"Phewww, that quiz was so easy, modern history is a joke!" Ethan beamed.
The group was leaving the classroom and heading to their next class, physical education.
Hearing his friend's cocky comment, James shook his head.
"Just wait till they make us remember the 'Important People And Events From The Last 100 Years' in our next unit. Remembering all of those battles and how many people died in each… It will be hell to memorize all of that for our exams."
A look of pure terror appeared on Ethan's face.
"Umm… I have Lucian, so it'll work out!"
"As usual I'm the one you rely on when things go down south." Lucian sighed.
"Because who else can I rely on? You're one of the smartest people in our class."
'One of the smartest?' Lucian mused.
Simply the act of creating artificial intelligence was enough to make him one of the smartest people in the world.
Not to mention he did it by himself by the age of 14.
Just hearing would be enough to force countless world-renown scientists into early retirement, to hide their shame for losing to a 14-year-old.
"You do realize that just having a good brain isn't enough anymore. Having a strong ability is everything now," Lucian commented.
In the past 100 years, a fair amount of negative stigma related to low-ranked abilities began to form.
Even in professions where having an ability provided little to no value, some people would refuse to higher immensely talented F-rank ability users.
After humanity was pushed to the brink of destruction, things like discrimination against people of different ethnic backgrounds became a thing of the past.
Everyone had to band together to face a common enemy or face extinction.
Led by the 10 first SSS-rank ability users, they fought off the invaders' advances, and re-claim a sizeable chunk of the land they lost to the monsters.
After the near-extinction toughed mankind's mentality, weakness became a sin in itself.
Simply being an F-rank ability user was enough for you to get hated universally.
While in the past being a racial minority lowered your career options, now having a low-rank ability was treated the same.
"Even so… Having you with me is the only thing that's keeping me from failing most of my classes!"
Reaching the boy's locker room, James opened the door for the group.
"That's only because the word 'studying' doesn't seem to exist in your dictionary." Lucian countered.
"Hehehe." Ethan awkwardly laughed.
Pulling his gym clothes out of his bag, Lucian began to change into them.
Lucian took off his shirt, revealing his chiselled physique.
There was nothing to nitpick about his appearance, from an objective standpoint.
It was too perfect.
But this perfection didn't go unnoticed by his friends.
"Hey, when did your abs get that toned? I don't remember seeing your 6 pack that defined before." Ethan questioned.
Lucian looked at his abs, realizing Ethan was right.
'Maybe this is a side-effect from that red liquid?'
His face portrayed none of this, however.
Instead, he looked at Ethan with an amused look.
"I didn't know you swung that way, Ethan. Paying so close to another guy's abs…"
Lucian's eyes gave off an odd glint.
"Hmm… Should I tell Stella that you want to steal me from her? That sounds like a good way to get back at you for ratting me out earlier for sleeping in class."
Ethan broke into a cold sweat.
"You wouldn't…"
"Watch me."
Ethan fell to his knees and desperately gripped Lucian's foot.
"Please, please forgive me! I swear I won't do it again!"
Ethan's actions alerted all of the nearby guys, who watched things play out with a mixture of curiosity and disgust.
"What are those three failures doing again?"
"I don't even want to know…"
James shook his head with a sigh.
"You guys would make a great comedic duo."
"If anything, it would be a group effort. You'd be a great straight man." Lucian replied.
A small smile broke formed on James's mouth.
"I guess I'm the only one who can handle you two after all."
Ethan hurriedly got back to his feet, ecstatic that the topic of the conversation had changed."
"Y-yeah the three of us would be great together!"
'Now just forget about telling Stella, Lucian!'
"...I'm still telling Stella though."
Sadly Lucian wasn't the type one to easily forget a grudge.
No matter how petty it was.
"NOOOOOO!"
***
The group exited the changing room and headed for the gymnasium.
Considering that their school housed students from countless corporate bigshots, their facilities were anything but lacking.
They found a spot on the floor and sat down, waiting for their gym teacher and classmates to arrive.
Luckily they didn't need to wait too long, since they managed to arrive only 5 minutes later.
A bald man with ' 67 DRISCOLL' sewn onto the back of his jersey walked up in front of the group.
"Alright, since the weather's good outside, we're going to be running a few laps around the running track."
His words were received with a chorus of groans.
"Now, now. Treat it as a little warmup for today's main event."
"Today's main event? What was that again?" Ethan asked.
"Combat training is everyone's favourite activity. Everyone but our merry little group that is." Lucian responded.
"Sigh… Who's the odd one out this time?" James asked.
"Hmm… Whoever comes last in the warmup is today's loner." Ethan proposed.
The other two nodded their heads.
"Let's go with that."