Author notice; From this chapter onwards, the concept of a first person narrative will be visible in the novel... cheers
Lucas' POV
I maneuvered my way to the front of the large lecture hall as all eyes were feasting on me. In fact, I almost tripped and fell. The so called protagonist's seat at the back of the class was responsible for all this unnecessary attention. Don't get me wrong. I would have loved being the center of attention if it were in a more positive scenario . However, I did not know how my talent grade assessment would turn out. It was quite personally shocking how I had been so positive about awakening with an affinity that looks like a cheat skill from a novel, forgetting that if I ended up with a trashy talent, it would spell doom for me. I clenched my fists, chanting a sutra that I do not end up with a trashy talent, else my desire to be strong enough to not have my fate dancing in the palms of others would go down the drain.
Sighing with a tinge of nervousness, I glanced at the class again. It was obvious that quite a number of arrogant young masters and jade beauties were rooting for my failure... well... that's what I thought, I mean, with the demeaning glances they threw at me... A number of my new class mates were just curious about the level of talent the first person recorded in history to awaken an affinity at the age of fifteen will be revealed to have. Others, seemed quite unbothered and just waited for how things would play out.
'Let's see how things will play out... here goes nothing' Sighing inwardly, I proceeded past the instructor towards the orb that had now vacated the hand of the instructor and currently was affixed in some form of mechanical arm supported by a table.
I reminded myself of the various colors in the orb upon touching it, that represented the levels of talent ,'Black means F, Brown means E ,Red means D , Orange means C, Blue means B , White means A, and gold means S rank talent'.
I placed my right hand on the orb as directed by the instructor, awaiting for the result that would in a way determine my future. To be honest, I was scared of having a weak talent, therefore I decided to not expect much from this talent assessment thing. If I expect less, I would not be disappointed by the results even if it's average or low right?.. I knew for the past few days my awakening had made me more confident and positive, to the point of thinking I would walk the path of the pinnacle of power in this world, strength. However, the reality that I could awaken a low level talent which could ruin all my plans was slowly causing me to slip back to thinking like my old , negative self.
Habits die hard huh... I sighed, as for some seconds to a minute or two there was no reaction from the orb. Does this mean that I do not even have what it takes to have an F rank talent ?... I thought to myself...
The look on the instructor's face was quite enigmatic, as though my situation was a first occurrence to her. I sighed, deciding to wait for a few seconds before resigning my ambitions for a bright future to the deepest parts of my subconsciousness, never to think of them again.
I was lost in my thoughts when gasps, exclamations and surprising expressions reached my eye, jolting me out of my vainly thoughts.
What followed what I saw was a sudden melancholic laughter tinged with happiness, relief and amazement. Of course, the laughter was from me. A few seconds ago, I had imagined the worst case scenario, of either awakening a trashy talent, an average one, and in the end, I almost concluded that I may have been the first person to not even have a talent, only to realize that the orb was suddenly shining in a pure deep golden color . It honestly felt as though someone was playing tricks on me emotionally.
If it were under normal circumstances, many in the class would call me a psychologically disturbed lunatic for my sudden laughter fit. However, everyone was too engrossed with my results to even care about my strange actions.
I heaved a large sigh of relief, unclenching my left clenched fist. I did not even notice that my fist had been so clenched that small amount of blood currently run down my left hand. My nervousness, anguish, despair and fear of a possible discovery of having a weak talent had led to unknowingly inflicting pain and physical injury on myself.
Ignoring the shocked glances and outbursts, I turned to the instructor whose mouth currently was wide open in shock. I thought it was because she had seen me awaken an S rank talent, which meant that I had the potential to accelerate to the zenith of power at a rapid pace. She could not be blamed for that reaction... I am pretty much shook up myself. I sighed inwardly, a slight chuckle escaping my lips.
The class was in a frenzy. Eyes of envy, shock, admiration, jealousy were directed at me. How did I figure that out the emotion behind their gestures?... You ask?... well, the past few months of bullying and abuse had made me quite critical about the intentions of people. For someone intelligent as me, I had become accustomed to reading people to figure out their direction of thinking. Yes, it is a flawed way of thinking, I know... as there were people who could conceal their real intentions behind what would assume to be real smile, a genuine sad expression and the like. But did I have any other choice ? I had to resort to such a method to escape a lot of bullying attempts... Else maybe, I would be dead by now... Well, that was by the way...
I had to snap the instructor out of her reverie and hear what she had to say to me concerning my assessment test. Although there were various whispers amongst my class mates such as Oh my god, he awakened an s rank talent?... and even though I knew I had an S rank talent, the instructor still had to give a final judgement for the sake of formality.
I sighed then spoke ''What do you think about my results, instructor?'' .
Managing to snap out of her daze, she turned to look me and quickly regained her composure. She was about to speak when her eyes focused on the vacuum before her. I was familiar with that expression. She was looking at a retinal message on her ID slot.
A few seconds later, she turned to look at me again, and her next words shocked everyone, well, excluding me... ''The headmaster needs you in his office now''.
I turned around, thanked the instructor and headed towards the exit of the class. With the academy map opened on my retina, finding the location of the headmaster's office would not be difficult. I begun maneuvering according to the map's directions.
Honestly, I was not shocked the headmaster would want to meet me. It was only natural with my results...I actually anticipated this outcome... In order to effectively and freely have the peace of mind to raise my strength in the academy, I needed backing... There were various factions of big families in the academy who went around abusing people with no family backing and forcing them to join their factions, or to be more precise, become their henchmen after graduation ...I was not gonna be any one's henchman... My path was one of independence, a renegade. I knew I did not have enough physical strength to resist any of them at the moment, but there was another way to get them to stay off my radar... Backing, the backing of the academy higher ups... This is why I had decided a few days ago that it was a goal of mine to get the attention of the higher ups of the academy to back me up by performing extraordinary feats on campus to draw their attention to me and see my value in order to back me up.
A factor I did not consider however was my talent level... It never occurred to me that I should even have it checked, let alone to awaken an S rank talent. Human as I am, It slipped my mind, even for an intelligent fellow like me...What?...you think I'm a narcissist..?... ahem... anyway... My initial plan was to beat up arrogant young masters and jade beauties in duels then take their credits, extort bullies for their credits, embark on missions for credits , all to get resources to increase my strength... then enter the tower rankings of the school, and make a name for myself. That way, the academy would back me up
However it seemed like things had become simple for me...With the headmaster of the academy wanting to meet me, I knew I had already secured the academy's backing... ''What a fortunate and dramatic turn of events...'' I chuckled slightly. My direction of thoughts were not to be misinterpreted though .I would still put any arrogant young master or jade beauty who tries to mess with in their place. I am after all, not a pushover, well I was no longer one. My decision still stood, to enter the tower rankings of the academy, and also embark on missions, this time, already with the backing and resources of the academy headmaster, quickly and simultaneously increasing my strength.
Who knew when the Dark Cloud Organization would show up again. I am not one to leave my fate in the hands of others, I made the decision that I would be strong enough to protect myself, and make them pay for what they did to my parents.
I had finally arrived at the headmaster's building complex. It was time to hear what the S rank hunter of the Marion Country , Philip James the sword blade, had to tell me.