The Dean looked at him with pity but said nothing.
Ash almost cried. His life was already a shit, and this felt like a punch in the face. He managed to hold his tears in check and slowly but steadily made his way back to his seat, anxiously waiting to leave here—at least the mocking would stop after leaving.
The ceremony continued as usual. After it was over, Ash got his status tool from one of the school's staff and was planning on leaving, hopefully never coming back here again.
But the three bullies didn't want to let him go. He arrived at the school's main entrance and was greeted with more mocking
"Hahaha. Look if this isn't the king of thrashes. I knew your trait would be bad, not THAT BAD!" Laughed the bully's leader, Tristan.
His dumb lackeys, of course, laughed together.
At this moment, Ash snapped. 'Fuck it.' He thought. 'THAT IS ENOUGH!'
He clenched his right fist as tightly as he could, his knuckles turning white from the strain.
Without hesitation, he leaped into the air, aiming straight for Tristan. His fist flew with all the force of his anger and determination, landing squarely on Tristan's laughing face with a resounding impact.
Tristan had a decent family and got a good trait from the awakening, but he wasn't even close to being considered a superhuman yet.
Since fate didn't want to help him, then punch fate right in the face and make it bow!
Tristan staggered back, completely caught off guard by the sudden punch.
He collapsed to the ground, his face contorted in pain as blood poured from his shattered nose, streaming like a torrent.
Desperately, he pressed his hands to his face, trying to stop the hemorrhaging, but the blood continued to flow, staining his clothes and dripping onto the ground.
Tristan's two lackeys were baffled. Since when did this loser fight back?
"F-fukng bashtard. I'll k-kill yuu!" Tristan spat, struggling to form words through the pain. "GET THA F-FUCKER!" he shouted, his voice slurred and garbled from the blood pouring down his face.
Ash didn't wait for them to react. He ran as fast as he could right after doing the deed. He knew he couldn't beat even one of them, much less three together.
'I never knew it felt so good to not have to put out with shit.' Thought Ash.
He managed to outrun the bullies because of his headstart and get home safely.
This was one of the most dangerous areas one could live in, and only poor families without any decent awakener would accept living here.
'I have to pull myself together. My brother is coming home soon. I don't want him to see me sad,' thought Ash.
His little brother was three years younger than him. They have been working and studying simultaneously to save money, so after Ash's awakening, he could find a decent job with his trait. He didn't want to break his brother's hope of a better future.
'I just have to keep moving forward… like I have always done.'
"Brother! I'm home!" Ash's brother entered the house excitedly. "How was it? Did you awaken a good trait?"
"Of course, you won't believe it, Ariel, but your older brother got a D-rank trait!" Ash smiled and lied to his brother. He couldn't bring himself to disappoint his brother.
"Wow! That's amazing. Congratulations, brother," said Ariel, genuinely happy for his older brother. For a good family, a D-rank trait didn't mean much, but for them, a poor family, it was an amazing opportunity to change their lives
Ash smiled and continued. "Tomorrow I'll go look for a guild to join. Even if it isn't the best, I'll be able to enter a small guild and train to be a ranker."
Ariel nodded. "We still have some savings. It should be enough for you to train until you can earn money as a ranker."
Ranker—a term used to describe all those who harnessed mana to grow stronger, and lived through fighting for resources or protecting the cities. This was the most respectful job anyone could have and was what most people dreamed of working on. A good trait would permit one to change their fate working as a ranker.
Ariel continued, smiling at his brother. "Let's celebrate today, brother. I'll cook your favorite food."
"Let's go!" Ash couldn't help but salivate thinking about his brother's delicious creamy chicken pesto pasta. His bad mood left him as if it never existed.
—
'Yesterday all schools in the Federation did their awakening to graduating students. The following day was the optimal day for guilds to start recruiting. The center plaza will be packed with guilds recruiting. If I want to find one, that's the place to go.' Thought Ash.
Ash arrived at the plaza and saw it packed with people. Lots of different signs with guild names hung high close to small tents. Some guilds—especially large and medium—had requirements for a person's trait rank to be accepted. The highest one wouldn't even glance at you if you weren't at least B-rank!
Most small guilds didn't have such a requirement, but if your trait was E or F rank, they probably wouldn't accept you if it wasn't useful. That's the reason Ash thought he wouldn't be accepted—his trait was useless.
He thought he wouldn't lose much trying, so he came here anyway. The final result didn't matter—if he couldn't enter a guild, he would simply go alone.
Ash came closer to a small tent with the sign 'Red Lotus' and talked to a middle-aged man using full-body armor. "Hello, I would like to participate in the guild. How can I register?"
"Hi, kid. I just need to check your status. As long as it's acceptable, I'll do your registration."
Ash nodded, infused intention on his status tool, and showed the results to the middle-aged man.
[Rank]: None
[Trait]: Weak [F] [Weak body, somewhat strong will.]
[Skills]: None
The middle-aged man saw the screen and held himself back not to laugh. "Damnit kid, what kind of trait is this? I have never seen something thrasher than this in my whole life! I'm sorry, we can't accept you."
Ash nodded and went to another tent. He already got over his bad trait and wouldn't be sad again because of it.
The results were the same no matter where he went. Some turned him down gently, while others were harsher, laughing and mocking him at his face.
'All right, time to go back home and prepare. No use trying any longer to join a guild,' thought Ash.