Chapter 399: You Actually Did That?!

If people learned of the Hitman Walker’s backstory, they would realize that his bravado was not being faked. What was that one situation he found himself in more times than he could count, you ask?

Being surrounded by enemies, of course! Every time he attempted to assassinate someone, he got discovered, and before he knew it, he was cornered by a sheer number of hostile enemies, or gang members equipped with high-class weapons, or elite teams, whose members coordinated with each other brilliantly. Almost everything that could go wrong in an assassination attempt had gone wrong for him in the past.

That paled in comparison to the events that were unfolding right now; after all, to him, the candidates were just small fries! They were young, wobbly, and unable to give him a challenge even if they tried their hardest!

If they charged at him all at once, he was confident that no one would be able to touch his clothes. The reason why the Hitman did not take it seriously was because if he did, things could turn unnecessarily messy. He would also be unable to observe the candidates’ individual performances if he got serious.

As the candidates were young, it was only natural that they had high egos. This was especially so for those who had firm foundations in martial arts. It was this category of candidates who were eager to begin the challenge. Filled with confidence, the candidates picked up their weapons, and — believing that would pass the challenge easily — lunged at the Hitman Walker.

“Gaaaahhhhh!” A candidate gave a loud warcry as he slammed a two-handed battle ax down on the Hitman’s mask.

The Hitman Walker calmly raised a hand up and stopped the blade with two fingers.

“Quite the intimidating aura you have, but your strength and the speed is a bit too frail,” said the Hitman Walker with a shake of his head. Suddenly, he leaped upwards, narrowly dodging a sword jab from behind.

With the Hitman Walker out of the way, the sword tip headed towards the first candidate to attack! The first candidate tried to duck, but he realized that his ax was still being held by the Hitman Walker, who was in the middle of a somersault.

At that moment, the first candidate’s mind went blank, and he forgot that he could let the ax go and dodge. Reflected within his pupils was the cold, glinting sword tip, which was rushing towards him.

The Hitman Walker, who was the middle of a Barani flip, did a quick 180-degree spin in the air and used his other hand to push the sword tip, instantly changing its trajectory. The first candidate had been saved. The charging candidate, whose sword was knocked off course, fell to the ground, and the first candidate finally let go of the ax and toppled to the ground in disbelief.

“It’s great that you know how to seize openings in order to attack, and also that you know to attack from directions that make it more difficult for your opponent to evade. Alas! You do not have as much control over your strength as you may think. This is one flaw that will keep you from becoming a qualified hitman,” the Hitman Walker said, shaking his head again in regret. However, he quickly moved again, dodging attacks from three other candidates. He made sure to redirect their attacks to other candidates, causing them to stop their attacks midway and give up.

A combined attack from five candidates quickly followed, but it was just as quickly neutralized. One of them even had to be saved from the redirected attack of his comrade. No one had managed to lay a finger on the Hitman Walker’s clothes.

At this point, the candidates in the hall clearly understood that their examiner was much more formidable than they had thought. It was one thing for someone to dodge a barrage of attacks, and it was another thing for someone to observe his attackers’ strengths and weaknesses, and comment on them, whilst dodging the attacks. He had even prevented their attacks, which he had redirected, from harming other candidates. This required a level of skill that was beyond their imagination.

The martial artists who instructed them at home had never displayed this level of proficiency. This was why — despite their crushing defeat, which left them all at 0 points — the candidates’ thirst for success increased. They became really excited.

Just how much would they improve by training under a master of such caliber? The only thing they found weird about their examiner was that, despite being a skilled martial artist, he kept going on about ‘qualities a good hitman should adopt’. They could not understand why someone who was so skilled at close combat would be obsessed with killing people from the shadows like a coward. Wasn’t martial arts completely redundant for assassination?

“Wow. I never thought Sir Hitman would take his job this seriously! So long as he isn’t asked to carry out a stealth attack, he can be pretty damn reliable,” Baiyi said with a chuckle in his little pocket dimension. He turned his attention over to the Scholar Walker’s exam hall.

When he saw the fourth challenge she had come up with, he could not help shake his head. It was not that her challenges were subpar; on the contrary, they were pretty good, enough to highlight how perceptive and gifted in magic her candidates were. However, the challenge was just too… standard — so cliche! There was nothing novel about it. Baiyi found it hard to describe the question.

This was the style the one who bore the ‘Great Unbending Sage’ title had chosen to adopt. It was only natural that she would prioritize stability and certainty when doing her job! No wonder she did not marry when she was alive, even though she was quite a looker. The woman was just too conservative and clueless about cosmetics. Who would want someone like that?

Baiyi took solace in the fact that he could shift his attention elsewhere without worrying about anything out of the ordinary happening in her exam hall. He decided to check on the Alchemist Walker and the Cleric Walker — Voidwalkers he still did not consider reliable.

‘Why are the potions being used still the red, blue and yellow ones from before? These are most certainly the same potions used in the previous challenge, aren’t they?’ It was almost as though the Alchemist Walker had yet to round up the previous challenge.

“Now, I am not going to task you with something as simple as identifying the potion that most resembles a restorative. This time, I want you all to use these three potions to create an actual restorative!” The Alchemist Walker announced loudly.

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“Oh, and by the way, I made some changes to the three bottles,” he added. He grabbed one bottle, shooked it for a while and tossed it out the window.

A resounding explosion rang out from outside, shaking the hall and its inhabitants severely. Smoke filled the area, and tinkering sounds rang out as shattered glass rained downward. A stinging odor began to permeate the air.

“There you go. Let the challenge begin!” The Alchemist Walker opened his arms wide, beckoning the candidates to come forward and try.

However, the candidates did not move, their hands covering their noses. They had been quite shaken by the explosion.

When the Alchemist Walker saw this, he could only shake his head in sadness — a sentiment that Baiyi echoed in the Void.

The challenge seemed way out of their league, but Baiyi knew better. This was something that the candidates ought to know how to solve.

The only way to arrive at the answer was to take the Alchemist Walker’s hint. His demonstration — which brought about the small-scale explosion and the stinging odor — was actually a part of his question. He was just being a little backhanded about it.

His fourth challenge was intended to identify students with a natural gift for alchemy. For those who wonder what this gift is, it is not the ability to transmute just by clapping one’s hands[1]. The Alchemist had his own method of identifying those with potential. Although many would go for geniuses with an active imagination, the Alchemist Walker favored those who were receptive to clues hidden in a problem. He also took kindly to those with the courage to test their theories.

An instinct to observe a problem carefully and the possession of an exceptional amount of mettle were qualities treasured in the subject of alchemy.

After pondering about it for a while, Baiyi decided to let the Alchemist Walker continue. The qualities sought by the Voidwalker may be different from qualities sought by others, but Baiyi knew he had to respect his decision; after all, it was he who appointed the Alchemist Walker as the lecturer for the subject.

Baiyi turned his attention to the Cleric Walker.

This Voidwalker was in the process of showing his candidates some strange pictures: two pairs of long stockings — a white one and a black one, a pantyhose, a pair of girdle stockings, etc. Afterward, he tasked them with using hymns to describe the beauty of female lingerie.

The candidates were, of course, stupefied. They were not sure why the exam had deviated off course to the point that they were starting to doubt their judgment. Honestly, did they register for a Theurgy course, or did they register for admission into the ‘Gentlemen Academy’?

The moment a candidate was about to ask a question, the candidates noticed the holy-white armor that was their examiner shudder a little. Then, as though someone had switched places with their examiner, the Soul Armature made a sweeping gesture and spoke in a very different manner. “That question was actually to test if you all are truly fit for the life of a clergy! If anyone had answered it, they would have been disqualified instantly. I’m pleased that none of you took the bait.”

“However! Seeing that none of you actually spoke up against it, I can deduce that no one here is clearly able to tell the difference between right and wrong. It’s also obvious that none of you have the guts to fight the authority when it is clearly in the wrong. This is an act of cowardice — a testament to your weak spirits! Hence, as a penalty, you all have failed this test.”

As they listened to the Soul Armature do a complete 180 on his own challenge, expressions of disbelief appeared on the faces of the candidates. However, some of them lowered their heads in shame, lamenting their inability to call out their examiner out for his wrongdoing.

Baiyi, who had just replaced the Cleric Walker, gestured at a clerk to write down the exam IDs of those who had expressed regret. Afterward, Baiyi left the holy-white armor and stuffed the Paladin Walker into it before growling, “You handle the last question. If you bloody dare to follow in your best friend’s footsteps, I’ll have you accompany him to where he has gone!”

As for the Cleric Walker, he was being subjected to worst punishment a Voidwalker could be given. His protective barrier had been stripped by Baiyi, leaving him exposed to the real nature of the Void.

When the Fifth Walker placed the protective barrier over the Cleric Walker’s consciousness once more, the latter had become as meek as a disciplined kitten, vigorously promising not to mess up again.

‘Tsk tsk! You’re being called a ‘Devout Apostle’, aren’t you? Yet, you change your stance so easily. You horndog, unable to rein in your ‘Way of the Gentlemen’, at least, for the duration of the exam!’

That was the only problem that arose. As for the other classes, they had no problems; however, some of them, such as Archery, had a pretty poor passing rate. Only ten candidates had scaled past the fourth question. Surprisingly, the candidates who failed just left with their heads hung low; no one caused a scene.

To Baiyi, it was probably because their examiner was the little Nydore. Who would want to get mad at an adorable fairy, whose smiles were warm and sweet? Not even the female candidates could get mad at her.

It was in this manner that the fourth challenge came to an end. All that was left was the fifth challenge, the last and most daunting one of them all.

[1] That’s like the most classical move that short blonde guy did in Fullmetal Alchemist, right?