Chapter 23: Skills Challenge (II)
"I thought I heard from the two fellows that we would have single rooms," the brown-haired young man said, looking at Nova as if he had daggers in his eyes.
Nova, on the other hand, simply nodded, his face indifferent and cold, not relieving an emotion.
But inside, he was very uncomfortable. It must be said that this was the first time he had spoken to anyone other than his family in nearly a decade.
'I can't show weakness,' forcing himself to keep an indifferent face, he continued to look at the boy in front of him, who suddenly sighed as if he felt relief.
*sighed*
At him he sighed, the Nova previously would have simply asked why he sighed like that, but now he had become more confident and more intelligent.
He merely raised an eyebrow as if judging him.
At this action, the young man didn't know how to respond, so he said honestly.
"Sorry," I sighed, "it's out of relief, I can sense that you are at least as curious as I am as to why we are in the same room.
Before the boy's words, Nova raised his eyebrow even more. The meaning was clear, he is even more curious about how he came to that conclusion.
The young man understood quickly, replying. "I have a kind of intuition that always saves me; in this case, it tells me that you are also confused."
Before the boy's words, Nova nodded, confirming the young man's assumption now smiling slightly, no longer having that dagger-sharp gaze.
Nova's face remained indifferent, but now it was a little softer.
"Well, I'm confused too, but that won't do any good, let's just go on and get through, this test," Nova spoke, at the same time slowly walking away from the boy, looking around the surroundings with some curiosity.
The room currently was exactly like the previous one, completely black and dark, it was also the same size and quite spacious and flat, they looked like a perfect cube like that.
The only difference was that on one side of Nova, a doll was there.
A cockroach-shaped doll in black and light shades of red, it was about 10 feet tall, looking terrifying.
At least, scary for anyone afraid or disgusted by insects, but Nova, on the other hand?
'Well it backfired on you, I used to live with bugs!', Nova mentally shouted as he smiled, feeling amused by the current situation.
But, instead, the brown-haired young man was trembling with fear, backing away to get as far away from the doll as possible.
Beads of sweat were forming on his forehead, at the same time that his trembling was getting worse.
It was obvious that he was extremely frightened and Nova, who was not far away, could naturally see him cowering in fear.
Shaking his head, Nova's look was one of pure disappointment.
'Isn't everyone trying to get in supposed to be an experienced assassin? Why does everyone look the most normal and even pathetic,' Nova thought with dissatisfaction.
The only person he saw interesting today was that guy with a serious expression; the frightened young man, on the other hand, was quite the opposite.
He was going to leave him, without even helping him, but after some thought, Nova realized that he needed to make allies, he couldn't always depend on him alone.
Imagining that, he walked a little closer to the boy with brown hair, with a calm expression, at the same time the young man had a look of panic and fear.
Seeing Nova walking towards him, he felt a bit annoyed, but not with Nova, but with himself and the pathetic scenario he was acting out.
"Hello," Nova greeted as he got close enough. "My name is Nova Leiden, what is your name?".
Still afraid, the boy looked at Nova, before introducing himself.
"Hi, my name is Alex, nice to meet you," Alex spoke, almost as low as a whisper.
Fortunately, Nova's physical capabilities and senses have increased, making it possible to hear what Alex initially said.
But passing here, Nova was already feeling extremely uncomfortable, because something came up that he hadn't thought of....
'I don't know how to continue the conversation!' he thought with annoyance.
He had never conversed for years, even the few times were only conversations like 'hello' and 'bye'.
So he had to do something smart, he simply turned around silently, walking to approach the dummy.
Not looking at someone directly made Nova less awkward; this way, he could talk easier even if he wasn't looking at it.
"Don't be afraid, just destroy the doll with your abilities," Nova spoke, at the same time controlling the Mana.
Thoughts that generated the feeling of anger accumulated in his mind, but this time he was not going to let himself be carried away by such a feeling, he was going to control them.
At Alex's slightly surprised look, Nova created a fist-sized fireball that was so hot that Alex had to move several steps away to avoid being roasted alive.
Instead, Nova had the fireball an inch from his palm, seeming to levitate in the air.
"Fireball!", softly whispering the name of his only current offensive ability.
Fireball, at the mention of his name, nervously turned from side to side, at the same time Nova extended his hand.
At this moment he was only 20 meters away from the cockroach doll, standing in front of it with a calm expression, but full of determination.
The earrings glowed slightly, almost imperceptible, but it was enough for his first passive, Night Force, to kick in, minimally enhancing the fireball.
The fist-sized fireball grew a couple of inches larger and its heat seemed even greater than before, even the ground beneath it gave the illusion of melting.
"Go," Nova commanded, instantly the fireball shot out of his palm, creating a red blur that traveled at an abnormally high speed.
*Boom*
The fireball impacted right on the insect doll in front of Nova, which could only be burned halfway through its entire body, destroying half of its body.
'I didn't remember the fireball being so terrifying...', confessed Nova, who although had a calm expression, in the depths of his transparent eyes could be seen a spark of astonishment that he only concealed.
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