Chapter 8 - Exceeding Expectations
Chapter 8 – Exceeding Expectations
Jason came to a decision as it was his turn.
Going up the stage with slow but steady steps, many students were displeased as most of them were exhausted and wanted to get home.
“Trash, it’s useless. You can’t even see, how should you be able to demonstrate a decent sequence of a martial arts technique”
“That’s true… Don’t waste our time and come down.”
“Do you want to humiliate yourself, mole?!?”
Jason didn’t care what they said and he waited for the examiner to give him the verbal signal to start.
There were many examiners all around the hall and at least ten other students were also demonstrating their martial art sequence.
Before the examiner could give the signal Jason lifted one of his hands into the direction of the students who insulted him with his middle finger up.
He would never meet them again, so Jason decided to cut ties, without any regret.
The whole gym was silent as it was kinda rude to do something like that and adding the situation Jason was currently in, directly in front of the teachers and the respectable examiners but Jason didn’t mind other people thinking bad about him.
Flabbergasted the students who insulted Jason were flabbergasted.
‘Wh-hat?? Who does he think he is??’
As these students wanted to throw a temper the examiner interrupted them with the starting signal as he ignored Jason’s rude behavior.
There were always a few students disregarding him as an examiner and sometimes a few students would fight each other over minuscule things.
Jason got into the Azure feisty Ape standard position with a smooth movement and began to start his understanding of the first sequence he learned.
He moved around the small amount of mana inside his body following the mana channels close to his veins, enveloping his hands with a fractional film of mana without wasting a second.
This alone was an astonishing feat because a certain accuracy and control over mana were needed to lead the mana to a certain body part and envelope it like a second skin.
Jason meanwhile had to take care of his distribution of mana because the amount of mana he had at the moment was marginal.
If his mana pool was larger, Jason was confident that he wouldn’t need to form a paper-thin skin-like membrane to cover his fists which took a decent amount of his focus.
Moving around smoothly with his enveloped fists, following the moves described in the Azure feisty Ape description, Jason began to sweat slowly.
The whole area around Jason was deadly silent except for the sound of his own movements as everyone was astonished by the exquisite sequence of movements Jason demonstrated.
Even if Jason had never seen the sequence of the Azure feisty Ape technique, the first sequence was branded in his mind as he had watched it countless times over the last week.
Almost nobody could understand how Jason was able to do it without seeing anything because it was illogical to know how to move if one didn’t see whether the sequence was wrongly applied or not.
One move after another was perfectly executed without any mistakes and the whole show which looked like a mesmerizing dance ended after a single minute.
This minute was over in an instant and still took an eternity.
Jason was sweating buckets and his back was drenched with it but his smile radiated the gym.
Demonstrating the Azure feisty Ape technique felt as if he achieved freedom.
He couldn’t see through the bandages but it didn’t matter as his accurate and smooth movements made him feel ecstasy.
His stored mana was completely dried up and Jason felt empty but this didn’t cover his happiness.
The examiner looked at Jason slightly astonished, his eyes widened.
He had often seen something like that but not from a blind 2nd Novice rank youth with a malnourished body.
‘Does this student have an extreme sensitivity for mana?!
Did he feel the mana flow when the instructor teaches his students and this youth remembered everything and executed it like that?
Pretty good.’
He thought but he remained calm and said with a monotone voice
“Exceeding requirements met:120 points”
Everyone heard the sound of a stone dropping inside them as they heard the announcement.
Greg got full marks with 100 points because his martial art technique was perfectly demonstrated but even he felt that Jason’s demonstration was slightly better than his own.
At least Jason’s accuracy and control over mana were on a different level than his.
Nevertheless, it was only a single sequence and nothing special if one worked hard on it, as the requirements were quite easy to meet.
Jason himself was even more astonished than the others as he didn’t know if he did everything correctly.
He had never personally seen the combat technique from the school’s instructor and only the outlines were seen by him.
But he was happy that he got more points than he had expected.
Coming back from his happiness he was again reminded that his average score was still bad.
Calculating a bit he came to the result that he achieved 34/100 points on average which was much more than he expected.
Adding the presumably 100/100 points from the theoretical exam his score was circulating around the average middle school graduate.
Unfortunately for Jason, the next test instantly worsened his happiness as the teacher said
“Now that everyone finished the practical exams we will scan your rank and rate you with points”
The examiners stood up from their chair and gathered together while one old man said with a loud voice.
“Everyone stay calm, please. There will be an uncomfortable feeling which will invade you but don´t fight against it. We will scan your mana core for a short moment and give points according to the guidelines.”
A weird and chilly pressure radiated out of the examiner and spread out with him as the center.
Invading every student they began to shiver slightly before the chill left them.
“Number 1 Aamin Arion 8th Novice rank – 60 points”
“Number 2 Alina Arte 9th Novice rank- 80 points”
“Number 3…..
“Number 158 Greg Fler- 2nd Adept rank- 140 points”
“Number 2374 Jason Stella 2nd Novice rank….- minus 40 points”
As he heard the examiner’s voice he felt a sting in his heart. He knew about deducting points from before but it was more painful than he thought.
His presumably 134/200 points were now 94/300.
The last chance for him to get points was the soul awakening and Jason who was previously relatively happy with his score was now back down to earth.
Everyone was exhausted and the examiner finished his distribution of points.
Afterward, he ended the exams and excused himself without looking back.
Jason meanwhile went back home slowly without caring for anybody around him.
He didn’t even notice Greg looking following him with his curiosity shining in his eyes.
It was already evening when Jason arrived at his miniature apartment.
Entering the room he went into the bathroom to shower and then he fell down into his bed falling into a deep sleep due to his exhaustion.