Fixing Solar tech 101, know what you were doing, which was the exact opposite of most candidates here.
Some had been lucky enough to to have tutors that prepared them for this test from childhood, especially those from noble families.
The rest?
They didn't even know where to start or even what tool to use, much to the disappointment of Examiner Ilyra.
But she didn't let it show, after all, this wasn't the first time the candidates had proven useless when it came to solar tech crafting.
She even made the test easier this time, to get more students in her department this year, usually they'd be required to create a solar tech from just a blueprint, but she guessed it just wasn't meant to be.
With a small sigh, her bored expression returned as she continued scanning the room, her eyes falling on one disappointment after the other before she suddenly paused.
There were quite a few standouts that seemed to have little to no issues with fixing their solar tech.
One of them was a girl with silver braids and glasses, she looked completely absorbed in what she was doing as she continued tinkering with the sniper and soon enough, results started showing.
She had changed the melted barrel, fixed the tech in the scope and was currently making sure the barrel was actually capable of discharging solar energy within blowing up in the user's face.
Illyra looked down at the list on the table and quickly spotted her name, Linda...with no last name?
Was that due to the fact that they were only lower class, working on the grid in Aurion. Still, that explains her knowledge in fixing Solar Tech.
But just before the examiner's eyes could move away, she spotted another name on the list, just below Linda's.
Nox.
Unlike everyone here, he was from the slums, otherwise known as Zone 9. He seemed to have been granted special admission to this test by ascended Astra herself which was strange.
"That crazy woman rarely interacts with other people, what did she see in the kid?" Illyra muttered quietly.
Lifting her head, she spotted the kid's table just next to Linda's. His face looked extremely serious as he was completely focused on the solar tech...techs, in his hand.
Strangely enough, unlike most of the other candidates that seemed to know exactly what to do, Nox was only using a few of the tools.
Tools that were supposed to be the restricting factor keeping them from fixing their various Solar Techs in just under thirty minutes.
And he was just using a few of them.
Was the test too easy? Was he deliberately making it harder for himself, just for the fun of it?
Well the answers to both those questions were simple...No.
Rather than deliberately choosing not to use most of the other tools, it was just that he genuinely had no idea what to do with them.
Back in the slums, he only had three tools to fix his scavenged tech, a screwdriver, soldering iron and solder, lots and lots of solder.
And luckily, he had been provided those tools and more. What other candidates called crude tools turned out to be exactly what he needed.
He was completely absorbed in fixing the tech before him, so much that he didn't realize that the examiner had her eyes on him.
The solar tech before himself was a gauntlet...well, a pair of gauntlets. They were completely battle worn and most of its parts were out of place.
It seemed that whoever used it, over did it and messed up the SE transport channels before probably deciding that this was nothing but junk and tossing it to the Academy's scrap pile.
Even in their broken state, they looked beautiful. It was the kind of craftsmanship Nox rarely, if ever, saw from the tech he scavenged back in the slums.
He grabbed the old-school tools laid out on his desk, the soldering iron, a torque driver, and a compact flux stabilizer that looked more like a flashlight than a proper engineering device, before he immediately got to work.
He didn't start like the others, who carefully followed the textbook order, no, he went directly to 'feeling' the gauntlets, letting his instincts guide him and the moment he 'felt' what was wrong with it, he proceeded.
There was a simple reason why Nox was able to fix Solar Tech even though he hadn't read a single book about it in his life.
He had the ability to 'feel' the tech.
He didn't know how or when, but he just remembered that he suddenly could feel them.
Nox could feel what was wrong, almost as if sensing the 'emotions' of the tech, but at the same time, that wasn't quite it.
Anyway, right now, he felt like the gauntlet was choked up or maybe, suffocating? That meant one of two things, either the channels to move SE were clogged, or they were tangled.
And he soon found his answer when he ran his fingers across the inner wrist plate and felt it.
There was some kind of crack in it, though, with all the dirt and grime on it, he wasn't completely sure, so he proceeded to clean it first.
The examiner raised her brow as she looked at Nox fixing the tech. His methods were... unusual to say the least. He seemed to be guided by instincts rather than knowledge which got her even more curious.
Without realizing, she slowly walked towards his desk and the kid didn't even notice when she was standing right next to him.
"Candidate Nox," Ilyra said, making her presence know to him. "Explain what you're doing."
For the first time today, her voice wasn't filled with boredom, instead, it held so much curiosity.
He froze, a bit surprised for a second, before he shrugged without looking up. "Fixing her."
"'Her'?"
He finally glanced up at her. "The gauntlet," he explained, "she's got a crack in her main channel, so she's choking her own energy flow. I'm realigning the pathways by hand so the SE doesn't fight itself when it cycles."
Ilyra arched a brow. "You're doing that without recalibration software?"
"Didn't know I was supposed to use one," he said casually, returning to his work. "Besides, I think she likes it this way."
There was a moment of silence between the two. The other candidates had only one thought in their heads, 'this kid is crazy.'
I mean, which sane person would think that their solar tech has feelings, it was a piece of machine, made from metals, pipes and energy from the sun.... literally.
"Do you think Solar Tech has life in them?" The examiner asked as she looked closely at Nox.