"Of course, he will let you. This is a task near impossible in my opinion." Adventurer Guildmaster Questo said after Mex had left with his Owlbear. Merchant Guildmaster Hocoin also felt the same.
"Your Majesty, it's not that I do not trust you, but two weeks? To train an elite squad from the weakest of ranks? That is a miracle in the making and you will revolutionise how the mages would be trained if you it that way." Hocoin said and Jin nodded his head.
"I did say that I needed advanced weaponry and support systems to get things to work, correct?" Jin said and that was also the reason why he had asked both guildmasters to stay.
"You want some supplies for yourself?" Hocoin asked and was wondering why he would need to ask for supplies when he could ask his royal servants and workers to get the things for him.
"I need a space, a private space where I can open dungeons. Even though I did say that I would train the ten people in a remote military camp, there were some things that needed to be done through basic dungeon training first. And it will be best if I do it with no eyes prying around. With the remote military camp, there are people still facilitating the camp and thus potential spies."
"Oh, so you want to get away from prying eyes and I assume from magical prying eyes as well?" Hocoin asked and Jin nodded his head.
"I will need supplies to be delivered to that private space as well."
"That can be arranged easily," Hocoin said that he could tell Jin the location by tomorrow afternoon.
"Then what do you need me for?" Questo asked and Jin questioned whether the examinations and permissions to enter the dungeon could be skipped or ignored. "That is your dungeon, I do not have scouts to enter those dungeons and therefore I am unable to determine the rank of those dungeons."
"What he meant is that, if he does not know about the dungeons, he cannot stop people from entering those dungeons. Enter at their own risk." Hocoin explained in simpler terms.
"In the first place, why do you care about people entering the dungeons or not?" Questo was confused by that question.
"I did not want those adventurers to provide any excuses or laws stating that they cannot enter the dungeons at all." Jin gave an excuse to ask but in reality, his ultimate aim was actually the second sentence. "And I want people to guard those portals and not go in. Trustworthy people.
It's not that I do not trust Hocoin's space and the security that he can provide but it's best to have two separate entities when it comes to secrecy."
"Not that I really understand the logic but you feel that the mercenaries paid to keep the security can be bribed, is that what you meant? As compared to the adventurers that Questo recommended that came from trust instead." Hocoin asked and Jin once more nodded his head.
"So, our king wants to have someone that can close their eyes on the special regiment training that he is putting up while making sure they do not leak out the contents and also prevent people from ever coming in to look at them while having a secured space. What is so special about your regiment that you need to do all this?"
Other than that, the rest quickly did their task and returned to receive that same magical pressure until the last person came out. It was at that point Jin poured out the contents of the ore that the trainees had gathered right in front of them. He then used his feet to divvy up the ore to find what he wanted.
It was then he picked up a slightly blue hue ore and the System indicated that its Cobalt. "All you have is 200 grams worth of metal that I want."
"But my king, you did not say anything about the type of metal-"
"So you not only do not question my orders for more specific details, which shows that you are not using your brain or the lack of but also giving me excuses for my orders?"Jin used his Maqi and sent all the ore into flames.
"Redo everything again. This time in one hour. If you do not get it done in one hour, prepare to face consequences when you come out." Jin said and the rest went in hurriedly.
At that point, he merely returned to see that the hourglass was still full. This was because, for these particular dungeon portals, the all time favourite Time Compression magic was used for these dungeon portals. That was also why he said he was able to create elites in two weeks.
Everyone was frantically looking for the ore that Jin had showed the rest briefly but they were not miners so whatever blue ore material that they found, they dug like mad for it. What's more, there seems to be competition among the adventurers as if to see who would be able to gather the most blue metal ore first. Discover more stories at m,v l'e-novelhall.net
What they did not expect was that the first to finish was subjected to extremely high magical pressure that he could barely breathe. Each breath was antagonising, to say the least, and only when the second one came in, did he realise he could breathe a little better. Until the last person that came, he was able to feel no magical pressure at all.
However, when Jin picked up the first bag of rocks, he failed it. "I said 10kg of blue metal rocks. Why did you pick 12kg?"
"Your Majesty, it's because I do not-" The pressure came immediately and everyone received the very same punishment. This time, however, the pressure was different. It felt like it was piercing through their lungs, their bodies. It did not feel like the same pressure that they had fought against when they returned from the first portal.
"9.98kg. 20 grams more to 10kg. Fail." Jin said and another layer of magical pressure came towards them, this time around, it was like a blunt force striking on their heads, and at the same time, it did not allow them to feel unconscious.
The following ten did not get the required weight as well and each time a person failed, they experienced another layer of pain that they never thought they could imagine it to be that way.
Heat, Ice, piercing winds, piercing rocks, they also felt their minds were tearing and their bodies were compressed. All their senses went haywire and it continued until Jin finished the very last person and returned to do his work until the King finished his first paperwork. At that point, all their tools were thrown to the opposite side of the basement and they were expected to take their tools.
They could barely stand and that was the only rest they could get as Jin now said that the time allocated to pick up the rocks had been reduced to 30 minutes only. All of them felt stunned and dejected upon hearing those words coming out from the King's mouth.
That was when they realised the word gruesome training finally made sense. Jin did not even need fifteen minutes of 'real time' for them to learn that they entered something worse than hell. And they need to dive through that hell to make sure when they come out of the basement that Hocoin rented to Jin, they will be able to be the monsters that can go toe to toe with the elites of the elites.