With the arrival of the SCC it was time for their testings to begin.
The tests were simple as they didn't look for intelligence or actual corporate skills. The only thing that mattered was that the applicant had a skill, optimally a strong one at that. The checking of one's qualification was done with a cabin like machine that measured a person's energy values. After they were deemed to have the necessary amount of energy, they'd get chips imbedded into the back of their heads. The chips then would take about a day to scan the person's soul power and then promptly display it for them, the tester would also be able to tell the result by scanning the chip. These chips were the same one's they'd be using after they were selected. The one's whose abilities didn't hit the minimum requirement would get their chip's removed, and while it would leave short term scarring, it would quickly heal.
Ash was standing at the square before the town hall. This was where the SCC had decided to set up their camp.
The place was crowded, as pretty much all the kids and young adults from the town were there. Naturally as result a rather long line had formed.
Looking at the line Ash could feel his motivation flying away. The line looked so long that from the outlook it looked like it would take multiple hours to get to the front.
In the summer heat Ash just couldn't imagine waiting here, so he decided to leave. It's not like the SCC would be leaving today, and there were only so many people in town. At some point the line would definitely shrink down to it's smallest size.
After coming up with his reason for leaving he wasted no time and headed out.
"Where are you going?"
Grabbing Ash by the wrist, Will stopped Ash dead in his tracks.
"Where am I going? I haven't really thought about it, but I'm thinking the cave could be a good place."
Will knew Ash was lazy, but even he couldn't believe how lazy Ash was.
"You really can't bear standing here for a few hours?"
"Yeah, I'd probably collapse from the heat. I don't want put myself at risk. Besides I can come back in the afternoon, so it's fine."
Ash's reasoning would have made sense, if it wasn't morning right now, probably the time when it was the least hot out there.
"Fine, you do you. But you do know that they will be taking us back in two batches right?"
Ash was seemingly uninformed as he had never heard of this before.
"Really, why? It's not like more transport vehicles will magically spawn."
"No clue, I heard it was just how they do things."
Even Will didn't know why they did things this way, as it was never properly explained.
"That's fine I'm okay with being in the second batch."
Ash started walking away before looking back at Will.
"Are you fine with us being in different batches."
Will looked back at Ash with a smirk on his face.
"Shouldn't I be the one asking that, Mr. Sloth?"
Hearing Will's words Ash felt nothing as his statement was actually correct. He indeed was a sloth.
With nothing else to discuss Ash left while Will stayed behind.
As Ash walked through town he noticed something very interesting. He was the only one walking outwards, while everyone else was seemingly going to middle to check out the SCC envoy.
Arriving before his cave Ash decided it would be best to sleep only a bit as lunch was soon approaching.
As such Ash slept, then went back for lunch and then slept once again. One would question how one could sleep so much and then still sleep even more at night, but Ash did it no problem, you could say he was a pro.
Waking up in his cave once more, it was late in the afternoon with the sun on the verge of going down.
This was the prefect time to go to the testing site.
By this time, Ash had spoken to Will who had surprisingly passed the first round of tests, this meant that his spot in the SCC was pretty much set at this point unless the ability he got was actually terrible.
Arriving as he had expect there was barely anyone left, thanks to this he was able to get to the front in a short amount of time.
Being in the front what stood before him was a large tent next to it were large military vehicles clearly made to fit a large number of people. Stepping into the tent he was approached by a tall man in military uniform.
"Please, step into the testing device on your right."
There were no greetings, no introduction to the test, nothing.
Looking to his right Ash saw a small cabin. This was the testing device he needed to go into. It was a small steel cabin enough for just about one person to fit in it comfortably.
Stepping into it, the doors close on him after which he was left there with nothing to do.
The machine was actually not very efficient and as such the scan usually took five to ten minutes. This was one of the main reasons why despite being a small town the line was so long.
After being in there for a good few minutes the door opened and he was able to step out.
"Congratulations, you passed. Plesee follow me."
This time he was lead by a different soldier into another corner of the tent. There by a hard steel table sat a woman, with hospital gear.
"Another one passed?"
"Yep."
"The turnout this time is pretty good."
Then she looked at Ash and although the mask covered her face Ash could make out that she was trying to smile at him from under it.
"Hello, if you could sit down here please."
She was was showing Ash the seat right next to her.
Ash sat down a suddenly he could feel the woman start touching his head.
"You have quite a bit of hair here, but it alright, this shouldn't cause any problems."
After a bit more moving of his hair she stopped for a moment and leaned to the side to grab something. The next thing Ash felt was a striking pain at the back of his head.
"Right I forgot to warn you that this might hurt, sorry."
The woman said apologetically, but Ash couldn't even hear her as he was too preoccupied with trying to bear the pain.
After a few minutes the pain stopped and Ash was finally able to free himself from the pain.
"That was fucking painful."
"It sure is, haha."
The woman only giggled upon hearing Ash's remark.
"Well you are done here, well then see you tomorrow."
"Yeah... see you tomorrow."
Ash was finally able to go, but just as he was about to leave something appeared in his sight.
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[Soul Chip Interface]
>Core Power: [Unknown]
>Proficiency: [0%]
>Rank: [I]
>Attribute: [Light]
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[Minor Skills]
> Null
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The sight of the Soul Chip Interface surprised him as he had expected for it to not show up for another day.
'I guess it works already it's just incomplete in showing things.'
What the Soul Chip was able to show him presently was his soul's attribute.
The attributes showed the type of energy they wielded. Normally all energy is neutral, but once a soul decides to use it it will be converted into an energy of a non neutral type decided by said soul's attribute.
The one Ash got, Light was one of the rarer and potentially strongest one, as it was the element closest to the neutral element, more so than others. The other attributes were fire, water, life, wind, rock, steel, electricity and darkness.
'The Light attribute is very good. I guess there was nothing to worry about.'
Having seen all that he needed he dismissed the interface which he could do just by thinking about it.
With his job done for the day there was nothing more to do than get back to the orphanage and wait for tomorrow.
Walking back to the orphanage, he could see someome sitting on one of the benches by the orphanage.
Approaching it it quickly became clear to Ash who the one sitting there was.
"You were waiting?"
"I couldn't help it I was curious. So how did it go?"
Ash pulled up his hair and showed the chip to Will.
"I passed with flying colors."
"I figured you would, you were so confident in the morning. Still, I'm happy for you."
Ash was happy knowing that they both passed, but then a sudden anger arose from within him.
"Also why didn't you tell me how much it was gonna hurt, huh?"
Will started to smile hearing this and looked at Ash with grin.
"Knowing you I was afraid you might not do it if you knew how painful it was."
"Hey, I might be lazy, and prefer comfort over pain, but I wouldn't have changed my mind just because of this."
Will raised his shoulders in a dismissive manner and looked at Ash.
"I couldn't have known in the moment, I did it for your sake."
Ash was sceptical, but also thought that Will might genuinely do something like this so he let go of the subject.
"Also speaking about thing you forgot to say. What is your attribute?"
"My attribute? How would I know? It hasn't finished scanning yet."
Will took a brief moment to think before speaking up again.
"Wait Ash, you know yours?"
"...Yeah."
Ash had never heard of the attributes being shown so early, so he figured it might have something to do with him having already used his abilities.
"It's the Light attribute."
Even without the chance to compare their affinities Ash still felt proud saying this, as Light was possibly the strongest of them all.
"You really got Light? That's super strong, you might well become Blackheart's new big prodigy."
But then Will thought back to Ash's ability and quickly retracted his statement.
"Actually with an ability like yours maybe not."
"Fuck you."
With their discussion ending it was time for the two to go to bed, as there was nothing else left to do.