Chapter 4 - Hunger within

Sweat drenched his body as Adrian moved through the course, "hahh.. I-I can make, hahh."

Adrian's ragged breath showed how exhausted he was, he wanted to stop and catch his breath, but he knew he couldn't afford to slow down.

Slinding beneath a bar and picking himself up, Adrian took a peak at the timer that read "00:17"

"Shit.. I have to go faster!" Adrian exclaimed as he glanced at the finish line a few meters away from him, but then his eyes widened, just before the finish line was a large pit, and he knew he won't make it if he tried to jump, he was just too exhausted to lift himself.

'What do I do.. Ah dammit... Maybe if I use aether I'd be able to make it, but I can't use aether while running. ' Adrian contemplated what he should do, he had to maintain maximum concentration before he could move the aether.

Many ideas ran through his mind, none of them proving to be helpful in this situation.

Adrian wiped the sweat of his face, as he came up with an idea. 'Ah.. This is a bad idea.' Adrian lamented.

He looked at the path ahead of him, trying to take in how it all looked before he did something that shocked the onlookers, he closed his eyes when he was just a few feet away from the pit.

"What are you doing, Adrian." Dave looked at Adrian's action as a puzzled look appeared on his face.

'come on, come on.. Movee' Adrian tried to push the aether towards his legs, he could feel a slightly burning sensation as he forcefully pushed the aether, increasing it's speed , so did the pain he felt, after a few seconds, the unbearable pain increased, causing him to snap his eyes open-

"AARRRHHH!"

Adrian bellowed as he jumped, his deep brown pupils now had a shade of red to it, one more step forwards and he would have fallen into the pit.

Soaring through the air, Adrian landed on the other side, just a few inches away from the pit, he skidded across the floor, before coming to a halt, his face scrunched up as the pain assaulted him, but he didn't send it any heed and lifted his head to look at the timer.

00:02 - Pass!

"Hahh-hahah.. Hehe, I'm a fucking genius." Adrian chuckled as his face relaxed, taking a second to catch his breath.

Shock!

"Wow, I though he wouldn't make it past the pit"

"How did he jump so high?"

"He tried for someone that's not even awakened"

"There's only one plausible explanation for this..."

One of the candidates looked at Adrian, a curios gaze settled on the face of a red haired beauty, she looked at Adrian's legs and nodded, 'yup, he used aether.. Intriguing.'

Unaware of the shock and curiosity his actions elicited, Adrian stood up and walked to the next section, he knew he wouldn't be able to pass the reflex test, not with how exhausted he was.

Stading in front of the wall, he thought,' maybe, I'll be able to pass this round, there's enough distance from the wall to see and dodge the disk.. Yeah, I got this!'

The wall lit up, hurled two disks at him, Adrian ducked on all fours, dodging the disks, before he could regain his footing, two more disks approached his position.

Adrian immediately rolls to the left, dodging the first disk. Then he took a step to the right, successfully evading the second disk, 'hehe.. If I keep it up I migh-'

*BZZT*

The buzzer rang out, indicating that he failed, Adrian looked at his shoulder and noticed a red light on it, "There were three disks?" his shoulders slumped down as he slowly left the section, moving towards the aether sensitivity test.

Entering one of the small rooms were the test was to be taken, Adrian took in the whole place, it was a dimly lit room, and on a table was a single, pedestal-mounted orb in the center.

The orb is about the size of a basketball and glows with a soft, blue-white light.

"Touch the orb and maintain contact till we say otherwise." a voice instructed through the speakers.

Adrian tensed up as he moved towards the orb, placing his palm on the smooth, cold surface.

Immediately his hands touched the orb, Adrian's shoulder tensed and his skin prickles with goosebumps, causing him to flinch, but he made sure his hands were still on the orb.

Taking a deep breath, Adrian tried to feel what's in the orb, 'Thi-this feeling!!' Adrian's eyes widened as he realized what was in the orb.

"It's aether..how did they put so much in here?" Adrian muttered with a curious gaze.

He could feel the large amount of aether inside the orb, it felt like it was calling out to him, Adrian felt a slight tug, a deep hunger within him appeared.

It was yearning for the aether inside the orb, Adrian tried to see what would happen if he absorbed the aether, 'But just a little.. I hope they don't notice' Adrian closed his eyes, trying to pull the aether-

-"You may leave, the test is concluded." the voice from the speaker announced.

Adrian jolted awake, the voice from the speaker tearing his focus away from the orb, the hunger within him disappeared like he never felt it.

He hesitantly removed his hands from the orb, and walked back to the seats, after approaching, he noticed Dave looking at him with a large smirk.

"Tch. Whats with that creepy smile of yours?" Adrian clicked his tongue in disdain.

Dave's smirk only got wider, "Never knew you had it in you, to be honest, I thought you wouldn't make it past the strength test, good job!"

"Hehe, I'm just too good, did you see how I jumped past the pit? It felt like I was flying, hahaha!" a large smile appeared on Adrian's face, as he excitedly narrate what happened.

***

5 minutes later

"The candidates assessment has come to an end, after your scores and performance have been calculated, the results would be shown on your assessment card." the official announced before leaving the stage.

Adrian wanted to ask how they'll announce the result when his card vibrated, he slowly turned his head to look at his pocket, where he kept the card.

'This is it.. I hope I pass, I hope I pass, I hope I pass..' Adrian kept on repeating as he slowly pulled out the card.

Shock!

Adrian's eyes widened as a large smile spread across his face, "I-I passed.. Haha!" his let out a short laughter, wiping the tears at the side of his eyes.

On the lower left corner of the card, a bright green light kept on blinking, the information on the card different from before.

>CANDIDATE ASSESSMENT CARD<

[NAME : ADRIAN LANE]

[AGE : 17]

[STATUS : UNAWAKENED]

[REGION : PLANKTON CITY]

[EVALUATION : PASS]

Dave looked at his card,the blinking green light reflected off his face. His usual smirk appeared on his face, "Phew.. Congrats man!" Dave patted Adrian on his back.

The same thing happened with other candidates, some of them nodded and pumped their fist, others had tears of joy flowing down their eyes, while others cried due to the red blinking light on their card.