Mythshaper

Chapter 77: Raging Endurance

Headmaster Larius only called students in pairs or in groups of four into his chamber for the Gift Appraisal. It was reasonable to guess he was calling those with similar gifts to evaluate them together, but from the look of it, it would be evening by the time he got to appraise the more uncommon gifts.

There was still the endurance test under Instructor Ao. As soon as the students were done with the appraisal, they dashed towards the gymnasium to attend it.

For some reason, the Headmaster left Diana and me until the very last to be evaluated. He was probably wanting to test our shaping skills while he was at it. I simply couldn't understand why he couldn't do it before everyone else. It wasted over an hour of our time.

Well, there were also Priam, Eran, Charis, and Markus, who were assessed at the very end, much more thoroughly. The participants for the inter-district tournament would probably be decided among them.

Finally, leaving the few augmenter talents of Carmel Valley, Headmaster Larius cast his attention towards us. An invading force surrounded both of us, and I did my best to avoid flinching. The Headmaster wasn’t at all gentle about it, unlike Mum.

"Let's see. Show me your gifts first," he said. "Then we'll move into shaping."

The institution was already aware of our gifts, so they had prepared something for Diana to use her purification on. It turned out to be a loaf of bread with grime and white fungi growing on it.

"Eww, it smells," the blonde girl said when the Headmaster handed it to her.

Headmaster Larius laughed lightly. "Other than what you see, there's some weak poison in that bread. Use your gift and see if you can purify it."

Diana nodded and closed her eyes in concentration. Her palm touched the surface of the bread as her twenty-four orange threads weaved through it. Soon, a glittering light shone around the bread as its size began to shrink.

In about a minute or two, she was done. Although the fungus seemed to have been completely eradicated—and perhaps the poison too—the loaf of bread looked far from edible. At least, I wouldn’t eat it.