NOVEL NEXT Chapter 57 Golden Presence
57 Golden Presence
"All applicants prepare to board the ship!"
A shout came across the open field, causing everyone to stop their conversations and turn to look at the source of a voice.
Standing in front of the huge ship, a man dressed in a tight fitting battle uniform stood. His eyes were jet black, matching his hair and his clothes.
This was the chief examiner for this entrance exam, Professor Will Wother, a famous B+ rank awakened!
This was by far the strongest being he had ever seen. No human or beast he had come across so far could compare to the energy Alex felt radiating from Will.
Since Alex could feel this energy, it only made sense that every other applicant in the field could too.
Mira simply kept up her usual emotionless expression, but who knew what was going on inside her mind.
"Good. Now that I have your attention, everyone form an orderly line and board the ship, we're departing now." Will spoke again when everyone turned their attention to him.
But before he entered the ship himself, he took a quick glance across the field of applicants in front of him.
His gaze lingered over Alex, Mira and a few other students before he turned around and disappeared into the darkness of the ship.
'What was that!?'
A feeling of oppression washed over Alex for a split second but disappeared immediately after.
Under this kind of oppression, he felt like the weakest bug face to face against a giant.
He looked to his side and noticed that Mira's expression was also scrunched up, and concluded that she likely felt that same oppression.
But when he looked around, everyone else he could immediately see still had normal expressions.
Not wanting to think of that scary experience any longer, he shook off his thoughts and lined up behind Mira and entered the ship with everyone else.
After entering the ship, the doors closed and the familiar sound of the interior pressurising sounded.
Alex and the rest of the students watched as the green and blue planet Hortus gradually shrunk before their eyes.
A feeling of excitement washed over the crowd when the realisation that they were actually about to take a test for the most esteemed universities in the federation set in.
Soon, the ship exited the star system Alex had called his home ever since he could remember.
Suddenly, red lights flashed and an alarm blared, shaking all the students out of their excited states and replacing them with concern and confusion.
"Applicants beware, the ship is about to enter warp. Please take a seat and don't walk around." A soft voice filtered through the chaos, calming everyone down.
"Phew, I thought we were getting attacked or something…"
"Attacked? Here? Pirates would need a death wish to attack a ship carrying the insignia of the federation right outside a star system."
"Oh boy, I'm so nervous. This is my first time leaving Planet Hortus and I'm already headed somewhere light years away!"
"It's a first for most of us. Don't be scared, we're all feeling the same excitement."
"..."
Various voices filled the cabin Alex and Mira were sitting in while the two of them just sat in silence.
They may be partners, but they had only just formally met a week ago.
There wasn't much they could talk about.
Soon, the various alarms and lights intensified as a low hum filled the ship and slight vibrations in the sturdy metal walls, floor and ceiling could be felt.
Zip!
Whoosh!
The alarms all died down and the atmosphere in the room returned to normal as the ship officially entered warp space.
Fascinated, Alex looked out the small window and found that the endless black expanse had been replaced by a streaking tunnel of colours flashing past them at impossible speed.
Even inside the warp space, they were still travelling at near light speed, allowing for an even faster journey but also providing the spectacle outside the window.
'Beautiful!'
This was the only word Alex could use to describe the scene before him. He couldn't properly put into words how it looked.
***
Three weeks passed in the blink of an eye.
Over this time Alex had trained in his Phoenix Fury every day, increasing his strength and changing his physique to look more lean — his muscles more defined.
Thankfully for Alex, the small group of around 500 applicants combined with the huge ship meant that each person got their own individual room for the long journey.
This saved him a lot of misunderstandings and embarrassment of having to perform his weird stances in a public space.
Despite the privacy given to each applicant though, Alex still met up with Mira at least once a day to either discuss their strategies for the test, as well as talk more in depth about their strength.
The two had become much more familiar with each other over the three week period, and the number of awkward silences had lessened drastically.
Only a few days ago, Alex and Mira had been discussing the level of their strength with each other, with Alex being ahead of Mira in Physical strength and reaction time, but behind in his speed.
When the topic of talents was brought up, Alex made the decision to tell her about his Flame talent, even showing off a little of his flames in person.
Even Mira was a little surprised when Alex showed her his talent, as the moment he reprimanded her for talking about her own out in the open was still fresh in her mind.
But seeing Alex being so trusting of her, she decided to reveal the name and usage of her talent to him.
"My talent is called 'Golden Presence'. You already know it's A- rank. It's a sort of limited time power up, Increasing all my physical attributes by 50% for 10 minutes. After that exhaustion takes over and my strength would decrease drastically until I can refill my energy reserves."
This talent sounded very powerful to Alex, and if it weren't for the drawback of her energy being depleted after and her strength decreasing, he would almost call it a cheat!