Chapter 75: Selection (2)

"Gene De Rossi," Elder Vess said. "What do you think of him?"

June narrowed her eyes, unsure why she was asking all this. "How old is he?" she asked instead.

"His bio says twenty," Elder Vess smiled. "But I'd say he's a couple of years younger than that."

"His voice didn't entail he hadn't gone through puberty yet," June added.

"Poor boy," Elder Vess laughed. "The idea of changing his voice didn't come to his mind when he disguised himself to look older."

"He's disguised?" June drew her eyes as they glowed in silver light, looking at the boy, who was standing alone among the students who were doing their own thing.

She finally picked up on the disguise, it was unique. She couldn't tell how he accomplished it without studying further. Gene looked like an older version of himself, which seemed to contrast with the face she saw with her Eyes, but it was his face alright. Or rather, it would be.

"Uncanny," Elder Vess said. "Unless you're experienced in this line of magic, you wouldn't pick up on it so easily."

"You mean..."

Elder Vess nodded. "You're curious about why I asked for your assistance and asking your opinion on everything."

"Yes."

Elder Vess turned her attention to Gene. "I'm thinking of taking him as my disciple," she said, surprising June. "Not like how professors take mentees. I'm prepared to teach him all, which will limit the time I need to invest in the academy. Hence, you. I'll use you as my hand to do most of my work unless you decline my offer."

"Why me?" June asked, not sure what to feel about the offer.

"I found none more qualified than you," Vess said.

"There are over a dozen gold-ranked professors in the academy," June added.

"Those are mostly self-centered or busy with other business," Vess said. "So, what do you say?"

"I need to think about it," June admitted.

"You have earned this. You don't have to thank me," June said.

"No, nobody would have recommended me," Aurel said, wrapping her arms around June tightly. "If not for you, I wouldn't even try."

"Congratulations, now if you excuse us, we have more work to complete."

They found Gene looking at them hopefully, but didn't dare to ask.

Warden was still instructing the students, even though most of them were tired to the limits, sparring the whole time with only little time to rest up. He was currently dividing them into two groups. As they came near, they heard him ask the students:

"Who can tell me the difference between the two groups?"

He hadn't divided them on the benefit of their winning in the spar, though one group had more winners than the other.

"Is it based on stat points?" A thin girl answered.

"No," Warden said and divided another group, taking a couple of guys from the thin girl's group. "Can you guess why now, Arsela?"

Arsela frowned at the two who were separated from the two bigger batches. She didn't remember their names, but she recognized that none of the two won even once in the spars. But they...

"Is it based on spirit energy?" she asked.

"Yes, keep going."

"Um, those two don't have any," Arsela said. "I mean, they hadn't opened their aperture. However, the rest of us did, so why divide us?"

"Remember when I instructed, I asked you to not let any bit of energy out of your body?" Warden said. "One of the two groups managed that, while the other failed."

"I kept it all within my skin," Arsela said, gasping to look at students in her group.

"Now that you have sparred over fifteen times," Warden continued. "It's apparent that those that are better at controlling their energy had better results in the last quarter of the class, while the rest became weary, spending their energy.

"Tam, and Dirk both have higher attributes than the rest of the group, so their results might vary," Warden continued. "However, if they were as good at controlling their energy like you, Arsela, each one of them can beat the rest of you on their own."