The Extraordinary Ordinary - Chapter 22 Ability Grading

“Say Why don’t we let Future High’s students get their abilities measured first? They preformed splendidly in the last test, so they should be able to do the same in this test and showcase a prime example for the rest of the students so they can work hard later,” Jack suggested immediately after the aged examiner finished introducing the ‘Testing Chamber’ and how it should be used.

Just as Jack behaved till this moment, he was still on odds with the other two schools, but as he seemed to be wary of Crow for some reason, he planned to use this chance to slightly attack Future High’s confidence.
for visiting.

While it was true that almost half of Future High’s students performed brilliantly in the last test, those were only three students, with one of them obtaining the Excellence pass, leaving only two and one who scored ratings below 20 points with the rest of them being quite average

So, to Jack, other than the two that looked like they were from rich families, having already awakened before, and probably a decent ability at that, the three people left had equal chances of getting bad or good abilities with their average ratings, while the last one was likely to bomb the test, his ratings were just too bad.

‘He probably didn’t even manage to awaken yet,’ Jack thought as he didn’t really buy what the examiner said, viewing Chrome as complete trash.

He did know that it wasn’t always the case that Exos ratings decided the nature or the rank of the ability that the user would awaken, but Jack believed that he didn’t have anything to lose anyway, pumping Future High’s students’ stand high then letting them get a huge confidence hit when the result is disappointing instead was a good thing, but them obtaining passable results also wasn’t the end of the world.

“What?” Link wasn’t able to catch the point behind Jack’s suggestion, he did know that Jack might try to cause a problem or something, but he didn’t expect this, he just couldn’t understand how bored Jack was to use such a not so effective tactic…

“The students can go in whichever order they want to, I won’t impose any certain order on them although I really want to know the result of that youngin’…” the aged examiner replied as he threw a glance at Chrome.

“Humph, if you are really afraid that your students wouldn’t perform well, then just say so, I will be the one to start in that case!” somewhat irritated by the aged examiner’s glance at Chrome, Fred released his unruly arrogant manner as he harrumphed towards Jack.

‘Tsk, what a fiery idiot,’ Jack thought as he didn’t really care about Fred’s insulting reaction, it was ok with him since he managed to get them to start anyway.

Fred stomped towards the testing chamber with no one stopping him, Link still didn’t see that much trouble in it, especially since he had too much confidence in Chrome to worry, in fact he might be worried about the other students more than him

‘If what ‘he’ said is true, and I trust it is, then Chrome should perform well enough in this test, he did slightly below average in the last two ones, so this should be the test where he will prove he is worthy of passing!’ Link affirmed in his mind, as it was obvious that he had a lot of trust in that ‘he’, otherwise he wouldn’t have gone through that much just to give Chrome the chance to make a low probability gamble.

Getting inside of the chamber and closing its glass door, Fred stood in its middle before rolling back his sleeve as his hands’ color started to change

The color change stopped exactly at the end of his wrist, as his whole hand surface showed light reflective properties, it looked as if it turned into a piece of shiny metal

However, Fred soon closed and opened his hand more than once showing that his fist didn’t turn inanimate in the process.

Soon enough, the black screen lit up, showing a few lines

[ Ability Name: Metalization

Ability Type: Physical Transformation

Exo units expended: 25

Defensive Grading: 50~100

Offensive Grading: ‘Please target your ability at one of the glass walls so that it can be measured’ ]

The name of the ability was quite accurate as it really described the ability that Fred displayed, while the type was also the same, while the other stats seemed to be the real gauging meter of the ability.

‘These Exo Units should be the equivalent of Energy Points, as for this defensive grading’ Chrome pondered as he compared the gradings shown by the testing chamber with the ones that he saw in the Self-Reliance Palace.

‘This seems to be similar to the attack value displayed in the scroll, I wonder if a 50~100 defensive grading can parry a strike that has an attack value of 50~100 if attack value is equal to this ‘offensive grading” Chrome gave it a quick thought before dismissing his own assumptions, why should he even hurt his brain thinking about since he could just test it himself soon?

Chrome had originally planned on rushing to start first this time to show his worth earlier and wash away the humiliation he might have gotten in the last test, but he decided to wait and be the second instead since Fred already stomped into the chamber first as it would at least serve as a comparison for him to base on it how good would his own result would be.

Thud!

A low sounding yet seemingly solid impact could be heard as Fred hit the glass just like the black screen showed while the glass wall didn’t even show a single crack, before the last line slightly blurred prior to revealing a numeric value and another long line…

[ Offensive Grading: 48~52

(!) As ability is detected to be of the ‘Physical Transformation’ type, please remain in the glass chamber for one minute without deactivating your ability so that the Exo expended per time in the case of continued activation be calculated (!) ]

Fred stood there in his place as he once again followed the black screen’s instructions, seemingly very familiar with how it worked