บท 36: First Rank

A yawning Lee finally perked up as she saw the object of her fascination finally step up

Kai took a deep breath as he followed the other participants to the starting line, this time his nerves prevented him from feeling the gaze locked on him, from above on the bleachers, another intense gaze was locked on a different participant. The man beside the Commander looked at the dark-haired boy a few people beside Kai, noticing that he didn't have the same nervous look the other did no emotion could be seen on his face at all.

His black eyes seemed to hold nothing but darkness " Quite the interesting fellow isn't he?" a voice said beside him, the commander had been surprised when the sixth line managed to pass, it wasn't usually until the second to last line that someone would pass the modified finish line, and those people would usually be royals trained from infancy by graduates of the Academy.

"I highly doubt that we're focused on the same person Dear Commander" the man replied

The Commander moved her eyes from Kai's position and followed the man's line of sight to the dark-haired boy. "Ah that boy is quite interesting as well, his eyes hold nothing a child should"

"Alright, let us begin, the seventh line step up"

Within the first minute, most of them were down a few heald on as sweat poured down their shirts but in thirty seconds only six people remained. Kai slowly proceeded, his eyes solely focused on his next step as his body got heavier and heavier, but... for some reason, the struggle he expected wasn't there, true his body did feel somewhat heavy but that was it

On the other hand, the six remaining slowly went to five, then four until only two were left Kai and the dark-haired boy. Lee who was watching Kai finally took her eyes from him ad looked at the person beside him, gone was the indifferent expression, it was replaced with furrowed eyebrows, drops of sweat falling down his face.

"Stupid humans, they can't even get past that small thing, and they think that they'll be able to beat the other races," said Theo

A very irked Lee replied, "I thought we talked about speaking when not spoken to you toad", that shut him up, throwing him into a corner as he drew circles on the ground.

At this time the crowd gasped as both Kai and the dark-haired boy passed the record set by the previous participants that passed, the dark-haired boy finally started slowing down and came to a full stop just a few steps behind Kai who also came to a full stop after finally losing all control of his body.

But nobody paid attention to that as a bright light suddenly rose from the ground, forming weird symbols that turned into words, words that shocked everyone, including the neutral faced Commander

The first Stage Passed

Congratulations Participant, you have gained the title of Second Human

Your rank is now First.

Nobody moved as the watched the seventh line of participants, even the Commander herself couldn't hold in her surprise. Never since that man had she seen this happen; replacing the silence with the sound of the test finalizing those who were unconscious were sent outside the arena in stretchers and the ones who had passed stood still as they watched the Commander walk towards them in fewer steps than it would take a normal person.

Watching from afar was Lee and the rest of the participants because this was the first time since the beginning of the test that they had seen the indifferent Commander step up, and strangely they now realized that there had been someone beside her watching the show as well. The Commander, as well as a finely dressed man in a green robe, appeared in front of the three children that had passed this round, starting from the left side of the horizontal line she made eye contact with a boy in glasses who looked away almost immediately due to the intensity that her stare heald, with no facial expression she passed him and like a shadow a soldier appeared behind her and handed him a black backpack

She walked towards the next participant who just happened to be the black cloth youth with indifferent eyes, the commander proceeded to do the same thing as she stared directly into his eyes, only this time the youth didn't look away and they proceeded to stare at each other until the green-clothed gentleman interrupted by speaking.

"You were just a few steps away from reaching the goal, that must be frustrating huh," he said as he proceeded to let out a hearty yet condescending laugh, making the dark-haired boy's eyebrows twitch in annoyance "You four eyes, on the other hand, managed to do what no one had done in years, gaining the first rank before the real examination has even begun, I wonder what kind of secrets your holding in that small body of yours," he said as he licked his moist lips

Kai felt goosebumps all over his body as the man's eyes travelled all over his body, making him feel less like a human and more like a subject ready to be dissected

"That's enough!" the Commander said giving the green-robed man a sharp glare."Now to explain what the ranks mean"