At the following day in the morning, around 7:10, Greg woke up slowly, because of the light shining on his face.
While sitting up slowly, he looked down at the sleeping little rabbit next to him and smiled.
The little fluff ball feeling the slight movement around its vicinity opened its eyes and looked up at Greg.
As he watched the rabbit, he suddenly realized something and with a smile, he said, "I forgot to give you a name yesterday so let's think about one now. Let's see.... How about... Wait... Are you a boy or a girl in the first place?", asked Greg, but seeing no movement from the rabbit he nodded and said, "Okay, then jump to the right if you are a boy and to the left if a girl."
Hearing what Greg just said, the little rabbit jumped to the left, showing that she was a girl.
"So a girl. Hmm...", Greg started to think about a name and suddenly said, "How about Lily?"
Just as he said this, the rabbit turned into a bird, flew up, and started to prick Greg's cheek.
"Ow, Ow, ow! Okay, okay! I know! Then what about Alice?" said Greg quickly.
In an instant, the little bird stopped pricking and with a quick move, she changed back to her rabbit form and jumped onto Greg's lap.
"Hehe, so it's Alice then," said Greg with a smile and started to pet her.
A while later, Greg looked up at the clock and seeing that it will be 8 o'clock 30 minutes later, he suddenly jumped up making Alice fall to the floor.
"Ah, I'm sorry!", said Greg and picked up Alice, but seeing the anger in her little eyes he put her down onto the bed.
"I'm... really sorry!"
Without any further hesitation, Greg ran into the bathroom, washed his teeth and face, changed into his school uniform, and picked up his bag.
After walking to the door, he looked at Alice and he raised his hand.
"Come, Alice, we need to go."
As he said that, his Soul Stone appeared above his palm, making Alice disappear into it with white light.
"Nice!", said Greg and after closing the door, he started to run toward the Academy with his full speed.
***
Nexus's city only Soul Academy.
A place where not grades, but fighting results matter.
However before the age of 16, where kids don't get their very own Soul Stones, they don't fight, but only do writing tests, without any consequences.
Just after the age of 16 will they start the fight, but before that, there is a measurement about one's Guardian. There are 3 different tests, which measures one's Guardian.
The first one shows the Soul Stone's Guardian's name and ability.
Of course, it doesn't show its abilities which it will get after going up in the rank. It only shows the one, which it has presented at the moment.
The second one displays the Guardian's rank.
There are 7 Ranks: Awakened, Manifester, Soul Collecter, Creator, Calamity, Ascender, and God rank. Commonly every Guardian starts on the very first rank, but there are some cases when a Guardian's rank is higher than the others.
The last test is about the Guardian's Soul Potential, where the test shows it's hidden potential. It shows how strong the Guardian's power will be after going up to the next rank. 0 tells that the Guardian won't get any stronger in the next rank, however, if it's 3 for example then it shows that it will be 3 times stronger than before.
After the 3 tests, the Guardian's owner will be put into the Academy's system where they need to collect points with fighting others until the end of the year. In a fight, the winner gets 3 points, while the one who lost will get nothing.
Anyone who didn't reach the minimum 50 points until the end of the year, will be sacked out of the Academy without any chance to continue. Of course, if they have enough money, then everything could become possible.
And the day for the Guardian's size up is always the day after the Ceremony, which is today.
Running miles, Greg finally arrived in front of the Academy's entrance.
Looking at the clock above the gate, he sighed up with relief and said, "Lucky! I'm on time. I have 10 more minutes."
After normalizing his breath and neating his clothes, he started to walk up on the stairs and walked straight to where the test will take place.
Stepping into a huge hall, he saw that his classmates were already there, only waiting for the teacher to come and start the tests.
Greg looked around and saw that Joe was standing all alone in the right corner, so he walked over to him and greeted him with a smile.
"Good morning."
"Morning. About yesterday... I'm really sorry again. I couldn't do anything. The teacher wanted me to go with him and talk with the Saints."
"No problem. Wow, the Saints? That's really good news. And? How did it go? Did you accept the invitation?"
"I said I need time to think, but after I discussed the matter with my family, they said I have to accept, so I don't really have other choices."
"Well, it would be good to accept. You know, they are from one of the strongest associations."
"I know, but yet..."
As the two were talking, Greg noticed that somehow suddenly it got darker around him.
Seeing as Joe was looking above him, he turned around only to see William's gigantic figure before him.
"Well, well, well. It's not our little white rat with a trash Guardian? How do you feel? Depressed? Sadness? How does it feel to be a total loser?", asked William with a smug on his face.
Hearing this, Joe wanted to step forward and say something, but Greg stopped him and said, "It's okay. But unfortunately no. I don't feel a bit of depression nor sadness. And you know why? Because every time I saw you, it makes me happy to realize that I'm at least not a total moron like you."
The moment William heard this, a blue vein popped out on his neck and with an irritated expression on his face, he grabbed Greg's collar and raised him high into the air.
"If you have the guts, tell me that again!", said William with clenched teeth.
Just as Greg wanted to open his mouth to talk, suddenly Joe grabbed William's hand from the side and with an ice cold lolre, he said, "If you don't put him down now you will regret it, William."
Just as he said this, small lightning particles appeared on Joe's hand, indicating that if he doesn't put him down, there will be a huge consequence.
Feeling the numb feeling in his hand, William clicked his tongue and put down Greg, while looking at him with a murderous expression.
"You are lucky, but Joe won't be there all the time to save you." With that, William turned around and left.
"Thanks, but I would have been fine.", said Greg with a smile, after seeing that William was finally gone.
"Fine? He picked you up like it was nothing and you didn't even try to dodge. What would have you done, if he punched you in the face? Smile?"
Listening to what Joe just said, Greg just made a shrug and pointed to the left.
"It seems the teacher arrived. Let's go."
Joe looked at Greg's indifferent expression and with a sigh, he nodded and followed him from behind.
The teacher looked around and after a count he started to talk, "Okay, it seems everyone is here, so let's start the test."
With saying that, a huge hologram appeared above him with everyone's names on it.
"This is a panel, which shows your result, so let's start." Saying this the teacher took out a device that looked like a cube. It had a small hole on its top.
"This is an object which can show your Guardian's ability and name. You only need to put your stone in it and the results will appear on the hologram above next to your name. Okay, let's start. William, because you started back then start now too."
William hearing his name went up and with a flick of his hand, a red stone appeared above his palm.
He put the stone into the cube's hole and after a while, something appeared above on the hologram.
'Minotaur: Destruction'
"Minotaur?? It's the legendary Minotaur, which has otherworldly physical abilities?"
"Oh my god! I hope I didn't do anything that pisses of William. I don't want to be beaten into a pulp."
Hearing the shocking conversations William pushed his chest out while looking prouder than ever. Taking his stone back, he walked down from the stage but still looked at Joe with a mocking smile.
People went up one by one. There was one who had a Guardian pet, which could copy objects. There was a Guardian with invisibility ability and there was also a guy who could use sealing.
The next one who walked up was Joe. He put his white stone into the hole and a second later a sentence appeared above.
'Zeus: God of Lightning, Storm'
"Oh my Lord, please have mercy. Am I hallucinating? Two abilities? Doesn't it mean he is in the Manifester Rank already?"
"Zeus? Please tell me I just see things."
"What are you guys so shocked about? He has a white Soul Stone, of course, he will have a god Guardian."
Joe took back his stone and walked back from where he came, not even looking toward William.
The next one was Greg. He walked up and put his black stone into the cube's hole.
"It's really a black Soul Stone, so it wasn't just rumored."
"Yeah. His Guardian is definitely a trash one."
Greg looked up to the hologram and a second later, a sentence appeared making his eyes go round.
Everyone in the room was looking at the same thing as Greg and their reaction was the same.
"I-Is it really what I think it is?"
"It should be a black Soul Stone, so why is his Guardian's power like that?"
"It doesn't make any sense at all!"
Even Joe, William, and the teacher were dumbstruck and looked at the worlds above, which shouldn't even appear as a Black Soul Stone's Guardian ability in the first place.
'Unknown: 6 elements'