“Now, who would like to tell me what a possible ‘Energy Skill’ you might learn is?” The teacher asked the class.

“Flight!” Someone called out from the back.

The teacher rolled his eyes. “Something a little less obvious, please?”

“Are you looking for skills oriented towards attacking or support functions?” Nate asked, speaking up for the first time since he had transferred in two months before.

The class fell silent, and even the teacher could only stare in shock for a moment before regaining his wits.

“Uh, either will do.”

“Very well, under support, we obviously have the previously mentioned ‘Flight’. Which is probably the most famous skill around. Then we have the basic ‘Examine’ skill which just shows things in red, blue, green, and yellow, depending on whether they are dangerous, beneficial, or unknown. Then there are the healing spells, which are rather obvious, so I won’t mention those by name.”

The teacher held up his hand. “That is plenty, thank you. I would highly suggest everyone learn ‘Examine’ if they can. It has allowed more than a few people to stumble across valuable resources in the wild or avoid dangerous enemies. Now the purpose of this question was actually to demonstrate to you just how many skills there are out there.”

He glared at the class. “However, for some reason, only one of you felt like saying anything.”

The class erupted into noise, protesting what he had said.

“QUIET!” He called out. A minor shockwave rocked the room.

Nate paled and leaned to the side as a dribble of blood appeared from the corner of his mouth.

“I apologize for doing that, Nathaniel. Do you need to go see the nurse?” The teacher apologized with a wince.

He wiped away the blood and shook his head. “I’ll be fine, just please don’t do it again.”

The teacher nodded. “Now, as I was saying. As more of you approach the point where you are thinking about awakening your cores, there is information you need to be aware of. Particularly in relation to energy skills. You only get seven skills. Three for attack, and four for support. So, you must choose wisely.

“You can, of course, always choose to later forget one of these and learn a new one. However, if you do that, you will lose all the progress you had gained on the skill. It’s a decent tradeoff if the new one is stronger right away, but what about if it takes a while to display its strength? For this reason, each of your initial seven skills should be chosen with great care.”

He wasn’t saying anything that they didn’t already know and was instead merely reminding them.

“Now, here is the information that you need to know. Skills can evolve, and sometimes they can even fuse together. It doesn’t happen often, and the requirements for each are closely guarded by the larger clans. Just know that it is possible. So, if you have a high-level skill and suddenly see one that you like even more, it may not be to your benefit to forget the current one.”

He shrugged. “Ultimately, it’s up to you. Just never forget to choose them with care. Those three attacks need to be able to carry you through any monster you meet. Or, at the very least, be enough to give you a chance to escape.”

True to Angelica’s earlier prediction, the other students did notice that he was now walking around without a limp and cane. However, he was still persona non grata in their minds as no one but her dared to approach him.

Nate was sitting at an otherwise empty lunch table when Angelica sat down across from him with her friend Lindsay in tow.

He sighed and pushed the food to the side. The cafeteria at this school was top-class and befitting the people who attended it.

“You know, you might be able to get away with publicly sitting and talking with me. But what about her?” He didn’t know anything about Lindsay’s family, or even the girl herself.

Lindsay was slightly shorter than Angelica, at five-foot-five inches, with raven-colored hair and dark eyes to match. He wouldn’t have called her gorgeous, but she was certainly pretty in her own way.

“You don’t need to worry about Linds. Everyone knows she is under my family’s protection.”

The girl in question rolled her dark orbs and settled down across from him with a grumble. “It would be better if I didn’t even need protection. I can’t wait until we are allowed to go through the awakening process.”

“Just be careful when the time comes.” He was a walking example of what could happen when you weren’t, or if people wanted to cause problems regardless.

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“Now-“ Angelica stopped talking as a shadow loomed over their table.

“Why are you eating with him, Angie?” A large boy Nate had never spoken to before demanded.

“It’s none of your business, Chad!”

“You know what they’re saying about him and his parents!”

Nate snapped his head up so fast his neck twinged. “What are people saying about my parents?”

“Stuff it, you waste of space!” The larger boy demanded.

“I’m the waste of space? I would have had my core formed before everyone in this place if this hadn’t happened!” Nate was starting to get worked up.

“It doesn’t matter how fast you can form it if it’s only going to be the lowest grade.”

“Is that what you think mine was going to be?” Nate asked with a smirk. In truth, he had no idea what kind of core he would have gotten before. It never hurt to bluff a little in situations like this though.

The big brute took an uncertain step back.

“Now, tell me, what have they been saying about my parents?”

Hands clenched into fists as Chad tried to figure out how he had found himself in this situation. He had been the one to come over here demanding answers, and yet somehow the situation had been reversed on him.

Angelica stared at the big man and nodded. “Well? Tell him. I’m interested as well.”

“They’re cowards who refused to go on their assigned mission!” The boy spat.

“Interesting.” Nate rested his head on the palm of his hand. “Did they also mention that my parents should never have been selected for that mission in the first place? Or, how about the fact that the survival rating for the mission is non-existent, except for maybe those leading it? Have either of those been mentioned at all?”

“Your parents were selected to go inspect the structure around the portal?” Lindsay gasped out.

He nodded. “Yup, something deep within the dimensional zone where they aren’t qualified to go normally. Yet somehow, they were suddenly selected for a mission that goes there. I don’t think so.”

Chad’s face turned a deep purple, as he barely managed to hold back his rage at Nate. Without saying another word, he turned and stomped away.

“You realize he’s going to make your life miserable every chance he gets now, right?” Lindsay asked as she carefully buttered her bread.

“Probably, but it’s too late for me to do anything differently. I have a feeling that as soon as the two of you sat down here, my fate was sealed.” He scooted his food back into position and began eating again.

“You’re not wrong, however, we also didn’t do it on purpose. I didn’t count on him or anyone else responding quite so strongly, simply because we chose to sit with you.” Angelica shook her head in wonder. “I apologize in advance for any trouble this brings you.”

Nate noticed that she didn’t offer to help alleviate or get him out of the trouble. She merely apologized for bringing it down upon his unsuspecting head.

“What grade was your core going to be?” Angelica asked curiously as they were finishing up lunch.

Nate shrugged. “I have no idea, probably something of low-medium quality. My old school can’t compare to this place, but it still had access to all the normal information.”

Lindsay smacked her head against the table in shock. “Well, I guess that answers that question then. Low-Grade is what it likely would have been then. Who knows, assuming you can get your… everything healed and fixed in time. Having them broken might just turn out to be the best thing that could have happened to you.”

Angelica slowly nodded. “It’s possible it could have been slightly higher, but not by much. The quality of information we have, versus your old school, is far larger than you think. I would suggest you start studying up on the methods to cultivate your core again. Assuming you can get it fixed, with the information we have here, you should be able to get a much higher-grade core when you awaken.”

A higher-grade core meant more overall energy available for energy skills. Though, according to the computer on his wrist, he still had some energy anyway. Either way, it also helped to determine how fast and far you could grow. The better the grade, the farther you would go before you began to struggle for every improvement.

“Huh,” Nate took a moment for that to sink in. “Well… I’m not sure I entirely like the way it happened. If I can come out the other end better, then yeah, okay. Of course, that depends on if I can get my hands on the medication from the alchemy guild. Which seems unlikely.”

“How long will it take to heal normally without the potions?” Angelica asked, taking a sip of the enhanced juice.

Enhanced juice came from fruits grown in the dimensional zones. Eating them before you awakened supposedly helped to strengthen your body. Unfortunately, only limited quantities could be brought back at a time. That meant most people never got to taste them.

Nate had been eating and drinking their juice ever since he came to the school and had yet to see an effect on his stats. He wasn’t sure if he had to awaken first to feel the effects or if something else was going on. Either way, he ate and drank as much as he could every chance he could.

“I have no idea. No one has mentioned anything along those lines to me before now.” He stared down at his plate and slowly twirled his fork. “If I had to guess, that means there likely isn’t a lot of hope for it to heal naturally.”

“Well, that sucks,” Lindsay said blandly.

“Gee, you’re so warm and caring. I can just feel the sympathy pouring off you.” He shot back with a roll of his eyes. “I wasn’t asking for you to care. I was simply answering the question.”

Angelica began to say something, only to be drowned out by the bell. “That’s the second time that thing has interrupted one of our conversations now. I’ll talk to you after school. I want to run something by you.”

“Uh, alright?” It hadn’t really been a question so much as her telling him what they were going to do.

Not that he truly minded in this case. If her family had the connections she thought they did, then maybe they could help. What George had done the night before had helped, but it was going to be a slow process.

Then, even after he was healed, he would need to start the awakening process all over again. Probably, or maybe not. The computer on his wrist still showed him as having some energy. That might mean that he wouldn’t need to start completely over. Even if that was the case, the number it showed wasn’t exactly high.

He had no basis for what an average score was in regard to the stats. All he knew was that they looked low, but that didn’t mean they actually were.

This was another of those times he really wished the system had come with a manual. Instead, he was being forced to figure everything out on his own.

It sucked and was taking up a lot of his time. Then again, he was an injured teenager without a job. Time was one of the few things he had a lot of in surplus.