Iann quickly sprung up from his bed,he looked at his fist and found out it was not burnt,his body was alright and he felt as if he hadn't fought. "the docs are sure doing a great job here" a young boy said as he stood up from his bed.
Iann recognized him,it was the fire guy he fought recently. " Turns out you were just a kid" Iann said as he took a closer look at the boy. He had red hair and had makeups on his face,he was only ten yet possesed a level 2 fire ability. At this time,Iann was embarrassed. His first victory was against a ten year old boy?
"I'm sorry" the young boy said as he wiped a tear from his cheeks. "I wanted to look cool infront of my friends, they said if I could beat you they'll allow me in their gang".
Iann patted him and consoled him. "it's alright" he said. The young boy understood and in a blink of an eye he had become friends with Iann. "I'm Neff Dykes, son of General Von Dykes" the young boy said.
Iann took a minute to digest what the young boy said. He started sweating profusely even though there was an AC in the room, he seemed to have aged in an instant. He had fought with the son of a general, and to make things worse he had injured him.
Neff was a smart guy and quickly understood why Iann was sweating. "I won't tell my Dad you beat me up, I'll tell him it was just a spar" the young Neff said with a proud tone. He had scared the crap out of Iann with just his identity. A smug smile apperared on his face but it quicker disappeared after he heard a knock on the door.
The door opened and a man who seemed to be in his forties appeared. He was in a military suit and had a deep scar on his forehead. He had a terrifying aura and the veins in his arms were bulging.
"Dad"! Neff shouted as the man approached the him. Neff got up and hugged his father, the "father and son hug" went on for about a minute.
Neff's father looked at Iann and then turned his gaze to his son."Is he the one?" He asked with a terrifying tone. " It was just a spar and it we took it quite seriously" Neff said and chuckled lightly. His father seemed to be satisfied with his son's answer and immediately went outside to continue with his duties.
At this time,the sweat on Iann's face was gone and he was back to his relaxed self. Neff on the other hand was feeling guilty. He had lied to his father and he hoped that his father Never found out because he couldn't face the consequences.
The room was silent for a while and the atmosphere was akward and everyone seemed to have something on their mind.
"Why don't you get yourself an ability?" the naive Neff asked. Iann had been thinking about it but he definitely could not accept any ability gem from the millitary or government.
The reason was simple, accepting ability gems from the higher ups meant that you had to suck up to them and pledge allegiance to them. The price for accepting ability gems were high, if one accepted an ability gem from the millitary or government then he would much be forced to become a lab rat if he couldn't make use of the ability.
If the gem was provided by the military then one had to make sure to level up to level 15 within four years.This was next to impossible,only 1 out of hundred people could achieve this feat.
If it was being provided by the government then one had to protect the government and it's asset. In short, accepting the government gems meant that he will be assigned tasks by the government willingly or unwillingly.
This made the accepting of gems a risky thing. One could also buy it but the cost was too high. An ability gem could sell for 10,000UC( NB: UC meant universal currency and 10UC is the same as 100,000$.)
A smile apperared on Neff's face.
"I can confront my dad about it" he said, with eyes full of confidence and hope.