The following day Erik woke up knowing it would be a hard day. His training with professor Mc Allister started the previous day, and he learned, thanks to his teacher’s words, that the training would be hard.

Thanks to the system, he already knew what he had to do, the moves he had to perform to fight, but knowing them and being able to do them was completely different.

Erik, as usual, checked his quests and accepted them. He then prepared breakfast and completed his first quest; it was that easy. After that, he prepared to go to school as professor Mc Allister told him to do, and he went out of his house.

As he was on his way to the train station, Erik saw many ambulances rushing somewhere or other. He wondered what happened for so many ambulances to rush out at once. Erik saw a man walking in front of him who was looking at the ambulances too.

“Excuse me!” Erik said. “Can you tell me what happened? Why are there so many ambulances?” he asked the man while keeping an eye on the ambulances passing above him.

The stranger, a man in his fifties, wearing a pair of glasses and a long coat, looked at Erik and replied, “The crystal cross gang assaulted a bank, and a lot of civilians died in the attack.”

“I see,” Erik answered.

The crystal cross gang was a criminal organization dealing with drugs, prostitution, extortion, and many others.

It was the most dangerous gang in New Alexandria, which the militaries couldn’t destroy. No one knew who the leader of the organization was, and its members were very powerful individuals.

Erik actually saw some members who went to Mister Fox’s farm to extort his money some time before.

Such kinds of things did often happen inside the city; stopping people with powers wasn’t simple, after all.

As Erik looked above, he saw police cars going in the ambulances same direction; they must have been going toward the bank. That made sense.

Erik thanked the old man and went toward the train station, and after having taken the train, he arrived at the western district, where the school was located. The road to school was deserted; there weren’t even cars flying above him going in that direction.

It was something weird to see. Erik never went to school on Sunday and wasn’t used to seeing the streets so empty.

After reaching the school building, Erik found the entrance hall empty except for some students, professors, and security guards. As he looked around, he saw professor Mc Allister, principal Harris and an unknown man walking toward him.

“Erik,” Principal Harris said.

“Sir, good morning,” Erik replied.

The principal looked anxious as if he was afraid of something.

“This is Mr. Kite; he will come with us today. You can call him by his last name; he doesn’t mind,” the principal said.

Mr. Kite was a young man in his twenties, tall, thin, and wearing dark sunglasses. His skin was pale as snow, his hair black, and he looked very formal. He was dressed in military attire and looked at Erik as if he was a zoo animal.

“Good Morning, sir,” Erik greeted while shooking hands with the young man. Kite nodded while doing so.

“Excuse me, sir, why is this man here? What are we going to do?” Erik asked.

“We are going to test your power today,” Principal Harris said.

“I see,”

Principal Harris looked nervous. Then he finally spoke: “It won’t hurt, I promise you that. We just want to know how strong you really are…”

Erik was already aware that something like that was bound to happen. Professor Mc Allister explained everything during their walk toward the testing room.

As they went, they walked toward a big red door on the school’s first floor. When they reached it, the principal opened the door and stepped aside. 𝚍ｎ𝚘ｖ𝚕.𝚝

Three men were working on computers connected to screens showing different views. Some of those were school workers, and some where even teachers.

Their job was to watch the tests and inform the principal about the results. They also had a few cameras recording the whole thing from every angle.

The room was spacious; in front of the computers were some chairs for people to attend to, usually family members and guardians. In front of them was a small podium with a bluish-purple bead over a red velvet cushion placed on a small desk.

Principal Harris looked at Erik, “You must go over the podium and inject all the mana you can inside the bead,” he said. “Just put your hand on the bead, don’t worry, no needles or anything else. Just place both hands in the beads and let mana flow through you.”

Erik nodded and took his jacket off, putting it on a chair. He then went to the podium and stood near the bead, waiting for the adults to tell him when to start. Principal Harris and Mister Kite were discussing something

Meanwhile, Erik felt nervousness growing in himself. This was when they would discover his rank was E.

Were they going to be disappointed? Maybe they hoped his brain crystal would have gotten more powerful or that his power was ranked higher on the Jorm scale; it was D ranked in that case, nothing too bad but not very good either.

“You can start now, Erik,” Principal Harris said over a speaker.

Erik looked at them and then at the bead; he then closed his eyes and concentrated on the stone, letting his mana flow through his body and onto the sphere. Later on, the bead started emitting light, it started with a dim one, but the intensity increased until it illuminated Erik’s face.

The young man saw Mister Kite’s disappointed face. “They found out,” he said to himself.

“Well… what does it say?” Erik asked.

“Your level is E on the Ferebitz scale,” the principal answered, looking at him. “If I’m not wrong, it was F previously, am I right?”

“Yes, sir, it looks like I jumped a rank!” He said, smiling.

“Yeah, congratulation,” the principal replied.

“Thank you,” Erik said.

Then Mister Kite and the principal discussed other things related to the tests. You have to do another thing for us, Erik.

“What, sir?”

“Show us your new power, at full strength possibly,” Mister Kite replied.

“All right.”

Erik then took a pen from his backpack and started injecting mana into it. Slowly, a thin coating appeared around the object. After ten seconds, he stopped pumping mana into it and willed the pen to become sharper. Erik slashed at a nearby chair, separating it into two halves.

Mister Kite and Principal Harris were pleased by this demonstration of power. “Good,” Mister Kite said.

“Is it?” Erik asked.

“Yes,” Principal Harris said. Your power has been measured to be D ranked on the Jorm scale; it essentially means it is a very useful power, and it works well even with low mana levels.”

All of this was something Erik already knew; it was unknown only to the teachers. Erik observed Mister Kite and Principal Harris talking again, and then the school head turned to look at him.

“You can go with professor McAllister now.”

“All right, sir.”