Emery was led through the grand, ornate glass doors of the prison by a contingent of heavily-armed guards, their sharp eyes scanning the area and Emery for signs of potential threats.
As they made their way deeper bleak corridors passing by one facility after another, Emery couldn't help but feel a sense of foreboding. He knew that he was going to be tested like a dog, but the promise of discovering the extent of his own power was enough to spur him forward.
At last, the guards brought him to a huge indoor arena, where a dozen people in pristine white coats were waiting to prepare him for the physical tests that were to come.
They swarmed over and outfitted him in special clothing that covered only half his body and attached several small devices to his skin, monitoring his every move.
Emery felt vulnerable as he stood there, half naked and exposed, waiting for the tests to begin.
The first test involved running. He was told to step into some kind of track and follow a given path in a circle.
"Just run as fast as you can," one of the men in coats instructed him.
The truth was that he was, Emery has been feeling some unfamiliar sensation with his body. It felt oddly foreign that even walking felt strange. Yet he forced himself to move along the path as fast as he could.
Just as predicted, the experience was awful, making him stumble several times. But he kept going, pushing himself harder and harder until he saw the numbers on the screen on the wall.
[50]
[100]
That was 100 meters per second, and seeing a double increase in number, Emery's pushed himself to run faster.
[120]
[200]
After a few dozen laps, his speed stabilized at 300 meters per second. It had almost reached the speed of sound, a standard for the Magus.
As Emery was racing through the arena at peak speed, he received an instruction to keep running for half an hour, as they need to scan his body for endurance.
With a nod, Emery took off at a much more steady pace, his feet pounding against the smooth surface of the track beneath him.
Suddenly a siren sounded and multiple constructs began to appear from the floor and ceiling of the arena. He had no time to react, and before he knew it, he was dodging left and right, jumping over obstacles, and weaving through narrow gaps.
Despite the chaos around him, he remained focused on the task at hand. His response rate and agility were being tested and he pounded along the path, dodging all the obstacles they threw at him.
After an hour of running, another challenge followed: A test of strength.
It was a straightforward one. Emery was tasked with lifting, pushing, and hitting multiple heavy constructs that appeared before him. Each time he completed a task, a different number appeared on the wall, measuring his strength.
[81,350]
[95,274]
Emery pushed himself harder and harder until he hit his limit.
[110,122]
He hit his maximum strength measurement at one hundred and ten tons of punch, passing the magus standard by a little.
At the end of his physical, a final number was displayed on the screen;
[Strength: 228]
[Agility: 205]
[Endurance: 208]
Emery should have felt a surge of pride but something felt strange to him.
Yes, he felt powerful, but as he moved his body, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss. Not only did he think he should be stronger than this, but as he just forced his body to the limit, he once again felt uneasiness.
Emery couldn't help but wonder if there was something more going on with him, something that he couldn't quite put his finger on. However, for now, he focused on the task at hand and postponed it until the final results of the test.
Next, he was taken away for a different kind of test. This one involved wearing a device on his head that emitted powerful mental pressure.
Afterward, he was directed to a table in front of him, where several items of different shapes, sizes, and weights were laid out.
He was told to move them with his mind. At first, it was difficult, and he struggled to even make the smallest item budge. This test took him a while, but soon enough, just like walking and running, after a while, he started to know what to do.
The items were in multiple shapes, sizes, and weights. One by one move around as instructed.
This test would measure his spirit level.
The test took a full hour before a different kind of information shows up on the screen.
[Spirit power - Crescent magus - peak stage]
[Spirit control - Crescent magus - low-stage]
[Spirit pool - Crescent magus - mid-stage]
Afterward, the grueling physical and mental test, and there were two more.
But these two remaining tests were simpler in nature. The first one required him to give a few drops of his blood, which was a quick and painless procedure. The second test was a matter of touching a crystal sphere and focusing his spiritual energy on it.
As Emery touched the crystal artifact, he could feel something within, a tiny vibrant green stone, his magus core started to react chaotically, took him a while before it calmed down, and right after, the man called Bob came to enter the room.
"It's all done"
He then gave him a full list of the result
[Emery]
[Battle power: 213]
[Soul force: 130]
[Law of Nature - 11%]
[Law of Light - 2%]
[Comprehension of Law - 13%]
[Magus realm: Crescent Moon]
[Bloodline Gene - Twilight Fey Wolf]
[Gene Classification - Mythical Bloodline]
[Bloodline Limit: Rank 8]
[Current Rank - Rank 5 - The Fey Guardian]
[Fey wolf gene essence - 29%]
Emery was stunned seeing such a number, he was sure it was much different than expected. From the low battle power, low gene percentage, and one other major that he knew was gone.
While Emery was still stunned, he was interrupted by Bob's voice.
Bob, held out a bracelet and said, "You also needed this. This will work similarly to the magic circle given by the academy"
Hearing this Emey unconsciously looked at his palm and realized something that was supposed to be there was missing as well. He furrowed his brows, trying to remember what it was. Then, it hit him.
A sudden realization led him to a corner of the room where he could see his reflection clearly. It was indeed his face, his body but something definitely off.
At the same time, a memory came flooding back to him - the last minutes of his life surrounded by elves on a strange dark planet. He turned to Bob and said,
"Did I die?"