The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]

Once everyone was properly seated - that is, once Lane finally took his place, as everyone else had already been waiting at their seats - the examiner confirmed their IDs with the list he had on his tablet, and handed down the exam papers.

Lane flipped through it, playing with Damien's pen. The written exam contained two sections: one testing their knowledge of dungeons, monsters, and abilities - to put it simply, all the important stuff - while the other was about all the laws and regulations regarding the Awakened. Most of the questions were multiple-choice, with only three or four open questions per section.

Same as always. Eeeeasy.

The corner of Lane's mouth rose, forming a slight smirk. He twirled his - well, Damien's - pen, and started quickly filling his sheets.

Not even half of the allocated time had passed before Lane was already raising up his hand. "Sir? I am done."

The examiner looked up from his tablet, surprised. "Have you finished?"

"Yes, Sir!"

"Are you sure you don't want to check your answers once more?" the examiner asked again.

"No, Sir! I'm alright, thanks!"

The examiner walked over to Lane, taking his papers and briefly looking through them. All the questions were indeed answered. "If you are satisfied with it, then you can submit it early. I will correct it now. You can wait here for your results, or you can check them online later if you'd prefer. They should be visible on your profile by the evening."

"I'll wait! Thank you, Sir!" Lane gave the examiner a wide smile, before laying down on his desk.

He suspected that Damien would come to check on him once the exam was over, so there was no point in leaving without knowing the results. The sooner it was all completed, the sooner Lane could get back in the dungeons. After taking a month's break, he was truly itching to go there again.

It was a bit of a shame that as a Guide, he wouldn't get many opportunities to fight… But, oh well. If the opportunities wouldn't come to him, he would go find them himself.

It was all just temporary anyway.

"Noah Murray? Come collect your results," the examiner called out, interrupting his thoughts.

Lane stretched his back, and slowly walked to the front. As he took his corrected papers from the examiner's hands, a satisfied smile appeared on his face.

Everything went just like he expected.

There was still almost an hour left, so there was no point waiting for Damien in the hallway. Instead, after leaving the examination room, Lane directed his steps toward the small lounge nearby. It was almost empty at this time - nobody really came there aside from people taking the courses.

He got himself a coffee and some snacks from the vending machine, and was about to sit down to play on his phone, when he noticed the man sitting by the table in the corner, working on his laptop.

"Team Leader!" he called out excitedly, immediately moving to join Damien. "Were you waiting for me?"

It seems that the man didn't return to his office, but instead brought his work with him to do as he waited. 

Damien looked up from his laptop surprised. "You're already done? How did it go?"

"I passed, of course!" Lane plopped down on the seat opposite the man, pulling his exam papers out of his pocket and handing them over. They were a bit crumpled, but did it really matter? The results were already entered into the system. He could even toss the papers in the bin if he so preferred.

Despite his clear disapproval, Damien didn't comment on the state of the papers. He just took them without a single word, and started calmly looking through Lane's answers.

In the first section, Lane answered most of the questions correctly. There were a few mistakes in the trick questions, but they were easy to make - it was likely due to Lane's lack of care that he marked them wrong. Overall, it was a job well done, especially considering how little time the man had to prepare. Damien nodded with approval.

As he flipped to the second section, however… It was littered with mistakes. It was so bad, that it really made one wonder if Lane had even read the questions at all, or if he'd just circled the answers blindly. Damien's expression, which was relatively relaxed - at least by his standards - just a moment ago, now turned into a deep frown.

It was as if the person who took the exam had absolutely no regard for the rules…

Taking both parts into consideration, Lane's final score was only 48%. 

If he was taking the exam to obtain an Esper license, that would be nowhere good enough. An Esper needed to score at least 70% on the written test to pass - and their test was much longer and more detailed.

'Noah Murray' was not an Esper, however. And when it came to the Guides, the standard was different - only 30% was needed.

It might have seemed unfair, but there was a good reason for that. Espers, especially high-ranking ones, were powerful killing machines. Just a step away from turning into monsters. Therefore, the standards they had to meet to be able to get the license and use their abilities naturally were set high. Guides, on the other hand, were like a leash that kept Espers in place. Their ability was much needed, and as they weren't much stronger than civilians, they didn't pose any threat to society. The Basic Guide Training was mainly for their own sakes, so that they knew how to stay safe.

Of course, in Damien's eyes, Lane's score was far from satisfactory, but in the end, a pass was a pass. He nodded his head and returned the papers. "What about the practical test?"

"I've already passed it yesterday!" Lane announced proudly, unwrapping one of his chocolate bars. "My tutor praised me a lot, actually! She said that she had never met anyone who had been able to manipulate their wavelengths and control the intensity of their guiding so well so fast! Apparently, I have a lot of talent!" he couldn't help but brag.

Naturally, said tutor wouldn't have said the same thing if she had met Lane when he first obtained the guiding ability… But that was long ago and not true at all. Who cared if Lane struggled to provide anyone guiding some years ago? The person he was back then was already dead anyway.

"Is that so?" Damien looked at Lane calmly. "Well then, congratulations on completing your Basic Guide qualifications. And… welcome to the team."