“Yes, yes. Move that equipment over there!”

“Over here?”

“No, what are you thinking? This is going to be a training ground. Have space around the center for sparring. Don’t just place things willy-nilly!”

Bennon was in high spirits directing a crew of people working furiously to shape the massive club into a training facility.

Jun spectated their movements from up above on the highest floor. Next to him stood Ciena, who busily catalogued everything of interest and value.

“He really works quickly, don’t you think?”

“Yes sir.”

“Where do you think he got all this help?”

Ciena pushed her large circular glasses closer to her face.

“I’m not sure, but it would appear he has some… connections.”

These people are clearly trained and move in an organized fashion. Not only that, but they seem to fear him. Just what is Bennon’s backing?

Ciena’s thoughts were analyzing every detail about the newcomers. This caused her to take another glance at Bennon, whom she had already written off as just a close subordinate.

Don’t tell me, was Bennon sent to spy on the young master too?

The possibility of an enemy entity targeting her charge briefly crossed her mind, but she soon disregarded it considering the amicable relationship Bennon shared with them. Ciena glanced towards Jun, who was simply watching their movements with an amused smile.

Of course he has connections. These men were sent by Sahves.

Jun thought to himself quietly.

“Alright, I’ll leave you two to handle this. I still have school tomorrow you know?”

Ciena’s eyes flashed at the mention of his schooling.

Sometimes she forgot just how young the boy was. Despite her youthful looks, she had long been out of academy. She disliked to think about it, but there was roughly a ten-year age gap between the two.

Of course the age gap wasn’t an issue to her, rather it only made her feel ancient.

“I’ll return after classes, and at that time… I’ll start this tutorial that I hear so much about.”

Ciena tapped her finger on her lips as she watched Jun’s fading silhouette disappear from the balcony.

Is there an edge I can give him? Some sort of advantage without revealing my position? Perhaps… Yes, I can just handle the new applicants when the time comes. It’s been awhile since I’ve done such tedious work.

Her eyes flashed in excitement for a moment before turning her attention back to the happenings down below.

----------------------------------------

The next day, Jun yawned sleepily just as class was beginning. The lecture hadn’t even started, and yet he was already on the verge of a coma.

“Where’s Hina and Little Chi?”

A worried voice spoke quietly to the person sitting next to her.

“I heard that the club Hina frequents was mysteriously shut down. That was the place she met her idol just the other night.”

The two girls spoke back and forth in hushed voices.

“Ohh, I see. That explains why Little Chi is gone too, since she always follows her mistress.”

Jun listened to this exchange with drowsy eyes. In general, he didn’t care about other people’s feelings when he made decisions. If anything, his former employees were most likely hit the hardest by the decision, but he felt that he handled that with impartial fairness.

Just as his eyelids were about to greet each other, a sharp voice startled him awake once more.

“What do you mean she isn’t here?!”

A familiar fiery temper created a commotion after overhearing two gossiping women.

“Miss Gradis!”

One of them called out in a frightened voice.

While most students here had high status, there were those that could only be considered as the apex of society. Myra Gradis was definitely one of those individuals, which caused everyone to tread carefully when interacting with her.

“Go on then. What were you two just discussing?”

Myra cast them a stern gaze of authority as she crossed her arms in front of her chest while waiting for their response.

Meanwhile, Jun observed Myra with a lazy eye while certain thoughts soon came to mind.

Why is she so interested in Hina? If I recall, Hina’s status is either equivalent or even higher than Myra’s. Perhaps this will be entertaining.

His lips arched upwards into an amused smile as he mentally unblocked the signals coming from Myra’s soul. Soul sensing had once been something he dreaded daily, but now it provided him sources of invaluable information.

It was soul sensing that allowed his club to reach such great heights in reputation. Every employee that was hired had to go under a stringent interview session, and throughout the entire process, Jun would secretly listen in.

The questions were not tricky in any way. However, it was hard to get an honest response from someone when asked whether or not they would do despicable deeds, such as rape, murder, drug abuse, and stealing.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

Each employee went through the rigorous gauntlet.

The very moment that their inner thoughts betrayed them, they would be written down for rejection. After interviewing all candidates, Bennon would then only hire from a list provided by Jun, because Jun always held the final decision.

“Miss Gradis, um. Hina and Little Chi are perhaps sick today. I think Hina is not feeling well…”

The first girl’s voice went as quiet as a mosquito towards the end of her sentence. She knew how angry Myra would get on the topic of Hina’s idol.

Hina’s sick? Is it my fault? Was I too harsh on her? Should I apologize?

Jun’s eyebrows raised as he listened closely. Anger, guilt, sadness, greed. These were only a few of the many negative emotions that often leaked from ones inner consciousness.

Oh? A guilty conscience? But why?

He thought to himself while making himself comfortable in his chair. His cheek soon found itself resting on the palm on his hand in a bored fashion as he watched the play.

“Ahem. Yes, of course she should stay home then. We wouldn’t want her to spread her diseases anyway.”

She spoke harsh words as per usual, not breaking character for a single moment. Just as Myra was going to turn away, the other girl piped up in annoyance.

“She’s not sick like that. It’s because it’s impossible for her to meet her idol now that the club is closed. Don’t treat Hina like some plague.”

The girl next to the speaker could only sigh and grew somewhat fearful. They were both ardent fans of Hina, but sometimes one had to pick their battles wisely.

Myra’s eye twitched as her hand slowly clenched into a fist.

I will kill that man. Yes. That is what I need to do. Hina is mine, only mine. She’s confused. She’s enchanted. I need to break this spell. I must end this idol of hers. Yes. Only death will do.

Jun’s eyes went wide after hearing Myra’s unadulterated thoughts.

Holy shit this woman is insane! And it turns out she’s in love with Hina this whole time? Why doesn’t she just tell her?! Leave me out of this!

At this point Jun promptly stopped listening in on Myra’s thoughts as they were like a broken record on constant repeat.

Before Myra could properly respond to the two women before her, an energetic voice called out from the front of the class.

“Everyone to your seats please, today we have an important lecture seeing as many of you will be starting the tutorial later. Seats! Seats! Now please!”

The various students, including Myra, reluctantly found their seats with the professors constant urging. Her actions were almost robotic and it was clear that her mind was elsewhere.

“Excellent. Today we will be discussing the usage of mana and how it affects us. As you are all aware, the formations and technology that provide our lifestyle conveniences are all powered by the world’s mana.”

Jun yawned once again as the professor droned on. It was nap time.

“However despite our usage of mana through formations, only people who have experienced ascension can actually command mana on their own. Those people are commonly termed as the Ascended, and each of them are registered by the World System. Any questions?”

The professor paused before pointing into the crowd at a raised hand.

“Yes, you in the back.”

A young man with short brown hair stood up and spoke loudly for all to hear.

“Professor, what happens if we don’t want to register with the World System as an Ascended?”

He sat back down and listened carefully.

“Yes, that is a great question. Realistically speaking, it would be impossible to do so.”

Seeing the confusion on the boy’s face, the professor decided to go into more detail.

“To fully answer this question we must first follow the steps taken in order to experience ascension. It’s common knowledge that one has to register with the World System in order to enter PSI World, yes?”

He continued after seeing a few nods from the class.

“The World System is the link between your real identity and your user identity within PSI World. Essentially, it’s the bridge that connects your soul to your physical body whenever you experience soul transmission.”

He turned to the wall behind him and with a tap, a black and translucent film swiftly bubbled forth, covering the entire surface. He then drew diagrams in bright neon colors on a small tablet in front of him, which were then replicated onto the black wall behind him.

“Look here. First we established that you must be connected to the World System. Next we must establish what is required in order to experience ascension. The first thing is for your soul to be stimulated. This stimulation only occurs when you enter PSI World and experience the class selection system.”

He soon drew out a triangle. He then wrote out a different word on each of the triangle’s corners: power, precision, magic.

“During the tutorial, it’ll be required to select a primary class. The system will assist you in this manner. Once your primary class is selected, your soul will then be stimulated, which will allow you to experience growth within PSI World.”

The professor glanced at the boy.

“Those who don’t have a stimulated soul cannot be fully connected to the PSI World system. Due to this connection, one cannot experience ascension without the world system.”

He paused and glanced up from his tablet, looking for more questions.

“Yes, the young lady in red.”

He pointed across the class, prompting the girl to stand up.

“You said the system will assist us in class selection. How does the system know what class we should select?”

It was easy to see that she was fairly nervous.

With a cursory glance, one would notice that many other students were also nervous about this process. What if you were settled into a class or role that you didn’t like?

“That is also a great question. Alas, I do not have an equally as great of an answer, but what I can say is that the system is almost never wrong. It has been theorized that it analyzes your personality and characteristics at an extremely deep level, then displays the suggested class recommendation.”

“What if you don’t like the systems recommendation?”

The same student spoke up once again.

“Well, if you don’t like it then you are welcome to go against the grain. However, I suggest not to. The system is almost never wrong and will most likely recommend the class you would have picked anyway. There are cases of people choosing differently, but those people usually amount to nothing.”

The professor paused briefly as he glanced around the room. To his surprise, there was one student in particular who still had his eyes barely open—that student being Jun of course.

The professor smiled briefly before continuing his lecture.

“Great! Excellent questions! Now then we’ll continue on. What awaits after class selection? Well, to summarize it: a long and endless journey. It’s an entirely different life, starting from fresh. Whatever you make of it is what you will get out of it, but to bring us back on topic. What or when is ascension?”

He soon started drawing on his tablet once again.

He circled the word “power” from the triangle, and then drew an arrow from the word to an empty space before creating an inverted tree diagram. He wrote in “power” at the top of the tree, with different lines branching out beneath it.

“At the top of the tree we see our base class. Naturally this word will be replaced with any of the three that you end up choosing. As you can see…”

He pointed to the branches below.

“The base class will experience advancements in any direction as you collect merit points. Your achievements and experience will decide your total level of growth, and eventually you’ll reach a wall. This wall is the pinnacle of your base class, and as soon as your surpass this wall then you’ll have advanced.”

He drew a horizontal line somewhere in the middle of the tree.

“These specialized classes below this line are called Advanced Classes. For most common people, this is the goal. To reach advancement is the same as climbing over the dragon’s gate. There is a strong distinction between someone who is at the pinnacle of their base class and someone who has experienced a class advancement.”

He paused for a second to inspect his handiwork. Then he wrote the word “Ascension” at the very bottom of the tree.

“Now, as I mentioned before, class advancement is the goal of most people. However, you guys are not most people. You are the elites of society and therefore you should strive for more. Obtaining class advancement is respectable, but beyond class advancement is ascension.”

The professor then drew another horizontal line, but this time across the bottom of the tree.

“In a similar way as to reaching the pinnacle of your base class, it will be possible to reach the pinnacle of your advanced class. Surpass this wall and achieve ascension, only then will you be able to manipulate mana here in the Ancestral Plane and join the ranks of the truly powerful.”

The professor looked up from his handiwork confidently. He eyed his class before looking in a certain direction.

Unfortunately for his ego, Jun was already fast asleep.