If the first information about my Qi something riled up the crowd, then the next part about my martial prowess cast a veil of shadow over the entire area. Even the man behind the desk that was responsible for reading the results out loud had to take a moment to process what he actually just said.
But just like with every awestruck moment, it lasted only for a moment.
"WHAT?!"
To this moment, I always thought that it was impossible to have a realistic reaction of the entire crowd uniformly shouting the same phrase. It steemed from a simple fact that different people used different types of vocabulary, meaning that even if their reaction was generally the same, the ways of expressing it out loud could differ greatly between each individual.
That's why, when the entire crowd that already paid its entire attention to my tests and its results simply shouted the single word, I had no other choice but to accept that this score was something… Unusual.
"Does that mean that I passed?"
I asked this question in a perfectly normal voice, making sure to hide my own thoughts from the rest of the world and prevent them from influencing my tone or expression. After all, only an idiot would fail to notice how vastly different the number of my Qi something and martial prowess was, indicating that this very basic punch of the systema fighting school was already enough to elevate me way higher than anyone gathered here would expect!
"A….aaa… What?"
Only at this point, the examiner of mine showed any form of reaction to the unexpected situation. Raising his shaking hand, the man behind the desk reached towards a strange token that was hidden in one of the shelves of the furniture he was using.
"I… I can't tell yet. This result… I'm worried that the testing machine is broken. No matter whether my guess is correct or not…"
Taking a short break, as if worried about the meaning behind the second possibility he mentioned, the man audibly swallowed his saliva before shaking his head and focusing his eyes on my face.
"No matter whether I'm right or not, I'm unable to give the verdict yet… not by myself."
Slapping his own cheeks as if to sober himself up, the examinator stared blankly into the distance for a moment before decisively tightening his grasp over the strange token that I noticed just a moment ago.
A flash.
The man's hands instantly turned into a ball of redness as the light contained within his fist seemed to showcase the x-ray scan of his palm to anyone looking. Yet, in the very next second, the intensity of the light only increased, making it too hard even for me to look at, especially given how much better my senses were in this world when compared to what I had to do with on earth.
"Are you finished already?"
As soon as the sudden avalanche of the light disappeared, allowing me and the others to actually open their eyes, a new person appeared on the grasslands. Considering how dense the crowd gathered here was, it should be quite challenging to spot any changes in its numbers…
But it was simply impossible to miss the female that seemingly appeared from the ball of light produced by that strange token.
It wasn't that she was the most beautiful person I have ever seen. I was already way too experienced in the ways of online videos marked with 'x' letter at the beginning and ending at the dot com service to be baffled by beauty of this degree. But there was something intricately different in this woman from all the perfect fit and clean girls that I got to know back on earth.
She just seemed to be… pure.
Her delicate, slightly annoyed and surprised smile was the greatest ace-card of hers, surrounded by a face that could only be described as cute. In short words, while this girl wasn't the pinnacle of the mature beauty that would make people lose the reins of their lust, she had the aura of someone who could heal other people wounds just by smiling at them.
But it was her robes that actually drew the most attention from those who stood simply too far away to notice all the details about her intricate features. Compared to the simple pants, skirts and capes that people in the crowd were wearing, this woman was dressed in an elaborate piece of academy-like robe, instantly betraying what was her daily job.
That is, if the way of the dressing in this world and on earth had at least a bit in common!
"Teacher… I'm sorry, but I'm not even past half of this year's candidates. I summoned you because…"
Before the examinator could even explain himself, the woman that appeared from the ball of light proved that having a volatile mood wasn't the attribute exclusive to the girls from the earth.
"What the hell, do you think I'm so free to deal with some minor problems appearing in the examinations? Right now, I have over forty candidates waiting for my return so that I could guide them through the academy! You better have a real reason for calling me here, or your merit points for doing the task won't be positive anymore!"
Instead of shouting and twisting her face in anger or fury, this female that looked to be in the middle of her twenties simply kept a cold expression on her face, while spitting those words as calmly as slowly, each coated with a toxic tone.
"Teacher… A man has tested with eight for the Qi harnessing and…"
The atmosphere on the grass field turned a few degrees colder. Still standing in the very same place where she appeared, the female rested her hands on her sides, staring daggers down at the examinator. It was clear that if his next words were to fail to impress her, his fate would be something no one would like to share.
"And forty-six for the martial."
Compared to his previous words, this last sentence of the examinator was spoken with a huge dose of confidence. It seemed that the news that he just brought, at least in his own imagination, were big enough to warrant annoying this female superior of his!
"Oh?"
Turning her head around, the female quickly noticed my presence. Given how I was still standing in the middle of the array, it would take an idiot to fail to understand that I was the axis of the current uncommon situation.
"So, you only tested eight for Qi harnessing and forty-six for martial affinity? That's indeed… a rare scenario to say the least. I know nothing about the inner workings of those training dummies, so let us keep it simple. Come at me and use all your power to attack me in the exact same way as you did attack that training dummy. Don't worry, even if that score of yours is correct, you won't be able to harm me."
With all the coldness in her attitude gone, this female now took the face of the long lost friend, that finally managed to reunite with me. Her lips set in a slightly upwardly curving line, this woman eyes were shining with some strange light.
"The teacher herself asked him…!"
"What an honour!"
"I'm soo jealous…"
The reactions of the crowd, still shaken by the results of mine, varied greatly. But nevertheless, it still allowed me to gauge the seriousness of my current situation. It was a pity that I didn't really have any choice but to fail everyone's expectation.
"I'm sorry, my lady, but I would never dare to hit a woman if not in the ultimate attempt to save my life from her."
Nodding my head in a perfectly respectful gesture, I cursed at myself at the very same moment as I lowered my unbrushed. In the current position, I was unable to even glance at the female, making it impossible to attempt reading her next action from her reaction to my words!
"I won't repeat myself. I told you to attack me. Here, I will make it easier for you."
With a strange tone appearing in her voice, the woman suddenly dashed forward. Before I could even as far as twitch, her body already appeared just a mere meter away from me. But that wasn't the end!
As if worried that I would consider her robes as some kind of barrier that would result in me making a laughing stock of myself no matter how hard I would try to hit her, this daring woman actually grabbed the sizeable cloth of her robe before sharply pulling it to the sides, revealing the skin of her stomach as bare as it was when she was born!
If not for a small piece of cloth that covered her moderate bust, I would have no other choice but to consider her actions as some otherworldly sexual advances!
"I'm sorry, my lady, but that won't do. I won't hit a woman unless my life were to depend on it."