Total Failure

The only free chair was in the first row beside a tall young boy. He was around the same age as Daniel. Daniel sat down and waited patiently. Bella stood before the chairs and began her speech after she confirmed that everyone was here.

"Welcome to the ISS, my name is Bella Arcraft and I'm a teacher here. I will be responsible for this entrance exam. Some of you probably never saw a soul sword and some of you already trained with swords. The entrance exam is a fighting contest where we can check your talent and potential. You can get accepted even if you lose all of your fight as long as you have talent. We have 4 fighting stages here and a true expert will analyze every fight. We only have 30 vacant spots. Show us your best side, if you want to get accepted."

Now, Daniel realized that he didn't know how to fight with a sword at all. He knew judo from his previous world and that's all. He was still confident in his abilities as a new race. This confidence was a trait of his new race. He believed in his talent and potential. The fights started and Daniel observed and waited for his turn in silence. Almost every fight was the same with two inexperienced fighting each other. Sometimes experienced ones won their battles in the blink of an eye and the spectators clapped. Time slowly passed by. The judge finally called him to fight after 2 hours of waiting. Daniel walked over and his opponent offered him a kind handshake. He accepted it, but his expression showed a slight disgust towards his opponent.

"START"

The judge clapped with his hands and the fight started. Daniel grabbed the wooden sword and rushed forward without any kind of hesitation. His opponent did the same. Their swords collided in the center of the stage, but his opponent saw this and moved his sword in a strange way, almost hitting Daniel. The same thing happened around three times. Daniel blocked the attack, but the next attack came from a weird angle, it was hard to defend. Finally, Daniel decided to use his full power to end the fight.

His eyes started to glow with a faint yellow light. He slashed towards his opponent without thinking. The wooden sword was extremely light in his hand. The opponent was able to keep up his defense for a few minutes. Daniel won in the end and walked off the stage.

In another arena, two boys started fighting. Daniel watched this fight because he found it interesting. The fight ended with one of the boys winning in three strikes. The interesting thing in this fight was that the last attack sliced apart the wooden sword of his opponent. Daniel saw this and started thinking

"How did he do that? My power is far greater, but I still can't do that. Maybe his race is unique? He still seems human to me. No matter how I look at him."

Daniel start thinking. A hour passed and the fighting contest came to an end. Teacher Bella stopped the last fight and cleared her throat.

"This is enough. We watched everyone and decided the top 30. I will now read the names. The 30 accepted will come with me to take the second test. As for the remaining 70, we will send them home and they can try next year again. Also, feel free to ask if you are not satisfied with your rejection. The expert beside me will answer and explain everything."

Thus, Teacher Bella started to read the name of the accepted. Daniel was confident at first, but time passed and he didn't heard his name. His name was not mentioned in the end. He got angry and wanted to know the reason behind this.

"This is all, now everyone who heard his name, follow me. The others can ask their questions and the expert beside me will answer just as I said."

The 30 accepted followed teached Bella and the others started to leave the building. Only a few dissatisfied or curious stayed behind. They asked their questions and the expert answered them. Few of them asked for help and wanted to improve. Others started complaining and threating. Saying things like "You will regret this... My family is strong...blablabla." Only a very few people wanted to really know the reason behind their rejection. One of them was Daniel whose face turned very ugly because of the anger. He was the last person to ask his question, only after everyone exited the facility.

"Why was I rejected? I even won my fight!"

Daniel started his sentence in a silent tone which gradually turned louder and louder. He even shouted in the end. The expert answered in a very clear tone. This expert was an old man who looked really, really old. Only his eyes remained super sharp.

"Exactly because of this. When your opponent offered that handshake. You looked very dissatisfied. You thought that he is weaker and despised him because of this. You are very arrogant and also very ignorant. His swordsmanship was superior and his personality was good. You don't even know what to do with that sword and almost lost. You are clearly smart, but your arrogance outshined your decisions. You are strong, but at the same time a failure. Why do you look dissatisfied when someone offers you a kind handshake? Why do you despise others without even knowing their capabilities? Think about this.

You are a rough diamond. Too rough. Discover yourself, discover the world. Come back a year later, if you succesfully changed your way of thinking. I will wait for you."