Ranks
"At my grandpa's place," Ryan answered.
"Still, you should have at least answered your phone."
Standing in an open square area, Ryan faced Tracy and Jacob, who bombarded him with interrogating questions.
Ignoring the gazes from the onlookers, filled with ridicule and contempt, and whispering laughter that mocked him, Ryan remained composed.
Ryan paid no attention to the mocking looks, but Tracy and Jacob's expressions darkened.
Kevin slapped Ryan's back hard, grinning from ear to ear. "What are you, a primary school student? Hahahahaha, how could you get such terrible marks?"
"This insensitive little bastard," Jacob whispered through gritted teeth.
"I am one of the top three now, muahaha," Ash chimed in and said proudly, puffing up his chest.
"Since when did you become one of this group?" Tracy said, not masking her annoyance. "Why do you people keep getting close to Ryan?"
"Cough, may I have your attention, please?" Professor Alfred showed up, gathering everyone's focus toward himself.
"Alright, once again, congratulations to everyone here for safely passing the exam. Everyone did a good job."
"Although many of you survived by sheer luck or relied on the strongest students, what's important is not how you won but that you won and survived."
"Now, I'm sure most of you received an email yesterday and saw your scores on the large monitor this morning, displaying your ranking alongside your new class and dorm room."
===Ranks===
1st Astin Buer
2nd Damion Oclixir
3rd Ash Berder
4th Lisa Elsher
5th, Amanda Rosiana
6th Steve Kloth
7th, Tracy Elenore
8th Kevin Kloth
9th Jacob Duncan
...
19th Eddie Reed
20th Ryan Cassier
Ryan raised his head and heaved a defeated sigh, This only goes to show how poorly he scored in the written exam.
'The reason I still got a relatively high ranking was simple: my performance in the practical exam and favoritism due to the title 'grandson of the headmaster.' That was enough reason for me to earn additional points.' Ryan stretched his neck and put his thoughts aside, habitually started shaking his head, and focused his mind on the ongoing chatter to remain awake.
"My test results were so very good."
"I got knocked out after the skeleton destroyed the walls, but I still survived and got a high rank; I'm in the top thirty," a student said proudly.
"How lucky, I ranked in the forties."
"Don't worry, I've checked it out, We're still in the same class."
Clapping his hands to attract the students' attention, Professor Alfred said, "You can all have as much time to chatter after today's training."
Alfred fell silent for a few seconds before resuming,
"Now let's start. The rules are simple."
"Behind me on this track, each one of you must go through, avoiding obstacles and traps. You will be given a weapon and use it to shoot the villain robots with red eyes."
"The ones with blue eyes are allies, and the green ones are civilians. Attacking a villain is worth 1 point. Attacking the Allies is minus 5 points. Attacking a civilian is minus 10 points," Professor Alfred continued to explain.
"You will be putting this bracelet on. It's a device, one for radiation users and one for mana users. This will obscure the natural flow of energy in your body and turn you into an ordinary human."
"The purpose of this training is to train your bodies this time. Most of you in the exam have survived due to pure luck or relied on the strongest people here."
"That still defeats the whole purpose of your coming to the academy. Future humanity heroes cannot be weaklings who'll rely on others to survive."
Turning the casual atmosphere silent as a grave, Alfred simply said, "Now let's start."
"First on the track is Astin."
Astin put the bracelet around his wrist and held the Lazor gun he had been given, waiting in front of the starting line.
"1, 2, 3, go!"
Astin dashed along the way, nimbly avoiding the traps and attacking the red-eyed robots without any wasted movement.
"It happens more often than you think," Alfred admired as he looked at the screen display. "In a real-life battle, you may run out of mana, suffer from depletion, or go through radiation exhaustion, but what would truly help you in that situation is your body."
"That's why you should train and rely more on your physical strength."
"Especially for a magician, their physical power is pathetic compared to radiation users and awakeners. Raw power in a fistfight will increase tremendously: endurance, stamina, focus, agility, health, and so on— all these aspects are things your power cannot give you when your life is on the line."
His eyes drifted toward every student in the square. Then, they focused on the monitor screen, displaying the traps that Astin avoided. Astin used his swift judgment to attack the villain, missing not even one.
He completed the entire training in less than 5 minutes, boosting his classmates' confidence by making it look easy.
Next up was Damion.
Damion also had an easy time, as his family had focused on training his physique since childhood. He completed the exam in a solid 4 minutes, disabling all villain robots.
"Next!"
Ash flamboyantly finished the exam, nearly shooting one of his allies' heads off.
Tracy and Jacob struggled because this exam was largely disadvantageous for them as magicians.
The list continued, moving from the top ranks to the lower ranks until it was finally Ryan's turn.
"Ryan Cassier," Alfred called out for Ryan to get ready for his turn.
Normally, this shouldn't have been his job, but since Mia's disappearance and the low number of firsts, he took on the task.
The main reason was— he looked at Ryan with a sidelong glance; everyone considered him to become 'the seer's successor.' It was surprising to think the seer had a grandson.
Alfred was happy, but his happiness quickly turned to pity.
"My grandson is a bit special; he just recently recovered from an illness and didn't have the opportunity to study like a normal kid. That's why I couldn't have shown him to you before, so please show him some patience and compassion." The seer's bitter smile in Alfred's memory was especially heart-breaking.
Ryan didn't pay much attention to what was going through Alfred's head; he looked at the bracelet he had been handed and sighed quietly.
He put it on without complaint, and the moment he did, his vision turned black as darkness seemed to swallow him.
He could no longer see anything.
All his senses were obscured; tiredness, sleepiness, and dizziness overwhelmed him. He staggered a bit, but it was unnoticeable as a slow, gentle radiation propped him up.
"Are you ready?" Alfred asked, and his tone softened a lot without him noticing.
Ryan nodded.
'The track is a neighborhood area; multiple civilian inhabitants are going on the streets panicking. There are 20 villains; five of them are snipers. Buildings are approximately 15, each less than 4 stories high, and there are 6 allies.'
Using the radiation he had set up beforehand, he moved through the alleyways slowly, making it through in 9 minutes and 42 seconds.
"Next."
***
Entering his new room, Ryan slumped down onto the clean, fluffy, comfy bed.
Spending the last three days alone was enough for him to release his pent-up frustration and helplessness about what had happened in the troublesome past two months that felt like a lifetime.
Having to suddenly train and deal with unfamiliar people, almost losing his life, caused him more stress than ever in his entire past life. At least he had always found a breathing space with his family and friends, but not here.
He needed this time alone to think through what he was going to do next.
"I've already become a target for Astin's interest; I can't just sit by and wait for my strength to increase passively."
His growth rate was unbelievably fast, even for people in this world, but potential played a role here.
Sitting down in a meditative position, Ryan focused his senses on connecting with the radiation in the air rather than absorbing it.
Radiation around him moved per his will and spread in all directions.
Soon, an overview of his surroundings became apparent, as if he could see through walls, and his hearing magnified multiple times as noisy talks and random conversations filled his ears.
"Man, that was seriously tiring, huh?"
"No wonder we were given such training and exams."
"I heard that villains were running rampant."
"I haven't heard anything about hero killers for a while."
"Wouldn't it be better if he disappeared?"
"That was pathetic."
"That just shows how much Ryan depended on his power."
Chatter filled the entire academy as Ryan struggled to process the overwhelming amount of information.
Opening his eyes, he retracted his radiation and said, "Personal interface; status."
====Status===
Name: Ryan Cassier
Age: 16 years old (28 y/o)
Rank: B-
Power: Superpower Manipulation
Description: The ability to control and alter the powers of others, It can steal someone else's ability, give them another, or create a new one, The user can also manipulate the effects of others' powers by temporarily enhancing or reducing them, depending on the user's will.
Side effects: The user won't be able to utilize mana nor change the natural strength (mana and radiation) of a person; the user can't give or take someone's ability more than once.
Sub-power:
Energy vision (S+): The user would be able to see the energy in the air, as well as the ability to sense the emotions contained in others or to see auras around people.
Energy control (A): The user can easily move radiation physically or mentally and give pre-constructed orders for various tasks in the air or objects.
Fire (B+): The user's ability to manipulate and generate a hotter fire has increased effectively and absolutely.
Fire immunity: passive
Super Enhancement (B): The user would be able to enhance his overall status (power, speed, endurance, agility, etc.).
Water (D): The user would be able to manipulate and generate water and turn it into ice.
Invisibility (D+): The user can render themselves unseen by the naked eye.
Power state: active
------
Mental Resistance: The user will have immunity to all kinds of mental attacks and brainwashing, regardless of their rank.
Power status: active (passive)
Side effect: none
Potential: ex-class.
======
He had created this status screen to minimize energy usage and the resulting nausea from energy absorption. 'My powers have become more detailed.'