At this time in the training hall, there were already 30 soldiers waiting for His Majesty's arrival, they were all curious why the king ordered them to come here.
"Hey why were we called here" said one of the soldiers.
"I don't know either, let's just wait," said one of the soldiers.
"KING ARTHUR IS COMING," said the commander of the troops.
The soldiers who heard that immediately fell silent, King Arthur came with a 14-year-old boy beside the king. The soldiers knew the boy's identity. He was David Hilbert, the youngest son of the greatest wizard in the Kingdom of Malvyn, Lewis Hilbert, David was known as a failed and useless child in the Hilbert family because he could not bind his magic power and was always lazy all day. they wondered why a useless child like him was here. King Arthur and David continued walking until they finally reached the front of the soldiers.
"GREETINGS, YOUR MAJESTY," said all the soldiers. King Arthur just nodded his head and started talking.
"My soldiers, I gathered you here because I want you to investigate a slum housing area on the outskirts of the Empire."
"There is the home of a man named Samuel, according to reports there is an illegal experiment that uses humans as test objects. Although Samuel has now been killed, we cannot allow this experiment to continue."
"So I want you to collect all the information in that house, be it documents or any evidence that we can use for further investigation."
"Do you understand?" King Arthur said.
"UNDERSTAND," said all the soldiers emphatically.
'This seems to be going better than I expected' David said to himself.
While David was deep in thought, he suddenly got a notification from the system that made him a little surprised.
[WARNING]
[WARNING]
[ENEMY DETECTED AROUND THE MANSION AREA]
David who heard the notification immediately frowned, he did not expect that they would come this soon.
'Looks like I got happy too soon,' David said to himself.
"Well, first of all..." Before King Arthur finished his speech, David immediately interrupted him.
"I'm sorry, Your Majesty, it seems that we have no more time to continue this conversation because they are coming faster than we expected," David said firmly.
******
Meanwhile, Adrian, who had just finished changing into a black shirt and black pants, was currently at the Gerren family residence. Today Adrian will start his training as a shadow guard accompanied by Vivi who will help him in this training.
After finishing changing Adrian immediately approached Vivi who was waiting in the Gerren family practice hall. Vivi was standing right in front of the hall and beside her was a black hole that Adrian found very strange. He was curious about what was in front of him and immediately asked Vivi.
"What is it exactly sister Vivi?"
"Ohh... you mean this black hole, this is the arena that we will use for your training of course," said Vivi.
"What?!!! "
Adrian who heard those words was even more confused, the black hole was a training arena? Is it some kind of hole that connects to another dimension? While Vivi who saw Adrian's confused expression immediately said back.
"This is a dungeon, more precisely an artificial dungeon made by Mr. Lewis"
"Artificial dungeon? "
"Almost similar to a real dungeon, except that inside this dungeon there are no monsters at all, but even so you have to be careful because inside this dungeon there is a maze that is very dark and full of traps"
"Labyrinth... You mean, I have to get through it all" Adrian said.
"Before we do the actual training, we must first improve your speed, agility, strength, and sensory acuity here. Because a shadow guard should be able to have all of those as their basic training."
"But what if I fail to clear all those hurdles, I'm still a rookie who's not even as agile or fast as the Gerren family. Because I'm just an ordinary kid" Adrian said.
Vivi who heard him only smiled and rubbed Adrian's head.
"You guys don't worry, inside this artificial dungeon there are 5 different levels, the more you go to the next level, the more difficult the obstacles will be. Since you are still a beginner, of course, we will start from level 1 where there are not many traps and only 1 trap. But even so, you still can't let your guard down because if you get hit by a trap then you can also get hurt."
Adrian who heard Vivi's words just nodded his head and said.
"Okay, I understand sister Vivi"
"Alright then let's go in"
They both immediately entered the artificial dungeon, after they entered Adrian could see a long dark hallway that was only illuminated by a little light. Even Adrian couldn't see clearly what was inside the hallway.
"sister Vivi, why is this room so dark, how can I see the trap?"
"A shadow guard must be able to move in the dark, there are times when we don't just rely on our eyesight, that's why a shadow guard must have a sharp sense of hearing, sight, and other senses."
"This maze is designed to train all shadow guard candidates to move in the dark more easily, how is it? Does this kind of darkness scare you?"
"No, I feel just the opposite. I... feel calmer and more at ease with all this darkness. It's as if I've been reborn" Adrian said and he began to close his eyes trying to feel the darkness around him.
Vivi who heard Adrian's words became a little confused, how can there be a child who likes darkness? Every shadow guard candidate will always feel the fear and anxiety they felt when they first came to this artificial dungeon. When Vivi was in a state of confusion she was suddenly surprised by the black aura that slowly began to envelop Adrian.
After feeling the dark energy, Adrian slowly began to open his eyes, and he could now see everything better, this room was not as dark as before. Vivi who saw Adrian's rapid development like this became very surprised, she had not even taught him how to sharpen his senses. But Adrian was able to master it in just a matter of seconds.
Vivi wondered how the young master David could find a genius like Adrian, and what dark aura enveloped his body. There were so many questions in Vivi's mind, but she decided not to ask, they were currently practicing and Vivi had to be professional as a coach. She must be able to teach Adrian as well as possible because, with his genius, Adrian might have hopes of becoming the strongest shadow guard one day. Young Master David had trusted her to train Adrian and she must not let him down.
"Looks like you have learned how to sharpen your senses better, now it's time to train your speed and reflection"
"Now I want you to go out there and overcome all the obstacles, but remember once again you have to be careful"
"I understand Sister Vivi"
Adrian started running as fast as possible towards the dark hallway, about 1 minute Adrian ran suddenly he felt something coming towards him at high speed. when something was close he could see that it was an arrow that came and shot right towards his head. Adrian reflexively tilted his head to the left to avoid the arrow, but despite his best efforts the arrow still managed to injure Adrian's right cheek.
Not only that, the other arrows came again in even greater numbers than before. Adrian continued to avoid all the arrows with all his might until there was one arrow coming from behind Adrian. Adrian who felt the arrow coming again tried to dodge but his body felt heavy and he couldn't control it.
'Shit...!!! Why isn't my body moving the way I want it to' Adrian said to himself.
Adrian was too late to avoid the arrow's attack and made the arrow directly hit Adrian's right shoulder, Adrian who got the attack immediately grimaced in pain. But even so, he kept running to avoid all the arrows.
Until a few minutes later he managed to return to the starting position again with Vivi who was waiting for him there. Vivi could see how terrible Adrian's condition was at that time, with a wounded condition and there were 3 arrows in his body, namely in the left arm, right shoulder, and right leg. Adrian who was already in a weakened state could not hold his weight and he began to lose his balance and fell but moments before he hit the ground Vivi quickly helped him and removed all the arrows in his body and brought Adrian to the magic circle that was right below them when they first entered the dungeon.
As soon as Vivi put Adrian into the magic circle. Suddenly the magic circle gave off a bright white light and a few seconds later all of Adrian's wounds were instantly healed and even all of Adrian's fatigue disappeared. As if he hadn't practiced at all, Adrian who felt better immediately got up.
"How is your body condition already better?"
"Yes, I'm healed, but what is this magic circle? Is this a healing magic circle?"
"Yes, it's very similar but it's not a healing magic circle. It's a repetition magic circle."
"Repetition magic circle? What does that mean?"
"It is a high-level magic circle created by Mr. Lewis This magic circle will restore the entire condition of the human body to normal, perhaps it can be called an infinite loop. Mr. Lewis placed this repetition magic circle in place of healing magic because healing magic must use the divine power of a priest or saintess and it must have taken a lot of time and effort to create a high-level healing circle like this."
"Wow... Mr. Lewis is amazing to be able to create a magic circle like this" Adrian said in awe.
"Of course... because Mr. Lewis is a genius in the field of magic and his understanding of magic cannot be underestimated"
"What about the training, is it very difficult," said Vivi diverting the conversation.
Adrian who heard Vivi's words was silent for a moment until he finally started talking.
"Yes, passing all the obstacles here is very difficult. What makes it difficult is that my body has trouble responding to what I think, so I have trouble dodging all the arrows coming towards me."
"That's because your body can't move as fast as your mind, your body is still stiff to receive sudden responses resulting in your reflection and speed being slow, this is a natural response when first doing this exercise. What we need to do is keep repeating this exercise until our body gets used to all these responses. That way, you can also improve your speed and reflection better."
"I understand."
"Alright, let's start practicing again," Vivi said with a smile.