Back in his room, Caecus got ready for the second exam day.
This time, he set himself an alarm so that he would wake up in time, as last time, without one, it didn't work that well.
After showering and putting on his clothes, he checked the schedule.
'Alright, the examinations will encompass the whole day.' Caecus sighed.
They started at ten thirty in the morning and ended at five in the afternoon.
Currently, it was eight in the morning.
Deciding to take it slow, Caecus put on his shoes and walked towards the cafeteria.
'I will barely get a chance to eat, so better do it now.'
On the way, a few exam takers who were also heading to the cafeteria gathered around one person.
'It's probably an heir.'
Deciding to ignore them, he just walked past the people and entered the cafeteria.
Grabbing himself a tray, he chose a few pancakes, eggs, bread, and other things that had good carbohydrates.
Caecus then walked up the stairs to the second floor, chose an open table, and silently ate.
He felt someone sit down before him.
"Titus? What are you doing here?" he asked.
"I was just passing and saw you sitting alone, so I decided to share a seat with you. If you don't mind?" Titus had a smile on his face and scratched his face.
If Caecus could see, it would be a funny sight to see Titus try to fit into the seat that was way too small for him.
"I… I don't mind, thank you." Caecus nodded and returned his focus back to his food.
'Even if making friends is for after the exams, I can't just outright refuse him, right?'
Titus just smiled and stood up to grab a tray with food.
Five minutes later, he arrived with two trays in hand that were both filled to the brim with food.
The blind boy just 'stared' at him, then shook his head and returned to his food.
'For someone his size, the amount of calories he has to consume must be huge, so it makes sense.'
Even though Titus was eating incredibly, his table manners were still upheld.
He managed to finish his food at the same time as Caecus, even though his portions were thrice the size of the blind boy's and he started later.
Both of them stood up and went to put their food trays away.
Caecus checked the time and noticed that it was nine thirty already.
"What group did you get put in?" Titus asked him.
"I'm in group twenty one, what about you?"
"Oh, I'm in group one. Well, it's fine, we'll see each other later anyways." Titus said, waving him goodbye as he left.
'Right, all the heirs from the big corpora are in group one… that makes sense, I guess.'
The physical exams had different stations, and the groups switched between them because it would simply be too much if they took the same tests at the same time.
Titus' group would start with running, and Caecus' group would do the striking tests.
The map of the Psychéion app showed him where he had to go.
On the way there, he took out the earbuds he brought with him and listened to some music.
Ever since he advanced to rank one, and now even more at rank two, Caecus could appreciate music way more than before.
It was like he felt it.
Arriving, he sensed a group of around three hundred people all waiting, chatting, and talking about different topics.
The people from the corpora were invited to all kinds of banquets since they were little kids, and manners were drilled into their heads so their families would uphold their honor.
Caecus, who wasn't introduced to any of this, just stood on the field where all of the members of group twenty one were and waited while listening to music.
After a little bit of time, a professor arrived.
"Greetings to all of the participants, I am Professor Fortis, and I'll be the one supervising the physical exams for group twenty one. If you get accepted into the school, there is a chance I'll be your physical education or duel teacher."
All of the exam takers looked at Prof. Fortis, and all of the socializing stopped.
Caecus took out his earbuds and stopped playing his music on his soul phone.
"First of all, you are gonna split up in groups and take your measurements. I'm gonna give you a form that you'll have to fill out, and I won't permit girls and boys taking each other's measurements, for obvious reasons. If you already know yours, just fill out the form, but if you don't, I'm gonna give every group a measuring tape and a scale. If you lie about anything, like your weight because you're insecure or something, I'm telling you that's just gonna bite you in the back later. Alright, go on, you have half an hour to take all of your measurements."
Very quickly, groups started to form, and Caecus was obviously the odd one out.
'I'm lucky that Amelia took my measurements before I entered the academy… this would've been awkward if I had to ask to enter a group.'
There were a few left out like him, but he just guessed that they knew their measurements beforehand.
This was a good chance to socialize even more for them, and it was pretty clear that they already knew their measurements.
Caecus waited while Prof. Fortis was roaming around, handing out the forms to everyone.
When he finally reached Caecus, he looked him up and down, and a disapproving -snick- escaped his mouth.
The blind boy just grabbed a ballpoint pen from a huge box that contained around a thousand of them and filled out the form.
First Name: Caecus
Middle Name (Optional):
Last Name/Corpus:Caelum
Height:160 cm
Weight: 60 kg
Waist Circumference:65 cm
Arm Circumference:34 cm
'Well that's it, let's hand it over to the teacher.'
The person he was talking about was sitting on a foldable chair and reading a novel.
Caecus walked over to him and handed over his now filled-out form.
Prof. Fortis just raised his eyes to match Caecus' gaze and then pointed at a box, which was empty.
"Throw it in there." he just said, and then went back to reading.
Doing as told, Caecus just threw the piece of paper in there and walked over to an empty spot to lie down on the field.
He took out his earbuds and played some music on his phone, enjoying the few hours of sunlight that this country had on his skin.
His head rested on his hands, which were crossed behind it, palms facing towards his scalp and supporting it while he rested.
Playing: Young
Artist: Vacations
Time passed quickly because Caecus was immersed in the music that was playing through his earbuds.
Thirty minutes later, the teacher gathered all of the forms and took Caecus out of his daze.
"Everyone listen up, we are starting with the striking tests. Please line up and follow my instructions."
Quickly, a line of students formed, and Caecus managed to get to the middle of the line before more people could step in front of him.
Caecus felt Prof. Fortis walk away to grab something that was around two and a half meters tall.
He carried it over and placed it four meters before the front of the line.
"All of you will deliver your strongest punch and kick that you are able to do without using soul essence onto this sandbag. It measures your strength. All of you have ten seconds to do this, or else it will take too long. That's it. Just one try."
The first few students started, and they all did their best.
Caecus took out his earbuds again and started listening to music while he waited for his turn.
Twenty minutes later, only five people were left before him, so he put his earbuds back into his pockets and started warming up.
All of them were incredibly strong, and the sound produced against the sandbag just by their raw strength was already incredibly loud.
You could hear the participants first cutting through the air, producing a -whip- sound.
The fifteen-year-old black-haired boy rotated his arms around his shoulders and warmed his joints up so he wouldn't hurt himself.
Then the last person before him, a boy of around 178 cm in height with a really muscular build, reached his turn.
Caecus watched as the boy delivered his punch, and the loud sound that it produced made him flinch a little.
Next was the kick, and the boy spun around really quickly and produced a clean and beautiful roundhouse kick on the target.
Another whipping sound emerged, and the boy before him just left towards where the other participants who were already finished were waiting.
A group of boys hyped him up when he arrived and dapped him up, clearly happy for him.
'Now it's my turn.'
The blind boy stood in front of the sandbag and got into a fighting position.
Then, with the most force he could gather, he punched a straight with his left hand, momentum traveling from his legs into his core, then from his core into his shoulders, and finally, he twisted his shoulder and punched the hardest straight he could offer.
No whipping sound came from the punch, and the force wasn't as strong as the previous boy's.
'I guess it was to be expected.'
Next, Caecus got back into his fighting stance and kicked a clean spinning kick onto the sandbag.
Nobody around him reacted in the slightest, unlike what happened to the boy before him, and Caecus just left for the finished students.
'My physical inferiority to those who have trained since they were young clearly shows… well, as I thought, it was to be expected. Amelia said I'll be carried by my theoretical and soul exams anyways.'
When everyone was finished with the punching, the instructor told them to run as many laps as they could within an hour around the field, without soul essence either.
Each of them had to put a bracelet, which they had to infuse with their soul essence, on their wrist so it would track their movements.
"Alright. Three, Two, One, Go!" Prof. Fortis said.
Caecus started running at the perfect pace.
'Amelia already prepared me for this. I should be able to estimate my stamina well.'
While other boys and girls started sprinting immediately, Caecus ran at a comfortable pace, which to a normal human was like a sprint, but for people from the corpora seemed like a light jog.
Almost an hour later, just short of finishing the race, something unexpected happened.
Many teens overestimated their capabilities, and due to starting with sprinting, their pace wavered a lot later on.
Caecus was actually above average in running, which really surprised him, but when he noticed the few unconscious students who were a little too enthusiastic about winning, he understood.
His bracelet said that he ran nineteen point eight kilometers.
'Not bad.'
…
The testing continued, and all of the participants had to do things like show their bench press, squat, and deadlift one-repetition maximum, and other stuff.
When it was almost over, the only thing left was to duel the instructors in pure hand-to-hand combat.
Those who said that they weren't too tired started, and for the rest, they got selected randomly.
After waiting for a while, Caecus stood in front of the teacher, who just looked like he wanted to finish all of this quickly and go to his room.
He noticed that Mr. Fortis was only rank four, which was to his surprise.
But then he remembered Mrs. Veritas and turned his head.
'Must be something similar, this guy must be some kind of muscle-building expert.'
Extreme nervousness started growing in Caecus when Mr. Fortis got into a fighting stance, and he took out a handkerchief with the scent he used for combat.
Mr. Fortis just stared at him like he was crazy, but seeing that it was really nothing but a handkerchief with a scent, he waited for Caecus to get into a fighting stance as well.
The Pavlov's dog reaction worked perfectly, and Caecus' pupils dilated, adrenaline surging through him, and he felt his focus increasing.
'Alright, let's start.'
Caecus got into a fighting stance as well and waited for Mr. Fortis to attack.
After seeing that Caecus was ready, the exam supervisor attacked.
A jab was thrown in the direction of Caecus' head, but he slipped the punch and waited for the follow-up jabs, which indeed came.
'I cannot allow myself to fight like a counter puncher against this guy, he's like a million pounds lean!'
Forcing himself to act as an outfighter, Caecus continued dodging his jabs, and finally, an opening showed itself when the instructor threw a straight.
Caecus dashed forward under the arm of Mr. Fortis and punched into his solar plexus.
Just before the punch reached its destination, he felt a headlock around his neck.
Quickly, he tapped against the instructor's arms, which were the size of his waist, and the grip stopped.
'Shit! It was a trap! As if he would let such an obvious opening come through…'
In his mind, Caecus cursed, but unbeknownst to him, the instructor looked at him with a bit more approval in his eyes.
With the exams being over, Caecus went over to the cafeteria to eat something.
When he arrived, it was completely filled with people to the brim, and he managed to find one small place that was empty to sit on.
'Haaa… I really need some friends.'
The quiet solitude he had was quickly interrupted by a familiar guy who was way too big for his seat.
A sweet smile entered Caecus' face when Titus sat down.
'This guy… well, it seems that this is a sign that he should be my friend.'
Titus, on the other hand, had a frown on his face, and when he noticed Caecus smile, he looked confused.
"Caecus? What's got you smiling like that? Did you do well on the exams?" he asked, voice tinged with inquiry.
A slight blush entered the blind boy's face, but he got himself together and answered.
"Titus, are we friends? I mean I really never had a close friend ever since—"
"Of course we are friends! I mean you're practically the only person here I talk with." he said, the frown he had on his face before turning upside down and transforming into a joyful grin.
Caecus shared his feelings and started smiling fully too.
"Say, why do you never socialize with the other students, Titus? You are the heir of Titanus after all…"
Looking at Caecus for a few seconds and staying silent, he thought.
"I am not sure, I mean I do socialize, but all of them seem so fake to me. You just seem to care less about status and appearance and more about what kind of person is before you, I guess…" he answered thoughtfully.
"That makes sense…" Caecus just answered, leaving Titus clueless, but the huge boy didn't inquire further.
"Say, why did you have a frown on your face when you entered?" Caecus noted.
"Well, as I told you, my group was solely composed of other heirs of big corpora. I'm just gonna say… there were some… monsters there."
"Monsters? But when it comes to pure physicality, I'd expect you to win over anyone here?" Caecus was confused.
"Well, there were three girls and a boy who were still stronger than me, believe it or not."
"Really?!" His voice was a bit louder than expected, but Caecus didn't care.
'What kind of monsters did the other corpora raise?!'
"Yes. I'm pretty sure the boy was the Aeternus heir, one girl was the heiress of the Noctis corpus, I think her name was Nyx, while the other one was from your corpus. And one was a foreigner, I don't remember the name of her corpus." Titus explained.
"My corpus?" his sister crossed Caecus' mind.
"Yes, she actually looked eerily similar to you, just a hell lot tal—" Titus interrupted himself, realizing height was a sensitive topic, and then continued. "Her face looked very similar to yours, but just a little more mature, and well feminine."
"Oh, was she strong?"
"Yeah, I think she was the best of them all. She was the only one who managed to defeat the instructor in pure hand-to-hand combat. Really a monster…" Titus said, a shudder running down his back.
Finishing eating with Titus, both of them went into their respective rooms, and Caecus did his night routine and lay down, exhausted.
'I really am that far behind her… she defeated an instructor?! How is that even possible!'