Chapter Nine Monster

Day of the preliminary examination, at the center of the city, a large platform was erected, the okay form was divided into four parts by a line, three of the parts were at the fore front, they were for the academies, seats, tables and tents were set there for each academy, the remaining section of the platform was for the participants, they were three artifacts placed there to test the students, below the platform were young teens who were here to participate in the examination, somewhere else below the platform were rows of seats arranged for the city lord and the few wealthy men, who had kids among the participants that resided in the city, the representatives of the academy haven't arrived yet. Everyone was nervous, some people stood apart from the others.

Some minutes had passed, yet the academy representative had not arrived, the participants had all written down their name and age, before being allowed to participate in the examination, among the participants stood two people, due to their distinct hair colors, they received more than a few stares, they were one of those participants who stood apart from the rest.

Then the representatives started arriving, they were three in total, they looked young, two looked like they were in their twenties, one was male, while the other was female, the male had a calm expression on his face, overall he looked friendly, the female looked too serious, she wasn't a beauty but she had big b***s, the last looked 18, younger than the other representative, but he was more composed and refined than the other two, they all wore the emblems of their academy, the female was from the military academy, the older male was from the black hawk academy, while the younger male was from the royal academy.

Lucius; uncle garrick told us about the academies, the military academy, well in name, the military owns it, but everyone knows it is run by the royal family, since the military is under the royal family, that's just another way of recruiting soldiers.

The royal academy is owned by the royal family, the academy is populated by nobles and members of the royal family, they are some commoners, due to their high talent, they get lucky and enroll into the school, but they don't usually last long, some managed to survive until their graduation, only a few commoners thrive in the royal academy, but they are rare, the competition is intense in the royal academy, that's one of the reasons it is the best among the three academies.

The black hawk academy, they were only two academies before, other individuals tried to start their academy, but they always got crushed by the two gigantic academy, until black hawk came, no one knows where he came from, but he just appeared, caused a ruckus for a while in the kingdom, he gained fame due to his immense strength, he is one of the few rank six we have in our Kingdom, and among rank six he is said to be at the top, so then he settled down and decided to start an academy, the royal family tried to bring him down, but they couldn't, since he was also famous, his academy thrived, it is now one of the big three.

When the representatives arrived, they greeted each other, then someone from the City lords place came up to the platform, he was an elder with grey beards, he greeted the representatives, then face the participants to address them.

The time you have been waiting for has arrived, they are three tests you will have to go through, he pointed at the first artifact.

This tests your potential, it was a tall artifacts, two metres in height, it was black in color, nine crystals were embedded in it in a vertical roll, there was a tiled floor to stand on at the foot of the artifact, you just have stand on it, and the crystals will light up, the more crystals you light, the better your score, as you know we have nine ranks, the more crystals you light, the higher you will progress, if you can only make three crystals light up, it will mean that you may never pass rank three, moving on to the next.

The second tests the grade of your soul orb, it was a bowl like structure, the man continued, all you have to do is to place your soul orb in the bowl, then stars will appear above your soul orb, if you can make nine stars appear, that means your soul orb is grade 9.

The last artifacts tests your affinity to the elemental essence, the artifact was a crystal orb, place your hand on it, and infuse your elemental essence, this is graded by color, white, red, green, blue, and purple, with white being the lowest and purple being the highest.

If you reach the standard of the academies, the representatives will choose you to join their academy, if you're chosen by more than one academy, then you'll have to choose the academy you wish to go to.

With all I've said, I'm sure you understand, let's start, we have a total of 207 participants, so I shall call your name according to how it's listed here, with him was a scroll with the participants name on it, if you hear your name, step forward.

Amari Tamara, the first name was called, an average looking boy climbed up to the platform, you could tell he was nervous by the way he was walking, he put his hands on the first artifact, two crystals shone with light, he had a disappointed expression on his face, he moved on to the second artifact, he brought out his soul orb, it was a red flame element soul orb, one of the most common soul orb, he let it float towards the bowl then it was fixed in one star appeared, he had a grade one flame soul orb, on his face, you could see despair, he already knew he had no hope of getting accepted, but he still moved on to the third artifact, he placed his hand on the orb, then the orb turned white in color, after he was through, he stood on the platform for about three second, the elder looked at the representatives, none of them said anything, not surprised, he told the boy to step down.

After, about 53 people had gone, nobody was stil accepted by any academy, then the elder a name, most people were familiar with, Yoder gale, a skinny boy with a pale face went up to the platform.

City lord, this is not good, no one has caught the eye of the representatives yet, man standing behind the city lord said, it's Yoder turn l, let's see what he can do,

Yoder went to the first artifact, stood on the tile, five crystals were lit, the representatives of the military academy and the black hawk academy looked at him in interest, they were not shocked by his talent though, the representative from the royal academy, still had the same expression as usual.

When he brought his soul orb out, the gaze of the male from the black hawk academy intensified a little, it floated towards the bowl, 4 stars appeared, people were surprised.

The city lord's camp, wow his darkness soul orb is grade 4, that's rare even among the few that has awakened a similar soul orb.

He went to the last artifact, then placed his hand on the orb, a red color appeared.

After he was through, he stood in front of the representatives, for the first time, they spoke.

You are invited to join, the military academy, the female said, the male also spoke, you can also join the black hawk academy.

He replied, I would like to join the black hawk academy, the female didn't look dejected, after the refusal, she just went back to her bored expression.

Which academy should we join, Jake asked Lucius, we should join the best academy obviously, Lucius answered with a smile, Jake then nodded his head and replied okay, the people beside heard their conversation, and looked at them with a displeasing gaze.

After nearly 200 people had been called, it was Jake turn, he went up to the platform, when they saw him, the representative were surprised to see someone with such bearing among the participants, he did the first test, the nine gems were lit immediately and they were shining brightly, the brightness was increasing, Jake stepped off quickly, if he had stayed a little while longer, the crystals would have exploded.

For the first time, all the representatives were shocked, not just them, everyone else was shocked, apart from Lucius.

He moved to the next one, when he brought out his soul orb, the representatives stood up, when they saw it, on their face was an expression of shock, most of the people below didn't what kind of soul orb he had, but how could they not know, if the darkness soul orb was said to appear in one person among a thousand people, the space soul orb would be one in a million.

With his potential, that was just mind blowing, that was not the ending though, when they looked at him, ten stars were floating above his soul orb.

What went through everybody mind at that moment was, he's a monster.