Chapter 96 - Consulting Elias. (1/2)

Once he logged out, he opened his mail and visited the virtual room provided in it and sent a reply to Elias that he was already in it. The room was similar to the arena in the second floor of the gym. Soon, Elias and Leon also entered the room through the same door that the entered it.

Elias was a bit less than 6 feet tall and had a face about 60% similar to that of Ellie Edgerton and he shaved his head. As he walked in, he had waved his hand and a table appeared in the room with a whip on it. There was a knife attached to the whipping end of it.

”Hi Mr. Elias. I wanted to meet you for quite some time. I heard you were working on the samsara framework and wanted to talk to you about a few things,” said Balthazar shaking his hand.

”Yeah. Sure,” said Elias wondering why the kid was so excited as he gave way to Leon.

”Is this what you wanted?” asked Leon as he went to the table and pressed in a protrusion on the handle of the knife which cause the end of the whip to slip out from the handle of the knife. The handle of the knife had a thin hole that the whip's end was fixed into. He moved away allowing Balthazar to go and take the whip.

”Wow! You guys have the same weapon in store too,” said Balthazar as he looked at the weapon. It was a combination of two weapons, a whip and a chain knife which could be interchanged and he had used both of them in vita-nova.

”Yes,” said Leon. ”You can use a chain knife too?” he asked surprised at the expression on Balthazar's face. Though he sounded excited his eyes didn't reflect the same. Balthazar looked quite casually at the structure of the blade and and the end of the whip as he was examining for faults and determining the mechanism.

”I can use it. It would be great, if I can get this for use,” said Balthazar as he removed it from the table and checked it by attaching and detaching the knife a couple of times.

”Start the simulation. Let us see what he can do,” said Leon to Elias. Elias waved his hand as a panel appeared out of thin air. He made some setting changes on it and loaded the simulation for the whip.

There were a bunch of circular targets floating in the air at various heights. Some of the targets were red in color and others in blue. ”Get to the central area. It is marked by a cross on the floor,” said Elias pointing to a place in the midst of the targets.

”The test will be as follows. First you need to aim for all the red targets in front of you. You will be evaluated based on the time take to hit all of them,” said Leon. ”As you finish the previous ones, we will go to the next test. You manage to finish the first three, I will allow you to carry a whip,” he continued.

”OK. You can start now,” said Elias.

There were about 8 red colored targets in front of him. It was an easy task for Balthazar who had practiced it for a year. He made two quick movements after unfurling the whip managing to strike all the 8 targets. It took less than two seconds for him.

”Hmm,” said Leon as he observed Balthazar. ”He isn't a novice and had definitely used it before,” thought Leon as he saw the style and speed of Balthazar's attack. He quietly nodded to Elias indicating to go to the next test.

”Next, we have moving targets. Hit the red ones,” said Elias.

This was also done in three swings. It hardly took one second more than the previous test. The speed of the targets wasn't high and it was similar to evasive movements, but it wasn't hard for Balthazar. He always liked the whip as he could easily change the direction of attack to counter such evasive movements.

”Next,” said Leon.

”Same as before, but avoid hitting the blue targets,” said Elias. He considered this unnecessary right now as he had already noticed that the blue targets weren't hit by Balthazar in the previous tests. So, this was a totally redundant test.

”Consider him passed,” said Leon stopping Elias from starting the simulation. ”Continue with the next ones, include all the scenarios for human and animals and evaluate,” he continued.

”I am certified to use the whip now?” asked Balthazar immediately.

”Yes, but continue with the further tests. It won't take much time,” said Leon. He wanted to gauge Balthazar's strength properly before he could inform Winston about it. He also wanted to know more about Balthazar. He was a weapons specialist which is a job which required one to be proficient with many weapons. He wanted to check if Balthazar is a promising candidate.

He already had Balthazar's military records which detailed his skills with guns and warframes. He considered Balthazar to be a decent fighter at close combat considering the way he defeated Max. Though many told him that Balthazar won merely because Max underestimated him, he believed that it took a certain amount of quick thinking to defeat someone like that. He considered this to be a necessity for a weapons specialist. Now, based on his proficiency with a whip, he wanted to determine Balthazar's talent for controlling the situation around him.

”Can I use the knife with it now? I would like to be certified for that too,” asked Balthazar looking at Leon.

”Are you sure that you can use it in chain knife mode? I don't want to waste my time,” said Leon. He was working with Elias to complete a training modules using the samsara technology and took time out of specially to certify him as Winston asked for it.

”I can do the first three tests. Maybe not as fast, but I believe that having a chain knife sometimes is very useful in making a strong sneak attack. So, I would like to get it done too,” requested Balthazar again.

”Hmm,” sighed Leon. ”Give me the administrative privileges for the room. I will meet you after this is done,” he said to Elias.

”I wanted to talk to you about..”

”We heard you the first time,” said Leon cutting Balthazar off. ”Focus on your evaluation. I will take you the room where we are working after the evaluation is done.”

”I would prefer to go back to the game within the hour,” said Balthazar.

”Just focus on the evaluation. It wont take that long,” grunted Leon as Elias went out of the room.