Ranking System

"Watch how I break this feeble barrier!" I didn't know why he posed, but I ignored it. All I wanted to see were the results of my barriers.

With the first prisoner's power poisoned, the second prisoner had the ability to melt anything he touched.

I could see the heat in his body rising like a volcano erupting and charging up all of his power. He released it into the barrier and smashed it with all his might.

"Impressive." I was impressed by the power that the prisoner had released. If he wanted to, he would overheat the population of my city into leaving.

The barrier stayed still, obviously not damaged at all by his attack. I couldn't help but nod, sure that people like these couldn't destroy my barrier. However, the exciting part was about to come. The barriers I have made weren't just ordinary barriers; they were barriers with offensive abilities.

"What's that?" After the attack, a specter appeared. It was a dark, shadowy, ghostly monster that had appeared.

The prisoner didn't know what was happening, but he sensed the hostility of the specter glaring at him.

"That's a specter you will be facing. It's part of the defense system you have activated." I have told the prisoner what he will be facing.

The battle was over, not because I was confident in my barrier but because of the prisoner himself.

When you attack the first defense barrier, a specter will appear to double the power level of the person who hit the barrier. It measures the strength of the blow done to the barrier, and since the prisoner had done his best to destroy my barrier, the specter he's about to face should have a higher power than his strongest move.

The specter had rushed toward the prisoner and attacked first. What made it fun was that the specter had a second ability. Not only did it double the power of someone's previous attack, but it could also copy their move.

When my barrier absorbs an attack, the specter could copy that power and use it against the enemy.

"This is only the first stage of the barrier. The other two are even more dangerous." I told the commander as he watched the onslaught. The prisoner was being suppressed and doing his best to dodge the specter's attacks.

Watching the onslaught, the first prisoner already had his arms broken due to the overwhelming strength he had to face.

I would have watched this for entertainment if I didn't have time to waste. However, with how nimble the person was, he dodged and weaved, doing nothing but just that.

"Enough!" With a snap of my finger, the specter disappeared. The prisoner with two broken arms disappeared into the middle of nowhere.

"Where did he go?" The commander asked, confused by the prisoner's lack of presence.

"That's the final ability of the specter. Once it dies, it will teleport the person into the second phase of my defense system." I explained for everyone to hear.

Seeing how the first test went, every prisoner became serious. With the first prisoner being tortured, they weren't stupid enough to challenge my authority.

Now that the test itself could be dangerous, they must also consider the dangers they would face because no one seriously believed they could break the barrier with brute strength alone.

"You! Green blob thing, you're next." One of the prisoners we had was a green slime thing. While it didn't do anything to piss me off, watching its body move disgusted me.

The slime had gone up front, facing the barrier on my order. While I knew some slime had weird abilities, I never expected it to grow to the size of my city. If it wanted to, it could swallow up everything inside.

I didn't know how the barrier would hold up, but if it were destroyed, I would try to blow up the slime before it could swallow everything.

About a million specters appeared, with the slime trying to devour the barrier. I could sense that none of them were a threat.

The millions of specters did their best to cut off any part of the slime, and they were doing some work making the slime shrink in size.

Luckily, there was a function in the barrier where multiple specters would appear against multiple attacks.

Seeing that all its gooey parts were being ripped into pieces, the slime retreated, frightened to be ripped to shreds.

The slime alone, which had covered the whole town, had already attracted the city's attention, but seeing that it was overwhelmed by a million troops had made some people piss their pants.

No one knew what was happening, as I didn't warn the town folk about this test. I knew that some people would go to my residence to ask what was happening, but I'm sure they wouldn't complain if I told them about this barrier of mine.

The remaining prisoners tried their best, with only one doing something different. A female prisoner tried to disable my barrier with interference magic.

She had tried her best to disrupt my barrier, but ultimately, my curse output outweighed her magic.

With all the prisoners transported into the second stage, I wondered what their reactions would be.

"Commander Sanders. Have your worries about the city lessened?" The commander took the time to check out the experiment to see how the defense system was working.

"I must admit, with this barrier alone, you could wipe out half of the enemy's troops. Whatever your task is, I won't fail you." With no more concerns about the city's defense, his loyalty has increased to an all-time high.

What I needed the most right now was absolute loyalty. Iris or anyone with some amount of authority could easily be replaced. I do not doubt that I would be able to find those people, but the quicker it is, the better.

"Let's check on our subjects. We can't keep them waiting." With that, I teleported the both of us to the second area.