The man had curly golden hair, and blue eyes, in a black cloak walked towards the platform on the of the field.
" Welcome everyone, once again this is the selection ground. Here shall decided those who are ready to become soldiers or not. I hope all of you are ready, some of you are probably already fidgeting in your shoes. Well so as not to waste much of our time, let's begin"
He said, and then cleared his throat before continuing.
"the first test that will occur today will be a strength test, as all of you can see. There are strength gauges available for the events, along side it there is also an hammer near each one of them, this will be used to measure you strength. You shall pick the hammer to smash the gauge scale with all your strength, if your scale does not measure up to 8, you are going to be disqualified. Do you understand?"
" Yes!!"
They all chorused.
" Ok, let's start. You shall be splited into eight groups, according to your number and the amount of strength gauges available. Then you shall step up here take, the hammer and smash it as hard as you can on the ball . Once your strength passes the level of 8 on the scale, then you are going to be qualified for the next event"
The man said, collecting a list from one of the soldiers near him.
" So number 1 to 10, move towards the first strength gauge "
The numbered people started moving there , one of the boys there rushing to the front feeling confident.
" Next, no 11 to 20, move towards the second strength gauge"
Once again, they all moved towards it.
" Ok, let's do it like this, each numbered 21 to 30, 31 to 40, 41 to 50 , 51 to 60, 60 to 71, and 71 to 80, should line up according to each strength gauge ".
When Derkile heard this, he and bane quickly moved towards the strength gauge where they saw the people number 51 to 60, lined up.
As Bane was no52, he had to stay at the front, and as Derkile was no57, he had to stay at the back. While they were arranging themselves, Derkile saw someone familiar in their group . It was that girl called Luna, that beat up the guy provoked her"
She was no 51, the first person to begin the test. She seemed quite confident, and held a weapon, not familiar to the one given to them. It was a long sword with several tiny green magic stones fixed onto it. It seems like she didn't like the one given to them, and took her personal own instead...
" Ok, everyone. I think you've all had enough time to arrange yourselves and get ready, so let the events begin!!!"
The man yelled, apparently for the last time until the end of this event.
Immediately Luna heard this, she picked up the hammer with ease, raised it up a little above the ball and then stopped for a second. The sword in her hand began to glow green, and then her eyes also turned green. Lastly, she took a deep breath before finally smashing it down on the ball..
Bang!!!, the smash was so strong, it made a loud bang. And when the scale stopped counting, it had measured a total of 22, which means she attained a level 22 mark.
Everyone was in shock except Bane , who stood as if he was not in surprise. Then suddenly, a man who was watching the whole scene all the while, started recording the score into a piece of paper, it was certain she had passed this test. Derkile sensed he was a sorcerer, due to the strong aura his super senses feeled.
Bane didn't waste time either, he rushed to the front, picked up the hammer and he did something . He positioned himself, spun the hammer a bit, and flung it down unto the ball. Immediately, the scale counted 21...,. ....
'How was that even possible ?', Derkile thought, he was hundred percent sure that the guy didn't use any weapons, but then he saw one on the hand he used to carry the hammer, it was a gauntlet with different magic stones fixed on it....
Derkile smiled, it wasn't like he expected bad from his friend but, he didn't think it was possible for one to attain a level of 21 with sheer strength, well maybe it was possible, but it wasn't ordinary people like them, they would be trained soldiers in order to be able to attain such level of strength, with ordinary power.
The next person went forward, it was a shabby looking boy, he looked a little bit frail, and Derkile wondered if could attain more than level 8. He took up the hammer with his two arms, and using all his strength, smashed it down on the ball, but unfortunately, the scale measured up 6 . The boy face changed, and his body began to shake, when the man recording the saw this, he shook his head and recorded it, Derkile felt sorry for the fella, he probably won't be able to become a soldier anymore this year, he should probably prepare for next year instead...
The test continued and the others, which were 54, 55, and 56 got above level 8, they got the measure of 9, 11, and 12 corresponding, two of them made use of personal magic weapons, only number 9 used sheer strength to attain such level.
It was now Derkile's turn, even though he was sure he would pass the test, he was still a little bit shaky, he walked to the front and picked up the hammer, he looked at the ball platform in front of him.
He knew how strong he was at the moment, and if he had to use his full force, suspicion would be raised about him. Then he decided to hit it with minimal strength.
He moved the hammer up, and faking to use all his force, he hit it with little force on the ball, still surprisingly, a loud thud was heard, and the scale measured up to 16. He marvelled at how powerful he was, he didn't believe it could still get up to this , he expected at least 8 or 9, he knew he had great powers and that if he used full force to smash the ball, it might even break, so he decided to only hit it gently on the ball, but make it look as if he used full force, so as not to raise suspicion.
The others looked at him in surprise, and Bane was happy that he passed the test, but he didn't believe that Derkile was as strong as that, not knowing if he had used his full force to hit it, he might gotten up to a measurement of at least 50.
Derkile smiled, proud of himself. His hidden powers had helped him pass the test. He just wondered what type of powers, and what creature he became. A question he was sure to figure out after passing the selection.
The rest took the test and also passed, but with low marks, the man took their records and went, at the end of the test, only one person did not pass the test in their group , not knowing that apart from their group, in other groups, a lot of people failed the test and those that used ordinary strength to pass where few, the others that passed used the help of magical weapons.
At the end of the tests, the man that announced earlier to them, came up the platform with a list in his hand. He then started announcing.
" Good day to everyone, once again, this is the end of the tests and we realized that a lot of people failed the test but we have no other options than to disqualify those that didn't pass, as that is the King's order. So I will start know by calling the name of those that are disqualified, you may be thinking, why not those that passed, but watch"
He said, taking out the list and he started to call out.
" Martin Raphael, Luger Mopar, Don Amanda , Drake smith..."
But something surprising happened, immediately their names were called, they all started to glow with light and began to teleport . They were being transported back to the dorm, probably to be released home.
Derkile was sad those who lost, even though the test they had done today, was a little bit harsher than the other ones, but there was nothing he could do.
The rest were called and by the end, almost half of the people who had come for the selection had been wiped out. Bane moved near Derkile, to congratulate him.
" Whoa Derkile, you actually were stronger than I expected. Congratulations on your passing the test"
" Thanks, same to you. You were also strong"
"Yeah, but at least you didn't make use of magic weapon"
" Talking about magic weapons Bane, where did you get it ?, I am sure I didn't see you bring it along, and I am very sure, this wasn't the one you picked during the training day "
" Yeah, actually Luna brought it for me, she said my dad requested I usee it during the test "
" Oh, sorry to ask bane, but what type of relationship do you have with Luna?"
" Actually, she was my cousin, and her parents lived nearby. We were quite close before, but a fight came up, and since then we never talked to each other that much "
Derkile was curious about the type of argument they had, but didn't want to get pry into his personal affairs .
"Now that the first one is done. I think it's time we moved towards the next one, which is a little trickier than the first"
Derkile heart skipped a beat in excitement....
End of chapter 10
Thanks for reading, watch out for the next chapters , things are about to get interesting ...