After reclaiming his confiscated items, Ye Qi left the Tower of Thorns after bidding the guard farewell—the young Demon Hunter sighed surreptitiously in relief that the young man from before didn’t show himself this time. Even though he harboured no outward malice towards Ye Qi, the young Demon Hunter would still feel pressured in the presence of someone so much more powerful than he was.
“Ye, congratulations on getting out!” The giant, who could grab attention wherever he was, waved at Ye Qi when he saw the young Demon Hunter. Ye Qi replied with a kind smile, “Thank you, Titan!”
Ye Qi doubted things would be so friendly if it was the other two instructors who came to fetch him. Even though the headquarters frowned upon infighting, tempers tend to flare and rules tend to be broken. The bout for life between him and Carlos was one good example.
“Come on, let’s go get you a fresh change of clothes! I’m sure you’re wishing for a shower right about now, right?” The giant’s smile was still as kind as he remembered. Sweating was something natural for Ye Qi who spent every day of the week practicing his swordplay in the dark. Using the cup of drinking water as bathing water was definitely out of question. As insinuated by Titan, there was indeed an impossible smell wafting out of the young Demon Hunter.
No wonder the guard just now couldn’t wait to escape! Is this why the young man with the bright smile doesn’t come to send me off?
Reminded of how horrible he must smell in that moment, Ye Qi laughed self-deprecatingly and shrugged, “You wouldn’t mind preparing me a meal beyond the offer of shower and clothes right? Anything but bread will be fine!”
“Of course!”
With the giant leading the way, Ye Qi returned to the central castle. After Ye Qi changed into a new set of clothes, a scrumptious meal was already waiting on his table—milk, bacon and waffles dripping with honey…
Looking at the arrangement, Ye Qi felt like he could finally understand John’s deep resentment against potatoes on his first day out of jail.
“Ye, all the other new Apostles have finished their test and began their systemic training three days ago…” The giant explained to the young Demon Hunter as Ye Qi wolfed down the food, “Therefore, after breakfast, you’ll have to follow me to the Tower of Arena to complete your test!”
“C+ Quest: The Apostle’s Quest. Pass the test laid down by the headquarters.”
Ye Qi who received the sudden quest was startled but he recovered quickly.
Even a test is above C grade, looks like certain officers at this headquarters is “specially” taking care of me!
If they didn’t show any interest in Ye Qi after they discovered the young Demon Hunter had defeated Noah, killed Carlos and quite possibly set Paki up, Ye Qi would be worried they were up to something—even though the unwarranted attention was worrying, the real horror was schemes that were plotted in the dark.
Throughout history, there were plenty of heroes who dominated the battlefield but ended up having their lives plotted against them. In fact, most ending for these “heroes” was nameless graves and a bad reputation that survived their death. Those in the circle knew about their heroics but out in the masses, their names were sullied beyond belief…
Heroes? Those are more often than not, idiots who can’t see a metre before their feet!
The Tower of Arena was directly opposite from the Tower of Thorns. The contradiction between the two went beyond their geographical position, unlike Tower of Thorns, the area around the Tower of Arena bustled with activity. In fact, the young Demon Hunter spotted a few familiar faces in the crowd. The power of his fireball and the speech he gave at the grand hall had helped Ye Qi leave a favourable impression among the group of new Apostles. When they saw him, they greeted him with a smile.
The young Demon Hunter smiled back in reciprocation before pointing at the giant behind him. The group of new Apostles smiled understandingly and quietly cheered him on. Some even offered to accompany him.
These was the way of the Demon Hunters. Even though they were an unruly bunch, their hearts burned brighter than most and if they ever considered you a friend, then you would be friends for life.
After kindly rejecting them for their help, the young Demon Hunter was brought into the Tower of Arena. The wide hall had a smooth stone floor, and the walls were decorated with various shields and weapons. Occasional cheers could be heard from beyond the walls and all these combined gave the young Demon Hunter a sense that he was inside a military barracks.
“The place’s not bad right? This is my favourite place of all!” The giant said excitedly as he made the introduction, “The Tower of Arena is the best place to test and train. There will be several noteworthy tournaments held here every year and I am the champion for all the tournaments last year, and the year before that…”
Trailing behind the giant and listening to him make the introduction, the young Demon Hunter was sure he wasn’t lying—this place was indeed the giant’s most favourite place in probably the whole wide world or else he wouldn’t have been able to spin such a long yarn just about a freaking candlestick holder on the wall.
“This is it!”
They eventually stopped before a large door which the giant pushed open and stepped through. Ye Qi followed in behind him but when he poked his head out from behind the giant’s large body, he frowned, upon the discovery of someone who shouldn’t be there—Paki Dirk.
Hmm? Who would have thought the man can recover so soon! Perhaps the Dirk family hired him a professional priest from the Church?
Ye Qi had personally witnessed how the hall full of Apostles ganged up on Paki. He should have been indisposed for at least several months but other than a pale face, Paki stood before Ye Qi just fine staring at him and this made the young Demon Hunter lament the benefits of those born rich and the lack of those for people who had a less fortunate birth.
Other than Paki, there was another person in the room. Similarly, it was someone the young Demon Hunter didn’t quite fancy seeing. From the expression on Noah’s face, the feeling was mutual. However, Noah acted more civilized than Paki, at least he acknowledged the young Demon Hunter with a nod. Of course, it was merely perfunctory, there was no friendliness in it.
“The test for new Apostle, Ye Qi starts now! Examiner will be Paki Dirk!”
As the cold-faced man announced emotionlessly, Paki who had been glaring at the young Demon Hunter revealed a vicious smiled.