'That's my second hit' Kirt thought inside his mind. It was fortunate that his control was more skillful than the others, otherwise, he was sure he would've gotten hit the third time after getting hit just right before.
'Perhaps, they've already have been hit three times or even disqulified' thinking that, he looked towards others, only to get surprised by what he saw.
They seemed to be relatively fine!
'How can they be?' as the question surfaced in Kirt's mind, he suddenly noticed an obvious detail.
They seemed to be... hiding inside a certain area with all of them side by side?
There were many elemental spirits gathered within a certain corner, as their leaked elemental spirits formed a wall, defending them from the elemental attacks. The attacks would either dissipate or go another way once they encountered the elemental wall, shielding the elemental spirits within completely.
'Ah, was that the point or the trick of this test? Finding advantage from weaknesses and then cooperation to utilize it?' it was truly a thing to sigh.
'While I was trying my best to dodge, I didn't even notice this open detail. Maybe I have, but I just chose to ignore it and not think much about it' There was one only such group, and it almost had 60 elemental spirits contained within it.
The others not within it would just be like Kirt, dodging and evading the attacks by themselves. They looked pretty miserable.
There should be at least one other wave left now and in this one, he might just get disqualified, being unable to dodge attacks.
Therefore, he decided to enter this group of people, trying to see who was the leader.
The people didn't reject him either, well, it would be better to say they didn't pay attention to him or just didn't notice him.
After some looking around, it was clear who were the leaders. One of them was a hydro elemental spirit, the one that seemed to be leading the group and moving obviously in order to direct the group while the other was the cryo elemental spirit from before.
The fearsome elemental spirit that had now already become level 2.
It took the lead's role, actively controlling the elementals leaked to form a wall with its own elementals.
Since the elemental spirit it controlled was a level 2, it could more or less control its own elemental spirits; plus, because it was of higher quality than the level 1s', it could be the boundary that made the other elementals contained within it.
This allowed them to form walls, otherwise, they would've just disintegrated into the air and wander separately from each other.
The 7th wave began, however, this time, the total number of elemental attacks generated was the same as the previous one - 28. This left people puzzled but they didn't put much mind to it.
They didn't even need to do anything, they only had to go to the border of the group and stay there. It would be better if they had been hit at least once, and at that, twice would be better, as not getting hit wouldn't leak much amount of elementals, which were crucial to the forming of the walls that protected them.
Strangely, the elemental attacks this time seemed to be more special than the other waves'; their color seemed more intense.
Kirt could see that most likely due to being the last wave, it was more special than the others.
The thing was, they can't possibly say or hear anything so he can't even know if they had noticed this problem. This was a slightly troublesome matter but just in case, Kirt decided to move around and get to a place that would likely not get hit by the attacks.
...
As the visible wall made of elementals formed on the front and the two sides of the group, the 41 elemental orbs of attacks came rushing forward. Its speed was fast and they were radiating bright and resplendant colors. Its speed was almost as fast as Kirt's previous speed in this body.
They came closer and closer to us and soon, they had already reached our walls.
The four walls and the elemental attacks collided with each other, thinning the three walls; but along with the wall, so did the number of the elemental orbs decrease. After a period of time, the three walls were just one step away from collapsing, yet, there were still 5 orbs left.
They can't take on another attack, and the elemental spirits who had noticed this problem were obviously thrown into a surprise.
!
'As I expected, the defense didn't manage to hold up. However, ... the placement of the 5 attacks seemed to be out of order, almost as if it was avoiding certain places.
'Does that mean that cryo elemental had intentionally increased the density of some areas? So, it did notice the problem as well.'
Unlike him, the others weren't prepared at all. Earlier, the leading hydro elemental spirit seemed to be moving around, trying to say something but they didn't manage to understand anything, resulting in them not being prepared.
Lack of communication made the situation worse, resulting in the chaos that was currently happening.
Now, there were about 20 or so elemental spirits that had gotten hit by the attacks. However, due to the earlier chaos, the bodies of the elementals had mixed in and intruded each other, making 8 people directly dissipate. As for the rest, they had either evaded or by the time the elemental attacks reached them, they had already lost their power due to hitting many others previously.
Fortunately, due to preparing beforehand, Kirt belonged to the latter group.
"The third stage: It will be directly related to the strength of your connection between yourself and the elemental spirit. But before that, you will be given a time of one minute to fix yourself; as now, massive amounts of elementals will be released into the room"
As soon as the instructor's voice ended, Kirt and many others felt something in the air change. It felt just as if they had a certain connection with this thing and currently needed it strongly, just like how a man who hadn't drunk water for a long time needed water.
They may not be able to sense elementals but if the amount was this much, even they could feel it.
These were the wandering elementals!
Since all the elemental spirits within this room felt this change, they quickly began pulling in the surrounding elementals and in no time at all, Kirt felt the amount of elementals within the air decrease relatively.
This just showed how much they were striving for these.
Because the elemental spirit I was controlling also had a hole on itself, I began pulling in the surrounding elementals just like the others.
I concentrated my mind and extended it beyond this body and then imagined a pulling force pulling all of the elementals around me. The pulled elementals would then head towards the hole on this body and then station themselves there, blocking the flow.
A few wouldn't do the trick but when they layered upon each other more and more, they would eventually fix the problem.
After a few seconds, I was already done with it, with this body now in the state it was before I marked it, perfect; mostly due to the contribution of the massive amount of elementals set for me to absorb and use it.
"The third stage and also the last will now begin. What will happen at this stage is that an intersection will be released that will try to sever your connection with the elemental spirit. The strength of the intersection will be stronger the longer you last, and the total duration of the third stage will be a minute."
As soon as the instructor's words had ended, Kirt did indeed feel a force interfering with his mind.
It was trying to sever his connection with the elemental spirit as Kirt could feel a faint headache coming.
It wasn't strong but the more I lasted, it became stronger and stronger that eventually, it was tiring my head out, giving me severe headaches.
"Ugh" If he was in his body, Kirt definitely would've brought his finger to his temple and try to put pressure on it in order to alleviate the pain even a bit.
Severe headaches struck me, as I felt the connection between the elemental spirit and me becoming weaker and weaker. If I don't grasp it right now, it will get cut forcefully...
Within the VR capsule, Kirt could be seen with brows that were furrowed deeply and an expression that indicated pain. However, after some time, the pair of eyes opened themselves, and looked forward, revealing pitch-black pupils.
It was very dark and had a distant red hue, appearing very strange.
Soon enough, the furrowed brows eventually unfurrowed themselves and so did the pained expression go away.
The VR capsule had calmed his mind.
'It should've been around 35 seconds when the connection severed; my overall score of the first part is rather good, I say.'
Kirt thought as the door in front of him automatically opened. He pushed his body and left the capsule; along with him also seemed to be a few other people coming out of their capsule while he could also see others that have already left their own. They were with other people or was just standing in a corner, without talking to anyone.
Most of the VR capsules had now been opened, but there still seemed to be a few that were closed, indicating that the people inside hadn't failed the last stage yet.
One of the capsules was right next to him.
'1... 2... 3... 10... 11' Kirt began counting as he looked towards the capsule next to him as he had nothing other to do.
He was just standing there, looking at the capsule blankly.
'This is definitely a top score, with the intensity currently on there, it should definitely be enough to sever my connection ten times over.'
'14... 15... 16'
The time only kept increasing and Kirt saw no sign of the door opening.
He checked it again, whether to see if it was one that had already started, and he didn't see wrong at first indeed; it was still an already started VR capsule that contained a person inside of it - a person that had yet to fail the 3rd stage of the first part.
Now, even others have gathered around the capsule, looking at how long this person will last.
'18... 19... 20. This is 55 right?'
"53... 54... 55"
Everyone looked at the capsule in anticipation, as currently, it was the only one left. The others have long left and was doing their things, which, most of them were watching this capsule. After all, who wouldn't want to see a genius?
This person should be around the top this year, far from people like them; therefore, they wanted to satiate their curiousity.
"56-" just as the time was going to reach 56, the door of the capsule opened; even chilly white air could be seen coming out of its gaps, making her look like main characters in movies coming out of their slumber for years.
As the door slowly opened itself, a person came out. But before that, everyone could see a drooping white sleeve extend from the capsule, then, there was another one.
After that, the person was finally revealed.
A female with white-hair and a white suit that depicted a blue flower. She had ocean-like blue eyes but at the moment, there was a whiteness that plagued it, making people feel cold just from seeing them.
There was no gentleness she had in her eyes before, instead, she had a condescending look, and combined with her other attributes, it reminded people of goddesses.
"Is she the cryo elemental spirit from before?" the surrounding people subconsciously connected the strong and powerful cryo elemental spirit along with this person, as she was also exuding a cryo aura.
Not to mention, the aura she was exuding had a sense of familiarity with the mark on the elemental spirit before.
Earlier, the people had been annoyed, saying complaints to the instructor how there was a level 2 elemental spirit among them; not to mention it had almost got all of the glories from the three stages.
Her score was sure to be very high, and this made people uncomfortable.
To Kirt, he also didn't know the reason and he also felt curiousity towards the reason.
If it was something that truly originated just from this person, be it talent or anything, he would accept the fact; however, if the system really did favor someone instead of them... he would also feel a bit uncomfortable.
However, what to say about it, one had to adapt in this unfair world.
After remembering the elemental mark on the cryo elemental spirit, the people was prepared to determine who was the person. As the mark contained the aura of the person, if they were to see the person in real life display their elemental power, they might be able to distinguish who they were.
And at the moment, everyone knew this person was the cryo elemental spirit from before, after seeing the whiteness in her eyes.
Many people were prepared to call the owner of this level 2 cryo elemental spirit from before but after seeing her... they had become hesitant.
Her looks, the aura she was radiating, or even the clothes she wore, they weren't to be lightly taken notice of.
Even if she had cheated and the test was biased towards her, they can only accept it.
Even the faint thought that it was her talent that made the elemental spirit level 2 had been born in their minds. This thought, once it had been born, rose in probability and chances, making them feel like this was more and more likely to be the case.
Eventually, there weren't many people believing she had cheated, even further, there was now no one prepared to call her out.