Xerves made his way up the stairs.
I can't afford to mess up, he thought.
Artifacts activation was most people's go-to work, and I meant most people except Xerves, the reason being when activating artifacts, some artifacts have a level of required molecular energy for activation, and even with his bracelet, Xerves can't guarantee that his molecular energy is around average.
So if he went to pour energy into a gem for activation, and it shattered due to energy overload, his cover would be blown. He had to blend in, just like any other average teenager finding his daily bread in the city. Yeah, I meant average, this was how he had lived since childhood, it might be because his master always warned him to stay out of the spotlight. Maybe he had adjusted and didn't want anything to do with ostentation, this was his first time in the city, Xerves had only been to some outskirts a few times, a jungle born in the city.
I guess I will have to rely on my keen sense.
Upon reaching the second floor, looking around, there were men of different ages embedding gems in silver swords.
So silver swords that the elite use are being upgraded here with gems, by activating the gems embedded in the sword, the sword gains massive destructive power, he realized.
This work is done by an artifact activator.
If I remember clearly my master's stories of his journeys to many cities, I guess he is just on another one of his expeditions, a traveler as always, where I am now is DrakonCore, the nearest city to Shadowfell, it is a city with ancient ruins filled with gems, adventurers explore these ruins and mine gems there.
He made his way to the nearest desk, another woman was scribbling something with a quill on a paper.
"Excuse me" , He said finding the right word to say after being referred to this floor
She glanced up from the desk, surveying Xerves all over like he was some suspicious thief.
You are Xerves, right?
She said with a stern face after surveying him finish
"Yes" he replied using his hand to Scrabble his already-tousled hair.
"We will test your skill before you can be allowed to choose a job from the job listings" she said still looking suspiciously.
Now I'm in a pinch, Why the hell do you need to test my skill just let me choose a suitable job and get on with it. He thought irritatedly.
"Are you okay?" She asked after noticing that Xerves was lost in thought, irritation written over his face.
"No no", he said flinching from his thought.
"The testing center is at that place", she said pointing at a distance.
Xerves thanked her and sluggishly made his way there.
What to do now, how do I get past this testing of skill? He mused.
He reached there and saw a rectangular giant glass with about seven glowing gems embedded vertically at its sides different people were being tested there, by placing their two palms on the glass front surface the gems glow from the first to the sixth gem.
I wonder why the seventh one didn't glow.
They were lined up and he was the third person on the line. It was one teenager in full golden armor turn, apart from the gems, his armor was the next shining thing in the room, a couple years older than Xerves, like around eighteen, after removing his gauntlet, he approached Xerves
"Boy, could you help me hold on to this beautiful gauntlets?" He asked.
Who the heck is this self-obsessed maniac, coming out of his way to make me showy huh? He thought with disdain, disdain expression almost seeping through his look.
Before Xerves noticed, he had already dropped the gauntlets in his leather cross bag, landing on Kai's peeping head, it flinched, drawing Xerves out of his thoughts.
"Boy... That your expression is not beautiful" he said with a flashy smile, using his hands to brush down his stream of auburn hair.
"Tsk!" Even though I can refuse it, it will only draw more attention to me.
He made his way to the rectangular glass with gems, what they called the energy level testing machine, placing his palms on its surface, the gems glowed from the first to the sixth gem at the top, and after sometime, like a few seconds, his palms still there.
What the heck is he doing, his he checking his reflection on the glass or what?, fanatical bastard making me flashy!
The seventh gem glowed and cheers filled the room
.
"As expected of Lord Dannis!"
"Incredible!"
"That is above average, it's excellent!"
"Wow"
"Yeah, yeah, ah! Ah! beautiful people will only end up doing beautiful things" he replied in self-admiration.
Aye aye, Xerves thought in sarcastic admiration.
If the seventh gem glowing is called excellent level of molecular energy I wonder what they will call mine if the gems explode with energy overload?, catastrophe! I think, he thought, coming to a realization.
From the look of it, these gems are all just common artifacts not even the rare ones.
He could remember the heat-type gems they used to cook in the jungle, upon activation, heat types emit heat that can be used for cooking, when his master wasn't around one day, he could remember getting hungry and wanted to cook some food.
I ended up blowing up the gems that day as I had to overflow them with too much energy, I ended up getting starved throughout the day, it left me to wonder that if only I had normal molecular energy.
As a person born with too much molecular energy, immense amount is too much of a pain, although elite captains have more than normal molecular energy, but they didn't have such from birth, it's cumulated through countless pieces of training and battles, so as their energy grew over time, they have immense control over it, not like Xerves who uses bracelet to subside energy and its aura.
What a hassle!! No doubt, if I were to place my palm on that testing machine, all the gems would end up getting blown, aside from cover blowing, I would also end up in debt.
I need to think of a way out,
he thought looking around the testing machine.
He saw something like a small gem, embedded at the bottom left side of the machine, Xerves noticed that after a gem glowed, the small gem glowed for a split-second, emitting some buzzing sound before another testing gem glowed.
Maybe that small gem acts as energy regulator for each testing gem, he thought,
much like it prevents energy overflow on each gem, when a gem glows, it transfers the molecular energy of the person being tested to the next gem. But I'm not sure, after all, it's just a hypothesis.
A plan came to his mind, and he grinned heavily.
I planned to imbue the small gem with molecular energy, if it is overloaded it will break, I will just have to bet all my luck on this small gem to make the testing machine break down or malfunction, either is fine with me, and that way, I will be able to escape being tested.
And I will work on my next plan to succeed in activating gems, I planned to choose rare-type gems to activate from the Job listings, this way I wouldn't need to worry about energy overflow because rare-type gems have high resistance to energy overflow.
He smiled, realizing he was now second in line.