The test did not slow down even after Draco's strange episode. If anything would come of this development within his mental space, it would certainly not manifest itself anytime soon.
As it were, the second part of the Intent Test was set, and an apparition manifested before everyone once more after a short 30 second period for recuperation. This apparition in particular was tasked with applying different levels of pressure to the candidates in incremental amounts until they reached their limits.
When it appeared, a wave of intangible killing intent struck every candidate at the same time in equal measure. As usual those at the front could easily withstand it, their eyes flashing with intentional disdain while those at the back were already unsettled slightly.
With each second, the intensity increased by and the tolerance of everyone was tested. Science has yet to come up with a unit for measuring killing intent, yet the AI was having no problems dialing up the 'level' of intensity by an increment each second.
At the 30th second, which would correspond to a 'level 30 killing intent', those in the top 50 reached their limits. At the 45th second, those in the top 10 began frothing at at the mouth. At the 60th second, the top 5 were waylaid while Bafira and Deork succumbed at the 65th second.
All the time, Draco had been casually absorbing the killing intent with a look of intoxication.
That's right, the killing intent that had completely floored the others was nothing but a delectable treat in his eyes, causing him to be so engrossed in eating it that – once again – he forgot to limit himself.
Since his 'sweets' showed no signs of running out and even got better with each passing second, the thing to make Draco snap out of it, was literally once it had passed the turning point of becoming 'too sweet'.
No matter how pleasant something tasted, once the corresponding stimulation became too strong, it would become weird. In this case, the killing intent became too pure and when Draco opened his eyes, he was almost given a fright as he was encased in a pitch black realm with smoky ash light, the wails of the damned and the visages of malevolent ghosts all around him.
However, these malevolent entities were like rabbits in front of a wolf, trembling incessantly as they looked at Draco with deep seated trauma and fear. After all, if you watched something literally inhale you and your fellows with a look of ecstasy on their face, how could you feel balanced?
Seeing this, Draco coughed with embarrassment and as usual, he fell to the ground and howled in agony while rolling about.
The trembling spirits froze and felt flabbergasted. This was the monster that ate all their friends?
Even up until the moment they dissipated as the testing system retracted their existence, the malevolent spirits born from the killing intent miasma felt that their fellows had truly died unjustly!
The test ended and Draco immediately rose to his feet with a casual smile and dusted himself, waiting for what came next. In the meantime, the others had not seen things within the ever growing mist after it reached a certain density, but they had become desensitized to Draco's prowess by this point.
He was not exactly sure how much time had passed but the final results would surely show him. Anyway, it was time for the final part of the Intent Test and that was to... state the meaning of intent?
At this point, many scratched their heads. As you could imagine, this application to a place called WAR MANIAC PAVILION did not have many - if any - scholars applying for it. In fact, looking at the kind of beings here, without being too harsh and accounting for political correctness, it would be kind to call them stupid!
To ask them to state the meaning of anything was asking for too much!
Fuck, wasn't this a Test of Body with 5 smaller tests? It was fine for the 3rd smaller test to be about intent, as that related to combat and killing, but why ask them to state what it fucking meant?
No matter how they complained in their hearts, the rest period came to an end and the final segment began. They received a prompt from the testing system to respond with what they thought intent meant, and they had 30 seconds to give an answer.
Everyone responded differently. Some scratched their heads stupidly while some pondered seriously and tried to put their thoughts as well as their experiences into words.
Meanwhile, Draco did not even think and answered at the first moment.
"Intent means death. It means you will die. It means, I will kill you."
It was unknown if the testing system had recorded the response or was left speechless and could not muster anything to say for a while, because even after Draco stated his understanding, there was no response until the test ended.
The objective of the Techniques Test has been set. Player Draco must master the fundamentals of a random unarmed technique, master the fundamentals of a specialized weapon technique and display their best personal technique to clear this task.」
Ahh comprehension, huh?
Made sense. If you're going to join a battle faction, you'd best be skilled at fucking fighting and how to fight efficiently. This was the essence of techniques, the ability to fight efficiently.
In fact, Draco had a sneaking suspicion that all these candidates who aspired to join did not do so purely out of awe for the War Maniac Pavilion but specifically because they had a monopoly on some rare resource or possessed some transcendent technique manuals.
Suddenly, Draco perked up as he felt interested by the thought. Whether it was unique resources or techniques, both were welcome as he could collect them for himself and give them to both his family and his guild!
The test began immediately with the testing system sending a message to each candidate as a small pedestal appeared before everyone on which a single roll of parchment was placed.
On the parchment were the details for a technique that was of the unarmed variety called the ' 23 Boxing Treatise'. It contained 23 boxing style moves for unarmed combat focusing on the upper body and was seemingly ranked at the 'River' level, though Draco was not yet sure what that meant.
Everyone was supposed to comprehend this technique to the beginner mastery realm, which basically required them to suitably execute it perfectly at least three times, not even consecutively.
Everyone got to reading and understanding it however they could. Draco looked at the technique and felt it was an inferior technique to even his basic Paragon Sword skills and he made those back when he was like, 21 years old in the previous timeline!
He didn't even use any enhancement, he just switched on his Innate Technique Generator and copy pasted this technique before executing a full set of the 23 boxing movements one by one, fluidly and perfectly.
Even the creator of the technique themselves would probably hesitate to call themselves the creator after seeing Draco's performance, fearing that they might be labeled a plagiarist.
When he finished the first set, somehow, someway, he found a way to do the second one even more perfectly and then the third one even more so. When he was done, he noticed that none of the others had even tried to begin as their focus was all on him, entranced by his display.
His execution was so good that many of them directly became enlightened on the spot, comprehending the technique far better than they would have from just reading.
Draco had overdone it, he had performed so well that even his competitors had somehow benefitted from it!
One could just imagine how baffled and flabbergasted the testing system was. How was it supposed to judge these fellow's comprehension now? Without Draco, they would not have achieved half of what they would have after their enlightenment, but it could not have negated the test because of an individual.
What would be the excuse?
Not because a candidate cheated, but because they attained the Dao and all their chickens and dogs rose along with them?
In the end, Draco patiently waited for the others to finish their enlightenment and ensuing practice, most of them performing passably with a few doing pretty well. Once again, comprehension had nothing to do with physical strength and endurance, so the previous rankings did not apply much.
When this segment came to an end, they were given a 1-minute break before the next section, which was to master a random specialized weapon technique, though it did not mention what weapon it would be for.
The parchment on the pedestal was swapped out for a bigger and thicker one, which everyone's eyes fell on to see what it was about. ]
The technique was called "Bizarre Axe Banter", a Poleaxe special technique that focused on using the weapon to make short, bizarre swings that heavily relied on strength to manifest speed.
Draco raised an eyebrow and wondered if he was being targeted somehow, because among the three basic weapons, he had used a spear before and was a master of the sword, but had never even touched an axe before.
Well, it didn't matter!
Draco smiled as he felt like this would be a good time to broaden his limited horizons and climb out of the well he had fallen in.