Garret watched us as we approached. He was still extremely well built despite the wear and tear of countless battles and old age. If I had to describe Garret, he looked a lot like Reinhardt from Overwatch... just without a full armored suit and a rocket hammer.
Garret from my past memories of him loved going light weight, opting for minimal protection for speed. He would go for short blades as they are much easier to control with one hand. He would use his free hand to take control of the opponent whilst the other hand with the blade goes in for the strike. He was a master of hand to hand combat and could easily win a sword fight with his bare hands.
My students chatted amongst themselves about how domineering Garret looked or how he reminded them of Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was a badass through and through, if anything I would definitely wanted him as a friend and an ally but never as an enemy. Once your his enemy, there was no way of stopping him in hunting you down.
Loc stopped a few feet away from Garret and pointed to the ground. There were markings on the ground that surrounded Garret; a magical diagram - much like the magic circle - it draws energy from the user to perform a specific spell. Loc explained that the markings on the ground are in fact a spell used to determine someone's magical attributes and assign the appropriate basic skills set for the individual when stepped on.
I wondered what would happen if the spell detected the skills set I've already have. What would Garret think when he sees my skills. Loc asked us to line up in one line so we could be assessed in an orderly fashion. I was last in line being the teacher which gave me a great view of my students as they stepped onto the spell to get assessed.
James, one of my quieter students in class was up first. I could tell he was very nervous simply because he was the first. James would've always volunteered to be second or third whenever we had an oral test. He liked to watch the first person do theirs so he could gain pointers for when he does his. Being the first sucked because your entering the unknown and setting the bar for others.
When James stepped in, a interesting pop up appeared in front of me. I could see James's skill panel as Loc told James to keep moving towards Garret. James's skills panel slots glowed and one by one, his skills appeared in the slots. I recalled James having an assassin type skills set and that's what he got.
His first skill was called cutthroat, it was a skill that allowed the user to phantom cut anyone, whether the user were close to the target or not. His other two skills were mirror image a stealth skill and paralyzing outburst which was a crowd control spell that stunned everyone within it's initial vicinity. His ultimate, interestingly called shadow reaper allowed the user to assassinate the target by killing their Shadow.
From where I was standing I still could tell what James was feeling right now. He was the first to see it and judging by his wonky movements and hand gestures of 'what the heck is this in front of me?' His reaction was what I had expected for someone who went first.
Normally the ones who went first had no expectations because it was all new but when your like the tenth or higher and saw the other's reaction then your expectations would either become higher or lower depending on said reaction. Even though I was last, I already had my, 'oh my god this is just like VR' moment in my previous life, so my reaction would be somewhat dormant. The only last true reaction will be the girl in front me, Elise.
After James's initial shock and awe, he was now standing in front of Garret who towered over him. I knew James was scared because I immediately saw Garret's expression softened. James must've pissed his pants which was nothing to be ashamed off because I actually did it too the first time I saw him. It was only a little, so it wasn't noticeable but I felt it and I felt my underwear dampened. Garret was a grandparent and had seen everything for two generations, so I knew he was being sympathetic towards James.
Garret knew all of James's strengths and weaknesses, he watched us, studied us and I bet in his mind he was formulating strategies of how to improve us. This whole skills test was for us to realize our powers but also for Garret to evaluate us.
As my students slowly went through the test, I've gotten a very good grasp of all my students abilities now because before, I barely even knew half of what my students could do. Thanks to these new op abilities, I finally knew what my students skills are and what they are capable of.
It was finally Elise's turn and then it would be me. I had so many questions on what would happen once I stepped into the area.
{Your core skills set are now hidden.}
{Dummy set has now been added.}
Wait... what is going on?
I heard Loc called my name, so I dropped the thought for now. I walked into the area where the markings were drawn and once I stepped into the magic diagram, it began to light up.
A pop up appeared in front of me and I stopped where I was and groaned. It was my old skills from my past life; Elemental shift, Nature's aura and Weather creation. My old ultimate was Catastrophe. In fights I could potentially see how overpowered they could be but these skills uses so much energy that after one use I would pass out.
I noticed that Garret must've seen my reaction because he came walking towards me.
"Hey son, let me take a look at your skills."
I nodded and he stared at me for a minute before responding again.
"I see. This is a strange skills set to have. From what I could tell, these skills are suitable for offensive or supportive role, I'm leaning more on supportive. Don't worry too much about it though, your skills are indeed useful but could also be deadly. I would advise you to learn more about your skills, go to the library and learn more about our weather and the types of environments that are around here."
I knew what he was talking about, the skills I have, have the potential to cause natural disasters. They could kill millions of people if I misuse them. I silently groaned at the thought as Garret pointed me to where my students who has supportive skills set were. I smiled as I approached my students which consist of Chloe, Chia, Luke, Lucy and Hannah. I didn't mind being a support, heck I played support in league because it's a fun role to play. I just didn't like the fact that my old skills set could have the potential to kill millions.
"Sir, your a support too? Nice!" exclaimed Luke. "What supportive skills do you have?"
Luke was an upcoming Dj who had a couple of gigs during school events. I remembered one sport carnival where Luke had to perform throughout the whole carnival. He had thought that he had enough songs to remix with but ran out half way through so he came to me for help.
My taste in music was vastly different from what most people tend to listen so I went around for half an hour gathering song names and then to Spotify and searched all the songs up. I then gave my phone to Luke who hooked it up to his laptop and then used his Dj controller to mix the music with the Dj software.
As he played the music, I could see students started to dance and have fun whilst the carnival continued. I had stayed at Luke's side to make sure everything was fine and during that time I had learned a lot about Luke's passion. I may have not listen or liked most of these music but I liked how Luke mixed them to make them sound kind of pleasant.
He had a good ear and a sense of rhythm to mix and connect each songs. I was happy to be able to help him and be rewarded with a symphony of a talent.
"Environmental skills," I simply replied. I needed to be vague, I didn't want any of my students to know the devastating extents of my skills... Especially since these are now my dummy skills. Shit... what do I even do when Garret asks me to perform a skill when I can't even use it. I knew skills practice was tomorrow and today was just mostly an introduction and skills acquirement which meant that I have limited time to find a solution.
"Oh, as in you can change our environmental or even create new ones?" I could hear Luke's confusion in his tone.
"Yes," was all I could reply but gave him a small smile of reassurance.
"Cool. Hey Mr Garret, sir. May I try this skill out? I've been itching to test this skill out when I first saw it."
"Sure kiddo, I don't see a reason to say no."
I turned around to see Garret and standing there beside him was a woman who shone in a beam of sunlight, Sara. I turned around as naturally as I could, to not show any suspiciousness as I wait for Luke to try out his skill.
Luke paused for a second as he tried to use it. He frowned as nothing happened.
"Did you read what the skill does?" Asked Garret.
"Yes, Mr Garret."
"Try imagining the skill in your mind then let the skill do the work." I suggested, we don't learn how to use our skills until a teacher from the magic association teaches us and that's tomorrow.
Both Garret and Sara watched me with raised eyebrows.
"I uh..." I didn't know how to respond to them since what I said was true but I shouldn't at this stage had known that.
"I'll give it a try, Sir." Luke responded in hope to defuse the awkwardness.
Luke did as I suggested and a smooth rhythmic beat appeared out of nowhere.
Luke had a huge smile on this face as his fingers moved like he was playing an imaginary piano. As his fingers moved the notes and sound of the music changed. This skill seemed to be a continuous one where if he kept playing, the skill would've kept going.
{Luke Valentine used the skill, 'Musical playbook'}
[All statues effects are now ineffective]
I felt myself becoming a lot calmer and relaxed as the music floated around us. The music reminded me of those 1 hour long study music you would find on YouTube. I could hear Hannah started to hum to the beat as the rest of our group started to sing.
{Dummy set has changed. (For enemy eyes only.)}
Wait.... What?
"That's a nice skill you got there kid," a bone-chilling voice cuts through the heart warming music.
The same uneasy feeling I had felt this morning returned. I felt goosebumps all over my skin and then it donned on me who it was...
I turned around to where the voice had spoken from and there stood behind me, wearing a cowl was the person I would only describe as dark Merlin, Faron.