Chapter 264 - Disqualification

"Well, this is much better than I expected," Zaos said.

"It seems you underestimated your fame, captain," Cohnal said. With this many participants, I would say you can afford to be a bit tough with the selection."

Zaos looked around and could see around two thousand soldiers trained by the kingdom, almost one thousand mercenaries, and around fifty kids of the magic school that were about to graduate. He wished that he could hire everyone to make a good impression, but in the end, it would be a bit too much to try to lead so many people on his first mission as Captain.

"Hello, everyone. My name is Zaos, and I thank you all for coming on this day," Zaos said. "Unfortunately, only five hundred of you can join my unit now. So, I will do some tests to decrease the numbers. Still, before that, I would like to ask those who are soldiers of the kingdom who can't stand working with mercenaries to leave. I also ask the mercenaries who can't stand working with soldiers to leave. I won't treat the people in my unit based on their status or current situation. I will treat them as comrades. Naturally, those who achieve more will be rewarded and possibly become an official in my unit. If that idea bothers you, you should leave as well."

In the end, only two one hundred or so people left. That was a lot less than Zaos imagined considering what Cohnal said. Regardless, Zaos and everyone knew that was just the start.

"If you are confident in your physical skills, then head to the left wall," Zaos said. "If you are confident in your archery skills stay in the center of the arena, and if you are confident in your magic skills, move to the right wall."

After saying that, the remaining participants were divided into three groups, as Zaos had mentioned. As expected, the largest group was of the members of the frontline. There were more than two thousand of them. The second of archers are pretty big as well, but Zaos doubted that even one-fourth of them were better than him, and he wasn't even a specialist.

"Let's start with the largest group first," Zaos said. "Your guy's job is to run around the arena for as long as you can. The four hundred who endure until the end will join my unit."

"I thought this was a selection for a military group, stamina is important, but it is only one of many factors that define the strength of a warrior." Someone said.

"I agree with that, but do you obtain power and experience without building your stamina first?" Zaos asked. "Putting that aside, this isn't really a stamina test. This will test your willpower and endurance. I am not planning to become a Captain who sits on the backline and gives orders. I will lead you to the battlefield. I will be the first to cut down the enemy's lines. That is why those who will follow me will have to prove their willpower and endurance. Without that, in my unit, you will be only dead weight. To prove that I am serious, I will run with you guys, fully armored and while carrying my sword."

At first, some people thought that Zaos was just messing with them, but then they changed their minds when Zaos said that he would run with them. He was going to show how much willpower and endurance he had, and they will have to follow him on the battlefield.

"Cohnal is a lieutenant that I already selected, and he will run behind you guys to make sure that everyone will try their best," Zaos declared. "Meanwhile, another lieutenant, Melisse, will check the archers. The test for the archers will be simple. Hit the targets for as long as you can. Each archer will fire five arrows. If you hit the dummy four times, you can continue. If you miss two, you can go home."

The first group looked a bit annoyed since the second group test seemed pretty easy, while the second group couldn't help but smile, but they soon lost that.

"Only 90 archers will be able to join my unit, so try your best," Zaos said. "Also, neither of you can leave to go to the bathroom, eat, or drink. If you do, then you are disqualified. Your task is to show me how focused you can be with a bow on your hands… as for the last group. I will ask you to wait until lunch. By that time, the members of the frontline should already have been selected."

The people could hardly believe that Zaos said that he was going to run carrying his armor and sword for four hours. It was kind of weird since he revealed previously that the participants of the selection only needed to bring their weapons. He couldn't possibly mean that he thinks that they couldn't run for that long.

Regardless, without wasting any more time, Zaos began to run, and the first group began to follow him. At first, he kept a jogging speed for the first laps, but he slowly increased his pace. Around the tenth lap, Zaos was keeping a pace that the participants were having a hard time keeping. Running with his armor on like that was bound to damage his bones and muscles, and yet… Zaos looked fine. They didn't know that Zaos was healing his legs when he suffered damage there. He did the test before, and he could keep that rhythm for six hours… he couldn't run for longer because he would have spent all his mana. In any case, that was a pretty good way to level up his pain Resistance.

After just half an hour, the first members of the first group began to give up. They could jog for several hours but not run like that for several hours. As for the second group, one hundred of them had already been disqualified.