"The superior man is distressed by the limitations of his ability; he is not distressed by the fact that men do not recognize the ability that he has." - Confucius
Zac arrives at the testing center. The testing center wasn't large by any means, yet it was filled with more people than Zac had ever seen in a single place before.
Across the location at which they all gathered stands a man whose beard seems as though they could dam the Niagara. Standing 6' 1" tall, this tan skinned man has a cold-hearted feel about him. A particularly notable feature is his nice smile, and he has a small burn mark on his right cheek. He has a long face with a rounded jaw, a large nose, large ears and full lips. He has wide shoulders, robust arms, a long torso with a narrow waist, and toned legs. He wears clean, old fashioned clothes that are mostly dark-colored, loose and flowing, and he wears a silver bracelet. He is usually seen wearing a specific pair of gloves.
After the clock hits 3:00 PM, the man begins speaking.
"Welcome, here is where some of your story will begin, and where some ends. We are here to test your affinities with the elements around you, of course, there are exceptions to this rule. Some of you might have abilities that we cannot test. We will call those Ascenders. First we will separate you all into four groups. Then we will have you go one by one into the tester where your abilities will be shown."
"Everyone has an ability, or at least we haven't come across one that doesn't yet. But judging from the sample size we have, we can say it's statistically improbable for you to be without it. So you don't have to worry about whether or not your journey will end here. After we test out your abilities we will then check your potential. This test however is not always accurate, there have been multiple people within the past one hundred years who were able to break past their limits."
"So you don't need to worry about anything as you are going through this test. Do your best, and I will hope to see you all in the battlefield next to me in four years." After saying this, the man stepped off the stage, and the crowd began to step forward towards the testers.
"Wow, I think that was General Leon wasn't it?" said the person three spaces behind Zac.
"The man who faced Wild Drakes alone before?" Responded the person before the guy that just spoke.
"I think there was something else too" answered the person who first uttered the question.
Zac was still distracted going through the information in his A.I. Chip when his turn was next. The school also displayed various information on this test as a part of the syllabus.
Abilities are explained first. "There are various abilities you can be born with, and some that you can unlock later in life. Usually humans unlock their abilities around the age of 14 to 20. It was said that the person who unlocks their abilities the fastest would have the better abilities. A person can have multiple abilities. People who awaken their abilities when they are younger have a better chance at earning a second one before 20."
The people currently present in the testing center are at the age of 16, where the standard acceptance age group was for the school, however there are always special ones.
"Wow two abilities already at age 16?"
"Truly the genius of the Schnei family."
Lumi Schnei, the class president, is one such person. She was accepted as one of the teacher's students at 14 when she awoke the ability to take away heat from an object, and at the later years of 15 she awoke a second ability to control liquid to a certain extent. Which basically gives her the power of Ice and water.
The second person to be praised for their power was the polar opposite of Lumi. Apollo Flame, perhaps when he was born he was destined to be a counterpart of Schnei, he also awoken his first ability at 14, however compared to Lumi he was a step behind on his second ability, it was only awoken one month ago, which meant he was 16 at the time. His first ability, very fitting to his name, is the ability to cause combustion when there is oxygen present in an area. His second ability however was not spread, though most don't know what it is, many have made guesses. Most people assumed it had something to do with controlling the temperature. No one is sure however, what it truly is, as it is something that only he would know as long as his family did not expose him.
Potential however, is not as clear cut. There never was a sure fire way of showing someone's potential, only partly through clues given by the body's age and abilities. There was also research that tested resistances of the body's cells to certain elements. As well as some abilities that could "feel" and define what someone's potential is. It is the combination of such tests that one's potential could be given.
Thirdly, there are people who have not yet awoken an ability, or perhaps the test couldn't detect the ability. They go through an additional test, to see whether or not the test has missed the ability or that the person truly has not awakened an ability. Of course most were the first case, even more rare than someone awakening an ability at 14 is when someone's ability is beyond the tests. There have only been 3 in history that have had their ability unable to be tested before. Those 3 went down in history as 3 of the most powerful humans to ever exist.