CHAPTER 23 - Second Phase

Azyl who was resting with his head in hands, turned up when he heard Zewoulf's name being called. Although he knew that Woulf had managed to reach level 7 a day before, he still wanted to see it and cheer for him. After all he only had one friend in this place. His face lit up when he realized that Woulf's score was the highest in class. And with that their first phase came to an end.

Once the phase one came to an end, they released the rankings for the students to view. It had taken around an hour to be done with all of the students and to compile and put up the result. Without a surprise, Azyl was placed in the top ten, at eight rank. Once more everyone felt a bitter after taste when they saw the student that they had all looked down upon with unity being placed above them.

Azyl was not the least bothered about it, as he turned around and walked towards the end of the crowd and sat down. Zewoulf was once again talking with Nigel, he did not get what needed so much discussion, so he had nothing to do and just rest. The professor had said that there would be a ten-minute break before they began with phase two.

"You really turned out to be hiding your true talents deep enough to fool everyone around you. A wolf in a sheep's clothing indeed." Suddenly, a sweet voice interrupted his rest. He turned his head above to look at who it was.

A cute face appeared in his vision. The girl had a round face, while her brown hair was tied in two buns. She gazed at him with a look that half parts questioning and smirking, with her arms crossed.

'Is she a classmate or a senior?' He thought.

He could not immediately identify the person, so he just stared at her, thinking that if he glared enough, maybe she might leave him in peace.

The girl got a little flustered in front of his intense look, so she took a step back. Looking at the student that was sitting below, with messy silver hair, she felt he had a charm that seemed to set him apart from the rest. But then she blushed at her thoughts and instead scowled at Azyl.

Totally unaware of what was going through the opposite party's head, Azyl assumed that she was expecting him to reply, so he asked her,

"Are you a senior?"

Aoi was confused at this question at first. Then she realised that Azyl did not even recognise her. Now scowling deeply she looked at Azyl and questioned him, "Are you going to continue acting aloof and lazy as before? Isn't it over now that you have showed everyone your talents?"

Hearing her, Azyl was even more confused. And so two people who were not good at conversing started talking like that, misunderstanding and confusing each other. It was only a few minutes later, just before the second phase began that Azyl said to her:

"I am really confused right now and can't seem to make sense of anything that either of us said till now. So lets talk again when one of us is not confused." And with that he rushed off towards Zewoulf. He just wanted to get away from this girl who he had labeled as scary as she kept on talking. Even though she was clearly misunderstanding something about him, she didn't ask to clarify. And as usual, Azyl did not bother to, but she did not give up so they kept talking in circles.

It was not really his fault, as he had never paid attention to people he had never talked to before. Other than Zewoulf, he probably did not recognize any other student here. He was daydreaming or dozing off around the students, so when everyone knew about him, he failed to identify anyone of them. Which was also why he was not bothered by what other said about him.

This attitude of his would definitely irritate others to no end.

As he reached Woulf, he heard a light laugh. When he looked at him, he saw him holding his laughter.

"What now? Were you just watching me make a fool there?" Azyl asked him funnily.

"You seemed to have gained popularity, it seems." Zewoulf answered with a laugh.

Making a fed up face, Azyl plopped down beside him to sit down once more. He turned towards where the girl from before was standing to see whether she would follow him. Right then, as if realising that she had been dumped, she turned towards him with a deep scowl. As she was going to walk towards him, the professor called out to them to line up in order for the second phase.

Aoi gave him a look that said 'I'll catch you later' and then went to stand towards the front of the group.

Heaving a sigh, Azyl also got up. The Second phase was an interesting one and he was looking forward to it. Even though it was all about luck, everyone present could fantasize about themselves being the lucky ones.

Once more, names were called out. This time, only one person would be tested at a time. And the artifact that would be used for this was the pillar that was in the center of the five boulders.

"The elemental affinity is something can not be accurately measured with naturally formed tools and artifacts like the prana boulders from before. This is an affinity tower that was designed by the inventors working for the Royal family. It detects any elemental aura that a person might emit naturally, as unlocking elemental affinity naturally allows a person to emit such an aura. You all just have to place your palms on the pillar and then push the prana in your body towards the palm. If you have unlocked it, then any one section of the pillar will glow. Each section corresponds to an element." Professor Akira once more came forward to explain to them what was to be done.

There were seven sections to the pillar. Azyl could look at the patterns and recognise what each section represented. There was fire, wind, earth, water, metal and lightning. These were the basic elements that were seen in nature and also the ones that were talked about in the stories. The last section was a mystery to him, so he ignored it for now.

When it was Aoi's turn, Azyl turned to see what might be the outcome. Until now the pillar had no reaction, so he thought maybe there might be some reaction now.

But unfortunately, there was no reaction.

Aoi frowned when she saw this, but there was nothing she could do about it. She did not control it and she could only accept the outcome. The third phase was still there and she would have a chance to perform better there.

Next it was Azyl's turn. Everyone turned to look at him, afraid that once more he would be the person to get a reaction from the pillar. If that happened, they all would definitely start pulling out their hairs.

As Azyl approached, he saw the pillar was actually quite tall. Around 7-8 foot tall maybe. He then stood before it and as told by the instructor, placed his palm on the pillar. Then he closed his eyes to focus and performed as he was instructed to. Slowly, he gathered the prana in his body to follow his will and then made it circulate towards his palm through the origin path.

When the Prana reached his palm, he suddenly felt a strange reaction. The prana was getting sucked out his palm into the pillar. But immediately he clenched and pulled his hand away as he felt a sting. As he looked at the pillar, it had no reaction and no section glowed. The other student all heaved a sigh of relief. There were only two people in the crowd who had noticed something strange about Azyl's reaction.