18 Vallar Gate

Thirty minutes later, Luccas had just left the room with a passive face and was leaded by one of the examiners to the closest elevator.

"Thomas Ries." The cold voice called his name. Thomas walked toward the door number 2 and upon entering all he saw were strength testing machines and some other medical devices.

He wasn't surprised, Katherine told the first past of the selection was a physical examination of the candidates, they must make sure the person in question had perfect healthy or at least be able to fight without the risk of having an disease or some other special circumstance act.

The man that was charged of examining him whore white doctor clothes, his face was calm and without any ripples as he turned to him. "Thomas Ries?"

"Er? Yes, its me." Thomas was still a little nervous and nearly forgot to speak when the doctor spoke to him.

The man kept staring a little more then said. "It is truly surprising that we had two youths before eighteen participate in the selection this time. I am Dr. Miller, an Support Adept, please go first test your strength in this machine."

He pointed at the near strength testing machine. The strength testing machine in front of them was a special model made for adepts found only in the association and few other places.

"Ready... Go!"

Thomas took in a deep breath. He used his waist as the center and changed into a posture that would increase his balance. The point of this test was to know the how both the strength and control of an Adept.

It shot through his body like a huge python and through his arm. His fist of him created an explosive force as it shot forward like a lightning bolt.

Pan!

[Pang! Pang! Pang!] The fist strength tester machine let out three sounds consecutively.

Thomas felt confused. Usually, the strength testing machine doesn't make this kind of sound. Only the doctor at the side showed a knowing face and wrote down something in his wrist computer.

'The physical strength of candidate Thomas Ries has reached the 3-star Adept level.'

Thomas didn't know what the doctor wrote at that moment, instead the doctor hide the shock in his heart and took him to the other tests.

The machines here in the association used had its own way to determine the aspects of an Adept. In the strength testing machine, the base of the test was the strength of the candidate in comparison to other adepts. This was because every Adept is not the same, and unlike Anima Energy the physical abilities of a person can largely vary.

[Body Scan completed: No internal injures, diseases and any genetic disturb were detected.]

[Speed and Reflexes: 2-star Adept Level.]

Thomas completed all the tests and the only one left was the huge Anima Energy Scanner. This one was much larger than the device Katherine had him use, and also a much basic version she told him.

When he pressed his hand on the metal circle, it would attract a thread of Anima Energy and do several processes in order to rank the level and purity of the energy.

This was the point he was most worried about this part of the selection.

Back in the Dexia Institute's training room he recalled what Katherine told him.

That his Heart Attribute has never appeared on humans before, and that his first appearance could bring more brought than benefit if it were found out by others.

However the strong point of the heart attribute was its capability of imitating other attributes. As long he could keep his emotion in check, he would then be able to keep a low profile and no one would discover his unique attribute.

Thomas breathed deeply, his right hand touching the metal circle in the middle of the huge machine. There was the light tingling in his palm as a single thread of a deep green energy was extracted from his body.

Dr. Miller was simply watching from the side and making all the required annotations.

Thomas closed his eyes and tried to stop his thoughts of him, afraid his nervousness of him would cause a change in his energy.

[Beep!]

The machine made a sound before Thomas could see the results on a the anima screen in the machine.

[Anima Energy of the Vitality Attribute ... Purity: High ... Energy Level: 1-star Adept.]

When the result appeared, the middle-aged doctor picked a bronze badge with one star and passed it to Thomas.

"You can leave now, one of the Adept in charge of the Selection will take you to the location of the second part of the selection."

The moment Thomas rushed to the door, a middle-aged man guided him to the elevator.

At the same moment in another side of the association building, the middle-aged Adept in red sat on a chair while enjoying some wine.

A voice came from the other side of the table. A woman dressed in a a black casual outfit asked, "Did you see him?"

"Yes I did. He's a young, but there is some potential in that kid. I still find it hard to believe he has the Heart Attribute. The ability imitating other attributes of the heart attribute is extraordinary, just the a single piece of heart attribute Animanium is over ten times the price of the regular attributes. I already informed the leader about him, she said to wait for the selection to end. We can't let the other societies to have him."

Katherine nodded, yet she still seemed a little worried. "I heard the second stage of the selection will be in the Vallar Gate. I just hope he's not traumatized by it."

...

Thomas was taken to the highest floor of the association building, all the other participants who passed the first stage of the selection were there as well.

Luccas who was in the far left rose his eyes and shot his gaze to Thomas before returning to his wrist computer.

Thomas also went to find a place to sit. When all other participants had been either passed or failed the first stage, a huge boat-shaped aircraft landed right before them.

The airship was especially prepared to take all the participants to the second stage of the selection. They were taken to a place within the borders of the Human Alliance's territory, the ruins of the A-City, also known as the Monster City.

"To all the participants in the selection, the airship will be leaving in five minutes, so please prepare to get off" Came a sound from the speaker in the airship.

The door to the airship opened and all the participants got off, a total of fifty Adepts.

Very quickly, the crowd of participants entered a huge military camp, which took a vast amount of space and a even greater city, above the city was a hole that covered the entire sky above the city.

"This is just like that time..." Thomas observed the rift in the sky together with the others that came with him. It's size was bigger than any spatial rift that had seen, only Thomas had seen something similar when the huge spatial rift appeared over the sky of London and devoured both his dad and older sibling.

When a spatial rift reached that size, closing it was almost impossible. All humanity could do was the raise a blockade around the area and make sure the beasts are imprisoned on the ruins.

Thomas and the group of Participants looked around.

[Boy, I feel there is something familiar in this place.]

"What ?!" A voice that thomas never head before resounded in his mind.

[Its me Ares, the one who gave you that quest. During the period of the quest, you will be able to talk to me. Still there is something very familiar about this place.]

When he heard that, Thomas entered deep thought. He didn't expect he would be able to contact a god that easily, from what Ares said this place was also familiar to him.

"Oh ... I may know why, this place used to be *****" At the end of his phrase, Thomas spoke a word in a strange language. Ares who heard it kept silent, he didn't expect this place is the homeworld of him and his fellow gods. He didn't know how long it had been since he last saw this place, at that time at least it had oceans. Now, other than the areas humanity has treated, most of mars was still the same lifeless land they knew.

So if this place used to be the home of the ancient greek gods, did anything from their time still remain. Thomas who was beginning to get excited felt like he was thrown a bucket of cold water when he realized that not even all the scanners, satellites and other methods that were used to explore the red planet found any proof of the existence of extraterrestrial life forms in Mars.

Later, Thomas followed the instructors and looked carefully, other than the camp's security line, small forest between the camp and the city ruins, there were a few starving monsters who were growling and staring at the humans from afar.

"Everyone! Please pay attention here." A loud sound carried to every single person's ears, General Kaiser Lorrel exuded a powerful and ferocious aura as he yelled to the group of young men and women. "Welcome to northern border Training Grounds also known as Vallar Gate. This time, all the fifty of you will take your second stage of the Adept Selection. I hope most of you will pass, at least live enough to enter the army otherwise!"