Sierra fidgeted nervously on the bus, running her finger over her new piece of jewelry, a simple yet elegant silver ring, semi-permanently affixed to her right ring finger by the night-watch.

The ring was her newest burden, as well as her key to redemption. Running her fingers over the slim edge of the band, a small drop of her focus is all it took to project the ‘Status Sheet’ into her mind.

Skills

General

Pathway

Known Skills : Unknown

Name : Sierra Wraith

Tier 1 : Passed

Locked Skills : Unknown

Threat Level : King

Tier 2 : Passed

Limitation : Tier 3

Ability : Barrier Conjuration

Tier 3 : Passed

Tier : Black

Tier 4 : Compulsory Actions

Reading through the hand-out that came alongside the ring during her private orientation, just about everything was clearly laid out for her.

Skills were for people with abilities that derived from a very small, select pool of uses. A person whose ability was to grow wings for example would most likely have a set number of things those wings could do. Needless to say, that entire category did not affect her in the slightest, outside of the limitation section.

Limitations were broken into tiers, which correlated to how far along on your so-called ‘Pathway’ you were. People with a Tier 1 limitation could not activate their abilities at all, while a Tier 10 had zero restrictions. Thankfully, Sierra qualified for a Tier 3 limitation, the magic in the ring dampening her powers to the extent that she could only conjure up to five barriers, with two conditions on each.

Of course, she could play within these limitations quite a bit, lessening the amount or decreasing the conditions for more to summon, but that seemed to be her current maximum.

Threat levels were broken up into tiers, with Serf being the lowest, a power rated to have little to no damage potential, to God level abilities, which were abilities capable of an extinction level of damage. The scale went from Serf, Commoner, Noble, Knight, Lord, King, Demi-God and God, with King was the third highest, a threat level given to those deemed capable of damage equivalent to a small army.

‘ A little saddening that I’m not at the top, but I guess I never really showed off the destructive powers of my barriers. But then again, I don’t think I could end the world or anything like that. ‘ Sierra thought as she continued to read on.

The ability section was self explanatory, broken into four major types. Manipulation, Conjuration, Expulsion and Absorption. You’d be assigned a primary type, with the assumption most people fit in someway into all four.

All students were broken up into ‘Tiers’ or essentially groups based on the potency of their abilities. The further from White, the more potent an ability. The two examples given were as follows: A God level ability that someone had near zero ability to control or conjure, giving them a light gray rating, and a Knight level ability that someone had precise control over, giving them a dark gray rating.

The final section went over a persons ‘Pathway’, the arbitrary steps that all students of the university had to pass in order to graduate. The first two were the same for everyone, ‘No unjust killings of another’ as well as ‘No acts against the core of humanity’.

Sierra seemed to have already passed her third stage of the Pathway, which by focusing on she read as ‘No unjustified or unsanctioned violence’.

‘So is justified or sanctioned violence okay?’ Sierra idly thought, re-reading through the rest of the informational hand-out.

She would be studying in this university for the next four years, living on campus in the specially sanctioned dorms for all four. Outside of classes, she would be relegated to the university campus, which was in fairness about the size of a small city.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

No restrictions aside from the normal laws were in place, meaning if she wanted to spend all the time not in class either drunk or doing extracurriculars, both were equally allowed.

‘There’s also mention of ability training, but I’m pretty sure that’s for the normal crowd who can’t really control themselves yet.’ Sierra thought, her mind drifting to the issue of her late and unique enrollment. Technically, although classes wouldn’t start for the next two days, Sierra had missed orientation and the deadline to apply, only being allowed to attend due to her special circumstances.

As the bus slowed to a halt, Sierra disembarked, her two suitcases rolling behind her. She would have loved to have them float and tether behind her, but with the heavy limitations on her ability, it would have been not only stupid but dangerous, given she never knew when a fourth or fifth barrier would be needed.

Rolling along on the beautiful cement sidewalk, she looked over her new home with a star-struck gaze. The large modern buildings, accented by the lush greenery and smoothly paved sidewalks gave her both a sense of purpose and pride as she hurried towards the dormitory.

Finding her way around campus was easy, given she had memorized the map in the hand-out, and in the worst case scenario she could always just pull out her phone. So it was to the surprise of no one when she arrived in front of her new dormitory before the rest of the new arrivals who had gotten there in the days prior had even left for breakfast.

Deftly moving past the lingering crowds, passing with the occasional neutral greeting or slight smile, Sierra made her way into the elevator, yet just as the door was closing and she had breathed a sigh of relief, a small hand desperately reached into the elevator, opening the door.

“Sorry! Coming through!” A strange amount of voices said in unison. It was only when the elevator doors opened did Sierra nearly audibly gasp.

There was a stunning woman with short strawberry blonde hair attempting to get on with a suitcase. In fact, there were six of the exact same person, half of whom had some sort of luggage, all getting on at once.

“Thank you so much for waiting! I’m Claire. Did you also just get here today?” They all said in unison, the one at the front facepalming for a second before sticking her hand out to shake.

“Sorry, still not super used to controlling them all.” The now singular voice coming from Claire said, as Sierra took her hand to shake it.

“The names Sierra and it’s fine. A little unnerving but not the strangest thing I’ve ever seen.” Which was true, Sierra had once seen a man with the ability to control his body perfectly turn himself inside out.

“So, whatcha doing coming here so late? Are you from the Viper program too?” Claire innocently asked as the elevator door closed. “I know we’re not supposed to talk about it, but that’s really the only explanation for someone to come in late like us. I’ll need to introduce you to the other two too!”

‘ What the fuck is the Viper program? ’ Sierra thought to herself.

“Yeah you’ll have to introduce me sometime. Is your ability making clones?” Is what Sierra actually ended up saying.

“Yep! I’m a cloner! Dr. Aeon said that my increase from one at a time to seven at a time is monumental for the organization. What about you? Where did you start and what can you do now?” Claire asked as the elevator dinged, stopping at the third floor, where Sierra had selected.

“Awww I’ll have to tell you another time. See ya!” Sierra gave a pleasant wave as she squeezed out of the elevator.

‘ A power increase? Where did I start and what can I do now? Is there some kind of power training program that she’s talking about? If so, I wouldn’t mind a seven times increase in power. Hell I can’t even imagine what a seven times power boost would look like, it’s not as if I ever tried to hit a maximum amount of barriers before. What is my maximum amount of barriers? ‘ Sierra’s ADD filtered brain continued down it’s thought spiral until she reached her new dorm room, situated right at the end of the hallways.

Swiping her card through the scanner and pushing her way into the dorm room, only her years of practice and using her ability constantly allowed Sierra to conjure a translucent blue wall in time to stop the coffee table from turning her into a cutely dressed pile of paste. Instead causing it to explode into splinters against the immovable shimmering shield.

“Holy shit I’m so sorry!” A voice came from behind the explosion of wood. The small frame of a woman hovering slightly above the floor, her pink hair defying gravity to such a degree it looks like she’d be comically shocked.

The small woman was dressed in a startlingly normal outfit, a black band t-shirt, black skirt and tennis shoes. The only outstanding thing was her figure, her curves being exaggerated on her small frame stuck a small needle in Sierra’s heart.

“It’s fine. Not the first time someone tried and failed to keep me out of somewhere. By the way what side of the war were your parents on?” Sierra asked, the last question her brain had been thinking about slipping out before she could stop herself.

“What war?” The pink haired floater replied.

“Not important. Anyway, what are you doing?” Sierra asked, looking around the room and seeing various pieces of furniture floating around the room. At seemingly random intervals, a piece would fly and abruptly halt a few feet away.

“I was trying to rearrange my room and my side of the dorm but I don’t have the best control right now so things kinda got outta hand. I’m a telekinetic if you can’t tell, I take it you make barriers?” She said, turning towards the couch she was slowly trying to lower to the ground. “I’ll just do it the normal way now.”

Suddenly and without warning, the four other pieces of furniture fell to the ground with a thunk.

“I’m Anna, nice to meet you!” The pink haired psychic said, sticking out her hand for a handshake.

“Sierra. As you guessed, I can create and manipulate barriers.” Sierra said, returning the handshake.

Turning to the now destroyed table, Sierra decided it was time to put her limitations to the test.

‘ Encase wooden table. Reject floor - 3 ft ‘ Squeezing her left hand into a fist, a circular barrier appeared around the wooden debris pile, as it began to lazily float off the ground.

Giving the orb a gentle poke caused it to move, like an indestructible bubble gently floating about.

‘ This little trick definitely took a lot more out of me than it should have. ‘ Sierra thought to herself, looking down at the devilish silver ring sitting on her finger. ‘ I need to Tier Up immediately ‘

“That’s so cool! How long were you in Viper?” Anna asked innocently.

“Okay you’re the second person who has mentioned that. What the hell is Viper?” Sierra asked, as the color seemed to drain from Anna’s face