CHAPTER 143: THE SCREENING BEGINS

The Screening Begins

The building for the screening wasn’t anything insane.

It was situated near the center of the Citadel and was a large public hall of sorts. From what he heard, the place tended to be used for a variety of things. From large meetings or banquets between high-profile individuals in the Citadel, events, gatherings, and so on.

It was one of those multipurpose structures that could be used by pretty much anyone as long as they had the money to rent it. And right now, it was where the screening for the different colleges was.

And when Osho saw the number of college envoys in the hall, he had two thoughts.

First of all, he kind of understood their frustration at being made to wait for so long. Well, more than before. There were over a hundred Envoys each within a special booth that had the emblem of the institution they represented. With that many of them constantly being told to wait, it was bound to be frustrating.

The second thought was just how much he underestimated his fellow students’ impatience, too, as despite the green light having been given only a few hours ago, the place was packed.

Students were moving around with their parents and teachers, as, yes, the students moved according to which school they belonged to.

This is also why Osho and the gang were moving with their classmates in their normal uniform.

"Not gonna lie. I kinda regret not coming immediately when we got given the signal." Ellie said and everyone nodded in agreement. They severely underestimated just how impatient everyone else was.

"I can’t say that the regret isn’t warranted, but if it makes you feel better, think about the people who will come tomorrow. Because you know as well as I do that this isn’t all the students." Mrs Jane said.

’Well a bunch of them also died so...’ Gale said through his and Osho’s bond, causing the latter to look down at him in his arms with barely restrained horror.

’Gale!’ He shouted incredulously through the bond, and Gale just gave the avian equivalent of a shrug.

"Alright everyone, listen up." Principal Timothy snapped his fingers twice, drawing the attention of everyone. Judging by how a few of them reached, it was clear that they still weren’t familiar with his new, younger look.

"From here on out, what happens depends on you. You know what institution you want to select, and you are the one who knows whether your performance will be up to par." His voice was serious, but the underlying kindness it always held was unmistakable.

"I trust you all know what you want to do. So go ahead and do it." He nodded, and the students were officially allowed to roam freely.

Osho and the others shared looks and nodded towards each other. Then they faced Mrs Jane and smiled.

"We’re off," Osho said, and the normally stoic woman cracked a small smile and waved a little.

Without wasting any more time, the group broke away from the others.

"Alright. Has anyone seen it?" Irene asked as the group made its way through the large number of students vying for admission.

"Yeah, I saw it again a bit earlier." Osho nodded and motioned for the group to follow him.

As for what they were looking for? It was the stall for the college they wanted to apply to, of course.

As for which college they wanted to apply to? Well...

For Osho, he was naturally going for the best of the best. The one where he would get the most opportunities. He wouldn’t settle for anything less.

You see, after the debacle with the Abyssal Scrounger and the forceful end of the practical exam, it went without saying that the point system was scrapped. Too much time had passed after the barrier got isolated, and using the points people had before the isolation to score them would have been too unfair.

Hence, the approved decision was this.

The scores everyone got during the written exam would still stand as it had been done fairly. They would still serve their same purpose which was to make it so that students who were lacking combat-wise could still excel, pr students who were good at combat could top up their scores.

As for what would happen to the points for the practical exam. Well, that’s what the point of the booths were.

Simply put, the screening would be a bit of an interview between the envoys and prospective students. They would test the potential of their beast as a Baseline, and if the potential was high enough, they could get a direct entry (based on what course they wanted to study). And if it wasn’t high enough, they were required to bring in recordings of their combat capabilities with their beasts. These recordings would be tested to see if they were legitimate, and if they were and also satisfied the envoy, they could get admission.

Now, the group was absolutely confident in getting direct entry. Not only had they done pretty decently in their written exam, but the potential of all their beasts was something else.

To be clear, other than Osho, everyone else’s beasts had Grandmaster-Rank potential. He would have evolved them further, but sadly, the Citadel didn’t have the resources the lyrics needed, which made Osho realize that Gale had truly lucked out.

Moving on, the group soon found the booth they were looking for.

It was in a somewhat inconspicuous corner with hardly anyone even looking at it. However, this wasn’t due to a lack of interest or insufficient background.

No

It’s because no one was confident enough to try.

The booth was black and looked like it could fit about ten people at once. Above the entrance was an emblem that looked like a starry sky. It wasn’t insanely intricate, but everyone recognized the pattern.

Stellaris.

When Osho revealed a bit of his background to Ellie and she remembered what college he wanted to go to – as he’d told her before – she’d given him a pretty intense side-eye, and he had to assure her that there was no correlation between the two. Granted, he understood why she’d think there was one other than the name.

Stellaris was currently among some of the best Beast Tamer Colleges humanity had to offer. In fact, it was within the top three, and among those top three, none of them could truly be considered to be better than the other.

It’s said that the college was located inside a naturally occurring pocket dimension close to one of the Zenith-Class Citadels and was established by a group of Legendary Rank Beast Tamers who happened to be close friends.

The requirements to enter were painfully stringent, and one needed a beast with at LEAST Expert rank potential to get in. And even then, the chances were low. Otherwise, someone like Mrs Jane should have been able to enter.

Moreover, if one wasn’t going for the combat route, they needed an 89% pass mark in all the subjects they studied in high school to make way for the course they wanted to pursue, and a 95% pass mark for the college entrance exam.

In short, getting in was unbelievably hard. And even Osho and Ellie, who were the top scorers in their class got 85% and 82% respectively for their written entrance exam.

Hence, the only reason they even dared to try it was the potential of their beasts.

"You guys ready?" Osho asked with an easy smile, and everyone else nodded.

"If we don’t get accepted, I’m gonna file a formal complaint towards every damn Legendary Beast Tamer on the planet." Sam scoffed and the others smiled.

"Well said. In that case, let’s not waste any more time, then." Ellie flicked her hair and walked forward, the others following closely.

As soon as they got close, a lot of attention was immediately directed their way.

Nobody moved forward to try and intercept them. But the mumbles and gossip were painfully obvious.

"Not one, but 5 of them? Someone must have made them do a dare."

"It’s crazy how delusional some people can be. Like, one person makes sense, but five of them? Damn."

"The power of friendship isn’t helping y’all in this situation."

"Wouldn’t it be crazy if they actually succeeded, though?"

"Nah, I doubt it. To be honest, I wonder why Stellaris people keep coming to Citadels with such a low chance of producing exceptional people.

"Hey! Don’t say that. Eleanor is among them. If anyone can get in, it’ll be her, right?"

Despite the whispers, the group was thoroughly unperturbed as they all walked towards the booth confidently.

When they got close, a singular person who stood at the entrance, a pretty woman wearing a suit regarded them with a polite smile.

"Good afternoon. May I know why you approached?" She asked, not a trace of disdain or contempt in her voice.

"We’re here to be screened." Kurt said, and she nodded.

"Alright then. Please, follow me." She gestured towards the entrance, and they all went in.