The soft light of the morning sun trickled through the windows and knocked on my eyelids. I groaned and turned on my bed, but the perfect sleeping posture was now disturbed.

"Stupid windows."

I threw off my duvet and sat up on the bed. My hazy sight spread over the room before stopping at the open windows. The sunlight was dim and gray clouds were fluttering in the indigo sky. "Hey, what's the time?"

{Zzz}

It was still asleep, so I woke up way too soon. How does a system sleep anyway? I yawned and got off the bed, moving to the bathroom attached to my room. According to the muscle seniors, the people even lower in rank had to share small rooms and bunk beds. Maybe not being too low was good for me. After a short morning bath, I turned on the TV in my room and set it to a news channel with a low volume.

I fixed the bed, dusted off the furniture, and left the window open while the TV's noise continued in the back. The sky had taken on a light bluish color, but the gray clouds were still blocking the sunlight.

I put on my watch around my wrist and opened the messaging app before checking the time. There was an unread message from mom.

Scrolling down, I clicked on the lowest contact on the list and checked the messages.

[Damian: Ralph Rubinstein. Congratulations on passing the exams. I hope my little gift was convenient for you. I will see you soon, please take some time to meet me when the day comes.]

That was the last message I had received from Ilya's uncle. Just what did that man want from me? Who was he in the first place? I had scoured through the depths of the internet to find any information on him but couldn't find anything, and that made me even more curious. A person with no tracks was much more suspicious than one with messy tracks.

-Trrringg!

Just then, the analog table clock on my desk rang out loud. This was my wake-up call. It was still 6:30 AM, and classes started at 7:30.

I sighed and booted up the holographic tablet pen attached to my desk. After logging in to my ID, I checked the list of classes again, we were supposed to choose three to meet the credit requirement for this semester on top of the mandatory classes.

Mana-Based Engineering.

New-age Robotics and Golems.

Advanced Magic.

These were the three classes I had chosen for myself. The first two, well, there was no particular reason for choosing them apart from my interest in technology. I had considered it the whole night, but this was definitely what I wanted to go with. In the end, I hit the confirm button and shut down the holo-pen.

After changing into my uniform, I stepped down to the kitchen. It was too early to go for coffee, though, so I brewed myself some tea. There wasn't much to do.

"Guess I'll go early, make up for yesterday."

***

The classroom's door swung open and a light-blue projection appeared in front of me.

{Good morning, host!}

"Morning," I said and stepped inside. Standing there with her bag on the desk next to mine was Kristina Steitz.

She looked me up and down with a skeptical gaze. "Morning," she said.

Heh? Who was talking to her? "I wasn—"

I stopped myself from answering and nodded instead. This was better than her thinking I talk to myself out loud.

I ignored her and took a seat, fiddling with my watch again. Not long after, Mr. Claudio entered the classroom.

"How do you two keep arriving before me? How long have you been waiting here?" We simply shrugged at his remark and all of us went back to minding our own business. Eventually, the other students started filling the classroom one after the other.

Luke again gave me a nod before talking with Kristina, Meanwhile Florris and Cauldron came over for a short chat. Some of the other students had also started forming their own cliques with the people involved in the battle with the Ent as one of the groups, Seraphina Exise as another, and to my surprise, Ardreth Vallen had also gathered a bunch of weaklings around himself.

Leone Hendrickson was a student much quieter than I imagined. We sort of had a connection from the battle, I guess? So we exchanged glances every once in a while. For the son of the 7th ranked hunter in the world, he was a lot more quiet and humble than I would have guessed.

"'sup," Zachy sat down next to me and said.

"Morning. Chose your classes?" I asked.

"Yup, the awakening one and some battle classes, you?"

"I went with technical ones."

We continued to chat when the bell rang and Mr. Claudio stood up from his seat. All the students immediately returned to their desks and quietened down.

"Alright class, I hope you had a good day yesterday," Mr. Claudio took a quick walk around the class, looking at everyone's faces. "Everyone has chosen their classes as well, so that's good. A schedule must have appeared on your profiles as well."

He stopped in front of me and looked at me for a few seconds. "I hope you all didn't make a decision you will regret later." It wasn't long enough for others to notice as he started walking again. "Cultivate your strengths and fill up your weaknesses. That is what you need to do in your first year where you don't know anything about yourselves or your abilities."

He went up to the board, his back towards the rest of the class as he pulled out a pen. "All the while, we'll teach you exactly what you're made of. Better than any big name your parents might have hired to give you a run down on things. The first class of your course will be..."

The pen swerved around the board in flashy strokes as the professor wrote the name down.

[Hellish Personal Development, by me, Claudio Alo.]

***

With his terrible naming sense behind us, Mr. Claudio stepped out of the classroom and came back with an enormous device pulled on a cart. Dozens of wires made of magical metals found only in dungeons. Magical circles and inscriptions covered every last inch of the device.

Mr. Claudio brought it to the center of the class with a smug smile. "This bad boy here is a small version of the International Ranking Device. Something available in select places on the earth." He slapped the top of the device. Within seconds, the color drained out of his face and he started inspecting it for any damage before sighing in relief and acting as if nothing had happened.

"It can't measure me, but you kids are going to have your stats revealed accurately by it." Mr. Claudio crossed his arms and pointed at Zachy. "Zachary Ainsworth, come here, let's start with our top student. The first step of your hellish personal development will begin from knowing the extent of your abilities."

Zachy nodded and stepped up toward the machine with a steady gait. Regardless of his behavior, he was still a proud rich kid.

Mr. Claudio stepped aside and let Zachy take the center. "Just pour your mana into the machine and it'll do the work for you."

Was it really that fucking easy? A machine could tell it with a bit of mana, but this damn system took two days to do this?

{You're insulting me, right? Right?!}

Did it develop mind reading at last? I ignored the system and looked at Zachy in anticipation.

He carefully peeked at the device from all directions before placing his hand on it and pouring his mana into it.

A strong white glow emitted from the device as a holographic screen shot up. Buzzing sounds spread into the room as numbers and letters glitched up on the screen before settling down.

[Strength = D-]

[Stamina = D-]

[Agility = C-]

[Mana = E+]

[Intelligence = E+]

[Charm = E-]

{This thing measures charm too? At least there's no luck. And I am sure the charm is not as good as mine.} It looked like the system was going through an inferiority complex. Well, its only real use was now being taken over by a machine.

[RANK = D]

"Ooooh!"

A few gasps rang out as the stats appeared in front of everyone. Mr. Claudio nodded in satisfaction and made a note of the stats. Charm aside, everything was in the higher ranks and the overall rank was at a solid D.

It was as one would expect of the first-ranked student. Though, I knew it wasn't the best in class. Luke Reese, Seraphina Exise and her gang, and Leone Hendrickson, unlike any of the previous years, there were literal monsters that had joined Agriche Academy this year.

As if to prove my doubts, Leone Hendrickson was called on next.

[Strength = D]

[Stamina = D-]

[Agility = D+]

[Mana = D+]

[Intelligence = D]

[Charm = D]

[RANK = D+]

"What!"

"That's crazy!!"

Mr. Claudio's smirk deepened even more at the result. Even if it was in the lower ranks, the difference between the three signs was wide, and the bridge between each letter was even more difficult to overcome. All the stats in D was crazy.

The other students were called on by Mr. Claudio and had their ranks measured. The students kept going, apart from the top-ranked students, the average of the class was setting out to E+ with many stats in D ranks.

Everyone was excited to see their stats measure out like this and were in high spirits. To put things in context, if an F+ ranked person could lift a 100kg barbell with a lot of struggle, an E+ ranked one could do it with a finger. For D and above, lifting entire cars was not that big a deal. In the same sense, the hunters in the high ranks of A and S could pluck out entire mountains.

Stamina and Agility went in the same way, with D ranks being able to run a full-sized marathon without losing breath and clearing it in 15-20 minutes as opposed to the world record from 200 years ago at 2 hours, 1 minute and 39 seconds.

The first round of complete silence came around when Luke Reese went up to the device.

[Strength = C]

[Stamina = D+]

[Agility = C-]

[Mana = D+]

[Intelligence = D-]

[Charm = C-]

[RANK = C-]

A C- rank.

Even Mr. Claudio had his smirk wiped off his face when he saw Luke Reese's stats. Everyone stared at the screen in silence while the person himself awkwardly scratched his cheek and went back to his seat.

The distance between the letter was truly great. To climb up that hurdle, was difficult. For a 16-year-old to get there in likely less than 6 or 7 years of awakening was, frightening.

{Say, host. Can you take him on?}

Could I?

If I had to say, Luke Reese was almost at the same level as my sister.

In that case.

"Probably not. I don't think so."

{Wha... For reals? What happened to all your arrogance?!}

I shrugged at the system. "It is what it is."

The next one to be called out was Kristina Steitz. She made a tired face as she placed her hand on top of the machine and poured in her mana.

[Strength = D-]

[Stamina = D-]

[Agility = D-]

[Mana = C]

[Intelligence = C]

[Charm = C-]

[RANK = C-]

Before anyone could recover from the shock of Luke's stats, Kristina came in and dropped them a bigger bomb. Two Cs in the magic heavy stats, this was even better than Luke Reese.

Just who were these people? How could I not find a single thing on them over the span of two weeks? Where had such powerhouses been hiding?

{Are you nervous, host?} the system came in with an absurd question.

"Nervous? What about?"

{Aren't they strong? Stronger than you}

I scoffed. "Yes, they are. For now, at least."

Mr. Claudio calmed himself down and made a smile wider than ever before. It was charming enough for some girls to fall for him right then and there had they not been shocked by the stats.

He took back the attention of the room and continued with the testing. Seraphina Exise and her small group ranked mostly in the range of D and D+, but that wasn't as impressive anymore after witnessing Luke and Kristina's ranks.

The class continued, albeit with an air of tension. Not long after, the noises and excitement returned.

Before the second bout of silence crashed into the room.

[Strength = F]

[Stamina = E-]

[Agility = F+]

[Mana = F+]

[Intelligence = E+]

[Charm = E+]

Silence, pure silence filled the room. A shock much bigger than what Luke and Kristina's stats had left in the room had overtaken the students including Luke and Kristina who watched with their mouths hanging open. Zachy, Leone Hendrickson, and even the ever-smiling Mr. Claudio looked more shocked than ever before.

With my hand over the machine, I looked at the holographic screen displaying my stats.

[RANK = F]