Assimilate All Talents

Chapter 229: Send Off

Commander Zaman was alone in his office, reviewing the contents of the test Sol had prepared. After reading it, he couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

"Haha! And people say my tests are hard!"

Known for his strictness and high standards, Zaman’s tests were always considered difficult. Even in the previous knight selection, the tower challenge, which only fewer than 200 of the 3,000 applicants passed, was his idea.

After a good laugh, he looked at the report again and commented more seriously.

"Though his idea is rather unoriginal, given Lazuli’s abilities are naturally incompatible with undead, it should serve as a fitting challenge."

...

Two days later, the squad and Lazuli stood at the entrance of Necropolis. They all wore their combat uniforms, except Lazuli, who was dressed in plain mage robes that enhanced her mana regeneration and spellcasting. Though she would have preferred something nicer, she was short on time to commission a special robe from a tailor.

"You have one week to kill the Gravedigger. Are you prepared?" Sol asked.

For a normal party, completing all ten floors in a week wouldn’t be a big hurdle, but this wasn’t a normal party. It was somewhat unbalanced, with one fighter and two mages, but they were stronger than the average adventurers.

Lazuli nodded. "Thank you for giving me the time and the books on undead. I think I have a good plan now to defeat them."

The books Sol lent her were from the first floor of the Royal Library, with the Commander’s approval. He didn’t offer any spellbooks, as they could have held the answer for free, but he didn’t mind giving her books on undead to help her prepare countermeasures with what she currently had.

"Then good luck to the three of you. I’ll see you when you get back."

Nataly tilted her head. "You’re not coming?"

Everyone had assumed Sol would be coming along to supervise the test. He was even wearing his knight armor, which left them confused.

"He almost caught you. Why did you get so close to us?"

Suddenly, Amber appeared next to him and responded.

"Testing a new skill."

Sol raised an eyebrow as he didn’t know she obtained a new skill, especially related to stealth. He thought she was mostly focusing on her law technique and sand skills.

"Oh? How close did you get before he noticed?"

"Thirteen feet."

"Thirteen?!"

While it may not sound like much, at their level of strength, that was frighteningly close. Amber could have closed that gap in an instant and struck before anyone could react. But for Rex to not detect her at that distance was less of an insult to his capabilities and more of a testament to how strong Amber’s newly evolved stealth skill was. Even when Rex noticed her, it was only for a brief moment, and he wasn’t entirely sure someone had been watching them.

Amber nodded plainly before asking, "Ready?"

"Yeah. We finally have an entire week to ourselves. Let’s go."

With that, they began making their way out of the safe room and into the dungeon proper. While his squad was progressing through the 1st to 10th floors of the dungeon, Sol and Amber would be delving through the 21st to 30th floors.

They had decided that they had practiced enough in developing their law techniques, and all that remained was to use them in real battles to push their skills to completion. With the pseudo-A-Rank enemies on the upcoming floors, it was the perfect area to do so.

But with only a week, they had to be quick. They both sprinted through the dungeon’s passages, carefully avoiding traps. It didn’t even take one minute before they encountered their first foe.

"It’s you again. Nether Wraith."