proofread by Daylius

Dyward ThorwysIudis SciusZephard Calmor

The name plate on for my room read so. I looked at the door and was astonished to see that there was no handle to it. There was no keyhole or anything on the door. I look around and see that the students were just standing infront of the door and the doors opened on their own. Following suit I too stood before the door and looked straight at it.

"Welcome! Please name yourself"

A sudden voice startled me. I scanned around in search for the source of voice but could not find any one. So I decided to go ahead and answer it.

"Zephard Calmor"

"Voice has been registered. Authenticating. You may now enter." And the door opened on its own once again giving me a shock. Timidly I walked in and found a really spacious room with three different beds, three cupboards, a bookshelf, a furnace, and all sorts of things. The room was kept neatly and well furnished, decorated with paintings. I walked in, looked at the three different bed which was kept well. The cupboards were arranged next to the respective beds and they had names of the student marked on it. Mine was towards the end of the room and so I carried myself towards it. I stood in front of the cupboard and saw that there was no handle on it. I called out my name once again. The door opened on its own and in it were my uniforms and other clothes. My weapons too were lying in one of the compartments. Other than for that, my cupboard was empty. I closed my cupboard and then approached the book shelf. My eyes ran through the different titles and I randomly took one out.

"Guardians: A beginner's guide"

I flipped open the pages and I saw the pictures of different guardians which resembled griffons. Before I could read about it I heard the door open once again and two boys came in. The two were as tall as me but one had a milder complexion than mine. I placed the book back and walked towards them. The two saw me approaching and stared at me wide eyes.

"Blue hair" the two exclaimed with wide eyes.

Those two words caused me to freeze. Those two words had always haunted me for a long time. Ever since my hair had shifted from black to blue, the life I led had transformed to hell, being bullied and insulted. But I had forgotten all of those. Ever since I had come to Anwol, none had asked anything about my hair being blue. But now those words had found its way back to haunt me.

I stopped my approach and stop still. With clenched fists and closed eyes I stood in wait for the insults and mockery to flow out of their mouths.

" We have a celebrity among ourselves Davy. I can't believe it. Its a pleasure to meet you Zephard Calmor. My name is Iudis Scius. Friends call me Iud." said the boy with the milder complexion. He wore a dress which looked new and had jet black hair and blue eyes. With a face which was a little stiff but manly and long eyebrows his lips were stretching giving a bright smile.

"My name is Dyward Throvits. You can call me Dave or Davy."

My heart froze for more than one reason. Not only were they not ridiculing my hair, they were referring to me as a celebrity. I freed myself from the shock and asked them.

"Wait! What do you mean celebrity?"

"Huh! You don't know? Dude you are famous now. The star of the academy."

"I don't understand. Why am I a star? I don't remember doing anything worthy to be deemed as a star."

"Of course you did. You are the only person in the history of Anwol to have turned down an offer from Aduxria to stay in Itiferth. You think that is a small thing? Hell no. Had it been me I would have accepted without a second thought."

"What is so great about Aduxria. I did not like the attitude of that headmaster. He just wanted me for his own advantage."

"Right now only you would say those words. You better be careful. Jealousy and envy are dangerous emotions." Iud finished saying and then stretched his hands towards me.

I took his hand and shook it while I introduced myself. "The name is Zephard Calmor, call me Zeph"

"Alright Zeph. Tell me something first. Is it true that you got sponsored by a noble?" Davy questioned me.

The question was unexpected. I was hesitant but nevertheless answered him.

"Yeah. I was brought in by the Calmor family. They said they would sponsor me. But they themselves are broke. So I don't think that its a big thing."

"What are you saying. There have been only a very few students of this academy that were ever sponsored. I say even less than ten." Iud exclaimed.

"It is a big deal. Being brought in by a noble gives you special privileges no matter how powerless the clan is. The fact that you are from a noble family itself can place you in the top ranks of the academy." Dave said supporting Iud.

"There is a ranking system here? There was nothing mentioned about a ranking system in the guide book."

"That's strange. Normally such things are mentioned. Never mind. Iud will explain it to you as I am bad with explaining things."

"Here is how it goes. There are a total of three rankings. Each academy has an individual ranking. Then there is a common ranking for the three schools. And finally a world ranking."

"What's the use of these ranking?"

"The individual school ranking is decided by the mana and essence value. The higher the value the higher your ranking. If you are the son of a noble your ranking increases greatly. The school ranking also increases based on your academic performance as well. Your rankings are also influenced by individual matches."

"Individual matches?" I enquired.

"Yes. You see students can fight against each other in a match which is approved or under the supervision of a teacher. No lethal moves though. New students are at the bottom of the table. But if you are from a noble family then things change. Right now the academy has almost a thousand students. We being at the bottom and you being a little above six hundred or so. Hundred and above are considered high rankers and the first ten are the elites."

"I see. A school ranking. Then what about the other one. Common ranking was it?"

"Yes. Also called academic standing, this ranking compares the power level of the three academies into one. You know a means to show that we are inferior to the other two. The test is influenced by the individual ranking, the main tournament as well as approved battles. Similar to the other school ranking there are high rankers and elites in this too. The first 200 are high rankers. The first fifty are elites and then the first ten are called kings. They possess a certain level of authority among the other students. Sadly none of the students from our academy has ever made to even the higher ranks. The highest rank an Itiferth student got was 320 which itself is considered impossible by normal standards."

"Seems troublesome. These so called kings, what's so special about them?"

"We don't know. All I know is they are crazy strong and comes from the top ten noble family. Of the ten eight are from Aduxria and the remaining two from Edenberry."

"Speak about being mysterious. So I am guessing world ranking includes all the adventures in the world and the number one being the strongest in this world."

"Exactly. To the three different rankings there is one thing common to them. Achievements, this the main factor which influences your ranking the most. If you complete a quest then that is considered as an achievement. The higher the quest difficulty the bigger the achievement points and proportionally the higher your ranking increases. Even us students can do quests. The academy has an adventure guild were quests which are considered appropriate for a student is given. You can select the quest you like and on its completion achievement points are granted. Currently there are fifteen quest levels which provides achievement points starting from F to SSS. But we students are only allowed accept quests upto difficulty D+. The higher rankers can accept quests of C+ difficulty while elites are allowed to do B+. And as you probably would have guessed the ones with king rankings are allowed to do A+ quests. Pretty cool right?"

As soon as Iud finished explanation my watch began to vibrate and a window appeared before me.

'Ding'

You have gathered new information. Tabulating information.

Quests and pointsSSS100000pointsSS75000piontsS50000pointsA+25000pointsA10000pointsB+5000pointsB3000pointsC+1500pointsC750pointsD+500pointsD300pointsE+200pointsE150pointsF+100pointsF100points

Adventurer Level UpGod1000000pointsEmpreror700000pointsKing500000pointsSSS300000pointsSS200000pointsS150000pointsA100000pointsB60000pointsC30000pointsD15000pointsE5000pointsF0point

"Wow Zeph. That is so cool. You aliens get such a cool thing. I wish I could get one. I heard it shows your status too." Davy shouted in ecstasy.

"You guys don't have one? The how do you know your status?"

"We are given a tablet which shows the status on it. Its called info pad. Its the same size of an anca but expands when we call out for the status." Iud said pulling out and showing me his status which were pretty much similar to mine."

We then talked about various stuffs and then decided to retire to our beds. The next day was a big day after all.

---***---

The next day I woke up to the sound of an alarm. Opening my eyes I sat up on my bed, stretching and yawning. I looked at the two beds to my side and found them empty. The clock showed the time to be six in the morning. Getting up I walked towards the bathroom which was attached to my room to freshen up. By the time it was seven I was ready wearing my new uniform. The two came in at that time all covered in sweat.

"Where did you go to?"

"Morning exercise. It doesn't hurt to be fit. You seem all ready for school. Wait for a while. We will get ready soon."

The two were ready by eight and the three of us headed downstairs. The canteen was on the ground floor. A huge hall with tables and chairs arranged neatly. There were waiters dressed in white and black ready to serve us the morning breakfast.

We grabbed a plate and got ourselves a couple of sandwich and some juice. We finished it quickly and then walked towards the exit. The guide in our hands had informed us that the new students had to gather infront of the boy's dormitory by nine on the first day. When we were out of the dormitory almost all the new students were standing in line and waiting for Celia to arrive. The three of us not wanting to be late ran and placed ourselves at the end of the line just like the rest of the students.

While standing and waiting for the teacher to arrive, I scanned around and I saw the senior students exiting the dormitory. Their uniforms had a different colour and a different vibe too. Some even carried a weapon with them. They looked at us with cold eyes and were murmuring something to each other while pointing to our direction. The wait in the line did not go for long. Celia soon came out of the dorm and stood before us. She then wished us a good morning and then gestured us to follow her.

The group walked behind her as she headed towards the A block. The academy had three main buildings for the academic purposes. The rest of the buildings in the campus were normally off limits to the students. For example the forest in the northern end of the academy. This forest was a prohibited area but was used as a means to test the strength of high ranking students as well as to help them increase rankings. The entrance to the forest was blocked by a wall and the only gate to it was heavily guarded. Then there were stables for low end monsters who were used as pets by monster tamers. Monster taming was a pretty popular course in Itiferth. As the students themselves are weak compared to the students of Aduxria and Edenberry, students of my academy used pet monster to decrease the power gap even by a little. Even though monster taming is allowed the other academies do not encourage it as they consider using monsters is an inferior way to win. Typical pride of the higher society, right. And so the academy had couple of stables for these pets. Then there were other buildings which I did not know. The three main academy blocks were erupted side by side resembling the shape of a trapezium which had its base removed.

The A block was in the middle, the B block being to the left and the C block to its right. In the middle was a large stadium like building which looked to like a football stadium to me. I guessed that that would be the venue for the tournament. In the vicinity there were other buildings too which I could not recognise.

Celia took us into the A block an led us through a flight of stairs taking us to the top most floor and again to a hall which had a number of small small partitions. The halls was divided into small rooms by a thin separation which was black coloured and like that there were almost thirty or so rooms in that single large hall.

Celia stopped and turned towards us causing her bosom to jiggle a little.

"I want you to enter these test centres one by one, finish the test and come back. There are thirty five centres and so thirty five of you will be taking the test at once. The results will be notified to you immediately and will also be recorded. Please be quick as the girls will be arriving soon. Now please begin."

Since me and my buddies were at the end of the line it took us a while to enter the center. The first batch took almost fifteen minutes to finish the test. I had to wait an hour to be able to take the test. Once inside the small center, the center lit up and I could feel a strange presence in the room. The room was covered in colourful light and was so bright I had to shut my eyes tight. The moment I shut my eyes I heard a sweet and feminine voice which startled me.

"Hello child. Please keep your eyes shut till I ask you to do otherwise. My name is Arthra and I will be guiding you through the test. What is your name child?"

"Zephard Calmor"

"Oh! That's a rare sight. Its been a while since I had a named one visit me. Calmor house, such a sad thing that its just shadow. Off with those things, let us continue. We shall begin with mana test followed by essence test then I will check your affinity and then your compatibility with a guardian. Are you ready? Keep your eyes shut and just sit still."

I replied with a yes and kept still. My hands felt another hand holding it gently, clasping them tight. I could feel the warmth of the hand as well as its softness. My body felt a slight shiver followed by a comforting warmth. My heart beat sped and my head hurt lightly. The hands that caught my hands were not covering my face which caused me to blush lightly. The hands but now felt much colder than before. And the coldness spread throughout me. In a while the hand disappeared and the pain and coldness subsided.

"You have great power boy. Power enough to change the world's fate and yet your heart is weak. So weak that even a falling leaf could kill you. Get stronger child, the things you have to do are a lot. Open your eyes slowly and gently son. Its a pleasure to have met you."

My eyes refused to open for a while. But when it did the room was empty and lifeless. The colour and presence had faded leaving me all alone in the room. In my hand was a piece of paper which read as,

Mana Value25Essence value23AffinityMatterGuardianLevel 8

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