Ch 33:- Portal Colours

Before Del could inform the students about the Portal training they would be participating in, he needed to explain how the portals worked. For nearly every student there, it would be a first-time experience, except for a few who had used them before. Portals allowed humans to travel to and from locations they had been to before, often used to travel to other planets. The technology was obtained when humanity managed to take down their first Dalki ship and discovered a portal inside. Usually, when such advanced technology was discovered, people would not be able to dissect and replicate it so easily. Having the technology did not guarantee an understanding of how it worked. However, thanks to a legendary scientist named Richard Eno, he had easily been able to dissect all the equipment found on board the ship.

Richard Eno was another great contributor to the war against the Dalki. Although some people assumed he possessed an ability that helped him along the way, these were merely rumors, and no one knew for sure. However, what was certain was that he was a great man. Once he had found the technology, he distributed it not only to the military but also to private companies, making sure that such power would not end up in the hands of a single group.

Back then, the world and humans fought together, but no one knew what would happen once the war ended. In today's world, three different groups of people generally owned portals. The military was the first group. Next were private corporations, usually with powerful originals backing them. Many of these companies would also form a faction of powerful travelers, specifically for exploring other planets. Lastly, there was a group known as Pure, who did not believe in the use of abilities.

There were three types of portals, each different in color; green, orange, and red, and each had a different meaning. Green meant that the planet it led to had already been explored, and human shelters had been built, allowing people to live there if they wished or just stay temporarily.

Orange meant that the planet hadn't been fully explored yet, and although some shelters were in place, the level of danger from the local beasts could be too high in certain areas, or they simply hadn't explored everywhere yet.

Finally, the red portals were unexplored planets, and there were no shelters for regular humans to live in. Only travelers or military personnel would usually go into these portals for exploration, and the worst thing about them was that they didn't know if the Dalki were on the planet as well. After all, the Dalki had the same technology, so it wouldn't be too strange to run into them. Although there was a treaty in place, if a few people were to go missing on an unknown planet, it would be hard to prove something had happened, and the humans weren't ready for another war just yet.

"And that is all the information you need to know about portals," Del said, concluding his explanation to the students present there.

At that moment, a student seated in the center of the class raised his hand. Del gestured for the student to speak, and the student asked, "What about the beasts that were discovered on those planets? Will we learn about them?"

"For now, that's all you need to know about the portals. Yes, this also led us to discover beasts on these planets, and they are what we use to create our beast weapons. But you will be told more details about that when you arrive. Although, I will tell you now that you can also thank Richard Eno for that discovery as well," Del replied.

After answering the student's question, Del closed the presentation that was playing behind him.

"Now for the important part," Del began, drawing the attention of the class back to him. "The portal expedition will take place next week, but before that, you will be required to form your own team of five. Although you will travel as a class, you must have a squad and stick together. Even the green portals are dangerous places filled with beasts, and the trackers on your watches will not work outside the academy. We will have no way to come and save you."

A student seated in the center of the class raised his hand. Del gave him permission to speak.

"Do you know where we will be going?" the student asked.

"That information will be revealed to you on the day," Del replied. "Many of you have family members who, if they knew where you were going, would send guards out to protect you on these planets. But that wouldn't be fair, especially since we will also be assessing you on this expedition."

The student raised his hand once again, but this time Del stared at him, causing him to slowly lower his hand.

"Now, if there aren't any more questions, your combat classes for today are cancelled. Today, you are to form a team of six and report back to us by the end of the day," Del announced before leaving the room to attend to other business. The students began to form their own groups of six, and Rayne and Vorden turned their heads immediately to Quinn.

"Hey Quinn, do you want to be on the..." Rayne started to say before being interrupted by Layla, who had sprinted from the front of the class to the back and was now standing by Quinn's side.

"Hey, do you want to make a team with me, Quinn?" Layla asked, smiling.

"Sure," Quinn answered, feeling slightly surprised but happy to be invited to a team.

"Hey, Quinn, you mind if I join as well?" Vorden said, smiling and trying to hide his annoyance.

"You wouldn't mind if I tag along, would you?" Rayne said.

"Of course, I wouldn't mind at all. With both of you and Peter as well, you can join us," Quinn replied.

Peter's face was a little shocked at hearing the sound of his name, and at the same time, his feelings were confused.

"Yeah, that would be good," Peter said, trying to sound enthusiastic.

While the others were thinking about who the fifth member should be, Erin approached Vorden of all people in the room.

"I want to make a team with you," Erin said

Not only were Quinn and the others shocked that Erin had approached Vorden, but the whole class was surprised as well, except for Rayne, who was smiling like a mad man as if his master plan had succeeded, which it had.

In Del's class, Erin was the strongest student there, and nearly everyone wanted her on their team. However, over the last few days, when people had tried to approach her, she had always given a cold response. It seemed like she was disinterested in everything apart from getting stronger.

"I'm sorry," Vorden said, "but I've already decided to make a team with these guys."

Vorden's response to Erin seemed even crazier to everyone else. They had seen Vorden fight that day when they were surrounded by the second years, and after witnessing that, no one would say he was any weaker than Erin. If the two of them were to combine powers and find a few other strong people, it meant they could easily form the strongest team in the class.

Erin then looked at the group of people Vorden had pointed at, and to be honest, she didn't seem to recognize any of them.

"Who are they?" Erin said, sounding skeptical.

Rayne thought to himself, 'Whoa, damn, that is some serious level of emotional damage she received,' as he saw Layla's expressions.

"What? We took the test together, and I even helped you out at the assembly hall!" Layla complained, feeling a bit hurt.

The truth was, Erin never took the time to remember people's faces. She only cared about those who were strong. When she saw how weak they were in the test assessment, she didn't bother with them any longer. Although there was one person who had caught her eye other than Vorden, and that was Quinn. She remembered him throwing the black beast balls at lightning-fast speed and taking out a student. Then when she looked at his wrist, she saw he was only a Level 1 user.

"Why would you stay with these weak people? Surely you can get a better grade if you join me and a few others," Erin said.

"I don't care about the grades. I just want to have fun while I'm still in school," Vorden replied. But Erin was determined not to give up.

"Fine, I can accept the girl and the strangely strong boy, but I can't accept him and him," Erin said, pointing at Peter and Rayne.

Peter's heart suddenly started to pound louder. Fear started to seep into his mind, the fear of getting kicked out of the team. If he got kicked out, it would be a huge problem for him. But Rayne immediately grabbed his shoulder, giving it a little squeeze, as if reassuring him that nothing would happen. Peter relaxed a little and kept on listening to the argument about his position in the team.

"Why do we need you anyway?" Vorden said.

"Wait a minute," Layla interrupted, "I think she would make a good addition to the team. Besides, Vorden, doesn't your ability rely on those around you to be strong as well? As far as I remember, beasts don't have abilities, so you would have to rely on us, and we don't exactly have strong abilities."

"Layla, I understand what you're saying, but for once I agree with Vorden," Quinn replied. "I don't care how strong she is, she can't just come in and kick one of us out. She can join the team, but only if Peter stays."

Erin looked around the room before turning to Vorden. She remembered how he was able to deal with Momo without the use of the soul weapon. After scanning the room, she couldn't find a single person in Del's class who matched up to him.

"Fine, I will join, but I wish for the six of us to have a re-testing to see where we stand," Erin requested. "Perhaps we can visit the training center and display what we can do to the rest."

The group then headed to the training center, which resembled an indoor basketball court. The room was packed with students from various classes who wanted to learn about each other's abilities. This would increase their chances of survival by capturing more beasts during the upcoming test.

"What do you want us to do?" Vorden asked.

"I've already seen your powers, but I can't remember much about the other girl and the remaining three. Maybe the girl can go first on the strength machine," Erin suggested.

Layla approached the large circular strength machine, concentrated her mind, and threw out her fist while using her telekinetic force to push her hand as hard as she could. The numbers on the machine's display slowly increased until it eventually reached eight.

"Damn it, same as last time. It looks like I haven't improved much," Layla complained.

"For a level two, that's a weak strength score. But judging by your bow, you're a ranged user, and it will be quite handy to have someone like you on the team," Erin commented.

She then walked up to the remaining three boys: Rayne, Quinn, and Peter.

"Well, I'm hoping that both of you can at least get the same score as her," Erin said.

Peter walked up to the machine, holding the mud staff in his hand. "Looks like he's still level 1 then," Erin remarked. A Level 1 earth user didn't have the ability to extract earth from the ground; all they could do was reform the earth in their hand. They could only control the earth they were touching, rather than the earth around them.

As Peter went to punch the machine, the earth around the pole started to form around his fist. When he hit the machine, the numbers started to go up and finally stopped at eight, the same score as Layla.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Erin said, looking at Quinn.

Quinn looked at the machine, then readied his fist and adjusted his footwork. The gauntlets were equipped on his hands, and Quinn let his fist fly, trying to control the power output to achieve a similar score to the other two.

*Bang

His fist collided with the large drum-like machine, and the numbers slowly started to rise. 8... 9... and finally, the number stopped at 10.

"Hey man, didn't you get stronger?" Vorden said, surprised. "I thought you got a five on the test last time. Have you been working out or something?"

Quinn started to laugh, trying to come up with something. "Actually, it was thanks to that game you showed me," Quinn replied. "I met someone who really helped and showed me how to activate the beast weapon's strength properly. I worked hard, hoping I wouldn't be useless for you guys. When I threw that beast ball that time back in the assembly hall, I realized how useful it would be if I learned how to activate the beast weapon."

"Well, a score of ten isn't that impressive. The only reason we're talking about it is that you're a level one," Erin said. "Quiet, we still have one more left," Erin said, turning to Rayne, who was currently staring at a girl back who was training with her friends.

"Hey, you're next," Layla said, shaking his shoulder to wake him up from his dreams.

"Uh, oh, yeah, it's my turn, right? Can I just not take the test?" Rayne said.

"Not possible," Erin said.

"Yeah, you need to take it. We took it, so it's fair that you should also take it," Layla said. She was curious about how much stronger Rayne was compared to Quinn as a vampire.

Rayne sighed before walking to the front of the machine. He stood in front of it, taking a casual swing with the bare minimum of strength. The number started to rise until it stopped at 10. Seeing the results, he sighed, feeling happy that his training to control his strength, which he had practiced that morning only with those poor trees, had paid off.

"Well impressive," Erin said.

"Thank you for the compliment, Erin-chan," Rayne said.

Erin looked puzzled and then completely ignored what he said.

Layla looked at Rayne weirdly before saying "Is this okay then?"

"Yes." Erin replied, "I still wish to join your team, I believe even with the extra luggage we have on board, with me and Vorden we can come out as the top team during this assessment."

After testing everyone's strength the group decided to discuss a few things. Such as formation and what to do. Although the discussions didn't last for long. If they were to travel as a group Layla would stay at the back for support and Erin and Vorden would be at the front.

Usually, the physical damage dealers would be at the front of the squad while elemental users in the middle. But in this scenario, Rayne, Quinn and Peter were considered so weak, that they were placed in the centre for protection. Although Rayne still can't understand what kind of logic it was but he decided to ignore because at the end of the day he needed a team that will be able to sustain itself through out the journey.

Erin felt like it was quite useless to practice anything else after finding out how weak the other two abilities were, so the groups meeting had ended early and she decided to go off on her own to train somewhere.

"Well if combat classes have been cancelled for the day is there anything you wanted to do?" Vorden asked.

"Actually, I was planning to head to the VR capsules," Quinn replied, "I've been trying out a bunch of abilities so I can decide what ability to pick in the future."

Suddenly Vorden started to shiver.

"You can go ahead," Vorden said, "I know I showed you how to play the other day but to be honest I'm sick and tired of that game. I played it so much growing up and all."

With Quinn heading off to the VR room that left Rayne, Peter and Vorden all on their own.

"So, what about you? What are you going to do?" Vorden asked. "Well, I was thinking about, hmm, maybe eating, bird-watching. I don't know what I am going to do," Rayne said. "Oh, I now remember, I have an appointment with a really hot and sexy girl. Would you like to come?" Rayne said.

"Er, you know that is a weird question, right?" Vorden said.

"I am joking, but you know, I really don't know what I would be doing for the rest of the day until 4:00 pm," Rayne said.

"You could spend some time with us. I was thinking about helping Peter with his ability. Would you like to tag along, only if Peter wants to?" Vorden said, turning to Peter.

Peter looked around the room at the other students before giving an answer.

"Sure, that sounds like a good idea," Peter replied.

But Peter's strange actions didn't go unnoticed, and Vorden had a feeling it had something to do with those students he went to hang around with a few days ago.

"OK, then where will we be practicing?" Rayne asked.

"In our room, of course," Vorden said.

"No, no, no, that will not work. How about we meet at the park right at 11 o'clock? Now it's 10 o'clock, so you could rest and eat before meeting at the park. And make sure to pick up a super-strong hardening ability because we will be needing it," Rayne said before turning around and quickly exiting the room, making his way towards the bank that is established right beside the hospital.

"Why do you think that he asked me to pick up an hardening ability," Vorden asked.

" Er Don't know?" Peter said

Vorden sighed before making his way towards his dorm room to help Peter a little bit with his ability before the time comes to meet Rayne.

"Why do you think that he asked me to pick up a hardening ability?" Vorden asked.

"Er, I don't know," Peter said. Vorden sighed before making his way towards his dorm room to help Peter a little bit with his ability before the time comes to meet Rayne.

Meanwhile, Rayne had reached the establishment, which looked quite deserted and small, to be honest. As he entered, he was greeted with the sight of a beautifully furnished interior. Sitting at the reception table was a stunning lady with wavy red hair in a tight office outfit that was clinging to her curvaceous figure. Her nameplate read Ashley Winston, and the window view was pretty good.

"How do you like the view, boy?" Ashley said in an almost sultry voice, causing Rayne's cheeks to flush with embarrassment at being caught peeking. But when she rose up and saw the number that was being displayed, she got a bit sad before becoming serious and asking, "What are you here for, boy?"

"Hello, my name is Rayne, and this is my form," Rayne said before handing her the application form that he got from Winter.

After viewing the form and placing it in some sort of scanner, Ashley typed something on the computer. After a few minutes, a ping sound appeared, and she moved to a station that looked like a teleportation center. From there, she picked up an envelope and came to him, handing him a pen tablet for signing. After signing, she gave him the envelope.

"So, would you like to tell me how, even though you are a level 1, you got the stamp and signature of a military personnel?" Ashley asked.

"You still haven't answered me. How did you like the view?" Ashley said, leaning forward a little bit, showing more of her cleavage, causing his temptation to drink blood to rise even more.

Rayne cleared his throat, trying to compose himself. "Um, the view is nice, but I'm not really here for that. As for the stamp and signature, I have my ways," he replied with a smirk. He didn't want to reveal too much about his connection with Winter, especially to a stranger.

Ashley raised an eyebrow but didn't press further. "Alright then, your business here is done. Have a nice day," she said, dismissing him with a wave of her hand.

Rayne nodded and quickly left the establishment, feeling relieved that he didn't have to endure Ashley's flirtatious behavior any longer. He found her advances quite annoying, despite her physical assets. He made his way to the park and stored the card from the envelope in his inventory. Soon, he arrived at the park and waited for Vorden and Peter to join him as he prepared the ground for them.

(Someone pointed this out and when I reread it I didn't quite liked what I have written so I changed it.)