Chapter 12: Tests continue

Another day another test waiting for me. When I look out of the window, I see my ‘fans’ waiting for me. What fans, hyenas they are. Sigh, I just don’t like being in the center of attention. And why should I even be in the center? I did not do anything spectacular. I’m pretty sure they are there because of my looks. I hate such people the most. Of course I like nice things too, but I would not become slave to someone just for his looks. They really are trash but I’m sure not all of them are like that. I must be grateful for their support.

Anyway, today I woke up, took care of basic things and went on my way. To the Enchanting class.

As I went to the door in a good mood, I shuddered. I don’t know why, I just did. I thought nothing of it and opened my door. Behind them was Alice with such a beautiful smile. It would make one freeze at the spot. Literally. Such a fierce look. Now I know why I shuddered that time. It was warning for this. Did I do something wrong? I must play it right or else I’m done for.

My mind was racing thinking about possibilities and just in the fraction of the second, I found my answer.

“Alice, did something happen? Did I do something? Please, don’t look like that. It hurts me, knowing I hurt you somehow.”

Yeah, nice old apologizing with puppy eyes. In my case, there weren’t puppy eyes just sincere tone. Of course it was fake smile, even though not fully. What can I say? She grew to me. After spending so much time together, it happens.

She looked at me with that scary smile for a while and sighed.

“Do you know what you did wrong?”

Let’s be sincere. Nah, saying to her I do not care would be bad. Let’s be truthful instead.

“I don’t know.”

She sighed again.

“Just writing some stupid letter and going away before I came, not even letting me wish you good luck and not coming back for so late into the night that I had to go home first and not even letting me know why and what’s more, doing the same thing today. Hic hic.”

Yeah, she started to cry. Oh lord, why do I not want to see her cry? It should be funny playing around with her but I just don’t want it. I’m growing soft.

“I did not do the same thing like yesterday?”

She looked at me with expecting eyes.

“Today I did not write any letter.”

And I proud fully with my hand hitting my chest and proud smile said that. What can I say, I could not help myself.

“Stupid.”

And I was slapped. I fell on the ground and she hopped on me and started to hit me with her fists like a little kid, with no force behind them. She started to cry more still saying.

“Stupid stupid stupid…………….”

I smile again, now, with a warmth full smile and pressed her closer to my chest and started to pat her. She’s so soft and her breasts are something too. What? Did you think I wanted to console her? Of course not. Well, maybe a little. Ok, more than a little but the true reason was to feel her body. What can I say? I’m 12 and I like women. What do you expect from me?

I say all this but even though all of it is true, I can say that I would never hurt her. She is……….precious to me. Like all those close to me. I would not let anyone who wants to gain something from me close to me. She is exception of course, because even though she is hiding something that concerns me, she always showed her true feelings to me. Cold reading and essence is quite handy.

I used my finger to wipe her tear and continued.

“I’m sorry, I did not want to hurt you but I need to take care of a few things so I can’t be with you as it had been before so you must get used to it, but I can promise you that I will never let go of you.”

God, now that I think about it, did I propose to another girl? I’m such a scumbag. I did not even mean it like that. I just meant it that I will be there for her, whenever she’ll need it. Let’s hope she understood it that way. Well, let’s take a look.

Well, she froze. Not a good sign.

“Alice?”

I poked her cheek a little and she snapped of it and looked straight into my eyes and blushed. She lowered her head a little and whispered something. With my senses though, I could hear it clearly.

“Ok.”

God dammit! Why does this always happen to me? I do not wish to play with girls’s hearts. I’m not even a polygamist. I don’t even want harem. I just want one girl that I would love with all my heart and that would love me the same. The worst thing is, I cannot say she misunderstood or else I will hurt her again and I don’t want that to happen. Let’s hope time will take care of it for me.

“Alice, I need to go now.”

I’m running away. Hell if I would stay in this lion’s den.

I slowly let her at the side and stood up and went to the door. I took one more look at her and she was red like tomato and in a daze. I just slowly turned back and started walking.

“W-wait.”

She sprinted behind me and I wanted to quickly run away but I didn’t. I just turned around again.

“H-here. Hope you will like it.”

And she gave me a box with a food I take. The best is, she had lowered head and I could still see her red cheeks.

“Take care.”

And she ran away. To my room. She really takes it as her own room. God, I hope she won’t try to live with me. The king’s size bed just screams like that. If she will try, god protects me. No reason to dwell on it.

So I slowly went down, thinking about what happened. When I reached first floor, I could hear my fan club screaming my name. I went to the window, opened it and breathed in fresh air and as I released it, I jumped down from it and with my phantom steps ran away to my enchanting class. I had enough socializing for one day already.

It did not take long to reach classroom. With my agility, phantom step and with my sprint, it did not take long. I needed to fix my phantom step a little. I did not use silent step in it because it slows me a little. This art really is evolving. You can use it in whatever way you need whenever you need.

So as I reached class, everyone was already there and Belial was sitting behind his desk. I still sit right before him so as I went to my desk, I asked Belial.

“Hey Beliar, when will the test start?”

Oh my god, he was sleeping with opened eyes. First time seeing it. That’s nice.

“Hi Ris. Slept well.”

“Well, it wasn’t bad.”

“I see. I could not sleep too well. I received instructions for this test yesterday and let’s just say, they are disturbing.”

“Wait, you received the instructions? I thought you came up with it.”

“Oh no. We don’t create tests. We receive them. Every class needs the have the same chance so we, who teach enchanting, come up with one test for all of you. The thing is, I did not join them with coming up with it and now, I need to hold this test just after receiving instructions yesterday. I could not even sleep properly.”

So that’s why he is so tired.

“So, what is the test about?”

“You will need to wait for that.”

As he was saying it, the door to our classroom opened. Everyone should be here already.

I took a look and 4 people came inside.

“Well then, looks like we can start.”

Belial said that. I think I know who are they but let’s wait to be certain.

“Well then, these 4 here are teachers who teach enchanting too. Test for enchanting will be done with all classes at the same time. In every class, there are 30 or so of you so that makes around 150 of you. You will come with us to testing area. In your desk is a package. Take it and follow us.”

We all took the package and went with them. Beliar was talking with me as nothing and was complaining and all. The other 4 were like robots. I’m so glad I got Beliar.

So we finally reached the place. It was a huge hall with many empty desks and one big, I don’t know, black obelisk like thing in the middle. Cool and all but nothing more to me. To others, it was probably fantastic sight with all their sparkling eyes and all that.

All 5 of them went to the obelisk and we waited for them. Other groups poured inside and when 4 groups came, they started to explain things.

“Welcome to the enchanting test. This test is fairly simple. Enchant item of your choosing with anything you want, be it with glyph or rune. When you complete it, come to this black obelisk. When you come here, the obelisk will test how good you enchanted the item. It will test many parameters like, durability lost, strength of the rune or glyph, enchantment type, compatibility with item and much more. It will be shown as a numerical value on the obelisk. You can enchant weapons, armor accessories or anything you want. Items you need will be provided to you. You have 3 tries to enchant and there’s no time limit. You got packages, in those, there are items and tools you will use and a number. The number you get will show the table that was assigned to you. Good luck.”

I opened the package and there was a paper with number 64 on it. I looked around a bit and easily found it. When I came to the table, there was nothing on it.

It really looks like we can only use the things in the package. I took them all out and there was nothing out of ordinary. The same tools I used in these 2 years.

Meanwhile, everyone found their spot and on my both sides were 2 guys. One looked indifferent and the second looked scared and stressed so shy type. As we all finished, they continued.

“It looks like you all are finished. Now then, pick your item.”

As they said that, a huge pile of all kinds of items appeared before them in several piles. Everyone looked at the items, not comprehending what happened until someone went to pick an item and when he did that, everyone ran to take a pick. I just waited for them to disperse as only one, wait, scratch that. The two beside me waited too. One did not care and the other was too shy. As they dispersed, we three went to take a pick.

Shy one took 3 daggers and indifferent one took 3 rings. I took one sword, one necklace and one leather armor. I don’t even know why, it was just a feeling.

The 5 teachers looked at me. Beliar was laughing with is ‘Ho ho ho’ and others were puzzled. The indifferent guy looked at me too, with questioning expression. Shy guy was thinking about the reason too, with a pinky finger touching his lips. If I don’t know reason, then you won’t too.

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So we went back and put the items at the desk. I did not start enchanting. Something is fishy here. It can’t be so simple. Well, simple with just enchant item, theme for this test. These tests aren’t so simple. So I was looking around but everyone started already, even those 2 beside me. I can’t figure it out.

I just sighed and picked the tool. When I picked it, I could feel something different. Something that was not quite right with it. I started to inspect it but could not find the reason why. Then it clicked to me. I learned nice skill yesterday to use right now. So I used magic identification on it and here’s what appeared.

Training enchanting knifeDurability10/10RankFKnife used to enchant items. It was badly enchanted and so whoever enchants with it will have his enchanting disrupted a little, damaging the item being enchanted.

As I though, it’s not so simple. These tools are part of the test too. They were sabotaged intentionally to make it harder for use, disrupting our enchanting methods. In a while, curses started to sound around me. It looks like others did not figure it out and just wasted one try. I could see others trying again, probably trying to compensate the disruption of tools. I looked beside me and the two stopped working. Now that I look at it, they did not enchant even one piece yet. Were they playing around before? They started to think and practically at the same time, the found the answer. How do I know? Cold reading and they tries to fix the tools.

So with no reason to dwell on it, I started to fix the tools too. It was fairly simple, just fixing runes on it. The other 2 did the same, until they started to enchant. Their tools started to work so smoothly, with such ease and precision, mine would definitely not work that way. Where did I make a mistake?

I started to calmly think about it and I thought about the yesterday’s test. Mana flows through every object so that means even these tools are no different and enchanting isn‘t just using my own mana to give magical properties to the item. No, enchanting is to use my own mana to control inner flow of item’s mana and using affinity or elemental crystals to give them affinity.

So I went back to fixing my tools. I did a simple thing. I got rid of all the mana in the item by using my own void mana, the same thing that is done with spatial ring. I used void coating to not let any mana flow into the tool and then I used the runes I fixed before and slowly with one of my hands poured mana in the tool and with the other I filled the runes. This way, there should be synergic effect. Am I a genius or am I a genius? So I got rid of my void coating and tried the tool. I could feel some kind of connection with it. I did the same with others.

Now, I could start.

Before that, someone went to the black obelisk. He had sword in hands. When he came there, teachers told him to hit the obelisk. And so he did. On the obelisk, white letters appeared with number 7 on it.

“Ok, this is your score. Now you need to wait for the others to finish.”

And so he went somewhere. No reason to it any more attention.

So, now is my turn to start enchanting. What will I do? I don’t know. Let’s look at the two beside me.

What I saw shocked me. They were using glyphs. And not just any glyphs. They were like none I have ever seen before and definitely better than I could make. There really is always someone better. It looks like I have better perception than them but my skills are below both of them. I definitely can’t win with normal work against them. I need to overcome what I can make. Now to think.

And so I thought and then it clicked to me.

Can it be done? If it can than I can compete with them. Well, it’s all or nothing.

And so I started with my enchanting. What I will make, it will be secret for now.

When I was enchanting, I could hear the shy guy telling something.

“Damn, another failure.”

I looked at him and saw he used 2 daggers already. I looked at them and could not see any mistakes. What did he mean by failure? I need to focus on my own work, but before that, let’s look at the other one.

He thrown away one ring and was working on the other, his indifferent face not so indifferent anymore.

So we there continued and meanwhile, other’s tried their luck. Those who did armors or accessories just touch the black obelisk and did not hit it and it showed a number. The highest for now is 32.

So we all continued until only we three were left. The dagger guy smirked and said.

“Finished.”

And went to the obelisk. I could see that dagger with a certain luster that definitely wasn’t there before. He went to the obelisk and hit it with the dagger. What came next was shocking.

92 appeared. Holy fuck, that’s 60 points more. That guy really did not fail my expectation. Indifferent guy looked too but did not change his expression at all. He was enchanting his 3rd ring and I was completed my own work. Still secret though.

It took us a little while. We both finished but I still did not complete my work. Now that enchanting part is finished, the finishing touch is in order and so I used my mana to finish it. In what way, just wait a while longer.

The indifferent guy went to the obelisk and put the ring he completed on it. The obelisk brightened and showed 97. Monsters I say. But I’m not any different. My abilities are cheat like too.

Everyone looked at me after this show and some had expecting expressions some wanted to have this over and the 4 teachers were looking at the two with glittering eyes but 2 of them with prideful eyes. Their teachers no doubt. Beliar looked at me as the only one and had knowing expression that said ‘You won’t let me down. I know it.’

I sighed and went to the black obelisk. When I reached it. Everyone was staring at me, again with disbelieving expressions. One of the 4 teachers started to talk.

“What are you doing? Only one item can be checked. Now, choose one and let’s be done with it.”

That’s right, I brought all 3 items with me. That’s what I was working on.

“This is my enchanted item.”

“Who do you think you are? Are you so dumb that you can’t see there are 3 items?”

“I just need to show it to you.”

I poured my mana into it and my glyph started to glow. All 3 items shook a little and started to levitate. They went to the obelisk and touched it. The score it showed was 84. I knew I could not compete with them in terms of enchanting. It looks like my idea did not work. The teacher that was talking with me started to laugh at me but after that a bright glow like non before appeared from the obelisk and then just ??? was shown.

We all looked at it not understanding what happened. Beliar just started to laugh with his ‘Ho ho ho’.

“Come come, explain what you did with those items and why did you say those 3 are your item?”

He saw through me.

“It’s simple. UI knew I could not compete with those two in terms of enchanting and so I wanted to fix that by created synergy effect with these items.”

“Synergy?”

“Right, just like set items but just through glyphs.”

Set items are like one item split to many pieces, what I did was making 3 items to one item.

“That’s impossible.”

“But I tried and it worked. I connected these 3 items through a glyph. How I did that is of no concern to you.”

“That still does not explain what was that light.”

Beliar started to talk.

“I can explain that.”

Everyone looked at him.

“The score that was shown to us were his enchanting skill but what we saw after was the true examination of his enchanted item. The strength of this synergetic item could not be determined and that’s why it showed ???. So his skill in enchanting item with a glyph is at 84 but when all 3 of these items are connected through the glyph it’s immeasurable.”

“But that’s still does not mean he is better than those two. It just means he got a better idea.”

They started to bicker between them and I had enough of it already.

“Just stop it already. I don’t care what place I am. Did I pass or not?”

They stopped bickering and looked at all of us.

“The top 30 passed. The rest failed.”

And I started to leave and when I went to my item, I was stopped by one of the teachers, the one who was reprimanding me.

“I will take this item to examine it.”

“No chance. I enchanted it and it can be wielded just by me so I will take it.”

It’s true. If someone else would take it, it would disrupt their mana flow.

“Get lost.”

He pushed me aside and took the item. He started to feel pain and screamed and dropped the necklace.

“What the heck did you do?!”

“I told you. Only I can wield it.”

I really had enough and so I went to all 3 of them and stored them in my spatial ring and left.

Before that, I was stopped by the 2 guys. The same 2 that were beside me.

“Hey, I’m Henry. Nice to meet you.”

“Shank.”

Ok so the shy guy that pretended to be shy is Henry and the indifferent is Shank.

“I’m Risiel. I need to go now. Let’s all do our best.”

And I finally left not caring about anything else. Next on the schedule, beast taming test.

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Hi, so I had the surgery and can’t move too well because of it so I won’t write at least for a week or so. The only reason I wrote this was because it was mostly finished so I wanted to tie all loose ends so to say. It started to take too long and so I will make next tests shorter.

Hope you enjoyed.