Chapter 218: Competition

Not much time passed before Villin and the other chosen guards from the sixth regiment were brought back to the main group. They joined them as the main group of guards exited from a large room where they had gone through a very basic briefing of how things would go.

As Villin listened to the guards around him talking about the briefing he knew he hadn't missed much. They had simply gone over the basics almost everyone knew already.

This included the fact that a bunch of prominent groups would send representatives but the important figures generally didn't show up due to how long the auction took and they never knew when the big items would appear. They were also told to pay a lot of attention to the wrists of various guests. One of the rules guests had to follow was that their wands had to remain inside of a box within their jackets or bags. They were not allowed to take it out.

This was a good compromise where the guests didn't feel completely defenseless since they could still get their wands out in a couple of seconds. But the guards would have these couple of seconds to react if anyone tried anything funny.

Looking at the wrists was the best way to catch someone who sneakily took out their wands, some troublemakers always got found out by guards following this extremely simple procedure.

They also got a bit more information on the various rogue guilds that may cause trouble, but nothing truly important was said.

The large group that currently numbered around two-hundred guards, it could be considered a large force, when considering that there were at least five regiments that had this number of guards, and this was only the hired help that didn't include the Goodlaw's forces, it could be seen that the auction was taken extremely seriously.

As Villin followed the group, they soon made their way outside. Villin could see they were in a massive compound with walls all around. The closest wall was a couple of miles away, at this distance, Villin couldn't sense anything from them but it wasn't hard to guess they were probably enchanted.

Looking in the other direction, they were faced with a massive rectangular building. It was white with gold accents and the shine it emitted didn't leave any room for hesitation, it was most definitely enchanted. It was most likely the main auction building where they would be performing their work.

This wasn't where they were headed though. They found themselves going to a large black square tower. 

"This is where you will be staying when you aren't working." the general's voice said as he walked behind the group of guards that were walking in semi-organized lines.

"The tower has all the facilities you need. This included bedding, training rooms, a library, and more. Other than the people set to guard the perimeter at any given time, nobody can leave the building without my say-so." as the general said this he walked past and in front of the guards. Villin saw that it was clearly the real general, he had switched out with the fake apparently. He was also closely followed by Aurus, it seemed that the general was most likely his mentor at the current time.

"Now, you all should go inside and put away anything on you that may have value. This includes the pills you were given, don't take them with you until the auction starts. If they break during training it'd be too much of a waste." the general said as the doors to the large tower swung open.

Overall, the black tower was a bit smaller than the one Athena's Forge was currently using in A1, it was also less secure. The walls were enchanted but when Villin places his hands on them he immediately spotted a few sections where a lot of magic power was being wasted. It was a classic example of several enchantments that seem perfect on their own, not working very well together.

Still, at the very least, it was strong enough for Villin not to mind sleeping inside. It should still be able to take an explosive spear before crumbling, maybe even two.

The tower was sectioned up and organized very well. One corner of the tower was a stairway leading all the way up. It had enough space for two to three people to walk on it side-by-side and was the easiest way to get from the bottom to the top of the tower.

Nobody walked up yet though as they waited for the general to tell them where to go or what to do.

"Hmm, I'll leave this tower and it'll be sealed for twenty-four hours. Whatever happens within this time happens, as long as less than five guards died, nothing will be looked into. I suggest you find yourself a room and get comfortable. Training starts in twenty-four."

The general had only just said these words when he was already outside and the doors leading in closed. One of the more nervous guards quickly walked over to the door and tried pushing but it didn't open.

For a few seconds, it was deathly silent, then, a whole bunch of guards stormed towards the stairway at the same time, pushing and pulling each other as they rushed upwards, most probably trying to claim a room for themselves.

Even though the auction hadn't used this technique before, it was clear what they were trying to do. They were trying to give people a few enemies in their fellow guards, not life-or-death ones but the kind that you want to surpass. It was mot likely that there weren't enough rooms for everyone. Those that would have good rooms would want to get stronger so they don't have to worry about other people trying to steal them while those without a room or with a bad one would want to defeat someone with a better room and take it.

Since they were hired troops, there wasn't too much risk at having them competing with each other, at the very least there was much less risk compared to if you would do it to a force that's supposed to work together for years to come.

As Villin thought of the situation, most of the guards had already rushed up the stairs. Villin, together with about a dozen others remained on the bottom floor though, sometimes it was better to let things calm down before doing anything.

It seemed that Alexi and the twins had also rushed up, the unknown blonde-haired boy hadn't though. He was simply leaning against the wall with his eyes closed, seemingly relaxed.

Villin took it another step further and simply went ahead and sat on the floor, closing his eyes as he seemed to be dozing off. One of the other people that remained here while waiting for things to calm down saw this, and when Villin hadn't moved for a dozen minutes she figured that he had actually dozed off instead of waiting.

The woman's gaze landed on Villin's chest, or at least his chest-pocket.

It was a small pocket and she knew that the vast majority of guards decided to put the pill they got there.

She knew that she wasn't very good at fighting or anything of the like so she stayed downstairs for now. But if there was anything she was good at it would be sneaking and stealing.

She looked at the guards around her, none of them seemed too gullible other than the blonde kid that also had his eyes closed everyone here seemed rather tough, she figured that they probably wouldn't alert the kid if she tried anything.

And so she did, she crouched down low to the ground and pulled out her wand, getting her a lot of odd looks from the people around, then she slowly began moving towards Villin, not making a sound.

Most of the spectators around looked with a little bit of curiosity, they figured out what she was trying to do and wondered if it'd work.

The blonde boy opened his eyes as well at this time, he noted the situation but didn't seem to care.

There were two guards with different expressions on their faces though. They looked amongst the toughest here and they were also good fighters. They simply decided to wait before taking a room for themselves, fight in a more orderly and skill-based manner. But when they saw the lady approaching Villin, they seemed like they wanted to look away while having pitiful expressions.

The other guards around thought they might feel pity for the boy, but the actual fact was that they were there when Villin dealt with Alexi. That was just for someone insulting him, who knew what he would do to someone trying to steal from him.

Slowly but surely, the lady got closer and closer. She had some sweat on her forehead as being as stealthy as she was, was incredibly stressful and taxing on the body but she was close enough now. She was less than a meter away from Villin when her wand pointed at his chest pocket where the pill should be hiding. She silently prepared to cast a basic levitation spell when Villin's two eyes popped open, as soon as they did, the lady felt that she was looking death itself in the eyes and she regretted her actions immensely.