Chapter 15 Choices

Coming out of the room, Takashi put a hand on the wall, holding himself up before catching himself and starting to walk as if nothing had happened. At least, that's what he hoped it looked like. In truth, everyone could tell he was not alright.

He was covered in bruises and cuts, his clothes were a mess, with bloody stains on his body, and even some smoke seemed to be emanating from him as he stumbled forward, as if ready to fall on his face at any moment. But he managed to stand up, barely managing to make his way back, driven by his sheer will and being too prideful to the point of not wanting to be on the same level as the others, let alone be seen as lower than them, even if it was his sister.

Popping her head out again, Vivie spoke in a nice, cheerful tone.

"Who's coming in to see me next!?"

"Hehe, let's see what cool things I get!" Kuro said excitedly.

"Wait-" Sora stopped Kuro from going in, speaking somewhat nervously. "Do you think I could go in before you?"

Turning back, Kuro smiled, seeing the determined look on Sora's face. "Sure man, go right ahead!" Letting Sora pass in front of him, he gave him a friendly, encouraging smack on the back. "You'll do great, man!"

"Thanks, man!" Sora said, smiling more confidently as he made his way into the room, still worried about the fact that everyone who had gone into the room before had come out in rather bad condition.

Arriving in the room, it seemed to be back to normal, with the circular table and two chairs, one of which had been occupied by the royal court magician.

Everything seemed normal, however, there seemed to be something very wrong now. On the curtains serving as walls, hiding the infinite dimension behind them, the curtains seemed to be covered in patches of blood. It was quite shocking and worrying for Sora as he anxiously looked around.

"I-I-, take a seat, dear hero!" Vivie happily said, smiling sweetly as she looked at Sora.

Sora watched confusedly as something strange happened.

Vivie's body seemed to become transparent for a second, almost like an afterimage. Then, seconds later, it was as if everything was back to normal, with the only difference being that there were no longer any blood stains on the curtains.

"What was that-? Did you just?" Sora raised a shaky finger as he tried to ask, only to be stopped by Vivie holding his hand in an almost motherly fashion.

"Don't worry about it, son. So then, dear hero, why don't you just use the crystal? It will be alright!" Vivie said as she brought his hands towards the crystal.

Putting the palms of his hands around the crystal, he was comforted to see Vivie no longer smiling sweetly but more of a comforting smile, telling him that it would be okay. And so, just like this, he started to push his powers into the crystal ball.

Name: Sora Kageyama

Age: eighteen

Gender: male

Race: human

Hair color: black

Skin color: white

Eyes: black

Height: five feet nine inches

Weight: one hundred and eighty pounds

Mana: sixty-five

And so, once again, more and more things appeared on the ball as it went down. There seemed to be a big list of numbers and words going down, saying things about him such as his physical appearance, muscle mass, and much more, until reaching the bottom where he was shown to have... one ability? Simple and all…

Racial ability: none, slightly above average human, only thing being above a regular human being a weak affinity for earth magic or earth manipulation on a low level. And so, once again, Sora Kageyama was hit in the face by reality, the hard reality that he was the weakest of his teammates, his classmates, the weakest hero, and as if that wasn't enough, he had only one special ability in the end. "Hunger" was the only ability he had gotten, with no special ability he could use.

An awkward, strained smile spread across Sora's face as he looked back up to Vivie to see a somewhat confused but yet accepting and understanding smile on her face.

"It's okay, Sora, you don't have to worry about it. As a summoned hero, you will be put into that class no matter what abilities and powers you have."

"But I'm too weak. I can't even fight anything. I'm just a slightly above average human. How much mana does an average human have, anyway?"

"Fifty, but you don't have to worry. You will get the help you need, and you will be able to do just fine."

"I'm barely stronger than a regular person."

"Yes, but you're also a hero, and you can grow. I believe you can. After all, Professor Aruji did seem to be interested in you earlier." Vivie said with an encouraging smile and wink.

"Really? Maybe then, I'll give it my all!"

"Yay! That's what I like to hear! Now, about Sir Aruji, you should know he may come off as a bit harsh at first, but it's because he cares about his students, so he wants to push you to the best of your abilities. So, don't take it personally, okay?"

"I'll keep it in mind!" Sora said, smiling as he walked out. And so, he was now the only one to have walked out of the room without any injuries and instead was smiling.

Kuro watched as Sora walked out, smiling more than he had gone into the room. This had surprised him as much as the others, as he was the first one to go in and come out not only fine but seemingly in a better headspace than before.

'Both Takashi and Michiko had gone into the room and come out in a worse state than they had gone in, while Takashi was the worst of the two. Michiko had not been off completely unscathed either; when she had come out of the room, it had looked as if the soul had been sucked out of her. Her skin was pale, covered in sweat, and she had almost looked like she had been squeezed rather harshly. But Sora, on the other hand, he seemed just fine — no, he seemed better than fine. So, he must have gotten something really good, at least.'

"Hey! Sora! How was it!?" Kuro excitedly asked, waving at him with a smile on his face.

"Haha, it went fine!" Sora responded, sounding a bit shy but rather happy nonetheless, while scratching his head a little.

"Nice! You best stay here then and watch the pro go into action, hahaha!" Kuro gave him another good-natured pat on his back before he himself made his way to the room.

After arriving in the simple room and being greeted by Vivie, Kuro took a seat like the ones before him. He put his hand on the crystal ball and started to push some of his mana into it.

The crystal ball glowed, shining brightly before everything started to appear like the ones before it:

Name: Kuro R

Age

: eighteen

Gender: male

Race: human

Hair color: metallic black

Skin color: white

Eyes: deep metallic black

Height: five feet eleven inches

Weight: two hundred and five pounds

Mana: one thousand three hundred and fifty-five

And so, once again, more and more things appeared on the ball as it went down. There seemed to be a big list of numbers and words going down, saying things about him such as his physical appearance, muscle mass, and much more until reaching the bottom where he was shown to have some more extra abilities:

Racial ability: lightning manipulation, earth manipulation, wind manipulation, magnet release, hack, metal manipulation, transform, and many, many more abilities to go along with it. It was as if he had so many abilities that they had to scroll down to reach the bottom. Some of his abilities seemed to be rather advanced.

Coming out of the room, Kuro smiled as he made his way towards Sora happily.

"Man, I got so many cool things, bro! I even got stuff for being a robot and everything!" Kuro spoke, smiling as he bragged about his abilities without thinking much about it.

"That's nice, I-" Sora was cut off by Kuro wrapping his arms around him, stopping him.

"Now don't go telling me what you got yet, bro. You can just wait and surprise me when we get the chance to show off and learn how to use them!" Kuro said good-naturedly, smiling happily and encouragingly at him.

And so, time quickly passed with Kuro not seeing the worried look on Sora's face the whole time as he thought about how to tell about his singular special ability and his earth magic. The whole time, Kuro watched the many people walk in and come out of the class, seeing people he didn't know and those that he did. One of them, ones he did not know, was Seraphina Darkwoods. He did not know her personally; however, he did remember seeing her in the royal summit back at the castle. Then there were others, such as Jamal, one of his classmates and one of the ones who, like him, had volunteered to be a hero. From what he could see, it was quite ironic, as not only was he a typical black man with braided dreads and such, he stood at a height of five feet eleven inches, and if he could remember correctly, then his battle form was… chuckling a little as he thought about it, he continued to wait until eventually.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the second stage of the entrance of Ethos magical academy!"

"I hope you've enjoyed yourselves so far! Now then, without wasting any more of your time, let's get this show on the road!"

"YAY! YAY! YAY!" The loud cheers of the students went up as this happened.

"For the next part of this exam, you have a choice. You may choose between fighting me or any other teacher, and depending on how well you do, then I will evaluate what class you should be in. Or you can show off your abilities by fighting against another student, or lastly, you may simply choose to show your ability off in some other way, like target practice, for example. Now pick wisely, my students; the choice is yours!" Aruji spoke with a wide, dangerous smile on his face as his eyes shone an even brighter red than usual.

Extra author's note:

If I have described a character before those character descriptions then something changes in the character description, take the one in the character description as being the real one and not the older one also I will most likely redo these character sheets much later on again.

Fun fact about Aruji: he likes sweets very much and has quite a bit of a sweet tooth at times.