Primordial Expanse: I have the Strongest Talent!

And just as Alex expected, the woman was in for quite a shock.

Fwoom!

The room lit up for a short instant as Alex let out the full might of his aura, which hadn't failed to intimidate the people who felt it… until now.

As a B rank, the woman would naturally be impervious to the pressure of a puny D- rank like Alex.

But although it didn't intimidate her one bit, it still left her very surprised.

'This feels like… the aura of a C rank!'

It felt to her like she was delivered shock after shock with this kid Alex!

And now, he had the aura of a C rank while only being a first year!

But she still waited for the more accurate assessment of the building's AI to properly record his energy assessment.

Beep!

And she didn't have to wait long.

[Energy level of subject 'Alex' barely reaches the threshold of C rank, fluctuating between C- rank and C rank during the detection. Recorded 59% more fluctuations towards C rank. Recommended result is 'C rank energy signature']

The computer delivered its assessment, allowing both Alex and the woman to hear his results at the same time.

'Huh! That's surprising! The last time I really checked the level of my aura was during the fight with the Count, and it was only around the mid range of C- rank. I guess it's gone up a bit over the last few months.'

"Yo-You have an energy level 5 ranks ahead of your own! Just what kind of monster are you!?"

Colour drained from her rosy cheeks and she was left pale faced.

The testing device couldn't have been wrong, as it had never been wrong ever since its introduction in the testing process over 50 years prior.

Not to mention that she had felt his aura to be around the same level herself, which was just absurd to her.

The reason his energy level was 5 ranks ahead and not 4, was due to the fact that the difference between D+ rank and C- rank was 2 ranks, not 1. This was why the woman had said that some exceptional students had a difference of 2 ranks when she explained the average results other students had.

She looked over to Alex and squinted her eyes.

'This kid has some big secrets. He needs some special attention.'

As she thought, she opened his file and changed her previous assessments.

'This kid doesn't have A- rank potential… He has S- rank potential!'

She erased her previous entry and changed it for her new one, which required authorisation from a member of the board to see if he qualified for such potential or not, as labelling a student with S tier potential was a big deal.

Mira's assessor would have to go through the same thing as well with her S+ rank potential — she might even need the approval of the President of the university himself to sign off on her assessment…

Alex didn't know much about energy levels. The only thing Alex had learned during his time in the Primordial Expanse was that energy levels were used as a rough base to determine the combat power of an awakened.

The woman sensed his confusion and explained to him.

"Energy levels have a deeper meaning than just to estimate combat power, they are an indication of a person's soul strength and willpower.

The only known way to increase one's energy level is through intense training and combat experience, building up what is commonly known as 'killing intent', or through the much more straightforward but much harder goal to achieve, to upgrade your classification."

What the woman said was right, and both cases actually applied to Alex. He was constantly fighting beasts and humans in the primordial Expanse so he had effectively been killing two birds with one stone, gaining experience and training at the same time.

Not to mention that he had already upgraded to Mutant class himself, which he hadn't thought was much of a big deal himself up until this point.

"Ah that explains it then, my energy level must be so high because I'm a Mutant class!" He exclaimed to the woman as if he finally figured out the solution to a hard problem.

But when she heard his exclamation, she just stood there with a blank stare.

… and dropped her communicator on the floor.

"You what?"

***

This time it took the woman a whole minute to recover and pick up her communicator.

"If what you are saying is true, then your rise to the top is all but guaranteed." She spoke, not mentioning any of her previous actions so as to not embarrass herself further.

"The earlier one becomes a Mutant Class, the better. You may not know this, but upgrading from Ordinary class to Mutant Class doesn't actually have much of an effect when you reach my rank. I myself upgraded to Mutant class when I was C+ rank, and have been a Mutant class ever since.

If I were to fight someone like you who became one at a much earlier rank, I'd stand no chance in a fight if we were the same rank."

Her face scrunched up, talking about this probably brought back some bad memories, but she continued soon after.

"That's why it's so important to upgrade classes so much earlier. It's almost impossible to find a team to help you take out such beasts with, especially at my rank. I'm probably going to stay a B tier for the rest of my life. There's no hope for me to ever reach A tier unless I come across some lucky inheritance in the future…"

'Wait, find a team to help you fight such beasts? Why would she need to do such a thing?' Alex asked internally, though he was lucky to have not asked that question out loud, as she would have probably given him a beating for saying such a thing.

Alex didn't know it, but most Ordinary classes had to treat Mutant class creatures like they were raid bosses in a video game, creating a team of anywhere from 10-30 people to take one down depending on its strength, this was in the case that they were of the same tier as them…

This was why Mutant class awakened were so rare, as beasts only ever dropped 1 beast core, and that was if they were lucky to have even dropped one.

It was obvious that 1 beast core wouldn't be enough for 30 people…

There were very few cases of Ordinary classes taking them down as a solo, like Alex and Mira did.

If someone wanted to do such a thing, they'd need to have a high rank talent like Mira's to even stand a chance.

Or be like Alex, a complete anomaly in this well oiled system of awakened.

'My absurd and anomalous strength probably comes from my absorption of Soul orbs instead of Beast cores…'

Alex had realised this fact too while listening to the woman speak about her own experiences of reaching Mutant class.

"Who knows, if you're lucky you might even be able to kill a Variant beast one day!"

She spoke, looking as if she didn't even believe her own words.

But Alex held an awkward smile on his face as he looked at the Variant class Soul orb and Beast core sitting in his inventory and storage…