Suddenly the whole atmosphere turned into a serious one, Mr Adam repeated himself once more, "You have to take the final exams right here, right now Earl", Earl was now confused, why was he suddenly told to take the final exam right now?, he had till Friday to do so, he wasn't pre-informed nor properly ready, plus he wasn't even in his normal school uniform, which was designed to aid alchemy, all he had on was a plain white shirt, and some shorts.
"But sir, I still have to Friday, so why am I-", Earl tried to reason, but was suddenly cut off by Mr Adam "I've been instructed by the AAO to conclude all final exams today, as they have decided to not make the highschool submission date next month, but by Monday", Earl was in shock, not only had the AAO suddenly changed the final exam date, but they had also changed the Highschool submission date. The AAO, or All Alchemy Organisation had existed for about 400 years now, and they oversaw all new Alchemy practices since then, they mainly created and enforced rules concerning Alchemy, as well as governed the highschools Alchemy students attended, they were in charge of the schedules, acceptance or denial of application, and overall function of the alchemy world, this was mainly to keep balance and restrictions on the practice of Alchemy, but sometimes they made decisions that seemed too sudden and drastic, and this was one of those times. "But-" Earl tried speaking once more, but was once again cut off by Mr Adams, " In addition to that, they will handpick the highschool you attend, and grant you free accommodation", seeing the confused look in Earl's eyes made Mr Adam sigh, "Look Earl, not even I know what the AAO think, but I do know one thing, they're preparing for something..., something big, but to do that, they need as much trained Alchemists as possible, so if you still haven't given up, I'd like to score you as soon as possible, because I've got a long day ahead of me", When Mr Adams was done, Earl nodded and stepped out of the shops door. After stepping outside, Earl could immediately see three huge Alchemy circle's drawn out on the floor, but he had already seen it before, it was a sight he was all too familiar with, "As you know, the Final exam includes three tests, one to test your physical body's limit, one to test your mental state, and one to test your alchemy abilities, so please if you would, step into the first circle", said Mr Adam, he then gestured his hand towards the first circle, Earl gulped as he walked towards the circle, he wasn't prepared, and everything was being rushed on him, not to mention he had already failed the exam 5 times before this, so if he failed now, it would be his last chance, with that in mind he walked to the middle of the circle and took a stance, lowering his centre of balance, and spreading his legs, while placing both his hands by his side, like how monk stood when training, he thought this was the best stance he could take for this exercise, but then just then he suddenly felt this feeling of danger, his body quickly reacted by flexing all his muscles in his body, noticing this only one thought came into his mind 'Third Eye'. "Drain!!" Mr Adam said, suddenly the whole circle lit up, and slightly transparent glowing blue hands, with blue particles floating around them began springing on out of the floor and going through Earl's body, it felt like someone was dragging out all his strength from his body, and he soon began sweating, he maintained his stance while gritting his teeth, but the more the hands passed through his body, the weaker it felt, soon his legs became weak, and he eventually collapsed onto the floor, immediately after seeing this, Mr Adam quickly deactivated the alchemy circle, and pressed the timer on his stopwatch, it displayed the number 78 on it, and he took out a pen and wrote it down on a book he pulled from his pocket. After the circle was deactivated, blue particles started re-entering Earl's body, and he soon had all his energy back as to when he had started the exercise, "Onto the next test then" Mr Adam said as he once again, gestured him towards a slightly smaller circle, he walked into it and stood there still getting ready for the next test to start. "Migraine!!" Mr Adam yelled once again as the second circle lit up, suddenly Earl's eyes rolled back, and his eyes were now just white, he stood there motionless as he saw a message[Spiritual energy depleting][Spiritual energy: 20/50][Spiritual energy depoeting][Spiritual energy: 15/50]He suddenly became panicked, and frantic, he didn't know what this spiritual energy was, or how it worked, but he knew one thing, it was depleting, and it was depleting fast, he started struggling as hard as he could to break free, and eventually he had come out of it, and immediately threw up on the ground, seeing this Mr Adam then released stopped it once more, and repeated the same actions of writing down a the number 48 in his book, when Earl was done throwing up, he got up from the floor only to see a message appear in front of his eyes[Spiritual Energy: 8/50][You must consume life energy in the next 24 hours][Your Spiritual energy will continue to deplete till life energy is consumed, You will experience immense pain until life energy is consumed][If Spiritual energy reaches 0, Your HP will continue to deplete till death]His eyes opened widely, his spiritual energy was now 8/50, and he would need to consume life energy in less than 24 hours unless he would die, he didn't even know what spiritual energy was, or why he would need to consume life energy to keep himself from dying, but he had an idea, one that he didn't like, one that involved taking another person's life."what's is it Earl?" asked Mr Adam, as Earl stood there speechless and looking like he had just seen a ghost, snapping out of it Earl answered "I'm fine...., let's get this over with", he then walked over to the third and smallest alchemy circle, it was drawn on a small table and had lead in the middle of it, he knew what it was, it was the test to transmutate lead into steel, "Okay then, start" said Mr Adams, Earl began trying his best to transmutate it, but nothing seemed to happen, this went on for another 10 minutes before Mr Adam decided to stop the third test, after carrying the piece of lead from the transmutation circle, he began walking off, " wait...., I..... I... I felt something change there, I'm positive I can do it just give me another chance", Earl pleaded, hearing this Mr Adam took one look at the lead and put it back, with that he called it a day, " don't worry, if u pass, some people will be arriving on Monday to take you to your chosen Academy", with that he walked off and as he smiled to himself, I love those who keep their promises, eventually got out of sight and Earl then sat down recovering from the final exam, as he was amazed by his teacher Mr Adam, although Mr Adam had support Alchemy which let him either buff or debuff any opponent, but it was still worth it when in a real team battle situation, but in a one on one confrontation, it wouldn't be so useful, but Earl's Reminiscing was quickly got cut off. Suddenly it felt like his stomach was about to explode, and his head was aching so bad, he threw up once more, but felt even worse than the way he was before throwing up, he kept holding his stomach and head until he fainted out of pain, banging his head on the floor with blood in his mouth and coming out the side of his head, just then the shop doors opened up "What's all that noise??", It was grandpa Ollie who had come out like a grumpy old man, but later on, his face changed after seeing Earl motionless on the floor, "Earl!!" grandpa Ollie shouted as he grabbed Earl of the floor and took him inside, just then his pendant began slightly glowing, and although he wasn't conscious, he still received a message[Vlad Talisman activated, healing process begin][Spiritual Energy: 7/50][Your Spiritual Energy depletes]"Earl... Earl.... Earl!!!... Earl wake up!!!", Earl could hear a familiar voice calling out to him, it was grandpa Ollie. After finding Earl passed out right outside the shops door, he quickly took him inside and laid him on the shop floor, he took a towel and some water and placed it on his forehead, but still after 3 hours he still hadn't regained consciousness, grandpa Ollie didn't have any medicinal herbs with him, nor could he perform any form of Alchemy, this was the best solution he had at the time. "grandpa Ollie?", Earl had finally regained consciousness, though his vision was still a little blurry, he slowly sat up straight, as he was lying down on the shop's floor, "what happened to you?", grandpa Ollie asked with a worried look on his face, Earl held his head trying to remember what had happened, he remembered everything from the early morning visits, down to the details of what Mr Adams had said, his face suddenly went white when he saw a message appear[Vlad Talisman de
Earl was running through the forest as he was rushing home, he left Nora's dead body in hopes that some beasts would eat it, even if they were weak beasts, it didn't mean they didn't eat flesh, plus there was a good chance they would, as they would not only be attracted due to the smell of her blood, but also because of the dead beasts carcass, after about 10 minutes of running, he finally made it out of the forest and his house was in view, *Pant**Pant*Earl was panting heavily as he had been running for quite a while, he was drenched from head to toe, but at least now he had an idea of what Spiritual Energy was. It was the natural energy his body had, each time he got injured, his body would heal itself using spiritual energy, this was probably also the energy that was used by Alchemist in summoning creatures, activating special beast gear, and performing special skills, this explanation also fit in with the idea of why he had to consume life energy, as advanced Alchemy made use of
Miss Edna and Mr Adam, along with Jake were all running towards the forest, after hearing what Jake had said, Miss Edna wasted no time in rushing over towards the forest, the forest, though it had beasts, was often a place where people strolled through, also due to the fact that the most dangerous beasts one could find there was intermediate, students would train there, it wasn't anything any decent student couldn't handle, but based off what she had heard from Jake, only one thought came to mind, 'Could the ORA be making their move already?', if they were, and attacked a student in the forest, then that meant she would most likely have to prepare for immediate battle. After a couple minutes of running, they made it to the entrance to the forest, "Which way did u hear the scream?" Miss Edna asked, "That way" Jake said while pointing in particular direction, "Thank you" Miss Edna said before running into the forest in the direction Jake had pointed, seeing her move, Mr Adam followed su
"Oh and don't forget to pack up, cuz you might be gone by Monday'', those words had been in Earl's head all weekend, he started packing up his bags by the time he heard her say that, but he was still speculative on whether he would get accepted or not, though all the anxiety from the Nora incident had died down, his new found anxiety of being rejected or accepted had resurfaced. It was Monday morning, and as Early as 4am, Earl was sitting outside the shop with all his bags packed outside, he was wearing a white shirt, and brown shorts, along with some sandals, he tried his best to comb his messy hair, but it was no use, and ended up being a waste of time, he packed everything he thought he would need, from clothes and books, to hairs and baby teeth, he was so anxious and nervous he was killing himself over it, 'Are they late?, Am I early?, Am I late?', he kept questioning himself, just then his grandfather then walked outside stretching out his arms, "Don't you think your a little too
Earl was sitting there inside the room in between two girls and two boys, the boy who had spoken when he entered the room was Henry, while the girl he had argued with was Ruby, they well still currently arguing, or at least the boy was still talking why Ruby didn't say much, just an insult here and there, the other two people were also quiet, so Earl decided to speak to them instead, he turned over to the girl beside him and put out his hand, "Hi, I'm Earl, what's your name?", the girl seeing this put out her hand and shook his, she had red hair that's was wavy and long, she wore a black top, and a black cargo pants, she also had a necklace on, and wore the traditional Japanese sandals, "Hi I'm Annie, nice to meet you", Earl then proceeded to shake her hand, but then one thought came to his mind as he did, ' Soft ' , her hand was soft, he was afraid that if he shook any harder her hand would get squished, now that he gave it some thought, the girl he had just met was beautiful, she ha
After making their plan, the man who escorted Earl there came in once again, but this time escorted the entire team to the last floor where a huge platform, with hundreds of people already on it, they were each in groups of five, and just as Ruby had said, it seemed like it would be a battle Royale, more teams were being brought to the ring, so most of the team's already there had decided to go over they're plans again, but most of Earl's team had decided to just look around and try evaluating the other teams, but almost immediately Earl recognised someone in the crowd of people, "Jake??!!", of all the people to run into, it had to be Jake, he had always hated Jake so much, and he just had to meet him at the entrance exam, Jake always bullied him due to his weakness, although he hates it and fought back most of the time, the end result would always be the same, but even if now he felt a little stronger, and although he had no idea how to fight properly, he would at least help his team
Both students were standing opposite each other, Earl's left arm was shattered, while Jake was standing there ready to attack, Earl was sweating as the stinging pain in his arm was unbearable, he clenched it with his right arm, but never once removed his gaze from Jake, he saw a message pop up in front of him, but ignored it immediately, he already knew what it was, it was probably just his HP depleting, but he didn't care, although his left arm was shattered, the adrenaline was still rushing through his body and all his senses were alert, Jake began gathering air in his hand once more and repeated the same compressing process until he had gathered pressured air in his hand, he then readied his legs to burst out towards Earl once more, as he gathered the air around his feet, his black buttoned up shirt and black trousers began flowing up about in the air, he readied himself and stomped his black shoes in the floor, as he looked Earl dead in the eye, "Shit!!", Sidney said s
"Earl White, number 345 and Jake Philip, number 601 eliminated", those words resonated through it the stadium as both the crowd and the students were all shocked at what had just happened, Jake was the student who had the most eliminations, and Earl was the student who hadn't shown any form of Alchemy in the exams, they had originally aimed that he was hiding it for later on in the match, or wasn't a physical form of Alchemy, but after seeing him get his arm shattered, they began wondering if he didn't have any form of alchemy what so ever, if he was hiding it, he would've at least tried some form of attack against Jake after being damaged so badly, but all they saw him do was grit his teeth and bear the pain while launching physical attacks, they also had the suspicion that he might be a strong Alchemist, but they're suspicions were quickly gone, because if he was a strong Alchemist, he should've knocked him out in one punch, but the attacks they saw looked like regular old punches,