It took Talon a few minutes to reach the entrance to the Blue Tower. There were so many people, it actually felt like he was moving through an endless sea of them. However, his strong physique helped him navigate through them with ease.
Eventually, he reached the entrance and walked inside. There, he found a long line of people, mostly young men and women. They all looked rather nervous with some having a frown on their faces. The entire lounge was now filled with senseless tension as everyone awaited their turn to move.
'Wow, there are so many people inside too... Poor receptionists.' Realizing the amount of work they had to do, he shuddered. He had worked in restaurants and cafes before so he knew how hard it can be to deal with this many people one after the other for hours.
Reaching the end of the line, he took his place. He knew that he was going to have to wait a very long time, so he decided to do something else meanwhile.
"I wonder what the test is going to be about."
"It will be most likely about flying, perhaps they would also make you fight monsters outside the city to see if you can handle that," Acrypha replied as she boringly played with her fingers while resting on Talon's back. "It won't be a problem. Almost every single person in this place is weaker than you."
"Almost?" He asked. Talon knew that he wasn't the strongest person in this world, far from that actually. Still, he was shocked to know some people were stronger than him and didn't join the Sky Seekers Guild yet.
"Yeah, she's actually two people ahead of you." She said.
"Oh?" Talon raised an eyebrow as he quickly expanded his senses. Amidst the weak auras around him, he noticed a particular aura that stood out like a sore thumb among the others.
'Strong...' He thought to himself as he took a peek at the person mentioned. The girl was facing the opposite way so he couldn't see her face. But, he could see that she had a distinct short black hair that reached her nape, it had a few strands of red in it that was quite distinct.
She was clad in the uniform they were handed yesterday just like everyone else. Except, she didn't add anything else on top to make herself standout like most other people.
He could see the glamorous ways the contestants tried to change the style of this bland uniform to fit their characters and make them appear stylish even when they were supposed to look like one another.
'She's deliberately trying to hide her aura. I guess that's why I didn't feel it at first.' He thought to himself.
Many people here were flaunting their auras around without a care in the world, as if they were trying to assert dominance or catch the eyes of others. Many of them had worked for years to reach this level, perhaps even going out on their own to hunt down monsters in the wild.
But, that only brought them so far since in the end, they were still far from reaching the level of strength Talon would consider unique.
This girl, however, she seemed to not care at all about her surroundings. All she did was look ahead with focused eyes.
Slowly, the line moved one by one. Each contestant would talk to the receptionist for a few moments, hand her the piece of paper they had in their hands, and then move to another room at the back that led somewhere.
The procedures were fast, but it still took almost an hour for Talon to finally reach his turn. Surprisingly, the receptionist who took him was the same woman from yesterday.
"Oh, welcome back! Are you ready for today?" She asked as she smiled at him.
"Ugh!!"
One of the contestants was suddenly blasted back as he fell to the ground with a loud thud. Rolling around, he finally stopped near Talon.
The latter stared down at the injured contestant with a stoic expression without doing anything. Whatever was happening, it was none of his bussiness.
"Hahaha! What got you to become foul-mouthed, little guy?"
At that moment, he heard a loud laugh as a rather tall young man stepped forward. He had an arrogant grin on his face as he stared down at his target.
"... L-Leave me alone! I really have no money!"
"Who is talking about money? I was just asking for friendly help, man! Why make it this hard on me?" The man said as he crouched down, making the latter flinch and jump back.
"Now, I'm a little angry since you disrespected me when I came with good intentions. I don't like being disrespected." At that moment, he raised his hand, about to punch the target.
But, for a moment, he stopped and then channeled his Aetheris into his fist.
Talon's eyes immediately turned a degree colder as he noticed that. 'He's going to break his face with that punch if it connects.'
He could see that the difference in power between the two was quite large and any punch embued with that man's Aetheris was bound to be devastating.
'Should I stop him?' He asked himself. Talon wanted to simply mind his own business and not get in trouble during his stay in this world.
But, unsurprisingly, trouble would always come knocking on his door every single time he tried to avoid it.
As he was thinking about that, the man swung his arm, aiming for the jaw. At that moment, Talon wanted to move, only for someone to seemingly be faster than him.
Out of nowhere, a kick sent the man flying to the side. His body rolled around multiple times as he landed next to another pillar.
'Fast...' Talon thought as he turned around.
"Who did that?!" Standing up, he looked at the culprit with clear anger in his eyes.
"Don't cause a fuss in the exam hall." A rather non-chalant voice replied as someone emerged in front of him.
A//N: If you enjoyed reading, don't forget to support the book with GT and PS. Thank you!