[The Difference between Ranks]

-----Luke's POV-----

*heavy breathing*

'...'

I stumbled a little as the sensory overload took me a moment to overcome. Leaning against my sword I look at the mirror fixed on the opposite wall…' see I look good...' I looked at my blond hair and blue eyes, as I was not wearing my shirt, my muscular/athletic upper body was visible. Leaning against my training sword I did cut a dashing figure…' if only she would notice this...'

*sigh*

A quick shower and I was ready to go back to that godforsaken academy'...ugh if the only reason I bother to show up, would give me some time of her day...'

I exchanged greetings with a couple of friends as I made my way to classroom D. I was a little exhausted so I straight away made my way to my seat and flopped on my chair. I looked around and noticed that Jane isn't here yet, so I started fiddling with my watch and started listening to some songs.'...what why do I feel a lot of eyes on me...'

I looked around and noticed some of the high-rankers sneaking glances my way and then towards the lower ranks of the class.'...I swear to god if someone was stupid enough to mess with me I'll...'

'...' *blink*

'...' *blink*

'...why the fuck is Jane sitting with...and who the fuck is he anyway...' I looked around and gestured to Layla, "Who's that?"

"That is Mike White, black sheep of the White clan"...she fucking giggled here, but upon seeing my impressed look hurriedly continued…" he has a regeneration ability which is B+ ranked...although his regeneration ability is impressive, his strength is too weak to utilize it effectively, so he has always been an outcast..."

I looked at the guy, maybe the first time I looked at a guy this closely. He had brown hair, blue eyes, baby white skin, and a lean figure…' though he has the looks I still don't see any reason for Jane to be sitting next to him.'

I stood up and walked towards the back of our class and all of a sudden I am the center of attention'' this...this is how it should be" I walk up to the seat on the right side of Mike and the person sitting on the seat immediately leaves it open as I nonchalantly sit down.

'...'

'...'

I guess two deadpanned looks should have been expected, but now we do make a weird trio…' anyway now to look into this Mike...'

I opened my watch and accessed the files to do some recon…

---------------------------X0X----------------------------

-----Mike's POV-----

'...'

'No...no no no… this was not how today was supposed to go...I was supposed to go by my day and no one who notices little ol' me, so how that end up sitting between Jane fucking Whitmore and Luke kill'me Cooper...fuck my life...'

'...'

'Yeah you are not fooling anyone with those faces you...ugh anyway what now pretend like two of the highest-ranked people are not sitting around me…?'

I looked at Jane first, she had flaming red hair and dark charcoal eyes that contained a hint of disinterest. Luke on the other hand was a sandy blond-haired dude with sharp eyes and a wicked smile.

[Ping!]

[Due to your keen observations a skill Inspect was created]

[Bronze tier Skill: Inspect]

I flinched slightly at the pinging sound as it popped up when I was regarding Luke, the slight movement did not go unnoticed by anyone as Jane seemed to peer at me with curiosity and Luke with annoyance.

Mentally closing the notification window I noticed almost everyone had their name floating on top of everyone's head along with their abilities, or at least that was the case for the lower-ranked personnel, Luke and Jane just had some ??? in place of their abilities.

'...maybe I need to sit one out today and not gather any attention...or more attention...' I silently waited and just looked at the projectors as I endured all the classes under the watchful eyes of Luke, Jane, and half of the class.

'...'

As I tried to silently slip towards the dormitories Luke who should be behind me somehow blocked my way right in front of the combat room. Looking at his expression I would be stupid not to realize the situation I was in, so I walked into the combat room and wait for him.

Jane followed Luke into the room and leaned on the wall indicating that she had no hand in any of this.

*sigh*

Luke gave me a once over before speaking," Name's Luke..."

'...' *blink*

"Mike..." my reply was crisp, betraying my nervousness.

"Sooo...Mike...why was a higher-ranked student sitting among the lower-rankers..."

'...You son of a ...'

"Because that's how it always has been..." there was a hint of annoyance and anger in my voice that seeped due to years of mistreatment.

"Come on now dude!...you know the hierarchy, you should hang out with other rankers in your status range..."

'Okay I know an insult when I hear one, but fuck you man control your girl I didn't do shit...'

"I guess I just don't fit in..."

"Don't worry about that dude!...we are all friends here aren't we…? How about a spar let's exchange some pointers..."

*groan*

'Fuck I groaned...no way out of this I suppose...'

"Sure...friend!" I ignore his glare at that remark and move in the ring.

Luke travels to the nearby weapons crate and picks up two swords and throws one to me...I briefly swing the sword trying to adjust to the weight by some quick flicks and jabs…

[You have entered combat mode against Luke Cooper]

[Silver Skill Military blade mastery activated!]

'...'

'...interesting'

I look at Luke and notice that his ability isn't just question marks anymore, but looking at the description I don't think I like knowing that …

[Name: Luke Cooper]

[Lv:45 ]

[Ability: One with the Sword [A] ]

Luke dashed at normal speed towards me and jabs at me as a feint, when I lean towards my right and turn my body to avoid the blow, he gracefully turns his body to deliver a powerful slash towards my chest which I barely parry while deploying some footwork to avoid being in his attack range.

Luke seemed genuinely surprised that I managed to avoid getting injured and came at me with renewed speed. I was turned into a training dummy as he used my movements to chain several slashes. After some sparring, Luke finally got a hit on my sword handle and managed to disarm me…

Luke seemed genuinely surprised by my level of swordsmanship, and it seems that the guy genuinely adores swords as he visibly controlled himself, trying not to teach me some moves and try to correct my mistakes.

I looked at Jane, the culprit of all this misjudgment to notice that she had an interesting look on her face.'Ok, I don't like that look one bit...I don't wanna get mixed into whatever…'

[Ping!]

[You managed to survive a fight with an opponent above your battle strength]

[Granting Exp based on level difference]

[Lv. difference*50 Exp awarded]

[Ping!]

[Levelup!]

[Ping!]

[Levelup!]

I tried to ignore the level-up messages but looking at the widening of Jane's eyes, I realized that she figured something out as she started to walk towards me…Luke also noticed something was up as he waited to let Jane walk over…

"You grew stronger just now..."

'Fuck how did she figure that out...man am screwed'

"What do you mean!" I tried to play it off as I looked towards the training sword and gave it a few flicks...or I tried to before the training sword disintegrated in my hands and I hurriedly backed away and dusted my hands off the weird particles… Luke looked pained at the loss of a perfectly good sword but still silently waited for Jane to act…' Man! Guess who wears the pants in that relationship...ugh joke's later Mike, urgent situation...'

Before I could even think about forming the words Jane spoke "I have the ability to control matter and your cell structure just changed to make it a tiny bit harder to manipulate...soooo...care to share?" So she posed it like a question but I could feel that it wasn't a simple request…

*sigh*

'...should I be happy or sad at the two-level ups...'

I looked at Jane who had an expectant look on her face and even Luke looked interested...

'...fuck my life...'