*Tring* Simon had been sitting in his chair, complacently sipping on his coffee when suddenly the screen in front of him reacted to an alarm. As soon as the score was updated on the board, his eyes opened wide in surprise.
"This can't be!" The assistants beside him witnessed the man slip on his feet, slowly approaching the screen. "Is this.. for real?" Simon had no idea how to react to this situation? How long has it been since he had seen someone score more than 50 points in a single round? Probably years.
Understandably, the entire hall was in an uproar. "What the heck is that?" Christina was the first to react. "Can you score more than 50 in a round?" Her question was directed toward her brother, who can only shake his head in a bewildering manner.
"That's what we were told. 50 points were to be the perfect score." Chris's gaze never left the screen as he responded to his sister. Christina was not having it. "Mr. Simon.. how.. how is this possible?" The expression on the face of the maiden told everyone how desperate she was for an answer.
The instructor turned to look back at her before shaking his head in self-ridicule. "Hahaha... I am a fool haha.." Such was the occasion that Simon didn't hesitate in even insulting himself. His mind was elated beyond belief.
"Listen up, ignorant creatures. When you enter the combat chamber, the stage will evaluate your physical and mental aptitude. That's the reason you guys must have felt dizzy when you first landed in there." The twins along with a few others pecked their heads, confirming his words.
"The magic circle inside the chamber then compares your abilities vis-a-vis the complexity of the stages. A score of perfect can be achieved when the Gamma trial deems you worthy and you end up defeating the stage with minimal efforts and time."
Simon cleared his throat, waiting for the individuals in the hall to soak up the knowledge. "However... every once in a blue moon, a person appears who is deemed unworthy by the trial, and yet, with all odds stacked against them, he or she manages to win. Only in such a unique case, the stage will overcompensate the participant with extra points." Simon's eyes twinkled when he mentioned this.
Chris turned to gaze at the shock in Christina's eyes. She too blinked twice as if unable to digest the facts. "Are you telling me that he was evaluated as 'unworthy' by the stage?" She directed her question back at the instructor.
The smile on Simon's face spread from ear to ear. "There is no other explanation for this anomaly." He said, pointing to the screen that was displaying 'Stage two in progress!' now. "This boy.. he is a genius!!" Simon can feel butterflies fluttering in his stomach, rubbing his palms in excitement.
In a different room, Gloria and Tracey still had their jaws opened wide. Both of them stared at each other, not able to come up with words that could exhibit their internal hysteria.
"Am I seeing things?" Tracey dramatically rubbed her eyes. "Do you remember..? The last one to do this was only Ms. Rivia." She remarked, noticing Gloria's fingers curl into fists.
"Yes... I remember." She responded after a good while. "Not to mention she achieved this feat in the fourth and fifth stages, not in the first bloody stage.. tchh..!" Gloria had was blank with regards to how she should deal with this situation. As such her emotions went for a toss. This boy simply emerged out of nowhere.
Tracey shook her head. "Also, Ms. Rivia's score never exceeded the perfect score by ten points. So what's with this absurd 25 extra points?" For sure she had been looking forward to Aron putting on a performance for them. Nonetheless, what in the world was this?
There is no way they can believe that a random slave can be more talented than the famed Rivia Rutherford. No.. that thought never even crossed the duo's mind. "You think he cheated?" Despite her initial high regard for Aron's enhanced physicality, Tracey was now having genuine doubts about her own evaluation, such had been the absurdity of the development.
Gloria stopped in place for a second before shaking her head confidently. "I would say this is more of a misjudgment on the trial's part. Cheating is out of question." Tracey didn't refute her claims, rather a discrepancy sounded a lot better.
"Huh... I almost had a heart attack there." She took deep breaths calming down her wrecked nerves. At the same time, Gloria wiped the sweat off her forehead, stepping closer to the screen that was recording Aron's trials. 'You won't get lucky every time..!' She bit on her lips while the boy on the screen got back to his feet, realizing that the second stage has begun.
***
"Huuu... Easy.. don't be too excited.." In the combat chamber, Aron repeatedly took deep breaths, in order to relax his twitching limbs. Mana coagulated in some distance from himself, as his new opponent took shape.
*Quuii* *Quiii* "Another magic beast?" Aron can see a figure being revealed. Once the bipedal creature was revealed, he was at a loss as to how to classify it. *Quuii* The thing looked exactly like a large plant standing on two legs.
It had a flower for a face and two long leaves, sharp as blades, swished all around itself. Instead of a combative creature, this guy looked rather adorable. *QUUIIII* Right when Aron was about to underestimate the opponent, the plant creature extended all of its limbs.
Small spores germinated along its slim length, increasingly getting bigger every second. "Poison..? Shit...!" With the lack of proper knowledge about his enemy, he could only assume the worse. Instantly his body sprung into action, not wasting a single second.
*Quuii* *Boom* *Boom* He was too late. The plant began spinning in its place, throwing the overgrown spores all over the field. As soon as the spores, the size of small fruit landed on the ground, they exploded. Green smoke was released from each spore, congealing into a thick miasma that blocked the visibility.
Aron stopped his breathing, not bothering to halt his mad dash toward the creature. If the smoke was really poison, he would have to put an end to this stage immediately. Muscles in his legs constrained giving him a final thrust that sent him flying across the field.
"Hmm?" Aron was certain he had not missed his mark. Yet, there was no sign of the creature anymore. Not to mention his sight had been rendered effectively useless because of the thick smoke covering the entire arena now.
Blinded, he can only try to follow faint squeals that must be originating from the plant. 'This guy.. he is playing with me.' Realizing the futility of his actions, the boy came to a stop, albeit still holding onto his breath.
*Swish* As expected, right when he came to a stop, the plant guy probably sensed it and launched an attack. Too bad, Aron can tell the exact direction it was approaching. *Slash* The plant came spinning like a top, instantly attacking him with two back-to-back strikes from its sharp leaves.
Although he noticed its approach, that didn't mean Aron was fast enough to stop the attack. He saved his chest from the first slash, but the next one sliced a wound in his lower abdomen.
"It's fast..!" Just as fast as it showed itself, the plant disappeared right into the gree miasma once again. Aron took a step back, quickly checking on his wound. Thankfully, it didn't do much damage, with some blood leaking from it.
Out of nowhere, Aron suddenly felt a wave of rage taking over his mind at the sight of his spilled blood. His ears picked up the sound of the spinning plant returning for another attack. He could not tell, but his canines had grown by an inch at the same moment.
This time he had been waiting. *Clutch* His hand clamped the face of the plant and the boy jumped up. *BANG* A single explosion and the smoke began clearing up. Aron can be seen with his right hand crushing the head of the plant into a mush. There was no life left in its body.
"Hahh.." Stepping back, he tore off a piece of his shirt and used it to tie his long hair into a knot. He certainly could not see the redness that had spread across his eyes. Thankfully, once the stage was cleared his eyes gradually returned to normal.
"What happened to me?" Gazing down at the wound on his left abdomen, Aron recalled the sudden surge of anger he had felt towards the creature. He was not someone with a weak tolerance level.
Not thinking much about it, he filled his lungs back with fresh air, now that the smoke had disappeared. Unbeknownst, to Aron the green smoke had no other use than blinding his vision. The academy doesn't allow the use of poison in the trials, not for the first-year students at least.
***
*Tring* 'Second stage cleared!!' 'Score: 145!' The new scoreboard was updated once again within minutes of the second stage commencing. Simon reacted by clapping his hands with a blatant smile on his face.
"70 again? Please tell me this is a dream?" Christina pinched her arm, only to find she was absolutely livid. "Ahahaha.. awesome. Who would have known? I was wrong.. I thought brother Aron might not be able to able to duel with me.. but now.. hehe.. I can't wait." Chris smashed his fists together, creating a flash of crimson flames.
In the other room, Gloria felt her knees give up. "This is impossible..!" Tracey on the other hand didn't know if she should laugh or cry, her expression displaying a range of emotions.
"Esshh..!! I am going mad.." She pretty much clutched the ends of her hair in amusement. At this point, one thing was sure.. this was no discrepancy as they had earlier assumed. "What should we do, Gloria? Inform the teachers?"
"Ahh.." Gloria sighed deeply. Her heart could not take this anymore. This day had been overly tumultuous. "I don't know.. let's wait for him to at least finish the trails." Tracey nodded in support. Nobody wanted to miss such a historic event in making.
***
Ten minutes later Aron's hands crashed and finally crushed his opponent to the ground. Though a simple clay golem was certainly not a bad match for his physical strength, just the fact that this was stage three meant that the golem was extremely hardy.
It was simply a contest of brute strength. Eventually, the boy came on top. Having saved his mana in the start, he used everything he had got to deliver a crushing blow towards the end. The stage had been cleared and Aron sat down cross-legged, recovering both his depleted mana and stamina.
"What should I do..?" When he dropped to this place, his goal had been to complete stage two and try to win the third. This would have been counted as a will in this level of the screening examination.
Nevertheless, here he stood after defeating the third stage. "Should I give up..?" On one hand, he didn't want to attract too much attention to himself, and on the other, the thrill of challenging the next stage felt too stimulating to give up on.
"Let's hope Julia and Ms. Yana can clean up if I mess things up.." This attitude was certainly out of character for the boy. Even so, his curiosity won in the end. "I can give it a try.. yeah, let's do that."
Coming up with an excuse to probably give up midway through the stage, he evaluated his condition. This mana had more or less recovered in the elapsed ten minutes, but the same can not be said about his bruised body.
Too bad, the time was up. *Sshh* Aron watched the mana in the air coalesce into each other, taking an ambiguous shape. "This is bad.." Was the first thought that came to his mind. The figure standing in front of him.. was an elemental.
< Kudos!!>>