Chapter 76: Princess Qamari's Elemental Ability Part 1
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The bright light was blinding, causing her to unconsciously shield her eyes as she drew back. She did not expect the globe to flare up so suddenly.
Marui Osklain, seeing the retreating princess, sneakily stretched her foot out.
'Let us see how graceful the so called princess will be once she is sprawled across the floor!'
A dark gleam flashed through her purple eyes, her heart racing at the image of having a princess beneath her feet.
'Just a bit more...then my earlier embarrassment will be half repaid.'
Her fists clenched tightly as she waited in anticipation, her heart violently pounding in her heart. She knew her actions were lowly, but she did not care. She was willing to stoop lower than that, if it meant getting back for even half of the disgrace she experienced.
As Princess Qamari drew closer and closer to her out stretched foot, a figure appeared in her line of vision, pulling the princess to the side. Looking up, Marui Osklain met the cold, piercing glare of Senior Brother Teng.
Her heart thumped in her chest and she guiltily stepped back, the chill in his eyes frightening her out of her skin.
'What is wrong with Senior Teng? Why did he give me such a scary look? Even if he is interested in that princess, surely it shouldn't be to the point where he would give me a murderous look, is it? Is he that smitten?'
She was befuddled by the unexpected protectiveness she perceived from him. She blended into the crowd of apprentices to lower her presence, gritting her teeth in anger.
'It has not even been a day since we entered the academy, and she already has a protector. As expected, I really need to take care of this princess as soon as possible!'
Teng Wang, was standing with Rong Li, unable to move his sight away from Princess Qamari. Following her every movement as she shuffled and shifted behind the throng of students, her graceful git and restrained aura captivated him.
He was so dazzled by everything about her, that he forgot about his surroundings. In the end, he bluntly watched her, his focus fixed only on her.
And because he was so fully immersed in her, he was able to see her shuffling backwards as the light of the globe blinded her sight. He saw the other Marikeen stretching out her foot, her intention clear by the malicious look on her face.
Without any hesitation, he moved forward, pulling her protectively to his side. Fiery anger engulfed his heart as he looked at the malicious Marikeen murderously.
He could not believe the stunt she was about to pull.
'How could a Marikeen have such a malicious heart? No, she is definitely not a Marikeen. Her personality or character are not that of one!'
He was even more convinced of his analysis as he saw her meekly step back upon getting caught, an act of cowardice that no honorable Marikeen would pull.
Just as he snorted disdainfully, Teng Wang felt the sleeve covered, delicate wrist in his hand forcefully jerk out of his grasp. He glanced back in alarm, afraid he had not held tight enough, causing the soft hand to slip through his grip.
If she fell on his watch, he would not forgive himself.
Anxious, he reached out to grasp the slipping wrist, afraid she would really fall.
"Slap!"
But before he could even touch her sleeve again, his hand was harshly slapped away.
Looking up, he saw the cold and disgusted look on her face, instantly freezing him in his tracks. The cold glare was fierce enough for him to snap back to attention.
Princess Qamari was disgusted with the man, not even bothering to hide her feelings of revulsions as her cold gaze met his.
She could not understand. Thinking what had the man dared to touch her so unrestrainedly in front of a whole public audience?
'Who does he think he is? My Husband?'
She was fuming inside, her fists clenched tightly in restrained anger. Not wanting to start a scene, she directly turned and left. On the way, she coldly glanced at the apprentice behind the spectacle.
'This girl seems to be targeting me more and more.'
A silver gleam flashing through her purple orbs, she thoughtfully moved to the back of the crowd again.
Tang Wang was about to explain himself when her cold back graced his eyes. Just as he moved forward, he heard Elder Yun's voice. Dejected, he retreated back to Rong Li's side.
Rong Li, having witnessed everything that took place, watched his friend with a complex emotion in his eyes.
'Teng Wang is really interested in that girl?'
He secretly wondered.
"All right, new apprentices! We will now begin the elemental ability evaluation. Students will enter the stone rooms according to order of their name. Any questions before we begin?" His gaze swept over the crowd.
Seeing no objections or questions raised, he nodded his head in satisfaction and continued.
"Good, we will now begin the elemental ability and talent level evaluation. Elder Kang?"
"Yes."
The two elders moved towards the round white globe, and cast a spell. Watery blue light flew out of their hands, shooting into the globe. The globe lit up, brighter than ever, as it started spinning.
Once the bright light filled the whole room, the elders stepped back.
Then, names appeared in the air, one after the other. A few seconds later, the light from the globe dimmed, the names shooting back towards the apprentices.
"Oh! It is my identification plaque!" A student exclaimed in surprise.
"Of course. What else did you expect?" Another replied with displeasure, causing the former to flush in embarrassment.
Princess Qamari curiously stretched her hand, her name landing in her palm. The glow dimmed and her name changed back into her identification plaque with the number 98 on the left corner.
"Your identification plaques will now have numbers engraved on the left corner. That number will be the number of your evaluation. Now, the two students with numbers one and two, please step into the evaluation room. You will start first!" Elder Yun motioned towards the two rooms, gesturing for the first two apprentices to enter.
The two apprentices that stepped up were both short, one with blond hair and the other brown. Under the intense stare of the spectating crowd, they self-consciously walked towards the two rooms with bowed heads.
The moment they reached the doors, their figures instantly vanished.
"What, what happened? Where did they go?" One apprentice was immediately alarmed when she saw the two students vanish into thin air.
"Chee, what a country bumpkin! Does not even know about a teleportation magic." Another student sneered disdainfully at the student's ignorance.
"Come on, Joo An, we cannot possibly expect others to be as well informed as us, can we now? After all, who knows where they came from?" Another haughtily snorted, sweeping her gaze over the girl that spoke up.
Silent snickers broke out from the surrounding girls, their contemptuous and scornful expressions causing the girl to flush and shamefully lower her head. She bit her lip to force swimming tears back.
Princess Qamari watched the proceeding with indifferent eyes. She felt sorry for the girl's plight, but offered no assistance. People who endured others ridicules' and mockeries were more in the wrong than the ones doing the ridiculing.
Because one should fight for themselves.
"They are inside. I wonder what their elemental abilities will be?"
A moment later, the apprentices saw the two girls reappear inside the stone rooms through the wide glass wall.
At first, there was no obvious change in the two rooms, causing the spectators to frown in confusion. A second later, however, the rooms glowed in dull red and brown colors.
"They are fire and earth attribute magicians. The earth is not very useful in combat, but the fire can be worked with depending on the level of its attribute." Elder Kang indifferently remarked, causing elder Yun to nod in agreement.
The earth attribute was truly not as useful as the fire attribute, especially when considering the shifting situation within the realms for the past few years.
"Well, at least we got an extra magician who has the ability to survive the dark forest. Even if her earth attribute is not useful, she is still a magician." Elder Yun thoughtfully added.
"Yes, that she is."
"Look, the rooms are in dull red and brown. That means they are fire and earth attributes!" The students were also observing the stone rooms, only with more competitive edge.
"I wonder what their talent levels will be."
"Do not worry. Seeing that it took a while for the stones to light up, they are at most, mediocre."
"Yes, I agree."
As if their hushed whispers were a sort of spell, the rooms lit up in red, and made no indication of changing any further. The atmosphere stayed still for a while, before the two elders sighed in disappointment, and the apprentices eyes glowed in delight.
"See, I told you they were only mediocre." The owner of the voice sounded smug, not only proud at her accurate calculation, but delighted at the elimination of a possible competition.
"Huawei Lan and Shirley, fire and earth element, weak ability talent, red level talent." Elder Yun calmly announced the result of the first evaluation.
"Next two students, please step forward."
At this moment, the two students inside the stone rooms were ejected, and they self-consciously walked back to their original spots.
Their disappointment was clear. Because their talent level was only red, the lowest of all the levels, dampening their spirits. However, no one blamed them, as the level of talent an individual possessed depended on the strength of their bloodline.
The next two students stepped before the doors and disappeared, reappearing an instant later inside the stone rooms. Their elemental, too turned out to be fire and earth, weak ability level, with red talent.
The same scene repeatedly played out, some students appearing with water, air, or wood elemental ability. Their talent levels were all in the weak ability levels with very few orange level talents.
"Numbers 88 and 89, please step up." After the many red level talents, the elders earlier enthusiasm had cooled off.
Now, they just wanted to conclude the testing and be done with.
"Look, number 88 and 89 are the two prospective Marikeen's!" A student shouted in excitement, causing all the audience in the white room to shift their attention onto the two figures walking towards the doors.
"Yes, it is them. I wonder what their talent levels will be?"
"Do you even need to wonder? I will bet on my life that they will at least be above orange!"
"Me too!"
The elders immediately perked up, their bored expressions replaced with interest within a matter of seconds. They too, were curious about the two Marikeen prospectives talents.
The two figures nonchalantly stood before the doors, their expressions indifferent, figures disappearing within the next second. The moment they reappeared inside the stone rooms, the stones immediately lit up in blue and red glow, indicating fire and water elemental abilities.
"Those two abilities are commendable. I just do not know whether they correspond with the Marikeen ability." Elder Yun evaluated in concern.
The fact that both of them possessed different abilities was already tantamount to one of the two not being a Marikeen. Only, which one of the two was the Marikeen?
A while later, the red and blue glows shifted, changing colors from red, orange, yellow, before stopping at green.
"Green! The two of them are green level talents!" Elder Yun excitedly threw his hands in the air, seeing a celebratory outcome after a long test with disappointing results.
"Yes! They are both green level talents! As expected of the Marikeen prospectives!" Elder Kang was similarly excited, a smile finally appearing on his stoic features.
"Oh, my, gosh! They are green level talents!"
"I told you they would be above orange level!"
"Green level? How can they be green level? There was not even a single yellow level talent thus far. So how can they be green level?"
"Did you forget? Of course, it is because they are the Marikeen prospectives! How can they be placed on the same scale as us?"
The students were boiling with disbelief and unwillingness, some flushed with happiness and others not able to accept the drastic gap in individuals cursed out loud. After almost a hundred evaluations, every single apprentice that went up for testing did not receive a better talent evaluation than orange level.
Yet now, this two girls entered together and received better talent evaluation than all the apprentices present combined.
The two girls, Marui Osklain and Aarya Quime, reappeared a second later before the crowd of students with complacent smiles. They were satisfied with their evaluation results. After all, aside from themselves, no other apprentice had gotten a better result.
Shooting each other nasty glances filled with competitiveness, the two walked back to their spots.
"Good. Good. Work hard and you will make the Headmaster proud." Elder Yun said good twice in excitement, his eyes overflowing with unconcealed joy as he stroked his grey beard.
Princess Qamari glanced unconcernedly at the two girls. She was astonished at their results. After all, of all the apprentices present, they were the only ones that received green level talent evaluations. However, she was even more anxious to know about her own talent level.
Only with great power, could she bravely face the future.
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The bright light was blinding, causing her to unconsciously shield her eyes as she drew back. She did not expect the globe to flare up so suddenly.
Marui Osklain, seeing the retreating princess, sneakily stretched her foot out.
'Let us see how graceful the so called princess will be once she is sprawled across the floor!'
A dark gleam flashed through her purple eyes, her heart racing at the image of having a princess beneath her feet.
'Just a bit more...then my earlier embarrassment will be half repaid.'
Her fists clenched tightly as she waited in anticipation, her heart violently pounding in her heart. She knew her actions were lowly, but she did not care. She was willing to stoop lower than that, if it meant getting back for even half of the disgrace she experienced.
As Princess Qamari drew closer and closer to her out stretched foot, a figure appeared in her line of vision, pulling the princess to the side. Looking up, Marui Osklain met the cold, piercing glare of Senior Brother Teng.
Her heart thumped in her chest and she guiltily stepped back, the chill in his eyes frightening her out of her skin.
'What is wrong with Senior Teng? Why did he give me such a scary look? Even if he is interested in that princess, surely it shouldn't be to the point where he would give me a murderous look, is it? Is he that smitten?'
She was befuddled by the unexpected protectiveness she perceived from him. She blended into the crowd of apprentices to lower her presence, gritting her teeth in anger.
'It has not even been a day since we entered the academy, and she already has a protector. As expected, I really need to take care of this princess as soon as possible!'
Teng Wang, was standing with Rong Li, unable to move his sight away from Princess Qamari. Following her every movement as she shuffled and shifted behind the throng of students, her graceful git and restrained aura captivated him.
He was so dazzled by everything about her, that he forgot about his surroundings. In the end, he bluntly watched her, his focus fixed only on her.
And because he was so fully immersed in her, he was able to see her shuffling backwards as the light of the globe blinded her sight. He saw the other Marikeen stretching out her foot, her intention clear by the malicious look on her face.
Without any hesitation, he moved forward, pulling her protectively to his side. Fiery anger engulfed his heart as he looked at the malicious Marikeen murderously.
He could not believe the stunt she was about to pull.
'How could a Marikeen have such a malicious heart? No, she is definitely not a Marikeen. Her personality or character are not that of one!'
He was even more convinced of his analysis as he saw her meekly step back upon getting caught, an act of cowardice that no honorable Marikeen would pull.
Just as he snorted disdainfully, Teng Wang felt the sleeve covered, delicate wrist in his hand forcefully jerk out of his grasp. He glanced back in alarm, afraid he had not held tight enough, causing the soft hand to slip through his grip.
If she fell on his watch, he would not forgive himself.
Anxious, he reached out to grasp the slipping wrist, afraid she would really fall.
"Slap!"
But before he could even touch her sleeve again, his hand was harshly slapped away.
Looking up, he saw the cold and disgusted look on her face, instantly freezing him in his tracks. The cold glare was fierce enough for him to snap back to attention.
Princess Qamari was disgusted with the man, not even bothering to hide her feelings of revulsions as her cold gaze met his.
She could not understand. Thinking what had the man dared to touch her so unrestrainedly in front of a whole public audience?
'Who does he think he is? My Husband?'
She was fuming inside, her fists clenched tightly in restrained anger. Not wanting to start a scene, she directly turned and left. On the way, she coldly glanced at the apprentice behind the spectacle.
'This girl seems to be targeting me more and more.'
A silver gleam flashing through her purple orbs, she thoughtfully moved to the back of the crowd again.
Tang Wang was about to explain himself when her cold back graced his eyes. Just as he moved forward, he heard Elder Yun's voice. Dejected, he retreated back to Rong Li's side.
Rong Li, having witnessed everything that took place, watched his friend with a complex emotion in his eyes.
'Teng Wang is really interested in that girl?'
He secretly wondered.
"All right, new apprentices! We will now begin the elemental ability evaluation. Students will enter the stone rooms according to order of their name. Any questions before we begin?" His gaze swept over the crowd.
Seeing no objections or questions raised, he nodded his head in satisfaction and continued.
"Good, we will now begin the elemental ability and talent level evaluation. Elder Kang?"
"Yes."
The two elders moved towards the round white globe, and cast a spell. Watery blue light flew out of their hands, shooting into the globe. The globe lit up, brighter than ever, as it started spinning.
Once the bright light filled the whole room, the elders stepped back.
Then, names appeared in the air, one after the other. A few seconds later, the light from the globe dimmed, the names shooting back towards the apprentices.
"Oh! It is my identification plaque!" A student exclaimed in surprise.
"Of course. What else did you expect?" Another replied with displeasure, causing the former to flush in embarrassment.
Princess Qamari curiously stretched her hand, her name landing in her palm. The glow dimmed and her name changed back into her identification plaque with the number 98 on the left corner.
"Your identification plaques will now have numbers engraved on the left corner. That number will be the number of your evaluation. Now, the two students with numbers one and two, please step into the evaluation room. You will start first!" Elder Yun motioned towards the two rooms, gesturing for the first two apprentices to enter.
The two apprentices that stepped up were both short, one with blond hair and the other brown. Under the intense stare of the spectating crowd, they self-consciously walked towards the two rooms with bowed heads.
The moment they reached the doors, their figures instantly vanished.
"What, what happened? Where did they go?" One apprentice was immediately alarmed when she saw the two students vanish into thin air.
"Chee, what a country bumpkin! Does not even know about a teleportation magic." Another student sneered disdainfully at the student's ignorance.
"Come on, Joo An, we cannot possibly expect others to be as well informed as us, can we now? After all, who knows where they came from?" Another haughtily snorted, sweeping her gaze over the girl that spoke up.
Silent snickers broke out from the surrounding girls, their contemptuous and scornful expressions causing the girl to flush and shamefully lower her head. She bit her lip to force swimming tears back.
Princess Qamari watched the proceeding with indifferent eyes. She felt sorry for the girl's plight, but offered no assistance. People who endured others ridicules' and mockeries were more in the wrong than the ones doing the ridiculing.
Because one should fight for themselves.
"They are inside. I wonder what their elemental abilities will be?"
A moment later, the apprentices saw the two girls reappear inside the stone rooms through the wide glass wall.
At first, there was no obvious change in the two rooms, causing the spectators to frown in confusion. A second later, however, the rooms glowed in dull red and brown colors.
"They are fire and earth attribute magicians. The earth is not very useful in combat, but the fire can be worked with depending on the level of its attribute." Elder Kang indifferently remarked, causing elder Yun to nod in agreement.
The earth attribute was truly not as useful as the fire attribute, especially when considering the shifting situation within the realms for the past few years.
"Well, at least we got an extra magician who has the ability to survive the dark forest. Even if her earth attribute is not useful, she is still a magician." Elder Yun thoughtfully added.
"Yes, that she is."
"Look, the rooms are in dull red and brown. That means they are fire and earth attributes!" The students were also observing the stone rooms, only with more competitive edge.
"I wonder what their talent levels will be."
"Do not worry. Seeing that it took a while for the stones to light up, they are at most, mediocre."
"Yes, I agree."
As if their hushed whispers were a sort of spell, the rooms lit up in red, and made no indication of changing any further. The atmosphere stayed still for a while, before the two elders sighed in disappointment, and the apprentices eyes glowed in delight.
"See, I told you they were only mediocre." The owner of the voice sounded smug, not only proud at her accurate calculation, but delighted at the elimination of a possible competition.
"Huawei Lan and Shirley, fire and earth element, weak ability talent, red level talent." Elder Yun calmly announced the result of the first evaluation.
"Next two students, please step forward."
At this moment, the two students inside the stone rooms were ejected, and they self-consciously walked back to their original spots.
Their disappointment was clear. Because their talent level was only red, the lowest of all the levels, dampening their spirits. However, no one blamed them, as the level of talent an individual possessed depended on the strength of their bloodline.
The next two students stepped before the doors and disappeared, reappearing an instant later inside the stone rooms. Their elemental, too turned out to be fire and earth, weak ability level, with red talent.
The same scene repeatedly played out, some students appearing with water, air, or wood elemental ability. Their talent levels were all in the weak ability levels with very few orange level talents.
"Numbers 88 and 89, please step up." After the many red level talents, the elders earlier enthusiasm had cooled off.
Now, they just wanted to conclude the testing and be done with.
"Look, number 88 and 89 are the two prospective Marikeen's!" A student shouted in excitement, causing all the audience in the white room to shift their attention onto the two figures walking towards the doors.
"Yes, it is them. I wonder what their talent levels will be?"
"Do you even need to wonder? I will bet on my life that they will at least be above orange!"
"Me too!"
The elders immediately perked up, their bored expressions replaced with interest within a matter of seconds. They too, were curious about the two Marikeen prospectives talents.
The two figures nonchalantly stood before the doors, their expressions indifferent, figures disappearing within the next second. The moment they reappeared inside the stone rooms, the stones immediately lit up in blue and red glow, indicating fire and water elemental abilities.
"Those two abilities are commendable. I just do not know whether they correspond with the Marikeen ability." Elder Yun evaluated in concern.
The fact that both of them possessed different abilities was already tantamount to one of the two not being a Marikeen. Only, which one of the two was the Marikeen?
A while later, the red and blue glows shifted, changing colors from red, orange, yellow, before stopping at green.
"Green! The two of them are green level talents!" Elder Yun excitedly threw his hands in the air, seeing a celebratory outcome after a long test with disappointing results.
"Yes! They are both green level talents! As expected of the Marikeen prospectives!" Elder Kang was similarly excited, a smile finally appearing on his stoic features.
"Oh, my, gosh! They are green level talents!"
"I told you they would be above orange level!"
"Green level? How can they be green level? There was not even a single yellow level talent thus far. So how can they be green level?"
"Did you forget? Of course, it is because they are the Marikeen prospectives! How can they be placed on the same scale as us?"
The students were boiling with disbelief and unwillingness, some flushed with happiness and others not able to accept the drastic gap in individuals cursed out loud. After almost a hundred evaluations, every single apprentice that went up for testing did not receive a better talent evaluation than orange level.
Yet now, this two girls entered together and received better talent evaluation than all the apprentices present combined.
The two girls, Marui Osklain and Aarya Quime, reappeared a second later before the crowd of students with complacent smiles. They were satisfied with their evaluation results. After all, aside from themselves, no other apprentice had gotten a better result.
Shooting each other nasty glances filled with competitiveness, the two walked back to their spots.
"Good. Good. Work hard and you will make the Headmaster proud." Elder Yun said good twice in excitement, his eyes overflowing with unconcealed joy as he stroked his grey beard.
Princess Qamari glanced unconcernedly at the two girls. She was astonished at their results. After all, of all the apprentices present, they were the only ones that received green level talent evaluations. However, she was even more anxious to know about her own talent level.
Only with great power, could she bravely face the future.
The bright light was blinding, causing her to unconsciously shield her eyes as she drew back. She did not expect the globe to flare up so suddenly.Marui Osklain, seeing the retreating princess, sneakily stretched her foot out.'Let us see how graceful the so called princess will be once she is sprawled across the floor!'A dark gleam flashed through her purple eyes, her heart racing at the image of having a princess beneath her feet.'Just a bit more...then my earlier embarrassment will be half repaid.'Her fists clenched tightly as she waited in anticipation, her heart violently pounding in her heart. She knew her actions were lowly, but she did not care. She was willing to stoop lower than that, if it meant getting back for even half of the disgrace she experienced.As Princess Qamari drew closer and closer to her out stretched foot, a figure appeared in her line of vision, pulling the princess to the side. Looking up, Marui Osklain met the cold, piercing glare of Senior Brother Teng.Her heart thumped in her chest and she guiltily stepped back, the chill in his eyes frightening her out of her skin.'What is wrong with Senior Teng? Why did he give me such a scary look? Even if he is interested in that princess, surely it shouldn't be to the point where he would give me a murderous look, is it? Is he that smitten?'She was befuddled by the unexpected protectiveness she perceived from him. She blended into the crowd of apprentices to lower her presence, gritting her teeth in anger.'It has not even been a day since we entered the academy, and she already has a protector. As expected, I really need to take care of this princess as soon as possible!'Teng Wang, was standing with Rong Li, unable to move his sight away from Princess Qamari. Following her every movement as she shuffled and shifted behind the throng of students, her graceful git and restrained aura captivated him.He was so dazzled by everything about her, that he forgot about his surroundings. In the end, he bluntly watched her, his focus fixed only on her.And because he was so fully immersed in her, he was able to see her shuffling backwards as the light of the globe blinded her sight. He saw the other Marikeen stretching out her foot, her intention clear by the malicious look on her face.Without any hesitation, he moved forward, pulling her protectively to his side. Fiery anger engulfed his heart as he looked at the malicious Marikeen murderously.He could not believe the stunt she was about to pull.'How could a Marikeen have such a malicious heart? No, she is definitely not a Marikeen. Her personality or character are not that of one!'He was even more convinced of his analysis as he saw her meekly step back upon getting caught, an act of cowardice that no honorable Marikeen would pull.Just as he snorted disdainfully, Teng Wang felt the sleeve covered, delicate wrist in his hand forcefully jerk out of his grasp. He glanced back in alarm, afraid he had not held tight enough, causing the soft hand to slip through his grip.If she fell on his watch, he would not forgive himself.Anxious, he reached out to grasp the slipping wrist, afraid she would really fall."Slap!"But before he could even touch her sleeve again, his hand was harshly slapped away.Looking up, he saw the cold and disgusted look on her face, instantly freezing him in his tracks. The cold glare was fierce enough for him to snap back to attention.Princess Qamari was disgusted with the man, not even bothering to hide her feelings of revulsions as her cold gaze met his.She could not understand. Thinking what had the man dared to touch her so unrestrainedly in front of a whole public audience?'Who does he think he is? My Husband?'She was fuming inside, her fists clenched tightly in restrained anger. Not wanting to start a scene, she directly turned and left. On the way, she coldly glanced at the apprentice behind the spectacle.'This girl seems to be targeting me more and more.'A silver gleam flashing through her purple orbs, she thoughtfully moved to the back of the crowd again.Tang Wang was about to explain himself when her cold back graced his eyes. Just as he moved forward, he heard Elder Yun's voice. Dejected, he retreated back to Rong Li's side.Rong Li, having witnessed everything that took place, watched his friend with a complex emotion in his eyes.'Teng Wang is really interested in that girl?'He secretly wondered."All right, new apprentices! We will now begin the elemental ability evaluation. Students will enter the stone rooms according to order of their name. Any questions before we begin?" His gaze swept over the crowd.Seeing no objections or questions raised, he nodded his head in satisfaction and continued."Good, we will now begin the elemental ability and talent level evaluation. Elder Kang?""Yes."The two elders moved towards the round white globe, and cast a spell. Watery blue light flew out of their hands, shooting into the globe. The globe lit up, brighter than ever, as it started spinning.Once the bright light filled the whole room, the elders stepped back.Then, names appeared in the air, one after the other. A few seconds later, the light from the globe dimmed, the names shooting back towards the apprentices."Oh! It is my identification plaque!" A student exclaimed in surprise."Of course. What else did you expect?" Another replied with displeasure, causing the former to flush in embarrassment.Princess Qamari curiously stretched her hand, her name landing in her palm. The glow dimmed and her name changed back into her identification plaque with the number 98 on the left corner."Your identification plaques will now have numbers engraved on the left corner. That number will be the number of your evaluation. Now, the two students with numbers one and two, please step into the evaluation room. You will start first!" Elder Yun motioned towards the two rooms, gesturing for the first two apprentices to enter.The two apprentices that stepped up were both short, one with blond hair and the other brown. Under the intense stare of the spectating crowd, they self-consciously walked towards the two rooms with bowed heads.The moment they reached the doors, their figures instantly vanished."What, what happened? Where did they go?" One apprentice was immediately alarmed when she saw the two students vanish into thin air."Chee, what a country bumpkin! Does not even know about a teleportation magic." Another student sneered disdainfully at the student's ignorance."Come on, Joo An, we cannot possibly expect others to be as well informed as us, can we now? After all, who knows where they came from?" Another haughtily snorted, sweeping her gaze over the girl that spoke up.Silent snickers broke out from the surrounding girls, their contemptuous and scornful expressions causing the girl to flush and shamefully lower her head. She bit her lip to force swimming tears back.Princess Qamari watched the proceeding with indifferent eyes. She felt sorry for the girl's plight, but offered no assistance. People who endured others ridicules' and mockeries were more in the wrong than the ones doing the ridiculing.Because one should fight for themselves."They are inside. I wonder what their elemental abilities will be?"A moment later, the apprentices saw the two girls reappear inside the stone rooms through the wide glass wall.At first, there was no obvious change in the two rooms, causing the spectators to frown in confusion. A second later, however, the rooms glowed in dull red and brown colors."They are fire and earth attribute magicians. The earth is not very useful in combat, but the fire can be worked with depending on the level of its attribute." Elder Kang indifferently remarked, causing elder Yun to nod in agreement.The earth attribute was truly not as useful as the fire attribute, especially when considering the shifting situation within the realms for the past few years."Well, at least we got an extra magician who has the ability to survive the dark forest. Even if her earth attribute is not useful, she is still a magician." Elder Yun thoughtfully added."Yes, that she is.""Look, the rooms are in dull red and brown. That means they are fire and earth attributes!" The students were also observing the stone rooms, only with more competitive edge."I wonder what their talent levels will be.""Do not worry. Seeing that it took a while for the stones to light up, they are at most, mediocre.""Yes, I agree."As if their hushed whispers were a sort of spell, the rooms lit up in red, and made no indication of changing any further. The atmosphere stayed still for a while, before the two elders sighed in disappointment, and the apprentices eyes glowed in delight."See, I told you they were only mediocre." The owner of the voice sounded smug, not only proud at her accurate calculation, but delighted at the elimination of a possible competition."Huawei Lan and Shirley, fire and earth element, weak ability talent, red level talent." Elder Yun calmly announced the result of the first evaluation."Next two students, please step forward."At this moment, the two students inside the stone rooms were ejected, and they self-consciously walked back to their original spots.Their disappointment was clear. Because their talent level was only red, the lowest of all the levels, dampening their spirits. However, no one blamed them, as the level of talent an individual possessed depended on the strength of their bloodline.The next two students stepped before the doors and disappeared, reappearing an instant later inside the stone rooms. Their elemental, too turned out to be fire and earth, weak ability level, with red talent.The same scene repeatedly played out, some students appearing with water, air, or wood elemental ability. Their talent levels were all in the weak ability levels with very few orange level talents."Numbers 88 and 89, please step up." After the many red level talents, the elders earlier enthusiasm had cooled off.Now, they just wanted to conclude the testing and be done with."Look, number 88 and 89 are the two prospective Marikeen's!" A student shouted in excitement, causing all the audience in the white room to shift their attention onto the two figures walking towards the doors."Yes, it is them. I wonder what their talent levels will be?""Do you even need to wonder? I will bet on my life that they will at least be above orange!""Me too!"The elders immediately perked up, their bored expressions replaced with interest within a matter of seconds. They too, were curious about the two Marikeen prospectives talents.The two figures nonchalantly stood before the doors, their expressions indifferent, figures disappearing within the next second. The moment they reappeared inside the stone rooms, the stones immediately lit up in blue and red glow, indicating fire and water elemental abilities."Those two abilities are commendable. I just do not know whether they correspond with the Marikeen ability." Elder Yun evaluated in concern.The fact that both of them possessed different abilities was already tantamount to one of the two not being a Marikeen. Only, which one of the two was the Marikeen?A while later, the red and blue glows shifted, changing colors from red, orange, yellow, before stopping at green."Green! The two of them are green level talents!" Elder Yun excitedly threw his hands in the air, seeing a celebratory outcome after a long test with disappointing results."Yes! They are both green level talents! As expected of the Marikeen prospectives!" Elder Kang was similarly excited, a smile finally appearing on his stoic features."Oh, my, gosh! They are green level talents!""I told you they would be above orange level!""Green level? How can they be green level? There was not even a single yellow level talent thus far. So how can they be green level?""Did you forget? Of course, it is because they are the Marikeen prospectives! How can they be placed on the same scale as us?"The students were boiling with disbelief and unwillingness, some flushed with happiness and others not able to accept the drastic gap in individuals cursed out loud. After almost a hundred evaluations, every single apprentice that went up for testing did not receive a better talent evaluation than orange level.Yet now, this two girls entered together and received better talent evaluation than all the apprentices present combined.The two girls, Marui Osklain and Aarya Quime, reappeared a second later before the crowd of students with complacent smiles. They were satisfied with their evaluation results. After all, aside from themselves, no other apprentice had gotten a better result.Shooting each other nasty glances filled with competitiveness, the two walked back to their spots."Good. Good. Work hard and you will make the Headmaster proud." Elder Yun said good twice in excitement, his eyes overflowing with unconcealed joy as he stroked his grey beard.Princess Qamari glanced unconcernedly at the two girls. She was astonished at their results. After all, of all the apprentices present, they were the only ones that received green level talent evaluations. However, she was even more anxious to know about her own talent level.Only with great power, could she bravely face the future.
