Obtaining Magical Abilities (Part 2)

Getting to the vehicle outside the building, they saw it was a Seetle but it was larger than the usual one so that it could contain all of them.

The roll call was done and the students got into the Seetle along with Miss Summer.

Sitting next to Cat, Nikki and Sasha, Jake got a message from Smith.

"Hey Jake, where in the Seetle are you?"

"I'm sitting at the back. I'm with Cat and some of her friends."

"I just wanted to make sure you were in the Seetle with us."

"Thanks, I appreciate it. Where are you sitting?"

"In the middle."

"Is Kevin with you?"

"No. He's with a girl sitting a few seats ahead of me."

"I would expect nothing less. Hey while we're on the road, let's check out the results of our simulation exam."

"Great idea."

"Hey Cat," Jake said to Cat, "check out your simulation exam result."

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that." Cat said bringing her phone out of her handbag. "Nikki, Sasha you guys should check your simulation exam result. And where's Jenna?"

"I don't know." Nikki said. "She left us when we were all in the hall and I've not seen her since."

Very soon every student in the Seetle was logging on to the school's website checking the results.

"Jake you came first." Cat said excitedly after she had seen the results then began searching for hers.

"Sasha, You're third?" Nikki asked in surprise.

"I am." Sasha said also looking at her phone.

"How'd you do it?" Nikki asked.

"I don't know, I survived for three minutes ten seconds." Sasha said.

Jake was staring at his name which was at the top of the list. 'So I'm the only one who survived for the whole five minutes and killed all three of the hostiles.' Jake thought to himself. 'This Ty McMann only lasted four minutes and killed one hostile and he's the second person.'

"Wow guys." Cat said still excited. "I'm seventh. Wait a sec, how am I seventh? Sasha only passed me with ten seconds and she's third. And I survived longer than some of the people above me."

"Yeah Cat. But it also says you were lucky with the arena and got an armory full of weapons." Jake said.

"And that you hesitated to kill the hostiles." Nikki chimed in. "Sasha didn't hesitate. At least you're seventh, I'm at the twentieth position."

"Sky's at the eleventh position." Jake said.

"Really?" Cat asked.

"Yeah." Jake answered. "Check it."

"Students." Miss Summer called out. "Get ready, we are about to arrive at our destination."

Looking out the window, the students could see a large compound with different buildings inside and the name of the facility was imprinted on one of the buildings in the compound which read "Trydon Inc."

"Whoa! This place is gigantic."

"Even bigger than our school, and our school is huge."

"I can't wait to get in."

"I wish I get a fire based magical ability."

"Fire? I wish I get a photokinetic ability."

"What's a photokinetic ability?"

"To manipulate and create light."

The students were talking non-stop about the different magical abilities they could get and the ones that would be most effective in a fight against a Wert.

Coming to a stop in the parking garage in the large compound, Miss Summer got down from the Seetle first and did another roll call as each student got down from the vehicle.

"Okay students, before we go in I want you all to listen to me. I know you are all excited about getting your magical abilities but before you get them, there is going to be a lesson on how we are able to use magical abilities, where it first came from, and the cost or downside of using magic."

"There's a downside?" a student shouted from the crowd.

"Yes there is." Summer answered. "If there wasn't a downside everybody you see would be using magic. That is why instead of using only magic, we use magic and technology."

Walking up to Summer and whispering in her ear was a man in a suit.

"Listen up everyone." Summer said when the man was done whispering in her ear. "This is Mr Ken Yung." she said pointing at him. "He will be our guide."

"It's a pleasure to meet you all." Ken said. "Please do not stay too far behind and try to move in groups. Follow me."

Following Mr Ken out of the parking garage and into a building, the students eyes kept looking everywhere. There were so many equipments in the compound that they had never seen before and it was all so fascinating to them.

"As you can see," Ken said to the students while pointing at a rough, baseball-sized transparent stone, "this is an energy core. It is gotten from the inside of a Wert."

"Wow!" Most of the students said in awe. Their phones along with other devices had been collected before stepping into the building and they had also been checked thoroughly to prevent them from taking pictures of anything they saw within the buildings if not, they would have been taking as many pictures as they could to upload it to their Chitglam profiles.

"Dude," Kevin said to Smith, "do you know how many more people would join my audience on Chitglam if I uploaded pictures of this energy core?"

"No." Smith answered. "And don't try to do anything stupid Kevin, just stay quiet and pay attention to what Mr Ken's saying."

"You're no fun Smith." Kevin said.

"When a Wert is killed, these energy cores can be found inside them. Do you all know Werts use magic?"

Most of them answered 'no' while others said 'yes'.

"Werts do use magic." Ken said to them while walking and answering a question someone asked about the images on the walls. "These images depict the period when we fought with our lives on the line against the Werts. We have lived in peace for so long but still, the memories of the war are ingrained in some minds of the people who took part in the battle against the Werts."

"As I was saying," Ken continued, "the Werts use magic. We got our magic from them."

Exclamations was heard coming from all the students. They never knew that the magical abilities people used today were gotten from the Werts, mankind's worst enemy.

"When the Werts first attacked us decades ago, we were defenseless against them. All our weapons and technological devices were nothing compared to the magic they used. They were killing us without a second thought and they were far superior to us in strength, speed, everything. In other words, we were far inferior to them. Luckily, one day we were finally able to kill some of them, after losing some of their own they retreated for a while, we never knew why."

Looking back at the now seated students, Ken saw them paying very close attention to every single word he said.

Not wanting to miss anything, the students had all gone quiet and the ambiance was now so quiet, one could hear a pin drop.

Ken continued narrating the battle that had taken place between the Humans and the Werts.

"Taking the dead bodies of the Werts we had killed, we found the energy cores in their bodies at the place where our heart is. So for them, instead of a heart that provides blood, they have a core that provides magic. By melting the core, our researchers were able to give someone who volunteered to help test the core the magic the Werts had. The test was successful and the person was able to use the magic the Werts used. The Werts had started attacking again so we had to use a significant amount of our forces to protect our researchers because we all knew if we were ever going to survive the battle against the Werts, the researchers were going to play a very important part in helping.

The person who was used to test the magic from the energy core was already starting to become good at using it but he died."

At this point gasps of shock were heard from the students. "What killed him?" a student asked.

"The magic did." Ken answered.

"What? How?" another student asked.

"If you want to know what happened can you please let me finish what I was narrating to you?"

"Sorry." the student apologised. "Please go on."

"Thank you. The frequent use of magic is what killed him. Some of you might have heard of him, his name was Sebastian Grey."

"Yes I've heard of him. He was some sort of war hero or something." a student said.

"Oh yeah. Sebastian Grey, the man who saved the human race."

"But if he died how did he save the human race?" another student asked.

"He probably figured something out, let's continue listening."

"You all are correct." Ken said. "Sebastian Grey was indeed a war hero. Before he died, he managed to pass a message to the researchers. He told them that whenever he used magic, he would feel a part of him go. It was as if the cost of using magic was him giving up part of his life force."

Seeing a student open his mouth to speak, Ken said to the student, "I know what you're going to ask. If using magic kills us how do we use it now? If you let me finish, all your questions will be answered. Now please until I finish, no more questions. Thank you."

"When the researchers found out about this problem, they began to look for ways we can use magic without it killing us. We were still under attack from the Werts and we were struggling to say the least. The researchers finally came up with a way for us to use magic with a lesser downside, it won't kill us but using magic past our limit deteriorates our health which could kill. So all we had to do was use magic but not past our limit. And there's a catch, the magic chooses its user. If a person is given a magical ability that is not compatible with him or her, the person dies within ten minutes."

"Excuse me sir?" Smith said raising his hand.

"You have a question?" Ken asked him.

"Yes sir. I just want to ask, how do we know when we've reached our limit?"

"When you start using magic you'll know when you've reached your limit. You're going to feel the strain it will put on you, and if that's not enough indication, you are going to start bleeding from your nose first."

"Hold on, what do you mean 'first'?" Kevin asked.

"You start bleeding from your nose, then your ears if you keep using your magic and I'm sure you know what happens next. Now, who's ready to get some magic?"