NOVEL NEXT Chapter 30: B-Rank.
Silas gulped, hesitating a bit. But, without any second thought, he took a deep breath and kept his hand on the Mana sphere.
His palm slowly pressed against the glowing sphere of mana.
The surface felt cold at first, smooth like a glass which recently been polished. But underneath that calm shell, he could feel something that felt alive— something that was humming, waiting for energy to bite into it, so it could devour it whole.
The instructor, a tired-looking man in his mid thirties, a thick beard was on his face, stepped forward. His voice came deep. "Unleash your mana into it, slowly," he said. "Don't try to force it, or send it in one single second. Let it flow, give it a bit of time—"
A menacing grin curled up on Silas's lips. Slow wasn't his style, he wanted to do it his way.
He inhaled once, lowered his shoulders a bit—relaxing them so that he could unleash his mana, and then he let everything inside of him erupt outward through his palm.
Mana burst from his hand in a surge that was so strong that the air around the sphere trembled slightly. The runes beneath his feet glowed with a bright-blue light, as they had just gotten a sudden supply of mana.
The scanner started to flicker from blue to white, then went gold, then to bright red. The lights above them buzzed one after another, as if the whole room was struggling to contain the output.
The newbie hunters in the room paused their training as they felt their excitement to look at Silas.
Some of them looked up, others turned fully towards him, sensing the sudden spike of mana inside the room.
The instructor stumbled back once. "The hell—?"
Silas didn't stop; he pushed his mana even more. More than he ever had before, more than he even knew he had. It roared out of him like a tidal wave, thick and heavy, rippling across the room like heat bending through the air.
His coat fluttered from the pressure, and dust rose from the floor. The mana orb shook violently, and the lights inside of it were changing at a rapid speed.
Even the receptionist, the woman who called him the suicidal hunter in the past, doubted his abilities. Stopped chewing on her gum, her bored expression finally dropped into something no less than shock.
Her voice came out low, feeling of shock was buried inside of it. "What in the…?"
The orb of mana was reacting violently. The instructor who was standing next to Silas panicked. "Is the orb malfunctioning? We never witnessed anything like this before."
The other instructors came running towards them, leaving their work behind.
One of them checked the orb from afar. "No, I don't think that a mana orb can malfunction. Is it something else?"
Mana Orb finally stopped changing the colours, stopped at a single colour, which was purple.
Silas's lips curled up into a smirk as he finally pulled his hand away from the orb.
The orb cracked slightly. Not shattered—but just a thin fracture lined crawled across the surface like the webs of a spider. A faint whining sound came from inside the mana, like an engine that just pushed itself a bit too far.
Instructors nearby panicked, looking at the crack on the orb. "What in the world?"
The instructor who was standing next to Silas leaned in, grabbed the orb with both of his hands in panic. "I have never in my life seen a mana-orb crack, not even when we saw awakenings of S-Rankers."
The receptionist chewed on her gum slightly, eyes widened. "Oh god, what in the world are you, miracle boy?" A bead of sweat rolled down her cheek.
A large display screen above the testing platform blinked repeatedly before settling on one rank.
[B-RANK AWAKENED DETECTED]
The room suddenly went silent as they looked at the screen.
The instructors shouted in panic. "What the fuck? Is he just a B-Rank? Then how the fuck orb got cracked?"
Silas let out a smirk, crossed his arms as he rested them next to his chest. "Maybe the orb was too old and wasn't able to handle the sudden surge of energy?"
The instructor next to Silas scratched his beard slightly. "Yeah, maybe that's the case. But, this surely is suspicious."
He looked at other instructors, his voice came, and authority was buried inside his tone. "We'll study this orb. I want to know the actual reason behind it."
A small sigh left through Silas's mouth. 'System, mind giving me an explanation about this?'
[I don't mind, Host.]
[The only actual outcome of this incident is: Host learning the art of sword from the Archangel Michael.]
[It might sound a bit crazy to your small brain, host. But you chose the path of the sword, you haven't dug into the actual art yet. But, you have practiced the techniques of Archangel Michael.]
Silas gritted his teeth, veins popped up on his forehead and neck, exhaled a deep breath from his nose as if he was trying to calm his anger down. 'You motherfucker, you didn't have to mention me having a small brain, I swear to god that if I ever find you in solid form, I'll hunt you down.'
[I didn't tell any lie, host. (˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶)]
The receptionist looked at Silas, her voice came a bit loud, shocked. "You were F-Rank just a day before." She gulped, as if she was trying to comprehend the current situation. "How… what the fuck!?"
Silas raised one of his brows. "I just had a good night, that's all." He shrugged, relaxing his body a bit.
The receptionist stormed forward, snatching the clipboard in her hands.
"You… what? You want me to believe that shit or what?" she said, voice shaky. "Now you're suddenly a B-Rank…" She looked at the instructor who was standing next to Silas. "Hey, is this machine broken or something? What the fuck!?"
The instructor shook his head immediately.
"No. I don't think so that it's broken, but I do think that it might have some kind of issues. But the rank it just projected shouldn't be wrong.
Another staff member approached her from behind, tapping on a diagnostic tablet. "All systems are normal, reading of this evaluation is valid. We'll check if anything is wrong later."