The five students that were called up, including Axel and Rick, quickly made their way to the testing tube. Aside Ares, there were two other students paired up with them. Two girls.
One of them being Kinsey, had a short, tousled brown hair that framed her face just above her jawline, giving her a confident yet effortless charm. Her pupils had a deep hazel shade.
The second girl on the other hand was Nile. She was the kind of girl people couldn't help but notice. Her silvery hair under the sunlight and it cascades down her back.
Her face was a pretty one, her eyes had a piercing shade of blue. She had the kind of beauty that turned heads effortlessly, yet her facial expression was a thing that scared people. She had an unbothered expression, like she couldn't give a care in the world. She even sighed like she was bored of this whole power testing.
All five students entered the testing tube and the panel immediately closed behind them.
The testing tube or the glass dome wasn't what it looked to be from the outside.
From the outside, it looked like small squared shapeed box made that had limited space to fit in all five students, including the other three officers overseeing the test.
But rom the inside, it was different. It didn't look like they were in any sort of testing tube, they were in a desert, with nothing but endlessness strecthing for miles.
The glass dome was pocket dimension. Axel had heard about something like this being used for trainning sessions in top notch schools, where people can go all out with their destructive abilities without having to worry about destroying anything or hurting anyone.
Axel's old school wasn't a very big or prestigious school. Thus, he had never seen one of these pocket dimensions before, but now he was inside one.
"Hi, I'm Jean. I'll be your instructor for this test." One of the three officers in the desert like space said. "Take a few minutes to get acquainted with each other and warm up."
Axel and Rick stood at one side, while Ares stood alone, flexing his muscles. The two girls on the other hand stood close buy warking up as they were instructed.
Ares noticed both boys doing absolutely nothing so he walked up to them. "Hey come on guys, you're not just going to stand there and do nothing. Don't you want to impress the ladies?"
"We don't have access our abilities yet, remember?" Axel reminded him.
"Yes, but they don't know that." Ares said pointing to the girls. "You gotta stop being such a wuss. Come on make a body movement. Show em that muscles." Ares grinned as he tried to get Axel to flex his skinny bones.
"I don't have what you have dude." Axel said almost embarrassed.
"What about you, Quiet? Is it okay if I call you Quiet? It's growing on me."
"Uhm no, I don't…I don't have muscles either."
Ares shook his head in dissapointment "Bloody hell. I'm going to have to change that."
"Quit pointing at me, Bozo."
One of the girls voiced out. It was none other than Nile. Even after speaking for the first time, her bored expression remained the same.
Ares turned slowly, as soon as his eyes landed on her, a smirk appeared on his face. "Well well, if it isn't Ms. Loud mouth over here."
"Loud mouth?" Nile asked, her voice coming out with a soft chuckle. "You're the one who wouldn't shut up. My ears are having chronic depression just listening to you."
"Okay, that's enough for now. Time to test your prowerss." Jean said, cutting the words exchange between Ares and Nile short.
After the power sequence was formed, the people of the world devised a fair and stable way of calculating someone's power level. It was tested and it was proven to be efficient. A total of three tests was to be taken.
The first test was to calculate the physical strength, and speed of an individual.
"You shall recieve collar tags that will display your ability level," Jean said as she pulled out five mini digital tags. "You can pin it on your collar or your chest pocket, but you must have it on you at all times. It gives you access to places within the school. Without them, you'll be denied access."
The first up was Rick. "Run to the other side where the red line stops and back." Jean instructed.
Rick nervously prepared himself and once he was given the greenlight, he took off, running as fast as his tone legs could carry him. He got to the other end and he was on his way back. Before long, he arrived, panting hard and he was done with the first test.
"Speed 5." Jean muttered. The look on her face told everyone that was a pretty low score.
Rick proceeded to take his remaining two tests. For strength, he was asked to hit three targets. The targets had a mechanism inside that calculated the force of one's hit and when Rick was done, he had accumulated a physical strength of 4.
The agility test was to calculate their reaction time and their body flexibility. A robotic machine with four mechanical arms rolled out of nowhere with padded but fast-moving ends. The goal was to block every strike and the arms increased it's speed every few seconds.
Rick didn't last ten seconds when the machine knocked him to the ground. He scored an agility test of just 3.
"Next up, Kinsey Key."
The girl known as Kinsey stepped forward. She looked to be nervous, but not the Rick kind of nervous. Just mild nerve.
"Alright Kins, get a good score." She whispered to herself.
Kinsey adjusted her sleeves, her ponytail flicked like a whip as she stepped up to the line. She glanced once at Axel who didn't know what to say or do so he gave an awkward smile.
"Ready?" Jean asked "go!"
She shot forward immediately, her strides were silent, like her foot barely touched the ground before she lifted it again.
When she reached the end, she tried not to stumble as she turned but her feet coupd only do so much. She almsot tfipped but she caught herself quickly and she ran back to the starting point.
"Not impressive." Ares yawned beside Axel.
Axel looked at him. "She's trying, man. Gibe her a break."
Ares smirked at Axel's response but said nothing else. Over all, she got a Speed of 10.
Kinsey proceeded to take the remaining two tests and she came up with 8 and 12 for both strength and agility, respectively.
Next up was Nile Reeds. She wore her bored expression like a crown as she took her racing position. As soon as she got the go ahead, she sprinted forward with speed and precision. Unlike Kinsey, She had no trouble turning, she shot herself back to the starting point with ease.
"Hm. Impressive." Jean commented. "Your speed is 15."
"What?!" Nile asked, clearly confused. That was the first time her expression shifted "15? Your machine is broken, I should have gotten way more." She argued.
"No I can assure you that my machine is not broken." Jean answered flatly.
Nile with a grumpy face took her next test. Ares found her tantrum really amusing.
Her strength test and speed agility test were just as good. She managed to get a good 20 on her strength and 20 on her agility test.
"You sure you want to pick a fight with her?" Axel chuckled.
"Shut up. I can do better than that." Ares smirked. "Watch me be a badass." Ares winked then he stepped forward
Ares took his first test, then his second test and finally his last test. Overall he ended up with 20 for strength, 15 for speed and 20 for agility.
Ares walked back to Axel and Rick with a satisfied smile. "Hey for the record, I was holding back. I just wanted her to feel better about herself."
"Yeah right." Axel rolled his eyes. But regardless, Ares had achieved a good score. Maybe he was strong as he claimed he was after all.
"Next up, Axel Vaelon."
The moment his name was called out. A familiar sound dinged in his head.
[New mission Recieved: Get a minimum score of 12 points on every test]
[Reward: 10 EXP
Axel grinned as he saw the message. 10 EXP, and all he had to do was hit a score of 12 points.
"Piece of cake."
Within a few minutes, Axel took his test and when he was done, he recieved a new system message.
[Mission failed]
'Goddamnit! Why was that so hard?'
After taking the test, He had scored 10 in Speed, 10 in Strength and also a 10 in Agility.
That's when Axel noticed something strange. His test score was exactly the same as his stat in the system.
He immediately opened his stats interface to take a look and he was right alright.
[Strength: 10]
[Speed: 10]
[Agility: 10]
He immediately realized that he was bound to get that score no matter how much force he mustered in his punch or how fast he tried to be. The system had just played him.
"Very funny." He whispered under his breath.
The test was over for all five students but there was something else. Earlier, before the my stepped inside the testing tube. They had all witnessed subtle displays of abilities, yet during the test, they hadn't been told to use their respective abilities.
Besides that, their final score was yet to be given go them so that one meant one thing, there was infact, a final test.
"Now for your final test. This would determine how well you can use your ability, and how strong your abilities are…" Jean took a pause before she continues.
"You're going to have to fight each other. With your abilities."
***