Laurent dropped the three participants of the field assessment off half a block down from the Association building.

  “You're going to want to walk the rest of the way,” he told them as they opened their doors and stepped out of the vehicle. “It’s going to be packed today.”

  “I can imagine," Arden said. He could hear the clamor from the building and it was most of a block away.

  “Next time we see each other, you guys better be warriors.”

  “Count on it.”

  Arden closed the door, and the black car pulled into a nearby lot, then reversed out and drove back the way it came. Laurent was not going to try and fight the congestion ahead.

  A few minutes later, the trio arrived and realized that Laurent was not kidding. He had in fact undersold how many people were at the Association today. The vast parking lot was filled with people.

  Interestingly, a quick aura scan revealed that the majority of the people there had no aura at all, marking them as mundanes. There looked to be close to a hundred of them. The next largest group were those who had auras, but lacked the finesse to properly restrain them. No one was expecting them to have perfected their aura control as a red-tier, so the majority of those that had auras were unwittingly throwing them all out. There were a little more than twenty of them.

  The ones that drew the most attention from the newcomers were the quiet confident ones who were standing with the other Starborn, but lacked any of such trademarks of such. They radiated no aura, only confidence. Only five of them were there, and three of them were familiar.

  They were the Indigo Flash youths consisting of the purple haired Volis, the bulky Torvis, and a young woman with blonde hair. She hadn't formally introduced herself to Arden’s party last time they met, on account of her being nearly killed by the freshly evolved blast bull.

  As the group from Miasma weaved their way through the crowd of Starborn fearfully saying goodbye to their loved ones, they couldn't help but feel slightly bitter. None of them had any family bidding them farewell and good luck, and the one that did have a family would rather they never showed up at all. Volis’ team was all smiles as the group reached them.

  “Glad you could make it,” Volis said, his purple hair as eye-catching as it was before.

  “We wouldn't miss this for the world,” Sya said. “We've been waiting.”

  Torvis nudged the final member of his party in the shoulder lightly, and she quickly gave a short bow, thanking them.

  “Thank you for helping us,” she said. “I don't know how many times you've heard it from these two, but really, thank you. I'm Liva.”

  “Don't mention it,” Sya said. “We were tracking that bull for a while. We were just staking our claim. I'm Sya, the hot one is Vera, and the average one is my brother, Arden.”

  Arden gave his sister the side eye as he introduced himself to the final member of Volis’ team, while Vera stifled a laugh as she did the same.

  They made some small talk about what they've done in the past few weeks. The training they did, the Celestials they killed, the works. The only thing none of them talked about were their respective powers. Keeping the secrets between only those on your own team was the norm for Starborn, and they didn't want to stand out for now.

  The same could not be said for the newest arrival. Dressed in a suit that begged people to ask how much it was worth, a youth with windswept blonde hair sauntered through the crowd, gunning right for Volis.

  “Hey,” he said in a commanding voice, effectively ending the conversation that the blast bull survivors were having.

  The one who was cut off, Arden, gave the new guy a quick glance before dutifully ignoring him, marking him as another Yaan, though with his malice stripped away to add to his annoyance stat.

  “So anyway I dropped the anvil…” Arden continued.

  “Hey!” The new guy said again, cutting him off.

  As Arden turned around to face him, he noticed the hint of disdain present in the Indigo Flash members. It looked like Liva in particular wanted to spit at him, and Volis was about to speak.

  ‘I'm doing this first,’ Arden thought.

  He wanted to dance on the stage again.

  “How dare you ignore me?” The new guy said. “Do you know who I am?”

  “I try not to mingle with the common folk,” Arden said. “They're too drab. You should work on your outfit.”

  “What?”

  The youth looked at Arden like he had grown another head. He was more confused than enraged, something that Arden wanted to change.

  Sya nudged Vera and spoke quietly to her.

  “Aren't you going to stop him? I thought you don't like it when he does stuff like this.”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “There's a difference between a smug test taker and a board of Association officials,” she shrugged. “He knows that. Doing this won't reflect badly on us. Much.”

  “Much?”

  “You heard me,” Arden continued. “Although you're hardly at my level, I'll debase myself for you this once, and explain. Your outfit is too gaudy. It screams ‘fake money.’ I get that you want to pretend to be rich and important, but everyone will be able to see right through your ruse. Take a look at my friend here.”

  Arden put his arm around Volis’ neck and gestured to his outfit, a button up shirt with sleeves rolled up to the elbows and khakis.

  “This guy right here. I know we walk in different circles, but look at how he dresses. Plain, confident.”

  Arden broke away from Volis and whispered into the rich brat’s ear. As he did, he reveled in anger that was starting to take shape.

  “I'll have you know, this guy is a scion of the famous Indigo Flash guild.”

  Volis glanced at Arden. He wanted to do something, but the satisfied expressions of his cohort dissuaded him from doing so. Volis himself knew how annoying Kralis could be, claiming they were inferior, and poorer, and doing pretty much what Arden was doing to Kralis right now.

  Kralis shook with rage and finally spoke a full sentence rather than a single four letter word.

  “Who do you think you are? I'm Kralis, heir of Striven.”

  Arden took his hand and gave it a shake.

  “I'm Arden, heir of Evolution.”

  Kralis hastily retracted his hand and wiped it against his tailored suit as if Arden was covered in grime.

  “Never heard of the Evolution guild. It must be small.”

  Arden pulled a confused face.

  “Who said anything about a guild?”

  Before Kralis could say anything, both he and Arden spat up a mouthful of blood and fell to their knees as an orange tier aura crashed into them. A familiar voice echoed in Arden’s ears.

  “Stand down both of you before I fail you under the pretense of going rogue.”

  The weight lifted from each of their shoulders as the pair of bickering young men rose to their feet. Glancing around, they saw that only them had been subject to the targeted aura release.

  Vera made eyes at Arden that told him to stop fooling around now that a real authority had shown up, something that Arden was going to do anyway, and was more than happy to do. Arden shifted his eyes to the front steps of the Association building where the attractive and hostile Lodi stood with crossed arms staring down at him and Kralis.

  “Stop trying to start shit, and I won't have to end it,” she said. “As proctor of this field assessment, I will fail you without pause if you continue in your juvenile behavior, do I make myself clear?”

  “Understood, ma'am,” both of them said in unison.

  Lodi's eyes narrowed, honing in on Arden forming a disapproving scowl.

  “I'm certain I made it clear in our last meeting that I do not like you.”

  “Ah…yes ma'am,” Arden said nervously.

  “Then don't make it too easy for me to drive you out.”

  When she finished admonishing Arden, the mundanes who were still with the group broke off as Lodi descended the steps and approached the remaining Starborn. She eyed each of the nervous attendees, slightly impressed by the nonplussed ones, which numbered the group from Indigo Flash, Vera, and two others.

  She clapped her hands together which sent out a small shockwave when infused with her essence, then spoke again.

  “Everyone, I am Lodi of the Starborn Association. Orange-tier main-sequence. However, for the next week you will not refer to me by name, but my title, either Proctor or Instructor.”

  There was muttering coming from the mundanes who had cleared out to the perimeter of the parking lot.

  “Lodi? The demon instructor?”

  “I thought she retired from being a proctor a few months ago.”

  “Apparently her retirement was exaggerated.”

  Lodi ignored the mundanes and continued, not caring that the nervousness in her group of Starborn had swelled as the mundanes talked to one another.

  “For those of you who don't know it, my standards are very high. If you don't perform in this assessment to my standards, then you won't become a Starborn warrior. I retired from my position in the past because I failed too many applicants, but I came back this time because there was someone among you who required someone of my caliber to keep in check. I won't say who.”

  Arden tried his best to ignore the sensation of the many piercing gazes burning holes in his neck. He toyed with the idea of leaning over to Kralis and whispering that all of this was his fault, but he kept the intrusive thought as just a thought. There was no point fostering any more hostility between himself and the other applicants.

  “I will now explain the contents of the field assessment for those who were unaware or simply skimmed the contents of the sign up sheet.”

  Again, Arden tried his best to ignore the stares he received. He realized with some shame that even Vera, Sya, and the youths of Indigo Flash were looking at him as well.

  ‘I read it! I'm not stupid enough to sign up for something like this without paying attention! Stop looking at me like that!’

  “We will embark on a week-long conquest of a red-tier stargate that recently came under the Association's control, Entomina Nest. If the name wasn't a giveaway, it is a bug nest. What makes it special is that it's not a nest of a single type of bug, but many different kinds.”

  Lodi smirked as she said the next part.

  “At least two different bugs for each one of you. Perfect for testing purposes. The boss Celestial has been confirmed to be of early red-tier main sequence strength, and the rest will be weaker.”

  One of the attendees, a short cute girl with glasses and brown hair pulled into a ponytail raised her hand and asked a question.

  “D-do we h-have to hunt each of the two Celestials to pass?”

  “Good question,” Lodi said, and the girl's cheeks went red from the praise. “No, killing Celestials won't guarantee you a pass. I'm known as a hard ass because my tests aren't that simple. I don't judge you based on how well you can exterminate Celestials. I judge you as a Starborn. To act as a Starborn, to think as a Starborn. Both carry more weight than simply being a one man army.”

  Lodi scanned her wards one last time. She was in charge of their safety for the time being. The Entomina Nest was unlikely to be seriously dangerous, but if something went wrong and one of her test takers were in danger she would have to step up.

  “One last thing,” she said. “It doesn't matter how poorly or how well you do in there. You will not receive a pass or a fail until we return here in a week. Now let's go bug hunting.”