"Watch and learn guys, this is how you do it." Josh rolled up his sleeves as he warmed up his arms.
Josh stood before Tom and asked him a question.
"Is it permitted to use my ability if it's related to my strength stat?" He asked.
"Hmm, alright, why not." Tom replied after thinking for a while.
It was not the first time this has happened, other people have requested the exact same thing, however their results either disappointed Tom, or didn't reach his expectations.
Tom had a feeling that this time might be different.
Josh nodded, approaching the stone and standing before it with both hands in his pockets in a relaxed manner.
A few seconds passed in silence.
Then Josh suddenly turned around, walking away before he even attempted anything, much to the crowd's confusion.
Tom was about to shake his head in disappointment before a loud bang sounded out.
Stunned, everyone turned towards the stone that was now glowing a dark gray color.
What was even more shocking was that the stone was pushed backwards a little.
"W-what, the 250 range?!" Tom's eyes practically bulged out.
He rubbed his eyes again, making sure he wasn't just seeing things.
Meanwhile, the young man responsible for this was calmly walking back towards Clay and the others.
Josh appeared calm on the surface, however, beneath that calm facade, lies a different story...
"I DEFINITELY LOOKED COOL JUST NOW." Josh tried stopping his smile from showing, failing a little bit as the corners of his lips slightly curled upwards.
Inwardly, josh was feeling giddy from the attention and the looks of amazement he was getting, of course, he didn't look directly at the crowd, but just seeing the gaping mouths in his peripheral vision was satisfying.
Clay knew his best (only) friend well, so naturally, he also knew that Josh was actually performing somersaults and backflips on the inside.
"I didn't know Josh was a.... aura farmer..." Steve muttered, the scene of Josh walking away and the stone producing a bang and lighting up a few seconds later was such an aura farming thing to do.
"Huh? What's an aura farmer?" Khael asked Steve, confused at what he meant.
"Just think of it as someone who likes seeking attention." Steve shrugged.
"Oh, okay."
Before anyone noticed it, Josh was already back at the group.
"THAT WAS SO COOL! HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!" Khael asked Josh with sparkles in his eyes.
"It was my ability, pretty neat right?" Josh couldn't hide the smug look on his face.
"Oh, what's your ability anyways?" Khael was curious as he still didn't know what anyones abilities were.
Steve perked up hearing this.
"My ability just makes delayed attacks, and I could control the power of my attack after I delay it. It's pretty simple actually."Josh explained.
"That's still so cool, man, all I can do is harden my skin into something like metal, wish I had something cool like that." Khael was envious at Josh's abilities, his own ability didn't look flashy at all.
"Don't say that, who knows, maybe once your ability gets upgraded you could do cool things as well."
"I hope so." Khael sighed.
"But I have a question Josh, the instructor said that you were at the 250 range in the strength stat, is that true?" Steve asked Josh.
"Yep, I added all my points to strength, I only have a B-Class system so all my other stats are far behind." Josh awkwardly rubbed the back of his head.
Hearing this, Steve squinted his eyes.
'I didn't think about it before since it slipped my mind, but why don't I try using my system on Josh?' Steve thought.
"Actually, I just remembered it now, I still haven't asked what your favorite food was, Josh." Steve used his favorite line again.
"Oh yeah, I was beginning to wonder why you still haven't asked me my favorite food yet." Josh chuckled.
"Well my favorite food would definitely be the chicken curry me and Clay ate at a restaurant a while ago, I've never tasted anything as delicious as that in my entire life." Josh replied, wiping the drool from the corners of his mouth.
'Gotcha, now let's see what we have here.' Steve activated his ability once the condition was met.
Steve: ?
'Huh? What? No, there must be a mistake, is my system broken?' Steve was stunned.
'It worked just fine on Maria, could it really be that his system class is higher than mine...?' Steve pondered as he glanced at Josh and Clay.
'It seems that I have stumbled upon some secrets.'
Back in the present, Khael struck the stone, to which it responded with a red glow tinged with a little brown.
Steve was up next, however he seemed deep in thought.
Khael gave him a nudge, pulling him back to reality.
"It's your turn man, get going." Khael patted his back.
"Already? Steve's thoughts were still on the two people who were hiding deep secrets.
Steve approached the stone boulder and gave it a good whack, getting a earthy brown glow as well, reaching the top three highest strength stat ranking in the test.
He was just right behind Galemit and Josh, the latter being more than twice stronger than Galemit.
It was finally Clay's turn, who was frankly feeling a little nervous.
'I won't accidentally break the stone right?' Clay thought glancing at his strength stat that was over a 1000 points.
'Wait, no, I should break the stone, the instructor said that whoever breaks the stone gets an extra ten thousand credits, I could get like, any food in the cafeteria for days.'
'But can I even break it? Even Josh who has like a quarter of my stat points in strength couldn't put a dent in the stone.'
Clay mulled as he slowly walked towards the testing stone.
His steps appeared slow, however he was anything but.
It was just that he was too fast that he perceived time slower.
Clay used that extra time to monologue a little longer in the inside.
Once he was done monologuing, Clay found himself in front of the stone.
'I guess I'll give it my best shot then.'
Clay rolled up his sleeves and prepared to throw a punch.