บท 7: Demonic Eyes
Adrian went through the exit door and felt a slight breeze kissing his skin; his eyes which were adjusted to the dim lights of candles and lamps could hardly withstand the rays of the sun. Once he opened his eyes, which readjusted themselves, he found himself outside the tent.
His examination- was over.
The first thing he did was to face the nobles who were still standing closest to the tent, still waiting for their turns, and show them a bright smile.
In ordinary scenarios, smiles were gestures of goodwill, of compassion. But that was definitely not the case during tests; especially when one competitor smiled at another.
This deed only added to the nervousness of the already anxious examinees.
Adrian then searched for his newfound maid and found out that she was sitting alone at a corner. Even commoners were avoiding her, let alone nobles. He simply smiled and went to a tree at the western edge of the field and sat in its shade.
He finally breathed a sigh of relief. The tests were not as easy as it looked. He had to use his demonic eyes to look into the memory and mind of three of the examiners to ace them.
His special constitution caused him to have a legendary tier 5 affinity. As a result, he passed the first test which tested his affinity to magic with flying colours. But still he used his eyes to find out who that lady in disguise was.
In the second room, he faced two small problems. The first problem being he had no idea about what the room temperature was. He was not a thermometer. And the other was that the examiner had her eyes closed.
As people said, eyes are the window to the soul. He needed his target's eyes opened to look into his or her mind.
But those problems were easily solvable as his target was a woman and he had the ultimate weapon- charm. He got her eyes to open through this weapon and read the answer from her mind.
'Potioneers are a little too much sensitive, aren't they? How do they always keep the exact room temperature in their minds? Or is it that only that woman was the weird one?' He questioned himself.
In the next room where his intelligence was tested, using his special power was not compulsory as he was intelligent enough to answer that mediocre question. But still, he read the old man's memories just to double check the answers he prepared.
By looking into memories, it did not mean that he took in every single one of his target's memories. That would cause an overload and hurt his own consciousness. He could filter them and look only for what he wants to know. That was one of the greatest perks of his demonic eyes. In the old instructor's case, he only looked for information related to the tests. And that's how he found out about his carelessness and laziness.
In the fourth room, another one of his demonic eyes' power was revealed- photographic memory. He could retain everything he had a glimpse of in his mind. But when he looked into that woman's mind, he found out that she was one of those instructors who would never give a perfect score even if the answer was completely correct.
He then decided to look for her weakness and discovered that she recently caught her husband cheating. So, he decided to bribe her in the guise of 'vengeance'. And luckily, she accepted.
But this great power comes with an equally great price. This price was revealed in the last test in the form of trauma. Being hit from behind just happened to be one of the traumas he suffered from- traumas which were not of his own, traumas which were almost impossible to recover from.
That last test was where luck played part the most. No, it did not play any part in reacting to those strikes as his eyes had the power of kinetic vision and he himself was well versed in the art of combat. Luck played part on the fact that his demonic aura worked on that young male instructor.
Demonic aura could monger fear and terror in its target. But normally it would not work if the power difference was too high. The fact that he was able to affect a level 6 circler with it while he himself had yet to start his journey as one could be considered a miracle.
Thankfully, he was in a dominant position as had just punched the instructor, his mother was feared and respected by all and from what he observed from the instructor's memory- the instructor treaded very close to death once. All of these increased the chances of demonic aura's effectiveness and fortunately- it worked.
But he was not the one who was the luckiest that day- that would be the final examiner. Yes, he might be called unlucky because he met a monster like Adrian and fell prey to the demonic aura even though the chance was minuscule. But he was lucky because Adrian managed to control himself.
Otherwise, the poor instructor might have died. And it was a worse scenario then Adrian getting expelled for assaulting a teacher.
'Whatever. All's well that ends well. I managed to threat him to stay silent and I doubt he would even dare to give me anything less than a 9- the perfect score.' He thought.
Around half a minute after Adrian's exit, Dolf Ironcross came out of the tent with quickened steps. His demeanour was nowhere near that of his previous proud self. Rather, it was the exact opposite.
He finally stopped after making sure that there was a far enough distance between himself and the tent, and looked up at the sky.
'Why?!' He complained.
He did great in the affinity test. He was a rare talent with a tier 4 affinity. He was not that surprised though because his family tested him before. But it increased his confidence nonetheless.
'What will be the temperature difference if the intensity of the fire is increased by 10%?' He remembered her question.
He was really annoyed by the question but could not do anything. Failing that test meant he was not qualified to take potioneering classes. But still, he consoled himself since he did not want to study potioneering to begin with.
In the next test, an old man tested his intelligence.
'The one before you gave 5 correct answers. How many can you?' He exactly remembers what the old man said.
'5? Isn't 'Dragon flies in the blue ocean' the only correct answer?' He almost felt like crying.
Actually, he could have replied with the two correct possible answers if that old man had not pressured him.
He again consoled himself because he was interested in magic circle research and the old man was kind enough to give him a passing score of 3.
But it was the next test which truly disgruntled him.
'How many trees are there in the two fields?' He remembered her asking this question with an enraged face.
'Lady, I swear I've never met you in my life; let alone offend you. How did I infuriate you so much that you had to ask that of all questions?' He barely held back his tears.
He did not even bother to console himself anymore.
Still, he had a little hope for the final test as they had yet to test his combat capabilities and he was sure that the last one would. And he was very confident in that regard.
But the moment he entered that final room, he was hit hard by a solid object. Before he could react, he was hit again and again… and again… and again… and again until he barely escaped the tent through the exit.
In that test, he could not even get a glimpse of the examiner's face or the weapon as he was busy 'defending' himself.
Little did he know that was exactly the reason why the instructor kept hitting him. The examiner's face was still swollen from that punch from Adrian. So, he just made sure that Dolf Ironcross did not see this.
'Why?!' He could not hold back his tears anymore.
He just hoped that the last test would give scores based on how much pain one could withstand and he would pass. Otherwise, he would have to go through his academy with only magic circle research as his advanced topic.
After another half a minute, another examinee came out. Though his overall situation looked better than that of Dolf, he had an hopeless look on his face as he had a tier 3 affinity. Unlike examinees tier 4 and tier 5 affinity who were granted immediate admission into the academy, the tier 3 and below ones had to go through a bitter competition.
On the other hand, Adrian observed them and smiled. He was quite impressed with the testing system of the academy. Each of the five tests required about half a minute duration and after one examinee finishes a test, another immediately enters. That way, all of the five rooms were always occupied and the tent was able to accept in an examinee almost every half a minute.
This was quite efficient considering the fact that there were only six instructors involved and there were almost a thousand examinees. He calculated that the exams would not end before the late afternoon.
He rested his back on the tree and closed his eyes but he did not sleep as he was unable to. None dared or cared to disturbed him.
Time passed. The sun traveled a long way since morning and was almost at the other end of the sky.
Adrian, whose eyes were still closed, felt someone sitting beside him.
He slowly opened his eyes.
It was the maid he recruited earlier that day.
He did not say anything, nor did she.
After a few minutes, the instructor with the 'sound' property- Micheal Northfields announced something with an amplified voice.
"The tests are over. Now, the results will be announced."
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TheDarkSide
TheDarkSide Some of you might be thinking that the story is proceeding at a slow pace. It is slow for now because I am building a solid foundation for the fast paced thriller which is to come. Stay tuned. Thanks.
Fun fact: People actually gets nervous when another examinee smiles at them right before the examination.
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