It wasn't the pain that woke me up, but the tingling from the rapid healing of the wound. The sweaty clothing clinging to the wound on her skin gave her the illusion that she was rotting—perhaps not, but maybe that's what death is supposed to be like. Ann thought vaguely.
She tried to move her fingers, but they seemed to be buried in the mud at the bottom of the swamp, unable to move even half an inch. The orange-red light passed through her eyelids, and she exhausted all her strength before she lifted her eyelids with a small slit—two dirty faces suddenly filled her field of vision, and the female warrior almost closed her eyes in a conditioned reflex. superior.
"She's awake—I just saw her wink!" Nemo announced excitedly.
An effortlessly rolled his eyes. The sun rises early in summer, and half of the sky is already showing some bright blue that belongs to the day. Of course she didn't miss the eye-catching giant icicles, which helped her piece together most of the facts in her mind effortlessly.
She opened her mouth, trying to ignore her throat aching from thirst.
"Who hit me?" An asked in a low voice, his voice hoarse like his own.
Probably never thought that the first sentence of the female warrior would be this, Nemo subconsciously took a step back. "...It's me." He responded indifferently, "I... I thought you were burning with magic power."
"I didn't plan to do anything to you." Ann put her mouth close to the water bag Oliver handed over, ignoring the stains on the mouth of the bag, and swallowed greedily. "I wonder how you got through... that's real abyss magic."
"Can you use abyss magic?!" Nemo shouted, subconsciously turning his eyes to Oliver.
"No, so it's drawn on paper." An, as always, was too lazy to explain, "It's just more expensive to use."
Oliver looked a little disappointed, but he hid it well.
"I poked it with my finger to see if the resilience could keep up." Nemo rubbed his fingers, "You looked so scary at the time, I didn't dare to think too much about it. It didn't hurt my finger. , I'll close my eyes and dash - you know what happens next."
An stared at the black-haired youth whose face was covered with unknown liquid, and remained silent. It seems that her world is not destined to loose only one corner. She wanted to grab him by the collar and yell, telling him that shit like this couldn't happen. But since the impossible things had piled up, and she was too tired to move half a finger, the female warrior decided to turn around and decided that the magic circle was fake and shoddy and had insufficient stamina—at least this conjecture would not give her such a headache.
"...Maybe I should immediately send you to the Heresy Tribunal." She sighed faintly, determined not to ask about the higher-level demons, and to give her nerves a chance to survive. "never mind."
"So the test is over?" Oliver looked a little guilty for no apparent reason. "Uh... I should probably break an icicle. We are being circled now, so the mercenaries probably won't come in."
"They ran away early." Ann slowly revealed an ambiguous smile, and Nemo sensed a little gloating from it. "I'm really looking forward to what Fenrir is going to show."
"How much?!" Fenrir Troy's spittle splashed Thorne's face. Thorne now had a pair of round-rimmed glasses on his face, and he pulled his face down, removed the glasses, and wiped them with his sleeve.
"One hundred and twenty-four lead squares are still activated." The red-haired youth put on his glasses and repeated dissatisfied. "One hundred and twenty-four participants in Noe's examination room are still alive. One-fifth, commander, that's nearly one-fifth."
"What's wrong with Pandora?" Fenrir paced back and forth irritably, like a caged beast. "I'm not going to do it like this!"
Thorne shrugged, apparently not bothered by it. "Who knows? She's still just a little girl—a little girl's mind is hard to guess." He even smiled, showing his snow-white teeth.
"As I said, this analogy is not allowed."
"...Sorry, Captain. So what are we going to do now? The man who killed the worm must be alive and well."
"Follow the normal process. They can't blame us for Pandoratel's malfunction. There are too many people who survived this time. The litigation team must have been eyeing them, waiting for the mercenary guild to turn its face and deny it - Pandora No one wants to take responsibility for Ther's case."
"Only the abyss can affect the abyss." Thorne pushed his glasses, "Would you like to take 'special care' for the demon believers in this issue?"
"Report truthfully." Fenrir's expression was stiff, and he didn't want to wipe his ass for the mistakes of the headquarters. Pandoratel is not only used for exam room cleaning, but also active in various battlefields. It's never been more than destruction, and no one expected survivors to show up—and there were enough survivors to have a big bonfire. "Call the first team and pick up people with me."
When the mercenaries arrived through the teleportation array, Oliver had just broken an icicle with great effort, and Nemo was staring at him discontentedly—the therapist healed Oliver's left arm and warned him to take a good rest these days. He turned his head and started frantically again. Fortunately, someone kindly provided the long sword this time, and Oliver at least dared to use his dominant hand to use the sword.
Although the sword didn't last long either. Oliver had not had time to drop the hilt of his sword when Fenrir Troy stepped on the remains of the icicle.
Fenrir's expression twisted slightly. He ignored Oliver, raised his head and looked around - people huddled together like quails, eyes half wary, half pleading. Nemo shivered from head to toe when he realized that the head of the mercenary was piercing his gaze.
"Will they find out? Will they find out that I did it? I really didn't mean it!" Nemo grabbed Oliver as he approached. "My God, will I be taken away?"
"I don't think anyone saw you do it," Oliver stroked his chin, "except me."
Nemo immediately wrote his brothers and family all over his face, and he was almost on the spot to deepen his feelings. Oliver patted him on the shoulder, pretending to be deep.
"Congratulations." Fenrir, the mercenary leader, announced dryly, without the slightest congratulations in his tone. "Congratulations, you have passed half of the test. We will set up a portal, and when you go back, you can use the lead to exchange for a temporary black stamp. Someone over there will explain the rest."
He threw the words in their faces like he was reciting lines, then turned his back and passed through the portal first, as if staying with them for a second would cause him to contract some serious disease. Nemo swears he absolutely hears Ann's desperately suppressed laughter.
This time people were more positive than when they came. They swarmed up and crowded into the portal in a disorderly manner, until one of the mercenaries showed their great sword before giving up. Nemo and Oliver walked slowly at the end of the line, supporting him. Oliver seemed a little distracted, raising his head from time to time to look around.
"What?" Nemo was a little nervous, for fear that another legendary monster would pop out.
"Don't you think we forgot something?" Oliver asked in confusion.
"If you're talking about the backpack... It was bitten when I was fighting the devil, and I left it halfway, don't you remember?"
"Not a backpack."
"Water bag? That's the therapist's stuff."
"...not a water bag either."
"It's nothing important anyway, let's go back first."
"OK."
After passing through the portal, the air seems to be more civilized. They returned to the familiar backyard. The sun was warm, people were chatting and laughing near the yard, and everything was as peaceful as ever. The blood and death they threw behind their backs instantly became ethereal, turning into an all-too-real nightmare.
Many people crawl down to kiss the ground under their feet, and their dirty faces are full of tears when they look up. Nemo suddenly felt an indescribable sadness at the thought of the much larger team.
"I'll give you an hour to reorganize the team, please make sure that there are more than three people." A gentle and amiable girl announced that the content of her speech had nothing to do with the words "gentle and amiable." "We will give you black badges that have not been activated according to the pre-group. If you are not satisfied with the black badge level or teammates, before the task is completed, you can adjust your team as you like - but please also note that if the first task fails, Then all members of the team count as failing the test. Also, if you are kicked out of your team during the mission and are not accepted by other teams, you will also be considered a failed test."
She bowed slightly with a smile on her face, and retreated behind the wooden desk, ignoring the panicked survivors.
Originally, Nemo thought that this hour was a free opportunity to rest, but the next second he was squeezed by the swarming people and couldn't breathe.
"You three are a team! Please let me join—"
"I'm still taking the kids..."
"Gentlemen, I will never cause you trouble!"
Nemo stepped back again and again, and Oliver nearly squeezed under the table. Although Ann was still very weak, she used her hunting spear as a crutch to lean on the ground, and many people flinched in front of the fine electric light.
"I'm very sorry, something happened, so everyone's black stamp is estimated a little late." The female employee who just explained stood up again, snapped her fingers, and a huge piece of parchment appeared out of thin air - it originally had Of the six hundred or so names, there are only a hundred or so left that are clearly visible, and the rest have all turned into indistinct light gray marks.
"You can see the rating after the name, which is based on your performance in the test - please choose your teammates carefully, if you choose a dangerous companion, your team's dangerous level will also be higher . . . I'm sure everyone knows what that means."
The people finally dispersed from around them, swarming in front of the parchment. Nemo patted his chest with difficulty, giving himself some relief. His eyesight has always been good, and he can barely see at this distance.
"Ye owl, ye owl, ye owl, jackal, ye owl... Ann, what is this? I read it in books, but—"
"These refer to the number of eyes, the bad taste of the mercenary guild." An was holding the hunting spear, barely able to stand. "Ye Owl is the lowest level. It likes to keep one eye open, doesn't it? The lower the number, the better. After all, the more dangerous it is, the more vigilant it will be, and the harder it will be to receive easy and simple tasks."
"Lizards and snakes both have two eyes, right?" Nemo cautiously confirmed. "Oliver has a lizard after his name, mine is a snake. Ann, you have a jackal after your name, doesn't a jackal also have two eyes?... How is this divided?"
Ann stared silently at the ceiling.
"Wedge-toothed lizards have three eyes, rattlesnakes have four. Jackals really only have two," she explained with difficulty after a few minutes. The scene of these two little bastards fighting against worms was definitely monitored by the guild. Fortunately, after the superior demon came, they should have taken away the surveillance bugs, otherwise the level of these two might soar all the way to the top - the disappearance of the superior demon is absolutely inseparable from these two boys.
Nemo scratched his nose, the devil's blood still sticking to his face, itching his skin as it dried. To be honest, he has no intuitive understanding of this level. "It's not just me, there are two names on it with..."
"Abstain." A man whose chest was covered with deformed insects said bitterly. "I can't accept starting with a snake."
"I also abstain." This time it was a girl with dark eyes, her voice was sharp, and there was a fat-eyed centipede around her neck.
The young female employee smiled and nodded, and the two names on the parchment were instantly blurred into light gray fuzzy writing.
"...not now," Nemo added dryly.
"They're all demon believers," Ann said. "'Only the abyss can affect the abyss'..."
"Whether I want to... This will drag you down." Nemo flinched a little.
"You don't have to. I don't care anyway." An replied firmly. Don't, she thought, maybe the rating will be higher next time. "How about you, do you mind, Oliver?"
Then she found Oliver asleep under the table.
Ann exhaled forcefully, wishing to faint again.
Fortunately, once Nemo's level came out, no one came to talk about team formation. Nemo looked left and right, and ran to the abandoned wooden table, as if he wanted to rely on it to sleep. As a result, as soon as he closed his eyes in a daze, Oliver next to him suddenly shouted, raised his head and hit the bottom of the table heavily.
"I remember," Oliver muttered, covering his head, "I remember what we forgot... Nemo, where's Bagelmore?"
Grey Parrot's mood at this time is very similar to Ann's. If he can faint on the spot, he must practice it immediately.
It stood on the beautiful wooden table, neck shrunk, all feathers blown up. The man in front of it had a gentle smile, but there was no smile in the orange eyes.
"Introduce myself first, I'm Talbot Vance, one of your kind," he said. "Take it easy, take it easy... I just want to have a friendly chat with you."
The man said don't be nervous, but the magic pressure emanating made the grey parrot breathless, it was almost about to be crushed into a meat pie by that invisible force. This man definitely did it on purpose, he was standing up. Grey Parrot thought bitterly.
"My friends and I are curious as to why Pandora would destroy itself for you... Although that weak race instinctively devotes itself to the strong and wishes, with all due respect, you do not have that level of power ."
He smiled and nodded at the table, and the grey parrot screamed in pain.
"I said, I said! I... my race is the Ke Ruiwen flat snake, it's all a misunderstanding, I just... I just..." Its voice began to choked. "...I just devoured a small piece of the Demon King's flesh!"
"You're lying." The man who called himself Vance narrowed his eyes, almost instantly doubling the invisible pressure in the air. "As long as the superior demon is still alive, the gift of flesh and blood must be voluntary, let alone the one. You mean the one..." He paused, "the one who will be willing to give you the flesh and blood - a Ke Ruiwen flat snake, Known as a coward of the abyss?"
"How do I know what he's thinking!" Parrot howled mournfully, "I was still a mid-level demon at the time, and I didn't even want to!"
It's about to cry.
"I really don't know anything!"
,Wonderful!
(m.. = )