Chapter 20: Assessment

Stanley went ahead and did some physical tests in the training area. Because the entirety of Defenders was focused on the Census and was preparing for it, Stanley had the entire training ground to himself.

Only a few more people were there, but none were training themselves. He walked up to one of them and asked them to help him record some physical stats.

The man had short brown hair and was a little smaller than Stanley, but not by much. He looked at him with narrowed eyes and asked, “Aren’t you the Dull from the 3rd year’s group? What are you doing here?”

“I’m no longer a Dull,” Stanley said. “I awakened my powers recently and sir Aaron asked me to get it tested to see how strong I am.”

“Hmm, you have a power that can be tested?” the man asked.

“Physical Enhancement, my body gets stronger,” Stanley said.

“Alright, come with me,” the man said and took him to the center of the training ground, onto the stage.

There were 5 different tests that were prepared for him to test how strong Stanley was.

The first one was to simply jump as high as he could. Stanley did as asked, and got a result of 1.6 meters. Since there was no running involved in this jump, the trainer was quite surprised.

The second test was carrying weights. Two sacks would be filled with decent-sized rocks of similar shape and weight. Stanley had to carry a rod that had these sacks on either side of the metal rod.

While average trainees could do about 10 to 12 rocks on both sides at best, Stanley did 24, surprising the trainer quite a bit.

Stanley himself was quite surprised. He hadn’t guessed he would be this strong.

The next test was a simple lap around the training area to see how fast he could run.

Stanley was curious about this test as much as the trainer. He knew he was physically stronger, but was he fast as well? There was definitely a correlation between being fast and strong, but never 1 to 1.

So, he was ready to see too.

As soon as the trainer gave the word, he ran. He hadn’t run this quickly since he had healed, so he was surprised at how surreal it all felt.

It was like the world around him had slowed down and only he himself moved through the training field.

He stopped after arriving where he started and looked toward the trainer. “How was it?” he asked.

The trainer stared blankly for a few seconds before saying, “too fast. That was… you completed it in just under 20 seconds.”

“20 seconds?” Stanley was surprised. “That fast huh?”

The distance he had run around the training ground had to be more than 300 meters. So to do it in just 20 seconds meant that he ran 100 meters every 7 or so seconds.

‘Not bad,’ he thought.

“I’ll go bring out some wooden sticks and bows for your endurance and reaction tests. Wait a minute,” the man said and walked away.

“Endurance test?” Stanley wondered. “Can my body handle more damage than normal?”

He looked around his arm, wondering if he had gotten stronger when he noticed his right hand’s knuckle. The part where his skin had grazed when hitting the stone armor had already scabbed over.

He pried around the scab until it came off. When it did, he was surprised to see that his fist had already healed.

‘I knew it,’ he thought. ‘I do have enhanced healing too, don’t I? Is that really not from the Mayor?’

He wondered if it came together with his strong body. If it did, why? Why did he suddenly have two separate types of power at once?

The trainer returned a few moments later with some wooden weapons in his arm. “You ready to get beat up?”

Stanley did get beat up. Quite badly at that too. To test his endurance, he had to be hit with various weapons to test it. Depending on how much he could endure, the hits would keep on going and increase in strength too.

In the end, the trainer stopped after realizing that he could endure quite the beating too.

“Finally, let’s go ahead with the reaction training. I will shoot these round-tipped arrows at you. Either try to dodge it or grab it if you can. Don’t let it hit you,” the man said and stood some distance away.

He had a bow in his hand and a quiver on his waist full of arrows. He pulled out the first arrow and without announcing shot it at Stanley.

Stanley saw the arrow fly for his chest and was amazed at how easily he could see it coming this way. Was he always this good at noticing fast-moving objects?

He moved to the left and let the arrow fly past him before going back to the same position. ‘That was… weird,’ he thought. ‘How does having strong physical skills give me a better reaction speed? Is my brain enhanced too? Is that why my reaction time is so good?’

Another arrow flew at him and he caught it in midair. The trainer looked surprised and moved three steps forward to close the distance. ｂ𝚍ｎｏｖ𝚕．ｃｏｍ

‘What is 13 times 16?’ Stanley asked himself randomly. He thought for a bit, but he couldn’t think of the answer very quickly. ‘Ok, so maybe my brain is the same.’

Another arrow flew at him. Since it was from a closer distance, he had less time to react to it. Even so, he managed to dodge it and waited for the next one.

More and more arrows flew at him from a closer and closer distance. In the end, the trainer was merely 5 meters away from him, pointing his bow at him.

He let go of the bow and Stanley moved immediately as well. While Stanley saw the arrow leave, his body was still too slow to catch it or dodge it.

In the end, he was finally hit and the assessment was over.