It had been a week since I started attending the Academy. In the morning we have regular classes and in the afternoon comes training.
There are four main buildings inside the Academy. The Class Building, Dorms(Genders are in separated facilities but counted as one), Training Center, and Research Center(Laboratories and Clinic/Infirmary). And since it's currently morning, I'm in my class.
There are only about two thousand or so students currently attending the Academy. I thought that it was pretty low because even if we Enhancers are rare, we are still 10% of the world population. About 4 billion people live on Earth today(lots died from demonic beasts during the invasion).
Currently, the one who is teaching the class is Mr. Fernandez, Richard Fernandez. He's our homeroom teacher and also our only teacher. But he's the only one who will be teaching this class for the whole year.
I'm in Class E, almost at the lowest of the school hierarchy. There are only about a hundred or so students that sit at the lowest of the Classes. We students from D to E, we are called the lower priority students, or LP students. We receive less help, allowance, and breaks. Really unfair if you ask me. Not only that, but because we're the lowest priority, in the case of emergency, we are almost certainly left behind. We are weak and few in numbers, after all.
The ranks are classed by their emblem, the thing engraved on our uniform. A is a Star, B and C is Flower, and D to E are Circle. There are about 200-300 Star students and 1,400 of those who are Flower students. Contrary to us Circles, the Star students have 2-3 times the amount and a hundred times the talent. But we are still lucky that we still receive resources from the Academy.
I saw someone familiar at the schoolyard while looking outside the window. It was Cath. We haven't spoken to each other since we went here, and I don't think we will anytime soon.
She's sitting on a bench with her friends, chatting and giggling. It's not that I haven't made any friends. I did, actually. She's sitting beside me right now.
Her name is Julia Galang. It was hard on the first day for me to initiate a conversation with a stranger, but thankfully she dropped her pen, and I picked it up. This allowed us to start our first conversation.
She has blond shoulder-length hair. She's petite and is surprisingly short, about my height. She has big round blue eyes and freckles on her face. Her looks are also above the average, and her freckles only add to it.
"Daniel, can you stop staring at Julia for one second and listen to the class!" (Mr. F)
Upon being yelled at, I quickly retracted my head before the whole class looked at me.
"I wasn't, sir." (Daniel).
"I see, then, earlier we just talked about the Three Main Power Categories. Did you hear what they are?" (Mr. F)
"Uhhhhhh…." (Daniel). 'Did we learn something about that? Power Categories? What's that?....' I racked my head, trying to remember what he had said during the class.
"Well, well, as expected of you, Mr. Daniel, you weren't listening. Is there anyone else not listening in the class? If there are any, then I. Will. Explain. Again. And anyone who disturbed me during my explanation will receive a punishment." (Mr. F)
-Ugh- I heard the whole class simultaneously exclaimed. After all, it was almost lunch, and everyone was hungry. Sorry guys, my bad.
"The Three Categories are, Enhancer, Manipulator, and Dominator. The first one is easy to understand. It's your regular joe, throwing spells and about. Manipulators are, on the other hand, are those with unique bloodline, of course, not all bloodline are qualified to be in the manipulator category, such as those who specialize in body enhancement." (Mr. F). He cleared his throat before continuing.
"Examples for Manipulators are those who are specialized and metier in an attribute. If a regular Enhancer can control a big pond, then a Manipulator can control a large lake." (Mr. F) -Ahem-. He cleared his throat again.
"The Dominators are even more unique, rare, and powerful. Coming back from the water example, if a Manipulator can control a large lake, then a Dominator can control the ocean itself." (Mr. F)
"I'll give another example for those with hamster-powered brains. An Enhancer can cast a fireball to his or her foes. A Manipulator becomes the fireball while summoning more fireballs. But a Dominator turns everything around them as their own fireballs." (Mr. F)
"The Manipulator in the example are incredibly high resistant against fire, but the Dominator is not only immune to the fire but becomes stronger as the amount grows. Although the Manipulator can use the fire around them, they cannot summon a huge portion without using a huge amount of mana. But the Dominator can easily summon the same amount but also exceed in power" (Mr. F)
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"And this is the power of those with bloodline. Class dismissed." (Mr. F)
After Mr. Fernandez left, the guy sitting in front of me turned around and said.
"Thanks for wasting the 10 minutes of our 40 minutes and only break." (Guy sits in front of MC). He said sarcastically.
"Oh, stop it, Josh." (Julia).
"Maybe tell your boyfriend to stop staring at you next time, princess." (Josh). He stomped his way outside the door.
Julia stared at me as if waiting for something.
"What?" (Daniel)
"So, what happened? Why are you spacing out for?" (Julia)
"hmmm, let me remember…… Oh! Do you really want to hear?" (Daniel)
"Enlighten me." (Julia)
"Well, I saw my childhood friend outside the window. The one I told you about." (Daniel)
"Oh, your Goddess? So what happened?" (Julia). She smirked.
"No, she's not my Goddess….. But as I was looking at her, I just turned to look at you. Then I thought. 'Wow she's adorable, and even more with her freckles' that kind of stuff." (Daniel)
Julia stared at me with her mouth slightly open.
"What?" (Daniel)
"Nothing. Ahem. Let's just go to the cafeteria, I'm starving." (Julia)
When we went into the cafeteria, it is already full of students. Unlike the LP students who arrived late, the students in higher classes have early and long breaks. The LP students have about a 30 to 50 minutes break, but the higher class has an hour to two hours of break. Hence the reason why all of my classmates are pissed off at me for spoiling the first 10 minutes of our break.
"Daniel, where did you live before?" (Julia). She asked while both of her hands held each other under her chin on a cafeteria table.
"Town's border to the south. Why?" (Daniel)
"Nothing. I'm just asking." (Julia)
"Okay…" (Daniel). Does she plan to rob my house?
"Just to let you know, I live in an old small EMPTY house." (Daniel). She raised her eyebrows after I finished my sentence.
"Mmk… Who do you live with?" (Julia). She continued.
'Wow, why is she interrogating me? Does she really plan to rob my house?' I looked directly at her eyes, but she avoided my gaze quickly. I can't tell if she's planning something.
"Officer Julia, did I do something illegal? I don't remember selling any drugs." (Daniel). I said jokingly.
"The f…. Just answer the question." (Julia)
"I lived with my grandparents….. If you ever plan to do something, make sure to spare them and don't make them hold something heavy." (Daniel)
"What? How is that related?" (Julia). She’s puzzled.
“What’s yo-“(Julia)
I cut her off.
“Hey, hey, it’s my turn to ask questions now. Where do you live right now? If not in the dorm, where?”
“OwlCraft town, an hour drive to the north of Whalelight City. I lived with my parents and two other siblings, an older sister and a younger brother. Now it’s my turn again.”(Julia)
She really said a lot. I only planned on asking where she lived, but she told me almost everything with just that.
-Tring Tring Tring-
We chatted quite a bit until the bell rang. Now we will be going into the Training Center, where we will be doing physical training. After the training, we will be training our mana by forcing it to flow faster in our body. This helps us train our mana control and increase mana capacity. This is also the reason why we needed to train our bodies to be compatible with our mana. We were told that Enhancers who do not train their bodies might risk their body exploding from using a high volume of mana at once. But there’s a loophole in this. If you mastered the Fortification spell, you can fortify yourself and reduce the burden of the spells you cast on your body.
Everyone is required to use all of the types of equipment in the room, with a minimum time of 10 minutes of straight continuous use. It had already been two hours since we started, and I had used at least five types of equipment. Like the classes, we are also separated by class. The room we currently at is for us LP students. The room is big enough to fit three basketball courts. The room is cut in half by genders, and although we can see the other groups, we cannot interact with them. It’s a shame I don’t have anyone in the class to talk to except Julia.
After another half an hour, we are then to sit or lie in our most comfortable position. I chose to lie on one of the yoga bed mattresses. I try to control my mana, trying to flow it faster and faster inside my body. I push the mana in my hand into my left and vice versa. I also do it with my legs, and for my head, I use the mana I feel in my belly. We had to do it continuously until we can’t anymore. We are also encouraged to train our control until we pass out. Because of my high mana capacity, I could last up to ten minutes, while all others in my class can only last as long as five minutes. I watched Julia perform her training yesterday. She lasted four minutes.
The training lasted for an hour and a half more. The break had ended at precisely 12 pm earlier, it is 4 pm now, and today's classes had just ended.
Phew
Now, a quick shower and directly into the dorm.
The dorm is enormous, but we LP students cannot register for higher rooms unless given special permission. I was looking forward to having a room five stories high, but I guess the second floor isn’t that bad. I arrived in front of my room.
220E
Even the door number has our rank engraved on it
Sigh
We have an ordinary bedroom. Luckily, they have enough funds to give us to own a washroom in each room, a laptop, and a comfortable bed. What could I ask for? Even back then, I don’t own a computer. Although I sometimes use Cath’s computer, to watch on youboop.
‘Should I go outside the Academy? I never went out before.’
I looked at the clock on top of the bed wall. It was only 4:30 pm, still a lot of time before 7. Should I go out? Come to think of it, Mrs. Carla told me before that I should buy a phone when I start living in the Academy so that I could contact them.
I went to the laptop and opened the Academy’s own application. We would be able to see our profile info, staff info, and other students’ info. I went into my balance and checked how much money I have.
$1650. I guess this is enough.
The A-Class students get 20k a month, B to C gets 15k, then us LP students get 2k a month. It’s only the first week, but we already received an early allowance to buy ourselves clothes, groceries, and lunch money.
My money will run out before being able to afford a phone. This sucks.
I got on the bed, and soon after, I fell into a deep slumber.