Fated Roomates

With Elize guiding us from the front, all of us were heading to the dorms.

"You're all going to be classmates from now on! You can start to get along…"

Under the urgings of Elize, the chitter chatter from the students increased.

It hadn't been a few minutes after the exam, and there was already some form of groups forming between the students.

The groupings were mostly based on people holding the same rank.

One could see that the average rank of students in the academy was only a rank D. From our group of examinees of more than hundred students, there were two Rank B, one rank A, and one rank S ability user.

This just went on to show how rare it was for one to have an ability beyond rank C. Having someone like Sylvia take the exam with us was also some dog-shit luck, as there are usually only 3-4 students in the entire class of thousands who may have such a rank.

As we toured more parts of the campus, the hierarchy of the group became clearer.

People would try their best to befriend the higher ranks, while the latter acted haughty. The lower ranked members were mostly ignored, especially the three F-rank members in the group. This included the Big Fist ability user from earlier, Jake Davidson, and two others.

One could see them walk with his shoulders slumped at the back of the group, completely ignored.

Apart from that, Sylvia, the highest rank amongst us, had an icy face that seemed to drive off people. No one dared to approach her in the end.

Though I was very amused by the occurring social phenomenon, I kept my focus on my conversations with Wang as we toured around the campus.

We would exchange the occasional pleasantry with those who approached us, but we also mostly stuck to ourselves and chatted.

This fact that Wang stuck to me instead of the fawning B-rankers actually confused some people including Sylvia.

Her eyes had glanced towards our chatting figures once as she thought, 'Why is the Feng family member being so friendly with a mere C-ranker? Is there actually something there to him?'

…

Rubbing my chin, I called out to Wang and said, "I didn't know you were so strong, Wang! Bahaha… It seems you will do a good job at being my bodyguard in the future! Don't worry, the salary won't be too bad…"

Wang shook his head and patted my shoulder. "What rubbish! Since I'm the strongest, I am rightfully the boss from now on! Get ready to bring me coffee every day!" He said, his tone very lighthearted.

I was thinking of a comeback when my gaze suddenly fell on Sylvia's back which wasn't too far from the two of us. Whether she wanted to or not, I was sure our conversations were definitely reaching her ear.

She seemed a little lonely to me for some reason.

"Hey, Sylvia… You're the strongest of us! What do you think of Wang's opinion?

At my question, a mocking smile escaped Sylvia. She pointed at us and said, "Good, I agree… Since I'm the strongest, you guys are only fit to be my lowly servants!"

"Hahaha! That's right, Wang… Looks like she's our boss from now!"

Wang's mouth visibly twisted at my words. It seemed he had been genuinely a little humiliated at the thought of being a servant of someone from Roland family.

Right then, I moved closer to Sylvia and started admiring her figure with my eyes.

"This is great…! I always wanted a beautiful and smart fairy like you to be my master!"

A tinge of red developed on Sylvia's pale cheeks. Soon she gained her composure and yelled, "Shameless fellow! No one wants a perverted servant like you! Get lost…!"

"Beautiful boss, don't be like that… Don't abandon your loyal servant yet!"

I continued to move in a little closer to her with a wide grin on my face.

Sylvia had already formed a spear made of ice, but that didn't stop me from being persistent and continue pestering her. In the end, she retracted her spear and decided to just ignore me.

Wang saw my antics with a tight-lipped smile. 'Bro, you're walking on a really thin rope here…'

Unlike me, Wang was wary of Sylvia. He wasn't scared, but he understood how deadly her power was earlier and a real threat to his life

Even though Sylvia's power was only rated to be half a star higher than Wang's 4 stars, it actually made a substantial difference in their combat powers. The increased in power levels between stars was exponential rather than linear.

A competent two-star combatant may be able to hold his own against a three star; however, a sizeable group of 4-star combatants fighting together against a single 5-star combatant would usually be the ones forced to retreat.

Unlike me, Wang simply didn't have the attitude to see the earlier confrontation as a mere joke.

We continued on our way to the dorms, as we both kept casually chatting.

I would redirect our conversation to Sylvia from time to time, but she would mostly just ignore or offer the rare snide remark. Well, it's not like I minded her childish attitude anyway …

Soon we had arrived at the dorm area for the combat division students of our academy. We were all assigned rooms and then set free.

"Hey, Soren! What's your room number? Mine is 78…"

"Oh, I don't think that's close to mine! Mine is 134…"

Wang's eyes squinted a little in disappointment in my words. But soon an idea was forming in his mind.

Meanwhile, Sylvia examined her room assignment and was prepared to set off. The girl's dorm was in a separate building from us, so she was heading in a different direction.

"Bye, Sylvia! I know we'll see each other around because we're fated!"

Sylvia rolled her eyes and gave me a look full of contempt. "You wish!" She yelled, leaving right away.

Next, I turned to Wang and said, "Hey, I think we might be fated to be roommates…"

"What do you me… Ah...!"

A twisted expression formed on both Wang's and my face. Both of us were simultaneously staring at a C-rank student who was being assigned the same room as me.

We were both staring at the student like a predator looking at its prey.

Wang turned to me for a second with a touch of smile. "I knew our brains were on a similar wavelength, my friend… We're going to have a lot of fun in this academy!"

"Hehehe! Yes, we are…!"

The C-rank student felt the ominous stare from our direction.

He gulped nervously with sweat dripping from his forehead. Fear was evident on his face as his eyes remained glued to the letter 'A' on Wang's wristwatch.

The rest of the process didn't too long as Wang successfully got his room number allocation changed from the dorm staff with the approval of the C-rank student.

The other student was also very compliant and nice about it. It really seemed like he was a very kind-hearted person who didn't want to see friends separated…

Soon we had walked our way to our dorm room, where we used our wristwatches to gain access.

Both of us took a quick look and the facilities in the room and were fairly okay with them. It was a small room with three beds and desks and nothing else too noticeable.

Our luggage's were already transported, so we began to quickly unpack and settle in.

"Hey, Wang… Do you check who our third roommate was?"

"Nah, but he should be here soon enough…" Wang replied, shaking his head.

Creak…!

At the instant, speak of the devil, the roommate entered our dorm room.

Upon seeing him, my mouth opened a little with a look of realization covering my face. It was the one with a F-rank ability, Jake Davidson.

"Hey, I'm Soren… Nice to meet you!" Observing me approach the new roommate, Wang followed suit and introduced himself too.

There was a long moment of awkward silence as Jake stood still. He was clearly overwhelmed from taking note of the glowing letters on our wristwatches.

In time, some confidence found him as he meekly said, "I'm Jake… N-Nice to meet you too!"

With a warm smile on my face, I tried talking to Jake for a few minutes.

Jake would reply but he clearly didn't seem too comfortable. Hence, I decided not to force it and discussed my plans with taking a tour of the school campus with Wang.

"Is there anywhere you want to go, Wang?"

"Not really… We'll be eventually seeing all the places soon enough anyway. Do you?"

I rubbed my chin in thought for a few seconds.

"Well, I might head to the library to kill some hours. Do you want to join?"

"Damn, I didn't take you for the book type, Soren… I personally haven't touched any book that isn't a Geno skill since forever…" Wang chuckled by himself and then added, "Anyway, I'm down to go since I have nothing better to do!"

We were about to leave, when I remembered something and turned my glance to Jake.

"Jake, you wanna come too if you're free?"

"U-Uh, I…"

Jake gritted his teeth together as he hesitated.

After the skill exam, he thought that his life in the military school would end up the same if not worse than before.

Jake figured he would be neglected by everyone; however, this one higher ranked ability user was being friendly with him.

Not only him, even Wang was once again amused. While he wasn't particularly arrogant towards lower ranks himself, he wouldn't go out of his way to befriend them if he didn't find them interesting.

What these two didn't weren't capable of understanding was that I had come from a different society, where everyone was treated equally on the surface at least.

I basically just presented the bare minimum decency to a fellow roommate. It was just part of my polite nature…

While Jake still had a few trust issues, he nodded and agreed to come along with us.

…

Soon we had arrived at the main library building of the academy.

Since it was only the first day of school, there were not many people inside. Most of them were from the technological division, but there were a few support and combat division students too.

Upon securing a table in the library, Wang borrowed a tablet with an internet connection from the help desk. It looked like he was going to use this time to surf the web instead.

Meanwhile, Jake had taken out a Geno skill book named 'Iron Body' from his bag to study.

Remembering that I had last seen this book with the military earlier, I figured that he must have signed some sort of contract with them.

In the end, it had nothing to do with me. I had come to the library for one main task…

Scribble-Scribble-

With an electronic pen in my hand, I drew out the distinct pattern on the face of the locket on my tablet.

While I may have missed a few parts, the fiery pattern was more or less similar.

With this, I may be able to uncover the origin of the system…

I really needed to do what I could to learn more about it, since the lack of quests and XP points were beginning to give me an aching headache.

This wasn't my only lead though; a frightening thought was still lingering in my mind.

'If the system is like a game, doesn't that mean I need to farm XP by killing monsters… And what if humans are these NPC monsters?' I subconsciously bit the inside of my cheek at that thought.

It looked like this theory would be hard to confirm in the coming future, since I didn't see myself killing someone anytime soon.

"Hey, what's that thing you're drawing?"

Taking a peek over my shoulder, Wang took a closer at my drawing. Just as he was confused, I developed an idea in my head and asked, "I saw a drawing of this the other day and wondered what this was… Do you know what this is?"

I didn't mind sharing my drawing, since I wanted to speed up the search a little.

"Hmm… I don't think so!"

Both Wang and I were looking at the pattern in deep thought, when Jake shifted his glance on the drawing as well.

"Is that…?" Jake muttered, an eager expression on his face.

The mutter didn't escape our senses as both Wang and I turned to Jake with our brows raised.

Feeling my intense stare, Jake swallowed and then said, "I'm not sure… But I think I saw this pattern on the images of the alter."

My eyes blinked in surprise as I heard Jake's words. There were no one who didn't know what alters were, since they were the ones that practically evolved humanity to what it is today.

Did they have connection with the locket and my system?

In a few seconds, Wang pulled up the image of the alter and displayed it on his tablet.

The alter had a few arcane symbols and drawings on its surface which were incomprehensible to humanity as of yet. On the corner of it, which Wang quickly pointed out, there was a pattern on it that was somewhat similar to the fiery pattern on my locket.

There seemed to be stick figures with horns kneeling towards the fire pattern in the drawing.

"Yeah, this looks very similar!"

Wang and I both nodded after staring at the alter image for some time

Jake heaved a sigh of relief, as he was a little afraid that I might lash out at him for wasting my time. But all I did was gave Jake a grateful smile instead.

"Haha…! Looks like my curiosity was ensnared by some kid's drawing who did this for fun. Thanks for saving my time, friend!"

With this, I returned to my chair and started going through some other books I had with me.

Jake couldn't help but look at me for a few moments longer. 'Is he really okay with a friend like me?'

Meanwhile, Wang felt something miss about the whole situation with the drawing. Yet he couldn't put a finger to what was amiss and returned to casually surfing some internet forums.

These two weren't able to realize the amount of thoughts entering my mind.

[You have learned more about the system… Rewarding 200 XP]

The notification only made me grin for a second, before I received another headache. Despite receiving a clue about my current situation, the situation only became messier.

How would someone like me grab hold of more information on the ancient civilization that created alters?

It was either not available in the first place or deeply classified.

...

Occupied by our own activities and thoughts, we all didn't seem to take note of the incoming stares from the other students in the library.

These stares held a mixture of both curiosity and contempt, while the latter was especially true of stares from the second-year students.

"Why is a A-ranker hanging out with a C-ranker and a F-ranker? Do these idiots don't understand the hierarchy?" A student asked, his nose wrinkled in disgust as he stared at our little group.

"Don't mind them… Some of these first-years take some time to learn after all!"

Both of the students shook their heads and returned to their Geno skill books. In the meantime, similar conversations were happing throughout the hall of the library we were in.

…

"Ah… I am starving!"

Humming happily to myself, I led our small group towards the school canteen.

It had been a while since I had a nice meal to myself, since the poverty-ridden Soren's house only had low-quality convenience food.

Seeing how happy I seemed, Wang lifted his chin in pride and said, "Sigh… Too bad that the only place to get food in the academy is the canteen. I'm sure it doesn't compare to the cooking of the chefs in our manor. I'll make sure you try that food, Soren!"

"Stop showing off until you get the food for me!" I snorted in displeasure.

These noble families truly had a great life. How envious?

Wang could only dryly chuckle by himself as we arrived at the entrance of the canteen. We got our wristwatches scanned at the entrance and a meal-point deducted, before we were allowed entry inside.

On the inside, there was a very spacious dining hall which seemed to be able to provide food to over a thousand students.

There were a mix of a few hundred second-year students and first years that were sitting across the various areas of the canteen. The more we examined them, the clearer the seating theme of the place became to us.

An overbearing hierarchy was present that seemed to divide how the students were placed. The A-rankers and few B-rankers were together with no C-rank student or below with them.

This pattern remained consistent throughout the lower ranks, as the E-rankers and F-rankers were not able to sit with the D-rankers.

Of course, both Wang and I cared little for the situation and grabbed our food with delight.

After finally grabbing a batch of freshly cooked beast tenders, I started leading us to a nice corner to grab a table for us.

While we were walking, a few intense stares were heading to our directions.

Unlike in the library, these stares were so intense that we were clearly made aware of the hostility in them. We also weren't too stupid and quickly realized the reason why.

All the other students were sitting according to their ranks, so how dare we do whatever we wanted?

"Tsk… Look at these looks of envy! They're clearly jealous of how good looking we are!"

My lips curled upwards into a smile, and I decisively ignored the stares. Wang also snorted with contempt at the stares and took his strides without any care.

At that moment, however, Jake had stopped in his footsteps without us.

"G-Guys… I think I'm not too hungry today!"