"Haah... Haah…" [???]
The young man ran as he was running out of breath.
"GROARRR!"
A roar echoed throughout the cavern.
"D-damn, I think it's catching up." [???]
"Wha-" [???]
The young man stopped in his tracks as he faces a dead end. The footsteps of the monster could be heard coming closer as the floor began to shake. He turned around and peeked at the dark shadow looming over him.
"How am I going to get out of this…" [???]
[3 Months Earlier.]
Beep Beep Beep Be-. A hand came down onto the clock.
"Ugh…" [???]
A head appeared from underneath the blanket. His black hair ruffled and his dark brown eyes barely open.
"...What time is it?" [???]
The young man scratched his eyes as he glanced at the clock.
"What? It's only 8 am. I have an hour before school starts so... I guess I'll sleep some more." [???]
He let his head drop back down and drifted off to sleep.
"Hey, Wake up Adam!" [???]
A voice can be heard from outside his room.
"Ngh… Five more minutes." [Adam]
BAM!
The door burst open.
A young girl with black hair and dark brown eyes strolled into the room with a spatula in hand.
"I swear to god if you don't get out of bed right now, I'm going to post your superhero fanfics online and show them to your friends!" [???]
Adam practically jumped out of bed.
"W-wait! Big sis Vivian, Let's talk about this!" [Adam]
"Oh? Now you're in the mood to get out of bed? I'll see you downstairs in five or else your breakfast will get cold." [Vivian]
She turned around and made her way down the stairs. A few minutes later Adam appeared in uniform.
"By the way, your clock is broken, unlike the one outside. So... you actually have 30 minutes to finish breakfast and arrive at school. Also, your buddy is waiting outside for you already, so you better hurry up." [Vivian]
Adam quickly shoveled down his breakfast and hurriedly made his way towards the door. As he opened the door he sees a back turned to him.
"Yo Felix, sorry for the wait." [Adam]
The boy turned around and smiled. His bright blue eyes and golden hair reflected sunlight into Adams eyes causing him to blink multiple times.
"No problem, but I hope you'll wake up earlier next time." [Felix]
Adam raised an arm, scratching the back of his head.
"Haha… I'll try my best." [Adam]
("When did he dye his hair blonde? It kind of hurts my eyes.") [Adam]
Fifteen minutes later, Felix and Adam arrived at the school gate.
"So, what class are we in?" [Adam]
"Uhm, I don't know. Give me a moment." [Felix]
He shoved a hand into his pocket to reveal a folded sheet of paper.
"I have our schedule right here." [Felix]
He began to read it after unfolding it.
"...So I'm in class P-3. What about you?" [Felix]
A bead of sweat slid down Adam's face.
"Uh... I don't remember…" [Adam]
Felix only stared at Adam blankly.
"What?" [Felix]
"Well, I didn't think that piece of paper was very important so I kind of… you know?" [Adam]
At this point, Felix's eyebrows start to narrow.
"So you threw it away." [Felix]
"Yep." [Adam]
"Haa..." [Felix]
He released a deep sigh.
"Whatever, we can fix this." [Felix]
He paused before glancing at Adam.
"...Or rather, I can fix this." [Felix]
"Wow, really had to say that." [Adam]
"Anyways, pull out your phone, find the school website, and sign in." [Felix]
Adam pulled out his phone and began to follow Felix's instructions.
"Do you see your class now?" [Felix]
Adam nodded silently.
"Now what do you say?" [Felix]
"Thank you…" [Adam]
"So, what class are you in?" [Felix]
As Adam checked out his class, a slight smile crossed his face.
"Oh? I'm also in class P-3" [Adam]
"Alright, then let's go." [Felix]
After navigating around the school for about 5 minutes, the two young men stood before a door with a sign above that read P-3.
"Let's hope we get a good teacher this year." [Adam]
He slid the door open and walked in only to meet someone standing in front of him.
"Hello there." [???]
Adam looked up to find a thin man wearing glasses and a lab coat with curly brown hair.
"Uh..hi." [Adam]
("I'm going to assume this guy is the teacher.") [Adam]
He nervously walked in to meet rows of empty desks.
"Where's everyone else?" [Adam]
"It's not that they're late, it's that you two are early." [Man with Glasses]
Adam looked at the clock in the classroom.
"But it's 8:50 am." [Adam]
"That's because class actually starts at 9:30 am. The recommended time to arrive is 9 am." [Man with Glasses]
"Oka~y, but can I get your name?" [Adam]
The man with glasses brought his hand up to his chin as if he was in deep thought.
"Hmmm, I will introduce myself when class starts. For the meantime, you two should take your seats." [Man with glasses]
"Can we pick any seat?" [Adam]
The man with glasses nodded.
"But of course, this schools' policy is to keep students free." [Man with glasses]
Adam walked to the back corner next to a window and took a seat. On the other hand, Felix did a quick greeting with the assumed teacher and took his place next to Adam. After some time passed, students began flowing into the classroom until all the seats were filled.
"All right, that seems like it's everyone." [Man with glasses]
The man with glasses stood in front of the class, bringing his hand to the wall behind him. The wall started rippling which turned out to be a glass screen. He then slid his index finger on it to spell out Mr. Frank in white coloring.
"Mr. Frank, that is what you all will call me. If you haven't noticed, I am your teacher." [Mr. Frank]
("Called it.") [Adam]
"I know this is your first year, and that you all just came back from your wonderful summer vacation, but we need to review." [Mr. Frank]
"Ughh." [Students]
That one sentence made all the students in class contort their face in disgust.
"Anyways, as you all know, highschool is different from elementary and middle school. Instead of mathematics and such, you all will finally be unlocking your abilities that are used in society." [Mr. Frank]
"Ooh~" [Students]
("That seemed to pique their interests.") [Mr. Frank]
"As the news reports, there are monsters that appear in our cities now and then from portals that we call *Voids*." [Mr. Frank]
He slid his hand across the screen to show an image of a black crack in the sky with purple highlights.
"This is an image of a small void. They close after sending in some monsters, but those monsters are capable of destroying cities if not taken care of quickly." [Mr. Frank]
As he spoke, his hand was constantly swiping the screen, changing the images on it.
"Next, are the monsters. We call them voidlings." [Mr. Frank]
"Ew…" [Students]
The screen displayed a grotesque creature that looked like a large leech with bat like wings, human limbs, and a tail.
"This is the weakest voidling to come out of a void. This one in particular is also the only voidling that can be killed by firearms." [Mr. Frank]
A hand rose from the class.
"Mr. Frank, doesn't that mean we can't beat any other voidlings?" [Student A]
Mr. Frank looked at the student blankly and sighed.
("This is why kids are…") [Mr. Frank]
"Good question, this is why we have heroes. Heroes are people whose abilities are at a higher level than normal people and are able to combat with voidlings. Most of you should already know this since the news airs some of the combat with strong voidlings." [Mr. Frank]
Another hand rose from the class.
"Why isn't the voidling you showed us on the news, or shown when heroes are fighting giant voidlings?" [Student B]
"That's because the voidling I showed you all can't actually fly even though it has wings. Also, because it's so ugly, people wouldn't want to watch it. Not to mention, soldiers with low level abilities handle them with gunfire. All the voidlings heroes fight are voidlings of high level and are not ugly enough to make people want to vomit. Anything else is off the news." [Mr. Frank]
A third hand rose from the class.
("For the love of…") [Mr. Frank]
"Yes?" [Mr. Frank]
"What do you mean by levels?" [Student C]
("I was getting to that.") [Mr. Frank]
"When I mean levels, I mean how strong something is. You all should know the alarms in the area that alert us to evacuate to a protection dome right? Ever wondered why they would say something along the lines of "Level 3 threat has appeared in the area, please evacuate immediately"? Well, the higher the number, the stronger it is. The highest recorded level is 10 by the way. Level 10 is also the limit, anything beyond that is also recorded as level 10. The same works for our own abilities. It is recorded from level 1 to 10. [Mr. Frank]
A fourth hand was raised.
("That's it.") [Mr. Frank]
"No more questions for today, we're going to test all of your abilities now." [Mr. Frank]
He closed the app or window he had open, leaving a handprint on the screen.
"Every single one of you will be coming up here to check your ability level, and what your ability is." [Mr. Frank]
As he spoke, Adam leaned towards Felix and lowered his voice.
"Psst, Felix." [Adam]
Felix leaned slightly, also lowering his voice.
"What?" [Felix]
"Wanna bet who has the better ability?" [Adam]
"What are we betting?" [Felix]
"Food." [Adam]
"...Alright I'm in." [Felix]
The two leaned back towards their original positions.
"And that concludes my explanation on how to evaluate your abilities, Let's Begin." [Mr. Frank]