Aron had no idea how much time had passed when he woke up to a gut wrenching pain all over his body. Forcing himself onto his butt, he was welcomed by a stringent pain in his head.
Luckily, the pain subsided in the next minute and he looked around to find himself still inside the trial chamber. "Damn.. did I fall asleep?" With his hands around his head, all he could remember was being frustrated by repeatedly getting thrown around by the elemental.
"Did I win?" Since he was the only one in the arena, that can mean only one possibility. "Ahh... What exactly happened here..?" Inspecting his body for the source of discomfort, he noticed multiple burns all over. Strangely enough, the wounds didn't look like they were caused by fire.
He tore off his ragged shirt to find similar to worse burn marks all over his chest and abdomen as well. Although not completely aware of his situation, Aron was not a fool. He can tell that whatever happened to him, had something to do with the peculiar powers the vampire lady left him with.
"Hopefully, I didn't push myself too hard." Getting back into a proper sitting posture, he tried cultivating the lost mana. "Huh?" That is when he discovered his new and improved mana reserve. If he can describe his previous reserves as holding water in your palms, now at least the reserves were of the size of a small puddle.
"Wow.. did improve in the middle of a fight?" No matter the physical agony he was facing, the news of an improved mana reserve uplifted his mood. "Hahaha... I can't wait to show this to Mrs. Yana." He can already imagine getting a pat on his head and the thought of it was making him chuckle to himself like a lunatic.
***
*Tring* 'Fifth stage: Fail!' 'Final score: 310!" At this point, no one even bothered cheering. Half of the attendees had simply given up on the trial, leaving for their dorms. While the other half was sure that they were witnessing something great today, and hence wanted to find the final score with their own eyes.
310..! Christina had scored 185 while her brother scored 200. The slave boy actually trumped both of them by more than a hundred points. What was this if not lunacy? The twins, stood in their place, chewing on their lips in amazement.
Even Chris who had a dauntless personality by nature was unable to maintain his composure right now. His eyes wavered for a second to notice the two girls from earlier appear from a small room. Stepping into the hall, they made a beeline for the twins. All four of them gazed at the scoreboard, none saying anything at all.
*Woosh* Finally, the boy showed himself. Standing shirtless with his long hair tied up, he slowly opened his eyes. For a moment, the silence in the hall perplexed him. All he could do standing on the stage was scratch his face and turn around to see his score.
"Ahh?" Aron felt weak in his knees after he doubly checked the screen. The score was not 100... no not 200 either... "What the..?" Is this for real? 310 points for passing 4 stages? Is that the right calculation? The maximum available points for attempting five stages in total should have been 250 only.
He can only share his befuddlement with the instructor. Only to find the guy looking at him with a smile that was almost to the point of creeping him out. "Miste.. never mind." Unable to bring himself to disturb whatever fantasies the guy was conjuring in his mind, he chose to shrink back to his refuge.
Nevertheless, even while walking toward the twins, he can see them looking at him as if he was a ghost or something. "Can anyone bother to explain?" Standing in front of Chris, he scratched the side of his cheek, partly in ignorance and partly in abashment.
He might have assumed that the score belonged to somebody else, except that coincidentally it also displayed stage 5. "Haha... Ahahaha.. who would have known..!! Ahahaha.." Out of nowhere, Chris started laughing uproariously without any care in the world.
"Come on brother.. give me a hug..!!" Aron still was just as clueless, nonetheless, he let the boy pull him into a manly hug. His skin burns were yet to heal completely, as such the hug was quite a bit uncomfortable for him.
Chris too noticed this fact and cut his hug short. "Let's go somewhere else." He then turned to face the instructor, asking him if they could take their leave since they had passed the trial. Simon reminded them of the last leg of the screening test that will take place tomorrow, before allowing them to leave.
Similarly, Gloria and Tracey too asked to leave together and Simon had no issue. "Go ahead. I can handle the rest." Everyone knew in their minds that there were going to be no more recruits from this lot.
The five of them stepped out and made their way out to the open lawns to sit together. On the way, Chris offered his own shirt after finding that the boy lacked a change of clothes. "Thanks. I shall accept it then."
Ten minutes passed on the lawn and only Chris talked all this while, explaining how in the world Aron managed to garner so many points. The more he talked, the more the slave boy panicked.
Whenever he would raise his eyes to look at someone else other than Chris, the girls will immediately look away, not at all willing to meet his gaze. It's in human nature to try and stand out from the group and Aron was not immune to that.
Yet, self-preservation always comes first. And what sort of deed he had performed.. it was sure to attract a lot of eyeballs to him. 'This is bad..' Had this been a regular screening process where they had to fight regular puppets, this sort of mess-up would have never happened.
He can only blame his luck.. and probably his overenthusiasm as well. Watching the twins perform such feat in their respective trials left him with a competitive feeling in his gut.
"Han..? What's with the face, my man? Why do you look like you swallowed a fly?" Aron responded to Chris's comment with despondent laughter. "Haha... it's just... I didn't think I will attract so much attention to myself even before entering the academy."
Chris, of course, could not sense the internal struggles coming from the boy. As far as he can tell, Aron was being modest, not different than his usual conduct. "75 in the first stage, 70 in the second,
75 again in third then adding another 80 in the fourth stage only to end it with 10 more in the fifth stage."
Chris reiterated his points breakdown almost in reverence like he was trying to relive the moment when Aron was breaking records. He slapped his back in delight. "You should have thought about keeping a low profile before making all these achievements brother.. haha.."
As far as Chris was concerned, this was a matter of celebration. However, considering that Aron was not in the best health today, he decided to postpone it to the day they formally enter the academy.
The girls were too stumped to add anything all this while. Other than staring at the boy as he came from a different planet, they could do nothing else. Regardless, eventually, Christina can't keep a lid on her curiosity.
"Tell me what you faced in each stage." Before Aron can even speak up something, Tracey took over and recounted all his fights in extreme detail. The twins as well as Aron had already known that these two girls were monitoring the stages, hence Tracey's words didn't come as a surprise to them.
Most of what happened in stage four were actually news to Aron himself. "I only have a single question to ask." Once the buzz stopped, Gloria ultimately interjected. Once she had everyone's attention, she took a deep breath before glaring back at the boy.
"Are you an idiot?" Aron was surely not expecting such harsh words after being praised to the high heavens. Just like him, the twins to didn't get Gloria's position, waiting for the girl to explain herself.
"I can understand you are poor.. and destitute. But who told you that you can eat energy crystals, genius?" Once again Aron had no idea when this happened. So all he could do was laugh it off with a flustered laugh. Considering that she had probably seen the whole fight between himself and the elemental, she must not be lying.
Gloria gnashed her teeth, watching the boy chuckle like a crazy idiot. "Fortunately, the crystal must have been drained out, that's the only reason you are able to even walk. Otherwise, you might have been spending the rest of the week in an infirmary ward.. hmph.."
Saying that Gloria got to her feet, ready to take her to leave for the day. Observing that evening was upon then, Tracey too followed her lead. "Haha.. after today's event, I need a good night's sleep. I will see you tomorrow, Aron." The girl passed on a charming smile but not before warning him to stay away from energy crystals, much to Aron's embarrassment.
"Please take a good rest, brother. We too will be leaving now. We got to share the details of the test with our master." Aron didn't stop the twins. Exhausted both physically and mentally, the boy fell on his back. The cool breeze soothed him and he fell asleep on the soft grass.
"Have you ever seen something like this?" Obscured in the sky, two ladies levitated, peering down at the kid who had fallen asleep. The younger among the two asked the other.
"Never." The older woman twirled her fingers in her lush blue hair locks, seemingly in deep thought. "Individuals from the shard race are known to extract nature energy directly from the energy crystals. But evidently, this guy is no shard."
Her pretty blue pupils contracted, able to very clearly visualize each and every small crease on Aron's face below, despite the tremendous height she was suspended at. "Do you want to check his constitution again? Can it be that we are overlooking something?"
The lady who had a small wine bottle stuck to her waistline suggested. Her senior glossed back at her flushed face. "You are now holding onto a prestigious position, Madelyn." A fit of slight anger flashed in the blue-haired lady's eyes and she snatched the wine bottle away, instantly stashing it in her storage ring.
Her actions were too fast, giving Madelyn no time to react. "Hey.. big sis.. what is the meaning of this?" Was she kidding her? Who was the one barging into her office with exquisite wines? She was the last person to advise her.
"Ahem.." Nancy can tell her thoughts. Clearing her throat, she picked on a presentable 'senior sister' appearance. "Public drinking will reflect badly, not only on your personal reputation but on the prestige of the institution as a whole."
"Hence, refrain from it. Also, it's not some pompous occasion that you need to celebrate." Obviously, all that sounded more like bullshit to Madelyn than a piece of actual advice from an elder. "Why does it feel like you putting on excuses, big sis..? Hmph.." She snickered.
Nancy acted nonchalant, adeptly ignoring her junior sister's banter. "Cough.. cough.. we should focus more on the scenario below. I think the academy already knows about this little pup we had kept hidden."
Even if she was well aware that Nancy was avoiding an argument with her, Madelyn knew she can't get her wine bottle back. "Huh.. something at this scale can't be hidden for too long. The news was sure to be leaked out. If we try to forcibly suppress it, people will end up becoming even more suspicious." The principal of the Greenville Academy advocated.
< Kudos!!>>