Closing in my hands, I touched the red elemental spirit.
It had a simple structure, with only two parts within itself.
Firstly, its outer appearance was only an orb with a faint red color. When it moved, traces of elementals could be seen being left behind, forming a kind of 'tail' behind it.
This was a pyro elemental spirit, consisting of pyro elements. As for how it had formed a shape purely made out of elements, it would first just be a group of elementals that became close to each other; then, as they stayed longer with each other, the elementals at the middle will begin to combine with the others.
Due to their combination, they wouldn't disintegrate and mix with ordinary elements easily, so, the middle part would become an elemental spirit.
After it had existed in this state for a long time, the elementals at its core will begin to be purified, as they hadn't been polluted by the outside world, and then form its core, indicating the birth of the second layer of elemental spirit. This was commonly named as the core and indicated that the spirit had reached 2nd level.
With the support of the core, the elemental spirit would then attract more elementals, which would in turn combine with others, pushing the purity of the elemental spirit to a higher level.
When its color and size has reached a sufficient line, it will be considered to have advanced to the next level.
The one in front of Kirt had no cores within itself, meaning that it was of the first level. Even among first level, it only had a faint color, giving rise to the thought whether it has recently been made artificially.
After the current group of people was done choosing, the next group came and picked their elemental spirits. They seemed to be seeing them very seriously but after proving they really didn't have any difference, they just picked their elemental spirit and joined the people standing at the sides.
After three more groups, all of the students had already picked their elemental spirit, with quite a number of elemental spirits still remaining. Perhaps, they will be re-refined, or perhaps, they will be nurtured further. Whatever may happen to it, it was none of Kirt's business.
"Onto the next step: enter this room and pick a chair you will be taking the examination on"
The instructor explained as the door next to them opened up.
After hearing him, Kirt did as he told and entered the room. He was one of the first people since he was close to the door. Similalry, the room was gigantic and was filled with capsules meant for humans.
They were colored white and were in a standing position while their doors were closed.
"This is a VR capsule, as you all know. There is a start button on the door, push it and pull open the door. Then, step into the capsule; once you are done, stay like that. I will give more information when you have done that"
Since VR capsules had just recently come out, they were relatively new.
They had several extraordinary functions and many people wanted it; but because it was very expensive, few people bought it. So, it hadn't been much popularized among the masses resulting in it not showing much boost to the VR business.
After Kirt had chosen a random VR capsule around the corner, he walked towards it. Once he reached it, he pressed the button exposed on the door.
The capsule didn't have many options, only a power cord and a power button that currently had a gray color, indicating it hadn't started. Other than that, it was white overall and had a very smooth surface.
*Click*
The VR capsule started, as the power button turned blue and a screen appeared in front of the door.
[Starting... 10%... 39%... 55%... 100%]
After it reached 100%, Kirt pulled open the door and entered it. The inside was nothing special, a hole that just had the size meant for 14-year-olds' bodies and it was honestly comfortable to be in it.
"Now, close the door before closing your eyes. You will see in the perspective of the elemental spirit you have marked. If you can't see anything even after 20 seconds, come out of the capsule."
Fortunately, Kirt could see just fine. Just after 2 seconds at that.
'Now, what is this?' his elemental spirit and him had already separated earlier and went into different rooms earlier. Now, he was in the elemental spirit he had marked before.
Turning his head, he could see even more of his kind.
They were all the students who have participated along with him.
As the elemental spirit had no sense of light, it could only see the color given off by other elementals; and not the color of other things such as dark wood or silver. Everything else other than the elemental spirit was just a blank white, except that there was outlines of them.
Due to its low level, it didn't even seem to be capable of detecting the elementals within the air.
"There will be a total of 3 stages that will test your control.
"The first stage will be testing your synergy between the elemental spirit. So, you will be required to move your elemental spirit as quickly as possible and reach the destination within the time limit of 3 minutes. It will start in 10 seconds... Start"
A long and straight tunnel was in front of the crowd of elementals. The aura was normal as the elementals moved around the place nimbly without any wish but soon, they suddenly started moving forward.
Some were fast, some were slow, while some were very fast!
One of the best examples would be a green-colored elemental spirit that actively shoved others away while it was moving. The elementals within its path would be shoved away without any resistance while the green elemental would go unhindered.
It was very fast, to mention. While the others were taking baby steps, this person was taking steps of an adult.
'Here's how I will move' as I think about moving, the elemental spirit would follow my order, moving in the direction it wanted to.
I kept thinking about it more and more and at first, it was slow due to our connection not being strong enough, however, as it lasted, my connection with it became better and better, and similarly, so did the speed of the elemental spirit.
Now, he was just in the group of 14 that was directly behind the green elemental spirit!
Kirt was able to adapt to the situation pretty fast and take an advantage over others, but so were others able to. They weren't as quick as Kirt but they were also able to adapt to the situation, and soon caught up with them.
As scenes after scenes flashed through Kirt's eyes, he saw others passing by him. Not so far away, he could see a black flag; it seemed to be a checkpoint.
This definitely meant that he was getting closer and closer to the finishing line.
So, Kirt exerted more power and was able to up his speed a little bit.
"Huh?" perhaps, at that moment, everyone thought the same thing.
This was because a bright white-blue orb had just passed through them like a flash. If the green elemental orb's speed was an adult walking, then, this was the running of an adult!
Even from a distance, Kirt could sense the dense cryo elementals gathered around this exact orb. It may not be so dense in truth but due to the elemental spirit's heightened senses, he felt elements more exaggeratedly, making Kirt feel as if this orb that passed through him was an ice ball with dense cryo elements around it.
'Is that... a core?' Kirt felt surprised.
This was because he could faintly see a brighter orb forming within this white-blue elemental spirit.
This was shocking as it meant the elemental spirit was already nearing 2nd level and wasn't so far from it!
Then, he fell into thought: 'First, why did this person only pass by us with this speed even after almost one minute has passed since the start? Was the elemental spirit this person picked more special than the others, resulting in some disadvantages and advantages?
'Second, why is there a faint core on that elemental spirit? Was it a special elemental spirit? No, if so, I would've been able to discover it... No, I can't be confident on that. I am only so so with my soul vision, to be confident just through that is just...
'Sigh... another one?' after making a mental note to himself, Kirt concentrated on his speed once again and after some time, he was able to pass the finish line in 1 minute 24 seconds, finishing at 31st place.
"The second stage will test your maneuvering ability. A series of elemental attacks will be fired at you. You have three chances, and if you are hit the fourth time, the elemental spirit will disintegrate and you will fail the test"
The second stage began. The resting time wasn't long as, as soon as the 3 minute limit finished, the second stage immediately started, leaving many people annoyed over it.
If they weren't unable to talk nor hear in this body, Kirt was sure he would've been hearing some voices of annoyed people.
Looking forward, to the wall in front of them, everyone could see three brightly glowing orbs shooting out of the wall. They were of three different colors of purple, blue, and white.
They were the elemental attacks the instructor was talking about.
Fortunately, their speed was very slow, allowing the students to dodge them with ease. No one got hit by it.
Looking forward once again, there were 5 elemental attacks this time. Their speed seemed to be slightly faster than the previous ones but they were still very slow; enough for the people to even move around much and not get hit by it.
However, Kirt suddenly sensed a wave of elemental fluctuation appearing. He was taken by surprise when he discovered that unknown to him, three glowing orbs had left the wall and was heading towards them!
One was already so close to Kirt; so when he tried dodging it, his attempt was unsuccessful.
After getting hit by it, Kirt could feel that this body had become more disorganized and was losing the elementals. As these elementals made this exact elemental spirit, this was a very serious issue.
If taken by an example:
It was like a balloon that had been punctured. When there's a hole in it, the air within it would leave the balloon and eventually, there would be no air within it left. As it has no air within it, it would've lost its purpose, being unable to float anymore.
He had to do something to fix it, or else, he will continue losing elementals, eventually pushing him to fail this test. But what can he even do when he can't even see elementals within the air...
He only had the option to preserve through this test now.
Fortunately, the process was much slower than the given example. At least, Kirt could say that it was more than enough of a time even if he took 1 more hit.
However, he still has to be careful as the more elementals leaked from him, the lesser his performance would be.
Along with Kirt was many other people who had been taken surprise. They were similarly leaking their elementals and were currently much more serious than they were before.
While the cryo elemental spirit from before had already advanced to 2nd level and had its various abilities boosted. It included speed, and nimblesness. Others truly did feel awe and envy when they saw the elemental spirit dodging the attacks easily.
With the third wave, 7 elementals appearing and 5 from the sides, it was indeed becoming harder and harder to not get hit by them.
But as it was still easy, Kirt was able to dodge all of them without getting hit once.
Kirt continued dodging what came towards him, and only on the 6th wave, did he get hit.
But what could he have done anyway, the starting element attacks of this wave were 41 in total. Due to the position he held in the previous wave, he had been cornered by them, and what happened next was obvious.
He was hit.