— I understand... I'll remember. — said Hazel.
Looking at her wristwatch, she saw that there were only a few seconds left before the time was up. As expected, a loud sound of footsteps could be heard coming from outside. A wave of students rushed fiercely through the door, desperate to get in.
'Hm, there are some missing... but whatever' — thought Hazel.
After the time was up, she slammed the door shut, preventing any of the latecomers from entering. Some of them shouted, pleading to be let in, while others even banged on the door, threatening to knock it down. That was when she grabbed her walkie-talkie and whispered a few words to the security team before returning to her original position. She watched closely as the students who had made it on time caught their breath, perhaps waiting for them to recover. A few seconds later, the shouting and banging ceased completely, and no noise could be heard.
While trying to catch his breath, one of the students noticed that Gendred was also there.
'Now that I think about it, I didn't see that fat guy running to the locker room or coming back to the classroom! What tricks did he use to get here before us and not even be tired?!' — thought one of the students.
— Hey, how did you get ahead of us? Reveal your cheat immediately! — he said, as he approached Gendred and grabbed his hoodie collar.
— Hey man, calm down! He's one of Roger's prey. That guy doesn't like it when his toys get ruined for no reason! — said another student while trying to stop his friend.
All eyes in the room turned to them, including Hazel's, who decided to intervene before things escalated any further and everything turned into a mess.
— There was no cheating involved. Unlike most of the idiots here, he knew how to use his own brain. Now go back to your places and get into position! — replied the Lieutenant, raising her voice and displaying her deep and firm tone.
— Tsk! —The troublemaker clicked his tongue and then released Gendred, quickly returning to his place out of fear of being disqualified by Hazel.
After everyone returned to their positions, the Lieutenant led them to the gym, one of the largest buildings at Sunny High School. Upon entering, Gendred saw several completely covered tents set up throughout the place, and in front of them were the other 3rd-year classes. In total, there were two tents for each class, and from what he could see, they were separated for boys and girls.
After the group positioned themselves in front of their two tents, Hazel entered one of the tents and asked everyone to wait until they were called. Gendred tried to remain discreet, but unfortunately, things didn't usually go as he would like. Upon hearing a whistle coming from his left side and looking in the direction of the sound, he saw Roger staring at him with a smile full of malice.
The bruises on Gendred's body started to ache a little, no words were necessary to understand that gesture. It meant nothing else but "Today, I will beat you up again."
'To think that just a few hours ago I was happy thinking I wouldn't get any new bruises today…' — thought Gendred. He immediately turned to face forward and tried to look at anything other than Roger. It didn't take long for the students to be called one by one, starting with the roll call order.
Upon hearing his name called, Gendred walked towards the tent on the right with a racing heart and a nervous expression. As soon as he entered, he found Hazel standing next to a white-coated man sitting in a chair.
— Hello, I am one of the evaluators who will help classify your mark. This will be the first step of the process, and I hope for your cooperation — said the man.
— Right… — answered Gendred.
— To start, please show me your mark.
Gendred unzipped his sporty hoodie and shirt, exposing the bruises and small cuts on his body. The man demonstrated almost immediate shock at seeing all those purple spots.
'Has this kid been getting into street fights?! How can he act so normally with so many bruises like that?' — He thought.
— Don't get distracted — Hazel spoke up.
— Right! — the man replied, showing nervousness.
After taking a closer look at the small mark on the boy's back, the evaluator wondered if such a tiny mark could even generate any Aether. That was when he took out a sort of black paper with some blue inscribed symbols on it and placed it on Gendred's mark.
— This equipment was created to measure the amount of ether generated by a brand and its level of control over it. I'll ask you to try to generate as much ether as you can so we can test your limits — said the man.
— Understood — Gendred replied, wondering how embarrassing his score would be.
After a bit of effort, Gendred felt a warm sensation coming from his brand, slowly spreading throughout his body, as if something was flowing through all his muscles, joints, veins, and arteries. It took about 5 minutes until his whole body was covered by this feeling. At that moment, the paper changed color from black to white.
— Alright, you can stop now — said the man, approaching Gendred and taking the paper.
He then inserted the paper into a machine that looked strangely similar to a common printer, but with a 15-inch screen attached to it. A few seconds later, a series of information began to appear on the screen, ranging from words to numbers.
『 ETHER VALUE: 48
CONTROL LEVEL: 4
BRAND SIZE: 1.7 centimeters
PROPERTY: Partial manipulation.
PARTIAL RATING: 2 - STARS 』
— As I suspected, your ether value is quite below average, but your control level is somewhat high... Do you have or have you had any teachers? — asked the man.
— No, none so far. Why? — Gendred replied.
— Apparently, you have a natural talent for controlling ether within your body, but the amount you can generate is extremely low. Someone whose brand was classified as 1 star has, on average, 150 ether value, so your ether levels are so low that they don't make you any different from an adult man in terms of strength, as you probably can barely manifest your trait.
— I understand. I kind of expected that... But why was I classified as 2 stars? — Gendred asked.
— I think it was because of your level of control and your property. Generally, people who have not received any training only have level 1 control, so this alone shows your ease in controlling it. Your property is also something rare to see, as only 1 in every 10,000 are born with some manipulation, so depending on your trait, you could fit anywhere, whether fulfilling a role on the battlefield or working for some industry, if you could generate more Aether.
— And is there any way to do that? — Gendred asked, searching for any glimmer of hope.
— There is, but for that, you would have to learn to control your mark and possibly expand it throughout your body. However, this is only something possible to achieve with many years of arduous training and a very high understanding of Aether and your own trait.
— Okay...
'Did they admit him to this school because of his property and level of control? But that's not even something to be taken into account since his mark is so tiny... Could it be his trait?' — Hazel thought.
Gendred felt like he was in the middle of a twist of fate. He might have good control and a good property, but what good is it if he can't generate enough Aether to make use of those factors? No matter what other characteristics you have, everything revolves around Aether itself, so if you can't use the minimum of that energy, you wouldn't be any different from an ordinary human, for example.
After they finished registering their data, Gendred left the tent, and the next student was called. He was still a little down about the result, but it was something he already had in mind that would happen. After an hour of waiting, all third-year students completed their evaluations.
They were gathered in several rows according to their classes and positioned themselves in front of a huge purple crystal that floated above a white marble pedestal. Hazel stood in front of that crowd of students and announced loudly:
— This will be the second stage of your classification process! We will call all classes, starting with A, and each student will come up here and demonstrate their ability or skills! You will be evaluated based on the level of change you can cause in the crystal, whether by saturating it with water, destroying it, or even melting it. Any questions? — Hazel asked.
However, she asked with a tone that made it clear she didn't want anyone to ask anything. Everyone could see that her explanation left a lot of room for doubts, but the sense of danger she conveyed prevented anyone from even daring to speak up. One of the assisting soldiers stepped forward with a tablet in his hands.
— I'll call first those with the highest rankings and we'll work our way down to the last candidate in the class. Zara Delenfell, come up here — he announced.
Zara left her row and quickly, with elegant steps, stood face to face with the crystal. After staring at it for a moment, she turned to Hazel and asked:
— If I demonstrate my strongest ability, can I skip the next stages and be approved right here?
— If it's enough, then I don't mind — Hazel replied, a little excited about what was to come.
Zara nodded and turned back to the crystal. She then extended her left palm towards the crystal and began to release her ether. Her mark began to emanate a threatening aura, and sparks of darkness appeared around her as her hair turned completely black and the color of her eyes intensified. The pressure she was exerting by releasing all her ether at once generated small but strong gusts of wind that lifted some strands of her hair. All the students, without exception, felt a strong shiver pass through them, which soon turned into a sense of alert.
Seconds later, several small black portals opened in all directions around the crystal, all at once.
『Calamity Thorns』
As she closed her fist, a rain of black thorns began to fall through the portals, bringing with it an immense wave of destruction. The scene lasted for about 10 seconds, and it seemed like those waves of thorns would never stop coming out of those portals. When it finally ended, only a few small pieces of the purple crystal remained. If it had lasted a few more seconds, that crystal would have been completely destroyed.
Zara was completely exhausted. She had exhausted all the ether she had accumulated seconds ago and had already begun to feel a burning sensation in her back. She might have been struggling to even stay on her feet.
'I don't know if this girl is smart or just reckless…' — Hazel thought, looking at it without showing any emotion.
Everyone was shocked and awestruck, from the evaluators to the students. They never even dreamed that there was such a strong student in their school or that they would see such a demonstration of power right in front of their eyes during the selection. Suddenly, one of the students in the midst of that awestruck crowd began to clap in admiration, and soon after, several students did the same. In an instant, all the students in the gymnasium were clapping, and some even shouting with excitement.
It was at that moment that Hazel approached the girl and said — That was enough. It still needs a bit of refinement, but it's enough. But if you don't mind, I'll give you a tip… — Hazel said, before leaning in closer to Zara's ears and whispering — All this haste of yours could end up becoming your ruin, so I recommend that you strengthen yourself more slowly, girl.
— I suggest you take care of your own problems, lieutenant — Zara replied, slowly returning to her position.