Chapter 6

 "It's that time already, huh?" Bryan looked at the watch as the alarm he set went off and muttered.

 He was wearing a pure black combat outfit that he had prepared beforehand. It offered camouflage, temperature regulation, and high defense. This was the limit on what the test allowed them to carry.

 "Are you ready, Carl?" He called out to the lizard and the lizard nodded his head with a grave expression on his face, seemingly understanding the severity of the situation.

 Bryan grabbed the coat on the bed and wore it over his outfit and Carl leaped from his place on the lamp stand and landed on his shoulder.

 Swiping his card, he left the room and closed the door behind him.

 "Haa..." Bryan was nervous and why wouldn't he be. An exam with unknown conditions and unknown difficulty. An exam that could possibly determine his fate.

 "... okay. Let's do this." He cleched his fist as he summoned courage and began walking to the exam venue.

 The exam venue was a good deal away from the city as though they were organising a secret gathering.

 Grassy plains with only the occasional tree or two. He couldn't detect the presence of any beasts or supernatural flora so it was probably a safe spot.

 Which Bryan arrived, he saw that he was one of the earliest with only a few others apart from him.

 'I say a few others but this is more than a hundred people.' He scanned the surroundings and saw that most of them had their summoned beasts out.

 Birds of prey of all shapes and sizes clad in mysterious ether filled the surroundings. No matter how he looked at it, they all looked cooler than his lizard.

 Bryan looked at Carl and how the pipsqueak was glaring at the others in pride and sighed.

 'Well, they say appearances aren't everything.' He consoles himself and found a place to rest and began observing the examinees.

 'Ahh... That one is no good.' And began calmly disqualifying them from the list of the future teammates he had in mind.

 Most of them had subpar strength or their tamed beasts were too ordinary. It may have seemed cold-hearted but he did not have time for that kind of sentiment.

 Little by little, he disqualified most of them before one person finally caught his eye. A boy with ice blue hair was sitting in a meditative posture with his tamed beasts on his head.

 Calm ice blue either occasionally seeped put and dyed his surroundings in a layer of frost. 

 The scene wasn't particularly exceptional but Bryan noticed that the quality of his ice was very high.

 'He looks familiar.' The boy's face jogged his memory but no matter how hard he tries, he could not remember where he had seen the boy.

 'I'll contact him during the exam.' He concluded and turned his sight to the person who had just arrived.

 Big. That was the first thing he thought when he saw her. She stood at a height that would make most height obsessed people wonder what they had been doing with their lives.

 'That may be a little bit of an exaggeration but she is definitely taller than me.' Bryna thought as he began observing the girl.

 She had dark hair, golden brown skin, and striking forest green eyes. Her features were finely chiseled, with a strong and stable look in her eyes.

 But what was most eye-catching was the layer of earth ether around her. It was so dense that Bryan almost wondered whether it was solid.

 It wasn't something that could be accomplished with mere strength. Familiarity with ones tamed beast and its element was the only way to even dream of accomplishing it.

 'Her connection with her tamed beast may just be one of the best I've seen.' Bryan notes and the girl stopped and turned her head to Bryan.

 Her eyes caught his and his breath froze as her eyes seemed to contain the greatness and vastness of the earth and it almost suffocated him.

 Carl snorted and breathed a small column of flame and he felt the feeling vanish. Bryan heaved a sigh and the girl just tilted her head confused and found a place to sit.

 'It would be kind of scary if she did all of that without knowing it.' Bryan notes as he patted Carl and stroked him gently.

 Soon, most of the examinees had arrived and there were plenty of people who had caught his eye.

 'Now all I have to hope for is that my communication skills are enough to convince them to form a team with me.' Bryan breathed in and out at a constant rate and just as the last person entered, an energy barrier enveloped the entire area trapping them inside.

 "Welcome, diamonds in the rough. This time, it looks like there's quite a lot of trash." A deep, feminine voice reverberated in the enclosed space and Bryan looked around to locate it.

 Right above their heads, space twisted and churned as it stirred up the wind causing all the examinees to close their eyes.

 "A total of three thousand people and some change are taking this exam and only one hundred will pass. In other words, the vast majority of you are going to go home disappointed. This esteemed one's name is Invigilator O. Carve it into your frail heart!"

 From the empty sky, space cracked open like an egg and a woman riding a pitch black lion descended from above.

 "And this sourpuss next to me is none other than Invigilator D. Nice to meet you, small fires." The woman known as Invigilator O said with a smirk on her face.

 Next to her was a man wearing a dark hoodie that obscured his features. A dark raven with darkness covering it sat on top of his shoulder with its beady eyes staring at the examinees.

 Bryan just watched with shock and excitement on his face with a little bit of anticipation mixed within.

 'It's going to start." He gripped his arm and looked at his partner.

 "Let's go."