Final test[3]

400 circulations.

It became easier and easier to get around. What was he circling? Kayden didn't know. It was a kind of energy, but he didn't remember what energy meant. Well, that didn't matter.

Just circulate.

500 circulations

There were no more thoughts or anything in Kayden. It was practically a robot that just carried out a task. Circulate, circulate...

Circulation????

Pain began to be felt throughout the boy's entire body. But it was ignored. Keep circling. A sensation of glass shattering was felt by Kayden. He didn't know where it came from.

Circulation continued. Circulate. Circulate. The energy, Kayden had no more energy. What would he circulate now? The energy he already had. The boy felt the same thing that was circulating within himself.

Keep circling. It was a little slower, but still served its purpose. Circulate. It got easier and easier each time. Kayden remembered something similar, but it seemed blurry. It doesn't matter.

100 circulations.

1000 circulations.

5 thousand circulations.

10 thousand circulations.

Kayden felt that no matter how much he circulated his internal energy, there was no more progress. Anything. Well, it didn't matter, he just needed to keep doing it.

But why? It doesn't matter. He was about to start circulating again when something different happened in his life. He heard something.

"Kayden!!! Wake up!!!"

Kayden? What is that? It looked familiar, well it didn't matter, he just wanted to get back to his task. Unfortunately, the voice began to repeat itself dozens of times, which slowly made him remember something.

Kayden.

Kayden was his name. Like a dam that breaks with a crack, the boy remembered everything. All his memories came back with a thud. He found himself on the cold, damp ground.

Wait, damp?

Kayden smelled a ridiculously stinky smell and quickly stood up.

"You're finally back," the guide's voice brought back his memories of his last moments. Well, maybe not that last.

"You weren't going to kill me?" Kayden clearly remembered finding himself caught in the man's spell.

"No, that was not the final test, nor does there exist such a thing. I just wanted to do a psychological test on you," Kayden first felt angry, but then indifferent. He was alive, wasn't he?

Not only do I live, but I'm more resolved with myself.

"But congratulations on the advance, boy", advance? Kayden began to circulate mana throughout his body. 5th rank. He had advanced, not only that but he felt that his mana veins reached much further away, almost as if they had been honed by hundreds of thousands of circulations.

Kayden remembered what he had just been through. He didn't know how to put it into words. His sense of time was practically non-existent. If the guide had said that a few millennia had passed, he would still have thought little.

Before he could begin to digest what happened, the guide's voice snapped him out of his stupor.

"It was an epiphany, a unique moment in the life of every mana user. We don't know how it works yet, but it's a moment of hyperfocus where you solve a problem or just farm in an insanely accelerated way."

This made sense to Kayden, it was this feeling he remembered, but in the end, there was something more, he needed time to think. It was too unique a moment to be spent without much reflection.

"I see, what is the reward?" Kayden remembered the guide mentioning something like that. The man scratched his head.

"Before that, I wanted to propose to you, Kayden," the boy was surprised but nodded. The man, seeing this, continued: "Become my disciple."

Kayden expected a lot of things. Become my permanent lab rat. Participate in another experiment. Even an invitation to the assassins guild, who knows? But becoming the guide's disciple was nowhere near his guess.

The ghost, seeing his hesitation, began to speak hurriedly, almost seeming nervous.

"I'm in the third kingdom, Kayden, I'm one of the richest and most powerful men in the kingdom. Whatever you want can be yours, everything is within my reach", his sentence seemed appealing, but Kayden didn't doubt it. He saw the extent of the guild these days.

"First, explain the last test to me," Kayden asked. He would use this time to think about the man's proposal.

"It was very simple, there was no right answer. If you killed the baby it would have passed the same way, it was a simple test like the hundreds I've done before", the man replied.

"Hundreds?" Kayden only remembered fighting a few times.

"Every question I asked was a little test, everything was being written down and documented by me," the man explained. Kayden hadn't realized this, they just seemed like routine questions.

"I need to give you your final result to make it easier to understand," the man said. Saying that he conjured a ball of water and plunged Kayden into it. The boy was taken by surprise, but he couldn't resist. While the guide bathed him, he also burned the remains of goo on the floor.

This included the baby, Kayden was shocked by the man's cruelty. He didn't even blink.

"Don't worry, the baby doesn't exist," the man said, trying to diffuse the situation.

A few minutes later, the two were sitting in armchairs drinking tea.

"I couldn't have showered normally?" Kayden expressed his doubt to a quiet guide.

"I was kind of looking forward to our conversation," the man replied sheepishly. "Let's get to the main topic, your result," the man's eyes sparkled with excitement.

He took out a notepad from one of his bandages and began to speak.

"Your combat performance was above average, but still within the normal range. Your strengths are quick decision-making without hesitation. You don't mind trading an injury for victory," the man said.

Kayden fought a lot of battles where he let himself get hit just so he could land a good hit on his opponent.

"The command of your spells is excellent, it is clear that they were made to match your fighting style, unfortunately, you do not master your element that well, your knowledge of it is shallow at best", this was a hard blow to the boy's pride, but he had to agree with the guide's observation. He never really studied lightning and its characteristics.

"Your mentality is solid, even with challenges and moments where you almost died you remained calm", Kayden had a very rational way of thinking.

The man spent another 10 minutes detailing Kayden's various characteristics, from his way of fighting to basic things like irrelevant quirks, Kayden had never been observed in such a deep way before.

"You see, Kayden, there are two types of people we receive here, the first comes from an environment where they are taught to kill and fight from an early age, they don't have many problems taking lives", the man showed several drawings in his notebook. Kayden had to admit he was quite educational.

"The second are normal people, the majority. In this group we have two types, the first is healthy people, they take a long time to kill, similar to you, however, they always show regret and blame themselves", a slight tone of annoyance was felt in his voice by Kayden. "We spend most of our time in psychological sessions with this guy."

Kayden thought it was reasonable, he was sure that if he had had a normal life he would be in this group.

"The second is people with some type of past trauma, they usually adapt faster and are less attached to morals or ethics, everyone in that group kills the baby, now the question is which group are you in, kid?" the guide said in an excited voice.

Kayden stopped to think a little, he quickly adapted to the situation and, without a doubt, carried the marks of his second life deeply rooted in his psychology. He would probably be in the second type. The boy waited for the guide's answer, his question had an air of rhetoric.

"Here's the big problem with the question, you see, I'm a wizard focused on mental powers and I can tell when someone is lying by the amount of mana their body spends between one answer and another", that's why I had so many silly questions in my mind. the questionnaire, they were to propperly balance your scale.

 Na: Sorry I haven't been sending caps lately, I'm in the middle of exams at college, there were 8 just this week (this is a cry for help), jokes aside I'll post normally again in the next few weeks