Chapter 269

Our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/PazjBDkTmW

Chapter 269: Luck and Qualification

Lolth quickly finished grading all one hundred sixty test papers, and as expected, only a few managed to barely reach the "good" level.

The vast majority of mercenaries are completely selfish and pragmatic, self-centered, blindly greedy, and disregard laws and morals. More than half have no trust in their friends and family, and at least one-third of the mercenaries not only feel no guilt about killing and crime but also take pride in it, showing a strong tendency for violence and destruction.

It is a bit worse than Lolth imagined, but still within her expectations.

After all, these are a group of "mercenaries" from what can be said to be the worst human kingdom on the entire continent, many of whom have crawled out of slums and war-torn areas, having lived a life full of dangers since childhood. It is not easy to expect them not to become this way.

However, on the contrary, this is also a good thing.

Even though they admire violence and have no concept of crime, at least they are not antisocial lunatics.

As long as they show absolute authority and power, these greedy and narrow-minded guys will not cause any trouble in a short time.

Although many mercenaries are not afraid of death, it does not mean they can accept dying with no meaning.

In some sense, they might even be easier to deal with than the soldiers of the Holy Alliance.

At least they won’t fight to the end with Lolth over things like "honor"—to put it simply, working for "succubus" and "Abyssal Demon" is something they can accept.

If Lolth were just an ordinary person wanting to use their fighting power and did not care about the civilians of Hillenbrand Town, she could easily threaten them with death or tempt them with money and status to make them her pawns.

That is what the royalty and nobles of the United Kingdom of South Sotua have always done.

But sadly, Lolth is not like them; she does not want to see these guys disturb the peace and harmony of Hillenbrand Town.

For her, gaining power was not her goal.

So, Lolth would not simply let them enter Hillenbrand Town without any control, making it as chaotic as other towns in the United Kingdom of South Sotua.

One hundred sixty pieces of parchment quickly returned to the mercenaries’ hands—however, Lolth did not return them by name, only because.

Lolth looked at them, stood up from her chair, and cleared her throat.

"Dear elite mercenaries of the United Kingdom of South Sotua, as you can see, I have reviewed your answers, and I have made corresponding marks on each piece of parchment—now, please stand up if you were marked ‘good’."

Along with Lolth’s words, twelve Superoperators, mostly from the three major mercenary groups, including the leader of the Ace Mercenary Group, Marjorie, got up from the ground and jumped down from the furniture.

Lolth waved at them, lifting the Curse of Weakness, but still did not remove the anti-magic shackles.

However, just as they had shown Lolth during the test, these individuals were not the type to recklessly resist; even after the Curse of Weakness was lifted, they still did not act, only feeling a slight surprise.

"Congratulations to all twelve of you, you have passed the ‘test’ and achieved quite good results. I believe you can fully become part of Hillenbrand Town—next, Tina will take you to Hillenbrand Town, and after a certain period of lessons in thinking and training, you will be free to choose what kind of work you want to do in Hillenbrand Town," Lolth said, looking at Tina. "First, take them to the west district to settle in, and after they study, create a separate class for them… prepare a large classroom; the other mercenaries also need to learn, but their lessons will be different… however, I will tell you what they need to study later; for now, you don’t need to worry about that."

As Lolth said this, Tina nodded.

"I understand, Mistress Lolth."

She looked at the twelve individuals and, knowing they had passed "Lolth’s selection," her attitude became a bit more relaxed.

"Did you hear Mistress Lolth’s command?—Follow me," Tina said as she led the twelve strong and quite charming Superoperators out of the room, heading towards the exit of the torture tower. "Be thankful; you no longer need to worry about your future… This town is hundreds of times better than you can imagine, even more comfortable than the life you had in the United Kingdom of South Sotua."

Even though Tina said this, the mercenaries did not show any clear signs of excitement or relief, obviously not taking her words seriously.

In their eyes, they could not believe a single word from this brainwashed elf.

Among those remaining in the torture tower, who were even more suspicious and ill-tempered, there were malicious speculations about whether these people had already been executed.

After the twelve left, Lolth looked at the remaining mercenaries and continued to speak gently.

"Alright, then next… are the thirty-nine ‘unqualified’ individuals—ah, you don’t need to stand up because I have already marked you."

Lolth said this and gently snapped her fingers.

A silent but powerful wave of magic burst in the small interrogation room, and thirty-nine people instantly "disappeared."

Because everything was so calm and fast, Lolth herself also did all this very easily, so after more than ten seconds of those thirty-nine disappearing, the mercenaries only then realized what had happened.

The entire South Sotuainterrogation room suddenly became filled with panic.

"Captain… where did you go?"

"Damn it, what just happened!"

"What did you do, succubus!"

Many simple-minded people screamed in fear and chaos, but more were so scared that they held their breath and dared not to speak.

And this was exactly the effect Lolth wanted.

In fact, those thirty-nine people were only sent to the remaining half of the prison tower in Demon King Castle.

She looked at the one hundred nine people left and gave a kind and friendly smile.

"Now, my one hundred nine barely qualified friends, we should enter the interesting second phase."

A new blank parchment flew in front of them.

"Please write down everything you know about others, including the twelve good ones and the thirty-nine unqualified ones, and their past ‘wrongdoings’—this will be the key to whether you qualify next."