Christopher was comfortable sitting on the soft cushion, but that did not mean that he was happy with the current situation. He was really starting to lose patience, a lot of people had come and gone while he waited for his examiner.

He had waited for a painfully long time already. The Soul clock outside that was clearly visible from where he sat, told him that the time had just passed the eleventh hour of the day. He was supposed to have his exam at the ninth hour! And worse was that he had been here from the eighth. At this rate, he could have used up all his Soul Force when he arrived and still have been back up to full on time. He could not help but feel slightly pissed off.

Many people had come and gone by this point, having been picked up by some interesting figures. Clearly, many people at this Academy had an interesting dress sense. They wore metal all over their bodies. Many had adorned themselves with metal jewelry and accessories. They were everything from rings, necklaces, bracelets, and things that he would have never thought of. Both the men and women seemed to share this dress sense. Some of the accessories looked outright ridiculous, when an old woman wearing a ridiculous metal hat had come to collect someone, he had to struggle to not let out a nervous laugh. He of course understood that these were likely not solely for fashion, he had no doubt that they had some kind of Soul Force purpose.

None of the people had exited from this building, which suggested that there was another way to exit from the Academy grounds.

He calmed his mind and nerves. He would need to concentrate in order to produce an efficient Soul Heat effect. He walked back up to the reception.

“Pardon me. I had an exam at the ninth hour. Would you happen to know when I can expect my instructor to be ready?”

The man once again did not immediately respond and looked back at the same brown paper.

“Please take a seat, the instructor should be here to take you shortly.”

He was not quite happy with the answer, but he could only sit back down and wait for the examiner to finally show up. At least he had not been told to go home.

He needed to make sure that he calmed down a little. He steadied his breathing and tried to meditate. He must have succeeded since he almost missed it when someone called his name.

He looked up to see a bewildered black-haired man sweeping his eyes over all the waiting people. The man looked exhausted, with visible bags under his spectacled eyes and unruly hair. The man’s wiry build made it clear that he was not much of a fighter. He looked to be in his mid-thirties. Interestingly this man was mostly free from the metal accessories except a few rings around his fingers. The man repeated his words. “I am here to collect Christopher.”

“That’s me” He hurriedly stood up, making the slight and formal bow that people used here in Lumen.

“Very good, please follow me”

He quickly tried to get himself in the right mindset. They moved through the wide hallway and into a deeper set of corridors. These corridors were pretty unremarkable so far, he wondered when they would get to the good stuff.

After walking for a little while, the very air started to feel different somehow, he could not quite put his finger on it, but it was not an unpleasant feeling.

“What is going on with the air here? It feels strange.”

“No questions now, you are only here for testing. If you want to know more you should officially enroll at the Academy.”

Ouch, certainly not wanting to piss off his instructor he refrained from asking any more questions.

After only a few more twists and turns through the hallways, they finally made their way into quite an exceptional room. They had reached a large darkly colored wooden dome. The massive room looked to be 2000 square feet, and the half-circle was covered in the darkly colored Sternel wood. It was an almost perfect half-sphere. The far wall had multiple partitions, and to his left, he saw what looked like a firing range, scorched wooden puppets being the battered targets. He followed the unnamed man to a table made from a strange black material that stood in the middle of the room. Multiple unknown devices and a variety of materials were scattered all over the table

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The black-haired man stopped in front of the table and faced him. Standing this closely he really did look to be on his last legs, so he could not help but feel some sympathy for the man. Why and how he had gotten to this state, he could not even begin to guess. The spectacles man turned to speak to Christopher.

“Let me first measure the overall raw level of Soul Force that you possess, please turn around and let me place my hands onto your back.”

Uhm, alright then, this was not weird at all. He complied and turned around. The hands of the wiry man soon pressed against his back. They stood like that for a good twenty seconds, it was kind of awkward. He was not too pleased that they would be measuring his measly Soul Force level, but Tamas had warned him this would happen. He finally removed his hands, apparently done with the examination.

“This is only a fledgling level of Soul Force. It is rare for someone to bother with the examination at this level. Well, I suppose you have that right.”

Not the best of starts. The healer Latal had already confirmed that his level of Soul Force was low, so he had fully expected a disappointing result. Still, it would have been nice to have at least a beginner’s level.

The man walked back to the pitch-black table. There was something seriously strange with the blackness and the properties of the table, but he was not able to place it.

The exhausted-looking man rummaged with the devices and materials on the pitch-Black table, examining them and looking pensive at the different options. Occasionally he had to readjust his glasses to keep them from slipping off his nose.

Christopher looked on with fascination, hoping to see something he could recognize from Tamas her recollections.

Ultimately the spectacled man removed all but three of the devices and materials from the table.

“I have determined your examination; I will now explain the three tests that you are expected to perform. Please stand behind the table.”

“Remember that it is not possible to fail, you will be assigned a score depending on your success with these three objects. You will have fifteen minutes. I want you to pour all of your Soul Force across these three testing devices to reach the maximum score.”

Christopher complied and got himself into position, he looked at the three strange objects in front of him. Two seemed to be some kind of Soul Device, the other was a mahogany red metal chunk, it had that smooth metallic shine. The spectacled man stood on the other side of the table, he pointed to the first Soul device.

“This object converts your Heat into a pleasant musical tone. The total amount of seconds that you can produce the tone will determine your score for this first test. Interruptions in the tone are allowed but would be a waste of Soul Force. Try and find the minimal amount of soul Heat to infuse into the device to produce the tone and hold it there. I should warn you that there are two more tests, so try to keep the right amount of Soul Force in reserve. Please start when you are ready.”

Oh man, this did not sound easy at all. He had only recently become somewhat confident in his ability to infuse the desired percentage of Soul Heat, but holding it there for an extended time was even more difficult. At least he would not be expected to perform this feat on the move. Still, this first test was somewhat straightforward and he could only hope that he would be able to produce the tone quickly.

He nodded to the instructor. “Alright, I am going to start my attempt.” He willed up the interface screen on his retina. It might be unfair since this would be an advantage that no other examinee would have, but he needed every edge he could get. He would have to pull the plug on this one once his Soul Force had fallen to 66 percent.

The device in front of him was small, made out of metal, and could fit comfortably between both of his hands. The tired eyes of the instructor stared down at him, but he was now fully concentrating on the Soul device.

As he held it between his hands, he started the steps of imbuing his Soul Heat, which really came easy to him now. He swelled the flow of his Soul Force, focused on the image of atoms rapidly vibrating, and then transferred that image into the metal of the Soul device. He would have to find the lowest possible percentage at which the tone could be heard.

The lowest possible rate that he could achieve was slightly less than one percent every second. He certainly did not expect that he would achieve the tone here already, but it would allow him to carefully and quickly increase the input until he did hear the tone.

He received a surprise though; the pleasant tone started echoing through the room as soon as the Soul Force was transferred. The sound was clear and loud. He fully concentrated on the process, completely dismissing his surroundings. He successfully kept it there while keeping half an eye on the Soul Force bar of his interface. As soon as the bar ticked down to 65 percent, he stopped the flow and the sound ended as well.

He had been concentrating hard, but now that he finished the first test, he made the calculation that he should have managed to achieve the tone for something close to 40 seconds, at least if his consumption of just under one percent a second had held true. He could only hope that this was acceptable. He took a look at the instructor in front of him and was startled to see that those tired eyes were now almost bulging out of their sockets.