Preliminary Tests

Getting back from Core Weapons class, Emma was going to study for her history test and had gone to the library.

There, Lucas was struggling with some questions.

Lucas was looking around when he spotted Emma.

He went up to her and asked her. "Hey Emma! Can you… help me real quick."

Emma looked back at Lucas and thought for a moment before speaking.

"Sure. What do you need help with on?"

Emma was willing to lend a helping hand because it wasn't related to fighting.

If it was, she wouldn't have helped so easily. She would rather focus on herself.

"Oh yeah, thanks Emma! I need help in history."

"I am also studying history. We can study it together."

"Ah great!" Lucas responded while getting behind her, almost as if urging her to go study with him now.

*****

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The sound of pen hitting paper echoed through the room with the clock ticking with every second.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

After what was an hour, the teacher of the respective class called out and stoped the test.

"Put your pens down, the test ends now. Pass your tests up to the desk infront of you."

The students did just that and all the papers were at the front, in which the teacher went around to collect.

After a week had past, the date for the preliminary tests had arrived.

Roseline was currently in math class with her head down on the desk.

'I blew that test.'

Almost all of the questions on the paper had made Roseline lost.

She barely knew any of the formulas, let alone answers.

The bell rung and every one had gone out of the classroom, talking about the test despite the teacher saying not to.

"Hey I definitely do amazing heheh!"

"Oh no my mom is gonna kill me if the military tells her."

"Fu fu fu fu…. Oh I did SO bad.."

Walking and listening to their conversations, Roseline was in the clouds when she dodged someone that almost bumped into her.

Their glasses fell and they troped over their own foot.

Roseline let them fall seeing who it was.

"Ah!"

Hitting the floor hard, Aiden looked back at Roseline before getting up and speed-walking away.

"Sorry.."

Roseline ignored that as always and continued her day.

But Aiden not so much.

Getting back to the dorm, Aiden decided to try to awaken again. He didn't want to be pushed around anymore.

Sitting down cross-legged, Aiden calmed his mind before doing a breathing exercise that allows one to go to their subconscious.

As he did, he thought of the feeling of what the affinity book described.

After a while, a thin sphere formed in his subconscious.

On the outside world, mana started to gather and move towards the heart of Aiden. That is where the Magic Core would form in the physical body, it's often known as the weak spot of the human body.

The thin sphere in Aiden's mind grew thicker and thicker with every few seconds before it became thick enough to hold mana.

The newly formed Magic Core started filling with mana as the easiest stage of awakening past.

The hardest was forming a star to 'orbit' around the Magic Core.

Aiden started to feel a deep amount of pressure pressing on him from all sides, making him almost lose his focus.

But remembering Aiden's encounter with Roseline, his determination won over the pain of being squeezed.

Sweat started to fall from his forehead while his muscles started to cramp up.

A small flame-like light appeared in the darkest of the subconscious and took mana from the Magic Core as fuel to burn brighter, slowly moving around the Magic Core.

The bright star soon got stuck in some kind of substance and fought off against some kind of black goo, burning it and pushing it out.

The black sticky goo left Aiden's body and made him smell incredible disgusting.

With the impurities gone, the star grew in speed. It orbited the Magic Core at such high speeds one would think it was a thin ring around it.

Opening his eyes, happiness shot through them.

"Yes I finally did it!!"

He got up throwing his arms in the air and jumping, even almost squealing like a girl.

The door opened at that moment and there was Lucas.

Seeing the odd scene in front of him, he thought that something good had happened to Aiden.

Aiden soon saw Lucas and stoped what he was doing with an embarrassed expression.

Thinking about it, Lucas said. "Did you awaken?…"

"Yeah I did!"

"Ah that's great then"

"Yeah it's just that when that rose girl passed me and didn't help, I felt humiliated and wanted to get stronger more than ever before."

"Oh Roseline? She isn't awaken like you ar- I mean were."

"Huh? Before I got near her, she had already dodged though."

"Oh yeah, she is quite strong for someone awakened. Who knows, maybe if she does awaken she will probably one of the strongest yet."

"You really believe that?"

"Mhm. Trust me, I would know."

Aiden didn't quite know what Lucas meant by that.

*****

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Sean was listening to a report about the planet that the students would explore, making sure it was safe for them.

"Planet Olreon is currently a green level planet with only the desert left unexplored for the students, having sent one 5 Star official to check if there is any danger. It is reported back that there is not."

"Alright then, ok go now"

The officer saluted Sean before walking out.

Sean still felt paranoid even after hearing the report.

"Seems like Lydia is right, maybe my age and experiences are getting to me."

Be he couldn't help but feel as if something was wrong. That the students may be lead to a trap with the recent movements of the dragonkin.

Plus there was one more species they had to worry about.

"Xalorians…"

Sean himself had quite a few encounters with them, all ending in horrible ways.