Above the steps was a specially constructed platform, not very wide, where the people and objects on it were easily visible at a glance.

There were only 7 people, including Liens and the Instructor.

The remaining people were those who had stood beside the Instructor earlier, whom Liens had identified as "Auditors" sent by the Glenbagen Family.

Watching those 5 people sitting in chairs, chatting and savoring an unknown drink, like old men watching a show, Liens had the illusion that he was about to step into a "Coliseum."

Perhaps it wasn't an illusion.

After all, he would indeed need to go down and fight a demonic beast, while those "spectators" would sit there, looking down at the fight from above.

Such a scene, aside from the smaller audience, seemed no different from a Roman Coliseum.

Thinking of this, Liens felt a slight displeasure.

He was going to put his life on the line to perform a "monkey show" for those people… it was truly disheartening to think about.

If not for the overwhelming circumstances, with his personality, he would have drawn his sword and demanded they pay the "fee" for watching the show.

Not much, just one life per person would suffice.

Although his face showed no expression, killing intent had already risen in Liens' heart towards those few people.

He planned to teach those people a lesson in an Instance after the "graduation assessment" was over.

After confirming everything on the platform, Liens turned his gaze to the "arena" below, which was his main stage.

As his gaze shifted, Liens quickly saw something that made his eyes narrow—cages placed at the edge of the "arena."

These cages were made of iron, varying in size, and held various types of demonic beasts of different shapes.

Among them, two cages were already empty.

At this moment, these demonic beasts were quietly lying in their cages, motionless like corpses.

However, he also knew that these demonic beasts couldn't be dead, otherwise, how would the assessment proceed?

They must have been fed some kind of potion to induce a comatose state.

According to the rules, when he entered the arena, one of them would be awakened for his assessment.

Liens carefully observed the demonic beasts and found that they were mostly carnivorous animals like lions, tigers, and wolves.

Based on the knowledge taught by Marvin, there was the Flamelion he had previously guessed; its image was a lion with reddish-brown fur, very easy to identify.

Seeing this, Liens guessed that the Training Camp chose these types of demonic beasts for the assessment requirements possibly because of their strong aggressiveness.

After all, compared to herbivorous demonic beasts like the Horned Rabbit, carnivorous demonic beasts are inherently more dangerous.

"Stop looking. Take your sword and jump down. Go to the center and wait for the assessment to begin."

The Instructor beside him interrupted Liens' continued observation of the demonic beasts and pointed to a large box containing longswords.

"Just jump down directly, that's truly simple and crude… However, a height of 3 meters indeed doesn't require a ladder for people like them."

Hearing the Instructor's instructions, Liens thought to himself.

Then, he walked to the box, looked it over, and casually picked a longsword from it; they were all standard longswords, with no difference.

Next, he walked to the edge of the platform and jumped down.

After landing steadily from the platform, Liens walked to the center of the "arena" as per the Instructor's request.

At this point, it could be said that he was already surrounded by all the demonic beasts.

One thing not mentioned before was that the cages holding the demonic beasts were not stacked together.

Instead, they were placed one by one along the wall surrounding the "arena," with no demonic beast cages only beneath the platform where the Instructor and his group were located.

If the Training Camp awakened all the demonic beasts and opened their cages, he would have no chance of survival except to escape the "arena." My Virtual Library Empire (*) hosts the original.

So, facing this situation, Liens still felt a bit nervous.

Although he felt it was impossible for the Training Camp to be so crazy, he was afraid of a 'what if'.

What if those "Auditors," adhering to the principle of "the more commotion, the better," suddenly wanted to change the assessment method?

It was precisely because he didn't understand those people that he had to assume the worst about their intentions.

That way, if the anticipated situation did occur, he would at least be mentally prepared.

After Liens entered the arena, a guard came into the "arena."

Under Liens' gaze, the guard opened one of the demonic beast cages and stepped inside.

It was the cage holding the Wind Wolf.

"Wind Wolf: A wolf-type demonic beast capable of releasing Wind Blades. Its body is significantly larger than an ordinary gray wolf, comparable to a lion or tiger of average size."

"Besides its size, its biggest difference from an ordinary gray wolf is its fur, which is a mix of green and gray."

Liens analyzed the simple information he knew in his mind.

After the guard entered the cage, he pried open the Wind Wolf's ferocious mouth, then took out a bottle of potion from his storage pouch, opened the cap, and poured the liquid into the Wind Wolf's mouth.

Finally, he lifted the Wind Wolf's large mouth to ensure the potion quickly went down its esophagus into its digestive stomach.

After completing the "feeding" of the potion, the guard immediately turned around, climbed out of the "arena" using a ladder, and quickly retrieved the ladder.

Watching the guard's hurried manner, Liens knew that his assessment was finally about to begin.

And his opponent was the Wind Wolf, which was currently being awakened.

Liens gripped the longsword tightly in his right hand, gazing at the greenish-gray giant wolf slowly standing up.

It wasn't that he didn't want to go up and cut down the Wind Wolf while it hadn't fully woken up.

But considering this was an assessment, he abandoned such a self-smart idea.

Although the Instructor didn't explicitly state the requirement of 'no preemptive action,' this was a "Coliseum"-like trial, an assessment that required real combat to pass.

It was not a puzzle game that required studying rules and riddles.

That seemingly clever act was nothing more than a provocation to the Instructor's authority, and the Instructor would not allow such a method of passing.

If even those who passed the assessment through legitimate means could be casually discarded, why would they want someone who was cunning and shirked responsibility?

Many times, what people consider to be exploiting loopholes is actually a provocation to the power of the rules.

If one's own ability and the capital behind them are insufficient, then the consequence of provocation is naturally to suffer the punishment of the rules.

The giant wolf slowly stabilized its body, swaying from side to side, and its head no longer shook, as if it had dispelled the chaotic feeling it had just been awakened with.

Then, very quickly, as if sensing something, it suddenly turned its head towards Liens's direction.

Its bloodshot pupils stared at Liens, its ferocious face became even more hideous, and its large mouth opened, revealing its sharp teeth.

"Awoo—woo—"

The Wind Wolf let out a clear roar, then rushed out of the unclosed iron cage, heading towards Liens at an extremely fast speed.

The time from when it saw Liens to when it launched its charge was very short.

It was as if it had been given the instruction to "kill any living person it encounters," and its actions showed no hesitation.

"Something's not right... This demon beast seems a bit crazy."

Liens held his sword in a stance, preparing to meet the incoming Wind Wolf, while thinking to himself.

He found that the Wind Wolf seemed to be under some kind of berserk debuff.

One of the rules of survival in the wild is not to get injured easily.

If it were a normal hunting process, in the initial stage, the Wind Wolf should form a standoff with him.

After all, he was, at the very least, a large animal holding a sharp blade; as long as the Wind Wolf had some rationality, it should choose to observe and probe to some extent.

Instead of directly launching an attack.

In a situation where the enemy and friend are unclear, a rash attack is not a choice a rational animal should make.

However, the current situation was as if the Wind Wolf had a grudge against him; it merely glanced at him and then charged madly.

"Could it be... do demon beasts have some kind of setting where they are hostile to humans? Marvin didn't mention it."

"If there really was such a setting, then the Training Camp wouldn't need to specifically feed human corpses to cultivate the ferocity of demon beasts."

"So, it's still something the Training Camp did that caused this... Hmm, could it be that the guard earlier didn't just feed it a potion to wake it up, but it also contained berserk components?"

"Or perhaps the Training Camp did something to these demon beasts normally, which caused them to be so madly hostile towards humans."

Liens sidestepped the Wind Wolf's pounce and bite, while pondering the Wind Wolf's madness in his mind.

Then, seizing the opportunity, he delivered an upward diagonal slash to the Wind Wolf's side abdomen, creating a small wound.

The wound was long and thin but not deep, only symbolically oozing some dark red blood.

This dark red did not mean that the Wind Wolf's blood color was different from a human's; it merely indicated that Liens's sword had not cut an artery.

Most animal blood is basically similar to human blood, and human arterial blood is bright red, while general venous blood is dark red because it contains more carbon dioxide.

Although he hadn't used his full strength with that sword strike, causing only this much injury still surprised Liens somewhat.

If a normal human were struck in the same spot by this sword, it would basically result in a large abdominal cut.

When he struck the Wind Wolf just now, he could feel the resistance coming from the longsword.

That feeling wasn't like cutting into an animal with soft fur like a wolf, but rather like cutting into a thick-skinned animal like a hippopotamus.

One must know that the most primitive leather armor in ancient times in his previous life was formed by peeling the hides of those thick-skinned animals and drying them to dehydrate.

So, to some extent, the Wind Wolf was equivalent to wearing a low-grade version of leather armor.

After realizing that the Wind Wolf's defense was stronger than expected, Liens became even more vigilant.

In terms of strength, he was not outstanding among all the Trainees.

This could be seen from his physique; Liens was only of medium build, while other Trainees were not lacking in tall individuals.

In fact, by now, the proportion of tall individuals was even greater.

The best example was Ben; his physique was much larger than Liens's, and his strength was also considerably greater than Liens's.

Although Liens could also instantly unleash powerful strength through his body's explosive power, it was ultimately not sustained and consumed a lot of stamina.

What Liens was truly powerful at was technique, his exquisite Sword Tendency.

Strength, to some extent, was a minor flaw for him; he hadn't felt this when cutting ordinary people before.

After all, a light sword stroke across the neck could kill an ordinary person, and not much strength was needed.

But now he was facing the demon beast Wind Wolf.

If he didn't injure its vital points, he might find it difficult to inflict serious damage on that Wind Wolf.

"Demon beasts are indeed more troublesome than ordinary people. Just this defense is annoying enough, and that's not even counting the 'Mad Wolf's' own elemental abilities."

Liens frowned slightly.

However, although he felt a bit of trouble, his current assessment of this "Mad Wolf" was only that it was a bit troublesome; it wasn't on the Instructor's level yet.

It had been said before that an opponent who has lost their mind can never be considered a strong enemy.

Unless there is an absolute disparity, such an opponent can easily be exploited and killed, and this is even simpler for Liens.

Because his Sword Tendency was specifically about finding weaknesses and delivering a fatal blow.

And although that "Mad Wolf" was a demon beast, its physical qualities did not feel as strong as the Instructor's to him; it couldn't form an overwhelming situation against him.

So, for him, killing this "Mad Wolf" was not really that difficult.