At the entrance to the The Freeman Mercenary Company training camp, two burly guards with horse heads stood watch. I flipped open the contract page in the Book of Demons and flashed it before their eyes; the two horse-headed guards immediately waved us through.

Chapter Thirteen: The Power of the Giant Bear

Leonard Wolf and Jack passed in the same way, but when it was Samuel Barton's turn, this heir of a demon-hunting family extended his slender finger and tapped lightly on a page. Instantly, a silver-white long blade appeared in his hand.

“I once swore to slay every demon I encounter, so you two horse-headed monsters, go to hell!”

With a fierce roar, Samuel Barton raised his long blade and brought it down hard. The speed and ferocity of his swordplay, its sharpness and dominance, seemed to me—an outsider—even more formidable than the icy beauty Harriet Turner.

“These damned newcomers!” one of the horse-headed guards muttered, then suddenly vanished from where he stood. By the time Samuel Barton reacted, a sharp pain shot through his abdomen—he had been approached with unbelievable speed by the horse-headed guard, who knocked him out with a single punch.

“He actually... actually moved so fast he disappeared from my sight!”

The speed of the horse-headed guard left me dumbfounded, a chill rising in my heart.

“Kid, carry your companion inside. I held back and only knocked him out.” The horse-headed guard who struck gave me a thumbs-up. Seeing that Leonard Wolf and Jack remained unmoved, I sighed, reached out to support Samuel Barton, and casually picked up his silver blade as well. Now that I had both internal energy and basic blade skills, I should soon meet the requirements to practice the Flying Sand and Rolling Stones Blade Technique, but I still lacked a suitable weapon. I decided to take this as my reward for doing a good deed.

“But even if I master the Flying Sand and Rolling Stones, I’m still far from matching the skills of these horse-headed guards. I wonder what I’ll be able to learn in the training camp!” The horse-headed guard’s lightning-fast punch both intimidated me and made me look forward to the The Freeman Mercenary Company training camp even more.

Samuel Barton was over 180 centimeters tall, with solid muscles and a physique to match. Fortunately, I had the tenfold strength card boost, so carrying him was effortless.

This also made Leonard Wolf and Jack, walking ahead, give up any thoughts of testing me further.

After entering the training camp, Lillian Faulkner exchanged a few brief words with a bald, burly man, who was already eyeing us with ill intent. “I am your instructor, Virgil. The The Freeman Mercenary Company recruits no more than five official members each year, but over fifty newcomers join this training camp every month. So, get rid of any wishful thinking—this is a place where only the strong survive. If you can’t make it in the training camp, you won’t survive on the island either. I’ll drill you until you wish you were dead. Now, I’ll give you one last chance: will you quit or join?”

“I’d really like to quit, but are you sure you won’t beat me up if I do?” I muttered to myself, but said nothing aloud. The bald man took our silence as agreement and immediately tossed us four sets of uniforms, shouting for us to change at once.

I had no idea what era or country these uniforms came from, but after putting mine on and moving around a bit, I found it quite comfortable. My set was a bit large, so I rolled up the sleeves a few times, which made me look even more rugged.

“You’ll undergo ten types of training in this camp. The The Freeman Mercenary Company has always been the best mercenary group on Devil’s Island. If you brats can survive four of the trainings, you can at least get a temporary contract with some trashy mercenary group. If you make it through six, seventy percent of the groups will recruit you as official members! If you survive eight, you can even become a main force in some of the weakest teams. Remember, our Edgar Freeman is the best, the greatest, the strongest mercenary group on Devil’s Island!”

The bald man’s shouting made my ears ring. I noticed the unfriendly look in Leonard Wolf’s eyes and realized these terrifying teammates were no pushovers either.

“Transform!”

Leonard Wolf grinned and spat out these two words, then his body suddenly doubled in size, turning into a ferocious giant bear. With one stride, he swung his massive paw down hard at the bald instructor.

“I’m not used to being trained by someone weaker than me. Instructor, you’d better prove you have the right to shout at me!”

I was shocked by Leonard Wolf’s move and thought to myself, “The skills of the horse-headed guards already showed the quality of this training camp—why is Leonard Wolf challenging the instructor? The bald instructor must be even stronger than those guards.”

Dragging Samuel Barton, I stepped back and, intentionally or not, put some distance between myself and the always-silent Jack. It seemed Leonard Wolf had a bear transformation card with attributes similar to the King Kong card Julia had shown me, which explained his current form. In this combat state, even with my tenfold strength card, I couldn’t compare to him.

“If only I’d gotten the King Kong card instead of the beauty summoning card back then. At least I wouldn’t lose to Leonard Wolf’s giant bear power. But it’s too late for regrets now—I can’t exactly go ask Julia for that card.”