"What?! How… How did she?-!"
"An Unseen being named by an Angel is beyond insane!"
Everyone shared the same feelings. Their minds were still trying to comprehend the meaning behind receiving an Elemental Core just by conquering the Awakening. Some of them looked at their friends in a panic.
There has been no record of an Unseen receiving something as outstanding as being named by an Angel. Never!
The Named, people that received this privilege rarity decreased the higher the Layers, but still, only around forty people - in the entire world - could boast about possessing one!
And they had to believe that an Unseen managed to get one?!
The Awakening she must have been through… no, the environment! Those environments could even rival a Second Layer or even a Third Layer difficulty! There is no way a mere Awakener can power through that hell zone!
"This is impossible, she must be lying!"
"How the hell is she going to lie! Have some common sense, the register doesn't lie. If it did, that insane shit would've taken the first place!"
Zenon heard this and moved his gaze to the student responsible for those words.
When their eyes met, the man hurriedly moved his face away as if he was going against a Fourteenth-Rank Transcendent. He chuckled and thought,
'An actual Named... Divine Voice. I wonder what her Awakening was like... but only a Visionary Soul though? Were her environments that hard? No, the real question is...
What are the true requirements to be Named?'
Of course, Zenon also had the child inside of him anxious to shout. "I have one too! I'm Named as well!"
Not like they'd listen to him anyways. His reputation is already ruined.
He looked at Aurea, who was calmly reading the ranking without a care in the world.
Most of the students looked at her wondering if they should strike up a conversation or not. Who knows, maybe she takes a liking to them and they get a powerful ally!
Yet no one dared to.
Slowly, the voices inside the canteen calmed down as everybody looked at Aurea. Her neck warmer was still on and covering her mouth and nose. Nobody knew why he needed it, but... some people thought it looked cute on her.
'They look like they're about to drool...' Zenon chuckled.
Noticing the change in the ambiance, Aurea raised her gaze a little bit and eyed the Unseens that were staring at her, before saying, "Need something?"
After seeing that no one dared to say anything, she lightly laughed and said, "I'm Named, indeed. You can always trust the rankings, they don't lie."
Some Unseens began mumbling between each other, transforming the canteen into a chaos of whispers.
Anyways, since the main event course here was done, Zenon decided to go to his room. He was planning on going to sleep and continuing with the next book later, which was about Runes.
He was praying for those Runes books to not be the incarnation of the devil itself or something like that. They weren't, right?
Right?!
---
"I am so lost... I am so lost... so... so... so... lost."
Zenon was hitting his head against the table multiple times. The second time it happened today. After hitting his head for a while, he looked at the hologram in front of him and at the book later.
"Which lost am I feeling though?"
Zenon stopped hitting his head and raised his gaze, analyzing all four Runes in front of him. After a while he said,
"... the third one. The third one, because the first one means lost in a physical way. Something like, I got lost inside the forest. The second one means lost in thought, probably because of too much thinking and lost touch with reality.
The third one means being lost intellectually, not knowing an answer... where I am right now. But I can't see what the last one means..."
This went on for the past three hours.
The first two were spent with the basics of Runes. Mostly an explanation of their history and a more detailed way of how to write them.
It turns out that the order in which you write the Runes changes their meaning. Not only that but how big, small, wide, narrow - any other small factor that may alter the rune - it is, it alters the meaning.
After two hours of learning the main property of Runes, which works for almost all of them, Zenon got some exercises downloaded from the book page.
'Just where did I get myself into… I didn't expect Runes to be this hard.'
These consisted of having four similar runes of the same word and being able to differentiate how they change in meaning.
The main property of this language is focused on a tiny line, always written last on a specific side of the Rune. If you know what the same Rune means in all four different cardinal directions, then you'll know any other meaning.
For example, the Rune for lost intellectually has its last line written at North; and the Rune for lost physically has the last line written at West. If you were to write the same Rune with the said line on North-West it means being lost in both thought and physically.
This would roughly translate to a loss in combat… maybe, as you lost both physically and in intellect to your opponent.
He was still a newbie in this field.
And this Rune is being really generous with its meanings.
"Alright, that's it, I'm done for today. I might as well just do all the basic exercises before moving with more complex Runes."
The entire three hours he spent practicing passed by like thunder yet it felt like forever! It happened so fast that everything seemed to move in slow motion, that's how complex Runes is!
He was genuinely regretting not having chosen any other book that didn't consist of Runes. And he hasn't even started with survival techniques! He'd probably do a day of Runes then another of survival, so even it out.
He was praying for them to be at least somewhat easy.
'I'm going to die one of these days... let's go get some food.'
While going to the canteen, Zenon happened to come across some of the Unseens that he... uh... kindly say some not-so-good words. They looked at him like he was the worst of the worst, but Zenon just ignored them and continued walking.
Though the moment he got close to them,
"-!!"
*Thud!*
They made him trip and fall.
"Woah there, watch your step Supreme Unseen, hahaha!"
The students laughed their asses off as Zenon got up and cleaned the dust from his pants. He looked at them and somehow they started laughing even harder, which brought some confusion to Zenon.
Leviathan even got woken up as he looked at those three clowns and his weak Familiars.
"Seems like the shorty wants some problems! What, not so confident now?"
"You are one to talk about confidence, tripping your opponent down just to set up a better position."
The look on the boy's suddenly changed as if Zenon gave him the key for some other serious actions.
'Please angels, strip me from this Familiar. I don't want him anymore.' Leviathan laughed as he heard Zenon's thoughts.
The two other Unseens - friends of the tallest one for sure - started chuckling in expectation of a fight breaking off. Zenon was prepared for that outcome as well, subconsciously preparing his muscles for a sudden movement.
"How about you shut that mouth of yours already. You only knew how to talk bullshit since the second you stepped foot in this shelter. Not only that, you are bragging about non-existent events just to boost your status.
Outskirts boy, that won't work."
Zenon took a deep breath, trying to battle against his Familiar. Nonetheless, knowing that there was just one outcome, he said, "How about you beat the shit out of me already, your fist is begging you to."
The Unseen grinned and change to an offensive stance, and just as he wanted to swing his fist, he suddenly stopped in his tracks, terrified.
Zenon tilted his head, his hands deep inside his pockets, and said, "What? Too scared?"
Not only he, but the other two Unseens also seemed somewhat frightened, looking not at him but behind. Even more confused, Zenon peeked backward and was suddenly taken aback by a person just beside him.
'Oh… shit. Why is she everywhere...'
A tall girl wearing a white neck warmer.