“Fuck!” Calvin shot up, his mind dazed and his ears pounding from an ever-increasing rhythm of bell-ringing coming from the door. He rolled off the bed and stomped angrily, swinging the door open with a scowl on his face, “Who the fuck is knocking on my— Ina?”
Ina and Quinn were standing just outside his door, the prior was frowning and looking annoyed while the latter was giving him a smirk and looking amused. Calvin looked them up and down, briefly remarking at the uniforms they donned.
The demon girl was wearing a loose white dress shirt with various demonic pins and badges on it, themed around her superpower no doubt, a maroon skirt that went down just above her waist, and a pair of leg-warmers above her sneakers. The Academy coat, which was a black, gold-embellished, long-sleeved, military-style, hot-as-fuck, piece of clothing was wrapped around her waist, tied with the sleeves to her front.
Quinn was more or less wearing the same thing as Ina, albeit without the pins and badges and without the legwarmers. Unlike her best friend though, she donned the Academy coat that was unsurprisingly tailored to replace the gold highlights with pink.
“We’re going to be late, you idiot!” She grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the room.
“H—hey! I just woke up— at least let me wash my face!”
“Three minutes,” she let go, noticing his attire, “you have your uniform, right?”
“Three minutes?” He looked at his watch, running to the bathroom. “Oh shit—”
“Hurry up or we’ll leave you!”
“We won’t!” Quinn shouted. “Take your time! It’s okay!”
“Queenie!” Ina pinched her cheek.
Calvin was trying to put on his clothes in a panic when he remembered the [Automatic Wardrobe] function of his pocket. In a second, he was instantly dressed. [Plain White Shirt], Academy coat, maroon pants, and the unfortunately un-tinkered red sneakers.
“Ready!” Calvin shouted as he ran out of the bathroom.
“Couldn’t you have taken a little longer?” Quinn grumbled, seeing him come out in literally two minutes.
Ina chuckled, “Come on! Let’s go!”
“I don’t know where it is— woah!”
Ina dragged the two out of the building and through the campus, towards a boring-looking building not too far from the dormitories. It was a building built solely for general education, which was most of the classes for the first three months.
The three arrived in the building and ran up the stairs, arriving just in the nick of time. Calvin smiled, seeing the stereotypical-looking classroom they had just gone into.
A single blackboard, or holoboard in this case, a podium in front for the teacher, fifteen or so blue plastic chairs with arm tables, and pictures of number tables slapped on all four walls of the room. The only thing missing that would probably complete it were pictures of scientists and mathists lining the walls, judging the hopeless youths with their unblinking stares.
They took a seat at the back, Quinn naturally taking the window seat and immediately staring listlessly out of the window.
“She’s always like that,” Ina answered Calvin’s questioning gaze. “You woke up late today.”
“Quinn gave me some sleeping pills,” He gestured to the girl.
“Queenie…”, she tutted, “you know she gave you that last night so that we’ll be late, right?”
“He asked for it yesterday,” Quinn turned to her, looking aggrieved. “Defend me, sponsee.”
“I asked for it yesterday,” Calvin immediately nodded.
“See?”
Ina narrowed her eyes, “Convenient…”
Calvin smirked at the two while turning his attention towards the other students in class. A few of them were wearing black just like them, while others wore a white version of the coat, the Staff Department.
There was also a single person wearing yellow, a tinker.
So many faces, none of them were familiar to him, “Where are the others? Helena? Mara?”
“Do you only know girls?” Quinn looked at him suspiciously.
“N—no? I know voice changer?”
“What’s his name?”
“…voice changer?”
“Their schedules are different,” Ina interrupted. “They don’t have Math this morning.”
“And, conveniently, ours are literally identical?” Calvin asked, his eyes narrowing.
She turned and gave him a knowing smile.
“Rich girl privileges,” he muttered, resting his head on the table.
“You do remember who her parents are, right?” Quinn asked.
“Yeah, the restaurant owners.”
Smack
A loud sound jolted him up. He looked up to the front, brows raising as the most cartoonish-looking no-nonsense cranky old lady looking at them with the most judgmental glare a person could give. She came into the room with a meter stick in one hand and a stack of papers in the other, she slammed both on the podium before clearing her throat.
“Miss Cecil. I’ll teach all of you math. That’s all you need to know about me, but what I need to know about you is plenty!” She grabbed the meter stick and smacked it on the table. “For instance; How dumb you are—”, smack, “—how lazy—”, smack, “—and how many points do I have to take away before you all behave? Today, you’ll have to answer all three.”
She grabbed the stack of papers and proceeded to have the closest victim student distribute it among the others.
“Eyes down, pens in hand. Once the paper is in front of you, nothing else is!” She boldly declared, smacking the table again. “Anyone caught cheating, faffing, yawning, groaning, sniffing, complaining, breathing, or cheating will be penalized points. Don’t think you can get anything by me. I may not have superpowers, but I have eyes like a laser. You will be caught. Do I make myself clear?”
The room was silent, eliciting another wooden smack from her.
“Do. I. Make. Myself. Clear?!”
“Y—yes,” a chorus of nervous muttering came.
“We can’t breathe?” Calvin whispered to Ina, immediately receiving a ruler to the forehead.
Smack
“Ow,” He muttered, despite feeling no pain.
“Minus one point!” She pointed to him.
“What? That’s bull—”, he ducked, dodging the next ruler.
The teacher’s veins bulged, “No dodging!”
“Pft—” Quinn snickered, ducking immediately after.
“No snickering!”
'Are all classes going to be like this?’ Calvin thought, looking down at the piece of paper that arrived in front of him. “What the fuck is this?”
Smack
----------------------------------------
Calvin and Quinn sat on a bench, melting together into a puddle that was a slurry of both of their melted brain cells. Ina crossed her arms, standing in front of the two whining babies, tapping her foot in annoyance.
“It’s been five minutes, can you two stop acting?” She rolled her eyes.
“Not acting,” Calvin muttered, groaning as he massaged his temples. “I thought it was Math?”
“It was Math.”
“Then why were there letters?!”
“There’s always been letters in Math.”
“Math is numbers!” Calvin smacked the bench, jolting Quinn awake.
“N—Numbers!” She echoed, looking shell-shocked.
“Pft— stop messing around. We gotta go,” Ina chuckled before raising her holowatch. “Helena said the homeroom’s getting together for lunch.”
“We’re going? But you two are introverts,” Calvin gestured to them.
She raised a brow, echoing his statement, “You think we’re introverts?”
“I was going to say loners but that seemed too harsh—” Calvin ducked, dodging Ina’s windmill kick. “That’s why I said introverts.”
Quinn nodded, “We are, so let’s not go.”
“It’s just lunch, you guys,” Ina shook her head, “whether we like it or not, we’re stuck with them while we’re in the academy.”
“You just really like Helena,” Calvin smirked at her.
“As a sparring partner,” She clarified. “I can punch her without guilt.”
“You actually feel guilt punching me?” He put a hand to his chest, feeling touched.
“She means me, sponsee,” Quinn said as she sank further into the bench, “We can just have lunch in Cal’s room. It’s cozier.”
“Yeah, I can whip something up for you guys, you know what my— [Gourmand’s Insight].”, Calvin muttered, his eyes widening as he remembered the panel from last night.
Super Help
Gourmand's Insight The Super is able to know the ingredients of any food item via any sense, as well as instinctively sense any additional ingredient in the vicinity that would enhance said food item. Super Evolution (3/7)
Super Help
Gourmand's Insight The Super is able to know the ingredients of any food item via any sense, as well as instinctively sense any additional ingredient in the vicinity that would enhance said food item. Super Evolution (3/7)
“Holy shit. It’s there,” his heart beat faster.
Quinn turned to him, “What’s there?”
“Nothing. I gotta go—”, he stood up to run towards the dorm, only for his collar to be grabbed and pulled back. “Hey!”
“No, we’re going to lunch,” Ina grunted, pulling Quinn and hoisting her to her shoulder, “you too.”
Calvin used [Automatic Wardrobe], taking off the coat Ina was grabbing, “I really gotta go.”
Ina sighed, looking at him, “Is it something important?”
“Very,” he glanced to the window.
“Fine, just catch up if you can. Queenie will eat your share if you’re late.”
“Thanks!” He started running. “I’ll see you guys later!”
“I want to take a shower,” Quinn groaned.
“You took two showers. Before class. Not falling for that again,” Ina hugged the girl and dragged her to the cafeteria.
Calvin shot off to the dormitories, excited to explore the system and, more exclusively, the newly unlocked Super Evolution part of the system.
He hadn’t even made it halfway before he got antsy and opened up the panel.
Super Evolution
Gourmand's Insight Path of the Cook Path of Insight Path of the Gourmand Path of the Chemist Path of the Perfectionist Path of Senses Path of Essence
Super Evolution
Gourmand's Insight Path of the Cook Path of Insight Path of the Gourmand Path of the Chemist Path of the Perfectionist Path of Senses Path of Essence
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“Woah, that’s a lot. And really… weird— woah!” Calvin dodged, almost hitting another student. “Sorry! Shit, I need to check these out at the dorm.”
He swiped away the window and dashed off, fully holding himself back from using a full-powered [Jumper] to get back to his bedroom faster. Thankfully, he had enough mind not to risk it.
Getting back to his room, he immediately sat down on the sofa and breathed deeply to calm down. Smelling himself, he decided to take a shower while exploring the new system.
“Ah, okay, calm down,” He sighed as he opened the shower, letting the cool drizzle chill out his excitement. A few seconds of calm later, he re-opened the panel and got started. “That’s a lot of information… okay— hooh… one at a time.”
He started reading the panel carefully, “Three out of seven. Seven total evolutions? That feels too arbitrary. That probably means they're locked or something. Whatever, let’s see the first one—”
He pointed towards the first option, the Path of the Cook.
Super Evolution
Gourmand's Insight - Path of the Cook chosen. Evolve? Yes No
“Okay, no, no—”, he carefully closed that window. “Ugh, this system. Super Help?”
Super Help
Gourmand's Insight - Path of the Cook
2126/1000 dishes cooked and served
434/200 dishes enhanced
“Two thousand— oh yeah, I cooked quite a bit at Ina’s restaurant,” Calvin muttered. “Is that it? No description or explanation? This useless…” he sighed, resting his head against the wall. “No, it’s fine. Path of the Cook… something related to cooking for others, obviously. Might be a buff type thing, like the old man’s [Super Smelling Salts]”
Despite the inconvenient lack of information, he was already used to the system being like this. Even with Super Equip, rarely does it show what the tinker tech’s effects are without actually equipping the item.
“I swear, one day, I’ll get a cursed tinker tech somehow and get stuck with a demon sword or some shit like that,” He grumbled, shaking his head at the thought. “Let’s see the other ones.”
Super Help
Gourmand's Insight - Path of Insight
214/100 unique dishes analyzed
Super Help
Gourmand's Insight - Path of the Gourmand
815/500 dishes analyzed
“Is it calling me fat?” He looked down, feeling relief after seeing a fairly normal and fit body. Still not chiseled, but it was healthy. At least, for him, it was. “Should I tone down on the carbs— no, think about that later,” he looked back to the panel, “Insight’s obviously about analyzing dishes… although why do they have to be unique? What’s the difference with Gourmand’s evolution?”
He processed it for a moment, trying to create conclusions based on the little amount of information the window gave him. In the end, he just noted it in his holowatch, intending to ask for opinions later.
“Let’s see, the locked ones, can I open a Super Help with them?” With his will, he opened another window.
Super Help
Gourmand's Insight - Path of the Chemist
12/200 unique toxicants analyzed
“Oh thank god,” he sighed in relief. “Hmm… Chemist. Twelve out of two hundred toxicants. What’s a toxicant? Like… poison? Do I have to poison myself two hundred times?” He shuttered at the thought. “It looks like I already did it twelve times though… when did I poison myself?”
Taking another set of notes, he opened the next one.
Super Help
Gourmand's Insight - Path of the Perfectionist
0/300 days of eating only perfected dishes
“…that’s longer than I’ve been in this world,” He groaned. “Perfectionist… that seems good. But the unlock condition is kinda bullshit. I don’t even know if I’ve eaten a single perfected dish. Wait, no, there was that one cafe Quinn dragged me to… that soufflé was heaven. Fuck, I'm getting hungry. What's next?”
Super Help
Gourmand's Insight - Path of Senses
815/500 dishes analyzed with taste
15/300 dishes analyzed with sight
312/300 dishes analyzed with smell
0/200 dishes analyzed with touch
0/100 dishes analyzed with sound
Super Help
Gourmand's Insight - Path of Senses
815/500 dishes analyzed with taste
15/300 dishes analyzed with sight
312/300 dishes analyzed with smell
0/200 dishes analyzed with touch
0/100 dishes analyzed with sound
“Oh look, more bullshit,” he complained. “Analyze food with sound. Fucking sound? How the fuc— sound? Do I need to hear the clucking of chickens in a chicken nugget or something? What are these?”
After doing his own rendition of 'old man yells at clouds’, shouting aggrievedly at the invisible panel, he moved on to the last locked path.
Super Help
Gourmand's Insight - Path of Essence
1/1 essence-imbued dishes analyzed
0/1 essence sources analyzed
“Essence. That’s what was in the sleeping aid Quinn gave me,” he summoned the bottle from his pocket, “[Dreamless Drops]. It’s a Super Buff… is that how they make super items— I mean, tinker tech and shit? Essence? But why didn’t I get this when I used [Super Smelling Salts]?”
He scratched his chin, remembering the time when he used the salts.
“To be fair, I guess, I didn’t analyze it at the time. Too busy suffering to even think of using the power,” he shivered, putting the bottle back in his pocket. “So those are the choices, huh? They’re quite… varied.”
He swiped away the extra windows, leaving only the main one listing the evolutions. Calvin stared at the list, soaping himself up while thinking deeply about the choices.
“Obviously I don’t have to pick it right now, so there’s that,” he sighed, relieved that it wouldn’t be a panic-induced choice. “Let’s list it out…”
Pulling up the notepad in his holowatch, he listed out the evolutions to organize his thoughts much more concisely.
“Chemist is out, obviously. Not into self-harm… if that’s what it is,” he pulled it to the bottom of the list, “Perfectionist… seems strong. But it’s one year. Can I wait a year without picking an evolution without pulling all my hair out?”
He deliberated for a moment before pulling it down right next to Path of the Chemist.
“Essence sounds interesting. It might have something to do with tinker tech, super buffs… or maybe even superpowers themselves. Maybe I can ask Dox for help with that one,” he noted his thoughts, “as for the unlocked choices… only Path of Insight sounds interesting to me… ugh, can I get a quicksave? I really want to try them all…”
Unfortunately for Calvin, he has to grapple with the fact that his life is not a game, for better or for worse. His choices were permanent, and may or may not have consequences, like regret. Mostly regret.
Thankfully, he can put it away for later. It’ll eat at his mind, having the option to evolve a power now rather than later, but he can still choose later.
“Fuck,” Calvin used all his willpower and swiped away the screen, fearing the evolution’s temptation and his own compulsiveness. “Okay, next thing… what about the other superpowers?”
Super Help
Jumper The super can gather strength and propel themselves off of any surface. Super Evolution (2/???)
“Two out of question marks. I just learned there's letters in Math, but question marks now too? Fuck,” he chuckled away the frustration. Trying to open the Super Evolution screen resulted in nothing, furthering the disappointment, “Okay… calm down. Why can’t I open the Super Evolution window? What’s the difference— well, the difference is the question marks. Do I have to find out how many evolutions there are first before I can unlock it?”
Calvin thought back to the time he got the Super Evolution notification. Quite vividly, since it was literally just last night, he remembered it was only when he used the [Dreamless Drops] that the function suddenly appeared.
“The old man said evolutions are random… but are they really? This might be… it could be why evolutions are so damn random. Supers have to stumble randomly on at least one of the conditions of a path and somehow complete one of them,” He muttered, feeling fairly certain of his theory. “But it’s still just guesswork. I’ll run it by Dox, she’ll make some voodoo tinker miracle tech that’ll somehow be able to see if it’s the case.”
Another notepad, another note. The pile of stickies in his holowatch was getting thicker, and he wasn’t even done yet.
“Let’s see the others,” He opened the next one.
Super Help
Vigilant Aegis Creates an invisible aura that blocks any and all damage the Super is aware of. The durability of the shield is stockpiled while it is not in use. Super Evolution (0/???)
“Makes sense, I never use it,” he muttered. “But it kinda proves my theory. Kinda. Now…”, he rubbed his hands in anticipation, “let’s see the prodigal children.”
Super Help
Color Control Manipulate and alter the color of any object at will. Super Evolution (0/???)
“Evolution… zero? That’s right, I guess. The old man did say Full Elementalis can only discover stuff and not evolve, so I guess I really am one. Why doesn't it list discoveries, though? Whatever, I'll figure it out later,” he swiped away the panel. “Last but not least, my beloved— huh?”
Super Help
Impervious Pebble Summons an immovable and indestructible pebble for ten seconds. Super Evolution (Unavailable)
“Unavailable?” He read it out loud, brows curling up as if he couldn’t understand the language. “Un… available. What does— does it mean I can’t evolve it? Damn it…”
As the mental image of his future self summoning unholy amounts of impervious boulders started shattering, he was shaken out of despair by another realization, “wait. Does that also mean [Colour Control] can evolve?”
He opened the window again, re-reading the information slowly.
“Zero out of question marks. Not 'unavailable’. Holy… did the old man lie to me?” Calvin scratched his chin in thought, shaking his head a moment after. “Why would he? That’s dumb. There probably hasn’t been a case of one evolving yet, or someone never reported it if it did happen. Which means there are hundreds of paths available, or ridiculously obscure conditions for a path. Or both. Either way, I have no idea.”
He soaped up and continued deliberating on the information he gained from the new system. There was a lot. Yet, paradoxically, there was also too little. It was a frustrating balance that made him feel like the system was deliberately trying to rile him up with the lack of information.
“I know too little about this,” he concluded after toweling off. “I need information. I can leech off Dox again, or Quinn, or just use the Academy network to look for stuff, but I don’t think it’ll be as good. Damn rich people gatekeeping information.”
His grumbling was interrupted by his own stomach rumbling, protesting the lack of meals since he woke up this morning. Normally, he’d just whip something up, especially now that he had a kitchen. But he was too annoyed to be bothered.
“I wonder if they’re still in the cafeteria,” he thought out loud, dressing up again before going out of the dorm.
----------------------------------------
There was fire everywhere, electricity sparked like fireworks as the lights started flickering from the structural damage of the building. Food, drinks, and unidentifiable substances littered the floor, only covered by the carnage of shattered furniture that similarly was scattered all around.
All throughout the room, staff were panicking, stampeding as they ran away and out of the room through the plentiful exits without care for regulations.
Sounds of impact, yelling, screaming, crying, and laughing; a free-for-all was what was going on. Fireballs, iceballs, meatballs, all kinds of projectiles flew through the air as a variety of powers were slamming against each other, making the air rumble from the shockwaves. Students were going at it, using their powers to cause chaos and destruction.
Particularly, a cackling girl, twirling around a hooked staff, sending pieces of furniture towards a boy humming with static. Another girl was growling, tattoos swimming on her face as she tried to claw and destroy every bird made of black sludge swarming around her. And there was a woman in pink, shouting angrily towards a boy in a tuxedo as the latter was chased by the other around the room, destroying every piece of furniture in their path.
It was a scene of chaos, one Calvin just walked into.
“What the fuck happened here?”