"You… you…" Ran clutched his head. He thought there was nothing that could surprise him anymore after seeing the first result, but Auric had almost doubled his power in his next try.
Lindwurm shook his head helplessly. "That one is a bit too low, don't you think?"
'The channel needs to be improved. If I can add momentum to my flow of energy, it will increase the power. In addition, I'm still not used to doing it.'
"Well, I can't deny that. I guess I should be satisfied to see this result from you." Lindwurm sighed. Since Auric was already an evolution master, he thought he could at least double that number.
As Auric had said, learning it was not the same as mastering it.
'His talent lies in his comprehension. He can do things in one go, but he won't be able to draw out their full potential right away. I guess he needs practice and experience from this point on. Going outside to gather experience will be good, so the mission with Ellia and Arina is a good thing for him.'
Lindwurm carefully assessed Auric and ultimately chose not to add anything else.
Ran immediately grabbed Auric and dragged him to another section. "We need to go."
Auric didn't fight back, knowing that he would end up causing a commotion with such a score.
"Ellia's score was only 280 points, by the way."
"That low?" Auric widened his eyes.
"What do you mean by low? That was already more than three times the average person's power. Yours was the one that was too absurd. Besides, being able to release a powerful attack doesn't mean your combat prowess is higher, do you understand?"
Ran could still vividly remember what happened to those who challenged Ellia in the past.
"Try to fight her. You will find yourself in trouble very quickly."
"I don't plan to challenge her. There is no reason to." Auric shook his head.
"Oh?" Ran squinted as he thought, 'No need to challenge her? Is there a special relationship between them?'
Ran believed their relationship was romantic, but in reality, Ellia was actually a very important customer.
Ran said, "In any case, let's just finish the other two tests. I know how absurd you are now, so this time, for sure… I'm not going to be surprised by your result anymore…"
That was what he said until he reached the third section, the evasion test.
"…" Ran dropped his jaw. "What the…"
The test room had guns built into the wall. Their ultimate purpose was to hit the challenger. The challenger was required to dodge the bullets.
Ran rubbed his eyes a few times as he couldn't believe what was happening. 'Did he… dodge the bullets before they were even fired?'
Auric actually moved a step ahead of the guns on the wall. The bullets they used were not rubber bullets. Rather, they were bullets made of magical energy.
They extracted magical energy from materials and poured it into them. Considering the effectiveness of the guns, a third of the population was still using magic guns as their weapon of choice.
However, these guns had one fatal flaw, at least against Auric.
Auric could see the flowing energy in them before they were fired. Unfortunately, Ran's prediction was still correct to a certain extent.
Auric might be able to do something special, but he was not a combat genius like Ellia.
That was why one bullet ended up hitting his wrist as he was dodging.
"Ah!" Auric smiled wryly.
278 points.
Ran took a deep breath to calm himself. "That's right. He's not a total freak. He's not a total freak. Ellia had 342 points last year, but the record holder was someone who had graduated a long time ago. That person had 371 points.
"But… there was no record of people who could dodge bullets before they were even fired. He was normal, right? His result was normal, right?"
Ran scratched the back of his head. Ultimately, he gave up on trying to understand it himself.
"Good work, good work." Ran waved his hand. Since his points weren't too high, there was no major commotion this time around. The only person who knew he had done something out of the ordinary was him.
"Let's go to the last test. In this test, you can use your strongest battle technique. There will be three things graded here. Your offense, defense, and support."
"What do you mean by support? I can't heal people," Auric asked.
"Nope. Support doesn't necessarily mean you have to heal someone. You know, when people are injured, their energy can be chaotic, right? Your task is to stabilize the chaotic energy."
"I see. Doesn't that mean it's a very popular skill for an evolution master?"
"Yes. Your score will be determined by how fast you can do it and how clear the magical energy is afterward. Since you are already an evolution master, I'm expecting your score to be on par with third- or fourth-year students."
Auric nodded calmly. "By the way, I've noticed that in this section, there is a room without any glass, like the one in the evasion section."
"Because a battle technique is supposed to be a secret. If you reveal your battle techniques in public, they will be able to analyze them and prepare ways to counter them."
"What about the other tests?"
"That's purely your physical strength or magical energy. You can fake them easily."
"Fair point." Auric could think of ways to fake those results, which would make people question whether this was his real strength or not.
"So, try it. I will be satisfied just by seeing the numbers." Ran looked at him with bright eyes as if he were asking, 'You don't mind, right? You don't mind, right? I have guided you around, so I deserve a little payment, right?'
Auric smiled wryly. "Fine."
Ran immediately smiled broadly and waved his hand. "Good luck."
Auric was a bit curious about his current ability. Lindwurm taught him two techniques earlier. He wondered what would happen if he combined the two techniques according to Lindwurm's guide.
So, Auric first entered the room and saw a panel embedded in the wall. There were three choices on the panel: Attack, Defense, and Support.
Auric pressed 'Attack' without hesitation. It was a plain white room.
After pressing the button, he heard some noises coming from the ground as the floor in the middle of the room opened up.
A metal practice dummy came out of the ground.
"Please hit the dummy." A robotic voice echoed from the speaker.
'There is no one observing us, right?' Auric asked inwardly.
Lindwurm had been flying around the room as soon as they entered. "No. No hidden cameras either. What do you want to try?"
'Maybe I should try my main element first, the plant element. Then, one more try will be used on my current strongest element, the dark element. I'm curious what kind of power I would have with the new techniques.'
"Sounds good enough for a test."
Auric just smiled and stepped forward. He formed a channel one more time, produced a lump of energy, and let it flow through that channel.
This time, he combined this lump of energy with his battle technique, the Plant Outburst.
The process of activating the power was as slow as a snail. However, the moment it was activated, the spike burst out of the ground at three times its normal speed.
Bang!
The spike hit the dummy hard, but it ended up breaking apart.
"Well… that's really powerful." Auric squinted.
"1360 points." Lindwurm crossed his arms. "I guess this machine is calibrated according to the average scores of the strength and magical tests."
"Is that so? Let me test it again." Auric used the Plant Outburst one more time without the new technique this time. He wanted to see the ability's original power.
Bang!
The score was much lower than he had expected.
550 points.
Auric narrowed his eyes. "That's quite low. Or is the new technique just too powerful? Then again, mastering it will be quite hard. It will take some time."
"How about your Night Arrow?" Lindwurm reminded him to proceed to the next battle technique.
"Right." Since he already understood the baseline, he immediately used the new technique to form the arrow. Then, he released it all in one push.
The Night Arrow flew faster and carried even more power and momentum.
The moment it hit the metal, it produced a powerful shock wave, which startled Auric. "Well, that was much more powerful than I originally expected."
It was no wonder that this eternal night element had such a high rating. The power that it could release was beyond his imagination.
If he had used this power in his battle against Simon, he might have defeated him in one hit.
"Well… what should I say?" Auric smiled wryly as the point was displayed brightly.
3631 points.
The Plant Outburst's maximum score was only 1360 points, and the Night Arrow was close to three times that number.
"There's a reason why people admire those with extreme elements." Auric shook his head helplessly.
Since he was done with the first test, he went to the panel and pressed the second category.
The dummy was pulled back into the ground, and a gun came out from the ceiling at the same time.
"Please say, "Attack," to activate the machine."
The monotonous voice echoed again.
Auric only had two things he wanted to test. The first was the Plant General. He combined it with the first technique he learned here.
By concentrating the energy at the front, this would create another layer of protection.
"Attack!"
Once he gave the command, the gun fired a bullet made of the wind element.
The impact felt quite hard, but his wall was still intact.
1280 points.
Lindwurm seemed to have figured out how the machine worked. "Interesting machine. It won't break your wall, but it sends a bullet hard enough to not only test the toughness but also check its integrity. Test the Earth Wall with your steel—no, your diamond element."
Auric already planned to do it, so he immediately summoned the Diamond Wall and shouted to the machine.
The machine fired another bullet. The number was actually quite close to Auric's original expectation after he compared the rating between the diamond element and the eternal night element.
2960 points.
"The rating is lower than the eternal night element, but it is still a decent defensive ability."
He was satisfied with the power of both his offense and defense, so all that was left was to test the last category.
This time, instead of a gun or a dummy, what came out was an orb.
Magical energy from eight elements had been channeled into the orb.
"Please correct the flow."
Auric muttered, "Is this a test to expel the other seven energies? I can choose one element that I'm confident in."
"Yeah. Don't you think that's rather a low goal for you?" Lindwurm rolled his eyes.
"A low goal?" Auric thought for a moment before realizing what Lindwurm actually wanted. "You are really a bad guy…"
Lindwurm grinned. "Go for it."
Auric placed his hand on the crystal and started pouring his magical energy.
…
Outside, Ran crossed his arms, his right forefinger tapping his arm as if he couldn't wait to know the results.
Finally, Auric exited the room with a satisfied expression.
"I haven't reset the number, so please reset it once you're done taking a look." Auric pointed back with his thumb.
"You are a good junior." Ran smirked and rushed inside the room. He had sworn that nothing could surprise him anymore, but he ended up repeating the same mistake over and over again. "Are you… serious?"
Attack: 3631 points.
Defense: 2960 points.
Those two numbers alone were already high enough that he could hardly believe them, but the last number was even more shocking than anything he had ever seen before.
Support: ??? points.
Ran knew that the third test was supposed to focus on one energy that they were most confident about. Yet, what was left in the orb was something that no student had ever accomplished before.
Auric actually separated all eight elements within the orb and kept them stable.
"You motherf—"