Young Elites

In a very expensive café, five students were sitting in a group.

They were waiting for the group's sixth member to arrive, but it looked like they were running late.

Although they belonged to elite and high-class households, they were looking nothing short of delinquents right now.

Laughing loudly at even the smallest jokes, drinking alcohol, and smoking cigarettes in a public place.

They were basically the group of rich kids who called themselves as the Young Elites.

They were a group of cadets consisting of the heirs of big influential, and noble families.

Their head was Kai Wiseman.

Quinn was also present there, but he wasn't socializing in the least.

He was busy digging his mouth into his burger while quietly observing these kids who called themselves "future elites."

Although Quinn was not officially recognized as an elite due to his illegitimate birth, he had a reputation for being a skilled fighter.

In fact, his battle prowess and talent in magic were on par with Nero's, another elite who faced similar discrimination and rejection due to his illegitimate birth.

In the Northern Continent's border, where Quinn had fought on the front lines against the lower class Vampires for the most part of his teenage life, they called him the 'Calamity Bringer.'

Quinn had a long history of fighting, having been sent to the border to fight as a child.

This was a common practice in the North, where he was from from. Orphan children with exceptional abilities were often sent to the battlefield there.

In this case, though, Quinn's own father sent him to the border.

Not because he was his illegitimate son and he wanted him to die or anything. But because Quinn was his 'experiment.'

Major Miles Darkstar— Quinn's father was an estranged practitioner of the spell of the dark element called ‹Necromancy›.

But using ‹Necromancy› to bring the dead back to life and control them as puppets can negatively affect the mage's life as if nature's way of trying to maintain its laws and preserve life.

Due to this natural restriction, Major Miles could never use the full potential of the ‹Necromancy› spell. In fact, no one ever could.

In an effort to overcome this limitation, he conducted a series of experiments on his own illegitimate son, Quinn.

After that, at age 14 he sent him to the border for 4 years. For 4 years, Quinn assisted the soldiers in their missions there and sometimes even fought.

As a result of his father's experiments and the challenging environment of the northern border, Quinn became a formidable force with exceptional control over the element of darkness, as demonstrated by his survival on the battlefield for all these years.

Major Miles' experiment was therefore considered a success.

He had, for the first time in history, created a perfect Necromancer.

But despite his extensive combat experience, Quinn was required to attend the Academy, as it was mandatory by the law for anyone with the ability to wield mana to receive proper military training.

There were many articles written about him, and the media hailed him as a war prodigy. In short, Quinn had a bright future ahead of him in the military.

That's why Kai thought that making a connection with him would be good.

Their laughing and joking halted as soon as the cafe's door opened up, and a blonde girl stepped in.

"You are late!" Ella commented when she saw Grace walk into the cafe.

"Yeah, I met a pest on my way here," said Grace nonchalantly before walking up to them and casually sitting beside Quinn.

Quinn shifted a little to his left when his private space was invaded by the blonde girl, to which Grace just frowned.

"A pest, huh?" Ella glanced at Grace with questioning eyes.

She had known Grace for a few years now, so she knew there were too many people Grace would call names like "pests."

Feeling her questioning gaze, Grace spoke up, "Lucas. That trash was assigned to the apartment next to me."

"Ahhh!" Ella nodded with an arched eyebrow in understanding.

"Lucas Morningstar? The one they call 'Disgrace of the Morningstar family'?" Kai, who had been drinking till now, placed the can of beer down and asked.

"Yeah, that trash. Not only is he disowned now for molesting a commoner girl, but he also has no redeeming qualities to speak of… except for his looks. He is pretty hot, not going to lie." Grace admitted before turning towards Quinn, who was quietly eating.

"Anyway, hello Quinn, I don't believe we have met yet. I am Grace Godwill," she said.

"Mmm, I know," Quinn curtly replied while putting away the burger that he had been eating for the last 10 minutes and continued.

"Anyway, about this Lucas guy."

"Ah right, he picked a fight with you didn't he?" Grace understood why Quinn was asking about Lucas. In her eyes, Lucas behaved like an arrogant young master who challenged Quinn without knowing his place.

"Oh really?" Intrigued by the sudden mention of a fight, Kai couldn't help but ask them for more details.

"Yeah, Not only did he pick a fight with Quinn here, he also rebelled against Instructor Liz to the point of expulsion. Maybe he begged for her forgiveness in private, I saw him entering his apartment." Grace explained.

All the people present showed various reactions to this news. Picking a fight with an Instructor of the Global Academy on the very first day was something no sane person would do. Almost everyone believed that Lucas was just acting arrogant and must have apologized later like Grace hypothesized.

"Well let's stop talking about Lucas for now." Kai decided to stop discussing about Lucas since he had other plans to take care of.

"So, who is the strongest here?" asked Quinn as he eyed everyone.

It was a strange question that left everyone speechless. That's not the kind of question you can expect beforehand, after all.

But it looked like Kai had already anticipated a question like this from Quinn as he quickly answered.

"I am." He declared. "I believe I am the strongest one here since I am ‹Bronze 2›."

It looked like Ella wanted to retort, but her tier wasn't anywhere near ‹Bronze 2›, so she kept her silence.

"I see," Quinn just nodded and continued eating again.

After a short silence, Ella tried to strike up a conversation.

"Who do you think is the strongest in our class, Grace?" Ella questioned Grace.

"Well, if that boy, what was his name again? Ahh, Nero! Yes, so if that new boy Nero really did kill a ‹Silver› ranked mana beast, then him, or else the strongest one would be Quinn." Grace answered while fiddling with her fingers.

That was an honest answer, and even Quinn knew it too.

If Nero really did kill a ‹Silver› ranked mana beast alone under an hour, then his battle prowess was leagues above Quinn's.

Although Quinn was sure that if he were to go all out, he would still be able to defeat Nero with his ‹Necromancy› and ‹Shadow Pulse› spells.

Quinn on the other hand couldn't help but think about the man who confronted him earlier today.

"What about Lucas?"

"Pardon?" Grace asked not understanding the reason behind why his name was mentioned.

" I am asking about how strong Lucas is?"

"Isn't he just a weakling?" Grace said as if it was the obvious thing in the world. 

"Is that so?"

"Why, is there a problem with him?" 

"I just feel that there is something strange about him."

It was Kai who replied to him this time.

"You don't have to think too much about him Quinn. Just looking at his past would tell you that he had always been abnormal."

This time everyone was in agreement with what Kai said including Quinn. Lucas had a history of being involved in alcohol and women and he even tried to assault his classmate just at the age of 14. That's just how strange Lucas was in their eyes.

Quinn started to believe that maybe he was mistaken about Lucas.

 After that, they continued their conversation while completely forgetting about Lucas.

"Yeah, true. And then there is that boy who chose handguns! I bet he was just trying to be different and ended up doing something foolish. Hahaha!" Ella laughed after ridiculing a boy whose name she couldn't even recall.

"Wait, really? I thought it was just a rumor! Haha! Some idiot really did choose handguns!" A bulky boy beside Kai laughed. "What do you think about him, Kai?"

"Meh, I'm not interested in trash," Kai commented. "I'm not very interested in long-ranged fighters in general. Bullets or arrows against my fist, the result is clear."

Quinn couldn't help but roll his eyes. The boy in front of him was clearly not very experienced in real-life battles and was just thinking about 1v1 strength.

Quinn, who fights at extremely close range with his daggers, knew how helpful the covers provided by the snipers were.

"True! Snipers can never climb to the top ranks, especially a gun user." Ella remarked with a scoff.

"Okay, I'm done," Quinn said as he got up from his spot and started leaving… without even paying for his meal.

"Wait, we were thinking about touring the city!" Kai tried to stop him, but the black-haired boy just exited through the door without looking back.

He couldn't endure spending another single second with those stupid teenagers.

"If they really are the next generations of elites, then the world is doomed," he said before getting on his hoverbike and trailing off in the distance.