"I just press these buttons?" Marcellus asked standing in front of what looked like an Arcade gaming machine.
"Yes", The man in uniform answered while entering the card he took from Marcellus into a slot on the machine.
"There are three buttons of colours red, green and blue on both sides and then there's a big button at the bottom of the panel. On the display, you will see two colours pop up. You need to press the button on your left and right panels accordingly and then lock in your input with the big button on the bottom."
Marcellus thought it was easy. He was pretty good at video games and that was what the test was looking like.
For the first ten blinks, the colours on the screen changed exactly once every second but After the ten blinks, the colours changed twice every second. The machine was programmed to double its speed after every ten blinks. Marcellus was forced to use fusion in his head and fingers to keep up.
The test was over within two minutes after he made his first error. He stood up frustrated,
"Damn I slipped up,".
The man watched Marcellus in shock.
"Are you actually upset?" The man asked.
Marcellus just dumbfoundedly stared at him in silence with the hint of annoyance still in his face.
"That was insane," The man said taking the card out from the machine.
"Your score is close to that of an A-grade," The man said trying to inform Marcellus how great his feat was.
"So not exactly an A grade," Marcellus said looking disappointed as he grabbed his hair, "Ah man, I swear I could have done better,"
The man looked at Yahiko who was watching in silence, He showed no reaction.
Yahiko knew that Marcellus should have a better score than him on this test. Marcellus had always been faster and more perceptive than him and if not for his upper hand in fusion, he would not be able to best Marcellus in combat.
Before they entered the third room Marcellus asked Yahiko to show his card. The card was designed to pop up a display whenever the blue region was swiped with a finger.
"So, You have 4.9 in fusion but 3.8 in speed and I have 3.9 in fusion and 4.9 in speed, I'm winning so far" Marcellus grinned in the most annoying manner Yahiko could find one to be.
However, Marcellus knew that Yahiko would take the next one. Marcellus had been gradually increasing his overall aura and the gap between him and Yahiko had thinned but he could tell that Yahiko still had a larger mana pool than himself.
The last test was about the mana pool. This test had proved to be the most challenging out of all the other tests. To assess the quality of someone's overall aura, several different parameters had to be determined. The total aura that an awakened could produce before getting exhausted, The amount of aura output at any given instance or the time before they could replenish their mana after being exhausted. The determination of these was very troublesome for the powerful Awakened. Any Awakened above A tier would take days to exhaust their mana. It would be very dangerous to the surroundings even if a B tier released their full-fledged aura at once. And if it came to S tier and above, it would require the same amount of preparation and precautions needed for nuclear weapon testing.
In fact, the true potential of those in the S plus tier remained undetermined. They could only use assumed numbers even for the S tiers.
This was the reason they had to optimize the test. This test could produce near accurate output for those up to S tiers. The candidates were required to produce a minimum amount of aura for as long as they could. The minimum amount was what the average of the lowest tiers could produce consistently for a second. If the aura amount fluctuated below that threshold it would mean the end of the test. The threshold aura was not harmful to the surroundings and it gave the basic idea of their mana pool as well as the aura production rate. The only drawback was that the stronger ones had to sit in front of the machine channelling their aura for a long time. A few impatient ones had even caused scenes for having to go through it for hours.
There were about 12 machines in the room. Each looked like an Atm machine and the people who came before them were seated in front of the machine with both of their hands placed on what looked like a crystal ball.
"How long does it take?" Marcellus asked the lady in charge of that room.
"It depends on your mana," the tall lady replied with an expression hinting that she had been on duty for quite a long time.
Marcellus and Yahiko went to the two available machines close to each other. The lady followed them to instruct them on how to carry on with the procedure.
"Channel your aura into that sphere, start with a very low amount and gradually increase your aura until the sphere glows in green light. The test starts when it turns green. you need to consistently channel the same amount of aura into the sphere. If your aura fluctuates below that level at any point, the sphere stops glowing and the test will end." She said calmly.
"What if I have the urge to itch while doing it?" Marcellus asked out of genuine concern.
"Please start, it might take a long time," She said and headed back to her table.
Yahiko was holding his laughter at how she completely disregarded Marcellus's remark.
"You can use one hand if you can still maintain your aura output," The lady said sitting down.
After about 30 minutes, all the other people who came before them were already done with the test or rather could only last 30 minutes. In fact, out of the candidates who came in, most would finish within 5 minutes. Some even finished within seconds.
They would get up in frustration and look at the two men sitting aside each other who seemed to be having the time of their life. Marcellus had his right hand on the sphere and the left covered his eyes as he looked like he was taking a nap. Yahiko was swiping at his phone with his right hand while he sent off his aura with his left.
About ten people who had come after the two had already left. They would all throw a curious glance at Marcellus and Yahiko before leaving, The lady did not seem to care though. Thirty minutes was not a big deal for her. She had watched a couple of S classes go through with this test and those were an awful lot of time but still, being able to do things like playing with their phone or even taking a light nap was not something low-grade Awakened could do.
"They must actually be B class," She thought to herself while typing on the keyboard.
Marcellus was woken up from his light nap by a burst of instantaneous but powerful aura coming from the next room. With his one hand still attached to the sphere, he looked at Yahiko who seemed to be already aware of the aura.
"They are already in the next room, How long has it been?" Marcellus asked Yahiko.
"More than two hours," Yahiko replied.
The lady was starting to get anxious. It had already been 2 hours and 30 minutes since both of them had started the test. After working for so long she could tell what tier the candidates would fall in based on their time score. Any Awakened of or below C tier would be done within 13 minutes. Since the points scaled on the power of tens it meant an awakened a tier above another one was most likely to have ten times more potent aura. It also meant that with increasing tier the time spent by them on the sphere would also increase drastically.
A B tier aura bearer could last anywhere between 16 minutes to 166 minutes. An Awakened lasting more than 166 minutes would fall under the A tier. She checked their cards again on the computer.
"Both have scored 4.9 in at least one test. That's so close to an A tier. Did they train really hard to maximize each of those skills to this point or are they still developing?" She thought to herself. Her curiosity was growing by the minute. An awakened will always have their aura score higher than the score of their other two tests. Except for a few rare cases it was unheard of to have any of those test scores greater than the aura score. It was because The aura was the main concept of one's true potential. You can hone your skills as far as your aura allows you to. Even if someone had an A tier aura they will most likely begin by having a C or D tier fusion and with training, they will certainly reach A tier fusion or speed eventually.
However, the aura score also acted as the indication of the threshold to their growth. An Awakened with A tier aura will never be able to reach S tier fusion.
What mattered most was having a higher score on the other two tests only meant the possibility of an even higher aura score.
She looked at the time again, 161 minutes had passed. She stared at the two boys in disbelief. She was about to press a button on her keyboard when a group of people entered the room from another test room. It was the two ladies from the first room and the man from the second room followed by an old man and a very pretty lady.
"What happened?" She asked the younger lady who was anxiously walking towards her.
"It's Ivanna, "The young lady said trying her best to suppress her shriek, then she shook her head violently, "No wait, that's not even the main issue. That old man scored 5.0 and 5.7 on his tests and then Ivanna-"
"5? so he is an A tier?"
"Listen to the whole thing first, yes apparently he is an A tier. That's what the score suggests but then Ivanna showed up and scored 6.2 and 6.3 on her tests. " She said in one breath.
"Isn't she that singer who goes by the nickname of The Goddess? So she awakened as an actual goddess?"
"That's why we are gathered here, She is not the goddess but the Pacifier and that old man belongs to her clan,"
The lady looked at the faces of other staff. She finally understood why they all looked like that. An S tier pacifier and A tier angel could only be from an S plus clan. The discovery of an S plus tier was a very huge deal. It needed to be dealt with very carefully. An S plus tier awakened would be strong enough to cause continental level destruction. The UN would immediately try to recruit them into the force or have them sign a Non-aggression pact, where they would agree not to use their powers in a way that might cause harm to the normal people.
"Why are you all here?" Marcellus almost stood up from his chair.
"Oh, you guys are not done yet?" Davidson said walking towards them and started observing the machine they were sending the aura to.
"What happened old man?" Yahiko asked sensing the anxiousness in the face of other people in the room.
"Ah, It seems Miss Ivanna and I have caught their attention. Apparently, our scores are a big deal so they want us to talk to some big names from the UN," He said calmly.
Marcellus and Yahiko looked at each other but they weren't surprised. They expected the seniors of the Clan to have an influence like that. Both of them could not help but feel proud.
"How long does this one take?" Ivanna asked looking at the staff, She wanted to be done with it and head to where Kael was.
"Well, it's pretty much decided that You are an S tier, so it could take anywhere between 27 hours to even weeks," The younger lady answered nervously, "But how do you know them?", Then she asked looking at the two men.
"Same clan," Ivanna replied.
"No wonder, they looked extraordinary," The lady said remembering how she was impressed by them earlier but mostly it was because they were good looking. She turned red and looked around nervously as if someone would peek through her thoughts.
"So how long have they been at it?" She asked the lady from the final room.
The question hit her like lightning as she quickly hurried to her desk as she remembered what she was doing prior to them entering the room. After reading their time on the display she looked at the other staff who were curiously watching her.
"They have both passed the 166 minutes mark," She said with her eyes wide open.
"That would mean-", The younger lady was too lost in her thoughts to complete her sentence.
"Do you all really belong to the same clan?" the man from the second room asked to confirm because this would mean something incredible.
The four nodded in agreement.
"This would mean that there are 3 A tier angels in a single clan. There is only one other clan with a roster like this, The clan of Zeus, the god that is said to be the strongest of all,"