Chapter 23: City Guard Recruitment

  The recruitment of the soldiers of Vend?me was set up in the district of Gréez, north of Vend?me, which is the military center of all of Vend?me, located right next to the central castle district.

  When Luo Lin arrived at the destination, he found that a long queue had already formed in front of the recruitment office door. Although there were only ten places available, there were more than a hundred competitors.

  Each young man who came to enlist was strong and healthy, bringing his own weapons and equipment. Bringing one's own equipment is a necessary condition for becoming a city guard, because the city guards of Vamdum are

  Basic military forces, large in number but not particularly strong, just maintaining urban law and order tasks.

  The lord of Vandom would not be generous enough to distribute equipment to all the lower-ranking soldiers, at most only issuing a set of combat robes to each person to signify their identity.

  Luolin was also equipped, wearing a suit of scale armor on his body. The chest and abdomen, shoulders, and knees of this armor were all inlaid with steel plates like fish scales, with excellent defensive capabilities. His sword had also been replaced with a more handy and sharp cloud-patterned steel sword, and the shield had been replaced with a tough black sandalwood shield, each one being top-notch goods.

  This is the equipment Davy prepared for him, which cost about six gold coins.

  In fact, this rich young lady who didn't know how to save money since she was a child even spent 100 gold coins on a full steel heavy armor set for Roland, but that armor is extremely good, it's just too heavy. After Roland put it on, he couldn't even walk, let alone fight. To use that armor in battle, his strength would have to be at least 60 or higher, which corresponds to around level 20.

  With Rolin's current strength, these equipment are just right for him. Among the many applicants, they don't stand out either. Rolin has seen at least a dozen people with better equipment than his, and he is now only at a mid-to-high level.

  When Luo Lin appeared, the gazes of the young people present were not very friendly. There are already enough competitors now.

  "Look, just one more, and there are only ten spots left!"

  "It's just a small city guard position, how can there be so many people fighting for it!" someone lamented.

  "You're crazy, Cheng Wei is just the beginning, you know? Doing well and being recognized by big shots means prosperity!"

  Luolin heard a chuckle and followed behind the team, starting to line up.

  After waiting for more than ten minutes, the recruitment office door opened and a short military officer wearing scale armor walked out. He seemed to be used to the long queue at the entrance and nodded slightly after counting the number of people before shouting: "This time we are recruiting temporary supplementary personnel, there is a new rule. Have you all seen those wooden stakes with fake people on them?"

  Everyone looked back and saw a row of wooden puppets arranged on the side of the square, with magical symbols on their bodies. The symbols were flowing with a faint light, looking very mysterious.

  The officer announced the rules: "The rules are, no matter what weapons you bring, charge at the wooden stake from 20 meters away, and immediately attack the vital parts of the dummy after approaching. From charging to attacking, each of you has a total of ten seconds. The more times you hit the vital parts within this time, the greater the force of the blow, the better the score. If you hit six times and each blow makes the symbol emit light, you are qualified. If there are more than ten people, we will select those who qualify from among them for a second selection, until we recruit ten people."

  After hearing the rules, the young people who signed up were all discussing and arguing with each other.

  "It sounds like it's quite simple."

  "In ten seconds, six men will launch a surprise attack, it shouldn't be difficult."

  "I'll go first!"

  A tall and sturdy young man stepped forward voluntarily.

  The officer pointed at the circle drawn on the ground in the square: "Do you see the circle? Stand inside it and wait for my command to start."

  Young people will follow suit.

  The officer waited until he was in position and then shouted: "Begin!"

  The young man was holding a two-handed great sword. As soon as he heard the sound, he charged out with all his might, taking big strides towards the dummy. When he arrived in front of it, however, he discovered that he had misjudged the distance. His sword struck the dummy's neck, but the force behind it was weak.

  The runes on the fake neck were completely still.

  The young man's face changed, and he was obviously flustered. He withdrew his sword and chopped again, still aiming for the neck. His large sword was most suitable for this kind of beheading attack. The second chop hit its mark, and the symbol lit up, indicating that the force was sufficient.

  The young man hastily drew his sword and swung the third sword, but he used a heavy sword. Drawing the sword, accumulating power, and swinging the sword took at least one second. When the third sword was swung, seven seconds had already passed... In the end, he only swung five swords, of which only three made the runes shine, and was directly eliminated.

  "Obviously, on a real battlefield, the enemy won't give you a chance to strike a second blow. When your first blow doesn't kill your opponent, you're already defeated. Go back, young man, and practice some more. Don't come here to get yourself killed."

  The young man retreated with a face full of shame.

  Luo Lin was not surprised by the result, he knew that this test seemed simple but actually tested basic skills and psychological quality, and the set standards were very close to actual combat. If one item was not qualified, the tester would not pass.

  Then came the second, third, and all the way to tenth young man, whether it was an axe or a single-handed sword and shield, not one passed the test. The best score was five hits, and when preparing for the sixth hit, ten seconds had already passed.

  A string of failures has brought greater pressure on subsequent ones, and no one expected this test to be so difficult.

  "I'll give it a try!"

  Suddenly, a voice that sounded somewhat familiar to Luo Lin rang out. He turned his head to look, and saw a tall, burly man with a shaved head walking out, surprisingly it was Wild Wolf, the ringleader of the old city district's thugs.

  The wolf pattern on his bald head was gone, replaced by a big scar, as if the skin had been peeled off directly.

  "This guy's wound healed so quickly...... Ah, he must have gone to find a priest." Lorin was suddenly enlightened, this world is different from his previous life.

  The wild wolf stepped out, holding two bone-cutting axes in its hand, and charged forward with a robust body. One axe chopped down, and the runes immediately lit up, then two axes, three axes, each strike making the runes shine brighter. This situation was completely different from the person in front.

  He finally succeeded in chopping down seven axe heads.

  "Very good, you're the first qualified one, stand over there." The officer ignored Wild Wolf's terrifying appearance and nodded in satisfaction with a smile.

  Testing continues.

  Because each person's test time is only ten seconds, although there are more than a hundred people, the test time is not long. Even with the waiting time added, when it was Luo Lin's turn, it had been just over an hour.

  In the previous position, only eight people were qualified, and the best one was a young man named Harrington, who used double-handed swords and cut out twelve fatal swords in ten seconds!

  In Zhi's evaluation, this Harlington was a talented individual with an excellent physique, but his grade was low, only 4th grade, which made Luo Lin take notice.

  Another issue with this test is that all the people who passed the test were holding weapons in both hands, even a heavy sword warrior passed the test, but not a single shield warrior passed the test.

  There are many reasons, but the most important ones are two. One is that the shield slowed down the advancing speed and the charging time was too long. Two is that no one really knew how to use a shield, they just treated it as something like a arrow-deflecting board.

  The young people who came to the scene, only one person used a barbarian bull rush with a shield to make a qualified fatal attack, but his subsequent attacks were weak, and in the end he could only hit five fatal blows and was still eliminated. As for other shield warriors, it's even more unnecessary to mention them.

  The officer shook his head and sighed, "A shield is a warrior's most loyal companion, but none of you young people can recognize its importance, what a pity."

  It's Lorraine's turn.

  Roland held up his shield, naturally belonging to the Shield Warrior. The young people who stayed behind to watch saw him take off the shield on his back and shook their heads before it even started.

  "Another soft-footed shield warrior, haha."

  "Looking at his build, I bet he can't even throw more than four punches."

  "That's enough for three times."

  To these comments, Luo Lin completely ignored them, holding the black ebony shield in one hand and the cloud-patterned steel sword in the other, moving his arms and legs, then standing inside the circle, waiting for the officer's command.

  The officer also seemed somewhat unenthusiastic, and didn't think the Shield Warrior was anything special. He thought this test was just a formality, and casually shouted: "Begin."

  Boom!

  A deafening boom appeared in less than two seconds after the officer's voice fell, just like a muffled thunder, shocking everyone present.

  Everyone focused their attention, and just saw that the shield warrior who was still 20 meters away had already arrived in front of the wooden stake. His charging speed was incredibly fast. The shield in his hand heavily collided with the chest position of the wooden stake, because the force was too strong, making the light emitted by the runes on the chest of the wooden stake almost dazzling.

  The originally languid officer suddenly became spirited, this kind of strength, had finally come a true shield warrior.

  After a loud crash, Luo Lin's right hand thrust out with his steel sword, using a thrusting technique and borrowing the force from the earlier buffalo charge. With one swift motion, he stabbed straight into the dummy's chest, striking it violently!

  A loud "hiss" sound echoed, and the symbol's light flashed again, revealing the extremely powerful force of this blow.

  The steel sword was bounced back by the magical power on the dummy, and Rolin's body twisted slightly, transferring the rebound force to his left hand shield, releasing the shield technique: Collapse Mountain.

  This move is the most effective. Although the shield only moved a short distance, the sound emitted by the crash test dummy was loud and frightening, which means that Rolin's power burst out swiftly.

  Bang! The runes shone again, and the third strike succeeded, with a total time of only four seconds.

  After the collapse of the mountain, the attack turned back to the steel sword in his right hand. This time it was a slash, slashing down from top to bottom, still accurately chopping towards the opponent's neck.

  After chopping and killing, continue to shield. The shield that was just bounced back by the fake man was pushed out again by Luo Lin, making another collapse of the mountain.

  The runes shone brighter again, and the light on top was still dazzling. In fact, this light had never really gone out.

  It was already the fifth blow, and only five seconds had passed.

  The young shield warrior's attack wasn't particularly fast, others could see his every move clearly, far inferior to the dual sword warrior Harlington from earlier, but his attacks connected with an unparalleled smoothness, not giving his opponent even a sliver of a chance to counterattack.

  The testing officer nodded straight ahead, saying to the eliminated shield warriors beside him: "This is a qualified warrior. I dare bet that on the real battlefield, this young man may not be the most ferocious and eye-catching attacker, but he will definitely be one of the longest survivors."

  In the time it took him to speak, Rorin had landed nine fatal blows, becoming the ninth person to pass the test.

  At this time, the young people around him looked at him with a changed gaze, and the disdain was gone. When he walked by, they voluntarily made way for him.

  No need to say more, Luo Lin has already proven his strength.

  Later on, the officer continued testing more than a dozen applicants, but there were no more qualified ones. It seemed that a second test was not needed after all, as the number of people did not even reach ten.

  The officer waited for a while longer and seeing no one else coming to enlist, turned to Luo Lin and the others and said: "Alright, lucky youngsters, you're all recruited."