I followed her into this hall, and allowed her to pick a place to sit. She went straight for the last row of chairs in the hall, sitting at the far corner, where almost nobody seemed to want to sit. I didn’t have a particular preference either, so I sat next to her.

“Is there a reason to sit so far away?” I asked, since even if sitting this far wouldn’t be an issue, I thought it would always be better to be closer to the speaker.

“I just don’t like feeling like there’s someone watching me from behind…” she said with a forced smile.

“Oh I see,” I replied while nodding. “It is true that you never know where people might backstab you, but with a little bit of training, you’ll be able to detect anyone’s movements, even from very far away.”

I gave her a confident smile, trying to reassure the girl, but she just forced a laugh. I worried that perhaps she still didn’t feel safe, even with that, but as I was thinking up ways to reassure the girl, I saw another couple of young men walking into the hall. I immediately recognized who they were since even this early in the morning, they were already bickering with each other.

“I remember them…” Victoria said, and her smile turned softer. “I wonder if they’re good friends now or not…”

Even from the place we were sitting, I could hear Brian enthusiastically replying to something Steven said. “No, you fucking idiot! You can’t just buy the higher skill and expect your shitty-ass Magic Power to handle it, you have to—”

“Man, shut up,” Steven interrupted, stopping whatever they were talking about before he took notice of us. “Oh hey, it’s Althea and Victoria, let's go sit there.”

Brian didn’t seem to want to keep saying what he wanted when he turned to look at us, and simply followed after Steven. They chose to sit in the next row in front of us, in such a way that they would have to turn backwards if they wanted to talk to us, which they did.

“S-so how do you girls feel about starting in the institute?” Brian said, his voice almost cracking as he looked only at Victoria.

“Um… Well…” she replied, her eyes shifting between me and the front of the hall.

“I’m intrigued about what this academy could offer,” I replied in her stead.

“Really? ‘Cause I’m really pumped about it! There’s a lot of people that come out of here and go on to become top rankers, and even a couple of them are known internationally! I can only hope to get to that point and be a hero,” Steven excitedly said, his eyes almost sparkling while looking up before turning to look at me. “Have you thought about where you’d like to go once you’re out? I remember you got really good stats.”

“Me?” I replied, an eyebrow raised. “I haven’t really thought about it, but I guess I should use my powers for good…”

And fix the damage that I caused, I thought but refused to ever say out loud.

“Oh! So like a hero as well,” Steven continued while nodding.

Brian scoffed and shook his head. “Maybe they can become heroes, but you’re so weak, you’re just going to be the errand boy of some shitty company.”

“What?!” Steven exclaimed. “Dude, you’re even worse than me.”

“T-that’s only ‘cus the weapon got jammed!” Brian said before quickly turning to look at Victoria. “It was because the weapon jammed, I’m actually stronger than what the System says.”

“Really? Because it seemed to me like you couldn’t even use magic on the weapon that you chose,” Steven followed up with a mocking smile.

“Huh?!” Brian angrily replied, sharply turning to look at Steven. “You wanna die?”

“Hah!” Steven scoffed. “How is someone weaker than me going to kill me?”

“Yeah? Check it out.”

Having said that, Brian pulled the Watch in his arm and started showing something on it to Steven, but from the place I was sitting I couldn’t see what he was doing. I was reminded of the Watch that I had decided to ignore ever since I went into the Tainted Land, and wondered if there had been any changes with it, but as I was reaching for it, Victoria giggled and I turned to look at her instead.

“Yeah, I can tell that they’ve gotten really close,” she said with a soft smile.

“Dude, that’s not going to get you anywhere, the best way for you to—”

And like that, they were arguing again. I decided not to pay attention since it was completely meaningless. What I usually heard them talk about was how to become stronger by doing things that just wouldn’t get any particular results, like using magic at a specific time of the day; eating certain kinds of meals; or chanting nonsensical things to summon the power of ‘the otherworld’ into their souls.

“The best way to become powerful is to simply train your power. It’ll start gathering more into your body the more used you get to it and the more openings you create for it. And as for everything else, learning techniques and practicing them so that you can do them without having to think about them is the best way to get better,” I said, and they turned to look at me.

There was a look of confusion in the boys’ eyes as they looked at me for a moment, blinking their eyes a few times before Steven shook his head slightly. “You don't mean to tell me that you got stronger without using any Skill Books? Or without the help of something else?”

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Yeah, yeah,” Brian followed up while nodding. “I remember your test, and you were fierce as shit. There’s no way people didn’t hand you over some Skill Books.”

I shook my head in response since I’ve never even seen such a thing before. “No, what I displayed was nothing more than the results of training and experience.”

They widened their eyes, and Victoria looked at me with a strange smile. I also didn’t want to say that I was also ‘blessed’ by the Holy Gods, which is how I managed to get the best training in my world, but they didn’t need to know that, since at the end, a lot of things do come down to just diligent training and understanding of mana.

Brian’s expression changed to a smug smile as he looked at Steven. “See? I told you all that shit you wanted to buy would be useless.”

“Well… I’m sure there’s more to what Althea said,” he replied with a pout before turning to look at me. “Right? You’ve got to have another secret.”

I raised my brows slightly, since I didn’t expect this boy to have such a perceptive personality. “Yes, of course there’s always personal talent, but hard work will place you over anyone with talent, so don’t skip out on it.”

“Hm…” Steven replied, unconvinced, while Brian smirked. Steven ignored it and turned to Victoria instead. “What about you? I’m sure you must have something that helped you to become stronger.”

“M-me? Well…” she said while avoiding Steven’s eyes. “My parents did help me a bit with a few supplements and Skill Books over the last couple of weeks since my awakening…”

“Aha!” Steven exclaimed. “So what did you take?”

“I—Um…” she reluctantly replied, staying quiet for a moment as she tightened her lips and avoided looking at either of them.

“Hey! You’re bothering Miss Victoria! You can’t just be asking her what kind of secrets she has like that!” Brian said while glaring down at Steven, who looked back with a raised eyebrow.

“What are you—”

“Don’t you worry Victoria, you don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to,” Brian continued, ignoring the flabbergasted Steven while widely smiling at her.

“Y-yes, thank you,” she said and awkwardly looked at me.

“What are you talking about man, there’s no secrets when it comes to—”

They went into another bickering fight with each other and Victoria just carried a forced smile as she watched the exchange between the two young men. She turned to look at me for a moment, opening and closing her mouth a couple of times, but just as I was about to ask her about what she wanted to say, an older man walked to the front of the hall, dressed in similarly elegant clothes as the ones worn by the people working near the Tainted Land. And I quickly realized that it was Doctor Fraga.

“Good morning!” the man enthusiastically said to the half-full hall.

I turned to look around the hall since his voice seemed to have come from almost every direction, but I didn’t sense any mana being used to do that.

“It pleases me to see so many new awakened people join our Institute,” he continued, and it was then that I noticed that his voice was coming from large rectangular black artifacts that were hanging from up high in the walls, close to the ceiling.

“Oh, it’s the same man that tested us,” Victoria said with a shaky voice. “I wonder if we’ll have to take classes with him too…”

“You have been gifted with a special power, something that only zero point one percent of the population ever get to feel, and something that even less than that ever get to explore to its full potential,” Doctor Fraga said before I could say anything to Victoria.

However, what he said about the amount of people that use magic called my attention. That information meant that almost nobody in this world could actually use magic power, which couldn’t be right, because from my memories, most people in my world were able to use it no problem. It was actually rare to meet someone who couldn’t freely wield magic in some form.

“And it is only thanks to the people from Arretia that we’ve been able to understand and advance further our knowledge to use it for good, given how easy it is for their people to have that gift,” Doctor Fraga paused to look over at the people in the hall. “Now, it is your turn to learn how to use that power, for the betterment of all people and knowledge of the world.”

Again, he paused for a moment and I could see Steven excitedly nodding along. “That’s right, we have to become heroes,” he said with a whisper that could only be heard by the people closer to him.

“Now, I don’t want to bore you with a longer speech, there’s still plenty of other things that you should learn. However, I would like to ask some of you to share a few words with us,” he said, looking over at where our small group was sitting. “How about the currently higher ranked people share a few words? Lets see here…”

He pulled out a large phone, about the size of a sheet of paper and moved his fingers over it for a moment.

“Uh…” Victoria mumbled with a shaky voice. “I hope he doesn’t call me…”

“Victoria Graciani!” Doctor Fraga called out, to the girl’s dismay, whose face paled. “Come up here and share with us a few words.”

The girl’s hands were clenched and her face was down with her eyes forced shut, her breathing getting faster by the second. I reached out with my hand, placing it on top of one of hers. She quickly looked up to me with a surprised expression.

“It’s ok. You just have to say something quick and come back,” I said with a soothing voice, but the girl’s expression didn’t change much, so I stood up. “Come on, I’ll accompany you.”

Victoria’s expression softened slightly before nodding and grabbing my hand. “Okay.”

I pulled her from her chair and she followed along right behind me with uncertain steps. As I was walking up to the stage, I could hear people’s whispers, which went from asking if I was Victoria, to others asking which one of us was Victoria, and some even just saying how much they liked my looks. I ignored all of them, and stopped one step away from the stage to look back at Victoria, who didn’t seem to want to lift up her look.

“Hm?” Doctor Fraga said when he noticed both of us before exclaiming in surprise. “Ah, Althea Sanctus, also highly ranked. You would like to share some words with us, I take it?”

I wasn’t expecting to come up there as well, but I nodded along, since doing so would help ease the nerves on Victoria. “Very well, I’ll say something.”

“Good! I like that attitude, come up here as well!” Doctor Fraga joyously said as he beckoned me up.

I turned to Victoria, who looked surprised and relieved that I would be speaking as well, so I nodded and stepped up to the stage, Victoria standing behind. However, as I was reading myself to go speak first, Doctor Fraga gestured Victoria to go first.

“Let's go in order of ranks. Go ahead Miss Graciani.”

Victoria’s eyes widened again, and she looked between me and Doctor Fraga, but after a couple of seconds, her eyes turned to the podium, where she went over with trembling legs before grabbing a small black stick that was being held on top of a pole.

“Um…” she said, her voice cracking slightly. “Uh…” she continued. “Um. Uh. Um. Um.”

Victoria continued, repeating the same thing over and over, and the people sitting in the hall, which were about a hundred people, had their expression change from pity to second-hand embarrassment. The girl had locked up.