Tai woke up in the infirmary.
His head hurt and his vision was blurry.
Feeling his face, Tai groaned.
"Where the hell are my friggin glasses?"
He had fuzzy visions of talking to a ghost, a floating sword, and...and...he couldn't remember the rest.
"I must have passed out."
Tai sighed as he tried to sit up.
"Just my second day here and the world is trying to kill me."
However, in front of his eyes, an electronic tab manifested itself, making the red haired teenager's eyes pop out of his head.
[Divine Summoner System]
[Energy Core: 1]
[10/100]
[Summons: Obsidian Sword]
Every Protector got a system after unlocking their Affinities.
The systems themselves were ranked according to the power level of the wielder.
An Awakened level system was the basic system that most Protectors usually achieved.
It was one that gave the Protector a lot of room to grow stronger and cultivate their affinities better.
The next, was an Ascended level system.
This one was a very rare variant that only one in every ten thousand people had.
It was one that improved the pace at which a Protector cultivated their abilities altogether.
But a Divine level, was something that was only heard about in legends.
A system that contained the power of a god.
These kind of systems were only obtained by two out of a hundred million people.
It gave the Protector the ability to unlock more and more energy cores to supplement their affinity, making them ten times more powerful than every other person.
Even if Tai had missed the classes, he had gotten something far better.
Far, far better, as a matter of fact.
While he gloated in joy, the doors creaked open as a frail old man accompanied by five other people walked in.
Tai could recognize them all.
Jonston, the fire class teacher,
Diana, the water class teacher,
Zain, the wind class teacher,
Hareton, the earth class teacher,
And Athena.
The lady that taught his class.
"Good morning, Leong."
Sir Carnuni smiled at the teenager.
Tai bowed slightly, just about as much as the hospital bed allowed him to.
"Good morning sir,...professors.
To what do I owe this impromptu visit?."
The old man stroked his long, white beard as he began.
"I was told by Miss Athena here, that you were late for class yesterday by a whole nine hours?"
The red haired teenager nodded slowly.
"I guess..."
"And you served detention for the entire night?"
"Yeah?..."
"Well then.
It pains me to tell you, that you had been found unconscious the next morning.
Mind you, that was four weeks ago.
Thus you have missed your Monthly Assessment test for this month."
Tai looked like he had seen a ghost.
"F-Four weeks? I was unconscious for a month?!!"
The old man slowly nodded.
"However, miss Athena here, will give you all the resources you would need to get your Affinity to the level of your peers.
In three weeks time, the next Monthly Assessment will take place."
Tai felt relief a little.
He was not doomed yet.
A Protector usually relied on the Monthly Assessment to showcase their abilities and prove themselves strong enough to save people from all kinds of harrowing situations.
He had missed the first one, along with a month's worth of classes on how to unlock his ability.
Not like he needed it, though, as a summoner could only summon stuff that they could call.
That was how summoning worked.
The summoner would use the Sorcery of Names to invoke the true name of an object, making it turn into ethereal mana and enter into their energy core, then would also use the given name to summon the object back from the mana form and into a tangible form.
What he DID care about, were beast cores, they could add energy to his core and help him to get stronger.
Every student were given one beast core per day, and he had lost that of thirty days.
Luckily, Sir Carnuni said Athena would give him the resources they used in class without him having to stress himself by going to classes so it was not a total loss... right?
***
By afternoon, the red haired teenager had been discharged.
It was a saturday, so he had no classes anyway.
Walking over to the cafeteria to grab a quick bite, he could see the first person to unlock the fire affinity practicing his fire technique.
He waved his arms, struck the air, and made other gestures while his arms were blazing with fire energy.
Tai smiled a bit, facinated by the tyranny of the fire affinity.
"He is so awesome..."
Then he shook his head.
"I mean, he is awful!"
Tai despised show offs.
People who liked to flaunt how lucky they were to be better than other people.
"Young Master Burnne is so cool!"
"Yeah, I heard that he even has an Ascended level system!"
"He's going to be the strongest Protector in no time!"
Tai cursed within his mind.
"Damn fire affinity!"
People with an affinity for fire, water, wind, or earth, were usually the most recognized Sorcerers, and usually ended up as the strongest, richest, and most famous Protectors.
While people with crappy 'rare' elements like summoning would end up in the background.
And probably end up being killed during a Flashback or something.
"I wonder what people would say when they find out that I have a Divine level system."