Strength Test

Just as he expected, he was given a chef's uniform which consisted of special robes that were white and teal colour.

They tended to several cooking pots of food, while cleaning the plates of those within the restaurant. He had begun his shift in one of the busiest times of the day, so he was forced to clean the plates and cooking tools without a break.

As he cleaned these items, though, he soon found that he could clean them faster than the other workers alongside him. He wasn't bothered by fatigue, or the intense heat within this cooking room.

He just continued to do his job, and the boss came over to tap him on his shoulder.

"Be more like this kid, guys! Speed up, speed up, we need more plates!" The owner said, before nodding to Abel.

Abel felt his face go slightly red and he nodded back, smiling. It wasn't often where he received compliments, he barely even received them at all. Being complemented by a person like his landlord, that seemed quite pessimistic, made it feel a lot more genuine.

He was working for many hours, finishing with a 4-hour shift, and received 20 silver coins.

A silver coin was worth 10 bronze coins, while 50 silver coins was worth one gold coin.

"Thanks a lot for this, sir." Abel said, receiving the bag of 20 silver coins.

"Don't worry about it. Keep washing plates like that and I'll pay you double what I've just given you." He replied, making them both laugh.

"Have a good one, kiddo." He said, waving goodbye.

"Bye, sir!" Abel replied, taking his leave.

'What a nice kid.'

****

The following day, the students had been gathered in one of the arenas of the school academy. Surrounding them were empty seats, and an additional floor above those seats where people could stand and look down onto the sandy stage.

"Students! The time has come and today, we are going to embark on some training. Firstly, we would like to record your physical stats to see the level that you all are at." A master at the centre of the arena explained.

There were about a hundred students, from the various classes, all together watching him. He looked to be very aged, with wrinkles and a long, white beard.

Beside him were the other class teachers, like Master Oscar, that were there to help conduct this event.

"Here, is a device that will test your physical strength. We will need you to throw your strongest punch and kick into it." Master Oscar stated, beside a cylindrical device.

It was red and its flat side was pointed at the students, and they were being called up one-by-one to hit the device.

The first up was a tall boy, known for his strength and athleticism. He was one of the stronger people of their age and struck the device with full force.

He then spun explosively to land a kick to the device as well.

"Physical strength: 33. Amazing." One of the teachers behind the device said, recording it on paper.

The students carried on being called up to the device to record their physical strength.

After a few fighters were called up, Abel was called up to do so. The students couldn't help but snicker upon watching him approach the device.

Abel didn't pay attention to their contemptuous comments, and just focused on the task at hand. Without qi, one would be destined to get something like 5 on this device.

However, if he could use the weird power that he had gained recently, maybe he could reach a higher number.

It was just a theory of his, and he didn't even know how to exactly control it. Every time he would punch a tree to try and toughen his knuckles, or do any form of exercise, his strength would vary wildly.

Sometimes, he would barely even be superhuman, but then he could be far above that level with other tries.

Thinking back to his memories, he realised that his power was somewhat tied to his emotion. The angrier he was, the stronger he'd become. He then decided to let all of the comments of the students behind him in.

He listened to every single one of them, and could even hear the quiet whispers too.

'Arrogant morons!' He thought to himself, as his eyes started to glow a gold-amber colour.

He could feel fangs growing in his mouth, and claws started to form across his hands. Feeling these features appear, he wanted to make sure that nobody would see them.

He swiftly punched the device and made it rattle quite heavily. He then swivelled around to land a spinning back kick, thrusting the sole of his right shoe right into the centre of the device.

It rattled even more intensely upon taking that second attack, and the masters behind this recording cylinder were surprised with the numbers that they managed to receive.

"Physical strength: 24." A master stated, with slight confusion.

The other supervising masters looked back to the boy, while Master Oscar just raised his eyebrows, perplexed.

"24?! There's no way he just got 24 that machine's broken!"

"Yeah, no wonder I only got 14 on that thing. It's quite clearly broken down!" Another student claimed with annoyance.

There was uproar within the crowd of students, who were in utter disbelief at the number that this ordinary human had somehow recorded.

"Silence, students!" The old master called out, removing all sound from the arena.

Even though he looked old and frail, his voice was loud, intense and deep.

Out of the around a hundred students recording their strength, Abel's result was around the top 20. People with above 20 physical strength by this age were usually built for it in some way.

As Zeke was called up to the device, he just looked at it and didn't immediately punch it. He took a few seconds, then a master walked up to him.

"Take a hit at it then, we don't have much time." He ordered, slightly irritated by his lack of movement.

"No, I think you already have my result." Zeke stated, looking at him.

"What?! What are you saying, just punch the thing!" He said, taken aback by his bold reply.

"No, I'm sure that my result is already there..." He then said again, while his pupils contracted.

The master remained frozen upon seeing this, before bowing with respect.

"Of course, you already have your result of 11 physical strength." He stated, before returning to record a result of 11 physical strength beside his name.

The other students were taken aback by this but didn't care at all. Students of such poor strength didn't get much attention or respect at all.

Duncan recorded a strength of 15, which was rather average for a person his age. He was 6'3, so was bound to be stronger than expected.

"Next up, The Honourable Prince Otto Von Falken."

The students all gave a certain student looks of admiration and infatuation.

He stood tall, at 6'4, and had short blonde hair. His skin was olive-toned, and he had piercing hazel eyes.

Not only was he tall, but he was quite muscular too, with little fat on his frame.

He approached the cylindrical device and punched it, making it shake intensely.

"Physical strength: 40." A master recorded, making the other students gasp and gossip in surprise.

He exuded a sense of confidence, but also nonchalance. He heard that result and just smirked, walking back to the crowd of students.

"That guy..." Abel whispered to himself, watching him walk by him without even giving him a glance.

He was the strongest fighter of their entire class and not only that, but he was also the heir to the position of lord of this city.

He was not just rich and upper class, but very powerful and talented. In this society, those two traits came hand in hand.

The next stage was recording their qi. In the centre of the arena now, were rune-like inscriptions and several pillars surrounding it.

"Here is the qi recording array. you will need to enter the centre of the array and release your qi from the dantian. After a few seconds, we should see how strong your qi is." The elderly master declared.

"First up, Duncan Marok."

Duncan walked up to the array, and Zeke wished him good luck as he approached it.

He arrived at the centre of the array and was surprised with how intricate the designs were. The engravings on the ground were detailed, even down to the centimetre, but spanned several square metres.

Revealing his dark blue aura of qi, the engravings near his feet started to glow the same colour as his qi. The pillars vibrated slightly, and the masters looking at these pillars and glowing inscriptions promptly recorded a value.

"Qi strength: 9."

"Only 9? Darn it..." He whispered, walking back to his two friends.

Abel was skipped from this stage, and was given a recorded a number of 0. He had no qi, from possessing no dantian, so couldn't even activate the array.

Zeke was called up to the centre of the array, but he looked to the closest master with a table of results.

"I've already done this too. I recorded 10." He stated, with his pupils contracting once again.

"Oh yes, of course. How could I forget." The master said, writing down 10 next to his name.