A Serpent's Tale
Chapter 281: Realising My True Power

Chapter 281: Realising My True Power

The Minotaur walked off to the side to write down his assessment.

In the end, they would give me my results which would be divided into different ranks based on the standard Guild rank system, and obviously, the higher, the better.

But all that was let for me to be tested on now, was my raw strength. Not empowered by any of my abilities, just what my own body is physically capable of on its own.

The way they were going to test my strength, especially after hearing about what I did in the arena, which they have heard about, it’s been an entire week since then, was by making me punch a super rock.

And I asked them what in the fuck is a super rock, and they explained to me that it’s a rock that’s been compressed to such a degree and imbued with magic also to harden it even more.

"Isn’t that expensive?" I didn’t know if it would be expensive or not, but based on just that, I assumed it was.

"Yeah, but not too expensive to the point we can’t afford it." One of the workers mentioned as they watched alongside me as it was set up.

It wasn’t anything impressive, just a fairly small stone pillar that was around a metre thick and three metre’s tall set up in the middle of the arena.

My goal was to hit it as hard as I could and see what happens. Simple.

They quickly got it set up and I went over to it to prepare to punch at full strength once more.

Just like last time, I took a deep breath as I positioned myself to maximise my punch.

Cocking my left arm back as I placed my right flat open in front of me and turning my body to get the most out of it.

And after a few moments, I struck.

*BAAAANNNGGG!!!!!*

With a deafening boom, and just like before, an immense shockwave burst out from the mere impact.

The entire arena was filled with several billowing dust clouds that soon resided, leaving a lingering dust fog, which was quickly swept away with wind magic just like last time to reveal the results of my punch.

And I’ll be honest, I had absolutely no expectations. No good, no bad expectations, I just had no idea what to expect so I just didn’t.

And the result was that I had managed to shatter it into two major pieces alongside some smaller crumbled bits.

Once more, everyone was stun locked by my performance. I’m not sure why they are at this point, or why they’re even stunned at all.

Though, I guess they don’t see feats like this very often. And the fact that I’ve just done so many different feats that would take ages for them to even get close to one of these feats.

Or so I assume. I don’t actually know the ranks of the people taking these tests. Nor do I know what they’re thinking.

Either way, my tests were now done and I just had to wait for my results. So, I slinked off to one side to avoid the stares anyone might give me and make me uncomfortable.

_

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After nearly an hour after I did my strength test, the arena was evaluating people like normal, but there was a bit of an awkward air around it as people looked at me with weird stares.

Some with awe and admiration, some with scorn and envy, along with many other conflicting emotions.

But that didn’t matter anymore as I finally got my results.

And they were as follows:

Speed – Mythril

Agility – Mythril

Defence – Diamond

Strength – Diamond

...

’Okay, okay... Far higher than I was expecting to be honest. Based on this and looking at my other visible stats, I’d say that my Magic might be closer to Orichalcum if it isn’t that already.’

I was so shocked by the results as I was leaving the arena that I accidentally bumped into someone.

"Oh, sorry." But before I could apologise any more, I looked up and saw that it was Ba’arhim.

Before I could say anything else, he just put a finger up to his mouth and motioned for me to follow him out of here.

When we did get out of range, he took me on a little detour, that took a different path than straight back out of here.

"That was quite an impressive display, I must say. What did they grade you with? Mythril? Diamond? I can’t imagine it being lower than Diamond." He inquired curiously.

And so, I told him.

"Yeah, that makes sense. What are your stats at roughly by the way? Only asking because I’m trying to make this process a little easier to test in future." He inquired further.

"Well, of the one’s that I can see-"

He cut me off, "What do you mean ’one’s I can see’? What does that mean?"

"It means that I can only see certain stats. Some of them aren’t displayed normal."

"And before you ask!" I stopped him from interrupting me because I knew he would, anyone in his position would, I explained my current circumstance. "My soul was fractured, which caused my Soul Scroll to also break to a degree."

Ba’arhim looked at me with pity, and before he could say anything, I explained further, "I don’t remember what happened to cause this, but that memory has been sealed away, so please don’t pry into it."

"Alright then, I’ll leave this matter at that. But which stats can you see though. If you don’t mind me asking that is." He dropped the matter of why with a calm understanding, but still wanted an answer to his previous question clearly.

I decided it was best to just show him, so I opened my Soul Scroll up and made it so that only my stats were on the magical and invisible paper.

And then, I made it visible, which is something that any Soul Scroll user can do, we just don’t because that’s like one of the most vulnerable things you could do.

It’s like exposing your dark secrets or something for no reason to the world.

Still, I showed it to him anyways because I felt like I could trust him. He had this air of experience about him, alongside a calm and wise aura. Probably why he’s the guild master at this branch.

"Huh, that is weird." He commented upon seeing my ’hidden’ stats. But apart from that one remark, he said nothing else and just looked at the rest.

"I see. So, your magic is your strongest attribute, even without items, but with them, it’s likely to be Orichalcum level at the very least if my math is right. Defence wise though, at most, Platinum, and if not, at least Gold."

"Really? You think that highly of my stats?" I looked up at him with widened eyes.

He stood back up straight and nodded as he praised me, "Well of course. Even without items, it’s still pretty high for someone like you. Also, what’s your level? Given how high your stats are, it should be pretty high."

"It only reached fourty like last week." I admitted.

"What? How? How can your stats be so high yet your level so low?" He asked with furrowed brows as he scratched his chin.

"Well, I have a skill that seems to give me points for devouring people whole and digesting them." I whispered shyly, as it wasn’t exactly something to be proud of, but it wasn’t exactly common either. If people found out they would definitely try to exploit me forcefully.

But Ba’arhim didn’t seem to see it that way. Not entirely at least.

"Say, if that’s the case, when we’re done dealing with that Succubus, would you perhaps like to ’get rid of her’ for us?" His hinting couldn’t be any more obvious

He wanted me to devour the Succubus.

But as I thought about it, I felt my eyelids twitching, my arms tensing up and my fingers convulsing as my lips trembled.

I didn’t realise it, but I had stopped moving and my mind felt like it was going to shatter until I felt someone shaking me out of it.

"Traytora! Are you okay!" It was Ba’arhim, obviously, we were the only ones going down this path.

Shaking my head, I stared at his face full of worry.

"I- I’m fine... I just... Don’t like the prospect of doing that. It’s unnerving for me..." I explained melancholically.

Ba’arhim sighed and said this, "I see. I won’t bring such a topic up again then. I’m sorry for causing you such distress."

"It’s fine. I do actually have..." I was about to say that I do have desires to eat people, but stopped myself since it would actually be problematic for anyone to know, since it’s not exactly a common trait.

I’m aware that it can be considered an honour for a lower-class citizen in the Serpentine Empire to be eaten by nobles and other such upper-class members of society, but deep down, I detest that.

Maybe that’s why I detest the thought of eating that Succubus as well, because I just detest the idea of eating my own kind.

But I see no problem with eating literally any other race. I don’t know why I think this, but I do.

And that’s the problem. If I share these views with people, they will start to question both me and said views, because they’re beyond normal.

"What/ What is it? You have what?" Ba’arhim questioned.

I shook my head and just responded with, "It’s nothing."

The conversation then quickly moved away from this topic and onto a completely different matter entirely.