Chapter 6 – Decree 751
The initiation ceremony carried on, with more than half the students called up now.
William continued to experiment with his conjured flame with curiosity, putting aside the phone anomaly for later examination. When the flame was summoned, he could feel the slightest draining sensation of otherworld energy flowing out of his body to fuel the fire. Because the flame was so small, the energy that it took to fuel it was negligent to the point that he could barely feel it.
“So do you think you’re the caster type or the melee type of fire user?” Finn asked while looking at the conjured flame.
Elemental ability users were normally classified into two branches, those who used their abilities from a distance as spells, and those who used abilities to enhance their close combat skills. It was possible to do both, but every person’s ability had different quirks that generally favored one style over the other.
Luke and Cassius Brightsteel were typical examples of close combat fire element users, but there were people whose powers were less clearly delineated.
“I’m not sure,” William said. “It’s hard to tell.”
He turned his hand, and the flame tilted with it. Looking at the flame more closely, he remembered something he read earlier.
Most fire abilities came in bursts of power, which was what made them so strong even at lower levels. Shooting fireballs from a distance and coating fists in flames to engage in close quarter combat might appear different due to the range discrepancy, but both contained the characteristic of being burst oriented shows of power.
William’s ability appeared to directly contradict that.
“I can maintain it for a long time,” he said. “The flame doesn’t seem to be draining much energy.”
Could there be a way to make the fire more burst oriented? That would help out a lot during the combat evaluations later this evening. Combat evaluations were meant to measure success in a real survival situation beyond the gate. His thumb sized floating flame would have trouble defeating an omelette in a frying pan, so how was it supposed to fare against an actual monster?
His brows furrowed in concentration as he tried to funnel more energy into the flame, imagining a burst of flames like he saw in those videos online. However, the floating flame stubbornly resisted his attempt to feed it more energy. After numerous attempts, he only managed to make the flame bigger by a sliver, and even that progress disappeared the second his concentration broke from the instructor’s announcement, causing the flame to disappear.
“Level five, Necromancy!”
Standing on stage was the upperclassman from Luke’s friend group, Jared Pain. He had brown hair parted in the middle and wore a cloak over his blazer with the Pain family’s coat of arms. He had managed to summon the upper body of a skeleton, which was now crawling on the ground on stage.
“Necromancy is a really strong ability,” Finn said with his phone out. He had pulled up an article from a clickbait website with a tier list. “This list puts it in S-tier.”
“I wouldn’t put too much faith in those tier lists.”
“Trust me, I know,” Finn replied. “I’m top 100 in most of the games I play, and you don’t know how many tier lists I’ve had to correct. Still, they give a general idea of how strong abilities are, even if they’re wrong.”
He started to read some of the comments. “Necromancy lets you fight using undead soldiers, so the caster rarely has to worry about getting their hands dirty or risking injury. However, some necromancers prefer to fight in close combat and only use their skeleton soldiers to support them.”
That reminded William of an online novel he read when he was sick and bedridden last semester. He was glad he didn’t end up with the Necromancy ability like the main lead of that novel. Skeletons, zombies, and everything related to the undead unsettled him.
Jared Pain didn’t seem to have that issue, because he appeared very pleased with his new ability. Not to mention the fact that a power level of five made him highly sought after by the guilds.
The Pain family specialized in manufacturing ammunition, with a history of several hundred years. They owned factories down the coast to the mountainous Albane region that was rich in minerals, and had full ownership of the supply chain, from mining to casting.
A few more students were called up before another familiar name was called.
“Evelyn Moon!”
“Let’s go Evelyn!” Isabella cheered as Evelyn rose from her seat. “Show them what you’ve got!”
Evelyn wore the blazer and skirt that most other female students in the auditorium were wearing, and walked to the stage with confidence. She was of average height and had a slim build, and a silver full moon adorned the front of her uniform that showed she was part of the Moon family.
She was the typical traditionalist who took pride in her family’s heritage as court bodyguards and advisors dating back to the imperial era. He couldn’t even count how many times she’d told him that her family was known for their unique blade techniques back in the day, and how she had to go to her late night swordsmanship classes with her family’s private tutors and how that interfered with her busy college schedule. She liked to complain about the lessons, but it was obvious that they filled her with a sense of pride.
Despite her family's background, William never considered Evelyn to have any real interest in fighting. She always talked about her hopes of having a successful corporate career.
Evelyn touched the orb and a faint shining aura that took the shape of a blade appeared in her right hand.
“Level five, Weapon Enhancement Aura!”
Isabella cheered loudly at her friend’s accomplishment.
“Wow, level five? And isn’t that a rare ability?” Finn asked.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"It's very rare. Not many people have the heritage or training to awaken a weapon enhancement ability. Those that do likely spent their entire childhood training," he explained.
“Wow... and she's level five too,” Finn said dumbstruck.
Finn wasn’t given much time to clear his thoughts because the next name called was his own.
“Finn Mutton!”
Now that he was in the spotlight, Finn looked like he was about to hurl.
“Best of luck."
“Thanks."
Finn walked as if he was being dragged by the collar to the stage. He was short and weak looking, so not many people paid him much attention. After he placed his hand on the Resonance Orb, the air in front of him began to appear slightly blurred.
Finn looked around confused. “Huh?”
The judges did not share his confusion, as they had seen something like that before.
“Level two, Illusion Crafting!”
Finn let out an audible moan as he started jogging back to his seat. “Oh man, my parents are going to be so disappointed,” he said as he plopped back into his chair next to William.
“Why?”
“Illusion crafting is straight up useless!” he replied. “It’s a non vital support ability! If I was a healer a lot of teams would actually need me. But running a team built around illusions is hard to organize, and nobody would bother when they can just grab a healer and get the same results!”
He let out another groan as he kicked the seat in front of him.
“Hey, watch it,” said the male upperclassman who was sitting directly in front of Finn.
Finn immediately clammed up and squeaked out a sorry in a low voice.
“This sucks,” Finn complained.
“On the bright side, at least you’re level two,” William replied. “I’m level one, and still having trouble making my ability do anything useful.”
The rest of the initiation ceremony carried on as William tried to make something useful happen with his ability. Finn still appeared to be in denial over his illusion crafting ability and sat there in silence. William knew that he’d get over it eventually, though.
Over the next hour, William pressed on with his experimentation. He only managed to increase his conjured flame’s size by a sliver. It was starting to feel depressingly frustrating, so he decided to put his flame ability to the side for the moment and think back to the phone incident on stage.
Back to his working theory, that he'd somehow awakened two abilities. The judges dismissed this, understandably so, but they had missed a crucial detail, a detail that only someone on the stage could have possibly seen—the pale blue light within the orb. Even the soldier with the scanner and the instructor on stage with him might have missed it, because only William himself was standing close enough to the orb at that time.
That ethereal fading glow looked nothing like the deep waves of ocean blue that showed in the orb when a water user was awakening, so he highly doubted it was a water ability. And if it was, where was the water anyway?
So if his theory was right, it had to be some other type of ability.
William didn’t share this theory with Finn. Hell, he didn’t even believe himself. It sounded a lot like wishful thinking. Between the alley yesterday and the phone thing today, he was beginning to doubt his sanity. The officer's voice from last night echoed in his memory.
There was one way to find out for sure, to test it himself and gather some solid, empirical evidence that could reaffirm his sanity. William pulled out his phone, which was currently on its lock screen, and looked at it curiously. Same old second hand piece of junk as always, and it served him well over the years. He carefully began to focus the otherworld energy inside his body into the device the same way he’d been doing it with his flame earlier. He focused on the energy within his body and breathed rhythmically, entering a meditative state.
As he felt the energy pour into his phone, his phone lit up and automatically switched to a white screen at maximum brightness again. William’s eyebrows lifted—he could hardly contain his surprsise. He wasn’t hallucinating.
It wasn’t scorching hot this time either. His phone’s temperature felt completely normal. He severed the flow of energy into the phone, but his phone still stayed on the white screen. To confirm that he wasn’t hallucinating all of this, he turned the phone screen off manually, then channeled his energy into his phone again.
Yet again, his phone lit up.
“It’s real,” he breathed. “Finn, I need your help.”
“Huh?” Finn mumbled, interrupted from his daze.
“Let me borrow your phone for a second.”
“Why?”
“Just let me borrow it for a second.”
“Alright, alright,” said Finn, surrendering his phone to William. “But give it back when you’re done.”
“I just need it for a minute,” William replied, unable to control his excitement. He was now starting to develop false hope that he’d done the impossible and awakened a second ability.
Was it some kind of electrical ability? His intuition disagreed, but he wanted to test it anyway to be sure.
Holding Finn’s phone in his hand gently, he channeling energy into it, but immediately he could tell that something was different. For some reason he couldn’t seem to make a connection to the phone with his energy. Finn’s phone did not respond at all.
Finn looked on at William concentrating and grunting in confusion. “What are you doing with my phone?”
William sighed after trying again a few more times. “Never mind, you can have it back. I was just trying something with my ability.”
“Were you trying to fry my phone or something? Not cool, man.”
“No, I was trying to turn it on,” William replied.
“How can a fire ability turn a phone on?” Finn asked in confusion.
“That’s what I’d like to know,” William replied, trying it again on his own device. It seemed to only work with his own phone for some inexplicable reason.
However, he wasn’t given much time to dwell on it, because the bald general from the military took the podium from the silver haired instructor.
As he did, a dozen soldiers rushed up behind him and unfurled the flag of the world council.
William and many of the other students in the room looked around, suddenly alert. Even Luke Brightsteel appeared to be caught by surprise and suddenly on edge.
“Now that the initiation ceremony has ended, I have a special announcement to make,” the bald general said. “After careful deliberation at the council meeting yesterday, the world council has declared a heightened state of alertness due to a large increase in gate activity in the past month, and have issued decree 751.”
The seven hundred series of council decrees all related to civilian drafting, William recalled. This was serious and indicated that the world council predicted a manpower shortage in the future. A civilian draft decree like this had to pass ratification through all four governing bodies of the council, and could not be taken lightly.
“Council decree 751 states that all awakened college students will now be required to participate in field excursions beyond the gates. You may think of this as bootcamp.”
At least it was not an outright draft yet, but rather some kind of intense bootcamp.
“Your excursion has been planned for this evening, and will be mandatory. This afternoon’s combat evaluations will be canceled and replaced by field evaluations. Because of the strength of your awakening class, you have all been assigned to participate in a special excursion through an orange gate.”
Gasps came from around the auditorium, with several students beginning to protest. William gulped, his own problems temporarily forgotten. Orange gates meant serious trouble.