After all their morning preparations were complete, it was finally time for Alexandre, Marlon, and William to join the rest of the first-years in the academy's main courtyard.
Many of the gathered students were very stressed, since they'd completely failed to master the exercise their professor had assigned them. No matter how many times they retraced Jack Blades' movements to try linking their own weapons, they simply couldn't make it work.
Alexandre noticed all this nervousness at once and correctly guessed the cause. He also noticed something else: While about half the students had brought pieces of Hunter gear (of varying levels of quality) on the first day, now all of the class of over 1,100 students were carrying a piece of Hunter gear.
However, nearly all of it was clearly of pretty poor quality, perhaps second or even third-hand. Most of these students belonged to the middle and lower classes and simply didn't have the resources to get anything better… not without going into dangerous levels of debt!
But no matter the quality of their gear, most of the students clung to these weapons in terror, knowing that they'd be unable to summon the items on command. When the fateful hour of 6 AM arrived, these young people were sweating in pure fear.
Where he was standing in line, Alexandre felt an unusual pang of sympathy for those who'd failed around him. The task of learning to bind a weapon in under twenty-four hours was nearly absurdly difficult. While he knew that many people possessed a knack for energy manipulation and could succeed with lots of practice, even Alexandre himself had taken months to initially master the manipulation of his own Hunter energy!
As expected, Jack Blades appeared right on time and wasted not a single minute in addressing the crowd. "Hello, there! As agreed, today we'll have a little test to find out whether or not you've successfully linked your weapon. Then, a short while after, we'll go for a nice little swim! Now, please move over there, in front of the little flying drone with a camera, and repeat the 'spatial storage' technique I showed you yesterday! Your points will then be credited."
For a lingering moment, there was still silence. Nobody wanted to be the first to face the test.
Eventually, as usual, Alexandre took the lead and walked in front of one of the drones. He made his star-shaped sigil and calmly watched as the expected portal appeared, about 30 centimeters in circumference. He reached inside and pulled out first one Hunter gauntlet, then the other.
In response, a thin, mechanical voice came from above. "Student: Alexandre Hautville. Freshman year. Test validated and 10 points awarded. Total points: 110!"
As soon as this name was announced, a rumble spread throughout the crowd.
"What, him again!?"
"Hautville? That's a big, rich family, right?"
"That bastard must've cheated! I practiced all night and still couldn't figure it out!"
Alexandre ignored these mutterings of hatred and jealousy, returning back to William and Marlon without saying a word.
But as he looked around at the other students, Alexandre was taken aback! A student he didn't recognize had stepped out in front of the drone—a rather unusual-looking, young, white man with a well-trimmed physique. That wasn't the unusual part, of course. What had caught Alexandre's attention was the student's red-dyed hair and a strange dragon tattoo on his arm.
As Alexandre watched, this student drew his own sigil in a rectangular shape… which instantly produced a portal!
The electronic voice gave another announcement. "Student: Drak Wilhem. Freshman year. Test validated and 10 points awarded. Total points: 20!"
"What the hell?" Alexandre mumbled. It seemed as though this young man had mastered his Hunter energy in such a short period of time, and to such a level that he could've been mistaken for someone who'd been practicing for years! Begrudgingly, Alexandre recognized this "Drak Wilhelm" as a true genius.
Seeing these two easy-looking successes had gotten William excited. He said, "Sorry, brother, but it's my turn!" and walked confidently to the front of the group under the amazed eyes of Marlon and Alexandre.
In a few smug gestures, William also executed his sigil, removed an object that resembled a welding rod from his portal, and then put it back again. He, too, had passed the test and earned his points.