MTL NOVEL Chapter 10: Sheila Shadowbane
For what felt like decades, Damien Bloodbane had been in constant battle.
Years and years of never-ending combat, thrown into every single situation imaginable!
After a full decade of mastering every kind of bladed weapon against endless waves of Zerglings, Zerg Warriors, Zerg Overseers, and finally, Zerg Champions, the environment finally shifted.
Unarmed combat.
A fighting ring.
And a human opponent.
It took Damien Bloodbane exactly one month to clear all one hundred levels of brutal, one-on-one unarmed combat.
Each level was designed to draw out specific fighting techniques in unique, unforgiving situations.
Two months to survive one-on-two combat.
Then another one month to tear through one-on-three combat.
The system was utterly merciless.
By the end of a year, Damien Bloodbane could easily destroy fifty highly skilled fighters in unarmed combat!
But there was no pause. No moment to breathe.
The environment shifted again.
Ranged weapons.
From ancient blowpipes to monstrous high-caliber cannons, Damien had to master every single weapon known and unknown to man.
And then the system threw him into every single kind of environment imaginable.
Misty jungles. Stormy seas. Frozen wastelands. Scorching deserts.
Damien Bloodbane had to ace them all.
Ten years.
That's how long it took to master ranged weapons.
And then, the training shifted again.
Situational training.
The system assigned him every type of mission imaginable.
All-out warfare. Stealth assassinations. Ambushes.
As the hunter—and the prey.
With one arm injured. With both arms amputated.
With one leg. With no legs.
It didn't matter.
He had to pass every single mission perfectly before he was allowed to proceed.
Another ten years passed.
Damien Bloodbane thought he was a well-trained fighter before.
But the Super Soldier Program showed him the truth—what he'd been before was nothing more than a toddler learning how to walk.
And those painful years, Damien Bloodbane underwent a mental and physical tempering so intense, so unimaginable, that it transcended anything a human being could conceive.
His mind was sharpened to perfection.
His body, pushed beyond its limits.
Movement techniques. Battle strategies. Mental focus.
Even combat without his sight and/or hearing—the system forced it all upon him through the most direct, violent method known to man:
Life and death battles.
And finally, after what felt like an eternity, Damien Bloodbane stood tall above the massive, bloodied corpse of the Royal Lightning Dragonlord, the final boss in a seemingly endless dungeon of dragons.
With one clean strike, he sliced through its neck.
And then the system's long-awaited notification appeared before him.
[Super Soldier Basic Training Program completed]
Upon seeing that notification, Damien Bloodbane closed his eyes for a few long minutes before the long suppressed emotions from the deepest recesses of his mind exploded into life.
"FREAKING BLOODY HELL!" Damien Bloodbane shouted in extreme anger and an equal amount of relief.
"FINALLY!!!! HUAAAAA!!!!!!!!"
Damien Bloodbane lifted his head up and howled.
A powerful burst of death energy radiated outwards from him and obliterated the dead body of the Royal Lightning Dragonlord next to him!
After many long minutes of howling, Damien Bloodbane finally collected himself and took a long shuddering breath.
"I am ready to return." He said softly.
[Returning host to reality]
Shing!
Damien Bloodbane's eyes opened and his sharp gaze instantly took in the situation around him.
He was back in the Chinese Camp in Blackrock City.
He was lying down on a portable military treatment bed with nine others in a massive white tent, and he was still dressed in the basic mission gear he was wearing before.
His most recent real life memories resurfaced into startling clarity as his memories from his Super Soldier Basic Training Program quietly receded into the back of his mind.
Although he was a completely changed man in terms of skill and mentality, everything else was as though he had never left.
[Super Soldier Basic Training Program completed successfully]
[Please note that the training program is not free of charge]
[Your debt will be increased by 5,000 gold]
[Your total debt is now 6,000 gold]
[You have 30 gold available]
[Name: Damien Bloodbane]
[Class: Death Necromancer]
[Job: None]
[HP: 2100/2100]
[MP: 2100/2100]
[Strength: 21]
[Agility: 21]
[Vitality: 21]
[Intelligence: 21]
[Sense: 2.1]
[Spells]
[Death Bomb: Level 1]
[Throws out a Death Bomb capable of devouring Living Matter]
Total Gold: 30
Total Debt: 6000
Damien Bloodbane's hand twitched violently as he restrained the instinct to pick up a weapon and attack the god damned system.
Loan shark! Robber! Scammer! He didn't authorize anybody or anything to throw him into such a hellish training program!!
Somebody come and arrest this damned conman system!
Damien Bloodbane could only curse at the system in his mind. But after a while, he calmed down completely.
For one thing, there was nothing he could do about it anyway.
And for another, he had actually benefited a lot from the training.
He had turned into a complete fighting machine.
"With the stat gains I received from the training, I should be around B rank right now. But that is only my physical strength.
I didn't even cast a single spell during the training, my Death Bomb is still at level 1.
Still… I doubt I will need to use it." Damien Bloodbane thought.
That was right.
His fighting skills were so damn refined at that moment that he probably didn't even need to use his Necromancer Skills to be a demon on the battlefield!
Right at that moment, Sheila Shadowbane, a young nurse in charge of the Chinese Medical Unit in Blackrock City was checking his vitals.
"Hmm? You're already awake? How do you feel?" Sheila Shadowbane asked him curiously as she put aside her equipment.
She was the first human being he had seen after spending years in the Super Soldier Basic Training Program and by God, what a sight for sore eyes she was!
Her black hair was tied neatly into a ponytail behind her, and her simple black rimmed spectacles merely accentuated the perfection that was her eyes. Her skin was smooth without a single blemish and the serious look she had on at that moment contrasted with her cuteness in a way that was breathtakingly attractive.
For a very quick fleeting moment, Damien Bloodbane couldn't help but feel a fleeting sense of pleasure as he took in Sheila Shadowbane's beautiful face.
Ahh, to think the first human being he saw after so long would be such a perfect one!
It was good, so very good!
If he was to see the shockingly ugly Jasmine Shadowbane instead of Sheila Shadowbane, he would probably be traumatized beyond help.
The Shadowbanes were similarly a military family like the Bloodbanes. But while the Bloodbanes specialized in open battles and warfare in general, the Shadowbanes specialized in a darker art - Assassinations.
General Maximus Bloodbane and General Austin Shadowbane were the Twin Pillars of Western China, the main battlefront in the war against the European Empire. As such, all of their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren were involved in the war.
Unfortunately for Western China, due to some unknown reason, these two heavyweights were at odds with each other, and constantly tried to undermine the other. The only reason why the Western Front was still holding was simply because their relationship had not deteriorated to the point of a life and death battle.
Like Damien Bloodbane, Sheila Shadowbane was a fourth generation. But she was one year older and was currently studying in college.
"Huh?" Sheila Shadowbane frowned slightly in confusion when she saw Damien Bloodbane's strange emotional look flash on his face.
But it was just for a fleeting moment.
Years of hellish training had given him superhuman control over his emotions.
It was just that Sheila Shadowbane's beauty was too exquisite, and it took him completely by surprise after spending so many years staring only at ugly slimy monsters and zerglings as he killed them off.
"Ah. I am fine." Damien Bloodbane said with a small smile. "How long was I out for?"