Ren Silvermoon, also granted the title of immeasurable student by the academy.
Why?
Well, it was about to be shown right here.
"Ren Silvermoon." Athena called out his name, looking up from her list.
Nodding with a thumbs up to both Michael and Amon, the boy walked forwards.
However, as Ren reached the front of the line, something shocking happened.
Nobody knew why but by intention or mistake, he slipped right near the top rankers.
In the heat of the moment, he quickly grabbed Liliana's shoulder to stabilize himself.
Standing up and dusting his clothes, he was suddenly taken aback as a wind blade passed right in front of his face.
He quickly jumped back, his arms high in the air, signaling surrender.
"Yo yo yo, just calm down, it was just a reflex." He apologized to her with a calm look on his face.
Liliana's face however, was cold, brutal cold.
But even though she absolutely wanted to murder the boy right now, she knew better not to even try in front of his sister.
So, in the end, she just gave him a murderous glare along with her warning.
"Do it the next time, and your head will not feel your body anymore." She warned menacingly and the boy bowed.
Straightening himself back up, Ren walked over to the targets under his sister's watchful stare.
"Are you ready?" She asked for confirmation and he nodded back with a smirk.
Raising her hand high, she brought it down.
Immediately, just like how Liliana had performed, numerous amounts of wind blades conjured around him.
Everyone's mouth gaped wide open, their faces turning towards Liliana whose face was completely red with her fists clenched.
"This…..bastard." She mumbled, malice dripping from her voice.
Meanwhile, Amon merely smiled.
Ren was one of a kind in the novel.
He did not have any magical element yet he also had a clover mark on his bicep.
His situation was complicated, to say the least.
His element was later named as [Copy].
By initiating physical contact with any person, he can copy their ability and their mastery of it, to the exact level for 5 minutes.
However, the strength of the element and the number of elements he can copy varies upon his clover leaves.
He can copy one element with every 2 clover leaves he attains.
Another way he could obtain an element was by cutting down the time for 1 element.
For example, if he had copied wind for 5 minutes, he could copy another element by cutting down the time of both elements to 2.5 minutes and so on.
As Ren launched the wind blades, everyone witnessed them arc through the air and precisely hit each target.
It had taken him no more than 8 seconds, the exact time Liliana had taken.
Except Amon, everyone had their mouths gaped open, their eyes widened with profound shock.
According to the time recorded just now, it placed him at the 3rd rank in elementals, just next to Liliana.
In front of everyone's evident surprise, Ren turned back with a smirk.
After a nod to his sister, he walked back to his position, right past Liliana, who had her head lowered.
Without any care about what happened, Athena moved to the next and last name.
"Amon Ashford." She called out, her eyes quickly moving from the list to him.
At her voice, everyone recovered from their shock, their heads moving toward the end of the line with surprise.
Under everyone's gaze, he nodded and walked to the grounds.
Unlike the most times where he was excited or nervous, he felt completely relaxed at this moment.
Maybe it was because he knew what to do and what would happen.
Arriving at the spot, Athena looked at him for the confirmation nod but to her surprise, he raised his hand.
He wanted her to wait.
Once she nodded, he quickly ran his gaze on the ground around him, as if to find something.
Everyone looked at him with confusion, not understanding what he was doing.
And just when he was about to give up, his eyes landed upon a tiny ice shard.
It was probably here because of Elizabeth's display from before.
He quickly picked it up, and Athena frowned.
"Student Amon, you do know that you aren't allowed to use other people's magic as weapons, right?"
Amon nodded without a word, causing her eyebrows to raise up with intrigue.
What was the boy thinking?
Was the question on everyone's mind right now.
Looking back at his teacher, he gave the confirmation nod.
Though a little confused, Athena still raised her hand before bringing it down, a moment later.
Immediately, to everyone's surprise, Amon plunged the shard deep into his forearm before dragging it down near his palm.
Gritting his teeth from the immense pain, he made a large cut on his arm, blood splattering all over.
Most people screamed, thinking that the boy had gone mad.
However, Athena's eyes widened, realizing what he wanted to do next.
Except, for the top 4, Michael and Ren, everyone had already turned their heads from the scene, not wanting to witness the boy's suicide attempt.
Unknown to their reactions, Amon just closed his eyes, focusing everything while also trying to bear the wrenching pain.
Fortunately, just when he thought he might lose all his focus to the pain, a soothing feeling emerged from within his body.
He immediately realized who it was.
Closing his eyes back again, he focused more intensely now.
Suddenly, the blood on his arms and ground started to swirl around him.
A red hue shrouded his body as he did not break concentration, making the liquid blood start to condense.
In a minute, the blood had finally condensed into solid sharp needles.
Opening his eyes with a jolt, Amon quickly waved his arm forward, shooting the needles.
And to everyone's complete shock, the first 2 targets were hit with complete accuracy.
However, the remaining needles wavered, deviating their landing from the center point.
But even so, what mattered to Amon was that he had at least hit one target accurately.
It was a certain milestone for him; the weakest person in the academy.
Overcome by pain, Amon fainted right there from the blood loss, not witnessing the sight of everyone's gaping mouths.
Only Athena remained indifferent, but even she had a flicker of interest and surprise in her eyes.
He had inflicted deep pain upon himself just for the test, yet when she looked at his unconscious form now, she saw a smile imprinted upon his face, free from the pain.
A contented smile. A satisfied smile.
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(Edited Note by the author for future readers: For those of you who keep questioning that why Amon didn't use lightning and used blood which would have been an excellent trump card in the future, it's because the Lightning element is a maker type element.
Maker type elements require 3x more mana than manipulation type elements because you are essentially constructing the element from scratch. Since Amon's mana capacity at that time was rock bottom, at most he could have created one or two bolts of lightning which would have led to him failing the test.
This has been explained in the later chapters but I'm adding this here for all you.)
Thanks for reading!!!