Chapter 93: Without knowing it, a desire grows inside

Not caring much about the stares of the others thanks to the fact that he was already used to this kind of attention, James advanced until he reached the pillar.

*SHN!*

As soon as his hand made contact with the pillar, a shimmering glow emerged from its center, a pristine golden color so powerful that if someone who hadn't seen the pillar's original color saw it right now, they would definitely think the pillar was golden in the first place.

"This..." Seeing this reaction, even the examiner was greatly surprised, not knowing exactly how to react.

This was clearly an evaluation worthy of the special grade, which would make it the second case all day, however, what was more impressive was that unlike Sarah, this time the applicant was able to maintain this state for longer, lasting approximately 10 seconds before the glow dissipated.

However, although the examiner felt quite well that the pillar approved of James, he was not the only one who could sense this, but all the pugilists present, especially those in the (C) rank, were aware that at this moment, it was difficult to distinguish where James' qi began and where the pillar's qi ended.

"WAY TO GO BOSS, SHOW THEM WHO'S IN CHARGE!!!" Bastjan shouted, in his eyes fervent flames of admiration and not caring at all that the people around were looking at him strangely.

'Geez, just having one person with Special ranking is already a good thing, but now that there are two, it looks like we're having good luck this year.' Thought the examiner, trying to hide his smile of joy.

This was normal, after all, the more talented the applicants were, the more beneficial this would be for the Academy.

"Ahem, your evaluation is Special, and just like Miss Abner, you will still keep your perfect score." Said the examiner, coughing to disguise his surprise.

As pleased as he was, he couldn't show favoritism in front of the other applicants... at least not openly.

"Thank you." With those words, James also retreated to where Sarah.

His attitude was somewhat similar to that of the aforementioned mage, one could even say he went further, acting nonchalant towards the results of his evaluation, as if it was something he already knew would happen.

Despite the stares of all the applicants on him, James never once looked back, except of course at Bastjan, to whom he only signaled to stop being so loud, as he had not stopped shouting compliments at him.

Of course, this attitude, coupled with his talent and appearance, made some people inevitably think that he was arrogant, and using that as a basis, a feeling of animosity grew within him.

Though of course, not everyone was like that, but there were certain people who saw this attitude differently, as if it was a quality that further highlighted how striking James was.

"Well, let's get on with it, there are still many to be evaluated."

After saying those words, the focus of attention that had been James so far shifted back to each applicant approaching the pillars for evaluation.

Now that the number of applicants who got perfect scores in the pre-test had been reduced to less than 10, it meant that the turn of those who scored lower than them was coming up.

Of course, there were a couple of surprises first, though, as of these last few applicants with perfect scores, 2 of them also got a special ranking on their pillar assessment.

Coincidentally, they were a mage and a pugilist, with the mage looking like a scholar who came from an influential family and the pugilist a simple tough and energetic looking girl.

Like James, these two people also immediately earned themselves a place on Myrin's list of dangerous people.

Other than that, the evaluations went on smoothly and quickly, a couple of hours passed until finally it was the turn of Sarah and James' "partners" respectively, who despite trying their best, only managed to get an Outstanding rating, not bad at all, but they couldn't help but feel a bit bad about this.

After this, they spent another two hours with the pillars working at full power, eventually reaching the most numerous applicants, those who had scored Average in the pre-test.

And it was only then that it was the turn of the person who had also caught the attention of the other applicants but not because of his appearance or the pressure he was emitting, as had been the case with James and Sarah.

Instead, it was mostly due to the attention he was receiving from the latter two, also starting with his apparent inability to be able to move on his own, having to resort to the help of a levitation spell from the light blue-haired mage and ending with the fact that the person who was helping him get to the pillar was none other than James.

Because of this, the attention of the applicants was also focused on him, eager to know what made this person special.

"...Oh, that's odd, an energy overload, I guess something like that can still happen...even if you possess such a small amount of energy." Commented the examiner giving Jay a glance.

He had long noticed the unusual state of this applicant, but it was only now that he observed him carefully that he could tell that the cause of Jay not being able to move his body was because all the muscles in his body had become overloaded with energy.

As a teacher and also as a rank (B) mage, he had seen this kind of condition before, although this was the first time he had seen it happen to a rank (D+) super.

The reason was simple, and that was that a rank (D+) super did not normally have the amount of energy to be able to overload his body to such an extent.

However, it was still possible, so the examiner didn't think much of it and set about helping him, pulling out a small vial with a green colored liquid inside and passing it to James.

"It's a simple recovery potion for espers, you'll recover quickly if you drink it."

Hearing his words, James didn't hesitate long and helped Jay take it.

"Ohh, this is good!" Jay replied getting up as he staggered around, slowly feeling the control he had over his body increase more and more, "Thanks!"

Just then, without another second passing, a transparent window appeared in front of him, indicating that the system had a message for him.

_____________

[Emergency Mission: Dangerous Meddler!]

Description: Due to the interruption of a third party, the process of synchronizing the [Carrier]'s body with the new system parameters received a huge energy boost, speeding up the process tremendously. Unfortunately, this will also put a huge load on the [Carrier]'s body.

Requirements: Stay conscious for 5 minutes.

Reward: Full Synchronization.

_____________

'...That doesn't sound goo-'

*SHK!*

"ARGH!"

Without even waiting for Jay to finish his thought, all control of his body suddenly returned at once, however, it came accompanied by an indescribable pain that assaulted every fiber of his being, forcing him to fall to his knees and putting his arms on the ground for support.

The sensation was similar to when he received the Wind Control skill, but much more painful, though fortunately for him, it didn't quite reach the level of when he assimilated the [Limit Breaker].

"Jay!"

Seeing this, both James and Sarah immediately became concerned and moved to be able to help him, however, the person they were worried about suddenly raised his hand to stop them.

"I-I'm fine!" He managed to say, an expression of discomfort plastered on his face.

Then, Jay stood up with great difficulty, a product of his body being in incredible pain, but gritting his teeth and ignoring the pain, he proceeded to slowly advance towards the pillar of espers, under the watchful eyes of everyone present.

However, while the postulants were also somewhat puzzled by Jay's sudden collapse, there was one person who was even more surprised.

'...What just happened?' Thought the examiner, truly confused by what he had just seen.

The moment Jay took the potion, what should have happened was that he simply recovered, however, although he did seem to have regained the ability to move, this also caused a violent reaction in his body, which made even standing up difficult for him.

Therefore, wanting to know the exact cause of this reason, the examiner immediately took a close look at Jay's body.

Few things in this world could remain hidden from the sight of a rank (B) mage, so what was going on inside Jay's body was exposed to the examiner.

A few seconds later, the examiner turned his gaze to the small glass vial in which the healing substance had been.

'...Could it be that the potion was defective?'

That was the conclusion he came to after observing that there was really nothing strange about Jay's body, so his attention inevitably fell on the cause of this reaction, the potion.

"I'm extremely sorry, it seems that the potion I used was defective, and I'm afraid that it might affect your performance in this test, since it was my mistake then you can rest until your condition improves." Said the examiner, feeling guilty for what just happened.

Although normally people with high status either coming from their backing or their individual power were incredibly proud, this was not the case with the examiner, even though he had all the qualifications to be one, he knew how to recognize when he had made a mistake.

"Examiner, excuse me but wouldn't that be unfair to everyone else?" Suddenly asked a young man who was standing with the other applicants who had already finished their evaluation, "I mean, taking away the potion thing, he ended up in that state on his own, so he should take the consequences of his actions. If you allow him to delay his evaluation, then you should also allow all of the other applicants to rest until they are in an optimal state."

Hearing these words, the postulants present could not deny that it made sense, although they did not know why this young man was speaking for their benefit, they also did not think it was wrong to support this.

Of course, even if they agreed, the one who had the final decision was the examiner, who while respected the opinions of the applicants, would not let his decision be swayed so easily.

"This time it was my fault, so-"

Before he could finish answering, however, Jay raised his voice, "Please let me take the evaluation right now!" 

This took both the examiner and the other applicants by surprise, after all, they could all see that he was having quite a bit of difficulty even standing up, and now that the examiner wanted to help him, he actually decided to refuse this help!

"...Are you sure?" The examiner asked.

"Yes, I am." Jay replied, smiling as beads of sweat trickled down his cheeks and his body was constantly shaking.

James wanted to protest as well, but seeing the look on Jay's face, he knew it would be pointless, so he just stayed close in case something bad happened.

"...Haa, well, if that's the way you prefer it, then please proceed."

With those words as a trigger, Jay began to release his energy into the pillar, watching as a few small "veins" slowly filled up.

Since he had to concentrate on fighting the sensation of pain that ravaged his body at the same time he inserted his energy into the pillar, his consciousness became increasingly blurry.

One thing that did not change, however, was the smile on his face.

There was a reason why he had decided to refuse the examiner's help, and that was due to nothing more and nothing less than the fact that at this moment, he felt his potential was at its highest.

In such a tense and unfavorable moment, the nervousness he was feeling at the beginning disappeared long ago, being forcibly replaced by the pain-driven motivation in his body!

*SHNN*

The number of veins illuminated on the pillar continued to increase at an inconsistent rate, with Jay's energy sometimes illuminating 2 veins and other times more than 7, sometimes even turning off some and turning on others, creating an unusual sight for all the applicants.

Finally, after about 10 seconds of arduous efforts, the pillar determined the rank of Jay's talent.