul was superior to the minotaur in everything.

From the beginning to the end, he dominated the battle. His skills with the weapons were better, the strength in his small body was stronger, and his determination to win the battle was indomitable. So after clashing weapons with each other for 30 times or so, the minotaur got badly wounded and very soon Goul was able to knock his axe off with his shield. Then he chopped the minotaur in the middle of its skull and killed it. This was the most exciting match so far.

...

The next to go on the stage was the human adventurer Hans. He had an inherent special ability that he had named "10 Shadow Familiars". It was quite a powerful ability but with limited potential.

As the name implied, this ability allowed his to summon various familiars from his shadow. At first he could only summon weak ones but soon as he used the ability more and more, he got more useful and powerful familiars.

Very soon the familiars he was summoning became stronger than him. Just a few months before he was finally able to unlock his final familiar which was as strong as a rank 3 monster. So he decided to take on the mithril rank ascension test.

He had already reached his peak with his special ability and he would not be able to unlock any more stronger familiars. Currently he could not summon his rank 3 familiar for too long, so he was trying to extend the time he could summon it for. But this test was not going to be a problem for him as his rank 3 monster would just need a second to slaughter a rank 4 one even if it was at the peak of that rank.

As soon as the battle started, he summoned his Trump Card which was a rank 3 Shadow Dragon. Its opponent was the Clemensopek. A dragon was already something that was almost a peak existence of any levels and a shadow dragon was even stronger. So without any suspense, the shadow dragon was able to kill the Clemensopek in no time.

...

Finally it was Lauren's turn to take the test. Rein encouraged her as she went on the stage and told her that he would be cheering for her victory. This was more than enough encouragement for Lauren who immediately became super eager to show her good side to him.

Even though she went to the stage with an excited look on her face, after reaching it her expression immediately changed and there was no more excitement to be found. It was filled with seriousness and concentration.

She was facing the last remaining monster which was the Hudropyra. It was looking at her ferociously with its snake-like eyes. So, everyone thought that the monster would attack her as soon as the battle would start.

But this monster did not do anything like that. At the start of the battle, it actually retreated inside its tough shell. Lauren immediately launched a few instantaneous fireballs and they just bounced off this monster's shell without dealing much damage.

Casting so many spells instantly without any break was Lauren's proof of being a really powerful mage. But Hudropyra's defence was just too impressive.

After defending against Lauren's attack, it brought its head out of the shell and threw a concentrated jet of water toward Lauren. She calmly dodged it and stayed to run around the monster after casting a speed boosting wind spell ok herself. The monsters tried to follow her with its bulky body but it was too slow to do it.

At first it looked like Lauren was just running around randomly without any plans in her mind. But after sometime she stopped and said -

"Got you."

Then she clapped her hand and six magic circles appeared surrounding the Hudropyra. Four of them were magic circles for a fire magic spell called Flame Blast and two were wind magic spells called tempest. While running around the monster she was actually preparing these spell circles.

But that was not all. Showing the whole world why she was called a genius, she combined all the magic circles to create a magic that she created herself and she named it Inferno. It was a flaming tornado with inside heat.

When the flaming tornado died down, the monster was no longer there. Only ashes and a few burnt parts remained.

The referee declared Laura's victory and she happily came back to Rein, who did not disappoint her and gave her a happy hug and praised her techniques a lot. It was coming straight from his heart too. Lauren's control over her magic and technique of combine elements were truly extremely impressive.

Just like that the first part of the test came to an end.