Chapter 317: Read the Books

Without wasting any more time, the remaining soldiers charge towards the flame wall while enveloping their bodies with mana. This kind of technique really consumes a lot of mana. However, they could protect their body better.

As soon as the first soldier touched the flame wall, "Arrghh!! It's hot!!" yelled the soldier.

The soldier's entire body was scorched by the fire despite already being enveloped with mana. This shows that Angus's fire mana is superior to the trainee soldier. 

Fortunately, the soldier managed to react faster and backed away immediately. Their sharp instinct already warns them as they approach the firewall.

Seeing that, all of them backed away, "What's wrong? If you don't pass the firewall, you will not pass my test." said Angus.

Hearing this, the soldiers become agitated, but they are also afraid of touching the firewall. Suddenly, one of the remaining soldiers charged at the firewall without hesitation.

"Grrt.. Argh!!" yelled the soldier loudly while gritting his teeth, but he still held on.

Currently, the soldier is feeling like being burned alive. Every single fiber of his body is roasted slowly. Seeing this, the remaining soldiers begin to fear passing the firewall. At first, they thought if they could pass the firewall, they could pass the test and hell.

On the contrary to their expectation, behind the firewall is even hotter than their current area. The pain of being burned alive is something that no one wants to experience. Despite this, not all of them back down.

Seeing the roasted soldier still holding on, two soldiers gritted their teeth and passed through the firewall. At this moment, the three of them are using all of their mana to withstand the temperature.

"Hoo… Impressive. Let's see how long you could hold on." said Angus 

Then, Angus releases a small firestorm to the three soldiers and pushes them back. The firestorm is quite forceful and makes the three of them almost get thrown out of the firewall.

At the last moment, "Urrgahhh!!" shouted the first soldier that passed the firewall.

He used all his mana and charged towards Angus. Still, Angus mana is unlimited and easily stops the man charge. At this moment, the man reached his limit, and all the mana that protected him was gone.

Suddenly, the scorching heat and firestorm are gone like they never appeared before. Satisfied with the result, Angus stops manipulating the fire mana in the area and disperse them. However, the soldier charged at Agnus before falling unconscious and had a few burns on his body.

The two other soldiers were also not in severe exhaustion and mana deficiency, but they still managed to hold on just as their mana almost bottomed out.

"Good. Three of you passed. Bring three of them to the medical facility." said Angus.

Hearing this, one of the soldiers that are not passing the firewall decided to ask Angus.

"Umm… Sir, what about us?" asked the soldier.

"Well, you are also passed but don't expect you will have the same treatment as these three." said Angus.

Hearing that everyone in the training ground also passed, all of them began to cheer. As for the three benefits, they don't really care about it. During the past few days, they have already overheard that Angus is going to teach a high-level explosion skill.

Learning high-level skills is even harder than wielding an artifact. Although artifact is more practicable in combat, the high-level skill could bring one strength greater than the artifact itself. Moreover, no one likes to give out and teach high-level skills for free.

Therefore, the high-level skill manual and teacher are scarce. Still, it needs a lot of time and practice to master high-level skills fully. Despite this, everyone knows that high-level skill is a priceless treasure, more than millions of gold coins.

After that, Angus leaves the training ground using a beast walk and stealthy to avoid the incoming soldier coming towards the training ground. He didn't want to create a commotion and get swarmed by those soldiers.

Leaving the training ground, Angus goes back to the library and gives some instruction to Anne. Angus wants the three soldiers that passed his firewall to get the best accommodation and support from the base, especially the one that charged at him at the last moment.

The next day, Angus summoned all the passed soldiers beside the first three to gather at the training ground early in the morning. Currently, there is a big circular rune and a lot of books on it in front of them.

"Alright, I will not beat around the bush. My name is Angus Victory, and the teacher that is going to teach you explosion skills. Like you all know, the explosion skill is a high-level skill that requires high fire mastery and a lot of knowledge about the explosion."

"Before I genuinely guide and teach you, I want you to read and understand the book inside these circles."

"The circle rune is a special rune that I made. It will prevent the book from being brought outside. So, you might want to hurry to get a book since there is only one copy of each." said Angus.

As soon as Angus finishes his sentence, the soldier immediately goes inside the circle rune and feels like being roasted alive again.

"Hot!!" said the soldiers while backing away.

"Ahh yeah, I forgot to tell you. The rune will also raise the circle's temperature to a certain degree. However, It could also keep raising the temperature if no one is inside the circle. So, you better hurry and enter the circle, or you might not be able to enter later." said Angus.

Hearing this, everyone begins to force themself to enter the circle and envelop their body with thin mana to protect their body. 

Seeing that everyone inside the circle, "Oh yeah, there will be a test every three days. It is a theoretical test about all the knowledge inside those books." 

"If you are not up to standard and get a high score, I will personally kick you out of this group and replace you with others." said Angus

'T-This is ridiculous!!' thought everyone at this spartan-like training.

However, no one dared to shout out a complaint since they had already witnessed and felt Angus's might during yesterday's test. After that, Angus leaves the soldier on their own and goes towards the medical facility.

Arriving at the medical facility, Angus immediately looked for the three students that passed the firewall. So far, Angus is satisfied with these three students. 

Not only are they brave enough to handle such pain, but they are also the only soldiers that are waiting for him by standing and not leaving the training ground even once. They didn't even eat or drink during the last few days.

Currently, all three of them are getting extensive care from the medical facility. They already entered the state of mana deficiency during the test, especially the one that charged at Angus at the end.

As a grade three combatant, mana deficiency is a serious problem and could lead to their death. Fortunately, they immediately get treated quickly. However, they still need to rest for a week before fully recovering. 

As for the burns they receive in their body could easily be healed. Explosion Squad often gets many kinds of wounds and burns during the training. 

Therefore, the medical facility in the base is quite expert at handling this kind of wound. They could heal the burn wound without even leaving a mark. After learning about their medical room, Angus immediately goes towards them.

'It seems Anne is really listening to my order.' thought Angus.

Each of these three soldiers is treated inside a private medical room. Then, Angus decided to visit the first one called Ferry. He is the person that charged Angus before the end of the test.

Entering the room, Ferry is surprised to find Angus visiting him personally and immediately wants to stand up to salute Angus.

"At ease, soldier. You shouldn't force yourself in your condition." said Angus.

"Y-Yes, sir." said Ferry.

"Alright, you may already know this, but let me introduce myself. My name is Angus Victory, the one that will be teaching the explosion skill." said Angus.

"U-Uh.. My name is Ferry, sir." replied Ferry.

"Yeah, I know I already see your biodata and profile." said Angus.

"I-I see.." said Ferry while fidgeting.

"What's it? Is there any problem?" asked Angus.

"U-Um.. Sir, D-Did I pass the test?" said Ferry.

"Hm… What do you think?" asked Angus back.

"Well, I am being told that I passed the test. But, I am not sure since I couldn't even reach you." said Ferry.

"Actually, you all three passed the test the moment you passed through the firewall. However, seeing how desperate you are, I changed my mind. I decided to interview the three of you before I start to teach you this explosion skill personally." said Angus.

"Interview?" asked Ferry back.

"Don't worry. It is only a few simple questions. So, why did you work so desperately to be able to learn this explosion skill?" said Angus.