"Students, are you all prepared? We are now about to begin the process of awakening your mana vessels and testing your mana affinity." The homeroom teacher indifferently spoke as he walked into the classroom. Immediately, the group of students in front of him loudly cheered. Everyone was excited for the academy initiation class since this would determine their fate for the rest of their life.
If one managed to awaken a strong and powerful element, then their future would be unimaginable and limitless. They can become strong powerhouses who would be famed and revered all over the world. However, such occurrences were rare. So not many seriously aimed for something like that. Rather most of the students simply wanted to awaken an element. Any element would do.
Even if one managed to awaken an extremely weak element, it was still very good news. Their future would be all but set. "Everyone here is eighteen years or above, correct?" The teacher's voice once again rang loudly, bringing everyone's attention to him. He walked over to sit on the chair at the front of the class and then tapped his ring. The next second, a huge clear white crystal ball appeared on the table in front of him.
OOOO! The whole class quietly gasped. This was the testing crystal ball. This would show what their true worth in this world was. "Roll Number 1, come forward." Without wasting time, the teacher immediately started calling out all the students one by one according to their student numbers. Since these numbers were determined based on the entrance examination, the roll number 1 was…
A lean, tall, and muscular guy stood up and casually walked to the front of the class. He looked extremely handsome, and his aura had a sort of charm attached to it, a domineering and arrogant charm. Immediately, the entire class broke into another round of gasps and murmurs.
"Hey! That's Darius, isn't it? So handsome and ranked first!"
"I wonder what element he would awaken?"
"Of course, he is going to awaken the fire element! His family is one of the big families in the city, don't you know?"
"They are known as descendants of the dragon, and all of them possess the strong fire element!"
"Waaaa! He is handsome, smart, and belongs to a big family? He is sooo talented!"
"Shhh. Quiet. He is going to do it."
Everyone in the class, including the teacher, watched keenly as Darius confidently placed his hand on the crystal ball. Usually, the ball takes a second to respond, but in his case, as soon as his palm touched the crystal, it immediately started glowing bright red. That too, the red color was so strong that the crystal even began glowing red.
Seeing this, the teacher nodded his head in approval. "Very good. You have awakened the fire element, and you also have a strong affinity. Your final results will be recorded and sent to you."
"Thank you, teacher." Darius humbly nodded. He then casually walked back to his seat and sat down as if nothing had just happened. His behavior even startled the teacher, who once again gave another nod of approval. Very talented and not an ounce of arrogance! Good seed indeed!
The other students as well looked at Darius with mixed feelings of admiration, envy, and fear.
"Oh my god! So cool!"
"He should be already strong enough to fight against beasts under the bronze rank!"
While the whole class was busy talking about this, the next student after Darius had already silently walked up to the teacher. Since everyone's eyes were still on Darius, no one had noticed him, but there was a subtle smirk on the student's lips. Even the teacher seemed to be in deep thought as he absent-mindedly mumbled. "Place your palm on the ball." He only looked at the crystal uninterestedly. However, the next instant, he received a huge shock!
The testing crystal on the table was not only glowing bright golden, but it was sizzling visibly. "Element manifestation!" The teacher stood up abruptly, his chair falling down on the ground with a thud! Element manifestation was the highest grade of mana affinity, S grade! Someone in this classroom actually had awakened an element with element manifestation!
This was huge news! Who was this student? The teacher finally looked up at the student in front of him. It was a tall and thin person, and he looked extremely pale, even sickly. His hair was also white in color. "You have awakened lightning element. Your affinity is-"
Before the teacher finished his words, the student had already started walking back to his desk. It looked like he couldn't care about this report. Who was this mysterious student? Everyone looked at him with awe. Even Darius turned to look at this person. His eyes had a strange glint, and his hands were clenched tightly.
The entire classroom broke into an uproar, but the thing was, no one knew about this student. Most of them had graduated from the same middle school, but this person was a total stranger. "Nicholas. You are Nicholas Dimitry? The teacher looked at the sheet and read out loud."
"Yes." The person nodded. He then indifferently laid his head on this desk and closed his eyes. The entire class became quiet. This guy went to sleep? Not even the teacher knew how to react. In all honesty, everyone had expected only one superstar from this batch, and it was Darius, and now from somewhere, another dark horse had shown up!
The indifferent expression on the teacher's face was no longer there. This year things were going to get interesting. "Hrmmm! Who is next? Come forward." The teacher grunted energetically, and the rest of the class students all started walking to the front one after the other. There were a total of fifty students in the class, so this entire process took some time. However, most of the results were unimpressive.
After the first two students, the rest of the students were nothing special. A few of them had awakened good elements, but they had weak, average affinities at best. Soon, the teacher reached the end of the list and called out the last student. This one as well awakened an element.
"Water element. Weak affinity." The teacher indifferently said, but the female student looked very happy to receive the results. She skipped back to her desk with a big smile.
"Alright. I will step out now. Your next class should be-"
"Teacher! You forgot a student!" Suddenly someone shouted. Everyone turned to look at the chubby guy sitting in the back row with a big grin on his face.
"Who did I forget, Blake?" The teacher narrowed his eyes and asked. By now, he knew everyone in the class, and he could already tell that this guy was a troublemaker. However, Blake did not seem to care about that. Still grinning widely, he pointed to the guy in the back corner of the classroom.
"Teacher, you forgot him." He said.
"Huh?" The teacher looked startled for a second. He had almost not noticed the presence of this person. Everyone in the classroom was also shocked.
"What is your roll number? Are you in this section or some other section?" The teacher quickly recovered and asked while also going through the name list.
"Teacher! Don't look for him there! He is our school's special student! The rare talent! A senior to all of us! The one and the only person who failed to go to the next class two times in a row!" Blake snickered. The teacher was about to scold him when he also finally noticed this name on the back of the list, under the repeat category.
So what Blake said was not wrong. It looked like this person had indeed failed to move on to the next class. "Alright. Settle down." The teacher sternly looked at Blake and then shifted his gaze to this last student. "Our school actually has a repeater? Stand up and come here."
The student in the corner nodded and stood up. He calmly walked forward to the front of the classroom. Most of the class was busy with their own shit because they had just gotten their results, but the students who did not awaken any element or had very bad affinities soothed their ego by snickering at the guy.
"Why is he testing again? Didn't he get his results last time?"
"Ke Ke. Maybe he got some treasure, and this year it will be different!"
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
The group of students only stopped when the teacher gave them another stern glance. "Silence." He strictly said and turned toward this 'special' student.
"What is your name?"
"Noah." The student answered.
"Place your palm on the ball." Noah nodded and lifted his hand to place it on the crystal. The teacher looked at the crystal curiously, and the other students also did, but even after an entire minute, nothing happened.
Nothing at all happened. The crystal ball was completely clear. This was very rare or rather completely unheard of because everyone had at least some sort of affinity, even if they did not awaken any element. The crystal ball should have at least turned a bit cloudy, but in this case, it was completely transparent. Not even a trace of color could be seen!
Finally, after two minutes, the teacher declared the result. "No element awakened and no affinity." The student should now be walking back to his desk, but Noah looked at the teacher and asked, "Is this the only testing crystal available? Is there something else?"
"What something else? Go back to your desk and sit." The teacher scolded him.
"Having no talent doesn't mean you can slack off and become a repeater. Study your other subjects sincerely and make something of yourself!"
Everyone in the class snickered while Noah silently walked back to his seat. He sat down with a bitter smile on his face and put his head on the desk just like the other guy. However, he did not have a cool, suave look on his face. Instead, there were tears of blood.
God! Why the hell did you make me transmigrate into this trash character's body! He looked outside the window at this strange new world that he had somehow entered in some other person's body. It had been almost one week now, and Noah was still not used to this.
Heck, his name wasn't even Noah. It was Ian, but apparently, this body's original owner's name was Noah, so he had to accept this name as well. New name and a new body. The world was also different. This world, although similar to his in a lot of aspects, was completely different!
Along with high-rise buildings, bullet trains, and computers, this world had magic, beasts, and monsters! However, these were not his main problems. His biggest problem was that… he was a trash character in this world! Until today morning, he at least had some hope that this would be wrong, but now it was once again proved without doubt.
"Fuuucccckkkk… How am I going to survive here?" Noah sighed.
Not long after the teacher left, the class bell rang loudly, and the students started to disperse for lunch. 'This guy's memories are all jumbled up.' Noah as well walked out of the classroom engrossed in his own thoughts.
When he first magically appeared in this new body, a flood of memories had assaulted him, but they were not easy to understand. There were several crucial missing pieces.
For instance, only today he came to know that he was a repeater. Most of the memories from the past years were missing. He knew that his affinity was zero but he did not know what exactly that meant.
Instead of explaining these useful things, most of the memories he had were rather associated with pain and frustration. Wasn't this guy just a high school student? Just how much pain was he in? Noah couldn't understand. "Well, I guess all I can do is take it as I go. Time to go eat something."
He walked to the cafeteria and quickly finished his lunch because he wanted to return to class when the crowd was still filtering in and out. He absolutely did not want to stick out like a sore thumb at least until he had more of the shit figured out.
'Lay low'. Noah reminded himself as he nervously whistled, walking back through the busy corridor. He almost reached the class when suddenly… someone rammed into him, hard enough for him to stumble and fall back on the ground.
The person who tackled him as well fell, but on top of him. "NOAH! I am here! Ta da!" Feeling the two soft mounds pressing against him, Noah looked to see a young girl on top of him.
She was dressed in the checked marron school uniform for the first years and had clear blue eyes that peeked through long lashes, expectantly searching his face for something. "Did you miss me?" She tilted her head and flashed an adorable heart-melting smile at him.
Ah! Noah remembered this face. This was Ella, the best friend of the guy! They had known each other since childhood and they were very close. And since she was two years younger than him, she was only just now joining the high school. Hence probably her excitement for seeing the guy.
"Hey! You are here!" Noah weakly answered with an awkward smile. It took him a second, but then he realized something more important! Fuck! Every single student around them was currently looking at them!
He quickly pushed the girl away and scrambled to stand up. Why did she have to be good-looking? This was definitely going to bring him more trouble. "NOAH!" The girl pouted and also stood up to block his path. "Why are you not happy to see me!" She bit her lips in frustration.
"Sure I am. Can we talk later?" Noah was sweating profusely. Thankfully for him, the next second, the class bell rang loudly and saved him. "Ah! You dummy! Alright, I will see you after the last class! Don't go anywhere!" The tornado ran away just as fast as she appeared.
Noah had a bad premonition as he smiled bitterly and walked back into his class. He ignored the several eyes on him and directly went to his corner seat. 'Damn it.' He cursed inwardly and did not look up. This was not his first time attending a high school. This darn girl just made his life a hundred times more difficult!
He could already hear several snickering noises next to him. However, the next second unexpectedly, everyone quieted down. "Phew!" Noah sighed and looked up just in time to see a teacher enter the classroom.
The heck?
This was definitely not the same teacher they had in the morning. The tall, thin middle-aged man who had guided them in the morning was now replaced by a hot bombshell beauty. The entire classroom immediately fell into a pin-drop silence, all the eyes glued on to the seductive hourglass figure of the woman.
She, on the other hand, did not seem to care. She leaned on the table, her pencil skirt revealing her long legs and her eyes sternly scrutinized everyone in the classroom. "I am Ana. I will be your new homeroom teacher from today." She said.
After a moment, she clapped her hands and made another announcement. "Everyone pack up your things. We are going for a field trip. "All the students still hadn't recovered from the previous shock and now they were even more shocked!
"What? Field trip? But isn't that dangerous?" A student blurted out. Others also started whispering and murmuring because what he said was not wrong. They all knew what a field trip meant and it was truly dangerous!
However, the women had already started walking out of the class, not bothering to listen to anyone's whining. Behind her, Darius and his group of friends walked out first. All of them had confident expressions and they looked as if they were just going on a picnic.
After that, the other monster in the class walked out and he was even worse. He yawned and rubbed his eyes sleepily. Seeing these guys moving out, the other students began to reluctantly follow.
Noah as well stood up and left the classroom to attend this field trip. He was rather happy that they were doing this and not too concerned about the danger part. Surely, how dangerous could a school field trip be? He was more interested in taking a better look at this new world.
Soon, the entire class was settled inside one of the school buses and the vehicle started moving. They drove out of the beautiful school campus that stretched for several acres and into the city. This was Noah's first time taking a look at the city with his own eyes.
Majestic. That was the first word that came to his mind. There were several tall buildings, lots of greenery, and people were in a rush just like any other happening city back on earth. By seeing this, one probably would not even guess that there was magic in this world.
Just as he thought this, the bus started picking up speed. Slowly the trees and the buildings became blurry and soon they were shooting forward at about 200 or 300 miles per hour? Fuck! Was this a school bus or rocket?!
After that Noah was not able to pay attention to anything. All of his focus went to keeping down the lunch he had just minutes ago. Only when the bus finally stopped he was able to breathe.
He looked outside and saw the teacher Ana talking to a few men in military uniforms. They did not look happy to see the teacher or the school bus, but they obediently stepped aside after a couple of minutes.
"So fierce!" Noah made a mental note. He needed to be on the good side of this teacher. All the students began climbing out of the bus and gathered in the front. "Everyone, listen up. This is not your grandmother's garden. So pay attention." The teacher loudly reminded, bringing everyone's attention to her.
"Who knows what is this place?"
"Miss Ana, this is a void gate," Darius answered first.
"Does everyone know what is a void gate?" All the students nodded. Noah as well quickly followed suit.
"It is not enough to nod. Open your mouth and explain." The teacher's sharp eyes scanned the group and were about to land on Noah's side when Darius once again answered.
"Void gates are spatial anomalies from which beasts and other monsters enter our world. These holes cannot be permanently sealed so every void gate is closely guarded by our military."
"That is correct. This is why you are all able to sleep in the night peacefully. Do you understand?"
"You have all tested your affinities and your elements just this morning, so if you think that your life is going to be smooth sailing from now on, you are just fooling yourself!"
"We are living in dangerous times. We need to guard everything we have constantly. Otherwise, the life we know might disappear within seconds. Each and every one of you should work hard and become someone that our country can rely on. Do you understand?" Everyone silently nodded.
"Now I brought you all here to take a look at the kind of monsters we will be dealing with. Form a line and walk alongside this road. Don't do anywhere else." She pointed to the long winding road that extended from the parking area to the several camps that lay ahead of them a few miles away.
And beyond these camps, there was a thick dense forest, surrounded by a guarded perimeter wall. "So this is the void gate huh?" Noah mumbled as he took a good look at everything around him.