The moment of truth ended up being pushed back as the four of them arrived at the doors of the mess hall, but the trio of friends still seemed to all be doing their best to hide their anticipation. Well, everyone except Luke, who seemed about ready to steal the envelope back from Kai and learn about his skills before he could. Still, he held himself back as Kai got a plate of food and joined the rest of the group at one of the deserted tables.
Setting down his food, he finally picked up the blank white envelope from where he'd placed it. As he did, Kai did his best to ignore the other three leaning forward in their chairs. The envelope wasn't sealed, which could have meant that Luke had already taken a peek at it. Then again, he wouldn't have been this excited about information he already knew, so that was unlikely.
Finally, Kai took a look at the papers folded inside.
—
Kaiser Frost
Date of birth: xx/xx/2031
Age: 14
—
That might seem strange to most people, but Kai didn't know his birthday. He knew generally what his age was, but no one knew his actual date of birth, well, no one living now. With most databases containing such information being destroyed or corrupted, he didn't have a good way to learn it. There was some more identifying information, but none of that mattered; what mattered was what came next.
—
Mana assessment: F-rank
Skills:
Active:
N/A
Passive:
[Aura control], [Clear mind], [Talent with polearms]
Unknown:
[Carry the fallen], [Forgetful genius]
—
'What? Wait, no, no, no, no.'
Kaiser looked further down the page, but there was only an explanation for some of his skills. Looking at the second page was more of the same. The only two left blank of [Carry the fallen], and [Forgetful genius], neither had an explanation, although the second had a note: 'Discovered and noted among a handful of Hunters, no documented data found.'
'F-rank' Kaiser was the lowest rank possible for any awakened. He was a complete and utter weakling.
"What is it? Is everything okay?"
Noah seemingly had noticed Kai's distress and following distant gaze. However, instead of answering, Kai simply handed over the papers, his hands shaking a little as he did.
All three boys went quiet for a moment as they read through the information. While Noah and Liam's expressions were indecipherable, Luke's was not. Kai saw the moment the boy read his rank clearly, his new acquaintance wincing as he did. Turning to Kai, Luke's face was full of sympathy. But when he spoke, sympathy was not what he gave Kai. There was a part of Kai that knew the three would distance themselves when they found out Kai was weak, but it still was going to hurt. Without meaning to, Kai closed his eyes.
"Don't let it get you down, Mana's the easy part with those skills, you'll be fine."
'Huh?'
Before Kai could respond, Liam chimed in as well.
"A weapon talent is pretty rare, especially one as wide as polearms. That's an entire classification of weapons, I'm jealous."
Noah looked stunned, but managed to choke out a response. "Liam, you have talent with hammers. What are you talking about? I should be the jealous one. And Luke! May I remind you that you have the most mana in the academy? You can't say that to someone, you just can't."
The other two boys both snickered at that.
"Don't laugh, where was this sort of encouragement when I told you my skills? Luke, you said and I quote: Damn that sucks, man, skill issue."
That finally broke the tension, both of the brothers breaking out laughing at their friend's stunned reaction. Even Kai, who had been completely dejected just a moment before, couldn't help but laugh a little. Eventually, Noah smiled but did his best to hide it.
It still hurt, but Kai was in a slightly better mood after that, enough so that he was able to finish his food as the trio read through his skill descriptions. Well, he could listen to Luke's short summaries of their descriptions since the brother did not seem intent on actually reading them all aloud.
"Aura control la de da blah blah blah, basically: you can sense and control your mana, and you're able to convert it into physical strength."
"I've heard that's a pretty versatile skill; it is one of those skills that high-ranked Hunters acquire naturally, but it's not a bad start." As usual, Liam was more insightful, if not as vocal as his brother.
"Clear mind is like if combat focus were a skill, it doesn't seem that great."
Kai was mid-bite of food, so he couldn't ask what that meant, but thankfully Noah spoke up to explain.
"Combat focus is what people call the headspace you enter while you're in combat, where everything else slips away and you're able to keep your mind calm as you fight. It's another thing that you can acquire naturally, but it's still super useful. I'm surprised you've learned it already, it's not the kind of thing normal people have."
Kai nodded at that explanation. He hadn't realized that was a skill, but apparently, how clearly he was able to think during combat was unusual.
'I guess that's because of that skill, or maybe I've just always been like that, and it got translated into a skill?'
However, before he could ponder on the nature of skills and the causation or correlation of them, he was interrupted by Luke continuing his summarization of his skills.
"Talent with polearms is obvious, but basically you're much better with polearms than anything else."
"Talent skills have three levels: knack, talent, and genius. Of course, how good you actually are with them is determined by how much work you put in. Talent just means how fast you pick up concepts and how good your intuition is. For instance, I still get annihilated by Lieutenant Beckner when we spar despite having more talent with hammers than him."
For a moment, Liam's expression shifted, as if he was recalling a distant, unpleasant memory. Considering Kai's fights with Beckner, he could understand why that man was a monster.
"Speaking of which, how'd your exam with him go? You never told us about ouch– Oh, fine... I guess I should let him eat before making him think about that."
Liam had seemingly elbowed his older brother in the side to interrupt his question.
It seemed like at least three of the four boys had… 'sparred' with the Lieutenant, and they all seemed to have their scars from it. While he was still wolfing down the meal like he hadn't eaten in days, he swallowed his bite of food to ask a question he'd been thinking about for a while.
"Why is he allowed to fight trainees like that?"
Noah was the one who answered, which gave Kai the impression that he, too, had his own experience with the Lieutenant in question and simply didn't let it show in the same way the other two had.
"There are a few reasons, the first and most obvious is that he's royalty, well, not as much as Q is, but still, his family is pretty high in the military. The second is that they have a nurse on staff who can wipe memories, so if things get too bad, they can heal the cadet's mind and body. Well, I guess they don't need to heal their bodies when Lieutenant Beckner is involved. The last reason and the reason that he's even here in the first place is simply that he is responsible for making the best soldiers and Hunters in history."
"I've heard three out of the five gods were trained by him, along with Raina and Comet. Seems like every famous Hunter or hero trained under him at one point. Even if he did actually ruin students, that kind of success rate might be considered worth it."
Liam responded to his brother evenly, although the slight fear in his eyes remained.
"It can't be. I don't get why they brought him in for the exams. I could see them wanting him to train the upper program, but having him do the entrance exam seems weird."
At this point, Kai had finally finished his food and decided to rejoin the conversation.
"Wait, go back, aren't there only four gods?"
The gods were the term that people used to refer to the four S-rank hunters in the Western continent. To the point that the strongest A-rank hunters were often referred to as demigods, of which there were nine, those being the individuals people thought most likely to become S-rank in the future.
There were four gods, each of which led their guild or organization, those guilds all being powerhouses in their field, nearly entirely on the backs of their leaders. The Mage god, who was the guildmaster for Sigil, the second strongest guild. The Hunter god was the leader and founder of the Bureau of Hunter Affairs. The Healing Goddess, who leads the Divine guild the strongest of the guilds. And the Defense god, who leads the Lion guild, the third strongest guild.
'One, two, three, four… there's only four unless they're counting one of the demigods as a god. Some people consider Raina or Comet basically S-ranks, or maybe Spark?'
Raina and Spark were the powerhouses behind the Royal and Glory guilds, respectively.
"Oh yeah, I forgot most people don't count Angel as a god." Noah's words gave Kai pause.
Angel was not the title of an S-rank Hunter, well, at least not a living one. He was a hero, the hero, the First Hunter, and the man who fought during the fall of the Eastern territory settlement. The man Kai wanted to be like, and despised.
"Ah, I see."
Kai hadn't tried to make his statement sound indifferent, but the iciness in his voice seemed obvious now that he'd spoken. However, if any of the three boys had noticed, they didn't say anything. Instead, Noah circled back to Luke's question, now that Kai was finished with his food.
"What happened with your exam? I feel like it couldn't have been too bad considering how fast you woke up, but I'd be hesitant to describe any interaction with Beckner as 'not too bad'."
"I'm not scared to fight him, I simply don't want to since I'm a mage." Luke's interjection was not very convincing.
"It was a bit disturbing, but I feel like I learned a lot from it, too. Especially his hand-to-hand combat skills." As Kai spoke, the three boys' expressions became more and more concerned, but he continued. "I'm not sure how many rounds I lasted, but I do think he helped me get over my fear of death a little. Or at least lessen it."
A long silence followed his words. Eventually, it was Luke who broke it.
"What kinda monster?"
"Huh?"
"You're not sure how many rounds? As in, you lost count? Or forgot? Dude, I lasted three and then I passed out for a week."
"I lasted four, which I was ready to gloat about, but now I don't feel like I can."
"I lasted three too, but each of them was pretty long to be fair."
So Luke and Noah had lasted three, and Liam four? That didn't seem like a lot to Kai, but maybe he was wrong.
"Wait, what are you guys counting as a round? I was saying that each time he killed me was a round, and after about nine or so, I lost count, and then sometime after that I stopped learning, so he made us stop."
"He made you stop?!"
Luke was taken aback. He'd been tipping his chair back as they chatted, and at that moment, he fell over, which was only stopped by Liam grabbing the chair before he hit the ground.
"I see why you're with us then."
Noah's smile seemed much more genuine than it had been before. He usually smiled as he spoke, but that just seemed to be the kind of person he was. Now, his expression was different; he was still smiling, but now he had more than a hint of interest in his eyes.