Chapter 12: Pratical Lesson: Ability Power Measurements

Practical lessons: A way to show off one's ability to the whole class.

Rules are rather simple:

1. Destroy a certain object that was provided by the instructor using nothing but the ability that one received as blessings from the {Shards}.

This time, however, we will be having a joint lesson with the other classes. And just so you know, this doesn't bode well for me.

Why? Well...

"Their stares hurt like a sting of a bee."

Whoa, that line kinda sounded romantic.

"What's with that look, Gleren? You look more unmotivated than usual?"

"Oh, Dio huh… Well, look how many students we've got here. I feel like my infamous F-rank would be exposed to all. I'm a bit worried."

"Hmmm…"

He put his pointer as well as his thumb under his chin in a thinking pose.

"What's with that long 'hmm'?"

"To think that you, from all of the people, would say something like this."

I narrowed my eyes in annoyance.

"Hey, just what do you mean by that?"

"Nothing. It's just, you know, usually you'd ignore them all and just do your thing like some unsympatheticly sarcastic person you are."

"So that's how you see me, huh?"

"Yep."

Well, he's not wrong. But I'm not that unsympathetic!

"Just so you know. I don't care about all these morons. What I'm worried about is Sofy. If she sees them bantering about me, I don't know what she'll do."

She's rather an emotional girl, after all. Especially when it comes to me.

This was not an intentional bragging, people.

I wouldn't want to bother her with such insignificant things. I think giving some effort here would lessen her worries? I'll try a little harder for this lesson.

As I was considering these thoughts, Dio took a stepped away from me. Then with a disturbing expression he said, "Uwaahhh… There it is. His severe siscon disease."

"Don't call it that!"

"Heey! Keeev… Kevin!"

As we were talking, a girl came running towards us. A little short, maybe over 150 cm. Short brown hair, and small face, she also has chestnut colored eyes.

And uh, she's flat.

She was waving and calling for Dio at the same time. Ah, now that I think about it, Dio has a girlfriend, doesn't he?

Goddamn!

That must be her.

"Kaye. I see, so you're here as well."

Familiar greetings and on first-names basis. Yep, it's her all right. The miss girlfriend.

"Yes! Ehehehe."

Whoa. That's some bright smile you've got there.

"I see. There, there."

And this Dio just started patting her?! Not even an ounce of hesitation?!

Hey now! If you're going to flirt please go somewhere else!

I stared at them blankly, trying to not get involved as much as I could.

For now, let's become the air. The air.

"Ah, let me introduce you. This sulky person here is Gleren Stasis, he's my classmate and that friend of mine. This is your first time seeing each other, right?"

What sulky?! Who's sulky?!

"Ah, that friend. Yes! The one you always tell me about."

Dio nodded to affirm her. Then turning to me, he introduced the girl as well.

"This is Kristine Faith ente Lux. I call her Kaye. And, uhm… she's my girlfriend…"

Die, you normie! Explode?!

"Hehe. Nice to meet you."

"Yes. It's nice meeting you."

She's a girl with a bright personality. She was reaching for my hand for a handshake, so I returned her greetings.

Also, a friend huh? I see. She already knew me through Dio. That might be the reason why miss Lux was not perplexed seeing my F-rank insignia.

I have mixed feelings about this.

Oh well, adding one or two to my little circle of friends wouldn't hurt, right?

"But, man… There sure are a lot of people here, huh?"

Dio uttered, scanning the training hall. Students began to flock and now it's really crowded.

"Five classes with 20 students each… A hundred or so, I guess?"

Miss Lux replied tilting her head a little to the side, implying that she was not so sure with her guess.

"Well, assuming that all the first year students are present, a hundred should be the definite number…" I said.

Feeling the notion of my own words makes my cheeks twitch.

In my whole life, I had never been more irritated by someone else's actions. Whatever they do or where they go doesn't matter to me. But this time, the fact that the person I was supposed to be monitoring wasn't present is making my head hurt.

That lass... Really, what a pain in the ass.

I guess the best course of action in this situation would be to call the Headquarters.

"You're right. But dude, why do you look so annoyed"

Dio asked in a worried tone.

"Nah. It's nothing. 'cuse me a sec."

I grabbed my phone from my pocket and sent a message to someone at the Headquarters. I then put it back when I was done.

Even if it was for work, it'd be bad to get caught using one. Phones weren't allowed at this venue.

I took a quick look around. Everyone appeared to be enthusiastic about this. Though, they were all just chatting lightly but considering their number, the chattering was audible and gradually the training hall became filled with the whispers they were all generating.

Well, half of the mutters were directed to me or rather the rank on my left shoulder.

Ignoring them is one of my honed skills so I'm doing fine. I could only sigh.

If you had the time for chatters, how about you move your body and do some stretching? It could help you avoid unnecessary injuries during training, ya know.

"Quite down, everyone."

Ah, there she is. Hm?

A single woman made the once-loud atmosphere quiet with her strong words. She moved through the middle of the crowd before finally arriving at the stage which was at the front of the hall.

It was Miss Tokugawa, accompanied by two other girls.

Since I hadn't been able to find Sofy earlier, I was wondering where she went. So, she's with miss Tokugawa all this time, huh. Why though? And Reina's with them, as well.

The three of them stood in front of everyone, creating an extremely picturesque scene. With the three of them there, it seemed more like a modeling event than a practical lesson.

They all have distinctive auras. Reina, who tends to be serious, was not even smiling yet she makes most of them squeal with excitement.

Even though Miss Tokugawa has a frightening look on her face, her seductive mature aura is winning her audience. When it comes to these idiots, beauty is everything, I see.

Then there's Sofy, a gentle and soothing presence that counterbalanced the serious and scary aura of the other two.

While it was true that the entire area was quieted down for a single moment, the hall soon became lively with excited murmurs and cheers as a result of how lovely the scene the three of them had created.

"Am I going to die today? Ahh… I have no regrets." Said an unnamed mob.

Don't just die because of this! Just how petty was that life you were living?!

"Oh, Kami-sama, Shinra-sama, Reina-sama, Sofia-sama!"

This idiot here is speaking his mother tongue so I'll translate it.

(Oh, Great God, great Shinra, great Reina, great Sofia!) he said.

I wonder if this guy's going to receive a divine punishment later.

"Ah, goddesses, please step on me!"

And yep. That one's just plain crazy…

"Silence! Or do you want this practical lesson to be cancelled?"

Once again, just a single strong voice from miss Tokugawa was enough for everyone to comply.

That they want this practical lesson to continue no matter what—I don't know if I should applaud their willingness to train or feel indifferent with their obvious ulterior motives.

"Good. Then let me explain the rules for this lesson. But before that, let me first introduce myself to you. I am Tokugawa Shinra. The homeroom adviser of class 1-1. I've been assigned to be the one to instruct you this time. And these two behind me are…"

Miss Tokugawa turned to Sofy and Reina, then nodded as if signaling them that it was their turn. The first to speak was Reina.

"Yamada Reina. I know all of you know me already as I am your Student council president. In this lesson I am accompanying Miss Tokugawa to oversee the practical lessons. The student council will be the one in charge in producing the target and any other needed material for this task."

After her, it was Sofy's turn to speak.

"My name is Sofia Stasis. This time I will be participating as the healer. Nice to meet you, everyone."

It was a short speech and she bowed at the end of her introduction. But after finishing their turns, the whole practice hall went wild with cheers.

Must be nice to be free-spirited. Must be nice to be an idiot...

***

Miss Tokugawa explained the rules of the tasks.

Apparently, there will be three types of lessons.

First will be the measuring ball test: Aside from the assigned rank, the measuring ball will tell how destructive or how powerful one's ability in terms of just the magic or just the ability that they possess.

Secondly, the target destruction test: It is a test where one would be assessed on how well they can destroy the target using nothing but their ability. The test target will be provided by Reina's group.

And lastly, the hand-to-hand combat: a test where no one is allowed to use magic or ability. It's a pure test of physical capability. It is a test which will be done by pairs.

With all these explanations done, the practical lesson began with everyone unusually excited.

"Everyone, please line up with your respective classes."

One of Reina's subordinate, or rather a member of the student council announced pointing at the five crystal ball near the stage.

I see. So, in order to finish the test efficiently, they provided crystals for all the classes to use. Reina's methods are really efficient.

Following the girl's instructions, we lined up as classes. Miss Lux, Dio's girlfriend also returned to her actual class.

The first to try the measuring ball was Elisha.

"Please put your hand on the ball. And do not remove it until the result has clearly came out."

"Certainly."

Elisha put her hand on the crystal ball and waited for the result to appear. And then, with the ball glowing blindingly bright, an S letter was revealed as the measurement of her destructive power or rather the strength of her ability. With this, Elisha's power and innate ability are both recognize as S-ranked.

"Hmph!"

Knowing her result, she looked at me with a triumphant expression on her face. It was as if she was saying "Did you see that?"

Just what is this girl trying to accomplish? Also, isn't it a bit too petty to compete with some F-ranked when you have literally S-rank to boast off?

That smug look on her face is quite amusing if not irritating.

Then it was Dio's turn. Dio is a B-ranked innate ability holder. When he put his hand on the ball, the same effect happened just like when it was with that smirking Elisha over there—though the glow was much weaker on his turn.

The result revealed A.

"Oh, that's a great result. Way to go, buddy."

I said, genuinely impressed.

"Hehe. I can't wait to brag about this with Kaye later."

"Die normie."

That's nice ain't it?

"Dude, you have a habit of reversing your thoughts from time to time…" he said to me, eyes narrowed.

The same process of testing was repeated and most of my classmates were done. But after that lass Elisha, no one else got an S. The highest they got was A and only three got them got it including Dio.

And then my turn eventually came…

It's finally time, eh.

I placed my hand on the crystal just like the others. Then after taking a deep breath, I poured my magic power to my palm in order for the ball to recognize how mighty my ability was!

And then with a glow that almost enveloped the whole training hall, a magnificent rank has been revealed for the world to see! And it's rank was of course... an F!

"..."

Well, what? Did you expect me to have such super destructive power? Sorry to tell you folks, I don't have anything like that!

And uhm, that glow earlier that "almost enveloped the whole room" was a blatant lie.

Ehehe. It was just for the excitement, okay? The truth is that, when I placed my hand to the crystal ball, it was just like a candlelight.

Ehehe. How embarrassing.

"Hmph! As expected."

She, Elisha said in a haughty tone completed with a smirk. Ain't this girl getting a little too buddy-buddy recently?

"Well good for yo—"

"Oi, oi, oi! What the hell is wrong with you, trash. F-ranked innate ability and an F-rank magic power? Just how trasher can you be until you're satisfied."

I narrowed my gaze at his words. He even interfered while I was in the middle of my dialogue, not letting me finish my sentence.

With a serious expression, I called the name of that person…

"Oi-boy…"

"Don't call me that!'

And he rushed off—back to his class after seeing how hard Elisha was holding her laughter.

This girl is becoming easy to please.

And as Roderick, the Oi-boy was retreating, he shouted…

"I'll definitely sweep the floor with that unseeming face of yours!"

"Suit yourself." I shrugged.

I replied curtly. I don't really care.

"Wait, does that guy even know how to sweep?"

And with my useless pondering, everyone's first practical ability test; ability power measurement came to completion.

The second test was about to begin.