Exam

The day of the Exam arrived faster than Jason had expected but he successfully kept his cured eyes a secret, without anyone noticing it.

Over the last few days, Jason had improved his knowledge by thoroughly studying the different subjects asked in the theoretical exam and he was confident in getting a perfect score.

Jason has always been a smart boy with an insatiable hunger to learn more.

To be more exact he hated it when he didn´t know something. Once he knew there was something he didn't know or was unsure about, the thought used to eat away at him.

Jason also trained in the martial art sequence at home but it was only partially useful. He would get beaten up during the exam, even if he tried his best because his mana core and the corresponding physique were too weak to defend himself, let alone attack.

He pondered for a while if he should just give up the sparring exam, but he was still unsure. 

Though he still had a long way to go in achieving physical strength, his reading and writing achievements made him proud. In a matter of days, he was able to fluently read books and write some easier sentences.

Technical language was still far away from him but Jason would take it one step at a time as there was no point in rushing unnecessarily.

At least his secret was still well hidden and he was confident of getting a full score in his theoretical exam.

Jason was still slightly hopeful of achieving a nice feat with his soul-awakening.

Awakening his soul was even more important than finding his first soulbond. He could also reject an extremely bad soulbond if his soul was too extraordinary or his soul energy too high.

If that were to happen, Jason would ponder if he should loan money to purchase a good beast cub or egg at the beast pagoda.

But after daydreaming for a bit he realized that it was very unlikely for his soul to be something special as the chances were marginal.

Awakening a better soul wasn't directly dependent on the parent's genes but the chances were higher when one's parents had decent souls.

Jason didn´t know anything about his parent's souls and he had never sensed his mother's soulbonds around her which was somewhat suspicious. But every time the young Jason asked his mother about her soulbonds she seemed to be sad and deep in thoughts, so Jason stopped asking altogether.

Nevertheless, Jason was still happy about his eyes getting cured and it distracted him a bit from the frustration of worrying about his exam score.

He began to slowly understand what his eyes could do, even if it was still too complex for him to comprehend.

He just had a rough theory in his head of his hidden capabilities.

After washing up and changing his clothes, Jason went the same way to school as usual.

He was a little bit nervous but the flow of mana around him eased his tension.

Before leaving the small apartment, Jason didn´t forget to put on the small bandage, as he took the cane with him.

He reached the school ground an hour later and was surprised about the loud noises he could hear.

Most parents accompanied their children to the school ground to mentally support them in their exams

There were a few thousand children with their parents crowding the school ground and it wasn't easy for Jason to squeeze through. As he tried to inch his way forward he was barely able to see the mana fluctuations and outlines.

Looking at the outlines of the adults through the bandages, Jason figured out that the strengths of every individual were unique.

Each adult had a unique mana flow that made him wonder why it was so, for a while before he found a plausible explanation.

Apparently, every soulbond amplified and modified one's mana slightly. Thus the stronger a soulbond beast was, the more distinct were the modifiers and the mana one can use.

Jason could also see the modified mana which surprised him, as he could differentiate the colors from one another.

For example, he was able to see which adult had formed a contract with a wind ability beast, and so on.

This fascinated him and Jason realized yet again that his eyes were extremely special.

This would be really helpful in the future as he could immediately know his opponent's abilities in a fight and craft his fighting strategy accordingly.

This thought delighted Jason and he kept looking through the crowd while walking towards the classroom.

He noticed that each adult had formed a soulbond with at least one beast and accomplished a certain mana core rank.

Thus the parents were extremely strong compared to their children, the middle-school graduates, and each adult without a soulbond.

It was possible that some prodigies would be able to beat weaker adults with weak souls and soul bounds, only after binding a beast.

But right now even a few hundred Jason's wouldn't be able to beat the weakest adult in the crowd.

It was comparable to moths flying into a campfire… Useless and a waste of one's life.

Jason tried to ignore the parents and their cheering as he went into the empty classroom and sat down on his chair, slightly dejected.

He missed his mother even more in such situations.

A few minutes later, the first group of his classmates walked into the classroom hesitantly.

For most students in the recent era, the theoretical part of the exam was the hardest. They focused on training their muscles and mana a lot more compared to the time they used to learn.

Jason was calm and composed as he waited for around 15 minutes until the classroom was filled.

The last one who came in was Greg, who surprisingly greeted Jason, and even wished him luck in all earnesty.

This shocked Jason a little and he wished Greg the same after a short moment of hesitation.

Jason had no time to think about Greg´s behavior, as the class teacher entered the room with a special appliance that he handed to Jason.

The teacher had given him a special VR helmet which he immediately put on.

The other students opened the holographic-screen on their tables and the exam papers appeared in front of them.

The helmet allowed a copy of the same exam papers distributed to his classmates to be transmitted into his mind.

It went directly into his mind, without the need for him to really see them. The data was enough to provide his brain with the rough pictures.

This appliance was extremely expensive and the data transmitted to the receiver would only stay in the user's mind for a certain amount of time before it slowly dissipated.

Jason could hear the question by thinking about the question number. The question would then be read out to him and he could simply think of the answer, which would be automatically written down. 

The VR device was more or less an interpreter and a scribe who would help him solve the question paper after he put the device on his head.

The questions included topics had an exhaustive range that included but were not limited to human cities, beast-rankings, habitats, strengths, weaknesses, permanent rifts, temporary rifts, foreign races, strength indicators, common herbs and ores, soul awakening, beast evolutions, different theories about the rifts, Cataclysm and so on.

While others struggled a lot in answering the questions, Jason finished them one after another without thinking much.

The only thing Jason had done in his free time for the last 9+ years was listening to books and gathering mana for his eyes. Thus it wasn't that difficult for him to answer these simple questions.

Jason didn't even actively need to learn anything as he had a sharp memory. He could recall most of the things that he studied after hearing them once.

Given the efforts he used to put in his studies, it wouldn't be surprising for him to correctly answer some high-school graduation test questions. As such, Jason was done solving the question paper pretty early.

While Jason was now free until the afternoon, when the practical exam was scheduled, the other students were still clumsily trying to answer all the questions.

As such, Jason left the classroom under the threatening glares of his classmates.