Chapter 21

(Three Days Later)

Re-Evaluation

“Two weeks, that is how long has taken place from the day you initially awoke, to now. What does this mean for you? Well even though you have bulked out nicely due to your initial Life affinity, you still are and look young. Which will be a problem for others who wish to test you. At Tier Eight, nearly Tier Nine, you are one of the strongest students in this Academy. Added to that the fact that we have no idea what your strength or other attributes are currently at and well you can guess that you will likely have to establish yourself quickly.” Holsy said, as he came in to be Frank’s escort, at least for the first part of his day.

That was all the warning Frank got as he was first taken to get re-evaluated.

Name: Frank Fotos

Status: Re-Awakened.

MOS: N/A

Body Cultivation Level VIII**. Core Value VIII**.

Talent: F-Rank Energy Eyes**, Regeneration**, Poison Resistance**, Death Resistance**

S-Rank: (Unknown**), (Unknown**)

Strength: 9 (Below Average) + 24 = 33

Dexterity: 10 (Average) + 24 = 35

Agility: 10 (Average) + 24 = 34

Mind: 9 (Below Average) + 24 = 33

Power: 36 (Way Above Average)

Willpower: 15 (Above Average)

Hidden Primary Power Rating: 32 / 32.

Hidden Auxiliary Power Rating: 32 / 32.

“Oh nice, you learned to condense your core at this stage? No wonder you survived. That is why your attributes were all increased by 24, as three times eight. Also, I assume you had the Death Resistance maxed out before your re-awakening, as that is likely the only way you survived that at all.”

With that Frank could only nod.

Holsy, realizing that Frank was ever the conversationalist decided to press, “I take it that was from the death stalking serpent you killed in the tunnels?”

“Most likely.” Frank replied, then inadvertently he reached up to touch his head to feel for the few scraggles of hair that had remained. In accordance with the military academy rules he had those tufts of hair removed, but the memory of that event still haunted him.

“Are you always this much of a talker, or is it only the ladies that you open yourself up to?” Holsy pressed.

Frank knew exactly who Holsy was talking about, as he had heard and seen the playback of his brief but spectacularly bad conversation with the random drone delivery driver. Each time he heard himself talk, the more of a loser he felt like he sounded.

With that Frank could only shake his head and huff, as there was nothing really to say about that.

“Well, apparently word has it, that the delivery driver who spoke to you got a service recommendation for promotion from their work and are now here.” Holsy stated.

“They are?” Frank asked, a twinge of excitement filling his voice. That’s of course when Holsy pounced, realizing that Frank had made himself vulnerable. Frank realizing that he had given Holsy the opening that he wanted regretted his words almost immediately, but unfortunately, he could not take them back.

“Yeah, she is. And she will be in your sector.” Holsy stated, playing up the slightly mocking tone.

Frank hated the fact that Holsy was seemingly enjoying this, but at the time this was one of the few subjects that Holsy brought up that Frank was actually interested in.

“My sector?”

“Yeah, the re-awakened. Though I think she will be in one of those Medium focuses, apparently her primary affinity is air, or light-blue. While I haven’t heard what her secondary affinity is, maybe she will be one of those double air oracles.” Holsy stated.

Frank could only nod in agreement at that. As Holsy continued walking him through the different hallways to the ones where he would meet the instructors that would be able to teach him how to use his two affinities and how he could be best utilized by choosing a proper military occupation.

“Well, it has been fun chatting with you as always.” Holsy said, stopping just before the two were to part ways. With that Holsy, made sure to adjust his Acquitted badge, making sure it was placed squarely over his heart. Then he checked to make sure one V and three vertical slashes were present on each sleeve, representing his cultivation Tier rating.

Seeing Holsy diligently go over every aspect of his uniform, Frank couldn’t help but relax slightly. Knowing that if something was out of place, Holsy would point it out.

Of course, that was when Holsy freaked Frank out as he peered at the uniform, realizing that something was off, but for the life of him he could not remember what it was. Only after a second of staring did he have a eureka moment, when he realized what was off about the whole uniform.

“I almost forgot the piece de-resistance.” Holsy said, in a bad imitation of a foreign accent. Before Frank could ask anything, Holsy reached into his pocket, grabbed and pulled out a square patch, before pinning it to the dead center of Frank’s uniform.

There at the center of his uniform was a green letter ‘F’ signifying his primary power ranking and his primary affinity. In this case the green stood for the green energy of life that his body seemed to crave.

“Nothing for my second affinity?” Frank asked.

“Oddly enough, we are having to special order darkness at an ‘S+’ distance.” Holsy said jokingly.

With that Frank realized that he was likely screwed. With this he only showed to be a double healer at best, which while truly needed, were often looked down upon. The worst part was, that if push came to shove, his secondary affinity could easily destroy anyone. And while he had officially been pardoned for his past use of his secondary affinity, he was told that he was to not use his secondary affinity on school grounds unless the action was sanctioned by Instructor Demoniker.

Meaning that even if others did know of his secondary affinity, they probably knew that Frank would be forbidden to fight back.

Finally after a long second, Holsy looked at Frank and asked. “You ready?”

“Yeah,” was all Frank could reply.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Well go knock ‘em dead,” Holsy began, but then quickly backtracked. “Actually, no wait, don’t knock them dead. In fact, don’t even hope that they die. If there are any problems, just let us know and we will fix them.”

Hearing that Frank just nodded, though he knew all too well what that meant. As that was the same advice that parental figures gave to Frank about bullies. Which after a month or so of being bullied by Luther, he went to the faculty and informed them of the incidents. After that Luther was out of school for a week, then came back for two where he was actually nice. Only to try to show he changed his stripes and turned over a new leaf. That’s when the terrors truly began.

This time around, Frank knew one thing. He would have to solve his own problems.

“Of course,” Frank said, knowing that he was lying, but forcing his body to remain calm and rigid.

“You know, I almost believed that.” Holsy said, staring at Frank.

Nodding, Frank could only turn away, not wanting to lie to Holsy twice, or confirm Holsy’s opinion that he had in fact lied.

“Good luck!” Holsy shouted, clearly not moving beyond the line he was told to stop at, but wanting to watch Frank go all the way to his class evaluators. “And stop taking everything so seriously, it’s just a school filled with the most powerful and talented individuals humanity has to offer. You’ll fit right in.”

Frank, hearing this, realized that Holsy was worse than his mother. Speaking of which, according to Holsy, his entire family would soon be located and brought up here if he so wished. Though the way Holsy spoke about it made it seem like letting them stay down in the lower levels might be the safest course of action overall. “I’ll give you a week to settle in and find out more about the world, so you can see if you want to claim your family as dependents and force them up here.”

While Frank was mostly certain he would bring his family up, he did question Holsy’s unusual response and seemingly serious tone during that whole conversation.

As he walked in, Frank was somewhat surprised to see only three people waiting for him. There was General Graves who had a small part in overseeing the Academy. To his right, Frank’s left was Dr. Evans, the doctor who took care of Frank and recommended him for the role of a medic. Then immediately to Frank’s right, everyone else’s left was a man who all but radiated a crystalized form of dark energy.

Just seeing the new man, Frank could realize two things. First the man was not used to making eye contact with people, or maybe just kids, as when Frank looked him in the eyes, he seemed genuinely impressed. The next was that despite the man having a tightly condensed core of dark energy, it was clear that he was not fully in control of the energy, as was evident by the layers of green energy that helped encapsulate his dark energy.

“Welcome Cadet Fotos, I would like to introduce you to your two affinity teachers. You have already met Dr. Evans, and this here is Major Demoniker.” General Graves stated pointing to the two individuals in front of him.

Hearing that Frank could only nod. Honestly, he was glad he would get to spend time with Dr. Evans, as from what he could tell, she was the best with life energy and was the one who held the most clout with the medical staff. Having her as an affinity teacher was a major bonus.

The other individual was likely out of sheer necessity, as he was the only other darkness user in the military, apparently.

“A pleasure.” Frank said bowing.

“Sir.” General Graves noted.

Hearing that, Frank made sure to restate his greeting. “It is a please to meet the both of you, officers.”

“Better,” General Graves said, then realizing he probably had better things to be doing elsewhere, decided, “well I will leave you to the mercy of your instructors. That said, if you need anything, and I do mean anything, just come to me.”

“Yes sir.” Frank said, hoping that he would never have to speak to the General again.

All three watched as the General gave his goodbyes then quickly exited the training field.

With the General gone, it was just Frank and his two Instructors.

Not wanting to talk, and not knowing how this was supposed to go Frank just stared at the two.

Dr. Evans was the first to break, “oh you are no fun. Anyways, good call on waiting to be told to speak. That is a big thing here, not so much for me, but know that speaking without being given permission to can cost you a demerit. Getting enough demerits will mean that you will lose weekend passes or as you phase out, the ability to wear civilian clothing.”

Hearing that Frank only nodded.

“Right, well as you can see you do not have a class, and you likely will not be assigned one. Just as we came up with an entirely new job field and description for Demoniker here, we will do the same for you. That said, we have decided to split your participation, you will spend half your time with me and the other medical students, while spending every other day with Demoniker and the long range attack specialists.” Dr. Evans stated and stared at Frank.

Frank just stood there staring back, unflinching.

“Gah, you are the worst at this. At least pretend like Holsy didn’t tell you what to do with this.” Dr. Evans began.

Frank was about to open his mouth to protest, but then stopped as he quickly saw the smile form on Dr. Evans’s lips, implying that she caught him. Reacting quickly, Frank just closed his mouth, realizing that this introduction was a lesson in and of itself.

Don’t speak, unless spoken to, got it, Frank thought to himself.

“Dang it, I almost had you. Anyways, with this you can consider yourself effectively having two majors, but only being able to devote half the time to each major. This means that while others will have all week to practice their chosen occupations, you will only have half that time. The only caveat to this is that Demoniker and I will be training you in both of your affinities daily. I will have you in the mornings, while Demoniker will help you train your affinities in the evening.” Dr. Evans spit out.

With this, Frank was sort of sad that he didn’t have a chance to choose an actual career path. Rather it seemed like he would be trained in two highly intensive careers that would require a lot of work and discipline to cover correctly.

“That said, on the bright side, Demoniker and I are both the section heads for our individual affinities. So if any of our subordinates come to you and give you a command that is contrary to what either of us tell you, tell them to deconflict with us. If they press, do as they ask, but then come to us afterwards. This will really only apply to other healers and staff, as you will be the only other person in Demoniker’s section.”

There was a slight pause as she let that command sink in.

“Do you have anything else to add Demoniker?”

With that Demoniker just shook his head, apparently, he didn’t like talking as much as Frank did. Or he just felt overwhelmed by Dr. Evans’s overwhelming personality.

“Okay, in that case, we will open up questions to the students.” Dr. Evans stated.

Hearing that Frank was about to shake his head, but then asked. “When and where are my class times,” Frank began, only adding “officers” with a slight delay.

Hearing that Dr. Evans just smiled, “you will need to be a bit faster for some, but I’ll let that delay slide for now. As for your classes, you will receive a class schedule and a map in your room by this afternoon. Oh, that reminds me of a few more things. There are no electronics, social media platforms, or other forms of external communication devices available while on campus. You may be allowed to use your electronic devices while on pass and away from campus. Should you be caught with an electronic device of any kind during class time it will be confiscated.”

“Go ahead and bring it to my classes, just know that dark energy reacts violently with electronic devices.” Demoniker added with a slight smile, as he decided that now was the time to speaking up for the first time.

Hearing that Frank nodded. He didn’t think this would be too big of a deal for him, as he was not rich enough to be able to afford any electronic devices, and while he had heard about social media platforms, they never seemed to be something that would interest him.

No, the more he saw the difference between where he came from and this external world, the more he felt like an uneducated bumpkin. This also furthered Frank’s want to remain quiet, his one near death experience notwithstanding, he felt himself feeling more and more isolated from the others.

While this was nothing new for Frank, it was nevertheless a feeling that he hoped he would have managed to avoid. Particularly with Luther, his main provoker dead, but apparently his wounds were deeper than he expected.

“All right, that is enough for now. Why don’t you spend the rest of the day going around campus exploring the sites and then go back to your dorm when you are done.” Dr. Evans said.

“Yes, ma’am.” Frank said, giving a slight bow before doing a smooth 180-degree pivot with his right toes digging into the ground. Then he proceeded to walk away.

As he walked, he could hear Dr. Evans state, “well at least those dance moves also transition to helping with his military bearing.”

Yeah, that was another thing that Frank regretted, his dancing over the corpses of the dead. At the time, it was his way of showing that he was not afraid, only after reading a few negative blogs that pointed out that he was desecrating the dead did he realize that there were other ways to view his actions.

With that Frank decided that his main job here would be to lay low, learn two major jobs that were in demand for the military, have a unique job assigned to him. Then go out and serve in the military on the front lines. While he knew that they weren’t going to be as easy as the zombies, that the zombies were just the easiest of monsters he would likely face while on the front lines. He knew that he had what it took to face his fears and stand up to threats. As long as he didn’t have to use a helicopter to get to the front lines, he would be okay.

That was partly why Frank was glad that he wasn’t a civilian, as civilians were the only ones who were allowed to be helicopter pilots. Something about how technology always had a hard time resisting major affinity surges.

Finally stepping onto the open fields of the campus, Frank looked down, only to realize that the greenest grass he had ever seen lay below his feet. For a moment he almost contemplated taking off his boots and letting his feet sink into the ground. A thought that was quickly squashed as he realized that everyone was staring at him.

They weren’t overt about it, but the more he scanned the area, the more he saw different people in student uniforms all glancing at him, only to look away when he spotted them. It was almost as if they were playing some type of game, like stare at the new kid.

Frank almost wanted to tell them off, but then decided better on it, as he decided to continue to take his tour of campus.

As he walked by the different groups, that’s when his enhanced hearing told him what everyone was thinking.

“You see the dwarf who thinks eight bars is feasible for someone his age?”

“He’s F-Rank too, we should put him in his place.” A second kid responded.

An like that, Frank knew this was going to be a rough start for everyone.

That was his thought, before he saw the sharpened blade of wind lashing straight towards him.

Slashing Wind Blade

Frank turned his head to see a glowing light-blue blade of wind fly in a near blur straight for his face. That’s when the world slowed down, as his mind saw the true threat for what it was, as torrents of green energy that were nearly full to bursting started turning wildly within his body as his hands lit up with a green sort of intensity.

Then striking out with his exposed palm, he slashed at the wind blade, splitting it in half. Causing two detached arcs of energy to spread out and dash off in different directions around him.

Double Thud.

Both blades of wind crashed into the wall of a nearby building, cutting huge gashes into the walls of the building.

Everyone looked at Frank like he had three heads. Focusing forward, in the direction that the wind blades came, he saw a student with a light blue ‘S’ on his uniform.

Seeing him, Frank reached out for the darkness, and realized that even though the boy had no actual darkness within him, Frank could seemingly call for nearby sparks to enter the boy’s body. Causing him to rot slowly from the inside. It was there, the perfect slow and painful response.

Then Frank calmed himself, letting out a slow breath, as the world seemed to speed up to its normal speed, now that the threat was gone.

Silence.

Everyone just stared at Frank, while Frank only stared at the S-Ranked male wind student before him. With that Frank just spoke two words that caused everyone to tremble slightly after the display they just saw.

A display that was still visible, as Frank had his hand glowing green, even now. The words and what would come next would be highly exaggerated by the time it made its way around campus, but on that day, the two words that Frank actually spoke were as follows.

“You done?”