Vander's group was the last one in the arena. Following Sarah, the group exited the arena. While heading towards the bus, other buses just arrived. One bus was in the middle of the street honking, waiting for Vander's bus to leave.
'Looks like we're still a little bit late.' Looking away from the honking bus, Vander saw Sarah looking in his direction.
'She's still blaming us for delaying the group.' Sarah was glaring at Vander and Alice.
When the bus started to drive towards the next arena, Sarah stopped her glaring, focusing on something else.
The next arena wasn't too far from the student center, near the central area of the university. Being the last group there, Sarah was rushing the group to the entrance.
"Hurry up. Let's go." Sarah held the door open while shouting for the students to enter.
Vander and Alice were the last students to enter, with Sarah following right after them, letting the arena door go.
Vander looked back, seeing Sarah shaking her head. Under her breath, she spoke her thoughts in a hushed tone, "Should've cut their recovery time down. But I don't want to get fined for student safety misconduct. Damnit."
All platforms were currently occupied by other groups, except the one closest to the entrance. Just like the last test.
When the group reached their designated platform, Sarah took the lead again, standing by the platform and its stone console.
"Alright, who wants to go first? Let's speed through this test. It's pretty easy and quick. Just sit in the seat on the platform and wear the attached helmet." Sarah explained while pointing at the chair in the middle of the platform.
The chair looked like a big office chair, mixed with a luxury recliner. Almost like a patient chair from the dentist, but with more cushions and a fluffy pillow attached to the headrest. Attached to the back of the chair was a mounted arm that went up and held a helmet above the headrest.
The helmet was connected by a couple wires that ran down the mounted arm of the chair into the platform. The helmet was made of a dark metal, but had lots of colored spots evenly spaced everywhere, brightening the helmet up. These colored spots were tiny mana stones embedded into the helmet, about 30 of them. The mana stones were mainly blue, but there were 15 that were different colors: purple, green, yellow, orange, and red. Three of each of the different colors.
Sarah randomly picked a student since no one volunteered. The student went up the platform and sat down on the chair while putting on the helmet.
"Let me know when you're ready." Sarah told the student on the chair. Holding the stone console, getting ready to activate it.
Seeing the student give a thumbs up and saying he was ready, Sarah activated the console. All the mana stones that were embedded into the helmet glowed brightly for just a second, then dimmed right away.
Laying down on the chair, the student seemed relaxed with the helmet on, not moving at all. Slowly, the unlit mana stones started to glow one by one. It started with the blue mana stones. One by one all the blue mana stones lit up, then one purple mana stone brightened. With the second purple mana stone about to light up, the helmet turned off. All the mana stones were unlit, and the helmet retracted back, hanging on the mounted arm.
Not even a minute went by since the helmet was first put on. The test was quick.
With the helmet retracting, the student opened his eyes. Getting up from the chair, he looked around confused, not knowing what just happened.
"One purple mana stone, Grade E-. Anyone wants to go next, let's go." Sarah already finished up writing on her tablet, getting ready to pick a random student.
The next person finished their test, quicker than the last. Only lighting up the blue mana stones, incapable of lighting up any of the purple stones.
"Blue mana stones, Grade F. You, go. Unless anyone wants to volunteer." While on her tablet, Sarah chose a random student right away.
The student that was picked went up right away since no one volunteered. Once the student got layed down and put the helmet on, they gave a thumbs up and told Sarah they were ready. With the signal, Sarah booted up the helmet from the console.
The tiny mana crystals were once again starting to light up one by one. Unlike the last student, the blue crystals were lighting up quickly.
One purple crystal lit up. Then the second. And finally the last purple mana crystal was lit up.
A green mana stone was beginning to light up. It took longer for the green mana stones to light up compared to the blue or purple ones. Eventually the first green stone was lit up. But it ended up taking longer than the combined time for the blue and purple stones to light up. With the first green mana stone lit, the next two lit up faster.
All three green mana stones were now lit up. The yellow mana stone started to light up but even slower than the green mana stone. Without completely lighting up the first yellow mana stone, the helmet turned off and retracted back to its place on the mounted arm.
"Three green mana stones. Grade D+. Hurry up and get down. Let's go with you." Sarah rushed the student that just left the chair and picked another student immediately.
"So only lighting up one colored stone is a minus. Two stones is normal. And three is a plus." Vander whispered to Alice.
"I think so. Now I wonder what colors represent each grade." Alice responded back.
"Do you want me to go first again? At Least this time I won't pass out. Maybe I could even give you a hint on how this test works." Vander asked her.
"No, it's fine. You need to do your best on these tests. You already got one Grade F." She didn't want Vanders help.