"Wait! Wait! Stop! Stop! Fine! I''ll listen to your condition or whatever!"


    I smiled lightly before redirecting my eyes to the man before me, his silky ck hair glistening from the lights above.


    "You have to drag along my siblings, and they muste with me. Also, if any other school wants to drag me to their side, you have to give me a better deal than this guy. Plus, you must drag my siblings along," I said while turning to the various teachers above.


    The room went silent as the teachers slowly grumbled under their breath, knowing that putting too much into a single middle school student without even knowing a glimpse of their future was suicide.


    "Okay, well, it''ll be nice working with you," I muttered, and as I shook hands with the ck-haired man, I could immediately confirm he was the guy from before.


    The pressure being emitted from him was like deadly gravity magic pressing onto my spine itself.


    "What is the body part for the rune?" I asked as the guy followed me to the next testing zone, which was the standardized IQ and battle IQ test.


    Firstes the IQ, and thenes the battle IQ, as they are very separate and different things, despite people trying to wrap them into the same group.


    "Fingers," The man said with a wide smile that sent chills down my spine.


    "How many does it connect to?"


    "All ten," He replied with an even wider smile, and my heart began to race withrge pumps of adrenaline.


    Alright… calm down… he might drop you if you be too eager.


    "Why give something so precious away when you don''t even know if I''ll get far in this world? Who knows, I might end up dying the second I get to your academy," I chuckled, but the man kept his wide smile.


    "I know your potential. Remember, I fought with you, and back then, your skill was much greater than what was disyed today… Have you taken a practice test for any of these standardized tests?"n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "Yeah,"


    "What did you get?"


    "I got an 87 out of 100 for the IQ," I muttered.


    "And for the battle IQ?" The man asked, practically shaking with excitement, so I debated whether telling him my actual score would be worth it.


    "99 out of 100,"


    "What the fuck… Seriously? Is that even possible!?" He eximed, but as we had reached the zone for the next area, the guy was forced to return to his position and sit on my answer for a while.


    I think I''m pretty smart when ites to general questions about most subjects, such as magic theory, machinery, math, writing, andbat theory… but my battle IQ has just been honed to its max.


    It didn''t even take that long for me to max it out due to certain circumstances.


    "Okay, you are seat twenty-four, so please wait patiently as we wait for thest student to arrive," A man said to me before I made my way up the slightly inclined steps and took my seat near the very top of the area.


    Everybody was just fiddling with their pencils, so I became part of the mob and tried to cure my boredom the same way.


    Thest dude that entered the testing area limped all the way up to the seat exactly a meter away from me.


    His leg had been torn to shreds, while arge w mark had torn apart his chest, leaving him to spill tons of blood.


    His breathing was sporadic and disorganized, almost as if he was about to go in shock… well, he did.


    Sparks of mana flew everywhere as his body convulsed and folded into his mana core, tearing it to shreds in the process, which isn''t normal.


    The w mark didn''t even tear through his chest, and I doubt a reaction to shock could be this bad that their mana core is actually getting destroyed.


    "He was sabotaged," I heard a girl next to me mutter before receiving the packet of three double-sided papers.


    I then grabbed my own after watching the kid get dragged away on a stretcher, his blood being mopped up as they walked.


    Then, the procter soon announced the start of the test, so I nced over all the pages and smiled to myself.


    This is going to be easy.


    …


    Exactly an hourter, the test had closed, so I handed in my fullypleted test before receiving the next one, which was even easier than before.


    The previous test was pretty easy, though I felt like I could''ve done better, but with this subject, I was confident I could at least pass.


    "Please! Please let me take the test! I can''t go back to my family and tell them that I failed! PLEASE PROCTER! PLEASE! I''LL GIVE YOU AS MUCH MONEY AS YOU WANT!"  A familiar kid wed his way through a pile of security guards.


    It was the same kid from before who had those terrible injuries but was now almostpletely healed, just his leg was wrapped in a cast.


    "Igor Voidmaw, you are now officially banned from ever taking part in this test again. Wait till the high school test for you to raise your ashamed head again," The proctor said in a cold voice, and I could literally see the light die in the kid''s eyes.


    Clearly, he was about to get disowned or just straight up killed by his family for "bringing upon shame" to their family name.


    Iughed a bit under my hand before the procter let us regain our concentration and start the next test swiftly.


    …


    "*yawn*... Fuck, that was so boring. Ipleted it and checked it five times in just under thirty minutes… shit… I should''ve spread out the questions more," I muttered while moving on to the final area.


    "Hey, I saw you pretty bored during that test. Was it that easy?" A familiar girl ran up beside me as we all walked onto a dirt arena.


    She had long pink hair, fluffy tan eyes, and a voice that could charm anybody into doing her bidding.


    Let''s see what she''s going to try and make me do…