Chapter 74: Age and Element Affinity Test
"Welcome everyone to this year's Battle Maiden Sect's Entrance Exam! We will only be accepting the top 100 people this year, but for those of you who don't make it this year, you can always try again in 3 years. The first thing we will do is make sure that all fit the requirements to join. You have to be under 30 years old and in the Qi Condensation Realm or above. We will also be taking your name and elemental affinity along with this test. We have a device up here that will test your bones to tell whether or not you are 30 years old or younger. If you qualify then we will also test your elemental affinity! Now line up!" The powerful middle-aged woman said in a loud voice.
All of the women that were part of the Entrance Exam then started to line up and wait for their turn. Most of the people here would be fine, but there were a couple of people that were starting to sweat.
Mira and Maria were in the middle of the line and the process was happening rather quickly.
"Anya, Fire Element Affinity, Pass! NEXT!"
"Cassandra, Water Element Affinity, Pass! NEXT!"
"Lind, Earth Element Affinity, Pass! NEXT"
The contestants would walk up and tell the examiner their name, the examiner would test the age of their bones with a long needle that made a small incision and poked the bone. If they passed, the examinees would insert their energy into a small crystal and it would show their elemental affinity. The examiner was speeding through the people as there were so many. But soon, somebody came up that didn't pass the age test.
"FAIL! Please leave the premise!" The Examiner yelled at the person that failed. The woman that failed started to tear up and cry as she got escorted out of the area. The testing continued on like normal. Most of the people passed along with a ton of women having water or air affinity. There were still a couple of people who failed and were over 30 years old.
It took around an hour for it to get to Mira and Maria's turn. Mira was the one to walk up first. The examiner was surprised to see how small Mira was. She was also a bit surprised that almost everything was covered up except for her hair and hands. But just from looking at these two features, the Examiner could tell that this was a beauty of extraordinary proportions. She wished that Mira wasn't wearing a mask so that she could see her face, but didn't worry about this as she should get the chance later if she joins the sect. The Examiner looked at Mira again as she noticed the freezing aura surrounding her along with a slight malevolent aura. She was very surprised by this as Mira was probably extremely young. She was awoken from her gaze when Mira talked.
"My name is Mira." Mira said as she stuck out her arm for her age to be tested. The Examiner just nodded and stuck in an extremely thin needle. The needle touched Mira's bone and then lit up in a bright green color.
"Now test your elemental affinity." The Examiner said as she pointed to a crystal around the size of a fist. Mira nodded her head and placed her hand on the crystal. She inserted her energy and the crystal lit up with an icy blue color. The Examiner wasn't shocked by this because she could already feel the cold aura that just surrounded her.
"Mira, Ice Element Affinity, Pass! NEXT" The Examiner yelled as Mira nodded and walked over to where the people that passed were located.
The Examinees along with their parents or people watching were now whispering about Mira.
"Ice Element? I haven't heard of anyone named Mira with an Ice Element affinity. It's quite rare for someone to have an Ice Affinity. I wonder where she came from."
"Look at her! I bet she's extremely gorgeous under that mask! If only she had larger breasts, she would be perfect! She even has an ice affinity! So cool!"
"That girl looks so small! I wonder how old she is?"
Everyone that saw Mira started to whisper about her as most people wanted to know her identity. But they were interrupted when a beauty walked up to get tested as well.
Maria walked up to the Examiner like a golden light. Her long golden hair, her skin that radiated a golden light, and even her blue eyes had streaks of gold in them. There was a large smile on Maria's face as she introduced herself.
"My name is Maria Zaria! I should be around 22 years old, but I can't remember my exact age because I kind of lost track of time!" Maria introduced herself in that manner even though she knew that they would check her age. She also stuck her arm out and waited for the Examiner to confirm her age.
The Examiner just stuck the needle in her arm and saw the green light shine.
"Now test your elemental affinity." The Examiner said as she showed a fist-sized crystal to Maria.
Maria put her hand on the crystal and inserted her energy into it. A bright golden light shone from the crystal as the Examiner was surprised, but also not that surprised as everything about this girl was golden.
"Maria Zaria, Light Element Affinity, Pass! NEXT!" The Examiner said calmly on the outside but was rather shocked on the inside.
'I wonder what is up with those last 2 girls? Are they together? Where have they been all this time as I have never heard of them? I only know that Maria Zaria is the daughter of the Zaria Family's Head, Cole Zaria.' The Examiner secretly wondered, but shook the thoughts out of her head and continued with the examination.
Maria just ran over to Mira as she was happy that she passed this section. One step closer to joining the Sect.
***
Somewhere outside of the Sect.
There were 3 people watching what was happening at the Entrance Exam Site. Two of the figures would look familiar to Mira and Maria, but the 3rd person was a middle-aged woman.
"Those two people are the girls we talked about! Mira and Maria. Mira has the mask on and Maria has golden blonde hair. I can almost guarantee that they will pass the exam!" A girl with red hair said to the middle-aged woman.
"They certainly do look rather abnormal. I can sense even sense a malevolent aura from that girl Mira. I have no idea how many people she has killed as it is definitely in the tens of thousands. You are extremely lucky that she didn't kill you two, Diana and Ellie. Even if she does pass, I'm a little hesitant to allow someone like that to enter the sect. That Maria girl looks so innocent though and I can't sense any malice or ill-intent behind her actions. It's like she is a child in an adult's body." The middle-aged woman said to the two girls. They were Ellie and Diana that Mira and Maria had met in the forest 6 months ago.
"Don't be fooled by Maria, Elder. I don't know if she can fight as well as Mira, but I highly doubt that someone staying around Mira will not be strong either because they are talented at fighting or because Mira forced them to train. When I was near her, I wasn't able to sense any danger from her which only made me think that she was more dangerous." Diana suddenly said as Ellie also chimed in.
"The both of them also have extremely strong beast companions. Especially Mira, It was at Peak-Stage Rank 3 when we met it 6 months ago and it looked like it was just born. The scenes that her beast companion left behind were horrifying as well. I can't even imagine what sort of terrifying beast it will turn into when it's fully grown." Ellie said with a complicated expression on her face.
"It seems that I will need to pay attention to those two during the rest of the Exam. I will let the other Sect Elders know as well so they can keep an eye out for the two of them." The Elder said to the two of them as they watched the rest of the.
***
The age and elemental affinity test continued. Most of the women had water and air affinity while the 3rd most common was fire and there were a few with an earth affinity.
There were also 2 other people that had rare affinities other than Mira and Maria. There was a woman with a dark element affinity whose name is Nisha. She has black hair and black eyes. There was also a girl with a lightning element affinity whose name is Audra. She has dark orange hair with green eyes.
Mira was a bit surprised to see other people with rare element affinities but realized that it wasn't that odd. There were thousands of people here, there were bound to be people with other elements other than fire, wind, earth, and water.
Time passed pretty quickly as everyone was finally tested. Around 10% of the people already failed due to their age being too old. It is now time to move onto the actual tests. The middle-aged woman from before stood in front of everyone.
"Congratulations for making it past this first section, but the rest of the exams will only get harder from here. We will be testing your will, battle prowess, strength, teamwork, endurance, hunting ability, and have a tournament at the end. We will start off with the strength test next. There will be 3 lines. The first line is for people in Qi Condensation Stages 1-4. The second line will be for Qi Condensation Stage 5-9 and the Third line will be for anyone in the Foundation Realm. Now Split!"