"Do you know what will come next?" Viviana whispered to Wida.
"Beat me," Wida said truthfully.
"I hope it isn't anything too diffcult," Mike, who had come over, said. The three had been introduced to one another.
Just as they were wondering, and looking around for clues, like the others, a person suddenly stepped out from a corner of the hall. He smiled sinisterly.
"Welcome to the Magixa exam. I am one of the examiners. The rest will come out later. Let me lead to the place for the first test."
"Where did he come from? I didn't even see him!" Viviana was surprised. "And what a strange outfit! He is all green!"
Indeed, the examiner was draped all in green from the head to the toes. He had a green hat, a green coat, a green shirt, green pants, green boots and the stick he carried around was in green.
"Maybe we just didn't notice him because he was quiet," Mike reasoned. Most of the others in the great hall seemed to agree with him.
Wida was instantly on guard though. She felt something extraordinarily and dangerous from that man. He was without a doubt a specialist and a powerful one at that. She also knew that that man did not walk out from that corner, rather he "evolved" from a piece of shadow from the wall on that corner.
Everyone followed that man. The man opened the big door and stepped out. The first group of people who followed him was about to step out when he shouted and jumped back. Everyone was surprised.
"What happened?" Many cried out.
Wida, Viviana and Mike tried to see why everyone did not step out of the door.
"Oh my god, what was that?" Viviana cried out.
"That black thing!....Is it shadows?" Mike said in shock. "But there isn't anyone standing there!"
Outside the door, there were numerous human-like "shadows" standing at the hallway, blocking the participants' way. Yet, there was nobody "human" there.
Almost everyone was quite confused. Only a few stood in silent. Wida could feel that they were specialists.
"Hmph, they are just shadows! There's nothing to be scared of!" An over-confident man said and stepped out the front door. He then walked past the shadows. "See? Nothing is happening. You all are such scaredy-cats, being scared by these-"
Before he could finish, one shadow grabbed his throat.
"Wha-?" The man choked out as he struggled and tried to hit the "shadow". However, his hands just simply passed through them. His face turned more and more pale.
Suddenly, he went all limp and dropped to the floor, seemingly dead. Many screamed.
That examiner suddenly appeared at the front door, amongst the "shadows".
"Oh, one is dead. Who shall be next?" He smiled again, coldly.
Many people cried in fear and confusion.
"I never thought I could die for this stupid license!"
"Nobody said about this!"
"Who wants to do this? I quit!"
"I don't want to die! Help me!"
Many of the participants retreated back into the hall and said they quit. Only a few still stood in front of the front door.
"I will be the next one then," a twelve-years old girl said and stepped forward.
"Hey, it's dangerous there! Come back, you fool!" Someone cried out from amongst the quitting participants.
A boy in front turned his head back to face them. "You are the foolish ones, Mister." He smiled.
The girl stepped out. Immediately, a shadow came to attack her.
Mike saw thia and was about to grab her back in when he saw that the girl took out a gun and shot the shadow. Amazingly, when the bullet passed throught the shadow, it disappeared.
"Well, well, one passed," the examiner said and smiled. He waved her forward. "Please go straight forward. Someone will fetch you."
That girl went past the shadows and vanished.
"Wha-?" Mike asked in shock. Viviana was also speechless.
"Next one is me then," the previous boy seen before took out a dagger. The dagger started to glow yellow.
He also succeeded in finishing off the shadow and passed the test. Later, one by one, many passed the test, all of them using special equipments.
"I have always heard but never saw this with my own eyes. They are definitely specialists!" One person in the participants who had retreated exclaimed.
"Specialists!" Viviana's mouth dropped open. "Wow, I have heard about them too! No wonder they could get through!"
Mike was silent although his face was full of incredulity.
"What do we do now? We are not specialists! There is no way we could attack those shadows!"
"This is so unfair!"
Everyone in the originally quitting participants was angry.
Mike looked down, with his hands squeezed shut tightly. Even Viviana looked crushed.
Wida looked at them and sighed. "You two just give up like that?"
Mike and Viviana looked up.
"But...what can we do? I don't have superpower or super weapons!" Viviana said agitatedly.
Wida looked at her calmly. "And?"
"And?" Viviana looked back with incredulity. "You are telling me to rush out and be killed?"
"This is not just a game. When you come here, you should have already predicted this would happen, don't you?"
Viviana was silent, along with Mike.
Wida looked at the shadows and then at the examiner. "I think the shadows are not "monsters" out for everyone's life, but rather they are the "evil" in people's hearts. Only courage and determination to exterminate oneself's evil and other's evil, even at the cost of oneself life, would enable the shadows to accept us, right, Mr Green?"
"Evil?" Viviana said, taken aback.
"Overcome all evil...." Mike said softly, absorbing this.
"Mr Green" smiled again, this time more widely and warmly. "Wida, you deliberately leak out this "secret" to your two friends, did you? Because you felt the "truth" in these shadows and your dear friends."
Wida ignored him. She turned back to Mike instead. "Don't you have an important goal? Don't tell me this mini setback is enough to make you give up. If that is true...I am really diappointed. Turns out your mother's life is not enough to give you courage or that you can't even give up your life to save your mother."
With that, Wida pointedly ignored them and then stepped out of the front door. As expected, a shadow stretched out his hand toward her. Wida stood still and closed her eyes. Astonishingly, the shadow just passed through her. Then it looked like it was sucked into her body and vanished.
"Congratulation, you passed the test," Mr Green said, still smiling, but this time his eyes had lost all warmth and looked calculatingly instead.
Wida opened her eyes and nodded. Then she left without looking back.
Viviana was staring at the whole thing with a startling expression. Mike watched, biting his lips and his hands clenching even more tightly.
"Now, who's next? Or have everyone gave up?" Mr Green said, smiling knowingly.
Viviana swallowed hard and took a deep breath. "I won't give up that easily! Right, Mike?" Viviana turned towards Mike.
Mike was stoned for a while before his face turned completely into one of full determination. He nodded.
They stepped forward and out the front door bravely. The shadows started to move. They closed their eyes like Wida and tried to stand still. However, they was visibly shaking a bit. The shadows' hands touched their bodies but they neither pass through nor could attack them. After an anxious two minutes of this continuing, the shadows finally vanished, slowly and then quicker.
"Congratulation, you two passed," Mr Green announced.
Mike's and Viviana's eyes opened quickly. They were obviously stunned they had passed.
"Go ahead," Mr Green said with a smile, but with a stern tone. "Don't stand around."
Mike and Viviana got the hint to leave as quickly as they could and ran off.
"Now, who's next?" Mr Green turned towards the other participants and smiled coldly.
***************************************************
Mike and Viviana stopped when a figure held out a hand to stop them.
"I am the examiner for the second test. Please wait for me to confirm your next venue." She was about thirty years old, with auburn hair. She wore an outfit similar to the previous examiner but this time in red colour.
"We are separated?" Viviana asked.
The examiner said, "Yes. You would be directed to a venue that will specifically test you for test two."
"Will we get together after that?" Mike asked, suddenly thinking of Wida. He wanted to tell her he had passed test one.
"Yes. But that is only if you passed test two. You will then be automatically directed to test three." After five seconds, she said, "Confirmation complete. You will be transported to the next venue."
"Trans-" Viviana had not finished her sentence when the ground below her suddenly opened and she dropped. Mike had a different door on his floor, which dropped him. Only the sound of "Ahhh" could be heard before the doors closed.
********************************************
Wida looked around and noticed the three Level Three specialists, one male, two females, sitting around a table, drinking tea and eating dessert leisurely. These three specialists all wore similar outfits but with different colours, yellow, purple and light blue.
"Welcome, Wida, come and sit down," One of them said, pointing to a chair beside her.
"Hello, undercover agent," another smiled.
The last one was silent, instead concentrating on writing something and eating.
Wida sensed something wrong and sat down. "Why am I here? I thought I was supposed to be in test two?"
"There is no need for you to go for that. We have set up a whole set of "televisions" for you to supervise the participants while you can relax with a cup of tea," the purple one said.
She waved a hand and the room lightened up. Wida could now see there were many eye-like screens all around, each one showing the situation of the participants.
"Actually, that was the original plan. But now something has gone wrong," the light blue one said.
"A monster with "S" class has appeared in the venue of test three," the yellow one said without looking up from his writing.
Monsters were grouped into various classes. "S" was the strongest and the most dangerous. "A", "B", "C" and "D" followed it, with "D" the weakest and the smallest.
"We cannot handle it swiftly. One of the participant in test Two is about to win and will reach that venue. Our abilities is not enough to kill that monster in such a short time. We can only made a barrier to contain it temporarily."
"We will probably take about three hours of exhausted work just for it," the purple one said. "We wish that you can help us out to destroy it and at the same time, you can then reach that venue. We apologise for the trouble."
"We will help you to supervise the participants instead," the blue one said.
Wida just shrugged. "Alright. Killing monsters was my job anyway." She stood up. "Pardon me." Then, instantly, a red glow surrounded her and a strong force gathered around her. The tea rippled inside the cups and much of the food were blown away. The red glow turned green before disappearing.
"What great power," the purple one said in great respect.
"See ya," Wida said and then waved a hand. She vanished.
One of the eye-like screens flickered and then Wida appeared in it.
"So that is a the power of a Blue Rank," the yellow one said thoughtfully and then scribbled something onto his paper.
Meanwhile, Wida had reached her destination and seen the monster. It was even bigger looking up close. It had big shaggled wings, black "body", huge and sharp claws, with blood on it, huge pointed teeth and sharp eagle eyes. It roared and rushed at Wida on seeing her.
"Feeling hungry, huh?" Wida jumped backward and summoned a scythe from her hand. "But sorry, I am not your food." She tried to slash the monster. That monster dodged and flied up with his wings at great speed.
"A speedy and flying monster? No wonder you are "S"," Wida said calmly. "What a trouble."
It stretched out its claws towards Wida's face. One of Wida's eyes turned red suddenly. The monster yelped in pain and retreated. Its claw was smoking and turning into ash.
"I'm sorry but I don't have time to play with you," Wida held out a hand and closed her eyes. Wind gathered around her gradually and then more violently. She opened her eyes and threw a force at it. The monster could not dodge the wind attack as it was too big and violent. It was thrown upon to the wall.
"Here's your last blow!" Wida said and then rushed forward at great speed with the help of wind. Her scythe slashed the monster in an instant. It roared and then turned into ash completely.
Just at that moment, one of the participants arrived through one of the doors connected to the room. She was sexily dressed in black, holding onto a long sword. Her eyes widened sightly in surprise at Wida holding such a large scythe.
"Hmph, someone see this...." Wida said softly. She, without hestitation, threw the scythe and it vanished into her hand.
That lady's eyes widened even more at this. "Who are you?"
Wida did not reply. She walked to a corner of the room and sat down.
"You are a specialist too, right? But no one can make their weapon disappear into one's hand! Who are you?!"
Wida sighed. "Just treat me as an abnormality then."
"But....."
Wida glared at her then. She became silent and did not ask any more question.
Later, more and more participants appeared. Mike and Viviana passed test two too.
"Wida! Thank goodness we meet again!" Viviana said happily, rushing forward to hug her.
Wida awkwardly hugged her back.
Mike slowly walked forward. "Wida....thanks for the encouragement just now. You are right. I shouldn't let a minor setback defeat me. My mother is waiting for me," he said determinedly.
Wida smiled slightly.
Meanwhile, the lady who had witnessed Wida's scythe looked at her and her group all this time. Her name was Thelia.
"Congratulation on passing test two. Now it is time for test three," a door opened and the lady with blue outfit stepped forward to announce.
**************************************
The girl with the red eye stared at the computer.
"What a huge disappointment. That monster is so easily defeated it isn't any fun at all."
There was a knock on the door. It opened without the girl's permission.
"You should go out often, Dinia. Staring at the computer too long will make your brain turn dusty," a man said, entering the room. He was dressed in brown. His face was hooded by his long and old coat.
"Uncle Qwan! Long time no seen!" Dinia said with a mixture of delight and surprise.
"I come to see how Thelia's sister is doing," he smiled.
"I'm having fun! Just now I even planted a monster into Magixa exam venue! Hee," Dinia rubbed her hands together with glee.
The man pat her on the head. "Good idea. How's it going?"
Dinia crossed her arms. "It is such a disappointment. I don't know how someone participanting in the exam could be that powerful. He or she wiped out a "S" monster in just one minutes!"
That man said, "Is it anyone you know?"
"I couldn't see her. There was a barrier thing surrounding the room. But come to think of it, that aura feels familiar," Dinia said thoughtfully.
The man smiled tightly, his eyes as cold as ice. "I see. That must be her then."
Dinia's eyes lighted up. "Yeah, I should have thought of her too. But why is she in that exam too?"
"No matter. They will never win us."
Dinia smiled too. "Especially Thelia."
*************************************
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