Ashton let out a loud gasp as he woke up from his trance. His back ached a bit due to the fall but it was bearable for him and he handled the pain fine.
The moment he woke up, Master Chen suddenly let out a small sigh and it was then he realized he had been holding his breath in for long. He had thought both Ashton and Marcus might not make it back into the living realm and get lost in the nightmare that will ensue out of Ashton's sub-consciousness.
Marcus also got back from the trance and he stood up from the ground which he had fallen to. The other student Mages who had been called in to attune with their spirit guide's were all standing five feet away from the altar. Marcus took a quick glance at Ashton then turned away as soon as their eyes met. He walked towards where both Ulysses and Jamil had been standing.
"Have you both attuned?" Were the first question and words Marcus said.
Both boys nodded and Marcus gave them a reassuring smile. Ashton also headed towards them and gently hit Jamil with his right hand.
"T-thank you." He managed to say to Marcus as he rubbed his palm against his nape nervously.
"For what?" Marcus asked, his voice suddenly hard and demanding.
"Whatever you had done earlier."
Marcus shook his head and turned his gaze back to the altar so he could hide a small smirk that was about to ensue on his face. He obviously did not want Ashton to see that smirk.
Master Chen then began to give a speech from the altar.
"Finally, the tests that aid the attunement stage have been completed and I congratulate you all for making it this far. Now that you all have attuned and are now blessed with a system ability and a spirit guide, you will now prepare to go for your first raid on the Arkillians that have invaded our world."
The moment Master Chen had stopped, some students began to murmur as they heard him say something about a system ability. They have only been told about attuning to a spirit guide and nothing about a system ability had been said to them.
"...what does a system ability mean?..." Someone had said to his friend.
"... I'm as block headed as you are…"
"...what exactly does that mean?..."
"...what does it do?..."
"...do we have it in us now?..."
"... that's crazy…"
"... what's its function?..."
The clamor continued to swell up and suddenly a loud gong was banged indicating everyone should stop talking. Silence ensued and Master Chen continued to speak.
"Now that you have attuned to your spirit guide, it will show you what your system ability is all about. To activate this, you have to say to your spirit guide…'show me my status' be rest assured you might not need to say that after the first time." Master Chen explained.
Ashton turned at Jamil and Ulysses and they all nodded in union to check it out for themselves as well.
"Show me." Ashton subtly said.
For a moment, nothing happened and he thought everything was deep fake and he tried to say it again.
"Show me!"
This time he was about rolling his eyes when suddenly he felt a voice speak to him and he paid rapt attention to the voice.
"The word is show me my status not show me!"
Ashton scoffed as soon as he heard those words well. "Callista!" He muttered as he had recognized her voice and the moment he mentioned her name, she suddenly appeared before his eyes just like she had appeared to him the first time they had met.
He looked around and he noticed no one was paying attention to her or maybe no one could actually see her. He smiled at such awesomeness and then turned back to her.
"Can we really make a good team with this attitude of yours?" Ashton asked.
"You are the one to talk, eh? You are one rude brat and I bet we will make a good team." Callista said back with a smile but she wasn't done talking yet. "Because you will be the one who comes begging for help from me!" She added and started to cackle like a maniac.
Ashton reasoned well with her words and he realized he was really the one at the receiving end. He let out a sigh then finally faltened his resolve.
"Okay, Callista, show me my status."
"Hmph. Of course."
Suddenly, a status screen began to materialize before his eyes and he was awe stricken at such sight. He could have thought that moment was straight out of a scripted movie if he had not been told beforehand or perhaps it was a dream or maybe it was his mind fixing things up.
What was more surprising was how well organized the content the status screen was displaying in accordance. He opened his mouth agape as he watched everything materialize subtly.
"You might want to close your mouth to avoid drooling." Callista said irritatedly bringing him back from his awe trance in s snap.
[STATUS]
[Name: Ashton –]
[Age: 18]
[Class: Cultivator]
[Grade: Low rank]
[Level: —]
[Strength: 10]
[Agility: 10]
[Defense: 10]
[Stamina: 10]
[Ability:___]
[Health point: 8/10]
[Spirit point: Locked]
The next tab materialized when he was done reviewing the first tab.
[SKILLS]
[Skills: ???]
[Skills point: __]
[Special skills: Locked]
[GEM]
[Gem point: 0]
"Woah! This will make things easier as I get to track my progress and deficiency." Ashton murmured in awe. "I like things like this." He added with a small smile.
"Of course you do." Callista added folding her arms.
"You really do not have a surname?" Ulysses asked Ashton and then he began to laugh.
"Eh?" Ashton shrugged as he knew he had never told anyone in that academy except Aurelia he does not have a surname.
He turned at Jamil and to his utmost surprise, he could see Ulysses' basic status materialize beside him.
[ALLY HOST STATUS]
[Name: Ulysses Urch]
[Age: 18]
[Class: Cultivator]
[Grade: Low rank]
Ashton also began to laugh at Ulysses which made the latter stop laughing as he wondered why Ashton had suddenly started to laugh at him. He cleared his throat gently and waited for Ashton to spill why he had laughed so hard at him.
"What?" Ulysses asked through gritted teeth. "What has suddenly become a subject of amusement to you?"
"Your name really sounds like Useless Urchin!" Ashton roared and began to laugh again without a care in the world.
Jamil let out a small laugh as well as Ashton's words and laughter had dragged him into the banter. Marcus wasn't left out as he let out a small smirk.
"That's for trying to mock me." Ashton said again when he had finally recovered from his laugh. Ulysses just stared at him weirdly and if he had the chance and free will to deepen his fingers into Ashton's flesh, he wouldn't hesitate to do it.
The loud gong was banged again and some disciple Mages started to march the chapel with some boxes in their hands. Master Chen cleared his throat again and began to say,
"You all know what a system ability is now and to the most important part to why you all are in this academy is to stop the Arkillians and fight them until your last breath."
He stopped and looked around when he was sure everyone was paying attention to what he was saying, he continued,
"The elder mages and I have randomly selected the students who will go and stop the raid that the Arkillians are causing in the Eastern part of this city."
"The selected students will go in groups of sevens and they have to work together as teammates. Other students who had not been picked for this mission will stay back in this academy and train themselves to serve as backup in case the first selected students do not make it."
The silver ringed mage continued from where Master Chen had stopped.
"If you do not have any discipline mage in your row, exit this chapel now."
The students began to murmur again as they looked at the row in which they stood and when some realized their row didn't have any disciple mage, they began to walk out in groups. There was a disciple mage on the row Ashton, Jamil and Ulysses had stood which meant they were to wait behind.
Soon, the chapel became scanty and there were approximately eighteen student mages left in the chapel. The silver ringed mage nodded subtly at the disciple mages and they understood what he meant by that.
They walked in front of the remaining students and stretched their boxes at them telling them to pick something out of the box.
It was a number tag which had a single color etched on it. Ashton had picked the number two with a blue color etched on it.
Master Chen began to speak again.
"The number on your tags indicate the group you will fall into while the color helps you identify your teammates."
Ashton abruptly turned at Jamil and Ulysses to check what color they had picked and surprisingly, they both had the color blue tag as well. He let out a frail smile as he was happy he has two people he knew as teammates.
Marcus then walked towards them and nodded his head at their choices.
"I am the group's leader." He announced.
"What?!" The trio exclaimed in union and another smile ensued on their faces.
"You three are the last three members of this group." Marcus announced again.
"Eh?" Ulysses shrugged. "Who are the others who had been in the group before us?"
"Alden, Aurelia and Damien!"
"Damien!" Ashton mumbled his brows furrowing in mild anger.