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Trials of Courage!

A trial that was quite popular among nobles, knights, and even freemen in the Five Kingdoms of the Northland. If it is more accurate, it is a custom for those who go to the melee profession or where martial arts are prevalent!

The specific source is said to go back to the dawn of the Terrans defeating the Elven Empire and the Orc Empire, and legend has it that a group of twelve-year-old Terran boys and girls took up arms to join the battle when their village was in danger, and then saved the village in the heavy casualties so that their families could survive.

After a long period of evolution, the legend became that the children of noble families who wanted to pursue a fighting profession showed their courage and fighting qualities in a battle when they were twelve years old.

Right! It's all about showing your mettle, not about twelve-year-olds being able to beat those opponents!

Of course, if you show your courage and defeat those selected opponents, it will undoubtedly be impressive, but it doesn't mean that you will be able to do anything if you fail - as long as you show enough courage and qualifications.

When he was three or four years old, Rhodes learned about the customs prevalent in the five kingdoms of the Northlands of this magical world, and he has even seen others perform such trials of courage several times.

Although Rhodes, who was born as a modern man on the earth, is a little resistant to the customs in the magical world like the Spartan New Year ceremony or the African indigenous adult lion hunt, it is a pity that under the general situation of the five kingdoms of the Northland, it is impossible for Rod, who is the son of a military nobleman and has stepped into the road of knighthood, to refuse this test of courage!

Not planning a trial of courage? OK! As long as Rhodes himself did not intend to inherit the Baron Ernst and the domain, and gave up the knightly path and family inheritance, he chose to leave home with a small share of his property after the age of sixteen (Note 1) to fend for himself.

If the protagonists of those YY novels can of course say something like "my life is up to me", but after more than ten years of Rhodes' rebirth, he has seen a lot of the cruelty of this world!

For more than ten years, many foreign mercenaries in the Barony of Ernst have been supplied through the Guò territory, and then they have begged for a living in the Far North Mountains on the edge of the Barony's domain, which almost isolates the orc empire from the occupied territory by humans, but they have never returned. And even in the small town in the center of the barony's domain, you can hear from time to time that XX civilians and XXX free people have died due to various circumstances, not at all like the accidental death of a person in the Celestial Empire of the Earth World is still news.

In this world, the death of the weak is not worth mentioning at all!

After seeing a few coffins and the mercenaries who couldn't even bring back their bodies, Rhodes himself didn't want to try this life. And Rod doesn't want to use his own life to test whether he has the kind of protagonist character in the magic novel who can't be killed, so when he is sure that he doesn't have any self-preservation, relying on the protection of the Ernst family to grow strong is the best choice for Rod in this life!

In this way, it is only natural for Rod, as a knight's apprentice, to conduct a test of courage.

But fortunately, Rhodes himself is the son of Baron Ernst after all, so there are still some preferential treatments

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The next night, on a practice field in the town's barracks

On the training ground, which was lit by a dozen torches, Baron Ernst, dressed in light clothes, stood on the edge of the practice range and looked at his son standing on the field, a little distracted, as if he was recalling something.

Behind Baron Ernst, the old butler of Monll followed like a shadow, while the knight of Ter, who was as strong as a black bear, and Tamon, who was loyal to the Ernst family and was a knight, stood behind him, along with several attendants and servants, surrounded and guarded Baron Ernst.

Of course, there were not many attendants and servants, and the Tamon Knight looked like a chestnut middle-aged man with a healthy body and an ordinary face, which was quite inconspicuous compared to the tiger-backed Ter. However, only occasionally from his eyes that flickered a glimmer of light from time to time, would anyone with a discerning eye see that this seemingly ordinary but in fact was already a formal knight of the bronze rank was not simple.

Rhodes was standing on the merely leveled practice ground at this time, carrying a one-handed long sword and a small round shield after the attack, looking at the opponent opposite him who was an appetizer before the test of courage.

On the opposite side of Rhodes, in a large wooden cage thirty meters away, a beast about the size of a large wolfdog, covered in gray dust and blades of grass, stared at him with ferocious and indifferent eyes.

Gnolls!

Before the crossing, Rhodes was a name he often saw in fantasy novels and fantasy games. However, in this real magical world, this monster with a certain intelligence is also one of the opponents that humans often encounter in the wild.

If you follow the comparison, the adult gnolls should be compared to the stage of gray iron, as for which rank it is, it depends on the actual situation and personal luck. In the field of battle, there are even people who have seen the elite or leader of the gnolls who have reached the peak of gray iron and is almost comparable to the red bronze rank.

Of course, the gnoll man that Rhodes is facing now is definitely not the kind of terrifying enemy that Cheng dù is frightening, otherwise it would not be called a test before the trial of courage, but can be directly called murder!

In fact, the caged gnoll man in front of Rhode was just an old gnoll, and his strength and speed were estimated to be inferior to Rhodes, who had just reached the gray iron rank.

However, it is not necessary to say that this test for Rhodes is easy, after all, in the magical world, the old gnolls who can survive to the age of their companions or die must have two brushes - the gnolls don't mind filling their stomachs with their companions as food when they don't catch enough food to fill their stomachs.

"Rod, be careful to open the cage!" Baron Ernst looked at his son for a moment, admonished, and then shouted to the two soldiers in light leather armor in front of the cage.

"Yes! Lord Baron!" *2

After hearing the words of their boss, the two soldiers responded directly and then opened the chain at the door of the wooden cage to open the wooden door.

However, the old gnoll did not come out immediately, but shrank in the wooden cage and looked out with a sly gaze, and the old gnoll man, who obviously had some judgment ability, was still uncertain about the current situation.

"Damn beasts! Hurry up and get out!" Seeing this, one of the soldiers roared angrily after receiving the gaze of Baron Ernst, and then directly stabbed the old jackal in the body with the long sword in his hand.

"Whew!!" With a howl of pain, the old gnoll sprang out of the cage.

At this time, the people around him saw clearly the situation of the old jackal who stood up with his feet upright.

The erect old gnoll was about 1.5 meters tall and less than 1.6 meters tall, and was covered with gray-white hair except for some obvious gray on his back, and his body was obviously thin and malnourished, and he was a little hunchbacked.

This old gnoll is obviously not young, and he has no weapons, relying only on the teeth that have lost several big teeth and the limbs and claws that do not know if they are good or not, which makes people doubt the old gnoll's combat effectiveness - but looking at the cunning and murderous eyes of the old gnoll, it is clear that this is not a soft persimmon either.

The old gnoll did not recklessly attack the people around him after running out, but chose to stop for a while after running a few steps, and then looked at the surrounding environment and opponents.

There were more than twenty people in the training field, which was about the size of half a football field, and in addition to almost ten people around Baron Ernst, the other dozen or so heavily armed soldiers had already surrounded the entire training range, except for Rhodes, who was facing the old gnoll, and Rhodes was alone in the direction.

As an old gnoll who can live to this age in the wild, of course, he will not be the kind of ordinary person on earth who can still live for a long time without any battle scenes. It is a bit of an exaggeration to describe it as having experienced a hundred battles, but there is no exaggeration after experiencing many murderous and tragic battle scenes.

"Danger!"

This was the first thing the experienced old gnoll had when he saw the soldiers in leather armor and holding swords around the driving range.

Of course, it feels right! The soldiers who can accompany Baron Ernst in this training ground are all elite members of the army under the private jurisdiction of the Barony's domain, at least they are all high-ranking soldiers of gray iron, and even four are soldiers at the peak level of gray iron, compared to the old jackals who are old and weak, they are not opponents at all.

"Run for your life!" When the old gnoll saw Baron Ernst and the others on the side, the old gnoll instinctively felt this feeling of danger.

So after less than three seconds of observation, the old gnoll looked at Rhodes opposite, and his turquoise eyes began to shine with a murderous gaze.

Compared to the humans around him who gave the old jackals a sense of horror and danger, the enemy on the other side, who was shorter than him and did not have a trace of blood, was obviously the softest soft persimmon.

At best, the cunning but unintelligent old gnoll looked at Rhodes and began to hiss slowly as he began to hiss.

(Note 1: The Magic World in this book is set in a continent where men are 16 years old and women are 15 years old.) )