Chapter 1620: The Tests
Ning walked down the rather bright and cheerful hallway of the Spirit Department, a place that was full of people who worked with corpses and ghosts.
What should have been a gloomy atmosphere in his mind was in fact rather lively.
Shara looked around, both curious and nervous, as they approached a large door that led to the backyard.
As they walked, both Ning and the woman stopped in their tracks as something appeared before them, but Shara simply kept on walking.
“Oh, hey Frank. Are you free right now?” the woman asked the pale blue shimmering light that Ning focused on to see that it was a ghost. The ghost had a pale blue, smoky appearance, wearing some sort of military outfit of a high rank, with an age that made him look as if he was in his late 30s.
“Not another work… come on,” the ghost spoke, rather emotive. “I just got done working.”
“I was just hoping you would help us test this young…” the woman’s words lengthened as she realized Shara had continued walking on through Frank.
“Shara,” Ning called out, causing the young girl to flinch and turn around. She looked back, confused as to why the two had stopped. She had been so nervous that she hadn’t even noticed.
The woman narrowed her eyes and pointed before her. “Do you not see him?” she asked.
Shara looked at where the woman had pointed, but there was nothing. She shook her head.
“Hmm?” the woman thought for a moment. “Well, we can tell right now what you are not.”
She wrote something on her clipboard, which Ning managed to barely read.
‘Cannot see Spirits. Not a SD or a SC.’
‘SD should be Spirit Detective?’ Ning thought. ‘Then SC should be Spirit Channelers?’
Two out of the few potential options had been struck out at once.
“Who is that girl?” Frank asked.
“A testee,” the woman answered. “Can you help me test her?”
Frank frowned and sighed. “Alright, alright,” he said. “You guys are gonna make me regret agreeing to stay around to help someday.”
The woman smiled and they walked.
Shara continued walking once they caught up to her and together they arrived at the backyard. When they did, Ning froze in his steps and so did Shara.
The backyard, which they had assumed would be not that large was in fact massive. Green grass filled their visions nearly a kilometer away, with large trees growing at different spots.
Rectangular stones filled the meadow at different intervals, creating a nearly perfect symmetry, and a sense of order to the entire thing.
A bunch of white hazes floated around the place, moving aimlessly around the place, each one most certainly a Spirit.
“This… this is a cemetery?” Shara said, somewhat horrified.
Ning only now remembered that when he had been tested in his memory, he had been taken to a cemetery to talk to a ghost as well.
“Of course,” the woman answered. “The Spirit Departments are set at the back of a cemetery in most major cities. That way, no rogue necromancer can take away our dead and cause havoc in the city.”
Ning nodded. That made a lot of sense.
Shara said nothing, as she was simply creeped out by the whole thing.
“I’m buried here too,” Frank said. “My gravestone is the one over there.” He pointed to one far in the distance that Ning could barely see.
“Let us start, Frank,” the woman said. “Shara, we will be beginning your tests now. Please do as we ask.”
Shara nodded meekly. “What should I do.”
“For starters, can you sense where Frank is?” the woman asked.
Shara shook her head. “I can’t see him.”
“You don’t have to see him. You just have to sense him. Try and see if you can,” she said. “Frank, can you roam around the girl, so she can feel the changes?”
“So many ghosts here and I’m forced to be the one that has to work,” Frank grumbled but got right to work. He kept his distance from Shara, staying nearly 5 meters away while moving around her.
He moved slowly, changing up his speed from time to time, and even reversing the direction to add to the changes.
“Close your eyes,” the woman directed. “See if you can tell where Frank is just by your feelings alone. It should feel like someone is watching you.”
Shara patiently did as told, trying to sense the ghost that moved around her. But in the end, there was nothing.
“I can’t sense anything,” Shara said, opening her eyes again. “I don’t feel a thing.”
The woman slowly nodded, writing something else in her clipboard.
‘Cannot sense Spirits. Not an Exorcist.’
“Well, let’s try something different then,” the woman said. “You have a cemetery before you. Go to the middle of a few gravestones and try to summon the dead.”
Shara looked blankly at the woman. “I’m sorry?”
“We’re trying to see if you are a Necromancer. Don’t worry, if you are one, you’ll be able to dismiss them very easily.”
Shara hesitated at the thought of pulling the dead out of the ground, but since she had to test what her powers were, she was willing to work for it.
She went to the middle of the field and shouted, “How do I do it?”
“Just try to think about raising the dead,” the woman shouted back. “We just need to see if you have the power of Spectral Pulling.”
Shara didn’t understand but nodded and tried to use whatever power it was that made the dead rise from the ground. She closed her eyes and thought of raising the dead, but no matter what she tried, nothing happened.
“Did it work?” Shara shouted.
“No,” the woman said. “Did you try everything?”
Shara nodded from afar.
The woman sighed and wrote down on her clipboard.
‘Cannot attract Spirits. Not a Necromancer.’
She put the clipboard down and called Shara over. “There’s one last test left to see what you are.”
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