Right before class began, Erin sat in the front with Layla while Quinn sat in the back. Due to them arriving earlier than usual, they waited for everyone else to join the class, and soon enough, Del arrived.
He stood in front of the classroom with an extra wide smile, and held his hands behind his back. Imdiately, the students began to gossip about what was going on.
"Why is he so happy?" a kid whispered to her friend.
"Ugh, don’t tell , he’s going to give us another quiz," the student replied.
Del loudly cleared his throat, signaling it was ti to quiet.
"Alright class, I have an important announcent to make, the preparations for your first portal outing are complete. It’s ti for you kids to go explore the universe!"
Imdiately, the students began perking up, with a few whispering to their friends about what they just heard.
"Is it true? Oh man, I can’t wait to finally use my ability. My mom sent a ton of money to learn the next ability level."
"Oh! I can’t wait to try out my beast weapons on a beast!"
Del’s previously cheerful face now turned into a frown as he deeply cleared his throat.
"Now then, I might as well explain to you about portal colors..."
Del walked up to the board, and grabbed a green dry erase marker. He quickly drew a crudely drawn portal with the marker.
"The first kind of portal is the green portal. So of you may have co from a green portal planet already, so I’ll keep this brief. The general gist is that the type of beasts found on these planets aren’t above the interdiate tier, or the advanced tier. Mostly civilians live on these planets due to how safe they are, but there are a few travelers too," Del explained.
Erin bitterly groaned. She had originally lived on a green portal planet, but even she knew that despite them being marked as "safe" it wasn’t always the case. The dalki didn’t care what colors humanity marked a planet.
"Next are orange portal planets. These are planets that haven’t fully been explored, and more stronger, higher tiered beasts could be found. There are a few shelters on these planets, but most of the ti, only experienced travelers would live there," Del continued, using an orange marker on the board.
"Then, there are the red portal planets. These are mostly unexplored, and may no longer have shelters on them due to threats too intense for humanity to deal with. Sotis very seasoned travelers go to these planets to acquire rare crystals, but they are very dangerous since no one knows if there are dalki there or not," Del continued, using a red marker this ti.
"And lastly is the only white portal planet in existence, Earth. This is the only planet we know is a beastless world, and therefore, the safest," Del finished.
On the white board were the 4 different portal types, all with the key details of each color with different bullet points underneath them.
"Now despite all of humanity’s efforts, we were only able to uncover this technology through the help of Richard Eno. I’m sure so of you know of him," Del explained, "But for those who don’t, he is a world-renowned scientist, and was able to decipher the technology that the dalki used during the first war. It is because of him that we are able to travel the stars so freely."
Del then continued to explain so more frivolous details about Richard Eno, like his date of birth, birth place, and dates of his inventions, the likes of which Erin was not interested in.
"Now for the important part," Del cleared his throat, "Your first portal expedition will take place in three days, but before that, you will be required to form your own team of five. Although on this trip you will travel as a class, you must have a squad and stick together. Even the green portals are a dangerous place filled with beasts and the trackers on your watch will not work outside the academy. We will have no way to co and save you."
A student from the center of the class room raised his hand, and Del had this annoyed look on his face.
"...Yes Hubert..."
"Do you know where we will be going?"
"That information will be revealed to you on the day of the event. Many of you here have family who, if they knew where you were, would send guards out to protect you, but that wouldn’t be fair. Especially since we will also be assessing you on this."
The student raised his hand again, but Del starred him back down, causing him to slowly put his hand away.
"Now if there aren’t any more questions, your combat classes for today are canceled. Today, you are to form a team of five and report back to us by the end of the day."
Del left the class, leaving the students to discuss amongst themselves to form teams.
"Hey, do you want to make a team with , Erin?" Layla said as she quickly turned her head to her roommate.
Erin had a feeling Layla wanted to team up with her first, it only made sense with how they were already very close acquaintances.
"...Fine."
Erin only agreed because she knew Layla wouldn’t hound her for her ability level, which she couldn’t say for the group of students now suddenly surrounding her.
"Let be on your team, I’m a level 3!" A girl said.
"Co on, forget her, I’m a level 4, that has to be better, right?" A boy said, pushing the girl out of the way.
This was to be expected given Erin’s reputation as a level 5, but she had to quickly double check that her sleeve was already over her watch.
Pushing her way out of the crowd, she spotted Quinn in the back, sitting next to two black haired students. She didn’t recognize the black haired guy with the freckles and glasses, but she did rember that weird boy who sniffed her.
"Sure, let’s be on a team together," Quinn said to the black haired students.
When looking at their watches, they were both listed as level ones. She could live with having the boy who sniffed her on the team since he was a vampire and was strong enough to fight against Mono. The other boy though...
Erin slamd her hand down on the desk in front of Quinn.
"I’ll let you in on my team, but I’m not letting you invite him," Erin demanded, tilting her head at Peter.
Quinn frowned, "And why not? Is it because he’s a level 1?"
"I’m just saying we can get a better grade by getting stronger people," Erin replied.
Quinn then gestured to himself and Fex, "Then what about us, huh?"
Layla was listening in behind Erin, and added her own two cents, "And what about ? I’m only marginally better as a level 2."
Fex crossed his arms, and leaned back in his chair with a sly smile, "You could use an expert, since you lack a lot of critical accessories, woman."
Erin wanted to do sothing. Sothing to show them not to ignore her words, but that bit of chill that usually ca with her ability was no longer there. It was yet another reminder that she didn’t have the power she once had. Erin couldn’t just pick and choose the people she wanted, not when she’s weak and could easily get exposed.
"Fine, you three can join," Erin begrudgingly accepted, "but we’re all going to the training center after this. I need to see what I’m working with."
A couple of students glanced their way, surprised that the Ice Queen herself was teaming up with mostly level ones.
"Why would she do that? I tried to offer my help and you know I’m a level four."
"Maybe it’s related to how she was beaten up in the assembly room? It’s crazy that she’s not even safe from being hurt like that."
"How’d they even get to her? I thought she had a level 5 ice ability."
"Hey, so... correct if I’m wrong, but I haven’t seen her use ice at all, not even when fighting that second year."
"What? No way, you probably haven’t— actually, that IS strange."
"You think she’s just challenging herself fighting without an ability?"
With her enhanced hearing, she could hear what everyone was saying, and it was starting to get to her. Not wasting another second, she quickly left, her team following behind her.
—
At the training center, there were a few machines that were used at the initial test from the beginning of the year. Erin’s team gathered in front of the strength test, a large drum machine that asured how strong you were from how hard you punched.
"Alright, let’s start with Layla," Erin said, tilting her head to her roommate.
Layla nodded and walked up to the machine. She focused her telekinesis on her hands and punched as hard as she could.
She was hoping to improve her score from before as she had been practicing her ability for a while.
Leveling up to a higher number was not easy unless you had a book to help you out. This is why ability books were so important, because without them, soone would almost certainly be stuck at the sa level.
However, sotis soone could make a breakthrough, and increase their MC points up a level. These breakthroughs could happen in a mont of pressure, by watching soone else use their ability, or brute forcing it by training really hard.
Unfortunately, that was not what happened to Layla when they all saw the display say 8.
"Damn it, sa as last ti. Looks like I haven’t improved much," Layla complained.
Erin wanted to make a comnt about Layla not being as strong as she had hoped, but she bit her tongue. Getting an 8 was low for a level two ability user, but Layla was a ranged user so maybe it wouldn’t matter too much.
"Alright, you’re next," Erin said, pointing at Peter.
Peter held a small clump of mud, and shaped it into a club. He lifted it high and slamd it into the machine.
"8"
"Not too bad, for a level one," Erin said, which got her a glare from Quinn.
"And you, Quinn?"
Quinn walked up to the machine, and shifted the mud bracelets into gauntlets. He put his foot down, pulled one hand back, and slamd the other into the machine.
"10"
Peter was impressed by Quinn’s skill and couldn’t help but clap.
Erin recognized that move. He was trying to recreate the hamr strike that the blonde man did. According to the machine, it was only at a strength of 10, but the skill required 15 points in strength to properly do the move. It made her wonder if the machine’s number also correlated to the system’s stats.
’Two 8s, and a 10. That’s not a lot,’ Erin thought, ’It’s only a matter of ti before people realize I’m not a level 5 anymore."
Doing well on the assessnt was important. It would tell any future companies that she would be a good traveler. If she couldn’t do that then how was she ant to get money? To afford beast gear? To beat the dalki?
Then, Fex walked up to the machine all casually. He lifted a fist and punched it creating a loud thud.
"25"
It was 5 more points than his original testing. Maybe things wouldn’t be so bad after all.
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