We arrived on time to the Skill Exhibition event, thanks to Bright using his Skill.
Otherwise, we would have missed the starting part of it, that's if they allow us inside.
Two instructors stopped us at the entrance as we hurried, gasped and panted on our way to the hall.
"Names?" one of them asked while equipping a device to confirm our names.
"Luxane Enstar."
"Bright Holden."
We waited, while catching our breaths, for the instructors to verify the information on his tablet.
After a quick glossing over of his tablet's screen, the instructor allowed us into the hall and continued with his duty.
We had returned to the same hall with metallic walls.
It was hot as the first day but I didn't feel it as much and as I took a glance at the other recruits, many didn't react to the existing atmosphere like they did then.
The instructors were already there—German, Barns, Eric Marvice and three others—waiting for our arrival.
"There you are!" I heard a voice exclaim from behind me.
Before I could even turn around, a smack landed on my back.
"What's that for, Cassandra?" I blurted while rubbing over the smacked area.
"For being late! You said you'd come early!"
"Plans changed," I argued, trying to reach for my back where it stung.
Bright chuckled.
Hearing the chuckle, I turned to Bright who was standing there, listening and giggling at our siblinglike behaviour.
"What's so funny, huh?"
"Nothing," Bright said, raising his hands in surrender. "You both just look like siblings fighting, that's all."
"He's as good as my little brother, you know," Cassandra said while trying to ruffle my hair, something I detested and tried to avoid.
I wasn't going to be embarrassed and put through the stress of having to arrange my hair again.
That's a lot of work.
"Pfft! Whatever," I snorted. "It's just a two-year gap"
Cassandra stuck her tongue out. "That's a whole seven hundred and thirty days gap, Lux. Bleh! Do it if that's easy," she openly teased me, causing Bright to giggle again.
"She got you there, man."
I looked at my roommate, wondering who exactly he was supporting.
"Good to see you, Bright."
Bright gave her a brief wave of the hand. "Same here, Cassandra."
As we chatted and passed the time, a fourth person joined in our conversation.
At this time, we were strangers to each other as we had never interacted before now but I knew who she was.
Everyone knew who she was.
Whoever didn't was one who had absolutely no care for the world, and such a person didn't exist.
This person's goth and darkly motivated persona was certain to make her strikingly standing out within a crowd.
Jet-black hair with pale skin, freckles on her face and a night-black lipstick.
This was a typical appearance that could be traced back to one Hunter Family—the Crow Family.
Black eyes, with distinctive eyeshadows underlying them, which are said to sometimes turn white and even glow in the darkness.
Although I had never witnessed such, even if it was a rumour or speculation, there should be some level of truth to it.
This person was a girl. Slender, beautiful and so shy that she couldn't hold her gaze with me nor with Bright, only fixing her eyes to Cassandra whose presence she was more comfortable with.
This daughter of the Crow Family donned her family's well-known black, goth-themed, melancholic style of dressing.
Her lower half was covered with a short black gown and legged shrouded with long, black netted stockings.
On her forearms were black gloves which reached her elbow as well as a lot of eyeshadow and lipsticks.
If there was a perfect way to describe how Sarafina Crow looked, it was simply the two words: Gothic Witch.
'How can this person be shy?' I wondered as I found it contrasting to her appearance.
A glance at her gave the impression that she was an expressive and little bit of a crazy person but her behaviour was quite the opposite of that.
"Hey, Sarafina," Cassie greeted her, her arms going around the girl's shoulder as she pulled her into her bosoms for closure.
"Guys, this is Sarafina, my roommate."
"Hey," Bright greeted, giving a slight wave.
Sarafina's face paled a little bit as she quickly waved back.
"Nice to finally meet you," I said.
Before Sarafina could even say a word back to me after I was introduced to her, Cassie blasted me with a thousand words.
"...you probably would have met her already if you'd ever visited me since we arrived here!" she blasted me and sighed afterwards, causing both Bright and Sarafina to chuckle as I kept a deadpan face.
"We are barely two weeks here, plus I've been busy though. You know… adjusting?" I said, defending myself from Cassandra's allegations.
Cassandra rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue.
"Yeah, right. It's cool Mr. Busy-Everyday-Of-The-Week. It's because I'm the one who visits you. Maybe I should stop."
I scratched my head and laughed.
Cassandra was starting to pull her dramatic feminine stunts.
"Okay, fine. I will come see you soon. Happy now?"
A smile appeared on her face and she slightly nodded. "You see? Was that so hard?"
Our little chattering was prematurely killed when Sarafina's pale and dark-painted index finger crept into my field of vision, pointing toward the stage in front of us.
"Ahem…" German cleared his throat loudly, attracting all the attention as usual.
We all stood at attention, our eyes fixed forward and unrelenting with silence taking over the atmosphere.
'Many have different faces than their first day,' German thought with a chuckle.
A quick look at the bunch of us standing before him was enough to tell him that.
Whatever he was seeing now differed from the timid, scared faces who appeared before him ten days ago.
German turned to Eric, who was standing on his right side, and gave him a slight nod.
Eric nodded back in acknowledgement of the message that was passed across by his superior.
I understood that signal. 'Here it comes. The Appraisal Tablet.'
I watched Eric walk up to another table that was already set up.
On top of this table was a black cloth that covered an item that we were yet to see.
The Deputy Head Instructor then unveiled the black cloth, revealing what sat underneath the fabric.
It was an ancient-looking, dusty brown stone tablet with strange runic markings etched on its surface.
…The Appraisal Tablet.
Instructor Eric Marvice placed the flat, rectangular stone on a table set in front of the stage as German started to speak once again.
"This is called the Appraisal Tablet and it is simply for assessing your Awakening and Skill as well, for those who have received an accompanying Skill. It can tell if you are awakened whether you try to hide it or not. So don't bother.
"You will each come up here, starting with those of you who consumed the Elixir, and get appraised. After that, we will re-register you as an Awakened. However, quite unfortunately, I must let you know with my deepest regrets that some of you will be let go today."
"Let go?" one recruit muttered to another.
"What does that even mean?"
"What? How?"
They continued to murmur for several seconds but no one dared to make a direct statement or ask the Instructors a direct question.
The memory of the last time was still fresh in their minds.
German chuckled. "Yes. It is as you expected. By letting you go, I mean that you will be expelled from the Cube. Now then, shall we begin?"
Eric walked forward and swiped his hand over his tablet, causing it to shine with bluish light.
"I will be calling you all up in threes, so listen attentively," he said.
"Geoffrey Gretzmann..."
"Penelope Mantouz…"
"Cherry Blossomine…."
"The three of you. Please come forward."
Geoffrey Gretzmann, a slim and tall young man with dark brown hair, walked up to the stage with two damsels following closely behind him after Instructor Eric had called out the names of the first three.
"Place your hand on the tablet and pour some of your Essence into it," Eric instructed as he paid close attention.
Even if one had not mastered Essence, it wouldn't matter as the Appraisal Tablet picks up even the littlest amount of the energy.
Geoffrey took a deep breath and walked up to the tablet, placing his right hand on it.
Nothing happened.
Beads of sweat started to appear on his face as he became uncomfortable.
It was expected since he was the first to be called for a process that he knew nothing about.
Heck, the young man didn't even know what a positive result was supposed to look like.
After a few seconds, something finally happened but Geoffrey was still unsettled since he didn't know whether it was a good or bad thing.
The Tablet turned from its original light brown colour to grey.
Fortunately, this change in colour was a positive response to the energy called Essence.