After a moment of tense silence, Miss Aimee finally deemed to enlighten him.

“To answer that question, you’d have to first ask how supes function in the first place and how they can do what they do.”

“Okay then.” Dario leaned forward in his seat with an attentive gaze. “How is it that supes can do what they do? How is it they can fly and run faster than anyone else and do all sorts of unnatural things? How are they so amazing and so far above what normal people are like?”

These were all questions that burned in Dario’s mind ever since he was a young boy. None of the supes he knew personally would ever give him a straight answer. and here was a chance to finally know the truth. He had probably never been more attentive in his entire life.

“First of all, you have to know that what I’m about to tell you is something that only us supes are authorized to know, do you understand?” Miss Aimee asked with a stern face.

“Yes I understand.” Dario nodded. “But if it’s a secret, are you even allowed to tell me?” he asked despite being eager to learn more. “I know I’m a supe too, but you’re making it sound like this is some top secret stuff.”

“It’s not really top secret, but rather a fundamental truth that the public isn’t really aware of. It’s my job to teach you the basics of our world once you pass, and you have. Usually, other examiners take a bit longer to assess someone, but my unique powers allow me to expedite the process.” Miss Aimee crossed her arms with a smug grin on her face. “Examiners have the dual purpose of educating new recruits as soon as they’re confirmed supes. Personally, I think it’s ‘cause administration doesn’t want to pay for another person to do it, but whatever.” She leaned forward in her seat. “So, do you want to learn or not?”

“Yes, of course! Please go on,” Dario urged.

“Alright, so the reason us supes can do what we do is quite simple. It’s because our bodies are capable of absorbing World Energy.”

“What’s World Energy?”

“Nobody truly knows what it is, but it's everywhere and seems to be some sort of passive ambient energy. According to historians and archivists, there was a period of time when this energy didn’t exist. Back then, everyone was normal and animals were just animals, and there were no such things as monsters or supes. That bygone period is what we now call the Mundane Era.”

“I assume something changed that made things the way they are now.”

“Yes.” Miss Aimee nodded. “One day, something which we call ‘The Inception’ happened, and World Energy was brought into existence. It happened one thousand eighty-six years ago and is what we base our calendar on.”

“What was The Inception?” he asked.

“Nobody really knows except for maybe a few people, but all we know is that it drastically changed the world as we knew it. The most significant change was the introduction of World Energy.” Miss Aimee stood up and walked over to a nearby jug before pouring herself a cup of water. “World Energy changed not just us, but animals and plants as well. It mutated them and made them something more, something superior, as we like to call it.”

“So that’s what makes supes the way they are?”

“Yes, most humans are generally incapable of absorbing World Energy, but supes are the few that can. We absorb it passively over time, and sometime between the onset of puberty and complete physical maturity, we manifest as Superior. It enhances us in literally every way.”

“That’s fascinating,” Dario remarked for what felt like the hundredth time today. “Yet I don’t understand why there’s such a wide variety of powers between people when we all get them the same way. Is everyone just different when it comes to that?”

“The specifics are unknown, but generally, it’s believed that one’s personality or frame of mind throughout their life influences what powers you get when you manifest. For example, consider someone who’s been continuously hurt during their upbringing and has developed a strong emotional exterior. Perhaps they evolve into a supe with some kind of protective ability, that’s one possibility. Keep in mind that manifestation is still considered supernatural and impossible to really analyze.”

“This is a lot to take in,” Dario muttered.

“That’s alright, every supe had to learn this at some point. As your examiner, I’m here to inform you of the basics and answer all your questions during our time together,” Miss Aimee restated.

Dario stood up and paced around while ruminating on the things he learned. As a new Superior, it was important to know as much as possible, and if he wanted to be the adventuring type, he had to learn more.

“Is there anyway to force a manifestation, or predict whether someone has the potential to manifest? Like, make it happen earlier or something? I could only imagine how many more supes we’d have on hand if we could do something like that.”

“So far, in the thousand plus years we’ve been around, we haven’t been able to do so. Or perhaps the method has been discovered somewhere, but whoever knows how is keeping it a secret. However, it is consistent as, like I said, it happens sometime between the onset of puberty and full maturity. We have no way of finding out who has the potential of being a supe before their actual manifestation.” Miss Aimee took a drink from her cup. “Any other questions?”

“Yeah, I have one,” Dario said, noticing a discrepancy. “If it happens sometime between puberty and full maturity like you said, and it happens consistently in that time period, why are we told early in life that you’re either already born showing supe powers or not at all? You just said that it’s not possible to know before maturing.”

“Ah, yes,” Miss Aimee muttered as she twirled the contents of her cup. “We used to make the truth public knowledge a couple centuries ago, but tensions started to rise when people weren’t gaining powers at the expected ages while others did. Add in the fact that manifestation is a shortcut to good looks and beauty, well, let’s just say that there was a lot of resentment back then leading to some… incidents.”

She took another sip of her drink before putting it down to do some arm stretches.

“Needless to say, we put out the info that manifestation happens at a really young age and that if you didn’t show powers as a child, then you simply weren’t a supe. We usually just claim any discrepancies as anomalies since supes are extremely rare anyways. A binding contract with certain... conditions also help." She shrugged with indifference. "It’s easier to place the disappointment and possible resentment early on in life, so it has less impact and fades by the time someone is a functioning member of society. So far, it’s worked.”

Dario hummed in thought. “I see... set expectations low so you won’t be disappointed, but if it does happen, you feel amazing— ecstatic even,” he murmured, nodding as he recollected his own experience. “Is it inheritable? Like, from parent to child, can someone become a supe from having supe parents? I only ask ‘cause my mother’s a supe.”

“That’s somewhat the case,” Miss Aimee confirmed. “It’s true that the children of two supes are more likely to be capable of absorbing World Energy, but the child of a supe and a normal person has no significant difference in potential from one born of two normal parents. It’s one of the many reasons why supes tend to marry among each other.”

“I see,” Dario said with creased brows. “I never knew my father so I don’t know if my powers are a result of having two supe parents. Ah well, my mother is supe enough for the both of them.”

“On the topic of breeding supes, have you ever heard of the Kingdom of Erumon?” Miss Aimee asked rather abruptly.

“The kingdom up north? What about them?” He had heard of a reclusive kingdom in the forests far up north, but he didn’t know much.

“At one point in history, a group of supes who thought very highly of themselves and their good looks collectively decided to only breed amongst themselves. After a while they separated from the rest of society and formed their own community. There may have been inbreeding involved to keep the lines pure. Can you guess what happened?” Miss Aimee quizzed.

“I don’t know, their children became even more enhanced supes?” Dario guessed.

“Not quite.” She shook her head. “Somehow, instead of making them more and more powerful, they slowly lost their abilities. Over time, they were completely without powers. The upside was that their physical bodies were completely reformed to become more beautiful and attractive compared to us normal humans, even growing pointy ears.” She placed her index fingers next to her ears and pointed outwards. “They lived a lot longer, grew slightly stronger, and more agile than your average person. In a way, they became a completely different race. It’s a sentiment they shared as they renamed themselves to Elves rather than Humans.”

“Why Elves?”

“I don’t know, maybe ‘cause they only care about thems-elves. Damn stuck up inbred pricks, they’re a bunch of useless bastards,” she muttered. From the annoyed look on her face, Dario guessed that she had some kind of grudge against them.

“So, what you’re telling me is that it’s dangerous to focus on marrying and having children with supes only?” Dario asked.

“What? No man, love who you wanna love. I just thought it was a cool fun-fact,” she cheerfully replied.

“Ugh, well thanks for that random bit of trivia then.”

“No problem.” Miss Aimee smiled. “It’s important to know just in case you run into one of them. Just remember that they don’t have any powers and only have enhanced physiques. Their average citizen is only at about Physique 2, but their society’s version of supes are much higher.”

“Physique 2, what’s that?” Dario questioned while scratching his head. “I heard the guards from before talking about it, I think one of them said he had Physique 4 or something. What does that mean?”

“There are twelve Power Classifications for supes,” Miss Aimee informed him. “Most supes only possess one or two unique classifications, but Physique is one that every supe has. A Physique of 1 means that you only have enhanced physical looks and nothing else. A number higher than that means you have physical and slight mental enhancements. This includes improvements to existing senses. The higher the number, the higher the degree of enhancement.”

“Oh, in that case, I wonder what my Physique is at,” Dario pondered aloud while staring at his hands.

“Well, this is an exam after all, so let’s find out, shall we?”

“Alright, so what do I—”

The last thing Dario experienced before flying through the air was feeling pain in his gut while hearing Miss Aimee’s manic laughter.