“Well Felix, I must say. This is not something we prepared for.”
“Yes, My Lord, it seems we may have overestimated our reactionary skills.”
“It’s been quite a while since those messages appeared, eh Felix? I bet quite a few people are pissed at us for wasting their time.”
“My Lord, perhaps we should just roll and see what happens.”
“Yes, you might be right. Well, here goes nothing. System, please roll my Core Ability.”
30 seconds later, the young Lord smiled.
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It was the 22nd hour since the screens appeared. Leo was quite honestly shocked at humanity’s refusal to roll. Really, they were holding everyone else in the entire world back. At least he had gotten to know Francis better. They were both still in the English room with the other students and teacher, and had gone to eat three times. Leo’s excitement was building, with only two hours left on the clock until something happened. What it would be, he didn’t know, but it would definitely be exciting.
The students had calmed down by now, most getting common, with a few sprinklings of what sounded uncommon and rare. Of course, there was no way to tell at the moment, but Leo was confident that when that last damn person finally rolled, the tiers would be revealed to them. Funnily enough, some people were still muttering about how unfair this whole process was. In Leo’s mind, even if an ability sounded useless at first, with work and effort it could triumph anything. After all, the System said it gave them these abilities in the first place to give them a chance of survival.
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“Hey Leo, when do you think the remaining people will roll?”
Leo shook his head and sighed. “Francis, at this rate I’m beginning to think we’ll have to sit through the whole 24 hours. Honestly, I’m disappointed. I mean, really, how hard can it be to-”
Humanity has rolled. 0.1% of humanity has been taken for studying.
Integration of Core Ability God Sphere complete.
Initiating status sequence...
Leonard Sica
Class: N/A
Strength: 10
Agility: 9
Endurance: 9
Intelligence: 11
Wisdom: 10
Perception: 11
Luck: 11
Stamina: 100/100
Health: 100/100
Mana: 110/110
Species: Human
Core Ability: God Sphere (L)
Beginning Tutorial Sequence
Designated Area Difficulty: Green
Your current location has been made larger.
Escape the location to escape the Tutorial, and connect with the outside world.
Good luck, Leonard Sica.
Suddenly, Leo felt as if he was going to vomit all over. A sense of power had filled him, making him aware of the things around him, but it was too much. He was undergoing sensory overload. The fact that the walls and ground of the school was shifting wasn’t helping, either.
Next to him, Francis did throw up. A lot. All over a poor student who didn’t seem all that affected by whatever was happening to Francis and Leo.
“EVERYONE, PLEASE REMAIN CALM. DO NOT PANIC.” The teacher’s shout centered everyone’s focus.
“Our abilities have been fully integrated. There is now a letter next to them, which presumably is the rarity. Take some time to check your status.” Leo was quite surprised. It was admirable of his teacher to take charge of this foreign and possibly dangerous situation.
“Huh?!?! Cloth Affinity is Rare?!? How is that even possible!?”
“Wow man, I guess you can’t judge a book by it’s cover. My awesome sounding Fireball is only Common! What a goddamn ripoff!”
The ground had now stopped moving, but Leo was still disoriented. He also had a new sense of… perception, he would call it. It was only in a small radius around him, perhaps 1 meter, but who knew how useful that could be. Obviously, this was his ability, which was apparently Legendary. Leo, being fairly smart, and judging from the majority of the class, which seemed relatively unaffected, he assumed that the nausea he and Francis were experiencing were based on their ability tier. He quickly took note of other people who were either vomiting or green. Including him and Francis, 6 people looked to be sick. A good amount, but not too high.
Two minutes later, when everybody was feeling back to top shape, Francis started talking.
“Leo, looks like I was right.”
“Hm? About what?”
“My Orbital Impact is Epic. I have to wonder what it does. I wonder why the System didn’t add a description?”
“Oh, neat. Listen, my God Sphere is Legendary, but I don’t want you to tell anyone. If anyone asks, just say that I got a Rare power called Omniscient Bubble. Also, I’d assume the System doesn’t include a description either because it would see it as cheating, or it wants to watch us find the uses on our own. Either way, it doesn’t matter, so don’t think about it.”
“Yeah, I guess. Also, Legendary?!? That’s insane. You got super lucky. I won’t tell anyone though, I trust your motives.”
“By the way, did you notice anyone looking extra sick? I saw a few but wanted to see if you saw anyone.”
“Oh, no. I was a little too busy being sick myself. Why does it matter?”
“Understandable. I have a theory about higher tiers being more sick. I’m going to go talk to the ones I saw. Wanna come? You can back me up.
“I uhh… I’m not very good with people… but I guess I can do it.”
“Great. Now, do you see that girl with black hair? She’s our first target.”
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The first three conversations went great. The students who they talked to were very understanding of what they wanted, and agreed to join together in the future if need be. No matter how hard Leo tried, however, he couldn’t get ability names or rarities out of them. The last conversation was where things got a little… out of hand.
“Alright Francis, one more to go. It’s the blonde stuck-up looking girl sitting over there by herself.”
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“Hm. I feel like I recognize her, but I can’t place it. Oh well, at least I won’t have to talk to anyone else after this.”
As soon as they walked over, the girl got up.
“I’ve seen what you’ve been doing, and I will not join you. My father is the mayor, and I will not be forced into uniting with your little group of losers. My name is Fiona White, and my ability is the Legendary Royal Decree. Now, you should leave, before I get mad and things get serious.”
Leo felt his legs try to take him away from the girl, but attempted to reach out with his ability to see if it could do anything for him and Francis to counteract the effect.
Mana: 106/110
Their legs simply froze, as if stuck in time, in an almost unnatural position, but no pain accompanied the odd standing pose.
“How did you… do that?” Fiona was stunned. Multiple other students had come to her, planning to ask the same thing, and they had been completely unable to resist it.
“Trade secret. Anyway, you’ve made your opinions clear and your bratiness clearer. We won’t be bothering you again.” Leo sharply turned and gently pushed Francis along with his ability to make him come with him, as he was in a slight amount of shock and about to cry from being so insulted.
“No, wait! I didn’t mean it! Please, tell me how you did that! I’ll do anything!”
Leo looked over his shoulder and glared harshly. “Are you stupid? Look at what you did to my friend here. He’s not used to this kind of stuff. Obviously, your attitude is not acceptable in the future I’m hoping for with the other students. You’re on your own, unless you can find another group of friends willing to take you in, which I honestly doubt you’ll be able to do. And just another word of advice. Don’t think you are invincible just because you have a Legendary ability. What you have seems very powerful, but with major flaws. Goodbye.”
Leo walked away, and Fiona stood there, stunned.
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It had been almost one hour since they had gotten the message of the Tutorial beginning, and they were getting restless. The teacher decided it was time to investigate the state of the school.
“Class, please wait here while I go search for other teachers and see what we can do for you with this situation.”
He walked out the door, clueless.
Two seconds out, his head fell separate from his body onto the floor, almost in slow motion.
There was silence.
And then there was chaos.
Screaming rang out throughout the classroom. A gigantic rhinoceros beetle with what looked like a suit of armor made out of chitin and an extremely long sword where it’s horn would have been, stood in the doorway. But that wasn’t the end of the surprises.
“Humans. Who among you do you nominate to face me in a duel?”
Everyone fell silent yet again. Then whispers broke out. Then all out talking. Then yelling. How did this monster exist? Where did it come from? How was it talking? Was it intelligent? Who were they supposed to choose? Going against that thing was certain death!
“I’ll volunteer.” The boy who had gotten the Common fireball ability stepped forward. “If there’s anything fire’s good at, it's burning bugs.” That made people think. Instead of looking at it as putting the strongest people forward, why not put the ability which had the most strengths against bugs forward? Fire was certainly a good choice for that.
“Alright, human. We shall have a good duel. May the best creature win.”
The boy stepped out into the hallway to be across from the beetle.
“On your mark, human.”
“I’m ready. Let’s go! I’ll beat you up!”
The beetle charged, its gigantic horn sword leading the way. It moved fast for a thing as wide as a small car. The student tried to jump out of the way, but the bug turned its head and made a deep gash along his arm. He desperately cast a fireball, but it was more of a fire spurt than anything. It hit the beetle and just splashed around it. Evidently, he needs a new strategy. Unfortunately for the boy, he was out of time. The beatle jumped forward, cracking the ground, and impaled him through the chest. The duel had concluded.
“I have won once, humans. Do not let me win another two times. Who among you do you nominate to face me in a duel?”
This time, no one volunteered. In the end, a poor girl with a common Basic Sword Expertise ability was nominated. The thing was, she didn’t have a sword. In the hall, the beetle declared the duel to start. The girl dropped down to her knees and begged.
“Please, I’ll do anything! My mother is in the hospital and I need to take care of her! Don’t kill me, please! I need to live! Please!”
The beetle ran her through the brains.
“I have won twice, humans. Do not let me win another time. Who among you do you nominate to face me in a duel?”
Whispering broke out for what seemed like the 100th time that day. One student had had enough.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m out of here. See you later! Basic Speed Boost! He ran out of the classroom using an ability, into the hallway, past the beetle, and was about to make it into the gym when a freaky big spider, half the size of the beetle, with glowing green eyes, dropped down from the ceiling and spit acid onto him.
His bones melted along with his flesh.
“Do not attempt to run, humans. Who among you do you nominate to face me in a duel?”
“I volunteer. There’s no need to sacrifice people who can’t fight back.” Leo stepped forward. “And besides, if my idea works, it’ll be an easy win. If it doesn’t, oh well, I’m probably dead anyway. Bring it on, you stupidly large beetle!”
“You have a powerful ability, I can sense it. Do not let it make you cocky. You shall declare the beginning of the duel.”
Leo took a deep breath. He hoped he had enough mana for this.
“Start.”
The beetle charged him, like he had done in every other fight, but this time, when the sword horn got in close, it turned to ice and shattered.
Mana: 67/110
The beetle charged him again, aiming to crush him against the wall with his superior mass. This time, when it got close, its feet were encased in ice but didn’t shatter.
Mana: 42/110
The beetle broke out of the ice and charged him for the last time, stronger and faster than the other times all combined. Leo had a split second to react, and took the extra effort to not only encase the feet in ice, but to to turn them into ice, and then shatter them.
Mana: 2/110
The beetle was helpless now. It had lost its weapon, and its only way of moving. It laid on the floor, unable to do anything.
Leo walked closer to it.
“Good fight, Sir Beetle.”
“Indeed it was.”
Leo turned some of the air in his sphere into an ice dagger with his remaining mana.
Mana: 0/110
Suddenly, Leo felt the worst migraine he had ever felt in his life. He wanted to collapse. He knew that he had to finish this, however, no matter how badly he wanted to sleep. He searched for a chink in the beetle’s helmet-like head, looking for a weak spot. He found one, and plunged it in, hopefully killing it. He wouldn’t know if it was dead until he woke up, as the beetle bit him right before it was stabbed. The only thing that kept Leo’s hand moving was gravity and the slight amount of force Leo had put into the stab before he was bitten. The pain from the headache and the newly found bite on his ankle were too much for him, and he passed out.