I gather all my courage and place my hand on the big crystal in front of me… Please be something good!

The crystal took a while to activate, longer than with the other students. But when it finally did, the whole room suddenly got enveloped by a pure, almost blinding, white.

Mr. Ito looked dumbfounded, jaw almost hanging to his knees.

“W-White?! Someone in my class actually has the pawn talent?”

Pawn talent?... That doesn’t really sound that powerful… But Mr. Ito seemed surprised by it, my talent might be really rare or something.

Suddenly someone from the crowd utters something I was wondering myself:

“I-Is that good?”

“You don’t know about the pawn talent? Well, that’s not really surprising, it’s just that rare… I think only 15 or so Machia, currently alive, have the white-pawn talent.”

Yuma, the guy who just showed off his blade-knight talent, speaks up:

“Pfft, so what? He’s just a jack of al trades, master of none. Of those 15 Machia that Mr. Ito just mentioned, how many are famous? That’s right, only 1 or 2.”

Jack of all trades? What does he mean? I panic and look at Mr. Ito in search for some answers.

“R-Right, although the talent itself is extremely rare, it isn’t necessarily that powerful… Like Yuma already said, you’ll likely turn into a jack of all trades. The white-pawn talent doesn’t really excel in a single type of magic, it just gives a slight boost in power to all of them… The biggest handicap of this talent is that it doesn’t lower the mana-cost for any cartridge.”

I look at my hand that’s still resting on the crystal … D-Do I really have a garbage talent? No, if you think about it, a jack of all trades might be a pretty good match for my programming powers… I’ll need to cultivate a sizeable mana-pool though….

Mr. Ito, seemingly wanting to cheer me up, continues his explanation:

“There are of course also some good points about this talent, while fire-bishop talents, for example, receive a mana-penalty when they want to use plant or water-type magic, you’ll only have to use up the standard mana-cost for every cartridge, you won’t even receive a penalty for activating support type magic!”

I’m still not really smiling, so Mr. Ito rambles on:

“And even though using higher level cartridges multiple times would be difficult for you, people with the white pawn talent can look for synergy between all different types of magics. That’s usually where they excel. Although that would require a fair bit of money and resources…”

Oi mr. Ito, that last part just ruined your entire cheering-up-speech… *SIGH* Whatever, this talent is actually pretty good when combined with my programming powers.

I could hear some students whispering ‘master of none’ and ‘lowest mana-pool ever’ but it didn’t bother me that much, it’s quite convenient that I don’t have to avoid any magic-types when coding my cartridges now.

I didn’t get any applause, but I still stepped down the podium with my head held high. After me, only 3 students were left. Two of them showed their fire-bishop talent and the other one had a water-rook talent. I wonder how many talents are out there? I doubt the most powerful ones will be found in this wood [I] class though.

After the talent examination, Mr. Ito led us to the arena where we would have our mock-battles. It was the same one where me and Fudo fought before.

As we were walking through the corridor towards the arena, the air was noticeably more tense, the students knew that they might get seriously injured during this part of the exam.

When we finally arrived, I was honestly a bit underwhelmed. I was expecting a full stadium, but it looks like a wood [I] promotion exam could only attract around a quarter of the capacity.

Mr. Ito gestured towards a set of front row seats that were reserved for us and we all sat down.

Mr. Ito couldn’t even start his explanation before Fudo and Lance suddenly crawled over the barricade that separated our class from the rest of the arena and pushed around some people to sit beside me.

Some people protested, but Mr. Ito just sighed, he probably couldn’t be fucked to do something about the two rascals.

“Yo Reo! I told you we would come support you! Now we even have front row seats!”

“Yo Fudo, are you guys all better? Does Miss. Sato let you guys walk around already?”

“W-Well… She didn’t say no to the idea.”

Lance adds:

“Mainly because we didn’t ask her and just sneaked out.”

“Good thing you didn’t ask, cause otherwise I would have tied you guys down before I came here!”

Oh no, is that who I think it is…

Lance and Fudo turn around and greet the person next to them in unison:

“H-Hi Miss. Sato…”

Yikes, I can’t even imagine what she’ll do to them once they’re back at the clinic… *GULP*

Before Miss. Sato could lecture them though, Mr. Ito starts his explanation for the exam.

“Listen up class, we will now be conducting our mock duel. Before you get to fight, you’ll first have to measure your mana-pool on this equipment. If it’s between 150 and 300 you’ll fight me, the instructor of the wood class. Receive a measurement between 300 and 500 and you’ll be able to fight the assistant teacher of the bronze class, miss. Tanaka. If you’re mana-pool is measured to be between 500 and 800, you will have to fight the head teacher of the bronze class, Mr. Wyatt.”

“And what if you’re a loser who doesn’t even have a mana-pool of 150?”

Oh no, I recognize that annoying voice… Oh god, what is he doing here?