Boop. Boop. Boop.
6:30 a.m
The intermittent ringing of the alarm sounded out, rousing Adeon from his sleep, with a groggy sigh he swung himself off the bed. He moved to the bathroom and splashed his face with water, as if to wash the sleep of his face. Catching his reflection in the mirror a bold thought sprang up.
_'Does my eyes work on humans?'_ He didn't know as it hadn't occured to him before to try it. _'It doesn't hurt to try'_
"Insight" he whispered, gazing at his reflection. Insight was a name he decided to call it. Ysira told him his true talent must stay hidden so if there was any need to reveal his talent he should only talk about the eyes.
After waiting a couple of seconds, no panel appeared before his eyes, "sigh... I guess it doesn't work on humans."
He lowered his head and splashed some more water on his face, he reached out to grab a face towel, but froze in place as his gaze passed over the mirror.
"Wait... What?" The reflection gazing back at him wasn't his, gone was the familiar golden brown pupils, instead his irises were painted black, in place of his pupils were two concentric circles glowing a ghostly green. The outer circle rotated ilclockwise and the inner one rotated counterclockwise.
"What in the CREATOR'S name?" He rubbed his eyes, "Why do I look like a monster?" He shuddered. He remembered stories on the news; of cult called _'Ankalesis'_
He remembered seeing an image of one of them on the news, the man or should he call him monster bore similarities to his current form. Although not exactly the same, the man's eyes had been as if replaced by a beasts'.
He gave a strained, humorless smirk."If those crazy people saw me I reckon they would welcome me with open arms."
"Is my talents what is making me see this... Or is my talent the cause for this."
As he wondered, a voice he recognized all too, sounded in his mind. "There's no need for you to be surprised... This was the change to your eyes done by Genesis"
"Ohhh... Ysira, good morning... So that's why..." He paused as if in thought then asked, "Say... Will this appear every time I use insight" he said gesturing to his reflection. "Yes" was her reply and she went silent again.
He freshened up, and after a quick breakfast headed outside. The sun was climbing up steadily bathing the streets in a muted gold.
The school wasn't too far from his home, after about 20 minutes, the familiar black gates appeared, with a throng of students rushing inside.
"Yoo... Adeon."
Hearing his name, he looked back, a group of students were waving at him, they were members of his former class. The student who had called his name was Mark, one of the students he relatively got along with.
"What's up man." Mark grinned as they walked up to Adeon. " Hope you are okay? You haven't been in class for the past two days."
Another voice quickly chimed in. "Yeah... We were a little worried." It was Alicia, concern evident in her voice.
"Thanks Alicia" Adeon replied with a light smile. It wasn't often he received that kind of concern.
Alicia's cheeks warmed, she quickly turned her gaze towards the school gate as if finding it interesting.
He fell into step beside them as they made their way to the black gates. The group chatted away about assignments and boring history class.
Adeon remained silent, a faint smile hung on his lips as he remembered he was past all that now.
Before long they reached the tall, black gates of the school. A steady stream of students moved in, splitting into two currents once past the gate. With noticeably fewer students branching to the right.
To the right lay a Bio-Scanner, scanning every student who passed through. Adeon branched to the right heading straight to the Bio-Scanner, "Uhm... Adeon I think you're going the wrong direction." Alicia called out seeing the direction he was going, he didn't reply, he got under the scanner which after a few seconds let out a green light.
They froze mid step, like they had just seen a ghost. Their mouths hung open, disbelief etched on the faces.
No wonder he hadn't been coming to class. He had... Awakened
He turned around with a light smile and a casual wave. "See you later guys."
Without waiting for a reply, he turned around and left. The group stood still their eyes still on the scanner.
Mark gave a sigh, he glanced at Alicia who still wore a dazed expression, her gaze lingering on the direction Adeon went. "You know" he said half- teasing, half-serious, " you might want to forget whatever you're hoping for, Adeon... is in a different world from us now."
She blushed darker, "wha... What are you even talking about." She stammered, hugging her books closer to her chest.
~
Adeon made his way to class wondering, _' There's no way the number of awakened students I've seen so far are just a hundred, so why are we only a hundred in my class'_
He stepped into the classroom, the excited chatter of the students quietened as they all turned their gazes towards him.
Gulp
Under the weight of their intense stares, Adeon felt his nerves tighten. Some were curious, some hostile, majority were sizing him up. He had been one of the only two people who had been able to remain standing in the presence of the direwolf.
Kara waved at him, pattinh the space beside her, he went over and sat down by her side.
Before he could settle down, she clutched his arms with both arms "quick, summon Valeryss."
Her eyes were glowing with excitement, like a child waiting to collect candy from her parents
Kara had oddly gotten along well with Valeryss the previous day. Valeryss said she smelt like kin, this prompted Adeon to wonder if Kara had a talent related to reptiles or if she had a reptilian lifebound beast.
"Sorry Kara..." His words were cut short by the entrance of the teacher, the class quietened. The teacher walked straight to the board and wrote WILDERNESS SURVIVAL CLASS.
Then came the long boring session of teaching.
Two hours later the bells rang signifying the end of the class. The speakers rang out again, informing the students to head to the field for their next class.
On the way Adeon asked Kara,"Say Kara... How many awakened students do we have?"
"Uhm, about 250 students" she said, glancing at him, "Why do you ask?"
"At the field yesterday... Only members of our class were present... Why is that so?"
"Ohhh" she tilted her head, "Those you see here are either those with an innate talent or those whose combat rating was A grade that's why we are considered A class... Though it is unheard of for a non talent awakened to have a combat rating above B."
"The other students are graded according to their combat rating" She paused then continued, "As for the combat class, it's probably to increase our chances of getting into top tier universities."
"If combat rating of A and above are all in A class, that means there would also be heirachy amongst the students of class A." Adeon noted.
Soon they reached the field, but this time the imperial guards were already there, the cages on the floor devoid of the dark canvas.
"Form up." Captain Sanders barked, as soon as they had reached the field.
"As I said the previous day, today's class will feature you holding your own against these captured beasts" He said, pointing towards the caged beasts. "Of course, apart from those of you whose first pets are healing or pure support types." He added
One of the imperial guards came forward: "Rank 1 to 10 step forward... Prep time is a max of 2 minutes."
The students ranked 1 to 10 stepped forward, each standing in front of the cage designated to them.
Majority of them were nervous, while some were confident.
Unlike the last class where the direwolf had been released without prior warning, they had prep time to summon their pet beasts, they had no need to fear.
They had all awakened early, and the slowest among them had already cultivated their pet beasts to normal level 8. These wild beasts were at most normal level 10, moreover they were wild beasts.
Tamed beasts had an advantage over wild beasts in battle, a tamer can support their tamed beast either through direct intervention or through enhancement.
CLANG.
The metal cages opened in quick successions, the beasts inside were held by chains.
"You goal is one thing." The imperial guard spoke up, "under 20 minutes you should either have subdued the beast, or have killed it"
"Your time starts now."
The students commanded their pets, once they got into the cage their battles started.
All except Kara, she sauntered into the cage without summoning any pet beast.
'Hmmm'
The soldier looked surprised, but the other members of the class looked on as if already used to it.
Inside her cage was a Spineback bear, it's quill like fur bristled, an obvious indication of its name
GRRR
A low menacing growl, escaped it's snout.
"Awwn, what a cute pup"
The soldier: "..."
The bear: (￣(ｴ)￣)
It let out another growl as it charged at her, intent on skewering the arrogant human before it, as soon as the bear got to arms length, she swung her first.
WHAM!
Her clenched fist landed on its head with terrifying force knocking it straight into the ground. She leapt on its head and sat down, like it was her mount.
"Be a good boy." with an innocent smile on her lips"I heard bear paws are delicious."
The soldier: 'Shudder'
Students: _'Yup, its crazy ol' Kara'_
Bear: ༼;´༎ຶ ༎ຶ༽ 'who exactly is the monster here'
Adeon was stunned, she reminded him of his gor… his sister who had absurd physical strength.
Soon the 20 minutes were over, apart from Kara, only one other person was able to completely subdue his opponent. Ethan Cole.
Majority of them only managed a battle of attrition till the time was over, and two students had to be rescued.
The second batch soon concluded their battles. The beasts having battled non-stop for forty minutes were exhausted.
The black furred gorillas behind the imperial guards jabbed each beast with a syringe filled with an unknown fluid. In a matter of the seconds the beasts were all revitalized.
"Third batch. Your time starts now"
They all hurried into their cages.
"Wow… no wonder they were able to fight well in here" Adeon muttered as he entered into the cage. The inside was larger than it looked outside, probably made from materials gotten from a space type lifeform.
The thought of this made Adeon all the more in awe of the power of the imperial guards. Space type lifeforms were one of the rarer lifeforms, with extremely high combat power and evasive techniques. If a space type lifeform was intent on escaping, it would be hard to detain them.
SKRREEE!
The loud screech of the beast opposite him snapped him out of his thoughts, the buffer time of two minutes was almost up.
His grimoire shimmered into existence beside him.
"Ling"
Don't ask him why he muttered, he just thought it felt cool.
A bundle of vines sprang up from the ground, rapidly coalescing into the form of a Thornling. It's root firmly entrenched in the soil.
YING!
It gave its own form of a battle cry, looking cute yet ... uhm just cute.
"Wow..." the excited voice of various students rang out.
"So cute"
"Is that a Thornling"
"Why would he contract a Thornling, I mean it has no evolutionary potential"
"Wait... He had a beast yesterday"
At the last statement the surrounding chatter died down.
"Uhm... Does that mean he has a guardian beast?" A somewhat timid voice sounded.
All eyes turned towards her as if to say.
Of course!! What else does an initiate tamer with two beast signify.
"Ick" she let out a startled sound.
"Begin" the imperial guard's voice rang out.
"Ling. « spores »" Adeon commanded immediately as he willed insight.
SPECIE: Muscle Hen
BLOODLINE QUALITY: Normal
GRADE: Normal lv 8
CONDITION: Frenzied
EVOLUTION PATH: ...
EVOLUTION REQUIREMENTS: ...
'Frenzied? That might have to do with what they were injected with' Adeon mused, 'but that works perfectly for me, according to what I read « Spores » at the proficient level has hallucinogenic and sleep inducing properties.'
The filaments on the Thornling swayed releasing tiny, almost microscopic spores. They swam in the air, some clinging to the feathers of the Hen others passing into it's nostrils.
The Hen that was about to lung at Adeon suddenly swayed, the drowsiness had taken effect, it shook it head as waves of drowsiness hit it. Its eyes gradually grew hazy, seemingly stuck in an illusion
Seeing this Adeon cheered internally. 'Its at level 8, the drowsiness and hallucinations can only affect it for about 6 seconds. Coincidentally « blood drain » takes about 5 seconds to be fully unleashed'
"Ling use « blood drain » and keep them spread on the ground."
YIING!
Vines began crawling from Ling's position, forming a carpet of thorns.
SKRREEE!!
The beast finally managed to dispel the drowsiness affecting it, it let out a furious shriek as it charged towards the boy and his pet beast, obviously it had seen something that infuriated it in the illusions.
"Steady… steady… now." As soon as the beast stepped on the carpet of vines Adeon gave the order. The vines snapped around it's feet causing it to stumbled and fall.
The vines slithered over the beast, the thorns on it boring into the beast. The thorns gradually changed from a deep green to a crimson colour.
"Subdued" He said gazing at the imperial guard.
A proud smile.on his face. This was Ling's first official battle and she did well.