Ed received his documents and began heading to the gym for the first of his tests. He quickly queued up in the line to confirm one’s age. There were two robed individuals whose faces and characteristics were covered. This was a unique setup to prevent those with affluence from bribing the staff. You can’t bribe someone you don’t know if the identities of the proctors for all the tests are hidden.

There was first a lie detector test performed with one of the masked individuals with their unique ability. Just like how Captain developed his unique skill, Berserk, others can develop their own. In this case, the proctor could either be psychic based mind reading or extreme sensory capabilities that can see the minute changes in the body and how it reacts when being asked questions.

Procter 1: Are you 16 or younger?

Ed: Yes.

Procter 1: Mental check passed. He believes that he is 16.

The other procter didn’t use an unique ability but had Ed enter a large capsule.

Procter 2: Please enter the capsule. It will pressurize and analyze your bone structure to see how old you are.

Ed went into the capsule and after 5 minutes he was allowed to get out.

Procter 2: Physical test passed. You just turned 16 a month or two ago.

There were no more tests to prove one’s age as a person who could bypass all the safety checks would probably have more resources then one could receive from the college. Additionally, people at that level of affluence would not be able to hide information about their children from the digital age.

Once Ed received his test evaluation, he began to head to the first test, physical. It was a fairly simple test, applicants would have to walk as far as possible in a field with increased gravity. A procter would show up once you can no longer continue and give you an evaluation paper.

The farther the distance, the stronger the person is. While the test is supposed to be solely about physical, it's too easy for applicants to use aura to augment their strength. Instead of sealing everyone’s aura which is a difficult thing to do, their thoughts were “If they are only so strong even with aura, then they won’t survive in the battlefields”.

Also, aura can only amplify your strength so much, at around 1.3 on average and even for someone who is talented in aura augmentation, 2x is about the limit. So even with aura, the test would still be indicative of physical strength.

Ed quickly started walking. He didn’t immediately channel his aura since he wanted to see what the gravity field was like and it was fine in the beginning. The first part of the track was not too hard at only x3 normal gravity. However, after a 100 yards, the gravity would increase again. Ed had been fighting for a long time so he has built up a good amount of muscle even with his stringy build. He was able to get to the first checkpoint without using aura.

At the second check mark the gravity doubled to x6 normal gravity which put Ed in extreme pressure. Probably only someone like Captain or Boar would be able to get through this checkpoint without using aura.

Ed then started using his aura to lessen the pressure. After years of fighting, his aura capacity is already at C-Class and his control was also far ahead of his peers so he was able to use just enough aura to pass the check mark without wasting any.

While aura can increase offense, defense, and physical stats in general, it could not increase endurance. But this was not an issue for Ed since he has fought in long drawn out battles with mannies in the harder missions with the Wolves.

Ed quickly got past the second checkpoint but then the gravity increased to x9 which was close to Ed’s limit. He probably won’t be able to get past the third checkpoint, but he was aiming to at least get to the end of the second checkpoint.

Foot by foot, Ed edged forward. While every step was extremely exhausting, there was also a unique feeling as he could feel his body being tempered. After reaching the end of the second checkpoint, he wanted to see if he could handle the new gravity.

At x12, Ed could barely move but he unleashed nearly all of his aura reserves and was able to take a few steps before reaching his limit. He raised his hand up to indicate him no longer being able to continue and a proctor escorted him out.

He received a score of 104 which was higher then what was intended. The College did not expect anyone to get to the third checkpoint let alone take a few steps. They thought the end of the 2nd checkpoint would be the farthest so that was set at a perfect score. They didn’t bother to adjust the scoring system to accommodate a handful of monsters each year. Ed received some extra points for his steps into the third checkpoint like a few others.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Ed took a thirty minute rest before heading over to the mental test. The mental test was also fairly straightforward, one would have to perform mental tasks in terms of quality or depth and quantity or multiple tasking.

The applicant would have to continuously channel their aura into the testing device which already serves as a task that needs to be kept up. Channeling aura is just a simple task since the test really isn’t an aura control test. The device would connect to the applicant's mind which will allow the proctor to see the applicant’s mind during the tasks.

The applicant can only have two chances, or in other words, can only fail once. It is up to the applicant to know when he’s hit his limit. There is also a time limit for each task.The final score would be a combination of both quality and quantity.

The first task Ed had to do was conjure an orb and move in a circle. After clearing the first round, he was given the option to do two orbs or do a harder pattern for the orb. Ed took a minute to think, he was trying to think of his own limits for this type of test.

After surviving in the wilds and fighting alongside the Wolves, Ed had developed a keen focus that he could maintain for about three things, himself, the manifestation he was fighting, and his teammates’ position or even more manifestations. He could do more than 3 orbs but he knew his quality would take a severe drop with each additional one.

Ed quickly passed the second round with two orbs and the third round with three orbs. He then chose to increase the pattern difficulty which was a star for all three orbs for the fourth round. For the fifth round, the pattern was a unique shape of a heptadecagon (17 sides). For the sixth round, the shape is now in three dimensions as a cube.

The seventh round is 3 intersecting cubes where Ed had to draw a circle at every intersection between the cubes. Just as Ed was finishing up his task, he ran out of time but he still had one more chance. After going through the task once already, Ed was able to complete it. For the eighth round, Ed had to have his three orbs draw the picture of the Mona Lisa and his orbs could not have intersecting paths.

Ed quickly failed since he was no artist and he was definitely not a mental type hunter. Nonetheless he did very well and considerably above the average. The proctor escorted Ed out and gave him his examination sheet with a score of 89/100. Ed could’ve probably performed better if he was given resources and training with mental resources but those are things he didn’t have in the wild or with the Wolves. He could probably score 1-5 points better but even with proper resources he would not be able to get a perfect score.

The next test was the soul test or willpower test. It was valued slightly more than the other tests with a max score of 110. The test requires applicants to walk up 17 steps where each step taken would thrust the applicant into a world of constant pain.

The first 5 steps are the basic physical pain like being punched in the gut or being hit by a bat. The next 5 steps take it up a notch like being stabbed by a knife, being stuck by thousands of needles, or internal pains like the most intense diarrhea you ever had. The next 5 levels are even more intense like being burned by fire or being splashed by acid.

The final 2 levels are pains that transcend imagination. It is a sensation where the pain hits you in the soul. This is something you can’t even build a tolerance for and is a true test for the soul. However, even the strongest person in the world has only just barely stepped onto the 16th level for a few seconds. The college is only expecting applicants to step onto the 11th step for the perfect 110 points.

After receiving the explanation from the procter, Ed began walking up the steps. He easily breezed through the first 5 levels but every step after became more and more difficult. Every breath he took, he reminded himself of the last image he ever had of his brother, being impaled by the eagle’s talon.

He wouldn’t let anything less than that impeded him in his journey to avenge him. He also began to channel his memories of his time in the wild before he joined the Wolves. Ed didn’t look for help to return back to civilization after he obtained the artifact from Wilhelm. He just couldn’t face his parents so he chose to train himself in a mountain range close to the forest where his family’s cabin was at.

It served to train him for his goal as well as punishment for what he had done. During this time he had several near death experiences, almost starving to death or being hunted by packs of weaker mannies.

Ed may have just been a child but he did awaken with E3 level aura reserve which enabled him to have the strength of an elite adult. To put this into perspective, the average person would be at F. E would be an elite pre-emergence soldier or olympic. D would be the first major boundary between people that required much more hard work to overcome. 10 F-Class hunters would be required to fight a E-Class hunter/manifestation, but 100 F-Class would be required to fight a D-Class hunter. Ed was able to survive in the mountains for 3 years before joining the Wolves.

Soon, Ed was able to reach the 9th step but this was close to his limit but that image of his brother pushed him forward to the 10th step. Almost collapsing, Ed’s back was drenched in sweat and his breathing was labored. He was very close to losing consciousness and the proctors were ready to jump in to end the test.

With the final grit of his teeth, Ed pushed for the 11th step. He stood there for a split second before collapsing to which the proctors quickly got him off the steps. After an hour, Ed woke up, tired but otherwise okay. He even felt a bit refreshed like he got a load off his shoulder. Ed wondered if this type of test can train the soul like how the gravity field tempered his body. Anyways, the procter handed Ed his examination sheet with a score of 102.

With this score, Ed got his final aggregate score of 98 (rounded down). His name then went up into the ranking lists in a central tower that displayed the top 100 entrance test scores. The list had four categories: Name (last names are discouraged so that nepotism can be minimized), Score, Country, and Battle Level. Ed shot up all the way to be a 3 way tie for third place. There were two names above Ed’s who were both tied for first with a score of 99, Lance (Americas) and Elizabeth (Europe). The other two people that tied with Ed were Aleksander (Europe) and Mei (Federation). Now there was his name up at the top, Ed, 98, Federation.

After the emergence, it was a common trend for countries to unite with surrounding countries to maintain their crumbling infrastructure since so many key facilities were destroyed by the first wave of manifestations. There was the Americas, Brazilian Alliance, Europe, Asian Federation, and Africa United.

After Ed’s name shot up to the top, it caused a wave of surprise since no one has ever heard of Ed before. Everyone on the top 20 were well known and if you were to ask about the other people in the top 100, there's a good chance people have at least heard about them but Ed did not match anybody's knowledge.

This was even more surprising since the bar at Ares College was extremely high. Unlike the Blue Dragon, White Tiger, Red Phoenix, and Black Turtle Colleges, Ares took in students from every major country. As a result, someone like Mei who was tied for third at Ares would’ve undoubtedly taken first in any of the other colleges.

While everything else in Ed’s description was filled out, he was still missing his battle level classification, which caused a large debate about Ed began to fill the courtyards at the college. They wanted to know if he would get a D or C ranking. However, can a weak person ever get a score so high? Most people were simply betting if he would get C1 like Mei and Aleksander or even a C2 like Lance and Elizabeth.

Ed’s score not only generated a large discussion among fellow applicants, it caused all established guilds and the staff at Ares to double check his examinations to make sure he didn’t cheat. If he didn’t cheat, then he would surely become a beacon of light in the war against the manifestations.