The moment Marcus woke up the next day he shuttered at the pain that awaited him. Every single part of his body ache and even when he moved his fingers they felt sore. His mind raced to think back at what could of happened to him, but nothing came to mind. His attempt to groan even was thwarted as he croaked due to the dryness of his mouth. His thoughts were even interrupted as a series of sharp pain scattered his thoughts as the pulsing torture of a massive migraine struck him.

The level of pain overwhelmed is weak body and he felt his eyes start to grow heavy again. Marcus’s hand dropped as he groaned and he fell back in to sleep wondering what happened to him. He woke again later and his hand shot up to his head and surprisingly there was no pain and no headache. There was though a grimy feeling on his hands and as he tried to open his eyes he found that they were almost glued shut. He felt the stickiness at his fingers and slowly pried open his eyelids to see.

He slowly lifted himself into a sitting position and that was when the smell struck him. His bed was soaked from sweat and what looked like mud. He looked down to see the mud like substance coated on his whole body and he had to strain hard not to vomit from the smell of it. He got up and slowly moved toward the bathroom each step leaving the disgusting sludge on the floor.

He felt his feet squish with each step and he reached up grabbing the door frame to balance himself. His fingers slipped making him fall forward and Marcus tried to compensate, but at that time his feet also lost there traction. He barely was able to prevent himself from falling down, but he grabbed the side of the sink and steadied himself.

He walked more carefully over to the shower and stepped into the shower turning on the faucets to full. At first the water from the shower didn’t removed the sludge like substance, but eventually it poured off of him. He had to clean the drain a number of times with his feet to prevent the sludge from plugging up the drain cover.

He washed himself from head to toe at least a dozen times running out of soap and body wash. He could still smell it in his nostrils when he stepped out of the shower. He walked over to the sink and took his toothpaste and squeezed it in to his mouth and used his tooth brush to scrape as much as he could from his tongue and mouth. He gagged and some of the toothpaste went through his mouth and out his nose, which ended up being a good thing as it helped clear some of the smell.

Marcus almost felt like crying when he realized he had to also clean the path he took from his bed to the bathroom. He cringed as he paid for the cleaning bots to clean the floor and had to wipe clean the hand print from the doorway and sink. His bed was saturated in the putrid sludge so he had to throw it away with all of his sheets and blankets, and it was quite a while before his room was passible. The deodorizers that he used in the room and the detectors told him the smell was gone, but for some reason he could still smell the horrible stench.

Marcus brought up the communication terminal and it was only then that Marcus could finally take a moment to think about what happened, and that was when he realized that two days had gone by since he came home from work. He only had one more day before he had to reattend classes at the academy, and his only two true off days were wasted just like that.

So much time was wasted, and he already was falling behind on his study for the final exam. He still didn’t know what happened to him, and what that sludge was that he was covered with. He was hesitant about going to the medical center for a check up, because that would cost a bit of money that he couldn’t afford to spend, and he didn’t feel too bad right now. In fact he felt much better than he had felt before, and actually had energy and wasn’t tired even after he cleaned up.

Marcus knew that one of his greatest weaknesses was the fact that he put so much stress on himself, and normally he would be even more stressed in this situation. He always worked from a disadvantaged situation, but the panic he usually had didn’t seem to appear. He actually felt calm and his mind seemed to take a organized way of thinking things out.

He had a number of things piled up on his list that he needed to do, and it just kept on growing. He now needed to add buying a new mattress, sheets and blankets to that list. He sighed and opened up the vid screen and did a search. He needed to get it out of the way as soon as he could so not to add to his list.

He was pleasantly surprised to find a sale in honor of the trials, and he got a mattress that usually cost 500 credits for only 200, and spent another 40 credits for sheets and a blanket. He set it up to be delivered to his room and sat back in the chair and smiled. It felt good to finish a task even though it was a easy one.

This made him think about all the other things on his list, and he knew he had to prioritize his studies and then making more money. He mentally crossed out a few things that really didn’t feel that important now, and focused on the graduation paper and the requirements he needed to complete the non exam portion of his finals. He had a requirement that he had to spend a certain number of hours on campus studying, and that meant his next task was to log on and work on the mandatory hours he needed to spend at the academy.

He spent a half hour eating and drinking his fill, before heading from his dormitory to the communication nexus. There he could enter the virtual capsule to head to the academy. The communication nexus had a number of virtual capsules, suites and tanks. The capsules were the lowest end and could only affect his mind. The suite and tanks were much more expensive and they could actually mimic the effects of actual physical and talent training. The suite could be used to increase ones physical ability because your body was truly doing all the work as you entered a virtual platform.

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The tank was different because you were surrounded by a gel that negated the elemental energies so you could actually train the power. The person was in a virtual world using there talents, but since the gel negated it. It didn’t cause any harm to the tank or the surroundings. It wasn’t a good as the real thing, but it was a safe environment to train in.

Those two options were well beyond Marcus’s financial ability, but the capsule was different. The capsule allowed him to go to the academy and learn theory. It was perfect for studying for the finals, and best of all it was free as long as he only entered the academy and other learning institutions. They would cost credits after he graduated, but for now it allowed him access a large quantity of knowledge. It was a good thing even though he had problems actually comprehending much of it, because of his low talent.

Marcus found a unused capsule which looked like a bed and attached his indent cord to the head of it. The cord connected to his interface where he was able to control the capsules functions. He then laid down on it and with a mental command the lower end of the capsule moved sealing him in completely. It was dark only a moment before the capsule started and he found himself in a void the capsule as a screen popped up in front of him.

“Please enter your destination.” The voice stated.

“Requiem Academy library nexus.” Marcus said.

“Requiem Academy library nexus confirmed.” The voice said. “Region cost exempted because of student standing. Nexus point confirmed waiting for permission to proceed.”

“Proceed.” Marcus said.

There was a flash of light and the void was gone and in its place was a exterior pad in front of a large building made of marble. This was the academy library that Marcus spent most of his time in, when he didn’t have classes or work.

“You have entered the Requiem Academy.” The same voice said. “Due to being a student at the academy there is no cost to enter.”

Marcus stepped off the nexus pad and walked toward the library doors. He had only walked half way there when a com beep rang in his head and he could only smile at the person sending it. He accepted the alert to see a young man with blond hair and blue eyes. The boys smile had conned a number of girls around him in to liking him, but he knew that smile was 100% trouble.

“Marky! Where have you been the last two days?” The young man said.

“Well some of us have to earn credits, because they don’t have as much talent and luck as some pretty boys I know.” Marcus said with a smile on his face. “I had to take extra shifts and yesterday I was recovering from all the work. Us lowbies have to work ten times as hard and put in ten times more effort.”

“All you do is play dress up with dead bodies.” The young man said. “Kind of sissy if you think about it.”

“Well you definitely have the better job.” Marcus scoffed. “All you do is undress pretty bodies and then break there hearts afterward.”

“Well it is much more fun than your job.” The young man said and then grinned. “Do you have time to drop the vid rooms?”

“I can’t right now.” Marcus sighed. “I still have to finish my final paper. I have to get it done so I can focus on studying for the final. I have to do reasonably good on it to survive.”

“My final paper was done three months ago.” The young man bragged.

“It might be a good idea to actually read it before you turn it in though.” Marcus jibbed him. “They might actually ask what it was on.”

“Good point.” The young man said. “Didn’t think of that.”

Marcus couldn’t help but smile at his friend. His name was Alexander Welby and his parents were S class citizens. It meant he had everything he wanted at his beck and call, but besides his tendency to womanize. He was a good friend to him, and if Marcus asked he would help him in a instant, but he didn’t want that. He didn’t want to take advantage of his friend even if his life was bound to be pretty bad.

“Alex I need to work on my paper, but I will stop by after a bit.” Marcus said in compromise. “You looking at the past trials or the current one.”

“Little bit of both.” Alex admitted. “This years group really stacks up to some of the better trial takers. Even my father has his eyes set on a few of them to mentor.”

“That’s sounds quite amazing.” Marcus said. “I should put in three hours or so, and then I will drop by. I only have 13 hours left on my mandatory study for the month so after the paper is done I will be more free.”

“Shit you have already spent 47 hours in the academy this month?” Alex scoffed. “You truly have no life.”

“The life of a lowbie is a mysterious one.” Marcus said with a cackle.

He saw Alex laugh and then say, “I will send over the room to go too. See you later alligator.”

“See you in a bit.” Marcus responded as he completed his trip to the library.

Marcus entered the library and reserved a private room to work on his paper. His paper was on the base of genetics which was the genetic code. The genetic code was the building blocks of talent users, and according to most research certain triggers and flags in the genetic code was what allowed the sentient races to trigger there powers. The more complex the genetic code the more powerful the potential of the person talent.

This was a sore subject for Marcus because his genetic code was simple. It was the reason why his chance for gaining any talent was so slim. Most people’s genetic codes have flags that show the strengths or weaknesses of the person’s talent. If the person would train and improve there genetic code they could become more powerful and their children will have a chance at inheriting the strong code and making it purer and stronger.

Marcus was given a rank F talent, but in reality he was only classified as that, because there was nothing lower. His simple genetic code wasn’t strong enough to support a talent, and that was why he had studied so much about the codex of the genetic code. He had a bunch of information jammed in to his head, but again he was always at a disadvantage at everything he did.

His paper was actually on genetic flags and triggers. Flags were nodes in the genetic codex that allowed energy to pass through while triggers were similar to programs that allowed the energy to do numerous processes. The problem Marcus had is that a majority of his genetic codex was flags rather than triggers. It meant that energy passed through but nothing could be triggered, which was the bases of talents. The talents were triggers in the genetic codex.

It was the reason why he had no talents, or at least it was the reason many of the doctors told him. Thought his paper he realized exactly why they said it, and most of the research agreed. If his genetic code was stronger then it would change, because triggers could be created, but his was simple and weak.