♫ (The Rembrandts – I'll Be There for You) play this while reading if you want to ♫
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Other students started eyeing Grian as he was walking towards the podium.
"He's blind look!"
"How is he walking like he can see?"
"Maybe he has an earth affinity too, he can sense the vibrations?"
Whispers about his disability can be heard in the whole area and Grian noticed the slight movements in the auras when he passed through. Even if Grian couldn't see their faces, he could hear their whispers and he could tell what they feel about him based on their auras alone.
"Stand still," S instructed then started scanning Grian's tattoo. "Huh? I think it's broken?" He said to himself as he shook the machine twice and hit it with his hand.
Brr brr
The machine started making a weird noise then after a few seconds, it went up in flames. "Shit!" S exclaimed as he threw the machine on the ground, while Grian was just standing still, nervously waiting for the test to be over. "Yes, send me a new scanner, it broke. Don't ask me, I don't know either, just send it! Quickly!" S said, talking to someone using a circular black orb, a radio-like object, clipped on his pants.
"Since the scanner broke let's first test your affinity," S, a little pissed the scanner broke and the test was taking longer than usual, decided to be a little rough just because. Especially, the kid in front of him looks like he could be easily bullied, and no one would care. S being mean by nature punched Grian with orange flames covering his hand, a little less hard than he did with Aria.
Grian, didn't know what to do, should he parry the attack, defend himself or attack back? He looked at his status screen and saw that the EV is still at 0, so he knew he couldn't conjure the flame. He noticed the little white orbs gathering around the podium and decided to gather them, like what he did before with the old man. The little white orbs slowly one by one was collecting in Grian's chest but were disrupted when Aria screamed, "Grian, in front of you!"
As S's flame punch was about to hit, Grian became alarmed by Aria's statement and in panic, accidentally let go of the EV he was gathering. A small shockwave, only Grian could see was released and it caused S's flame to disappear. Grian was then hit by S's punch in the stomach, only weaker and slower. After he was hit, S suddenly fell to the ground unconscious.
'What the fucking shithead happened?' Acastus thought with a dumbfounded expression. The students withheld their whispers and the area fell into an awkward silence. Everyone saw what happened but couldn't explain it. In their eyes, the instructor's flames suddenly vanished before hitting Grian and fell to the ground unconscious, while the kid was still standing steadily. The student's first thought was that it must be because of the blind kid but instantly dismissed and laughed at their idiotic thought. They concluded that the instructor must've eaten something bad and got sick, then everyone continued with their chatter.
For those powerful enough to sense it, they all thought the same, 'This kid's interesting, something big is going to soon.'
A female instructor with long blonde curly hair that is a little chubby, wearing the same white uniform was about to give the scanner when saw his colleague fell and rushed to his aid. "What happened?" She asked Grian, to which he responded with a shrug, he was too preoccupied with the notifications that popped up.
[System Notification]
[Negate]: (user will release a pressurized EV wave that will disrupt their affinities and render them powerless for a limited time) <1 Stat Point rewarded <1 Stat Point rewarded <1 Stat Point rewarded <1 Stat Point rewarded <1 Stat Point rewarded <1 Stat Point rewarded [Congratulations on ranking up!] [Grian Ignis] [Affinity: Red Flame [Level: ➋] [Experience: 39/10000] [Health Power: 20/20] [Agility: 4/20] [Stamina: 2/20] [Strength: 1/20] [Elan Vital: 0/20] [Skill(s)] [Quest(s)] "Is he finished testing you?" The instructor asked while calling for backup, on the same black orb. "Not yet, he suddenly fainted," Grian replied, still scanning the notifications. "Okay, my name is instructor T and I'll continue conducting the testing until S regains consciousness." She put S aside the podium while other Arleiths in white uniform took him, she was about to scan Grian when the new scanner made another noise. T instantly noticed it and turned it off. 'I guess the scanners are defective, I'll just guess the ranking and wing it.' She thought as she punched Grian with a red flame. Everything happened quickly, Grian was hit and fell on the ground, too fixated on the system to notice the flaming punch incoming. "Your rank is 1! Next, Anti Viotto!" Grian then walked back to the area he was in earlier. "What was that about?" Acastus asked and Grian shrugged. They both looked at their palms and a tattoo indicating their ranks appeared. "Don't worry about it, you'll rank up soon!" Acastus added, still maintaining his image and patted Grian's back. Not really caring about the ranking he got, Grian thought about what happened earlier at the podium and wanted to recreate it. 'Negate' He thought but another notification appeared. [System Notification] [Cannot use negate] 'As I thought, I need to replenish my EV.' He then began to gather the small particles as he did earlier, but he couldn't release them. It was just gathering slowly. 'This'll be easier if the old man told me everything about the system before disappearing.' He sighed, 'I thought it'll be easy to rank up, but now I need 10000? Ugh, this is becoming more and more complicated. So where should I put my stat points?' "Those that are tested, group yourselves into 6 and then we'll begin the tour." Another instructor said to the students. The students became noisy and started making friends with each other. Acastus was one of them, he was approaching different groups of students, but he was being ignored, just because of the fact that he associated himself with Aria and the blind kid earlier. 'Fucking little shits! And here I was pretending to be fucking friends with these dumb fuckers. You guys are already fucking lucky I decided to grace you with my motherfucking presence if only you knew how easy it is for me to fucking burn your family to crisps!' He thought stomping hard on the ground, forgetting to keep his cool façade. He went back to where Grian and Aria were, heavily sighing, he said, "I guess we're stuck together, let's just find 3 more students to group with." Aria just looked at Acastus for a bit then resumed watching the testing at the podium. You could say Grian was dazed staring at the horizon if he could see, but as he was blindfolded, he's just idly standing by, ignoring Acastus' statement. 'Great! Just. Fucking. Kill. Me. Fucking Great! I got stuck with a criminal and a disabled loser.' He thought while his face was slowly becoming sour. "Hi, there! You guys seem interesting, can I join in?" A tall boy with an athletic build, red wavy hair, blue eyes, and fair skin, approached Grian's little groupie of misfits and asked. "Your highness! Y-yeah! But why?" Acastus started sweating nervously and asked respectfully while bowing a bit. 'Why is this fucking bastard of a prince here? Bitch ass bastard shithead.' He thought opposed to his actions. "Why not? You guys seem interesting, and just call me Imogen, my name is Imogen Bronte, not your highness." Imogen said emphasizing the word 'your highness' hinting, that the other students do not know him and him being royalty should be kept a secret. He said while looking at Aria that doesn't give a care about the world, Grian that's just standing, and Acastus being fidgety. "This is going to be fun!" 'Fucking bastard, who does he think he is! Well, okay he's a prince but fuck! He's so arrogant correcting me when I was just being fucking respectful, bitch head should be grateful I even greeted him at all, if I want to, I could've shoved him back to his mother's uterus' Acastus was smiling at Imogen while in deep thought. 'So, he's the kid at the gate earlier with a yellow flame,' Grian was observing Imogen's flame, it was thrice the size of the instructors. 'And who's this?' He noticed a small aura behind Imogen with a transparent orb filled with what looks like half-empty water. [Inspect] 'And I thought Aria's the strongest.' Grian's eyebrows were furrowed, 'Ignis? What is going on? Is he a relative of the old man? But he's royalty? Why is he using a different name? What's a fae?' Imogen noticed Grian weirdly looking in his direction, so he turned around and saw a small girl with short bob light brown hair, and huge glasses. "Ah! I forgot she's also going to join this group, she's a friend of mine." Nudging the small girl to introduce herself. "Uhm hello! Heida is called Heida Yarbrough." Bowing a little, and her ears getting little red, she looked at Acastus then bowed again, "P-please t-take care of Heida!" Acastus then smiled brightly at the young girl while in thought, "Fucking bitch ass face why is she even looking at me with those big ass cute eyes." "She's from a different island so she's not fluent and stutters a lot," Imogen said as he ruffled his bright red hair, with just a simple gesture he already got the attention of the nearby female students which resulted in a few giggles here and there. "Is there room for one more?" said a panting dark-skinned boy with medium-length black hair tied in a low ponytail. He was a bit buff and athletic looking, based on the fit of his clothes. "I went somewhere and all the students that were finished testing were already grouped. Whoo!" He exclaimed as he straightened his posture and stretched. "Yeah, no problem. We also needed one more anyway. The blind kid's Grian, she's Aria and this is your h- I mean, Imogen and his friend Heida." Acastus said pointing to each name introducing them. Imogen smiled and nodded at Acastus. "Good thing I found you guys then! The name's Ove Einar, I came from the tundra. Nice to meet you all!" Then he proceeded to shake each of their hands, except for Aria's. [Inspect] Grian was astonished by the group's aura, all of the known affinities are in his group, each of them different. Especially Ove's, his aura is just a gray solid orb that has a faint glow. 'I guess I'm the weakest of the bunch.' An instructor was guiding the students per group, to tour around the island. A part of the island is where a huge circular structure called the Colosseum is located, inside were different weapons as well a several platforms like where they get tested earlier. It is the place where students can duel each other. They were also shown the main academy where the classes are held. "As you can tell, only you, a few hundred students, and a couple of instructors and workers are here on this island. Previous students are scattered in different islands for their practical experience." Grian was just casually strolling and observing the surroundings, keeping mental notes of where the EV is dense, so he could go back later and gather some, since waiting for his EV fill up is taking so long. He then noticed a structure glowing brightly than the other buildings. The wireframe of the structure also emits a small amount of red flames. "Here on this area is the Libraria, it is where all the known books in the world are kept. You need permission to enter and access the books because it holds the secret of our island. It can be said that knowledge is power, so it is heavily guarded. Don't worry you'll get to enter it when it's time. Moving on!" The instructor pointed to the building Grian was observing, it looks like the oldest structure on the island. It was made with the same white bricks but more weathered. Most students ignored the Libraria because books aren't interesting for them. But to Grian, who saw that the structure has massive amounts of condensed EV and walls that release flames. His curiosity is piqued. Eventually, the tour ended just outside a row of tiny 2-story brick houses. "This is where you'll be staying for 1 year, this will be your group's house. There are 2 bedrooms and bathrooms inside, you talk amongst yourselves about how you're going to share it. Each house will have a W2K located at the living room, for those of you that don't know it's the black orb that your instructors used earlier to communicate. It's where announcements will be made." "Use of affinities and skills in your house is allowed, but if you break the house or furniture, you'll have to pay for it. If you can't pay, you'll get punished. In your pockets, you'll find a small rucksack, it is imbued with EV and can hold up to 2 cubic meters of objects. You already know how magical storages work, so that's that. Your old clothes and other stuff are in there, along with your card. It is where your daily allowances will be put and the amount you get depends on your rank so use it well." "You're free to explore and do whatever you want but always act with caution. Lessons will start tomorrow at the light of the 1st sun. You should also come up with a name for your group or your house and get to know each other. Well, since you're stuck together until you finish the academy. Also, come up with a group leader tomorrow, there's no curfew today so have fun." "Yeah, go have fun and enjoy! Blah- di blah! Enjoy it while it lasts, little shits." The instructor whispered to himself with a sinister grin as he walked away from the group, which Grian heard. ---------------------------------