Alec considered this entire charade a ridicule. It was quite clear to him that the tablet Rita held already had all the information on him. They should know he possessed no ability since he was sure Karg told them that and yet he struggled with the answer to her question.
Taking a deep breath, Alec answered. "I don't have an ability."
Just like before, the hooded man standing beside Rita conjured a book from thin air and handed her the book. Her face was cold and expressionless as he handed Alec the book.
Alec took the book from Rita, but suddenly his system screen popped out.
[This ability is not compatible with the system]
[Unable to learn this ability]
[Would you like to convert the book into 10 Xp?]
Alec had somewhat expected the system to display the message but the third message truly surprised him. He was tempted to convert the book into Xp since that was the main reason he had come here, but then he knew there would be questions later on.
"I'm sorry, I can't accept this," Alec said as he handed the book back to Rita.
Rita exchanged meaningful glances with the hooded man. Since her few years of working as an instructor, this was the second time someone has rejected a free ability book. The first person was Davin and now Alec.
"I will have to contact the general now," Rita thought.
"Give me a moment, I will be back shortly." Rita walked away from the group of students who all looked at Alec as if he was an idiot.
All of the students in the group looked at Alec in bewilderment except Davin. He had been waiting patiently to see if Alec would say he had an ability and if he had, what it was.
But seeing Alec reject the ability book when he currently had no ability made his suspicion grow.
"Who the heck are you?" Davin thought. He could still see his colored aura burning brightly.
"Oh, Timmy, I wish you were here to witness this unusual aura," Davin muttered.
Once Rita had gone far from the students, her hand went to her ear to activate the electronics piece inside.
"Certain students by the name Alec Phil and Davin Hart don't want to accept the ability book. I await further instructions on how to do with those two outliers," Rita said, speaking through her earpiece.
"No need to force them, just allow them to take the test and report back if they show anything out of ordinary," the mysterious general instructed on the other end of the line.
****
The call ended and the mysterious general couldn't help but think that Alec and Davin seemed like interesting students. He began checking corresponding files about the two boys, which left him astonished.
The students had no ability and according to their research, they were only draft evaders with no strong family backing.
"Let's see how long you guys can survive in this power-thirsty world," the mysterious general muttered, leaning back into his seat.
****
Rita adjusted her cloak and walked back to the group of students.
"Apologies, for keeping you all waiting," Rita said coldly. Then she turned to Davin and Alec. "The two of you will do the power level test instead of the ability test."
Davin was elated when he heard that. At least he wasn't gonna be stuck with the level ones in this school.
Alec was the one displeased by the news. He didn't have the strength to put on with the test. After he saw that Davin was dismissed from the test because he had no, he hoped that the same thing would be said for me.
"You two, follow me."
Rita took both of them a little further into the field where they noticed that there were huge craters on the ground, burn marks, patches on the ground scorched and burned like there are some fire. This was all done during the previous test of the contestants.
"You guys are to destroy the target in front of you as quickly as you can," Rita instructed the two boys. "The test begins immediately."
As soon as Rita finished taking, eight targets popped out of the ground from a random location around the wasteland. They were round metal targets with a red dot in their center. In the center of the round metal, holographic spikes were fired out.
The two boys immediately separated from each other to lessen the attacks that will be thrown if they were together.
The problem was that Alec's speed wasn't enough to destroy the targets after he dodged the attacks.
"The attacks are too fast, unlike silver's, what do you think we do?!" Alec shouted to Davin's hearing.
"Yeah! Just try your best to dodge the spikes, I will knock out the damn targets!" Davin shouted back.
With that, the two began working together. Alec dodged the spike attacks while Davin went forward to knock down the targets while also dodging the spikes to avoid being hit.
"Shit! They are too many and incredibly fast. I have to do this like a normal non-ability user otherwise, they will question my capability," Davin thought before he reduced the speed at which he dashed toward the targets.
After seeing Davin's performance, Kim shook her head in disappointment.
"Tsk, I thought the boy was a good fighter," Kim muttered, while looking at Davin and how he was struggling to get to the targets.
The test ended with Davin knocking down eight targets, out of twenty-five and dodging only fifteen spikes out of the numerous spikes fired by the targets.
Alec, on the other hand, knocked down only two targets and dodged a total of seventeen spikes.
"You both have the same agility of 8," Rita announced and noted it down on her tablet.
After the test, Rita asked them to complete another test. The second one was regarding their strength. All they needed to do was to punch into a huge drum-like machine. Alec gave it his best shot and hit the drum as hard as he could. The drum vibrated and made a small sound, eventually displaying a digit number in the center. Davin also did the same and it appeared his result was only a little better than Alec's.
"Just why the heck are you holding back your strength? You definitely are not human with the aura you possess. Well, whatever you are I'm gonna stick close till I find out what it is," Davin thought.
"Alec is 8 in strength while Davin is 10," Rita announced this time and once again, noted it down on her tablets.
Hearing that from Rita's mouth started to make Alec think if there is some kind of link between the scores he has given. The first test was based on agility and he had a score of 8 which was the same as his system. The same was true for the strength test, which revealed he was 8 in strength.
After moments of thumbing on the tablet screen, Rita finally announced,
"Alec Phil, your overall current power level is that of a level 1 ability user. While Davin Hart's power level is that of Level 1.3 of ability user," Rita informed. "You two can now step back in."
Quinn clenched his fist as went back to stand with the others. Davin also had the same reaction as Alec.
Davin was angrier, not because of his contemporary level but because he knew that the days ahead of him as a level one ability user was gonna be harsh, but hopefully it would change with time when he had finally learned an ability compatible with his nature.
**************
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