chapter 31: rankings

Well that's done. What? I hear some ask, well the rankings of course.

It's been 2 weeks since the…'problem'.

Calling it an incident is quite stupid since it really wasn't. During the first week we were literally just doing nothing since the 'problem' caused some nice damage to the arena, though it wasn't very, very much damage, it was enough to halt the ranking process since re-construction was taking place.

The ranking was taken place in the arena by the way. during that first week Nobe, Rina and I were question on what happened, we explained but my part was the hardest to explain since I have no idea what happened apart from my distorting senses and Orion. And Jethro expecting that requested that my patriarch come deal with me instead.

I only explained what happened before 'all that' as best I could in detail. And since everything after that was a blank I really had no idea on what to expect. But like he dam knew what I was going through the old man just said, "Don't use your element or mana for a while."

Although I refer to him with no respect, I'm aware of his power and knowledge. So, when it comes to my life I'll trust his advice even if I deem him an enemy. Of course he had to report back to the school. it's understandable since I nearly un-alived most of the first years, safety, or security whatever.

At his advice, my mana and access to my element were forcefully sealed with pure Nako shackles placed on both my wrists and ankles as well one on my neck, I really felt like this was a bit excessive, and yes they were heavy and made me feel like a prisoner, but I felt like I would be experiencing this a whole lot more in the future.

But I had to admit having these on reminded me of Orion, so I decided to keep them on until I met his demands, just rising my hands was a piss of, a testament to how heavy these things were or how much I've been slacking on physical training.

While I was being sealed like a criminal, those two were getting praises and medals. For protecting the students and some gibberish like that, Nobe got a universal card while Rina just got a certificate and something else. For Nobe's card it functioned like a credit card or debit, but he has the option to pay it of or not, and he's able to use it anywhere in utopia, as for the certificate it's just a validation type thing here. With it Rina can apply for any job position or raid and auction and be presented with the finest conditions, but she can only use it once and as for the other thing, it was an artifact.

One may ask, 'Why did Rina get more than Nobe?', well the value of that card is obscenely high since only the powerful are in possession of it, and there are only 100 in utopia. Why they chose that as a reward, it was kind of related to the fact that he prevented anyone from knowing about it and also dealing with the situation with 0 casualties. Also the card bound to the user so I can't use it without his permission.

During the 'problem' from the outside, all that was seen was Mono entering the arena and him as well as Daniel vanishing moments later for quite a long time. So no one was aware of what happened as for Daniel, Rina saved him and knocked him out, so he doesn't know as much.

My duel was soon deemed a draw, the students were confused as hell and naturally speculations grew but I really didn't bother with them mainly because Nobe did. Anyway, the arena was reconstructed, and the ranking was held immediately, which was during the second week.

The ranking process took 4 days since the school was making It as accurate as possible it was quite the short time. The ranking process would utilize a student's physical and elemental capabilities, mana usage and control as well as it's what-nots are under the elemental part.

Under the physical capabilities, a student's reaction time, strength, flexibly, body control, stamina, speed, endurance and more, mentality and mental strength are tested as well, would be put to the test. During the test you're pushed to your utmost limits regardless of if you're going to break, literally or figuratively.

The tests ranged greatly. All students were fine with physical section for the most part, despite it making them not want to use their bodies for a while. What greatly affected them in this section was the mental tests, student's would be subjected to the Darkness element, more specifically the mental curses.

Nightmares fueled by your preferences, trauma inducing situations and many more, if you didn't have trauma before now you do. What amazed me the most, actually scared me, was the darkness users being subjected to this and suffering and what really made me want to escape was seeing Emily scream when it was her turn.

Her screaming really isn't special it's just her situation, why this scared me was the fact that Emily puts both herself and I through this and at an intense level we mainly used to do it before and after our 'live anatomy classes' with her father, and by live I meant we would capture a creature be it human or not and straight up begin dissecting it on spot despite their screams while her father watched. He told us it was to witness the organs and bodily functions happening live.

Now put the mental curses before and after this, yeah Emily and I would cry and scream every single time, but it made our mentalities stronger we became more able to make extremely vicious choices at a moment's notice, by the way this was her father's idea too. So naturally this would scare me.

Until I found out that the intensity would be gradually scaled up the more oblivious you are to the sight of such, and guess what, unexpectedly Emily has the highest resistance to mental status effects, even though we went through the same training, due to her possessing the element she's granted a high resistance than the normal person.

This part of the physical test was also present to find out who is more likely to turn evil, and yeah, Emily and I were on that list, and it didn't make my already, accidental, attempted genocide look any better.

Then came the elemental section of the ranking. This section tested a student's elemental control, flexibility in battle with the element, creativity, adaptability, strength, output, accuracy, and more but most importantly one's 'Resonance' with their element.

Resonance is, in simple terms, complete simulation with one's element. It's a new phenomenon that's been occurring recently and is under heavy research but sadly that research can't happen without samples, I mean people who have resonance. Currently the best thing about resonance is when someone is on that state, their mana proficiency, output and understanding of the element spike and continuously grow as long as one remains in that state.

So finding the ability to resonate in a child is a blessing, so far anyone is able to achieve this state he/she just need the right conditions, be it true or false not much is known about it anyway.

Well, he's my problem. I can't use my element or mana so my ranking was based of purely my physical performance, I wondered why they couldn't remove the shackles then place them back but apparently my patriarch said not to, so I just watched.

Once the testing process was done, we were then actually ranked based of the results and the ranking was posted on the 4th day. Naturally one could advance in the ranking by defeating the one above, but the rules were also released with the rankings.

1. The top 10 positions are only be fought over by the top 10, only the 11th position is to request a duel with the 10th to enter the top ten.

2. One cannot request a ranking duel with someone one rank lower than yourself.

3. One cannot request a duel for a ranking that's more than ten positions above you.

4. Once someone of a higher position has lost to one of lower their positions shall be switched as for if that person in a lower ranking has lost he/she is to compensate only if they are the ones who requested the duel

5. Only the 1st rank of a year can request for a duel with the year above his/her.

[More rules may be added in accordance with their cause.]

The top 10 rankings receive benefits per term, but some are immediately bestowed upon them, such as free things in every store of course with a limit, better living conditions of course with there roommate and access to information and a certificate of validation each as well as an artifact dependent on their rank of course.

Well, the rankings were fair, and no one complained. It didn't really bother me or Nobe but the part of more rules being added was quite interesting, I wanted to see what new rules would be added.

Anyway here are the rankings.

1.Zach Casper

2.Mia Amethyst

3.Julius Ozias

4.Emily Raven

5.Rina

6.Nora Scarlet

7.Nobe

8. Sophia Allision

9.Amber Eva

10.Genesis Scarlet

11.Amelia Fern

12Abner Kijo

13.Vincent Cecil

14.Anna Jasmine

15. Elena Abigail

16.Fiona Jespersen

17.Ester violet

...…..

...…

28. Mono

....

.....

Out of all the students that were enrolled I placed 28th position. Well in my defense it was only my physical results, and my position really didn't bother me that much at least I wasn't in the hundreds