'Hm... I wonder when exactly I'll be able to move again...' Thought Jay, who was now lying on the wide grassy field that served as the waiting area for all the applicants.
The pre-test had been over for a while now, and shortly after the head teacher had finished talking to the examiner, the latter had transported all the applicants who were on the island back to this field, regardless of what state they were in.
As a result, the camp that had been empty for a whole day was once again filled with all sorts of colorful people, although unlike the previous day, there were now quite a few noticeable differences in the vast majority of them, regardless of whether they belonged to the group of common supers or those who had some background.
One thing they had in common was the state of their clothes, with the vast majority having their clothes torn due to various reasons and looking pitiful, as was the case with Jay and Kesar, then there were those who while looking good in general, there were still traces that showed that they didn't have an easy time at all, mainly due to their having a dirty and tired look.
However, they were not the ones who were in the worst condition, since this position belonged to those applicants who presented an immense amount of wounds in their bodies and were about to collapse, or were already unconscious on the grass field, making it quite clear that they had lost their battles, in this group were included the people that Jay and Kesar found in the lake, who for some reason still did not wake up.
Of course, while there was such a deplorable side, there was also the other extreme, a much smaller group of postulants whose appearance was pretty much the same as yesterday, indicating that this had been nothing more than a walk in the park for them, in this group were both James and Sarah, as well as several other supers who stood out from the rest.
"Still can't move?" Sarah, who was sitting next to Jay, suddenly asked.
"Nope, nothing yet, I guess I'll just have to wait..." He replied, letting out a sigh.
"You know, I had heard that something like this could happen with pugilists, but this is the first time I've seen it happen to a esper." Added Kesar, who was also sitting nearby.
"The same thing used to happen to me when I was a kid due to using more qi than I should have, haha~" Bastjan, the pugilist who had accompanied James and now called him boss, laughed.
"...Isn't it supposed to be stupidly dangerous for you to use more qi than you should since you can even die if your body is overloaded with qi...?" Myrin asked quizzically, raising one of her eyebrows as she looked at Bastjan.
"Haha, yes, my parents also said the same thing, but as you can see, I'm still 100% alive!" Bastjan replied with a confident smile on his face and flexing his biceps.
Thanks to all the chatter of these people, the atmosphere around Jay was quite lively, something that didn't really bother him at all, though of course, the same couldn't be said about his two friends, or rather, one of them.
"...Remind me why you're all here...?" Sarah asked with an icy tone, in her eyes forming a dangerous gleam.
While she normally behaved in a friendly and carefree manner with both Jay and James, her attitude changed completely when she encountered strangers, just as everyone here was.
Although this type of behavior had been quite reduced at school thanks to the fact that she was already somewhat familiar with the students after years of seeing them, it resurfaced as she was in an environment full of strangers.
Immediately after Sarah said those words, the first person to react was none other than the person who experienced this side of Sarah first hand, Myrin, quickly fixing her posture and ducking her head.
As for Kesar and Bastjan, while they didn't act as decisively as Myrin, they could still sense that Sarah's tone was not friendly at all, which was only becoming more obvious with the slight pressure she was emitting, inevitably making them tense up.
"Come on, don't be so hostile, there's nothing wrong with meeting new people." Said James, who had been quiet so far, trying to mediate between Sarah and the others.
"Don't worry guys, she might seem dangerous and threatening... and she is, but she's really not a bad person, seriously-ouch!" Jay also added, although he had to let out a small cry of pain at the end due to Sarah jabbing one of her thumbs into his side.
"Who are you calling threatening!"
Although Jay had to pay a small price in the form of a sharp pain in his right rib, this managed to get the tense atmosphere to quickly relax.
"Ahem!"
Just at that moment, a grown man's voice rang loudly throughout the field, causing all the people present to turn to the direction it came from.
Floating about 10 meters above the ground, the sloppy-looking examiner reappeared, seemingly out of nowhere.
"Now that I have your attention, I will proceed to read the results of this test, that is, those who managed to successfully pass this little test."
The moment he finished speaking, everyone present focused their attention on the examiner, extremely interested in what he was about to say.
"As I said before, there was really no requirement to pass this test, with the exception of course, of surviving. Something I'm unfortunately seeing that many of your peers have failed." Said the examiner as his gaze rested on those applicants who were unconscious, "For obvious reasons, we really can't allow any applicant to die, instead, we take into account your energy and vitality levels throughout the test to verify whether you managed to 'survive' or not."
After saying that, the examiner waved his hand, causing a small transparent window to appear on his side, it was similar to the window in which the map of the island had appeared, only this time, instead of the map, what could be seen were three small progress bars in red, green and orange, the first and second were full and had a 100% next to it, as for the last one, it was almost empty, with a 5% symbol next to it.
"What you are seeing right now are my vitality, energy and energy output levels respectively. As you can see, I am perfectly fine in both energy and vitality, as for energy output, it is at a normal level. Now let's look at that of one of your peers."
Although the exact details of how these bars worked went beyond what the examiner had just explained, this simple explanation was enough for the applicants.
The next moment, the examiner again waved his hand, causing the window showing the three bars to change, the percentages changing to 10%, 5% and 1%.
"This is the window of one of your classmates who unfortunately could not pass this test, with vitality and energy levels indicating that they're in a state unfit for any kind of physical activity. The moment the vitality and energy bars drop to these percentages, we conclude that they have failed, then, I use a spell to make sure they remain unconscious while preventing them from being able to take further damage."
'Hm, so that was it, I already thought it was weird that they didn't wake up even after all this time.' Jay thought, 'Anyway, to be able to keep a spell active on such a scale... the Eitsirc Academy is definitely on a whole different level...'
It was an incredibly difficult task to keep a spell active on a large number of people, especially if these people were supers, and this was still the case even for a rank (B) mage such as the examiner, but despite this, he didn't seem affected in the slightest.
There was a reason for this, and that was that in reality, although the examiner was the one casting the spell, he did not have to spend any of his own mana, but could draw on the huge mana reserves of this grass field.
Unbeknownst to the applicants, even to those mages sensitive to mana movement, the sensation of energy amplification they had felt the moment they entered the grass field was actually not because the Eitsirc Academy had prepared a special ground for them, but it simply was a side effect of being so close to such a huge mana reserve, which was located right under their noses.
Of course, the examiner had no intention of telling the applicants any of this, after all, it was more beneficial that they thought that he was stronger than he appeared.
"Now then, I will proceed to separate you according to the lowest state of your energy and vitality levels during the test."
After saying that, the examiner waved his two hands, two small magic circles forming on both hands and releasing a visible wave of energy that spread throughout the field, passing through everyone present.
A second later, the right wrist of all the postulants began to give off an orange glow
"Woah, this... feels warm somehow!" Said one pugilist looking at his right wrist.
"What spell is this...?" Another mage couldn't help but ask.
"How interesting, I can't block it even using my ability." Added an esper genuinely surprised by this wave of energy.
While everyone was observing the striking glow, another change began to occur in several postulants, with the glow coming from their wrists turning different colors such as brown, silver, and finally, gold.
Before the applicants could express their doubts about this sudden change, the examiner began to explain, "The different colors that appeared on your wrists indicate what your performance was on this test, brown means average, silver outstanding, and gold perfect."
Taking a quick glance at all the applicants to verify that everything was in order, the examiner then wanted to continue, however, the voice of an applicant prevented this.
"Excuse me, sir, my color is still orange." Said a somewhat dirty and unkempt looking young man who appeared to be a pugilist.
"Mine is the same!"
"Mine too."
Like a domino piece, the first comment caused several other applicants to join in the first one's movement, expressing their doubts.
"Oh right, I'm really sorry, I forgot to mention, if the glow doesn't change color, then I'm afraid that you are disqualified."
"!"
Immediately, the hearts of all the applicants whose wrists were still glowing orange, which were not few at all, were filled with worry.
"But we're still awake!" Said the pugilist, one could sense in his voice that he refused to believe what the examiner had just said.
"Just as I said before, the evaluations are according to the lowest point both your energy and vitality were at in the test, so even if you now have more vitality than a pugilist who reached grade (A), it would be the same. Although of course, if you want me to give you a more concrete reason, I can do that."
Because the examiner noticed that the pugilist was not satisfied with what he had said, he also added that last part.
"Please show me the reason."
Without waiting any longer, the examiner let out a brief sigh before the window beside him changed again, now showing the image of the same pugilist but in a deplorable state, lying on the wall of a cave and staring blankly, his body full of wounds and completely devoid of the pressure that a super would emit.
This was the result of having faced a monster and losing the fight, forcing him to run away and hide, waiting for him to regain energy to either continue running away or perhaps attempt to face the monster once more.
"At that point, your injuries were too severe for you to even move, without my help, you wouldn't have even been able to get out of that cave. If you had such a hard time staying alive, even if you remained conscious throughout the test, I'm afraid you're not ready to receive the academy education yet."
"I..."
Faced with this, the pugilist could not refute again, bringing his gaze down due to the embarrassment he was feeling.
The examiner was also feeling somewhat bitter, but it was at times like this that he had to remain strong, after all, this was for the very welfare of this pugilist.
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