"Excuse me! Are you talking to me ? " Ethyl said with a look of disgust towards the old man he was talking to her, he could be a crazy person or psychic to know what she was thinking about.
"I am not a psychic if you are wondering. You kept looking at the measurement room as if you were trying to escape this place, and I know why anyone would hate to go there, and being weak is not one of those reasons." He winked at her with a smile on his face.
"What do you want from me?!" Ethyl said firmly to him. "I never asked you to do any favor for me, and certainly this made-up story is not real. Even if it were, I would never ask a creepy person for help."
"Well, I will be right there, under the oak tree waiting for you. When you stop being a coward and accept my help, just call my name. Ah, my name is Jivan."
Ethyl didn't reply to him, but she kept following him with her eyes until he reached the spot he had mentioned.
Ethyl was terrified. She couldn't just back off and stay calm; everything was messing with her head.
Just a hundred people passed the first part of the practical test, and most of them were not scared of the last part because they all knew they would pass.
For the past few hours, she had been thinking endlessly because she knew there was no way to pass the test unless she got help, and Jivan's help was the only offer available.
When the first test ended, she walked immediately toward him and said, "What do you want in exchange?"
"Your sweet, pure skin."
"My skin?! Are you a cannibal? Answer me!" she yelled at him by the end.
"Well, I can't call myself that, but I am closer to it in some ways."
"What in the hell are you saying, you old creepy pervert?!"
"Wooaaaah, surely I am hated by the younger people..."
Ethyl interrupted him, saying, "I don't need to hear about your drama. Tell me what I should do to pass this part."
"The payment first!"
"Okay... okay."
Ethyl grabbed a knife from her pocket, then said, "Okay, if I find out that you played me, I will kill you."
She removed a part of the skin on her arm despite all the pain she experienced, and gave it to Jivan, who kept drawing that stupid smile on his face.
"Now we are talking," he said.
Ethyl handed it to him, and he looked as if he had received some sort of magical relic. He took out a small jar full of an unknown liquid and placed the skin inside, keeping it fresh until the exam was finished later.
Ethyl placed her hand over the cut she had made, using her magic to heal herself and ease the sharp pain she was feeling.
Jivan looked at her with pride and said, "You are strong for a girl. I thought you would run away from me and reject my offer."
"I am not here to bond with you. The test is about to happen, and I need to pass it with minimum damage."
"Okay... okay, little girl. Come here with me."
Jivan led her far away from the other participants, behind a huge tree, where he handed her a bottle he was carrying with him.
"What is this?!" she asked.
Jivan handed her the bottle containing a weird blue liquid and said with a strange smile, "Well, you should drink this."
"Are you saying that this stupid liquid is going to help me pass the measurement room without problems?!"
"It is not a stupid liquid. I made this potion to contain divine energy and minimize its quantity for an hour. I knew about this test, and that's why I made it."
Ethyl took the potion from him and stared deeply into it. After a few minutes of thought, she said, "You made this for yourself, which means that you yourself possess an incredible amount of divine energy. Is that right?!"
"You can say so!"
"Then why did you wait until this year's annual evaluation?"
"I wasn't going to level up, even this year, but something came up," he said, adding a smirk to his face.
"And why are you helping me?"
"You certainly know why." He glared at her without adding anything else, simply waving as he walked away, leaving her with the potion and some heavy thoughts.
Ethyl was hesitant. She didn't know who this man was, and his personality certainly didn't earn her trust. He was just a creepy old dude making weird faces with his eerie smile.
Some of those who had passed before her were preparing to enter the measurement room. Her hand was shaking. She either had to drink it blindly or face a fate worse than Lucas's, and that was out of the question.
She had a goal, and she would achieve it if she survived this place. She was the only one afraid, and that made the pressure unbearable.
When she couldn't decide what to do, she closed her eyes and drank the potion. Her heart began to beat wildly, feeling as though it would explode if she made a single move. She sat down under a tree, staring at the ground, completely dizzy.
Her mind went blank for a moment, an effect that lasted for ten minutes before beginning to fade.
She couldn't feel any physical change in her body, but all she knew was that she had done everything she could. Maybe, miraculously, she would pass even if this potion didn't work in the end.
A few participants before her had already completed the test. She had to walk over there and pretend to be normal like everyone else, and that was exactly what she did.
She walked toward the measurement room with a forced smile on her face. Her dress was dirty from sitting in the mud, but at this moment none of that mattered. She had to pass.