51 Aptitude
Alex walked over to Kyla with a hint of disappointment on his face.
To be truthful, he was expecting something more 'grand' when he had his aptitudes tested, especially with all the anticipation and build-up from the security guarding this room alone.
When he arrived at Kyla's side, he looked at her for a second, wondering what she was so excited about.
"Look!" She ordered Alex with expectation — pointing at the tablet screen in her hand.
What showed up on the screen only confused Alex even further.
[Aptitude Test results - Alex]
Elemental Affinities - 54%
Conceptual Affinities - 2%
Spiritual Affinities - 71%
Mystical Affinities - 8%
[-End of test-]
When Alex looked at his results, contrary to Kyla his reaction was much more tame.
He already knew he had a fire affinity because of his Flame talent — the reason for his Elemental Affinities being so high.
But he was a little surprised at his Spiritual Affinities being even higher than that.
'Maybe my other talent, Soulforge, has something to do with it?'
Of course, Alex wasn't certain about his guess. It just seemed like the most likely answer since 'Spiritual' usually meant something to do with the soul, as far as the novel's he had read were concerned.
But who said there had to be a reason for it? He could just have a naturally high Spiritual Affinity.
With how vague these results were, it would be impossible for Alex to determine the reason why without getting an even more detailed evaluation.
When Kyla saw his tame reaction, she lightly slapped the back of his head, prompting a reaction from Alex.
"Hey! What was that for? You do realise you could easily injure me with your strength!" Alex shouted back at her while rubbing his head. Even a light tap from her hurt enough for him to yelp.
"I'll be lucky if I don't have a headache for the rest of the day…" He mumbled some more words, but stopped complaining when he looked at Kyla's clearly unimpressed expression.
"Do you not realise what this means? How are you not excited when you look at these results!?" It seemed she was unhappy with his lack of reaction.
"As a matter of fact, I don't know what this means, please elaborate for me, oh great Distinguished Kyla!" With a sarcastic tone, Alex retorted.
He really didn't know why those results were a big deal.
Hearing his reply, Kyla took a deep breath to calm herself down and started to explain:
"As you can obviously see, there are four main categories of aptitude."
Alex nodded.
He had seen the tablet, he may have grown up in the slums but he could count to four!
"Well, from reading into your background a little bit, it's safe to say you don't know what these four categories mean, correct?"
Alex gave her a weird look.
She had looked into his background? When?
But Alex answered anyway
"That's true, though I can guess what Elemental Affinities are."
Kyla shrugged and continued.
"I'll explain the other three then. Conceptual Affinities consist of Space, Time, Dimensions, Creation etc."
Starting off with Conceptual Affinities, Kyla explained which specific affinities fell under this section, and their basic usage.
Alex had no idea how someone would fight using 'concepts' but he put his curiosity for the topic aside for the time being.
"Next, we have spiritual Affinities. This covers stuff like the Soul, Mind, basically anything outside of the physical realm and in the Spiritual Dimension."
Things got even weirder when she explained to him about the Spiritual Affinities.
'How can someone have an affinity for the soul? Don't we all have souls? What makes theirs different from mine?'
His questions were left unanswered.
"Finally we have Mystical Affinities, which happens to be the one Humanity knows the least about. What comes under this is stuff like Divination, Enchantment, Curses, Illusions. Basically the 'Supernatural'."
Kyla finished her explanations about the different Aptitudes, leaving Alex with a bunch more unanswered questions.
"That's great and all, but what does me knowing what the differentiations in Aptitudes are have to do with why you're so excited."
This is what Alex was really concerned about.
After all, that's what led to this whole conversation starting.
"I was getting to that." Kyla said in annoyance.
"That's because one of the requirements for upgrading your Soul core to B tier is to have a level of control over an element, which you can only do if you have an affinity for an element."
This time it was Alex's turn to be shocked.
Reaching B rank, what did that have to do with him when he had only just hit E- rank?
'Wait, she said 'control over an element', that only falls under one of the four sections.'
Alex looked up at Kyla, and it was as if she could read his mind.
"I know what you're thinking. 'Why only elements?', well don't ask me. I'm in the same boat as you as far as that goes. Any information pertaining to the other three Aptitudes is above my paygrade, but I heard rumors they're even more important than Elemental Affinities."
Alex believed her.
What she said made sense. She was only a D tier, a single major rank above him. She was just as in the dark as Alex when it came to such esoteric topics.
On the side, Kyla sat down and sighed.
"Well, that's it for your tests then… You can go down to the reception and collect your Awakened ID and you'll be free to do what you like from that point onwards. Of course, if you're interested in working for the Federation then I'll be glad to help you with that!"
Kyla bid farewell to Alex, looking a little disappointed when she realised she had to let go of such a good seedling.
However, Alex didn't move.
He stood in the exact same spot, staring at Kyla, looking as if she had missed something.
"Ahem, you can go now." She coughed and repeated herself, in case he didn't hear her the first time.
But Alex still didn't move.
"What do you want? You actually interested in working for the federation?"
Before Kyla could get her hopes up of recruiting him, Alex spoke.
"Aren't you forgetting something?"
Confused, Kyla shook her head.
"No?"
"What about the third test? The voluntary one?" Alex continued.
Kyla had to do a double take, making sure she heard him right.
"The disclosure of details Test? Are you sure?"
Kyla looked a little uncertain when she asked him.
It had been so long since someone had asked to do this test that she had completely forgotten it even existed.
Practically no one would be willing to give up some of their biggest secrets just for a little reward.
"Yes, I'd like to disclose my talent. For a reward of course." Alex smiled, thinking about what the association could offer him in exchange for his information.
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