Thomas didn't think much about it, placed the seat back in its right position, before going out while holding his tree pot over his shoulders.
He grew used to his tree pot being over his shoulders. Besides, he didn't feel any weight or any pressure at all.
"Oh, you are back," and when he just went outside his room, he noticed Mark at the end of the corridor leading here.
"He just came half an hour ago," Lara said, "come. He brought two more superheroes, and we will eat breakfast before leaving."
"Cool," Thomas didn't have anything to call luggage except for his tree pot. And as he went towards the dining room with everyone, he got to know that the newest two came from unknown backgrounds, just like him.
The food tasted the same, with everyone complaining about its degrading quality, even Mark himself commented like that. But it was still the most delicious food to Thomas, despite still feeling weird about the shape of this food and drinks.
"Let's go," Mark seemed to be in a hurry. The moment they finished their breakfast, he led everyone out of the villa, "we are already half an hour late."
"Where are we going?" Thomas sat on the back row this time, leaving the front seats for the girls. The newest two were one female and male, and both looked quite baffled and confused. That made Thomas feel he wasn't alone at least in all this.
"We are going to the ancient place of the test outside the town," Mark responded, "hang tight. We will go at full speed."
This time, the experience of riding Monica was much better than the previous times. As he wasn't at the forefront, he got less wind clashing at his face.
He wasn't the only one without goggles, but the new two members were as well. The rest got out their goggles and enjoyed the ride without any disturbance.
Like Mark said, they moved through the unique nature of this town, going through lots of hills, before finally getting through one hellish gate of a gigantic wall towards the wilderness outside.
They kept travelling for half an hour out there, without anyone saying anything at all. Even Lucy and Jacob remained silent all this time.
But just as half an hour passed, they finally arrived at a grand place. It looked from afar like a huge valley, except there were no mountains around.
Thomas saw lots of people blocking their path forward. And at the depth of this weird valley, looking like a huge groove in the ground, he spotted a grand building there.
It looked more like an old-fashioned castle than a building. It has ten cylindrical grand towers, with huge walls and gates, and a big building rising up from the centre.
Thomas was far from seeing anything in great detail, but he could see lots of Monica-like rides stationed at a grand ride parking at one corner.
"Listen up," as they arrived, Mark stopped the engine, turned towards all of them as he added, "we are going to take a test to unlock your superpowers. It's something that ran down in this world for endless years, and we frankly don't know what type of technology used to do all this. However…"
He paused, looked at each one's face for a few seconds before adding, "This test is very crucial in your lives, the most important one. There, you'll get the chance to absorb pure Qi energy coming from the Isolation Zones. And according to everyone's potential, you'll all get evaluated and determined for a job suiting your abilities."
He then sighed, as if he recalled something from far away time, "This is the only guaranteed moment in your lives to come in contact with such wild Qi. Such quality of Qi can't be found at any Qi stones, only found in pure air out there, at the Isolation Zones. It's hard to absorb it after unlocking your powers, only can be used in helping you reveal your powers. After going through here, you'll get to feel such berserk Qi if you get blessed and be granted a chance to venture into the Isolation Zones."
Thomas didn't get why Mark was speaking like this about this Qi energy. But he knew he was going to learn about this soon enough. "I'm going to register all of you for the test. Keep holding your scrolls as they are your pass towards the inside. And once there, don't fear anything, and embrace this amazing experience."
Mark then would let them descend his ride, before taking it towards the grand parking area.
"Let's stick together then," Jacob seemed to feel like he was the leader of this group or something. But no one ever said anything against such a proposal.
Thomas followed their lead towards the front. And there he spotted lots of young faces, all looking excited and nervous, waiting for something to happen.
And soon enough, a group of superheroes, the same age as Mark and the mad demon, appeared from the front gate.
"Who hears his name please raise your hand with your scroll and step forward," an old looking superhero appeared later, seemingly the general leader of this entire process.
He then took out a scroll and started reading names out of it. Thomas noticed that he said ten names, paused for a few minutes before someone came from the inside, whispered something in his ears. And then this dude resumed saying names.
"Agh! I thought I'd enter fast!" John couldn't control his anxiety anymore.
"Just pray we will go inside as one group," Jacob said, showing off his keen senses, "I noticed that most of those who got inside came from different groups."
"Yes, that would be for the best," Lara laughed, "let's get in there together. And who knows, we might end up working in the same town."
"Town? I will work in a city!" Bick said in one of the rare moments of showing arrogance that he entirely lacked. And hearing his words got him a snort from Jacob.
Thomas wasn't paying attention to any of them. In fact, he kept analysing people around, trying to get to know what they were feeling and thinking about.
But soon enough, his thoughts drifted away and focused entirely over Lara. this girl kept glaring fixedly at him, in a way that became even noticeable for everyone around the two.
Thomas didn't know why, but he felt like she was surprised by something he had. His best guess was about his tree, not about the true reason behind Lara's weird attitude.
"... Leonard, Sara, Lara…" and all of sudden, Lara's name was heard, attracting everyone's attention towards the man shouting the names.
And at the same time, the scroll in her hands shone brightly as if it reacted to something.
"... and Thomas!"
Just before anyone in the group would react, Thomas' name was shouted as well. The two of them exchanged silent looks, raised their hands high with their scrolls.
The moment his name got shouted, Thomas felt his scroll getting a bit hotter than usual. He didn't know what happened but was sure there was some sort of tracking or detecting superpower behind these scrolls' changes.
And when he raised it high in the air, he felt this heat vanish. As the two of them raised their hands like this, those around started to part ways for them.
"Good luck," Lara said as the two finally reached the front zone of this place. Thomas didn't know what he should say except for nodding back, then he, her, and the other eight went through the main gate.
The gate wasn't just huge, but it got a raised metallic net that appeared only when Thomas passed underneath.
The first thing Thomas saw was a grand and open plaza. It looked like he travelled back in time, to where limestone was used in paving the ground and building up walls.
And as the group passed into this plaza, a new superhero appeared, a tough looking lady with a dragon tattoo covering up her entire arm.
She got a fierce looking face, one that got two arched metallic pieces, and two shining eyes in dangerous white light.
Thomas didn't know why her eyes looked like this, but he was already having his guesses. It seemed she activated her superpower before coming to meet them.
"I'm Linda, the one responsible for the bunch of you," she said, and her voice sounded a bit harsh and rigid. But for a reason, it perfectly her inhuman picture in Thomas' eyes.
"Right now, your test is about to start. But first, drink these bottles."
As she said it, one normal looking dude appeared, holding a golden tray, with ten small bottles over it. Each bottle was made out of white marble or something, with many decorations over its surface.
"What's that?" Thomas thought he was the only one not knowing what this was. But when Lara spoke up, he knew that this was a hidden part of the test.
"No questions asked! Just follow the orders or scream!" Linda reminded Thomas of the mad demon's temper. She even seemed more volatile than him.
The way Linda dealt with Lara made the others swallow whatever they wanted to ask. And one by one, they took the bottles, and it was Thomas' turn.
"Just swallow it," Thomas fiddled with the bottle, not knowing what it was. But Lara's low tone made him finally succumb.
He was the only one who didn't drink it yet. The bottle was sealed with a small circular lid, with a short thread that connected it with the bottle.
As he drank its content, he felt like he swallowed lava not fluid.
"Cough cough!" he coughed, not the first to do so.
"Now it's time to know what you all drank," Linda's eyes shone in a more fierce way, "this fluid will prevent any of you from hiding anything from us. Now, each one of you will go to meet a test examiner, get to answer a few questions, before going to the main test hall."
"..."
Everyone learnt from Lara's lesson. But that didn't mean they were cool with that. They looked at each other's eyes, seemingly sharing their doubts.
"It's an interrogation then," Thomas thought to himself while following Linda inside another gate not too far from them, "and this thing… Is it like the truth serum or what?"
Thomas just felt that weird heat coming from that liquid, but nothing else. He noticed that few of those with him showed signs of getting weak, not able to walk without leaning on the walls or something.
Seeing this, he feigned such a reaction for a few minutes, walking after Linda who seemed to not care about any of that, leading all of them through long corridors after corridors.
"We are going down!" Thomas noticed that they were actually walking in a circular path towards the depth of this place. He looked around, and when he saw others return to walk normally, he followed suit.
He didn't feel anything at all, and that made him wonder about the effect of this drug. He didn't know that he got purified thanks to the little tree he held on his back.
Unlike everyone else here, unlike anyone taking the test, Thomas was the only one who was going to take it without any restraints or shackles.
The entire group walked in silence for the next ten minutes before they stopped in front of a big hall. It was entirely made out of sturdy and old looking stones, leading to ten different rooms with their wooden doors closed.
"You are going to wait for five minutes before entering," the one who led them here said in her harsh voice, "distribute yourselves over these doors. It doesn't matter which room you are going to enter."
Without saying anymore, she turned and left through the same way they all came from.
"This…" Thomas felt a little unease inside. For a reason he felt like he was going to get through a tough interrogation period. For someone who had lots of secrets, he felt really bad about this.
"Humph! At least you are going to get screwed up," just before Thomas would control his anxiety, a youth in the group said. He directed his words towards Lucy, and then moved to stand in front of a door after giving her a very mean look.
"It's just the effect of that stupid serum thing," Lucy noticed the weird looks of everyone at her, before turning around and moving towards the doors.
They each selected one door, leaving the last two for Thomas and Lucy. The former looked at Lucy in puzzlement, and the latter couldn't help but sigh.
"My mother and his father had a deep hatred," she paused before adding, "the two were supposed to marry per family agreement. But my mother refused and ran with my father, married him and went against the family rules… Damn! This serum won't let me even hide anything!"
Thomas realised that under this serum, she and him, everyone here, were ready to spill out even the deepest secrets about themselves without even realising it.
And that made him feel much gloomier.
"So your two families are close?" Thomas tried to speak up with her, to distract himself from thinking about what waited for him.
"Our two families are famous for giving birth to B and higher grade superheroes. As the saying goes, marriage between two high grade superheroes will have the highest chances for their kids to score higher. And so the two families agreed like many others to marry their young offspring to each other. But…"
"Tsk!" Thomas hated this story before the need to continue listening to it. It seemed the two families, the strong families, placed their interest on top of their members' happiness.
From her words and tone, he could easily tell that she was slightly scared from this youth, or more precisely from his family.
Before he'd find any words to say to console her, the doors all opened.
"Come inside!" different voices came from each room, and that made Thomas inwardly sigh.
"It's judgement day," he moved towards one door while Lucy moved to the other one.
"Good luck!" she said this before vanishing inside her room and then the door closed on its own.
When Thomas stepped inside the room, he smelled the weird dampness that spread here. It felt like the air was heavy, as if this place was kept locked up for a long time.
"Sit," when he got inside, he found a middle aged man waiting for him. He sat in front of a normal wooden table, with another door that was at the opposite side of the door Thomas passed through.
Without the need to ask, Thomas could easily tell that this superhero came here from that door.
"First I congratulate you for being a superhero," that dude said, while his little white beard and moustache kept trembling slightly as he spoke, "for your knowledge, this is just a standard procedure. I'm going to ask you a few questions, just to make sure you are a good superhero and won't cause trouble later on."
Thomas started to see the value behind such tests. It seemed it was something that the world of superheroes superimposed over this trial, to screen out any possibly bad seeds.
"You have the serum of truth, and that means you can't lie," that dude said in a weird confidence, "now tell me, where are you from?"
And the first question Thomas heard was directly pointing at one of his greatest secrets.
Without even trying to think about anything, he said: "I came from a village on the outskirts of Dante settlement."
Just saying these words made him feel inwardly shocked. He saw by himself the effect of this serum before entering here. It made that dude lose his cool and harshly speak with Lucy, ending up with the latter spilling everything about her family problems.
The serum worked. But for some reason, Thomas managed to tell a lie! "What's going on?!!" he couldn't help but question the serum itself. But without the need for him to know anything, he realised that he got saved.
The middle aged man had a brush, an ink bottle, and a long yellow paper in front of him. Once William said his answer, he started to write down a few words.
"Good. Now tell me, what do you think about the dark superheroes? Those villains… Are they despicable or victims in your eyes?"
Thomas didn't know anything about the long and bloody history of villains. But just to be safe, he started to speak bad about them. He even cursed them at one point, and that superhero in front of him kept nodding while writing more words.
"Great! Don't tell me, have you ever met a witch before? And what do you think about them?"
It came out of the blue. He already met one, or that was what he guessed about the identity of that old woman. Armed with his long history of being a cold person and a detective, he placed a plain face over his before telling his lie perfectly and without a single stutter or hesitation.
"That's amazing!" the superhero said in praise, before finally signing down at this paper which was now filled with lots of words.
Thomas got asked other questions, which many he said he didn't know what to say about. For example, he was asked if he knew where the Qi stones came from. And when that dude asked him to describe a Qi mine for him, Thomas couldn't answer except by saying he never saw one before to describe it.
When he was asked about the warlords, a new term for Thomas, he couldn't help but also deny knowing anything about this. When he got asked about shadow sectors, he also didn't know what to say but denied knowing a thing about them.