*
You would have to be a demon to not feel even a semblance of emotion after Emma's words. I felt guilty. I had almost wasted such a precious effort to save my life, to save my home.
Emma looked at each one of us and did the same as she did with Nicholas. Embracing us and telling us that she loved us.
I felt something in me resonate with her as she embraced me. Under normal circumstances, my sense of touch would definitely auto activate to feel the sensation of her body on mine.
But it didn't. All I felt was vast emotions of sadness, pain and guilt which were quickly masked by an overflowing comfort. Was this how she was? An open book, honest and altruistic? Putting the needs of her selfish children above her own?
Her care made me want to make a difference. I had a lot I needed to deal with, including what my ability did exactly, but I could figure it out as it was an innate ability. One meant for me and understood by me.
After the heartfelt moment, Astrid took Emma away as she was still an emotional wreck.
We were tasked with getting rest before the next day as it was already night. Tomorrow would be beginning of training.
Apparently every new batch of Invigorated was trained immediately, instead of being trained at distant intervals. It really showed the urgency.
Upon arriving in room, I decided to make peace with my inner turmoil and decide what I wanted to do.
I loved my family dearly, but whether or not they had survived was something I could not spend my limited doing when we were all in dire straits. I wasn't strong, charismatic or strong willed but this was the time to act. I'd rather die trying than kneel down to death's blade without a fight. That's how I did it that time. I wanted to fight for what I loved and broke my usual norm to do so and it paid off.
The situation was similar, only with higher stakes.
I remembered the main character of one of my best novels.
He was Chinese, with his own original fist technique called 'Celestial Sundering Rings'. The character himself was stone headed, didn't back out of a fight and spent 10 years cultivating alone to develop the technique. Even after that decade he was still beatable, and my fans often said the reason they liked him was because he would ask his opponent how he had been defeated and learn.
Through the process of failure, victory and making amends, he finally became powerful enough to stand with the strongest men and women within the book.
Thinking about it, he was the most outstanding character out of all my books, particularly my most famous three books.
The other were horror stories in magic less worlds. The main character of the first one being a detective and the other being soldier. Both worlds had terrifying existences that the main characters had to deal with.
I rested on the mattress and imagined what I would need to become like Ping Wu, Founder of the Sundering Rings Sect.
I'd have to achieve such bravery in a matter of months or be devoured by some random straggler and disappearing from the world, with my only legacy being a mere casualty statistic.
I breathed deeply and resolved myself. I'll give it my all in tomorrow's training.
A second later, my dice appeared from my pocket and floated in the air.
I hurriedly jumped from my bed and looked at them.
They floated long enough for me to see that one dice lost three sides worth of those small white depressions that indicated the number and now only three sides remained with 1,2 and 3. The other remained with all six.
They flung themselves on the ground.
After they settled the one dice with 3 sides showed a 1 and the other also showed a 1.
The dice began to glow and I felt an immense pain on my arms and hands! The pain was so excruciating that before I could scream, I was already unconscious.
A heavy knock on the door woke me up and I sat up. I began breathing very loudly and looking at my hands immediately after remembering what happened last night.
I was so relieved to see them still attached to me. The immense pain gave me the impression that they may have literally blown up.
The knock rocked my door again and I yelled for whoever was on the other side to get a grip as I wore my clothes properly and checked my pockets to find my die in them.
I opened the door to see Sandra again, smiling with her eyes closed.
"You're a heavy sleeper aren't you? I've been knocking for a while now," she said.
"Sorry bout that, had a rough night. Is it training time already?" I asked.
"Yep. You skipped breakfast in your sleep but Astrid won't allow you to be absent for the 'class'. So, let's go."
I groaned and decided to just go and have a date with that delicious food in the afternoon.
We walked up the stairs again to a lower floor than where we met Emma and upon entering I saw and felt the difference between this floor and the others.
It was larger, the height being excessively bigger than the other floors. On stepping in hall I felt the rigid ground with a metal feel as opposed to the stony one on other floors.
There were no rooms but segments. We headed to the one in the middle and I saw everyone already gathered.
It looked like a classroom. There was a projector, with stone benches all around where my colleagues were already seated. Astrid was standing at the front, wearing a black vest that accentuated her upper torso's fine muscles and a pair of black jeans that summed up her curves.
I immediately went to sit down and look very attentive.
"Thanks for joining us Bernard. Hope you had a good sleep," she said sarcastically.
I smiled wryly.
"Before we start this lesson let me introduce Camille. Our interpreter," she said.
A middle aged woman appeared in the room. She was a white woman with short brown hair and a short stature. She smiled amiably at all of us and stood by Astrid.
"Camille is an Elite Invigorated who will be helping us break the language barrier and also be an example for our lesson. She did a foreign language major, progressing with the study by visiting different countries and learning different dialects. So, you can imagine what her happy thought was," Astrid explained. "Her innate ability is called Social Group. Everyone within a 20 meter radius of her can understand each other, speech or hand signals included. We will be using it in this class."
We were all perplexed by her ability. I tried to converse with the dude who looked to be Hispanic and it was true. His mouth was moving in a completely different way but I heard his voice in English.
I asked him and he said he was experiencing the same. We were all marvelling at the wonder when Astrid called her hands.
"I understand its a wonder, but let's get on with the lesson. First is basic knowledge," she said. We turned attentive as she spoke.
"There are 4 safe Zones. This is the third. There is another just below Europe on what's left of Asia, a smaller one like this one on the far north west of Europe and the biggest in Europe's center.
This setup came to be after the continents broke or sank. The ideal setup would have been to have one Safe Zone in North Africa but it was unfortunate. The arrangement as it is now is meant to support rapid response. Where there is a heavy attack, we can arrive in minutes or hours at most."
I nodded. It made sense, considering that all the other continents were fragmented or sunken. The attack mentioned by Emma had not escaped my mind. I was hoping nothing bad happens.
"Now let's get to the more important stuff. Innate abilities. I assume you all know of their origins by now. However, I have to declare something. If you feel that you don't have the courage or the resolve to join this fight you are welcome to leave and go to the residential areas. The quality of food is the same, lodgings are managed by other Invigorated person. You are free to join the non-combat oriented Elite Invigorated."
Nope. Not happening. If this ability of mine has anything to do with gambling, which it definitely does, then I'd rather not do it with another person's life, especially in the residential areas. I have a faint idea about what this abilities does, but I'll keep to myself for the time being.
Four people lifted their hands two affirm that they would rather work in the NCO. Two women and two men. The rest of us remained with firm expressions to express our resolve.
"Good. I'm glad they were decisive. They will be taught in a different facility about what their jobs entail. Now. As you have seen from Camille, not all innate abilities are combat oriented, some have departments where they shine best like communication, travel etc.
It has only been a few months since the apocalypse so a ranking system for innate abilities has not been officiated yet. It would help for assigning certain Invigorated towards certain Stragglers.
Innate abilities tend to have multiple stages or sub abilities that are very much in line with the main function and in some cases, stronger. We call these Extension Abilities. For example, Camille can also read your intent or mood or thought process from unconscious actions. Like simply turning your head or the look in your eyes. Any unintentional body movement is included."
Camille nodded.
"Now let's talk about restrictions. All abilities have their use, but because we are borrowing energy coupled with the fact that the energy needs a balance in our bodies, we get a restriction. I'll use Camille as an example again. While her ability, Social Group, is active, she can't speak. But do trust me, this is one of the more forgiving restrictions," Astrid said.
Damn! This basically means the more complicated the ability, the more absurd the restriction! Is this ability of mine, a blessing or curse?!
"Besides restrictions, there is also a need to build up your physique and stamina in order to maintain your ability's effects for longer. Without a proper physique you won't be able to handle it."
I guess that's me. But I didn't mean to use it. Those damn dice threw themselves. But why? Hmm... maybe it could be that last night was the first time I really thought about this whole thing and decide what I want to do. Perhaps thats why my dice jumped out. In that hole I didn't really use them with resolve anyway.
Astrid then moved aside and set a picture of a straggler for the projector to show on the wall. It was a tall stag like creature with a purple hide that looked rotten with its antlers pitch black. It walked on two legs and its hooves had mutated to form dark claws for each pair.
"Alright, everything else about innate abilities you will learn in practical lessons. The last subject we need to discuss are Stragglers.
These creatures, are ranked by grades A through C. The criteria for this ranking system is sentience, special ability and physique in that order, with sentience the top priority. They can be anything. Animals, plants, humans or a blend.
By the sentience criteria, we aim to recognize how conscious these creatures are and how intelligent they can be. If a straggler is as intelligent as a human being, even without impressive physical ability or special ability they are categorised as a grade B threat.
Physical ability does not pertain to size only. It sums up the overall strength, speed and endurance they can portray. Size can also be thrown into the mix but is barely considered unless of course it is excessive."
Interesting. The fact that she talked about sentience means that there have been some that have shown certain levels of intelligence. That's dangerous. If one of them could disguise themselves and infiltrate any one of the Safe Zones.... that would be trouble.
"Be warned though. Even if they are just grade C, they are faster than a trained soldier in his prime, stronger than an ape and the most important feature of all Stragglers is that... if they touch your bare flesh, they can absorb your life energy, both the one for invigoration and the one you need to keep walking on this earth. All grades of straggler are a threat.
Grade A is reserved for any creature that possesses two or even three criteria I mentioned before in their extremities. For instance if you meet a straggler that can react to your movements as well as you would, while it also has a special ability and extreme physicality, then you're in for a bitter fight.
Lastly, there is a special grade that we recently created after the appearance of an anomaly occurred near the Safe Zone 2. It's the Grade S.
A creature with all three of the judgement criteria in extremes plus the ability to utter coherent sounds for the most part. We are still unsure, but its level of sentience is staggering as well as its power. So far its the only one of its kind."
Is our enemy a sentient virus then? Grade S? How on earth are we supposed to deal with this? Should I rethink my strategy? No! That won't do. I'm already here! I can't turn back now!
"From our one sample we determined it as a big threat. The virus seems to have a sentience of its own, but executes questionable actions. It seems the stronger the host, the more powerful it becomes.
Fortunately before it could destroy the entire base, it was put down by the Safe Zone commander. Alright that's enough talk. Time for training. Real training."
"Wait?! It was killed by one person?" I blurted out.
"Yes," Astrid said as she gazed at me.
"He's currently humanity's strongest. However he hates his real name and uses an alias. KingMaestro189."
"HUH??!"