The burly man went over to Tom who was sitting with a clip board.
"Are you all done choosing?" Burly man asked.
"Yeah, we got five with the potential to excel, all of the rest would just meet the bare minimum to be accepted within a few months." Tom said looking at the list.
"You accepted the kid who beat the beginner class beast." He nodded thoughtfully.
"So the sixth name you have circled, is the outlier. Do you know his strength?"
"Only that his wind was able to completely decimate about a quarter of my power with ease. He hasn't used darkness for offensive purposes, just defense." Tom replied truthfully.
"That's quite strange, well there one way to see if we can see his true strength. We will get him into the ring. Although I don't think I will have to be the one to do it." The burly man said while looking at a pouting Derek, who was currently complaining about his rear end being numb.
"Give me the list."
He returned to the crowd.
"All right listen up you all. This year we have six students who were accepted. The students whose names we call, will report to the main gates of the campus after school hours."
Everyone got quiet as they listened, hoping that they would be able to get in.
"Dylan, Ana, Janet, Derek Stouten, Taylor, and Alex." Everyone who made it in sighed in relief. Except for Alex who had already known he was in.
However one had a look of confusion on his face. 'Alex?' He looked around before spotting Alex.
'He never even took the test, does he think he can just get in through the back door.'
Derek spoke out his thoughts hoping to stir up the crowd. "Hold on sir. Alex never took the test, there must be some type of mistake."
Alex chuckled internally. 'This is the most politely he had heard Derek speak all day, he must be up to something.'
The crowd joined into the discussion many looked over at Alex, realizing that he indeed hadn't taken the test.
"Did he cheat?"
"I didn't see him."
"He must've used a back door."
Alex didn't mind what they thought, a small show of strength would be good enough to shut them up.
"Enough! Alex has already been tested by me. If you wanna question someone, then question my authority." Tom got the crowd in order.
"I have determined him to be a strong member for the hunting club in the future. If you guys want to judge him, I'm sure he wouldn't mind taking the test. I can assure you all that it is not necessary though." Tom finished.
He knew the most people wouldn't believe him, so he gave them the other option.
In the end most students had reached a consensus.
"Will you take the test?" The burly man asked
Alex only nodded calmly walking into the ring.
The Burly man smiled and repeated what he told everyone else. "You only have to survive for thirty seconds, you don't need to defeat what ever the AI summons."
Alex nodded.
The bell rung and the giant centipede quickly began morphing, Alex froze for a moment.
Before him he could see a massive dire wolf that was nearing the end of the expert class.
Remembering what happened to him, a torrent of emotions surfaced. Alex was standing in direct sunlight, but it looked like he was standing in shade. The giant dire wolf that had began to charge forward stopped suddenly. Dark masses ensnaring its feet in place. Alex lifted his arm in a slicing motion.
The noise of something shattering sounded as the wolf disappeared, leaving only a shattered beast core behind.
"Congratulations, you passed again Alex." The burly man said. He then tossed him out like the rest.
Alex landed softly.
Derek was shocked, he didn't understand Alex's fight was too easy the opponent was powerful but it didn't move to attack him.
"But sir, something is wrong the hologram didn't even try to attack him."
The Burly man only looked towards Alex.
"He must be cheat-" he stopped as he saw Alex's stare.
"Are you sure about that?" Alex said his hand doing the same motion once again.
Derek wanted to move, but when he saw Alex's stare, he could only remember seeing the wolf tough skin splitting like paper. Then seeing the wolf morph turning into him laying split down the middle not even able to defend himself.
'Maybe I overdid it.' Alex thought seeing that Derek had wet himself.
"Hahaha, someone take the boy to get a change of trousers." The Burly man laughed "And quit crowding around here, you all can't be only thinking of joining one club can you?"
"Alex can you come over and join me and Tom?" The Burly man asked.
"You can come too Taylor." The man continued seeing him standing there awkwardly.
Taylor smiled and followed Alex.
"I'm sorry about the hologram. I wasn't planning on destroying it, but I also didn't expect it to take that form." Alex said hoping the man wasn't upset with him.
"It's all good, Tom is the one who will be paying for it. Isn't that right Tom?"
"Huh, yeah. Wait what, I am!" An absent minded Tom replied.
The burly man only held out a hand. Tom sighed reaching into his bag pulling out an expert class beast core.
"See all good! So Alex do you think you could take out a master class beast? The power of the hologram was limited to expert, seemed like you could fight a bit of a stronger opponent." The man asked.
"It was a lot easier to to defeat than last time I fought it, but a master class beast has more energy. Maybe. The fight would be a little too dangerous for my taste though. If I had a few club mates to help out though, I think it would be quite easy." Alex said.
The Burly man nodded thoughtfully. "And you Taylor, I know your father says your power with a sword is unparalleled."
A Taylor who was continually impressed by Alex answered. "With my sword in hand I could easily help with taking down a master class beast, but much like Alex I wouldn't have much of an easy time fighting it one on one."
"Haha very good. You hear that Tom? From today on I'd like to add an extra job in for you and James. Take Alex and Taylor to help you hunt some master class beasts. I expect a minimum of one per week, and that number will increase by one every month. I expect some proficient hunters before the end of the year." The burly man couldn't contain his joy and spoke up in a louder voice.
"Hey James listen up, this year the hunting club will take first place in the hunting competitions, anything else is not acceptable." The burly man yelled to a James who was about to doze off.
James sat up quickly hearing the loud voice, wiping his mouth and just smiling when he heard what Timothy had yelled. 'As if we could lose with the amount of talent we have been given. Our school will be having multiple first place trophies for the next few years, and not just in the hunting club.' He smirked towards Paul who was being swarmed by students.
James gave a big thumbs up while checking the time.
Timothy smiled and whispered to Tom. "Train them well, they will be your replacements. Also don't sell the parts from the beasts, store them. Don't want them to be left with a mediocre combat suit, after all the supply John left behind has run dry."
Tom had a look of understanding on his face. 'The two of them are very powerful, it would hurt them to fight things that didn't challenge them.'
Their towns have seen rare affinities, but they are always dragged off to get professional training. The only exceptions were dark mages and the Grievenor family, who had ties with higher ups in the high school.
Alex looked back to the ring as he thought back. 'My dark affinity would only be able to hold it into place for a few seconds, and the spacial wind blade had to pierce through a lot of wind energy that the wolf had contained inside it. It took a lot of effort to keep it from falling apart.'
'I should be stronger than I was then, but the only thing that had changed greatly is my range. Today is probably the first day that I've managed to increase my power by a big margin, and it will only continue to be that way thanks to my new discoveries.'
'Still what was it called a fury. When I was in a fury I took on four of those things, how did my spacial control increase so much was it because of my emotions.' Alex was lost in his thoughts as per usual.
An epiphany hit Alex like a truck. 'If I can join the competitions this year then she can too, will I see her?'
"Hey you, I thought you were good with a weapon. I didn't know that you were stronger without one. Jeez dude that was sick. Your wind affinity is no joke." Taylor said to Alex who was just staring off into the distance.
"So how do you feel after the fight, at least one of your energy reserves must be low, if not both?"
Alex came back to reality and chuckled. "It took almost all of my dark energy, and a tenth of my wind. I have no doubt you would have gotten it in one shot as well if you had your weapon, am I right."
"Of course I could. I am just complimenting the amount of patience you have in order to have your affinities be so powerful."
"Oh thank you." Alex replied he began to get a plan for the future, but he would need to see Taylor's for personality before he was sure.
"It's good to see that Dylan got into the club first try." Alex said suddenly.
"Why's that?" Taylor asked.
"He has the weakest affinity within the nearest towns, so many people mocked him when he came to school and controlled only a few pebbles. He really has gotten far." Alex said reminiscing. "Shame I didn't get to see the fight." 'With my real eyes that is.'
"Truly is a shame, he was the only one other than you to defeat the hologram." Tom spoke up "he will be a strong fighter in the future if he keeps up his training."
"Oh really? That thing Jeez. What about the other two, Ana and Janet?" Asked Taylor.
"They managed to survive like you did, getting in a good hit and had good critical thinking. Those three managed to get a higher score on combat potential than Derek." Tom replied answering Taylor's question.
Taylor chuckled. "He really is too prideful."
"Boo." Taylor jumped as he heard a voice behind him.
James laughed as he had successfully scared someone. "Aww come on Alex I had to have scared you a little bit too." He said in between breaths.
"Ahhh a ghost!" Alex said in fake shock.
"You need to work on your acting a bit." James said after he caught his breath.
"Anyways it's about that time we should start heading over to potions and begin your tests."
"Ah, yeah we should." Taylor said trying to act like he wasn't embarrassed, and failing.
"See you in an hour Timothy, you too Tom." James said.
"See ya."
"Bye." Alex and Taylor said farewell to the instructor and captain.
Timothy and Tom only nodded and waved in reply. "Good kids, and a strange pair to be seen together. Although I guess Daniel and Michael are no different." Timothy said to James after they had left.
"There personality mix real well. It may have something to do with their affinities. After all you can't have light without darkness." James replied.
"Agreed. I never would have thought I would see the acceptance of dark mages in the kingdom of light." He said looking to the sky. "It feels good, I hope it continues to get better."