Chapter 5: Absolutely shocked, who is James?

Edwin laughed a little after his bold statement, it finally placated some of his nervousness he had before.

"What about you James? What ability do you think you awoke?"

James looked at Edwin, his eyes seemed lost in thought and for a brief moment James almost looked a little disappointed.

"Hm, not saying! Guess you'll just have to watch and see how I amaze everyone too, huh?"

Edwin rolled his eyes and sighed. He didn't think his own phrase would be used against him.

"You got me pretty good. I see what you're doing James!"

James and Edwin continued to make small talk and banter for a while. Stars and blackness flashed past the window. A large, beautiful planet could be seen, covered mostly in blue with a few splashes of green.

The planets name was Tenron, it was one of three habitable planets in the solar system. Epsil, the planet they were currently traveling to, although habitable, wasn't considered so because dangerous alien creatures had been collected and reared on the planet by the federation of the Human race.

It was used as a training planet and was the only one withing the surround solar systems, so it was quite famous locally. Many rumors were thrown around the shuttle's cabin about what they'd be doing on the planet.

A few assumed that they'd be thrown into the wilderness and asked to survive. Others assumed that they'd just be shown the dangers of the universe up close in personal to scare them into working harder.

After talking with James for a while Edwin couldn't help but begin to feel drowsy as they ran out of topics to talk about.

"Do you intend on taking a nap James?"

James looked at Edwin and smiled.

"I'm too excited to nap, I don't understand how you can be tired right now."

"Well since you don't intent to nap would you mind waking me up in one hour?"

"Sure Edwin, Enjoy your nap."

Edwin leaned back in his chair. He knew they had just over an hour before they'd arrive at the planet anyways. As he closed his eyes Edwin felt himself slowly drifting off into sleep.

Before he knew Edwin found himself in a pitch-black space again. He looked around while breaking out in a cold sweat, and on the horizon, he could see his only friend in this area. The white fog looking substance.

Every time he awoke in this abyss the fog seemed slightly closer, however whenever he ran towards the fog it seemed to maintain the same distance. It could only move closer on its own he assumed.

Calming himself down Edwin decided not to chase the fog anymore, if coming to the abyss was going to be a frequent occurrence, he'd rather try and learn more about it. After a moment of thought he realized one thing he thought he noticed was that every time he entered the abyss, he was there for longer than the last time.

Edwin took a seat and crossed his legs. He took a few deep breaths and finally decide to find out how long he'd be in the abyss this time.

'1, 2, 3, 4, 5... 60.'

Edwin continued to count the second, minutes, and hours that passed. Thankfully due to the awakening ceremony strengthening his mind, and thousands of years of evolution, it wasn't even slightly difficult to count the time like he was doing.

Edwin awoke with a slight start to shaking.

"Edwin, Edwin, wake up, it's been an hour."

Edwin looked a James with a blank look. He remembered exactly when he stopped counting. Right around 3 hours.

'If it increases every time that'd be quite scary, but this time 1 hour in the real world was 3 hours in the abyss. A 3x increase...'

"Thanks for waking me up, James."

Edwin looked out the window and could see a planet that was mostly brown, in a few spots there was blue bodies of water with a layer of green that separated it from the brown.

Epsil was a desert planet. The one thing on the planet that kept the planet alive was the abundance of oasis on it.

The large old man walked out of the front cabin area of the shuttle.

"Students please quite it down and listen as the on-board system describes the current weather and such on Epsil."

As everyone quieted down the system started as if on que.

"Landing sequence initializing, please remain seated for your safety. Landing on planet Epsil, current temperature is 55 degrees Celsius, wind speed is 32 kilometers per hour, time at landing location is 11:00 AM."

Although it was quite hot and windy, which would definitely mean they'd by blustered by sand, the weather was manageable for the freshly awakened graduates. The environment would only cause them problems if they were exposed to it for a long period of time.

Only a couple minutes passed from the shuttles warning before it landed on the ground.

"Please graduates get off the shuttle and get into a box formation."

The old man ushered them off the shuttle.

All the graduates from the different shuttles disembarked and got into their own formations.

There were around 100 million graduates from the planet Tenron, and another 190 million or so from the other two planets of the solar system they were in. 290 formations of 1 million graduates.

Although it seemed like a significant number it really wasn't much considering that Edwin came from a city that already contained a massive population, let alone the other cities and planets in the solar system.

The same old man from before approached a stage as a massive hologram lit up behind him. Everyone could see it.

"Welcome Graduates, I'm sure many of you are confused and curious about the current situation. Due to a war in the northern area of the human controlled region of the galaxy, there has been a change to the ability testing event."

Everyone regardless of how far away they were from the old man could hear him clearly. He was definitely a very powerful person.

"Graduates who awoke a combat type ability will be thrown into the wilderness of Epsil for a week, on day one you will be taught a class on the basics of survival before being left to fend for yourself starting on the sunset of day one. Each of you will be fitted with a device that will monitor your situation, warn us when you're in danger so we can save you, and grade your performance accordingly. This hardship is not without reward, with danger comes greater opportunities, the individual with the highest score in the end will receive great rewards sponsored by the Military of our solar system and the 5 great families."

The old man finally seemed a bit winded after his long speech and paused to take a deep breath.

"On the other hand, graduates who awoke various abilities that are better suited for logistical work or other things besides combat will receive specialized training in groups. You too will be given devices that will grade your performance in your classes. The top individual of all these classes will be able to have a great reward similar to the top individual from the survival challenge."

The old man stopped for a moment so all the graduates could process all the new information.

"For now, graduates we will get started with the ability testing event. Please begin to line up at the tables Infront of your row, you'll be split into groups of 1,000 and then the event will begin."

Thanks to the extreme efficiency of the awakened at the desk, everyone was split into groups in just less than an hour. All that happened was they collected the graduate's basic information and assigned a device to them.

Since James and Edwin had been standing one Infront of the other they were luckily assigned to the same group. After being separated everything began to happen quite quickly. To start the ability testing event there were various exercises the graduates would perform.

By time everyone in their group finished the exercises it was pretty clear if an individual had awoken a body enhancing type of ability. Edwin was average among the graduates, exceeding or failing in nothing in particular, at most he was slightly faster than average in running.

James on the other hand performed miraculous feats of strength and dexterity. He was able to easily life 4,000 kilograms and when he performed his sprint test his max speed was around 126 kilometers per hour.

"Wow James! You're a Beast, what kind of power did you awaken, it turned you into a monster!"

James sighed.

"Although it looks great, I would've rather been average in everything. I'll likely end up on the front lines of the war with how I'm performing."

Edwin recalled James wanted an ability that would let him lead an easy life. Clearly fate had a different plan for him, his incredible Attributes would make him a prime target for military or some kind of combat role. Even if James had tried to hide his true power it would've been meaningless in today's age the systems used for testing would easily be able to tell if James had given his full effort or not.

After the test were concluded the examiners led the graduates to a stage.

"We will now begin scanning your bodies in order to tell what ability you awoke, please step forward once your name is called."

As the examiners called individuals up, they would scan them while they stood on the stage and information would appear on a screen that everyone could read.

There was new information on the screen that had never appeared at any earlier tests. Next to the ability was a spot for a grade.

The examiner could see the confusion on the face of the graduates, so he briefly explained the situation.

"Since the war has made us place a higher expectation on your generation, we've overhauled the previous system to better grade an individual to help determine where they'd best be suited to go. The grades go from Ungraded to F, E, D, C, B, A, S, SS, and finally, SSS. Two people who awaken the same ability can have completely different results in grade based on how powerful their ability is after awakening it.

Each grade is a major step. Someone who is an F grade is never expected to beat someone who is E grade. Unless they're only a minor level apart. Each grade is split into four minor levels. low, mid, upper and peak. This not only determines their strength but also potential.

Someone who awoke an ability at F grade would have to work 100 times harder than someone who awoke the same ability at D grade to maintain an equal strength. Lastly, just because someone awoke an ability at Ungraded doesn't make them weak. Infact some of the strongest abilities are likely to be ungraded as there isn't enough information or data to compare them to that would allow us to determine an accurate grade."

After hearing the examiner, the graduates quickly forgot about their abilities and rather focused on the grade they'd awaken at.

As the examiner began calling people up to be assessed it was quickly apparent that most individuals awoke their abilities at E grade. Occasionally an F grade would appear. After a while a D grade appeared.

Everyone gasped, but after seeing his ability they couldn't help but feel it was wasted, [Green Thumb]. Obviously, the ability only seemed good for growing plants.

Seeing the expression on the graduate's face as though she just ate a mouthful of shit the examiner could help but motivate her.

"A powerful ability and a good grade. Many green thumb ability users become powerful healers, they are well respected for their ability to cultivate rare and powerful plants with miraculous effects. Surely a lot of powerful organizations will reach out to you."

After hearing the words, the frown was completely removed from the graduate's face as she happily skipped off the stage. The examiner quickly looked out towards the crowd and scanned everyone's faces before stopping on one person in particular.

Edwin frowned.

'Is he looking at me? do I know him somehow from somewhere?'

The examiner finally called out the next name.

"James Buchannan."

Edwin was flabbergasted as he looked at James who was standing next to him. Buchannan, it couldn't be. The Buchannan family was one of the 5 great families of the solar system, but it was a little different from the other 4.

The Buchannan family didn't originate from the solar system like the rest of the families did. They were just a small branch of a far stronger family in the human controlled region of the galaxy. Although they weren't the strongest, they were easily in the top 50 in the galaxy.

They were a powerful family with an amazing ability, [Manyfold] as the ability grew stronger it would multiply all physical attributes by x amount. They were famous for their strong backing of the military. Many Buchannans became commanders on the front line thanks to their terrifying ability. Not only were their bodies horrifyingly strong they were also extremely intelligent thanks to their ability. This made them perfect leaders in combat zones.

Edwin couldn't believe he had been talking to a Buchannan all this time, he realized why Hyde had left him alone now. He also couldn't believe he didn't recognize all the tell tell signs he was a Buchannan either. His dark eyes, height and facial features clearly pointed at him being one.

As James stood on stage the scanning equipment booted up and completed its scan as all his information appeared on the screen.

[Manyfold] Grade A.

All body and mental attributes increased by 20x.

It was really quite high, and his grade was the highest they'd seen out of any assessments.

As James walked down the stage, he shot Edwin a glance and upon seeing his expression he gave a knowing smile.

"I guess this changes everything, huh?