The Test
Beasts and Beast Tamers had a fixed path of progression, in which there were a total of 9 ranks. There's ranks were...
Novice
Apprentice
Adept
Expert
Elite
Master
Grandmaster
Legendary
Mythical
The higher the rank a beast and their tamer achieved, the stronger they would become and the more influence they would be able to obtain, after all, with power came influence.
But naturally, it was difficult for someone to hatch a powerful beast. As a result, powerful beast tamers were rare, but they also possessed a large amount of influence and recognition.
Everyone aspired to become a powerful beast tamer. After all, the power and fame were all too appealing, and no one wanted to be ordinary. However, there were certain things one couldn't change, fate being one of them.
Hearing her name the girl, Ana, stood up quickly. She was of average height and was a little chubby, making her look pretty adorable. In her hands was a small green turtle that seemed to be asleep.
Ana walked to the front of the class, looking a bit shy, and Mrs Jane stared at her and said calmly.
"Just place your beast on the metal plate, the machine will do the rest." Ana nodded and obeyed. She gently placed the turtle on the metal plate and waited nervously.
The machine hummed and a strange energy came from the plate the turtle was on and swept over it. The turtle was startled awake, but it seemed too lazy to react drastically in any way, like running. So it just stayed still as the energy washed over it.
About a minute later, the energy subsided and everyone watched with bated breaths as the machine seemed to calculate something, then the crystal embedded on top of it radiated a soft blue color.
"Adept rank potential." Mrs Jane said calmly, but her tone held a bit of satisfaction. Ana seemed elated by the news as she scooped up her turtle happily, though the little guy seemed more irritated than happy. After all, it was just trying to sleep.
As Ana returned to her seat and everyone gave her envious looks, Osho tapped his chin as he pondered.
There was a way to easily assess the strength of a beast, and that was by its Aura. Beasts were capable of unleashing their Auras that served as a tangible force, though, the Aura didn't do much besides suppress those weaker than it and display its strength.
Auras were essentially a method that displayed the overall power a beast possessed. So everything a beast could do contributed to their Aura. However, there was a limit to that.
That was because beasts, upon reaching a higher rank, would go through a qualitative change that allowed them to surpass their past selves by a significant margin. It's for this reason that it was extremely difficult for beasts of a lower rank to defeat a beast of a higher rank.
Now how did one recognize a beast of a higher rank? Well, Auras, besides being a tangible force, were also visible, and the color of a beast's Aura depended on varying factors. For instance, a beast with an ice attribute was likely to have a frost blue Aura, and a beast with a fire attribute could be said to have a red Aura, and so on.
However, what mattered was the undertone. No matter the color of a beast's Aura, the undertone would never change unless the beast reached a higher rank, and each rank had its color distinction.
They were are follows.
Novice – Gray
Apprentice – Green
Adept – Blue
Expert – Violet
Elite – Crimson
Master – Silver
Grandmaster – Gold
Legendary – Black
Mythical – Prismatic
The crystal displayed a blue color, so Ana's turtle had Adept rank potential. It didn't seem that good at first glance considering that it was just the third rank in the hierarchy, but it proved to be significant as the vast majority of beast tamers in the world had beasts at the Novice or apprentice rank. In a way, beasts at the adept rank or with Adept rank potential were considered the 'combat' population among beasts and Beast Tamers. So in reality, Ana had already surpassed a large majority of people when it came to potential.
With such a high standard being set from the beginning, there were two reactions, those who saw this as a good sign and hoped that everyone else would receive similar luck, and those who felt like all the luck had been sucked out of the room, and thus doubted they'd get a good result.
After Ana returned to her seat, Mrs Jane called the next student.
"Adam. Come up please." This time, a pretty average-looking boy stood up. He didn't seem to have any special features or personality traits. He looked reasonably nervous, but not enough to be called shy.
His beast was a normal-looking Capybara, if there was any defining trait about it, it would be its deep blue eyes that reminded one of the seas.
He walked up to Mrs Jane and got a nod from her which prompted him to place his beast on the metal plate. True to their reputation, the Capybara seemed wholly unperturbed by the situation.
Just like before, the device activated and a strange energy washed over the Capybara which remained unperturbed. When it finished, the crystal embedded in the machine came to life. Everyone watched as it flickered between green and blue, before slowly settling on that same blue color it had for Ana.
Adam let out a sigh of relief and picked up his beat while Mrs Jane gave him a nod of satisfaction.
'So far so good.' Osho thought as she called up the next person.
Sadly, it seemed like that's where the luck of the class ran out.
There were a total of thirty students in their class, and of the ten that followed after Ana and Adam, only one person's beast had Apprentice potential, and everyone else was stuck at Novice. The reactions to this were understandably heartbreaking.
Osho sighed, it was common knowledge that what was happening pretty much described the situation for aspiring beast masters, but seeing it happen in person was bound to fill him with pity.
For a moment, a small seed of doubt found its way into his heart. What if the evolution Gake had undergone wasn't as significant as he thought, and it simply increased his potential by a sub-rank? What if Gale also had Novice potential?
'Stop that.' He killed the thought immediately, Gale's performance the previous day spoke volumes of his potential, so he was confident that he would perform well.
'Besides, even if that's the case, I'll just keep evolving him, no big deal.' The doubt was quickly eradicated.
Osho looked to his side and saw Ellie. She wasn't as calm as him, but she couldn't be called nervous either. She just seemed a bit wary.
'Not surprising considering that if Sugil doesn't have good potential, her family can just bulk buy eggs for her to hatch.' He tilted his head.
'Most likely, she made some agreement with her parents, if Sugil had good potential, then she could keep her and her family would leave her alone. If not then Sugil would be an afterthought and they'd get her something more befitting of her status.' He nodded to himself, it was a reasonable guess.
Not long after, Ellie was called and she took a breath before standing up and going to the table, her usual bright smile as bright as ever.
Mrs Jane had returned to her impossible demeanor as the previous tests had crushed any hopes she had of her students having a beast with good potential. The students also had no hope and watched Ellie with bleak expressions as she placed Sugil on the metal plate.
The snake seemed confused, but Ellie seemed to convey her intentions to it as it made no move to do anything drastic.
Soon, the machine got to work and everyone watched, not expecting too much.
Then there was a flash of red.
Osho sat straight and Mrs Jane tensed, her eyes narrowing slightly. Everyone else was stunned silent as gradually, a bright Crimson light filled the crystal and stabilized.
After a while, a genuine smile graced Mrs Jane's face.
"Elite rank potential." She finally said and the class went into an uproar.
They could hardly believe their eyes as everyone started shouting with disbelief or talking to their friends heatedly.
Ellie seemed both surprised and proud as she picked up Sugil and kissed the top of the snake's head, causing it to flick its tongue out happily.
Their reactions seemed strong, but they were in fact, perfectly valid.
Elite-ranked beasts were, well Elite. They signified the clear demarcation between lower and higher-tiered beasts and were the representation of power for most.
In fact, the leader of the Citadel, Marshal Levi, only had an Expert-ranked beast. That meant that Ellie had the potential to surpass him!
'Nice. Very nice Ellie.' Osho couldn't help but let out an excited smile. Instead of envy, he felt genuine joy for his friend.
That said, his pride wanted him to outdo her as well.
Ellie returned to her seat under the praise of the class, and for once, Mrs Jane didn't immediately call for order as she let them get it out of their system.
As Ellie sat down, Osho quipped.
"Well Mrs Elite Tamer, you better remember me when you get famous in the future." He joked and Ellie rolled her eyes, though there was still a hint of a smile at the corner of her lips.
"Please, that particular phrase is overused." She countered and Osho shrugged.
"I'm not well versed in these things." He said genuinely.
"Dense MF!" Someone shouted from a corner of the class and Osho's mouth twitched.
"I heard that!" She said through gritted teeth.
"Alright, that's enough." Mrs Jane regained her composure and returned to her usual stern demeanor. Everyone went quiet immediately. It seemed that even with a prospective Elte rank beast tamer in their midst, no one dared defy their teacher.
"Patrick, you're up next." She said and a skinny boy quickly went up.
Sadly, there was no suspense after that, Patrick's beast was of the Novice rank.
The excitement quickly died down as the reality of the situation weighed down on everyone once more. Ellie was one in a million, there was no way the results could be mimicked in a short time, so everyone was resolved to their fates.
Indeed, the following tests yielded little to no good results as the beasts were mostly of Novice potential with a few Apprentice potential beasts here and there. It was disheartening, to say the least.
"Osho, you're up next." Osho who had been playing with Gale idly stood up when he heard his name. The bird hopped on his shoulder and he calmly walked to the table.
Everyone watched him with numb expressions as they expected the same results as before, and they judged his calm expression to be one of resignation.
Mrs Jane nodded and gave him the go-ahead.
Without wasting any time, Osho gently pucked Gale from his shoulder and placed him on the metal plate. He made sure the bird would stay still before the Machine started working.
Again, a strange energy washed over the bird, and Osho couldn't help but feel his heart start to beat a little fast. Despite his best efforts, the faint sting of nervousness didn't leave him alone, and he watched with bated breath as the machine worked.
The process wasn't meant to take more than a minute, but every second felt like an eternity, and he wanted nothing more than for it to be over with.
Finally though, the Machine finished working, and for a few seconds, nothing happened. This caused everyone to be confused and for Mrs Jane to raise a brow, had something happened?
However, the confusion changed to something else as if a switch had been flipped, and everyone watched with utter shock...
As a spark of Silver shone within the crystal.