Chapter 77: Raging Endurance

Headmaster Larius only called students in pairs or in groups of four into his chamber for the Gift Appraisal. It was reasonable to guess he was calling those with similar gifts to evaluate them together, but from the look of it, it would be evening by the time he got to appraise the more uncommon gifts.

There was still the endurance test under Instructor Ao. As soon as the students were done with the appraisal, they dashed towards the gymnasium to attend it.

For some reason, the Headmaster left Diana and me until the very last to be evaluated. He was probably wanting to test our shaping skills while he was at it. I simply couldn't understand why he couldn't do it before everyone else. It wasted over an hour of our time.

Well, there were also Priam, Eran, Charis, and Markus, who were assessed at the very end, much more thoroughly. The participants for the inter-district tournament would probably be decided among them.

Finally, leaving the few augmenter talents of Carmel Valley, Headmaster Larius cast his attention towards us. An invading force surrounded both of us, and I did my best to avoid flinching. The Headmaster wasn’t at all gentle about it, unlike Mum.

"Let's see. Show me your gifts first," he said. "Then we'll move into shaping."

The institution was already aware of our gifts, so they had prepared something for Diana to use her purification on. It turned out to be a loaf of bread with grime and white fungi growing on it.

"Eww, it smells," the blonde girl said when the Headmaster handed it to her.

Headmaster Larius laughed lightly. "Other than what you see, there's some weak poison in that bread. Use your gift and see if you can purify it."

Diana nodded and closed her eyes in concentration. Her palm touched the surface of the bread as her twenty-four orange threads weaved through it. Soon, a glittering light shone around the bread as its size began to shrink.

In about a minute or two, she was done. Although the fungus seemed to have been completely eradicated—and perhaps the poison too—the loaf of bread looked far from edible. At least, I wouldn’t eat it.

"Not bad," the Headmaster said, scratching his balding hairline. "We are going to put it to some tests to see the level of purification before giving you your marks. Now, let’s move onto Influence Manipulation and then weight distribution..."

He asked her to curve her influence into various practical shapes. Diana succeeded in half of them, though she was terribly slow. Finally, she was asked to stretch her influence as far as she could.

She managed two metres, before being asked to demonstrate her other skills.

Diana hadn't improved enough at runes to showcase her craftsmanship, so she could only display telekinesis and kinetic waves. Although the Headmaster didn't say it outright, his expression showed he was not too satisfied with her results. Perhaps because she was so averse to combat.

Even during duelling class, Diana was eliminated in the very first round, on top of her poor form in both archery and the hurdle run.

"Three aether roots in a year," the Headmaster hummed. "Not a bad result. Out you go now."

Diana gave me a look, giggled, and ran towards the indoor gymnasium.

"Now, Arilyn," the Headmaster cast all his attention towards me. "It will be a bit tricky to measure your gift. I wonder how we go about it.” He looked at me thoughtfully, humming. “I noticed you are not that far from reaching Noble Class. How many aether roots have you formed?"

Can’t you tell already? What was the heavy-handed inspection for? Suppressing those thoughts, I said, "I still need two."

"And when was the last time you advanced?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"About a month ago," I muttered. "Why?"

He didn’t answer, and asked me to manipulate my influence into various practical shapes. One by one, I followed through them all, be it unidirectional, multidirectional, spherical or conic. Even then, he kept coming up with more demanding exercises, as though wanting to see my very limit.

Finally, he seemed satisfied when I concentrated it into a narrow tunnel, moving it forward for several metres. I didn’t stop there. The tunnel of influence stretched forward, its shape narrowing further to be even smaller than my wrist. The Headmaster’s aged eyes bulged in shock when it reached over twenty metres.

“You didn’t invest all your empowerment into your influence, did you?” he asked cautiously.

I shook my head.

"Good, good, good. Now show me your weaving."

I began with kinetic force, then earth-weaving. When I got to wind blades, his eyes lit up as he laughed boisterously.

"With this, I believe you can finally earn honour for our little institution."

I guessed that was the reason behind his thorough examinations. But I wasn't done yet.

I shifted to fire-shaping and implemented the weave that had even impressed the Primal Pilus Selene. As soon as the crimson form of flame changed into a cerulean shape, the Headmaster seemed to lose his wits.

"My child, you are... Indeed..."

He didn't seem to have words to describe me.

"I can also craft prestigious-grade fabricators too."

The Headmaster's evaluation took a long time to complete, even though he didn’t—or couldn’t—assess my craftsmanship. Headmaster Larius never gave the impression of being a talkative man, but he spoke heartily during my appraisal. But at the end of it all, he promised to mentor me personally until the inter-district tournament. I guessed my participation was decided then.

After quenching my thirst, I made my way to the last test to be done with the day. The boys and girls were already lined up in the gymnasium, half of them already finished with their test. Shaper Ao and one assistant stood before them, gauging the students one by one.

The test was simple enough—just what we practised. Shaper Ao would hurl kinetic waves to pressure us until we could no longer endure. But the instructor was obviously applying more pressure compared to training. Perhaps just to be done with the test early.

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I scurried to join the group, catching everyone’s attention.

"Why come in already?" said Instructor Ao with a condescending tone. "It is your home after all. Come and go whenever you like."

"At least one of us was only late for just one day," I muttered under my breath.

"Huh? What did you say, brat?"

Unfortunately, although his shaping skill lacked ingenuity, he seemed to possess a good pair of ears. Yet a classmate of mine, thinking perhaps the teacher hadn't heard me clearly—or simply wanting to litigate me—repeated my words back to Shaper Ao. It was Charis with his heightened senses.

Shaper Ao never seemed to be in a good mood, and those chastising words uttered twice only made it worse. He glared at me, eyes blazing with fury.

"You. Come here!" he barked, essence threads springing all around him.

Although classmates couldn’t see those impinging thread lines, they sensed the danger and took a step back.

I glared at Charis.

"Where are you looking, worthless plebeian punk?" the man shouted, his arm rising to strike at me.

Alarmed, my body instantly ducked, evading the blow. The Shaper did not have enough physical attributes to account for that.

However, the miss seemed to enrage him even further.

"You even have the impudence to dodge?"

Before I could manage to mouth an excuse, his aura flared. Red, coercive force, along with many essence threads, thrust toward me, pulsating through the air.

The [Band of Protection] on my wrist blazed in golden light, forming a barrier around me, where thin rune marks danced, neutralising the force. No matter how much aura he unleashed or how much kinetic force he directed at me, nothing could penetrate the defence of my artefact.

The Shaper's eyes shot wide in fury. He looked about to burst apart, perhaps even use a dangerous spell.

Thankfully, the proctor stopped him in time.

"Shaper Ao, we should get going with the test."

He seemed a bit unnerved too, and probably would have given in to the patrician lordling’s anger if Ao forced the issue.

Ao inhaled deeply, his eyes never leaving me, nor the intensity dropping. He couldn't do anything to me—at least not with his own power. That powerlessness alone made his blood boil.

"You," he said, pointing his index finger at me, "stand on that side with your arms raised until the test finishes."

"Instructor, I didn't mean—"

"I know what you mean, you blighted plebeian rat. Now go stand right there, or your punishment won't just end with that."

Clenching my teeth, I could only trudge my way to the north side with both arms raised. I felt wronged, mistreated, but most of all angry. The snickers and averting gazes of my classmates only fuelled that anger further.

All the phrases and promises the Headmaster had made vanished from my mind as anger took hold.

But what could I even do? Strike spells at the blighted man? In the off chance that I penetrated his defence, what then?

"Instructor Ao, this isn't right," Eran said, even though there was still some fault lying with me. "You know he didn't mean it that way."

"You want to join him too?" the patrician lordling said, his gaze imperious.

Eran shut up and could only look at me apologetically.

"Since you're so courageous for your friend, come here. I will test you."

Eran stepped forward as blue essence threads surrounded him from all sides, thirty-two of them, forcing strenuous waves onto his body.

Seconds flew by slowly as Shaper Ao began to fidget with his fingers. A simple casting like that wasn’t enough to tire him—he was simply irritated.

After a minute passed, he increased the kinetic force by sixteen more essence threads. Sweat beads finally began to form on Eran's face. Still, he stood firm, the day's exhaustion clearly shown across his expression.

As though bored, the instructor added eight more essence threads. Eran's legs shook, his resolve wavering.

Finally, when eight more threads joined the fray, he fell to his knee, ending his test. The proctor wrote down the result in his notebook as the next boy stepped forward.

The test continued in a similar manner. Nobody performed particularly well—not even as well as Eran. Even those who were favoured, including Priam. He had surprisingly fallen short of my friend in endurance, despite being far ahead of him in the path. Only Markus reached sixty-four threads, Harden helping his way.

Then, finally, it was my turn. The instructor gestured for me to come forward amid the snickers and laughter of my classmates.

"Let's see if you're only disrespectful, or if you have some skill in your repertoire."

Thirty-two essence threads exploded, forcing kinetic waves. However, before the force could even impact me, the artefact once again flared into a protective ward around me, completely neutralising the impact.

"You little... Do you think this is a test of your artefact or yourself? I will—"

"I will deactivate it for the test," I said, without apologising.

I channelled a few threads into the silver band and deactivated its effect. Finally, the pressure of the impact began to weigh on my body.

With my high fortitude and Body Forging reaching an acceptable level, I could endure this kind of kinetic force for hours.

But obviously, the teacher had other plans. Sixteen more essence threads sprang from his body and joined the wave before even half a minute had passed. Seeing that I was unfazed, he added sixteen more within another minute.

The force struck my body as I glared at the man. The difference between thirty-two and sixty-four essence threads was not simply numerical. The force impacting my body didn't just double—it quadrupled.

That was how a perfect number of essence thread weaves operated. But looking at the arrogant, imperious face of the instructor, I could not give in.

All the muscles in my body clenched tight, my blood pressure rose to the sky. My spine felt chilly, yet sweat poured from my body incessantly. My legs shook violently.

Gathering my resolve, I planted my feet and adopted the stance of Walking Mountain, an imaginary sword in my palm. I was far from manifesting even a fraction of my father's might, but simply adopting that defensive stance instilled an unyielding nature in me.

The students were allowed to use whatever methods they could during the test. I didn't remain inactive either. My domain of influence surged, but it had difficulty moving through the impeachment of aura and the strenuous pressure. Thankfully, I barely needed it to encompass an inch around me.

All my essence weight manifested, as essence threads wrapped around me in a deliberate act of defiance, releasing kinetic waves of my own to neutralise the pressure.

Of course, my forty-odd essence threads could not contend with the perfect sixty-four, but I did my best, and even managed to stand straighter, eyes unwavering. I crooked my tongue to glare at the silhouette before me.

Ao wrinkled his nose, and with a flick of his finger, sixteen more essence threads joined the flow.

I took half a step back. But recognising the scorn in his eyes, I stammered a silent scream, channelling my Will.

My teeth clenched tight, my jaw locked, veins bulging on my temple as the essence force within my seed surged in the familiar process of Essence Unification. During levitation training, I had learned that channelling Essence Unification could relieve pressure on my internals. And it did help. The faster the energy surged, the easier it became to endure.

Of course, there was a limit to it, and the patrician shaper would not let that stand. Sixteen more threads flared and struck me like a volley of arrows.

I let out a growl, my essence threads unfurling against his weave. My eyes glowing with emerald fire, and I had to use all my mental faculties to keep them in place.

"Look how he growls," said Ao. "Like a caged animal."

My face twisted in agony, but rage overtook it. I held on, the essence surging within me in an unending flood.

"Shaper Ao," called the proctor, looking every bit as nervous and unsure as his voice was. He couldn't see the essence threads or the impact. It was all invisible to his eyes, but he could see the distress on my face and the pressure I was enduring. "I think this is more than enough. You can stop now."

"I am not forcing him. If he cannot endure it, he can take a knee."

Like hell I would, I muttered—or thought. I was too busy keeping my body from tearing apart to notice.

"Not bad," said Shaper Ao. "Even among the plebeian dregs, there are a few that have some thick skin."

His scornful words only fuelled my resolve. The essence threads churning within my body didn't even need much of my attention, as the pathways had been memorised, carved into my body. It had become almost autonomous.

Even so, I had to use the rest of my mental faculties to keep the essence threads in the web intact. But when the number of essence threads impacting me reached one hundred and twenty-eight, the pressure became so intense and overwhelming that even with all my might, I could not endure it much longer. Still, that unyielding resolve kept me standing for a second more.

The Spell’s voice rang in my ear once more, not that I heard it clearly. Then, in my inner vision, I saw emerald light blazing through my essence seed with the arrival of a new aether root. Eight more essence threads unfurled throughout my body, and I quickly tried to incorporate them into the web.

That was the last action I remember before my vision turned red, hot liquid pouring from my lips, as I collapsed onto the hard ground, the darkness taking over my consciousness.