Chapter 127- The Evaluation Continues....

Chapter 127: Chapter 127- The Evaluation Continues....

Rook’s laughter finally began to fade.

He took a breath, collected himself, and looked Tina over properly for the first time since her transformation. Gripping her shoulders with both hands, he studied her closely.

"You look rough. And your left eye — what happened?" Rook asked, noting the way her left eye had turned a deep purple, faintly reflecting the glowing formations scattered throughout the chamber.

"I always knew you’d end up surpassing every single one of your fellow disciples. But.. A Rare-rank class. Hmph.. Not worth it.." He let out a short snort, though his voice carried unmistakable pride underneath it.

"From the very first time you picked up a wooden sword, I could tell you were a rare talent."

Rook meant every word of the praise, genuine pride showing plainly on his face.

"Thank you, Master. I’m fine, really. My left eye’s just been — modified, I think. The guardian said it’ll let me see things I couldn’t see before."

Rook nodded, satisfied with that.

Hugh, having finally emerged from wherever he’d been hiding, suddenly appeared beside them. "Haha, sure, right. Weren’t you the one saying she’d get a Rare class at best?"

Rook shot him a sharp glare. Hugh just glared right back without flinching.

Tina had already rejoined the rest of the group by then, one hand resting casually on the hilt of her sword as she scrolled through the notifications she’d received.

The guardian watched all of this play out with a blank, unreadable expression. She raised one hand. "Enough."

The murmuring around the group died down immediately. "Let’s continue the evaluation," she said. "Whoever hasn’t stepped forward yet, come, do so now."

Her sharp gaze landed squarely on Rook.

He had absolutely no desire to walk up there, test poorly, and embarrass himself in front of his own disciples. More than that, though, he was genuinely worried Hugh might end up testing higher than he did.

"Do I actually have to go?" Rook asked.

The guardian’s cold purple eyes fixed on him. "Yes."

Rook sighed heavily and rolled his shoulders as he trudged toward the formation, his expression that of a man walking toward his own execution.

He placed both hands forward, and dark energy erupted from the well in response. The energy that surged up wasn’t subtle at all — it engulfed not just his wrist, but both of his hands entirely.

Dark smoke and death qi rolled together, coiling upward into mist before finally resolving into a figure: a skeletal warrior. A fully formed one, complete with sword, armor, and a flawless combat stance, hovering directly above the well, its hollow eye sockets burning with faint purple light.

The guardian’s eyes narrowed sharply.

[Ding~]

[Undead Resonance — Detected.]

[Combat Resonance — Detected.]

[Existing Martial Path — Dominant.]

The skeleton continued stabilizing, growing denser and more solid by the second. For one brief moment, it genuinely looked like Rook might actually walk away with a class of his own.

Then the qi within his body stirred.

His martial aura erupted outward violently. Sword qi burst from his body like blades of pure white light, and the manifested skeleton was cut apart instantly, the entire construct shattering into dark dust that scattered harmlessly across the formation channels.

[Ding~]

[Undead Path Formation — Rejected.]

Rook stared, momentarily dazed, at the empty space where the skeleton had stood, then glanced toward the guardian, clearly unsure what had just happened.

He recovered quickly, though, pointing both thumbs at his own chest. "See? Told you. Pure sword guy through and through."

The guardian studied him with a scrutinizing look. "You already walk a path entirely your own. I could tell your path touches on soul work as well, which made me expect a stronger resonance. But it seems whatever soul mastery you’ve developed is tied entirely to living souls, not the dead."

Rook grinned broadly and strolled back to the group, whistling cheerfully.

Leo watched him swagger back like a man who’d just won a war. Unlike Tina, whose swordsmanship had proven compatible enough with the undead essence to integrate smoothly, Rook’s sword qi was simply too dominant, too aggressive, to allow anything foreign to take root. "He’s spent his entire life mastering that sword," Leo murmured. "Makes sense he’d already have his own path carved out by now." 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ

Shen, who’d been quietly watching everything unfold, suddenly stepped forward without warning. Leo, caught off guard, tried to stop him — but Shen just glanced back with a grin. "Relax, I only want a closer look at those formations."

He shot Leo a mischievous look before walking on ahead. Leo broke into a nervous sweat on Shen’s behalf, fairly certain the guardian had heard every word of that exchange.

Shen stepped into the formation practically drooling with excitement, eyes lit up like he’d been handed a brand-new toy. He crouched down to examine the formation etched into the ground, then stood back up to study the stele, then turned his attention to the mana well itself, tracing every formation channel he could find with obvious fascination. He crawled, he crouched, he circled — an excited child let loose in the most interesting room he’d ever seen.

The guardian, waiting patiently the entire time, finally felt a vein start throbbing visibly against her forehead.

"You damned insect," she said through gritted teeth, "put your hands on the well before I make absolutely certain your hands stays in there permanently."

A sudden chill shot down Shen’s spine, and he quickly slapped both hands against the stone above the well.

The dark mist rose and coiled around his wrist.

Three seconds passed. Then seven. Then fourteen. Then twenty.

Nothing happened. Shen glanced nervously toward the guardian and started sweating in earnest. It’s not my fault, he repeated silently to himself, trying to brace for whatever wrath he assumed was coming his way.

Leo assumed Shen simply carried zero affinity for the undead, which was why the formation refused to light up at all.

But then, after nearly a full minute of waiting, something finally happened.

Rook, growing impatient, opened his mouth to fire off some sarcastic remark — but before he could get a word out—

A brand-new formation manifested beneath Shen’s feet, one unlike anything they’d seen light up before. It wasn’t a path manifestation. It wasn’t a class evaluation either.

Dark purple lines etched themselves directly into the floor. Shen immediately crouched down to study them more closely, and as he examined the pattern, he realized the formation was deliberately left incomplete — one single line had been left conspicuously open.

He reached out and touched it. The formation shifted in response, its lines rearranging themselves in real time. A second line appeared where none had existed before. Then a third.

[Ding~]

[External Formation Interaction Detected.]

[Legacy Resonance — Abnormal.]

[Multiple Resonance Structures Detected.]

[Path Classification — Inconclusive.]

[Evaluation — Suspended.]

The formation faded away as its lines dissolved back into the floor, and the steady thumping from the well went quiet once more.

Shen stood there, lost entirely in his own thoughts, not even sparing a glance at the notification hovering nearby. He simply stared at the empty spot where the formation had vanished. "...Interesting."

Leo turned to the guardian. "What just happened, exactly? Does he have affinity, or he doesn’t?"

The guardian turned to face him. "Honestly? I don’t know."

Everyone stared at her for a long, awkward moment. "What?" she said defensively.

"Next," she announced flatly.

Shen wandered back to the group, half confused, half still turning the strange formation over in his mind.

Hugh went next.

He was fully confident he carried no trace of undead affinity whatsoever. Still, he walked out to the formation wearing a bored expression and pressed his hands against the stone. The dark mist coiled obediently around his wrist.

The mana well responded almost immediately. A skeletal structure began forming — though it wasn’t simply a skeleton this time. It was a full vessel.

Bone formed the underlying frame, metal filled every joint, and stone made up the base platform beneath it. The shadow-formed manifestation was strikingly vivid, detailed enough that even Hugh, standing right in front of it, could only murmur, "Remarkable."

[Ding~]

[Vessel Resonance — High.]

[Preservation Resonance — Detected.]

[Structural Resonance — High.]

[Soul Resonance — Insufficient.]

The manifestation began fading almost as soon as it had appeared, the entire structure eventually collapsing in on itself.

Hugh stared silently at what remained.

"You clearly have a strong understanding of preservation and vessel construction," the guardian said, "but you don’t carry genuine affinity for the undead itself."

Hugh just nodded, having more or less expected that outcome already, and made his way back to the group, where Rook greeted him with an insufferably smug expression that made Hugh want to punch him square in the face right then and there.

Elona went next.

She stepped into the formation without particularly high expectations. She already had a unique class of her own; she was mostly just curious how the well might resonate with her, if at all.

The dark mist coiled around her wrist, and the well responded gently, manifesting a small, fragile-looking object suspended in the darkness. It looked almost broken already, light and shadow flickering across its surface, cracks slowly spreading wider as they watched.

She reached out and touched it, and the moment her fingers made contact, the cracking stopped entirely, the object settling into a steady hover just above her open palm.

[Ding~]

[Preservation Resonance — Strong.]

[Stabilization Resonance — Detected.]

[Undead Resonance — Insufficient.]

[Path Formation — Incomplete.]

"Same result as Hugh?" Elona asked the guardian.

The guardian nodded. "You don’t carry any real affinity for the undead, no."

Elona accepted that with a nod of her own, releasing the object, which promptly disintegrated and faded back into the well.

Yuna went next, once more testing her luck out of curiosity. She already held her lightning-based class, but she still wanted to know where she stood with this legacy as well.

She stepped forward and let the formation test her.

[Ding~]

[External Legacy Influence Detected.]

[Undead Resonance — Present.]

[Cross-Path Resonance — Unstable.]

[New Path Formation — Not Recommended.]

.....