Earthling in Uncharted Dimensions

The crowd that minded their own tasks turned their heads when the sound of the wooden sticks slicing the air became loud. The applicants were surprised to see a pointy ear elf dodging the sticks that made most of them back off with its sheer speed. Many unconsciously felt a sting running all over their body as they saw the bot and elf messing with each other.

Many couldn't believe their eyes. The figure of the boy was flashing with incredible agility and the speed was slightly beyond a naked eye's tolerance. Some turned around as they felt a sting in their head from observing the high-speed chase.

And finally!

The bot twisted and turned in such a way that Jonathan had no other ways to dodge. Thus he was forced to retreat and went beyond the red ring.

The bot was deactivated the very instant and its hands dropped. The fierce aura emitted had disappeared.

*Huff... huff... huff...*

Jonathan's breath was very fast as needed a lot of oxygen to supply to his muscles. His brain was working faster than he could have ever thought as he ceaselessly dodged the strikes. Due to these, his fatigue was over the roof!

A second later, a deluge of applause erupted! The students and the instructor couldn't stand still like statues after witnessing such an impressive feat!!

Jonathan stabilised his breath and then stood up to walk towards the instructor. But the man had already approached him.

"That was impressive. Here's your card."

Handing over the card, the instructor congratulated him before going back to the machine. The crowd too dispersed after catching a glimpse of the elvish ears and that gave birth to heated murmurings.

17 minutes!

Even Jonathan was stunned by this revelation. He thought that it has only been a few minutes.

Whatever.

Without dwelling on the record achievements, Jonathan stood up and wiped his sweat dripping from his chin and forehead. He then walked to the elemental affinity test apparatus.

When the woman at the elemental affinity test machine saw Jonathan walking towards her, she was initially stunned by the presence of elf among humans. But she masked her surprise and stared at him. Meanwhile, Jonathan came near her and gave his card.

"Hmm... Lithos."

(P.S. Since the planet is not Earth, using the 'Earth' element would be awkward. So I used Greek for stone - Lithos.)

After taking the card, she mumbled to herself and turned to the machine. After inserting the card into the slot, she pressed a button and an obsidian slab came up.

"place your hand here."

The instructor said as she pointed at the palm-shaped carving at the centre of the slab. Jonathan promptly placed his hand and the slab changed its colour to brown.

After a second, the woman scurried her eyes through the machine and pressed a button. At that very moment, numerous cracks appeared on the slab.

"You might feel a tingling sensation, but do not take your hand off of the slab."

The warning was unnecessary as the aforementioned sensation had already crept up Jonathan's hand. It made him uncomfortable to the core yet he kept his composure.

The cracks on the obsidian slab began to spread and grow exponentially. If he could turn the slab over, he might see the cracks covering the entire block like a giant network.

The brown colour began to accumulate around Jonathan's palm at a visible rate. Then it began to spread through some selected cracks. Except for those cracks, the entire slab was normal.

"Hmm..."

The instructor looked concerned as she let out an audible sigh. Jonathan turned his head to her and saw a frown on her face as she scurried through a thick book. He crazily skimmed pages to and fro and her expression did not change.

Then, her hands found the page.

"Okay. The cracks that, that and this means defence. But...it is related to...nature?"

While shuttling her eyes from the slab to the book and back, she curiously comprehended what the formation meant. As she subconsciously stitched together the meaning, both Jonathan and the woman was stunned.

What is she saying?

Jonathan clearly heard her saying that crack formation is related to Nature affinity. His brows knit as she lowered the book with a contemplating expression.

"You have Lithos affinity. It is mainly to stone and sand, but you only have the former. Yet your racial peculiarities are taking effect and the crack formation deviates towards nature affinity."

Hearing this, Jonathan's brows furrowed. Upon seeing this, the woman further explained.

"Its nothing bad. It's just that your racial uniqueness is enough developed to count as an affinity. Thus, though you have a stone affinity, you could also find familiarity with nature. Non-human races have this kind of peculiarity."

The woman smiled as she explained. But Jonathan did not have a satisfactory expression. The instructor found it hard to come up with another structured set of words so she added-

"If you have any sort of doubts, you may find books regarding the elements in the library. It'll help to clarify the basics."

Taking the card from her hand, Jonathan exited the chamber as he finished the tests. Hunger and thirst had been poking its head and he felt tiredness accumulating in his body.

Walking towards the front door of the academic building, Jonathan saw Hugo waiting for him. Upon seeing the boy's figure, Hugo's face displayed a smile.

"How did it go?"

To the lieutenant's reply, Jonathan extended his card. Hugo took the card and read the strength, endurance and reflex values.

"Hmm... you did better than expected. Your racial cohesion is strong."

Hugo mumbled his remark as his eyes skimmed past the numbers multiple times. After that, he flipped the card over to see the affinity formation.

Wait, that's...

Jonathan didn't know that the crack formation that appeared on the obsidian slab would be etched on the back of the card. His eyes displayed surprise as he saw the image with precision printing.