Awakening Test I

"Welcome. This is the awakening test center. You'll be directed to a test room by one of the workers…" A beautiful female greeted Obed as he arrived at the register box.

She wore a long red gown and on top of the gown, she wore a black robe that matched her eyes. Her black hair was trimmed so it stood just above her shoulders. She was quite shorter than Obed seeing that her head was a little lower than his shoulder.

"Yeah, thanks." Obed responded thinking she was done with her sentence.

"...after paying the sum of five golds." She finished her statement.

Obed was filled with disbelief. "Since when did they start paying to be tested?"

"It's a new policy agreed upon by the heads of the various Chosens organizations." She answered with a straight face.

"I'm guessing it's pretty recent."

"That is correct." She replied again devoid of any facial expression.

Obed looked around for a moment and sighed. "That sucks." He pulled out a small card from his pocket and handed it to the female in his front. A moment later, she returned it and when Obed checked the number on the card, it was down by five.

"Thank you." She responded as another worker arrived to take Obed to the testing room.

Another female with a similar appearance to the one Obed had been conversing with until a moment ago.

The only difference was her eyes which were deep blue, the same color as her hair. 'Reminds me of Luke.'

Obed followed behind her, not saying a word until they arrived in front of a door three meters tall and wide.

"Here we are." The lady finally spoke out. "You'll be conducting all your tests here, along with a few others." She pushed the door and it opened with ease even though it looked like it weighed a ton.

Both of them walked in and the door closed shut. Inside the room, the space was as wide as a hundred meters and as long as fifty meters. It was over fifty meters tall. Rocky walls were at the edges and the floor was covered in smooth stone slabs.

In the middle of the room, there was a stand. As they approached the middle with the others, Obed noticed its features.

It was over a meter tall and two feet thick. It looked like it was carved with nothing but bare hands. On top of this stony stand was an orb. The orb had tiny particles like shattered glass sitting at the bottom of it.

When all of them had gotten close enough to look at the orb, she began explaining. "That's a mana orb. It measures the density of your mana and its quality. The brighter those things glow, the higher you'll go. Also, the more particles that move toward your hands, the greater the density. All you need to do is place your hands on the orb and channel mana through it."

She stopped her explanation and started at all of them. "You know how to channel mana through your hands right?"

Every one of them present, including Obed, nodded their heads.

"That's great then." She clapped her hands together. "Now who's going first?" She asked, moving her eyes around.

Obed saw that no one wanted to go first so he raised his hand. "Can I just go first?"

The lady smiled when she saw him lift his hand. "Feel free." She gestured for Obed to make his way to the orb and he did that.

He stood in front of the orb and placed his hand. He had always been able to freely control mana since he awakened just like Luke. He channeled mana through his mana vessels.

Mana vessels were like blood vessels. They connected to different parts of a Chosen's body like a blood vessel. The only two notable differences were that the mana vessels had mana moving through them and the other difference was the base of the mana. The mana core was where mana was stored and it was located in the lower abdomen. This network of mana vessels and core was commonly called the Mana System.

Mana flowed through Obed's mana vessels, transporting itself to his hands. The mana moved to his palms and more kept drifting to his palm.

The glass-like particles in the orb began to float toward Obed's hands. Little by little, the shards drifted to where Obed's hands were placed on the orb. More kept rising and joining.

Then the first ones began to glow. At first, the light wasn't too bright but as time went by, they continued to glow brighter and brighter. The shards in the orb floated to Obed's palms until there was none left at the bottom. When the lady observed that all the shards had floated to Obed's palm, she gasped. Quickly she started scribbling on the book she held.

The orb didn't stop glowing. Instead, it got brighter and brighter until white light radiated through the entire orb.

Everyone in the room with Obed started murmuring to each other, but Obed was too focused to listen to them.

One of them, a six feet tall man in his late twenties, had spiky grey hair and brown eyes with a slightly crooked nose, turned to the person close to him. "At this point, I regret letting him have the first try."

The person who was being spoken to was also in his late twenties but he had long brown hair that reached his neck. His eyes perfectly matched the black robe he was wearing. "You're not the only one regretting it." He responded. "He's aced this test. I don't think I've seen or heard anyone do this."

The lady in charge just kept writing in her book while the orb kept getting brighter until it drowned all other lights in the room.

Obed was sweating as he pulled his hand away from the orb and everything returned to normal.

The lady finally raised her head from her book and addressed all of them. "I'm afraid You'll have to wait for your results on this aspect. The others should go ahead. I'll have the higher-ups assess your test and make a decision on this."

The two who had been whispering to each other were the first two to go.

The first one ended up pulling over half of the orbs to his palm and the radiated bright light.

The lady didn't utter a word while he ran his test. She just kept scribbling on her note.

One by one, the others tested but none of them came close enough to achieve what Obed had just done.

After she finished writing down the details of the last person, she lifted her head and looked at all of them, taking an extra glance at Obed.

"The next test." She led them away to a different part of the room.

"You all are newly awakened Chosens so you all fall into the Tier Seven rank. The previous test was just a test for measuring potential, not your levels right now." She explained to them.

"But that doesn't mean there isn't a power level difference between Tier Sevens. Within Tier Seven, Chosens are graded into three. Grade C, Grade B, and the highest, the Grade As. The grade As are so strong that they should be classified as Tier Six Chosens but because of certain restrictions you'll find out about later on, they remain within the rank of Tier Seven."

She pointed to a metal not far away from them. "The next test is a test of physical strength. Infuse as much mana as possible and punch that round metal ball. The machine connected to it will allow us to assess your current level with great accuracy. Who's going first this time?" She asked at the end of her explanation.

"I don't want to cause trouble so I'll go last." Obed was the first to answer.

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