"I did, you're Gobson Duck."
Even the guy behind Greyson, who had been watching with the anticipation of a fight, burst out laughing at Nero's comment.
"Do some research, kid. Greyson Darc. Youngest son of Philbert Darc."
At this, Senna stiffened slightly. She tugged on Nero's sleeve. "Forget him. We've got better things to worry about."
The one good thing about meeting Greyson Darc was that it took their minds away from the appraisals for a good fifteen minutes. Now that their attention had been redirected to the matter at hand, nervousness once again made its appearance.
"What class of espers would you guys want to be, if you could pick?" asked Senna. "Many people disagree with me, but I think the Pernat class is pretty good."
"What's Pernat?" asked Ophelia. "And what are 'classes'?"
"Okay, there are three main classes of espers," said Senna, holding up three fingers. "The most common of the three is the elemental type, which lets you manipulate everything related to a certain element. It can be anything; water, air, oil, wood, plastic - these espers are also known as Ipula-class espers.
The second class is the Tamor-class, which are espers with augmented physical abilities. Superhuman strength falls under this category, but so does elemental transfiguration like turning into fire, or making your skin take on the texture of rock. There's also a rare subset of espers who take on animal traits - but those are pretty useless, because there's isn't much you can do with a beak or claws. All of them fall under the Tamor-class.
The third class are the Pernat-class espers. They're essentially utility-type espers - they can do stuff like [Clean], [Cook], or [Charge] - stuff like that. Their powers are based largely on imagination, so it's one of the most versatile esper classes out there. Problem is, you can't apply Pernat skills to anything you want: you can [Smoke] a rib, but you can't [Smoke] through an essay. Likewise, there's a limit on identical words - you can [Wind] up a toy, but you can't control the wind like an Ipula-class esper."
"Are there any espers that hold more than one power?" asked Ophelia. They were getting close to the gates now; only two people separated the next person from Ophelia, who had been moved to the front by Senna.
"It's very rare, but yes. There are also classes outside of the main three, like the Rito-class, but those only come about once every generation, so I don't think we'll be seeing any of them anytime soon."
"What's the Rito-class?" asked Nero, watching a dejected applicant walking back out.
"I don't fully know how to explain it, but they can take control of an entire area and render all conflicting esper abilities useless. There was a Rito-class esper who could conjure up a swamp with a 40m radius, and its waters were unaffected by [Hydrokinesis] Ipula-classes."
"What can you do with a swamp?" wondered Nero. "How would you even use it in a building?"
"The swamp spreads out from the caster, so just imagine a massive swamp pouring out of the windows of your apartment, and your stuff being destroyed by trees and vines."
Now that they were next in line, they could clearly see how the appraisal process was carried out. Each applicant was seated at a small chair, and made to put on five different rings. They also had to put on some sort of strange, halo-shaped headpiece that went over their eyes.
It was obvious whether or not you passed the appraisals, even to the spectators. After a few seconds of putting on the testing equipment, the halo band would light up. Green meant that you passed, and red meant that you failed. There was also the occasional blue flash, where the appraiser would then recalibrate a few things and test again. A blue flash was by no means indicative of a green or red; Nero had seen both outcomes happen.
And finally, the guard motioned to Ophelia to step through. Nero stepped forward to wish her luck, and was pulled into a big hug instead.
"Good luck," said Nero, squeezing her tightly. Ophelia nodded, her lips pale, and patted Senna on the back - whose demeanour had become identical to that of a statue. Senna mumbled a short "All the best", and watched as Ophelia headed down to her station.
Barely ten seconds after Ophelia walked off, it was Senna's turn. Nero bade her good luck as well, and stood alone in front of the gates.
There was a lot to think about. In his mind, Nero had always thought that being an esper would bring about the promise of amazing new powers, but after listening to Senna, it appeared that there were a lot of uninteresting abilities too.
For one, he couldn't justify the price of the tuition fees if he ended up with an ability that allowed him to glow in the dark. Nor did he want an ability that would be more trouble than it was worth - like the swamp esper, for example.
Fortunately, or otherwise, there didn't seem to be any indication that they would be knowing their esper powers that day. All those who had passed the appraisals went on to proceed into the administration building, and had yet to come out.
Nero watched Ophelia anxiously, both wanting and fearing the result. No sooner had she slipped on the rings than another person got up and left - it was his turn to enter now.
"Station 1," said the guard. "Good luck."