There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 245 - 238. Double Assessment

Chapter 245: Chapter 238. Double Assessment

More than a hundred of people gathered in Trinity compound that day, almost as many as the espers already part of Trinity itself. And that was only the ones who already passed the initial assessment; the first level.

But even only reaching that far was already considered achievement for some. After all, unlike guides, espers who joined a guild’s open recruitment session were mostly fresh graduates. High-quality espers were usually being scouted instead of going through many layers of assessment levels.

Arlo was one of those rookies. He didn’t go to one of the esper’s academies, but he had lessons from all of the espers in his clan, which was more than enough to grant him the first-floor trial success.

If it came to talent, Arlo had more than a decent potential. After all, he came from an old lineage of a loyal vassal to the House Ishtera. Unfortunately, the talented boy soon grew dissatisfied with the objective of his training.

Why would he need to better himself for another person? Why would he need to dedicate himself to someone who wasn’t even there, when he didn’t even know existed?

This disappointment turned him into a rebellious boy, and he neglected his potential just to reach a bare minimum, because, what for?

Why should he work hard if he couldn’t even do what he wanted to do; going from dungeon to dungeon, making the world safer one dungeon clear at a time? Instead, they said he should look to work for something that would make it easier for them to look for someone; like his police cousin, Cohen.

Arlo hated it. Arlo hated this man who he was supposed to call ’Master’.

But this man, who he had bent to hate for the rest of his life as the reason for his damnable cage, was also the man who later set him free. Telling the seniors to let him do whatever he wanted to do, to stop this Templar nonsense altogether. The man even looked disturbed and downright disgusted at the word ’Master’ being thrown at him.

The man was awesome!

Arlo thought, as an esper, he would look up to another esper as a beacon. Someone great and historic-bending like the Serpent Lord perhaps, who he had the privilege to meet for three times already. But he never thought he would end up considering a guide as his role model. Hearing about the man’s struggle in the red-zone and his amazing tale in the Borderland put Arlo in awe.

How could he whine about his cage and limitation after hearing such a story?

How could he keep being lackluster after the door to his iron cage was blasted open?

In the short time since he heard about Trinity’s annual recruitment, he put himself in maximum gear, digging into all the potential he initially had, working so hard to increase his tactical skill and theoretical knowledge, and secretly took the trial for the second floor without even telling anyone from the family but Lisa.

For the first time, he felt like he was working toward his own objective, not the clan. He found his own dream, his own worth.

And now, he stood one step closer to that, as he stared at the number badge in his palm, inside the large conference room where all the applicants were waiting.

There were a lot of people here, at least a hundred, possibly more. These were the people who passed the initial screening and thus qualified to show their prowess in front of Trinity’s squad leaders, including the Serpent Lord himself. And since Trinity never mentioned how many people they would take this year, everybody in here might as well rivals. Knowing Radia Mallarc and Bassena Vaski’s temperament, they wouldn’t hesitate to fail everyone if they deemed those people worthless.

But Arlo felt confident. Not because he personally knew the executives, but because now, he knew he was on the right track.

Rather than the Serpent Lord, however, he wondered if he could see the guide instead, the man who set him free.

Right as the clock above the podium struck nine, a staff came out to tell them the system of their practical assessment. A group of twenty would be called each time for the assessment. The test itself was not disclosed, and once they were done, the participants were not allowed to go back to the conference room.

Looking at his number, Arlo realized that he belonged to the first batch. Instead of being nervous, the young man got excited instead. He felt like he would get nervous if he had to go later, waiting while wondering what kind of test they faced. It was better to just get it done.

Soon, the first batch was called, and Arlo had to tell himself hard to walk calmly instead of jogging toward the podium, where a staff was waiting to guide them to the testing site. They were led through the hallway to a big elevator that usually used for cargo loads. With the staff’s special badge, the lift went down to the basement floor.

Although...it definitely didn’t feel like a basement. With a high ceiling and bright lighting, they felt like they were walking inside an arena stadium instead. Kind of like the place where a gladiator-style tournament for Esper usually took place for entertainment.

Wait...

People who realized it started to get tense then. Their eyes got sharper once the staff told them to go inside the big elevated platform in the middle of the stadium. It started to look more and more like that tournament--more specifically; the battle royale stage.

They started to distance themselves from the other applicants--an instinctual response to the possibility of bloodbath. A palpable tension was sneaking between their space, but these espers froze when they arrived at the top of the platform; the Arena.

Because now they could see the balcony-like structure above, like a viewing platform. And there, looking at them like hawks, were the Captains of Trinity Strike Squads.

Arlo--and the other nineteen applicants, honestly--couldn’t help but gulped. Even though it wasn’t their first time meeting high-ranking espers, those people up there had different kind of eyes--the kind of eyes that had seen countless dangers. From where they stood in the Arena, those people looked as large as the mountain.

Especially the man who’s amber eyes blazed like a fire of judgment. Simply taking a look at those eyes made the applicants immediately lower their gaze and cursed themselves inwardly.

Arlo did not lower his gaze, however. Not because he wasn’t intimidated, but because he caught the gaze of a pair of blue eyes, sharp and brilliant. It was the pair of eyes he had been wanting to see, so he couldn’t help but hold his gaze.

The man was blending too perfectly with the espers that one would miss the fact that he was actually a guide. Now that Arlo looked around a bit more, he could see another guide in a white uniform standing beside the Young Master, as well as a group of twenty guides standing on another side of the balcony.

And it wasn’t just those people--the Arena was also subjected to the stare and glare of several cameras from different angles, positioned to perfectly capture any movement inside the Arena.

It felt more and more like a gladiator tournament.

Before they could adjust the beating of their heart and the shiver running through their spine, the staff in the Arena cleared their throat and started to give them the instruction for the practical assessment.

"Shortly, you will start the practical assessment," the staff explained. "You may take a position anywhere within the arena, and we would send you random miasmic beasts."

Immediately, the applicants went rigid and widened their eyes for a bit in confusion. But the staff continued the explanation nonchalantly. "Please display your strength to the best of your ability without worry. You will receive a guiding once you’re done with the test."

Immediately after, a transparent wall was erected around the huge Arena, like a barrier. Glowing blue grids flashed on the floor and the transparent walls, and the espers finally understood that they would fight in the AR field.

Once they understood this, the espers regained their calm and immediately dispersed, positioning themselves away from each other. The arena started to shift too, getting textured with collums springing out randomly like a cliff. Arlo jumped to one of these columns, taking vantage points as holographic miasmic beasts started to materialize.

And then it began.

Twenty guides had been selected through the interview, standing on the other side of the viewing balcony. In their hands were sheets of paper and pens, and they were about to embark on a test they had never done before.

The twenty guides came today with energized faces, filled with the happiness of passing the interview. Today was supposed to be a practical assessment, and for all they knew, as long as they successfully guided someone, they would receive a decent score. Unless they suddenly had a breakdown, there was no way they couldn’t do that much.

Well, apparently, that much was not enough for Trinity--or rather, for Captain Luzein.

Guiding was a bare minimum for a guide, so it was ridiculous to him that practical assessment only rely on whether or not a guide could guide. Might as well test the Espers to manifest mana and called it a day.

"You will watch the esper’s test and make your own assessment," the low and melodious voice greeted them with dread and confusion. "Using the badge’s numbers within each batch, write down the esper you think should be guided first and why, as well as the esper who should be guided last and why."

"You can answer it as short or as long as you want," the kind, soothing voice added next. "You can also omit the reason if you want, although, of course, it would be reflected in your final score."

To say they were confused was an understatement. They were perplexed, dumbfounded. Some of them were already part of a guild before or had been through many assessments before--but none of them had faced something like this before.

Little did they know, the things they had to do now were what Zein had been implementing in the guide division for a few months now. Not only the strike division, but the whole department. There would be a session for guides of watching the espers trained and making an analysis on who should receive guidance first. It sparked a lot of discussion about the right value of priority-making, and opened the guides to a whole new view in emergency guiding.

So this was basically a warm up for these applicants. Of course, they would still need to do the guiding too after each batch.

And with a short blaring of a siren, their practical assessment too, began.

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