“Okay, but that burrito was good, right? It had eggs, beans…” Calvin argued while munching on a taco.
“You like anything with eggs,” Quinn said, wiping her hands with a napkin. “I don’t get it. Eggs taste like nothing.”
He gasped exaggeratedly, “You take that back, pink woman.”
“Pft. I just say it as I taste it,” She giggled.
“I dislike you,” He muttered, finishing the snack. He grabbed a drink to wash it down before asking her a question, “By the way, why are we sitting here?”
“Waiting for Ina, she’s probably going to get here soon.”
“No. Not— I know that. Why here?”
The two were making their butts comfortable in the middle of a small garden inside the Academy campus, a ways away from the administration building they had just been at. The garden wasn’t exactly small, but in comparison to its main attractions, it can only be considered as such. Seven five-to-six-meter-high statues of five-to-six-foot-tall heroes sat as the centerpieces of the garden: The Seven. Or The Seven Strongest, although some people refer to them just as ‘The Seven’, Calvin included. Even fewer people refer to them as ‘the S.S.’, Calvin not included, for obvious reasons.
The familiar Destructoman with his familiar form-fitting black suit and his familiar big ‘D’ on his forehead stood in the middle. Sandwiching him left and right was a large-bodied man wielding a giant hammer and a beautiful golden-haired woman wearing the most regal dress, Megaton and Damsel. Next to Megaton was Sky, whom Calvin had met, wearing the same casual shirt and shorts he wore at the hospital. Mason, who is depicted as a set of armor made of rocks. The Stylist, who looked as his name implied, with beautiful long hair and stylish fashion. And John Boe, who was literally just a statue of floating clothes, presumably alluding to the fact that no one knows what he looks like.
’It’s weird to think I actually met three of them.’ Calvin thought, looking at the statues.
“What do you mean? It’s a good view.” Quinn answered his earlier question with a sweet smile.
“We’re on your mother’s shoulders, Quinn.”
“We’d be able to sit on her head if this statue was at all accurate.”
“She can’t be that bad, right?”
Quinn stayed silent, looking into the horizon with narrowed eyes. A small curve appeared at the edge of her lips as she spotted someone rushing towards them, “Hey, Cal.”
“What’s up?” He asked, looking towards her.
“I’d clench my jaw if I were you,” She winked.
“What do you—”
His words were cut off. A sudden attack hit him on the chest. Falling off the statue, he quickly turned with practiced movements and used [Jumper] as soon as the ground was close enough, negating the force. Unfortunately, his spirit was still dried up, his mind was somewhat drained, and whatever hit him was now clutching onto his back.
Thankfully, the added point to Super Body and the boost from the [Plain White Shirt] was enough to not die. It still hurt, of course.
“Ugh!” Calvin groaned as he hit the floor. “What the hell?”
“You moron, why would you go this early?!” His other friend’s familiar voice came from behind, her grip released as he was forcefully turned around and mounted by the girl.
Calvin saw her hand come near his face and instinctively held his arms up, “Hey— hey! No turning to demon mode! I’m sorry oka— ow?”
She flicked him on the forehead, “We said all three of us were going together. Together.”
“Things came up,” he said as an excuse, “I texted you— ugh!”
“Ina!” Quinn shouted as she came down, hugging Ina’s back and doubling the weight on Calvin’s chest. “I missed you!”
“We met yesterday, Queenie,” Ina said, smiling and ruffling the girl’s hair.
“Eheh~ ow!”
“That’s for not waiting for me.”
“I’m dying down here.”
After a few more flicks to the head and smacks to the chest, Calvin was finally released from the clutches of the two witches. The three of them sat on a bench beside the statues this time, to the relief of Calvin.
“When did you get here?” Calvin asked, massaging his chest.
“A few minutes ago,” Ina answered resting her head on Quinn’s.
“What about registration?”
“What about it?”
“She’s a rich girl too, Cal.”
Calvin sighed, “That’s just unfair.”
“You’re just too poo—aurrr… Ina~”
Pulling on Quinn’s cheeks, she shook her head lightly at Calvin’s muttering, “It’s not a money thing. Our parents are… well, you know. We get special privileges.”
“That’s more unfair,” he said, getting a shrug from the two. “We met James earlier, by the way.”
“James?”
“Voice changer.”
“From the workshop? How did they test his power?”
“A lot of screaming,” Quinn answered, hugging Ina’s arm.
“Pretty much,” He nodded. “Also met his friend. What was her name?”
“You just met her earlier and you forgot her name already?” Quinn said, raising a brow at him. “Tomara Winrow, you know her, Ina.”
“You know her?” Calvin echoed, furrowing his brows at the smirking Quinn.
“Ms. Winrow’s oldest? I thought she was powerless? Isn’t she over twenty?”
“Fuck off. Twenty? Ow!”
“Don’t swear,” Ina said as she smacked him. “Yeah, she’s older than us—”, Quinn started poking her cheek, “—what?”
Shaking her head lightly, Quinn corrected her, “She’s not twenty. You bet she was over twenty. And lost, by the way. She’s two years older, but not that older.”
“Oh,” Calvin let out a sigh of relief.
“I don’t remember this? Who did I bet with?”
“We don’t have other friends, Ina— ow~”
Ina pulled on her cheeks again while looking towards Calvin with narrowed eyes, “Why were you relieved?”
“N—no I didn’t? I mean… no?” He felt nervous for some reason.
“Ith because thhe liketh him,” Quinn, the betrayer, ratted him out.
“She likes you?”
“You don’t know that,” he flicked Quinn’s forehead, “I was just thinking she didn’t look like she was twenty is all.”
Ina narrowed her eyes further while Quinn had a grin on her face. Calvin rolled his eyes at the two and stood up, stretching his back and cracking his neck. Bringing up the map on his holowatch, he looked for where the dorms were, unexpectedly finding more than one.
“How am I supposed to know which dorm I’m in?” He asked, looking towards Quinn.
They looked at him for a moment before Ina answered, “What department are we in, Cal?”
“Hero?” He looked at the map again. “Hero dorm…”
“I swear you don’t read anything.”
“It’s like he’s word blind.”
“Ha-ha, I’m illiterate. Let’s just go. I want to lie down in a bed.”
----------------------------------------
They made their way leisurely towards the dormitories, stopping by points of interest like cafeterias and libraries. But mostly cafeterias, for obvious reasons. It took an hour of walking under the noon sun before they finally arrived at the destination Calvin was looking forward to the entire day— the dormitories.
There were three in total, the Heroes, the Tinkers, and the Supports, with the Tinker’s dorms being the smallest, attributing to their scarcity. Next was the Hero’s, and the largest was the Support’s. All three were situated near each other and were built at the farthest points possible from the entrance.
Calvin would’ve been thinking about plenty of other things, like the unfortunate segregation and the annoying distance from the nearest cafeteria. But right now, his thoughts lay mainly on what was in front of him.
“That’s a castle,” Calvin said, giving an apt description of the medieval fortress sitting where the dorm was supposed to be. He craned his neck upwards and stared at the ramparts, a thought coming to him as he scrutinized the architecture. “Why are there ballistas? Why does it have battlements? Are we going to get sieged or something?”
“It’s probably just the architect tinker they hired for the dorms. Must’ve had a castle concept or something,” Quinn explained. “And it’s ballistae.”
“Okay, nerd,” He jested before realizing what she said, “tinker? Architect tinker?”
“Tinkers don’t just make tinker tech. You know that, right?”
Calvin paused, “I knew that. I just was thinking… why a tinker?”
“They need the entire place to be as sturdy as normal tinker tech, maybe even more,” Ina added, looking at the castle with glistening eyes.
“What? Why?”
“You put hundreds of kids with powers in a single building, you have to make it sturdy.”
“Huh, at least it doesn’t look like a prison.”
“Wait until you get inside,” She winked.
He narrowed his eyes at her, “What do you mean by that?”
Quinn smiled at him mysteriously. “You’ll see.”
“It looks great,” Ina spoke, an ear-wide smile on her face.
“Of course, the demon lord likes the castle,” Calvin muttered.
“Who are you calling demon lord?” Ina asked, grabbing the back of his neck.
“No one,” he said, slipping out of her grip and jumping behind Quinn.
“Let’s just go in, you two.”
Quinn dragged the two of them, moving on from marveling at the castle to actually getting inside of it. Disappointingly, the large gate made of hardwood and harderiron was non-functional, they had to walk through the pathetic-looking door on the side that had a holographic sign on top saying ‘Entrance’.
As they entered, the sound of cheering and booing came into earshot. The three turned towards a crowd that was formed in the middle of the courtyard. Calvin, curious, jumped up and looked towards the middle of the crowd, finding two people going at it with fists and kicks.
“What’s happening?” Ina asked.
“A fight,” Calvin answered.
Hearing that, Ina took over Quinn and started dragging the two closer.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
Calvin spotted a stand by the side, hastily made with what looked like a dinner table with boards nailed all around and a sign on top of it with the words ‘Betting Stand’ sharpied on the wood. There was also a holographic display right beside the stand, in familiar purple, with two names in big bold letters and the words versus in the middle. Two numbers were also underneath, presumably the betting odds.
Ross O'Michel
VERSUS Lee Brent
1 : 1
Manning the stand was a lean, fit, and large woman wearing a brown jumpsuit. Her long and thick brown hair ran wild behind her, like a lion’s mane. Or a lioness’, if they had manes. She was shouting towards the boys duking it out in the middle of the crowd, something along the lines of maiming and twisting certain body parts.
“It’s a fight club!” Ina said excitedly.
“They’re betting,” He noted. “Isn’t that illegal?”
“Technically all the fight clubs you two have been watching were illegal,” Quinn said.
“They were?” He turned to Ina who nodded at him. “But, weren’t there recruiters there?”
“It’s just so they can do something about it if a fight gets out of hand.” She explained.
“Then, this?” He gestured to the fight in front of them.
Ina grinned, “It’s not out of hand. Yet.”
Calvin raised a brow and turned to the two teens fighting. He noticed both of them had some sort of armband on, one glowed somewhat green while the other was turning a shade of yellow-green. His curiosity towards the armbands was diverted as the two started using powers.
One of them started morphing their upper torso into something out of a horror movie. With beastly growling, their shirt started ripping apart as their chest turned craggy and jagged like their ribs grew cancerous and were trying to claw out of their skin. Their limbs elongated, similarly with jaggy spikes, and their teeth and nails sharpened and lengthened like tusks and claws.
Whatever it was he transformed into, it looked disgusting.
He turned to the other guy, who started sweating profusely. Albeit likely not from the sight of the monster, but from the activation of their own power. The droplets of sweat clung to his body, above his clothes, forming a film of liquid hanging onto him like water in zero gravity.
Whatever his power was, it was somehow more disgusting than the other person’s.
“Ew,” Quinn gagged and looked away while her two superpower enthusiast friends looked on with anticipation and a little morbid curiosity.
The monster teen with claws did as a monster teen with claws would do— he clawed. His sweat-armored opponent shrugged off the attack, the liquid making the blades slip off harmlessly.
He charged the monster, ducking underneath the gangly torso before letting out furious and inexperienced punches upwards. He was flung away from him, kicked by the monster kid with the weirdly normal lower body.
They danced a silly battle between claws and sweat before the monster teen finally got the better of the other by virtue of luck.
The sweat guy slipped. The monster mounted. And something akin to a blender trying to blend water started in the middle of the crowd. After a while of this, the sweat finally gave up and fell to the ground, leaving the teen defenseless with a clawed monster on top of him. It only took one slash to the head before the teen’s armband turned neon red, at which point he was released by the monster.
“Ross O’Michel wins by pinching his nose and powering through body odor!” The woman behind the betting stand roared with laughter. “Got lucky, kid! Those who won bets, come here and claim your winnings! Again, no lying or I’ll snap your spine and send you to the dungeons before calling the nurse!”
“That has to be illegal,” Calvin muttered. “They’re going to get injured.”
“Like we do when we spar?” Quinn asked.
“Yeah— well, I mean, we have those tracksuits, don’t we?”
“They do too,” Ina said, gesturing to her arm.
“Those armbands are tinker tech?”
“Better than what I gave you. That’s what they use for ranking battles in the high ranks,” Ina explained, her eyes glistening. “Do you think we can—”
“Nope.” “No.” The two synchronously denied her.
She pouted, “I didn’t even say anything yet!”
“It was either you wanting to fight—” Calvin said.
“—or you wanting to bet.” Quinn continued.
“But—”
Having an implicit understanding between them, the two forcefully picked up Ina, Quinn on legs and Calvin on shoulders, and carried her into the castle post-haste. Not kicking and screaming, thankfully, but grumbling and mumbling. This wasn’t the first time she had to be dragged away.
They put her down after they got to the castle’s vestibule, which looked little like what one would expect after seeing the outside. It was still medieval, of course, but the fluorescent lights haphazardly bolted in on the ceiling sort of ruined the castle feeling it was going for. That, and the holographic screens, modern furniture, and paper posters glued to the walls.
“Whoever was the interior designer probably hated the architect,” Ina said, looking around.
“It’s a mess,” Calvin’s [Colour Control] senses were getting annoyed, “everything clashes with… ugh. Can we switch dorms?”
“Unless you’re a tinker or you want to be staff, sure,” Quinn smiled at him, “and if you have the money. You’re sponsored only for this course, Cal.”
“If I break everything, will they replace it?” He started muttering.
“They’ll replace you, that’s for sure.”
The three continued to the main lobby, which looked less annoying to Calvin. Actual chandeliers hung from the ceiling, still powered by electricity but it was miles better than what was on the front.
“So… how do we pick dorm rooms?” Calvin asked.
“I don’t know, let’s look for the dorm manager,” Quinn said, heading to a receptionist area by the side. She was about to ring the bell placed on top of the desk when a holographic display appeared.
im busy.
just pick a room, scan your holowatch on the handle, then go do whatever(i'll break your legs if you register more than one)
no moving rooms(its a pain in the ass to change your rooms so just dont)
no whining about accidental scanning or anything(again. legs=broken)
---
if you don’t have a holowatch, get a temporary one from the admin building
if you want someone else’s room, cry and pick another one
if you want to fight for a room, go out then fight talk it out
“Well, instructions are pretty clear,” Calvin smiled at the note.
“Let’s look for one we can jump out of in case we’re late,” Ina said, pulling up the building’s map.
Calvin looked to Quinn who gave him a shrug like that was expected, “No top floors, I don’t want to climb every day, Ina.”
“But top floors have the best views,” She muttered.
“Inaaaaa,” Quinn melted onto her while pleading in her ear.
“Fine,” She tsked.
----------------------------------------
“Are we sure about this place?” Calvin asked, looking left and right at the empty and eerie corridor they ended up in.
After around an hour of exploring, plus half an hour of eating the ready-made lunch Quinn had somehow produced from her pocket, they finally settled on a place somewhere in the right wing of the castle. It was a relatively good spot, being close enough to all the facilities they might use. The only problem was the hallway itself looked like a repurposed pathway to the dungeons underneath— dark and glum.
“It’s just the hallway, I’m sure we can decorate it later,” Quinn reassured him, scanning her holowatch on the first door as a finality to the decision.
Ina did the same and Calvin followed along, scanning their holowatches on the handles next to Quinn’s. After a minute or two of scanning, a holographic display appeared on the plaque right next to the door. On the display was their name and a serial number, presumably their I.D.
Calvin smirked, looking over to Ina’s plaque, “Marina Riverstone.”
“Shut up,” She muttered, quickly tapping the plaque to edit the name.
“I like it better than royalty here,” He gestured to Quinn’s plaque. “Quinn Margarett.”
“Bow down, peasant,” She joked, doing the same as Ina and replacing the name. “Thirty minutes?”
“If I don’t fall asleep,” Calvin sighed, opening the door. “It’s been a long day.”
The two of them nodded and entered their rooms. Just as Calvin was about to do the same, Quinn’s head popped out of her room, “By the way, read the rulebook if you’re confused.”
“Why would I be confused?”
She smirked, disappearing back into her dorm.
Calvin’s brows scrunched, keeping her words in mind as he stepped into his room. He immediately froze, finding out why she said that. The doors outside were rather close to each other, as was apparently normal when dealing with rooms that were bigger on the inside, as is usually the case. Unexpectedly, this wasn’t one of those cases.
“My room in Sam’s place was bigger than this,” He muttered, feeling like a young British boy with a lightning scar on his forehead at the sight of the tiny room.
Although it wasn’t exaggeratingly tiny as was the young wizard’s, it was too small to even consider doing anything other than sleep in it. There was, at least, a bed with a pillow and a blanket. At the side, there was also a tiny dresser that doubled as a nightstand, and also a foldable table that was bolted onto the wall.
“It looks like a prison— dungeon? Whatever. What the fuck is this?” He asked aloud, sitting on the bed confused. “Rulebook… fucking rulebook, let’s see.”
He opened his holowatch and looked for the document sent six months ago. Scrolling up through six months of daily conversation took a while, but the file was still there ready to open.
“Let’s see… blah blah… rules— ah, dormitories. There you are,” Calvin’s eyes darted left and right, reading through the document with more attention this time. “Dormitory rooms are subject to upgrades that can be bought using the point store? Point store?”
He navigated his holowatch again, connecting it to the Academy’s network. It felt like finding a website in the dark web, there was no googling here in the traditional sense, and the networks were separated from each other and not without reason— super hackers. Case-in-point, Dox, his little rich genius employer-slash-friend.
“Feels like I’m in the nineties,” He muttered despite not having lived in the nineties. Seeing the homepage filled with links and ads thought, it felt like early internet stuff. “Destructodrink ads are everywhere, damn. Let’s see, where’s the store… well, whaddya know,” he pressed the button that was shaped like the familiar shopping cart he knew from Earth, “some things are just universal. Multiversal?”
Point Store Tinker Tech Equipment Furniture Food and Nutrition Requests Personalized Space Miscellaneous
“Personalized space?” Calvin wondered out loud, tapping on the option.
Personalized Space
Dorm Expansion Add-ons Rooms Personal Kitchen 100pts Personal Dining 100pts Personal Bathroom 100pts Personal Gym 1000pts Personal Workshop 1000pts More…
“A fucking bathroom is what?!” Calvin shouted. “How many points do I have? How do I even find it?”
He glanced at the rulebook before deciding to find it himself. It took five minutes before he finally consulted the rulebook to see where to look for his academy points, and how to gain points.
“Activities, staff prerogative, services, trading… what is this capitalistic academy?” He muttered, skimming to find where his points were. “Academy profile… ah, there it is.”
Academy Profile
Calvin (#H334)
Hero Department
Points: 0
“I mean I expected it but that doesn’t make it less disappointing.” He muttered, lying down on the bed. “I need a nap.”
It’s been half a day of events. He left his apartment, did a gauntlet of exercises, got his spirit drained, saw a hero die, saved a kid, got his spirit drained, registered to the place he’ll probably be stuck in for the next few years, and got his spirit drained. It had been exciting, to say the least.
----------------------------------------
’This is new.’ Calvin thought, unable to move his neck.
Minutes after lying down and taking a nap, he found himself in a world of smoke and mist, in the middle of what looked like an alleyway at night. He was surrounded by muck and filth, trash strewn around like it was on purpose rather than an accident.
What’s worse was that he couldn’t move. Every inch of his body was as immovable as his pebbles, at least not on command. Like a puppet on someone else’s strings, he could feel himself move yet not be able to move himself.
Moments later, his head twitched. A noise entered within earshot. Footsteps, from a fair few pairs, echoing from behind him. A thought came to Calvin— not a thought, a memory. He knew those people. He was here for a deal
Before he could question more about what was happening, he felt himself turn around.
’A gang?’ He thought, looking at the posse of menacingly dressed men brandishing pipes and sticks. They wore ragged clothes, torn up on purpose, boldly showing a tattoo on their collarbones. ’Looks like a steering wheel. Steering wheel gang? One of them looks familiar…’
“Dom,” one of the gang started speaking, referring to him. “Were you followed?”
’Dom? Dominic?’ His thoughts were interrupted by the feeling of his lips moving on their own. “The fuck do you think I am?”
“Was just making sure,” The head honcho said, shrugging. “Money first.”
His eyes narrowed, his eyelid twitched, and a burning sensation flared up from his chest for a moment before calming down. He fished a wad of cash from his pocket and threw it towards the man.
Calvin wanted to widen his eyes. Paper money.
’This has to be a dream.’ He thought. A vivid dream, but still a dream.
They caught the money and flicked through it like a book, “This isn’t enough.”
“Of course not, moron. Medicine first.”
“Pft. Medicine.” They chuckled.
“Viktor…” He growled.
’Viktor?’ Calvin thought. ’I better remember these names.’
“Calm down, druggie. Here.” Viktor’s voice echoed as he tossed him a paper bag.
Calvin felt a shiver down his spine as Dom started glaring at the man who was smirking towards him. He opened the paper bag, the fire in his heart igniting once again after seeing the amount inside.
“Are you fucking with me? This isn’t fucking enough.”
“Of course not, moron,” Viktor winked. “Money.”
Calvin, or Dom, breathed in to calm himself. He walked to the side and took out a wad of cash from the garbage bags, throwing it towards Viktor who dodged the smelly money.
“Good boy,” he winked, nodding towards his other gang mates. They tossed another paper bag towards him. “Same time next week?”
“Fuck you,” Dom spat and started walking away.
The man chuckled, “Make sure to bring more money next time. Prices are fluctuating.”
Dom stopped, turning around with fury in his eyes, “What the fuck do you mean?”
“Woah, there.” He raised his hands. “Don’t shoot the messenger. It’s the Alchemists, they’re upping the cost. Either you deal with it or I’ll give you less, Dom. No compromises here.”
Dom seethed, Calvin feeling every emotion of anger, despair, and desperation he felt. Another memory came into his mind: a girl. His sister. Dom’s sister.
The anger disappeared. Dom turned around. Calvin woke up.