Within the building were several other people. In total, 23 of them.
20 of them seemed to be students around his age while the other three were adults.
From the 20, only 1 was noteworthy. A white-haired girl with a straight white suit that depicted a graceful blue flower with thin petals. She didn't look like a local person at all. Instead, more of a foreigner from the Nation of the Sky with the kind of dress and attire she had.
Her face was delicate and was calm and collected. Her eyes were showing off a gentle and soft aura, just as if she was thinking of a certain person. However, when the three males around him tried talking to her, she showed off a cold aura, not speaking much to them at all.
She would coldly refuse them and only speak a few words, ones that only answered the questions directed towards her from the three boys. It felt just as if she was disgusted by their acts...
Just then, as Kirt was lightly scanning her with his eyes, he noticed a glowing object around her. However, just as suddenly as it appeared, it also disappeared as so.
Trying to remember its appearance, Kirt could only imagine a light sketch inside his mind. It was a slightly glowing blue gem connected with a faint gold ornamental chain. The gem had an icy blue glow to it and was depicting a blurry symbol that he couldn't remember.
Besides that, the gem also seemed to be extraordinary; it was just a hunch from him.
The gem looked beautiful and matched the girl's appearance, boosting it even; however, strangely, the girl was hiding it. Earlier, he could only see a part of it because she had made a slight movement that allowed him to.
'Strange' turning his eyes away, Kirt found a seat within the room and sat there.
Then, he proceeded to check out everyone else. Not many were as eyecatching as the white-haired girl. Besides them, the only ones noteworthy were the adults.
Two of them were beside the entrance of the building, checking the identification proofs of the children. Earlier, Kirt showed his watch to them and passed through.
The other one was seemingly the teacher responsible for this test. He was neither a burly nor a scrawny dude. But, he did seem to be around his 30s and had a slightly solemn expression.
Like how people from the government do, he was also dressed in a black robe and was currently standing in front of a gate, inspecting the surrounding people just like Kirt. However, he didn't try to hide it and had his gaze concentrated on few people whereas Kirt only glanced at others slightly.
'Trying to find talents?' Kirt stopped looking at other people and instead focused on his phone.
…
After one hour, many people have arrived. If Kirt were to make an estimate, there was about one hundred people including him.
"It seems everyone has arrived. So, we will begin the first part of the National Test." The instructor, who Kirt had determined to be, said while looking over them.
"I'll first give an explanation of the rules.
"The National Test is divided into 2 parts. The first part, the ability control test, and the second part; the cooperation test. I'll give an explanation of the first part.
"As you heard just now, this test will test your control over your ability. This will happen by you marking an elemental spirit, and controlling it to overcome a series of hurdles and puzzles within the duration of 10 minutes. If you fail to attract or take control over the elemental spirit for the entire duration of the test, you will fail the test and you won't proceed to the next stage.
However, if you are able to complete the test, you will gain the eligibility to proceed to the next stage.
"We will present you the elemental spirits right now. You will enter the room 10 by 10, and choose your elemental spirits. Once you're done, step aside and wait for the others. Do not worry as all of them are the same, pure elemental spirits of the 1st level; you don't have to worry about not being able to choose a suitable one or one that is worse than others'. Then, once all of you are done, you will enter another room and the test will begin."
Hearing it, Kirt had no change to his emotions.
'It didn't change this year indeed' this year's test also was the same as the previous year's, the one before that, and also the one even before that.
It didn't change at all.
Not like there was any reason for it to.
After explaining the rules, the man opened the gate behind him and chose 10 students standing at the front. Kirt wasn't chosen this time.
After a while, the man asked another 10 students to once again enter, and like this, it continued until it was Kirt's turn.
With slight nervousness, Kirt entered through the gate along with the others.
After walking for a bit, he finally entered the other room. It was a huge one. Bigger than the previous room but the most noticeable thing was the crowd of elemental spirits roaming the place.
They were orb like beings, with different colors.
They were just floating around the room mindlessly, as if to look for something.
There were many of them, more than a hundred, perhaps even multiple the amount. However, as their bodies were small, they didn't pass through others at all. Instead, even avoiding each other by maintaining a certain distance between themselves.
They were also of different kinds of colors; there were green, blue, white, red and so on. In total, he could see 8 different kinds of elemental spirits.
This was due to the element the elemental spirits belong to.
The purer and deeper the element's color was, the better, purer quality of the element is.
For example, red was pyro, and the redder, and more scarlet it was, the better, purer quality of pyro element was in there.
Pyro - Red | Electro - Purple | Cryo - Light blue | Geo - Brown | Dendro - Green | Anemo - Teal | Hydro - Blue | Psychno - White
Other than them, there were also the students that had entered beforehand. They were either observing their chosen elemental spirit closely or chatting with each other. However, Kirt paid no attention to them.
Obviously, he would pick an elemental spirit corresponding to the Pyro element, as only that, would his elemental mark be effective. Although he was sure better quality would be harder to mark and control, with his soul, he wanted to give it a try.
But as the instructor said, there indeed weren't any elemental spirits above the first level, when he inspected the place with his soul vision. They were only at the first level; meaning even if there was a difference between them, it wouldn't be much and very insignificant.
So, with no further ado, he picked up a random spirit before proceeding to step aside and join the crowd.