When Rei finally made it out of the dust breeding grounds, she crawled her way to where the entrance to the quarry was, closed off the hole, promised to enact revenge on her bullies soon, and fell asleep on the ground.
When she woke up, a few messages appeared, reminding her that she now had an invisible friend.
[Task complete]
[+ 10 exp]
"Ugh, Aspire, what time is it?"
[Aspire is not a clock]
Rei huffed and looked up into the sky. If she squinted she could see early-morning light coming through the tree's crowns.
Rei bolted up.
"Shit! I have to take the Ability Exam!"
She glanced down at her destroyed clothes and the layers of dust and the knots in her hair. She wondered if she had time for a shower.
She sprinted for her house, checked to see it was 11:43 am, and threw herself into the shower still dressed.
She hurriedly stripped and scrubbed away the filth, trying to untangle her hair and braid it at the same time. Stumbling out, she went on braiding as she flicked through her dresser with one hand.
Aspire decided to interrupt her in the middle of dressing, practically making her rip her bra.
[Task]
- make it to the Ability Exam on time
Reward: 5 exp
Bonus: arrive early for 5 exp
"Really, it couldn't wait?"
[The time is 11:56 am]
Shaking her head, Rei finished and barreled straight to the Exam site. It was right next to the City Hall. She burst through the door, breathing hard. The other examinees for today were standing around the administrator.
They looked up as she came in.
"Reina Egale." She spat, and the joined the group as they headed for the testing area.
[Task complete]
[+ 5 exp]
[Bonus Task failed]
"First we will check your power Rank. Line up to get scanned." Said the administrator. He kept sending Rei glances that clearly meant he disproved of her behavior.
Maybe he was one of those men that didn't like seeing woman wearing trousers, which Rei had purposely picked in case the Exam tested their fighting prowess.
There were six others there, two girls and four boys. Rei lived in Valan, a medium-sized city, so seven kids sounded right. It was still weird to think that they all shared the same birthday though.
The boys went first. Rei didn't really pay attention since she could only think about what her results would be. Would it just be read as F-Ranked or maybe Unranked?
She was sure she didn't want it to be Unranked, since that would garner too much attention. Being Unranked either meant your Ability was so minuscule it didn't even register as F-Rank, or that it was so powerful that it exceeded S-Rank.
Two of the boys got an F-Rank, along with one of the girls. The other girl got a D-Rank, while the last two boys got E-Ranks. All pretty common and normal to get. Rei was curious what made the girl's D-Rank.
Rei was up last since she arrived last. She stepped up to get scanned, a little concerned it might say she'd done the impossible by not gaining an Ability, or that she had a too-good Ranking. Aspire surprised her.
[What Ranking would you like to display?]
Unranked
F-Rank
-E-Rank-
D-Rank
C-Rank
B-Rank
A-Rank
S-Rank
Rei chose the E-Rank option, not wanting the dreaded F-Rank forever displayed on her ID and not wanting to seem too weak or too strong.
The administrator marked down all their results and took them into a gym. The machines were all hooked up to wires that measured different things.
Rei was curious about one thing.
"How are you able to tell the difference between when we're using our Abilities and when we're not?"
The administrator still had that accusative scowl on his face whenever he looked at her.
"The human body is only able to reach a certain limit, so even if you're breaking a world record, your normal capabilities just won't match up to someone with an Ability of that type."
Rei nodded, and the administrator took them to a punching bag to test strength. It being the most common type of ability, one of the F-Ranked boys and the girl had it.
Rei's strength meter registered a bit above average, even for a male, at the matching stat: 17. An average dude would probably get somewhere around 10 or 12, while someone who trained a bit would get 15.
Since she did all the work around the house, and kept in shape by doing Judo warm-ups, Rei had a good amount of muscle. The two with F-Rank Strength Abilities though scored a hefty 25 and 21.
Next they did a sheet quiz to test intelligence which Rei got a 12 on, 1 point lower than her actual stat. She could practically hear Aspire laughing at her in that creepy robotic voice.
They luckily didn't test the charisma stat, maybe the administrator was pitying the boy who had a pug face and an Ability that seemed to produce slime.
Rei shivered and focused on the second to last trial, agility and stamina. Each of them were put on the treadmill at different speeds until they became exhausted.
The administrator glared at her a lot less after seeing her excellent agility stat of 20. Maybe he was questioning his own words about Abilities always being superior to a normal human. Or maybe he realized Rei wasn't a normal human.
Anyway, they at last got taken out to do the part she'd been anticipating all along, fighting. This part was only added in because some Abilities didn't improve any stats, but instead effected the user's environment. Some examples were elemental Abilities. Some others included item enhancements and transformations.
As the administrator set them up to battle what were called his summoning Ability, Puppets, another Task was given to Rei.
[Task]
-beat Gorden's Puppet
Reward: 5 exp
Bonus: each Puppet beaten is worth 5 exp