(NARRATION) Instructor Rock looked at the large group of Sleepers that were gathered in his dojo.
And then turned his gaze towards four Sleepers in particular.
‘So they are the ones that made Ms.
Clara nearly quit.
Hmmmm, i should be extra careful around them.’ He wasn’t too worried, though, since today was mainly dedicated to testing the general competency and abilities of all the gathered Sleepers.
After that, the Sleepers were going to be separated into groups based on their level, such as novice, advanced, or expert, as well as their weapon of choice.
Some would be assigned a personal tutor or paired together.
As he was thinking these things, the first Sleeper walked forward and delivered his strongest punch, striking the wide plate attached to the special measuring machine.
After the strike, the screen that was attached to the machine changed, and it displayed a number.
Noting the number down, multiple Sleepers continued to strike the plate.
Each one received either a twelve or lower.
Those with Aspects that were related to augmenting or enhancing their bodies received either fifteen or sixteen.
Of course, these results were pretty regular.
However, Instructor Rock was waiting for a particular Sleeper to approach the machine.
Changing Star.
Basically every person in the academy knew of her, and of course they did.
She was the second Sleeper in history to receive a True Name from her First Nightmare.
So he and all the other Academy workers had high hopes for her.
The slender girl approached the machine and, without much preparation, delivered a sudden, crushing blow.
The flawless movement and perfect synchronization of her body were incredibly impressive, even to a seasoned Awakened like him.
The screen changed and displayed a number: sixteen.
‘I see, did she not use her Aspect?’ shaking off the thought and noting the number down he called for the next Sleeper.
Changing Star quickly moved from her position, and another prodigy came, Han Li Caster.
He was second in the ratings, so Instructor Rock expected either the same number as Changing Star or maybe lower.
To his surprise, however, as he looked, Caster seemed to move at incredible speed, and with a dreadful fist, he struck the machine.
Locking his gaze on the screen, he raised a brow as a number appeared on it: twenty-one.
Everyone gaped at the display, stunned.
More than a few admiring looks were thrown at Caster, who simply bowed and took a step back.
Instructor Rock smiled and nodded, writing the impressive number down.
‘Hmmm, back when Saint Tyris was a student, she only got a twenty.
Impressive.’ After Caster was done, from behind him came a Sleeper with blazing red hair and sharp facial features.
His red eyes scanned the machine.
However, instead of striking, he looked towards Instructor Rock.
“So, if I get a higher score than that guy, without using my Aspect, do I get a bonus?” Instructor Rock frowned slightly before grunting.
“I admire your confidence, but there is a fine line between being confident and arrogant.” Sleeper Martin’s expression didn’t falter.
Instead, he seemed a bit perplexed.
“Yes, that’s good and all.
Anyway, about the question I asked?” Behind him, a beautiful young woman covered her face in shame.
The Sleeper with strange white hair twitched uncomfortably at the notion of knowing this guy and simply played with a small chip from his pocket, while the long-haired Sleeper twirled his long hair into loops.
Around them, a few of the other Sleepers scoffed, while Caster’s little band of sycophants glared at the audacious young Sleeper.
Among their words were rather fancy insults.
“What a monumental clotpole.” Or: “How quaint.
The little rat imagines himself to be worth a damn.” Also: “To possess such confidence while displaying the social grace of an drunk rhinoceros, what a moron!” A vein bulged on Martin’s forehead, and he just barely managed to hold back from summoning his Memories and making them eat their words.
However, he managed to hold his anger back and sighed deeply.
Frowning at the scene, Instructor Rock sighed and answered, “No, you will not.
You’ll get to be in the same group as the people that scored close to you.
That’s it.” Nodding to this, Martin replied with a quick, “Aight, bet.” And planted his feet onto the ground.
“Then I won’t use my Aspect.” Retracting his hand back and getting into a surprisingly decent stance, the young Sleeper struck the machine with a frighteningly quick fist, making it violently tremble.
Surprised by this, Instructor Rock turned to the screen and widened his eyes.
The screen displayed a number after a considerable amount of time, as it had to take a while longer to calculate: twenty-three.
Looking at the number, Instructor Rock felt his jaw grow a bit slack, while even Caster seemed puzzled at the sight.
Martin, however, looked at the score and frowned.
“Huh?
It should’ve been higher.” Sure, he hadn’t used his Aspect, but even then, he had at least expected a twenty-five.
But then again, he did make those nasty little Legacies eat their words.
Turning behind and looking at everyone’s bewildered expressions, he smiled cockily.
“Oh my, sorry, are your jaws tired from sucking up to Caster?
My, I would be quite ashamed.” Now the expressions of the Sleepers shifted from surprise to shock.
‘Who raised this guy!’ pretty much everyone thought, apart from Nephis, who was looking at him with a calculating gaze.
“Khm, very impressive.
Also, please watch your language.
Next!” Instructor Rock quickly regained his bearings and felt a bit sorry that he had doubted Awakened Clara.
It seemed that these newer Sleepers were real monsters, and now he was even a little excited to see how they would do.
Sleeper Amy came up next.
Her stance was much worse, compared to Martin’s at least, however.
Examining her posture, Instructor Rock already guessed that she wouldn’t score as much as Sleeper Martin.
However, he was sure that she would do well.
After she hit the machine, it for the first time ever actually seemed to groan under the pressure of her strike.
He focused on the screen and waited for the calculations to finish.
There…
his gaze faltered as he examined the number: thirty-four.
Focusing on the number, he couldn’t respond, and all the other Sleepers seemed completely puzzled.
Martin, however, scoffed.
“No fair, you totally used your Aspect.” Amy smiled and headed over towards him with a smile, “Nope!
I actually didn’t, believe it or not.” She received a suspicious look from him.
“Hmmm, how many fragments do you have again?” he questioned her, and she gave him a dubious look, not answering.
Instructor Rock was still baffled by the sight.
However, he regained his bearings for the second time today and cleared his throat.
“Next.” Up next was Liam, and as he looked at the ridiculously big score, he frowned and summoned his Runes.
[Sequence 9, Monster] Sequence Description: [Being a monster means to inspire fear in others and to be one that others look upon and don’t wish to stand against.
You must act as one that is both powerful and terrifying, while not truly turning into a senseless creature.] ‘Great, now how the hell am I supposed to beat that!…Ugghh, how the hell do I possibly make the others perceive me as a monster.’ Thinking over his attributes and abilities, he pondered what to do.
His attribute [Purposeful] would probably help, however, there wasn’t too great of a purpose for him to gain strength from.
Claiming Beast God’s lineage also made him more powerful, so he was pretty sure that he’d receive a very high score.
Focusing deeply, an idea popped up in his head.
He had already been waiting there for a bit and had received quite a few stares, so he went ahead and took the small chip that had a few credits on it.
And, well, since it was for the sake of acting, he was gonna have to sacrifice a good bit of money, but that was a necessary sacrifice in his eyes.
Drawing on the power of his Aspect, he felt that his consciousness expanded slightly, and he felt as if his body had grown lighter.
Focusing his intent, he felt as if he were connecting a string to the said chip.
After fully focusing, he then looked to the machine and guided that strange string towards it.
Moving the string and precisely guiding it, he felt some resistance, like he was trying to move it through a narrow space, so he focused and activated his Spirit Vision.
Seeing the world bathed in color, he saw the string itself, and managed to perceive the abstract connections of the machine.
He also managed to perceive its core parts.
While he did that, Instructor Rock looked at him expectantly.
‘Is he… nervous?’ His gaze wandered to the Sleeper behind him.
Sleeper Sammy noticed his gaze and simply shrugged.
“Pretty sure it’s called performance anxiety.” A little confused, Instructor Rock was about to call out to the Sleeper.
However, before he could, he saw the young man’s eyes shift, looking as if they had grown darker.
Then, in one fluid motion, he moved his right hand while holding something in his left.
His posture wasn’t good… not at all.
However, Instructor Rock felt a bad premonition.
And he was right to, as in the next moment, he struck the machine, and in turn the machine stood still.
Instructor Rock looked at the screen, and somehow the screen seemed almost glitched.
Following this, his gaze lowered as he heard a strange sound come from the machine.
*CRACK* *CRACK* *CRACK* Cracks spread across the machine, and soon, the entire machine slowly cracked and fell apart right before everyone’s eyes.
Silent stares were focused on the broken machine, and soon everyone turned to the perpetrator.
He in turn looked directly at the machine and smiled uncomfortably.
“I won’t have to pay for this, right?” *** Nathaniel walked throught the Academy’s hall with a frown, and soon he arrived at the doors of the Wilderness Survival classroom.
It was spacious, tastefully decorated, and only had two people present.
Sitting behind a table, an older gentleman with bushy brows and messy gray hair was talking to no one other than Sunny.
And how did Nathaniel know that it was Sunny?
Well, it was because before he even entered, Sunny was looking directly at him with a frightened gaze.
‘This guy, jeez, talk about Shadowcism.
Ain’t that right, buddy!’ He looked to his shadow.
It spared him a glance and merely looked away, focusing on the shadow of the Shadowcist in question.
His glare intensified as he grumbled.
“You…” Raising a brow at the little punk’s audacity—and, well, still pissed at how badly he was robbed—he narrowed his eyes.
“You?Bitch you!
Who the hell do you think you are, you gothic little Oompa Loompa.” Somehow surprised by actually getting chewed out for his rude behavior, the little bastard’s gaze seemed to soften, but he was still on guard.
“Hey now!
Let’s not go insulting one another.” The teacher, of course not just “the teacher” but Nathaniel’s goat—Teacher Julius.
He was pretty much exactly as Nathaniel had imagined him to be, truly looking like some sort of sleep-deprived teacher.
Clearing his throat, Nathaniel gave Teacher Julius a pleasant smile.
“Pardon the temper, but he did seem rather hostile.
And for no reason in particular, mind you.” Teacher Julius frowned and looked at Sunny with a question in those absent-minded eyes.
“Yes, you were rather rude, Sunless.
Why exactly?” ‘Oh, this is gonna be golden!’ Nathaniel smiled mischievously and looked as Sunny stammered a response, still painfully not used to his Flaw.
“Ah, well… no… uhm, his shadow… looks weird.” He quickly stammered, which earned a furrowed brow from Teacher Julius, making his brows almost appear like a caterpillar.
“Shadowcist…” Nathaniel muttered under his breath, which earned another dirty look from Sunny.
“I see.
Well, I’ll hope that you can put your prejudice aside.
Now you, are you here to take my class or something else?” Nathaniel cleared his throat and approached closer, seeing that Sunny’s shadow really did seem to scurry away from his.
‘Gloomy… should’ve been pussy, but alright.
Now then, let’s go gentleman mode.’ Politely smiling towards Teacher Julius, Nathaniel nodded.
“Yes, I’ll be taking Wilderness Survival for the most part, and I’ll only have three classes in Runic Language.” Nodding to this, Teacher Julius smiled approvingly.
“I see, wise choice.
This one here only took this class.” Pointing to Sunny, he smiled again.
“As flattering as it is, he could’ve picked up at least one other class, but oh well.
I should be able to teach you both well enough.” To this, Nathaniel hummed.
“Ah, well, a few of my friends will also be taking this class, so I suppose you’ll have quite a bit of work on your hands.” Chuckling at this, Teacher Julius smiled.
“By the gods, it would seem that I’ve become quite popular.
Say, did that Soul Reaper also recommend my class?” “Hmmm, well not really.
I mean, I believe that three of my friends were with this one, so she might’ve recommended it to them, but as for the other three, no.” Sunny seemed a bit confused and joined in, still cautious, “You know those guys?” Nathaniel nodded simply, to which Sunny hummed curiously.
“Anywho, when will they be arriving?” Nathaniel took in the question and shook his head, “Well, they have other classes, so it’s only me for now.” Teacher Julius nodded and went over to his desk, but before he could, Nathaniel added on, “Oh, one more question, Teacher Julius.” He turned around and looked at him curiously.
“Oh, what might the question be?” Clearing his throat, Nathaniel looked up and smiled.
“While I am certain that I’ll learn a lot from you, I would like to be a bit more educated on other matters that may not be on the curriculum…” He forced his smile, even while being a little embarrassed, and finished his sentence.
“So I would like to be your apprentice, Teacher Julius.” ____________________________ Author’s Note: Alr Next chap is on Monday, and next week i might post 4 chaps!
So yeah let’s hope you all look forward to that.
Also next chap is Gonna be a chap with a fight, i just hope that i’ll be able to write it well.
Like always leave some comments to motivate me.
Btw i forgot to thank you all for 100k views!
It’s crazy, i’m only at 22 chaps and already that much!
Love you all ♥, and see you next week!