Koro stepped into the chamber.

The room felt larger than he imagined with the large seamless glowing white panels that surrounded the inside. As he completely crossed the threshold of the door he heard the hiss of the door closing. He looked back with a small amount of panic and saw arrows on the floor display guiding him up on to a small rise in the middle of the chamber.

The rise was surrounded by a railing about waist high and a pole protruded up just above the rail with an orb-like object on the top of it. The light followed up the pole and the orb seemed to be pulsating.

Please place a hand on the testing apparatus; a feminine voice rang out from seemingly everywhere.

"OK Miss testing machine" Koro so cleverly whispered to himself.

Koro's father Blaine had informed him about the power testing but refused to tell him anything about how it worked. "Why ruin the fun of your schooling, if it doesn't involve solving a problem I don't want to ruin the mysteries" Koro remembered his fathering saying just last week. "Damn him, surprises are such a waste, what's wrong with just telling me" he thought as he took a deep breath and stepped up to the orb placing his right hand on it.

The chambered hummed to life lighting up. "Woah" Koro gawked at the room.

"OWW WHAT THE HELL" he suddenly shouted as something pointy stabbed the tip of his index finger before realizing it was drawing blood.

A display screen popped up in front.

Analyzing sample the voice came on again

"Sample my ass, you evil machine"

Individual Koro Omni registered Class 1-0-5 ID 4-5-9-0-0-1-0

The display suddenly showed his ID picture and general information.

NAME: KORO OMNI

AGE: 12

DOB: 11/05/524 NE

HAIR: WHITE

EYES: GREEN

HEIGHT: 5FT 3IN

WEIGHT: 94 LBS

REGISTERED ENKI: E'ONA

REGISTERED EVOLUTION: MANIFESTED

POWER LEVEL: N/A

RANK: N/A

Please gather energy at hand placed on the apparatus.

Koro breathed in and focused just like they had taught him in Prelim. Focusing on himself he could sense the biofield around him, his aura and more specifically the one tied to his ability as an E'ona. He reached out with his ability sense and felt it woosh into his physical body. Before the energy could take any shape he willed it through his channels and into his right hand. The orb started to glow brighter and Koro's amusement piqued.

Thank you, now gauging baseline.

Baseline analysis complete.

Please push all available output to apparatus

Prelims had always been taught that just throwing everything into a construct or casting was inefficient and proper control was more important in the general aspect of using your ability. However yearly medical testing after manifesting had individuals do similar albeit not as aggressive output tests to check for health side effects in your ability.

So Koro breathed in and drew more from his Aura. He'd blast this thing for everything he was worth and hopefully he would score high enough to impress everyone. He screamed a war cry as he threw everything he could at the machine.

The orb got intensely bright and the whole chamber matched it. Energy flowed out at levels he had never even pushed himself to and when the Exhaustion started to become present the voice came back on.

Analysis complete, stop flow to the apparatus.

He breathed a sigh of relief.

Testing completed please exit the chamber.

He stood up straighter and turned around as the door slid open. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the natural light and he stepped back out onto the field.

He noticed a few people staring towards him with amused looks. He glanced over at his teacher who raised an eyebrow looking up at him and resumed eyeing the screen. With a light jog he quickly hurried back to the group to take up the place he was standing before.

"O'hannigan, let's go" the teacher quickly called the next student. As the process continued, several more students stepped up and completed the testing.

"Eliza Xetkil" the teacher called the last student. She walked up with a determined look and didn't hesitate when the door opened. Koro couldn't have sworn it took less time for her to complete the test and the way the machine lit up was absolutely incredible. There had definitely been a difference for her test compared to the others. She walked back to her spot and Koro was sure she was holding her head just a little higher now.

"Alright that's everyone, let's get changed and head back to class where we will discuss scores and see how you all did. And don't worry we will back out here tomorrow for practical preliminary exams, for all of you who are so eager to show off". The class was a mix of emotions as some sighed disappointed, others cheered, and most seemed abused at not being able to see their scores yet. He couldn't lie he was a bit depressed about having to wait longer to see how he did in comparison to his classmates.

Everyone changed in a hurry and hustled back to their class. He was sure this was the quietest the class had been all day. They all sat quietly and Koro could see a number of them fidgeting, a little nervous himself. Mr Kenning walked in not seeming to be in any particular rush. He was gonna be the death of all of them.

"Students, we have all the results back from your power test and I will say we have some impressive results from a number of you. I have no doubt now that I have one of the better classes this year and I hope that we can keep that up through the end of the year. Are you all ready to see?" He addressed the class.

An impatient "YES" rang out from the class. Kenning smiled and swiped at the tablet screen. A list of the class popped up in front of the class suspended in air just in front of the teacher. It looked identical to the one they saw earlier on the field displaying everyone in alphabetical order. With the exception that there were now numbers displayed next to everyone's names. The teacher quickly reminded the class "Now the rest of your grade has not completed testing yet so Rank will only show your class position at the moment. Tomorrow you'll be able to see how you fair against the rest of the 1st years"

Koro quickly scanned the list looking for his name knowing it would probably be somewhere in the middle.

Rank

First Name

Last Name

Power Score

23

Nera

A'kona

8.3

6

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Ashby

Allens

9.62

3

Nikolai

Faraday

12.1

9

Loreli

Ferenzi

9.3

4

Laren

Handis

10.5

10

Jacklyn

Handis

9.1

15

Sophie

Heindal

8.93

13

Q'yara

Ishmani

9.02

11

Entaro

Jeti

9.07

22

Merriam

Jones

8.45

8

Kaden

Learth

9.4

7

Meridia

Ley

9.5

16

Kinanjaba

Minanumbai

8.91

17

Kori

Monetta

8.9

24

Baltimore

Natoro

8.1

14

Perriwin

O'hannigan

9

2

Koro

Omni

12.3

27

Timik

Pierenze

7.82

18

Jorum

Prince

8.6

26

Hollin

Progea

7.85

25

Kol

Renard

8

19

Donovon

Reyes

8.55

5

Malik

Sadiwa

9.65

30

Beln

Sprigg

4.6

20

Joni

Suzuka

8.51

29

Vidic

Umbara

7.4

28

Demetrius

Versea

7.6

21

Nataly

Vicezko

8.47

12

Horus

Waterly

9.05

1

Eliza

Xetkil

14.9

It took a moment but he eventually found it. Koro Omni / Power Level 12.3 / Rank 2. He whistled to himself, feeling very proud and letting a smile creep across his face. He looked around the room seeing the reactions of others, noticing the Handis boy first. Who was now gripping the side of his desk and going red in the face. Jacklyn seemed like she was trying to comfort him but he slapped her hand away. He spotted Koro looking and glared at him. That was the hint to look elsewhere. Eliza’s face was like stone, it seemed like she could care less how she scored. Nikolai was whooping and shaking his fist as some of the other kids around him were congratulating him.

That's when he finally caught sight of Beln in the back and he watched as the small boy leaned over his desk and the moment his face slowly drained from elation to pure horror. One of Beln’s eyes started to twitch and his mouth quivered.

He suddenly grabbed his head and yelled “Agghhhhh NO WAY”. Drawing attention from others, he realized his mistake and quirked a fake smile plopping back into his seat. If he could disappear into that desk Koro was sure he would. Koro looked back at the list “ What was his name again, Sprigg…..lets see”

Beln Sprigg / Power Level 4.6 / Rank 30. “Oh man, poor guy.” Beln was dead last on the list and not just by a little but several points from the next rank up.

Koro was glad he wasn't in that position. He’d manifested at 8 and had been training his power as much as was safe for the last three and half years. He was sure it was the same for a lot of the other students here. Most people manifested around 8 or 9, allowing them to actually tap into their aura and start actively using their ability. It still took a fair amount of time and training to even manage simple uses of their power but it was definitely a huge difference from the wild unusable form people's abilities would often take before manifesting.

Koro could still remember the days when he’d start glowing or when he killed several houseplants in the kitchen when he accidentally ripped all the energy out of them. His mom Maggie, scolded him for hours about it.

You often know something about your Enki early on, they even have ways to test for it genetically when you're born nowadays but the shape it's really gonna take doesnt show up til manifestation.

Kenning cleared his throat. “Alright I'm sure you've all managed to get a good look at your scores and I'm sure some of you are thrilled” a number of students whooped and cheered “ And others are disappointed or upset. The important thing to remember though is this is not the only way you are graded here and this is simply a means for tracking your safe power output for Evo 1” the more dejected students started to perk up. Suddenly paying more attention.

“ The actual grading will be performance based through demonstrated and learned skills. From a variety of Practical and Academic lessons. A lot of your 1st year will be with me, expanding on what Prelim school taught you and getting you ready for a more varied and specialized class schedule you'll be taking in your 2nd year and up. I'll be grading you all through a series of aptitude tests throughout the year and watching for where you grow and excel. So despite these being important numbers for your future, your scores today do not make the person you’ll be tomorrow. Think of them as a simple baseline to plan your growth.” Most of the students now stared at Mr.Kenning with hope in their eyes. Koro even caught Beln now looking up aspiringly. Well at least he's easily distracted enough.

“We will spend the rest of the day doing some exercises and group projects to help you all familiarize yourselves with your classmates. After all, you'll be spending a lot of time together this year. Might as well get everyone friendly now.”

It was finally happening; he was taking his first steps toward one day becoming an Endo. He took a glance at the Power Scores again when it suddenly hit him. “Wait if I'm second rank, with that high of a score. Who’s in first?”.

He spotted it, Rank 1.His jaw dropped as he looked at the name next to it.

“No way”