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Book 1: Chapter 35: Evaluation Part II
Scarlet
I pull my fist back before punching directly at the chest of the dummy, making a loud crashing sound echo throughout the training hall. But despite the noise, the dummy doesnt so much as budge. Then I hear a beep from the dummy, followed by Allens voice, Do it again and again every time it beeps.
Following his directions which turn out to be more useful than I thought I repeatedly punch the dummy about five more times before a loud beep sounds from the terminal at the center of the room.
Thats enough. Now we can see your Allens voice trails off as I turn around to look at him, just to find him standing over the terminal gawking.
I should warn you, youre not a human. Not fully at least. So your capabilities will probably be higher on average compared to a regular human Guardian, Tar suddenly says, making me want to slap him for the late information.
You couldnt have told me that sooner?!
Tar somehow sends the mental equivalent of a shrug before explaining himself, It wouldnt have mattered. You wouldve just tried holding back or something, which the machine wouldve been able to detect unless you were a master at your own body. And then it wouldve required you to redo the test. Not to mention that having higher capabilities is what gets you a better place in the universities of this world.
I cant help but agree with that assessment.
Allen stays silent as I walk over to the terminal, only to turn to me with a frightened look on his face as he puts his hands on my shoulders and practically shouts, You didnt unbalance your stats, did you?!
I shake my head, No, theyre balanced.
And my answer only serves to make his fear shift to confusion. So I turn to look at the terminal to find that my stats are at about Tier B for Strength.
Oh. Yeah, guess that makes sense why hed be afraid of that possibility.
After all, he knows my magic is blood magic, and knows some of the skills it gives me, making it obvious that its not a strength focused stat. And if I understand correctly, the devices in this room are also set up to recognize the use of any mana, meaning using active skills and therefore cheating is easily detectable by the machine.
Maybe youre just really strong because of some passive skill you got from killing the demon knight? Or maybe blood magic has a secondary bonus to strength? Allen begins muttering to himself. But because I know Im not gonna need him for the test anyways, I simply select the next test, which is agility, before going back to the machine after it flips to the next one. And because he looks like he might need a moment.
This next test has a treadmill-like device going through most of the floor.
After I stand next to the treadmill for a few seconds, a screen lowers itself down above the platform, but far enough above that it wont mess with the test. Then the words, Run on the treadmill appears on the screen.
Simple enough.
I step onto the device, and it immediately starts moving at a much faster speed than the treadmill I usually use at the gym. But at the same time, it feels too slow for me thanks to my status as a Guardian.
A few seconds pass and the treadmill starts to speed up, slowly at first, then faster and faster until it reaches my own pace where it stops speeding up. And when Im beginning to think the test is too straightforward, hurdles and other sorts of obstacles begin to appear on the treadmill, making my eyes widen with a mixture of surprise and fear.
That looks like itll hurt if I mess up.
I continue running through the treadmill, avoiding most of the obstacles, but still hitting around six of them before the treadmill slows to a stop again and a loud beep sounds from the terminal.
Then the sound of someone slamming something enters my ears, directing my focus towards Allen who is staring at the terminal with his fist on the counter beneath it, sending cracks through the poor counter.
Yeah, I get the feeling hes going to be doing that a lot today.
When I walk over to the terminal, I find this one also at Tier B for agility. Which is quite nice. But it seems to be giving Allen an aneurism or something as he cant take his eyes off of the screen.
Maybe if would be better if I just went through all of the tests back to back?
Yeah, that would be better. Like tearing off a band aid right away instead of slowly peeling it. If he gets all of the surprises out of the way now, maybe the counter might just survive the day?
And with that thought in mind, I press the next capability on the screen. Constitution.
When I turn around to look at the platform, it has something that kind of sends shivers down my spine. But I still walk towards the platform either way.
After stopping right in front of the large golem one armed to the teeth with weapons I feel a refreshing feeling very much like when Allen healed me before sweep through my body. And looking down, I find a green glow to be the cause of it. One coming from the floor of the platform.
Good. So the tests do heal you in between.
Im guessing its every two tests or something?
Either way, I stare down at the golem before finding a screen coming down again.
Fight the golem.
This test doesnt bode well. Not when its one to see how much damage I can take. And especially not when this golem has blades all over its body, hammers in the place of hands, glowing eyes, even more weapons stored on its body that arent attached, and who knows how many hidden weapons it must have as well.
I dont think Im going to like this test.
And that thought is confirmed the moment the golem bursts into movement, with all of its weapons going into action, slicing straight through my clothes and skin.