Dom walked through the hallway, his descent from the stairs eliciting mixed reactions from the students, which he ignored. Without slowing his pace, he made his way to the cafeteria, where he met up with Atlas, Nat, and Aurelia.
"How are you doing?" Aurelia asked after taking down a spoonful of rice.
"I'm doing well," he smiled weakly.
"So, what are we having this morning?" Atlas asked, his gaze fixed on Aurelia, whom they all regarded as the smartest one.
Feeling not just one but three gazes on her, she turned to look at the others and saw they were expecting an answer from her.
"Are you all saying that you left your rooms on the first day of class without looking at the timetable?" She couldn't believe how careless they could be—like, who does that? Not wanting to answer her question, they smiled weakly while fidgeting.
"So unbelievably stupid," her voice laced with anger, making them feel even more foolish. Well, not all of them felt stupid at the moment.
"Hey, watch what you say. Just because you checked the timetable doesn't make you special," Nat said, her expression sharp while her eyes carried a subtle hint of threat. How could someone have the audacity to call her stupid for making a mistake once? She was obviously smarter than this, and even smart people make mistakes. It's not like they're all perfect (*Sigh, the lies we tell ourselves).
"You are definitely stupid," Aurelia sighed while shaking her head sideways.
"I dare you to say it again." She abruptly stood up and slammed her hands on the table, almost knocking the dishes down.
"No form of violence is allowed in the cafeteria." A voice suddenly boomed throughout the cafeteria, overshadowing every other sound.
"It's senior James from the disciplinary committee," the students gasped as the name was mentioned.
James from the disciplinary committee was quite infamous for his strictness. While most disciplinary members would at least listen to what the students had to say, he did none of that. His justice was formal and, almost like he was a sadistic bastard, he'd even add extra punishments to see the students suffer. It was only because the head of the disciplinary committee was often sent on missions that he was left unchecked, and his family's influence also had something to do with it. His reputation had spread wide and far, so even freshmen knew of his deeds, including Dom's friend group.
"For attempted violence in the cafeteria, you shall serve as a waiter and cleaner for the cafeteria." Without waiting for any response, he turned away, his body disappearing into the cooking area of the cafeteria.
"Why is he going there?"
"He is probably wooing a cafeteria staff," a student replied nonchalantly. Aside from being a sadistic jerk, he was also known to be a womanizing one.
"That's a good way to start your first day," Atlas chuckled fearlessly. He received a threatening gaze from Nat but simply ignored it.
"Okay, let's head to class now. We don't want to be late." By now, most of the students had already begun heading towards their respective halls. They were all having the same subject due to it being a general subject, but they were assigned different halls to fit the thousand-plus students. Coincidentally, their group was assigned the same hall, almost as if fate was pulling them together. If it was true that fate was pulling them together, then it probably heard their clasp of hands that surpassed space itself.
The group entered their hall, which looked grand but not too grand—just enough to look a bit grand :). The seats were slanted downwards towards a stand where the lecturer was expected to stay. Another noticeable thing was the division of the students. It was almost as if the class was divided into 70 percent for those without any influence and the remaining percentage for those with influence. Nat sneered the moment she saw the rich kids.
Taking a seat with the 70 percent, they quietly waited for the lecturer's arrival, and it just so happened to be the assembly head—or former assembly head. Hearing the students murmuring, he sighed, then augmented his voice with mana and said:
"Quiet down."
The students immediately stopped talking.
"Like I said before, I'm Mr. Aziel, and I will be the person taking General Knowledge for this hall. I will not be answering any questions until the end of this class. Now let's begin."
"Before we begin, I need everyone here to get rid of that backwater term called 'ability.' It's called Arcanum," his voice and expression aloof. He stopped for a moment and swept his gaze across the hall. He noticed one of the influential kids laughing quietly but chose to ignore him.
"The power derived from the black hole is called Arcanum due to its mystical origins and mysteriousness. Even with thousands of years passing by, there's barely anything known about it. Everyone that has ever tried to enter the black hole in order to get more knowledge was disintegrated before they could even get close to it." He paused once more, wanting the students to digest the new information.
He continued: "Everyone is born with a certain ability already dedicated to them. There are certain conditions that are expected to be fulfilled in order to awaken an Arcanum, with the conditions being different for each individual. It is almost impossible to know what that condition might be, but unless fulfilled, you'd only be able to feel your Arcanum but be unable to release it."
Listening to the lecturer, a sudden thought flashed through Dom's mind. The inability to use one's Arcanum until certain conditions were met actually coincided with his former predicament. He had been unable to use his Arcanum after the ceremony until after he was almost beaten to death by Atlas. That made him think: did his Arcanum need him to almost experience death before it was activated, or did it only need him to be desperate enough or feel threatened?
He could partially cross out the desperation part since he was pretty desperate in his attempts to uncover his Arcanum. Feeling threatened was obviously out of the list since he had been bullied and beaten up by the rich bastards enough to feel threatened but not enough to be near death. So the condition he fulfilled was probably to be close to death's door. His body shuddered as he thought of the cruelty of his Arcanum.
After deducing his Arcanum's conditions, he returned his focus back to the lecturer as he answered people's questions.
'The fuck! How did time pass so fast!'
"What if an Arcanum is activated without any condition met?"
"I literally just said a requirement is needed to be fulfilled," Mr. Aziel sighed at the student's question.
"Well, I liv—"
Not even waiting for the student to finish speaking, he said: "No matter how ordinary your life was before the awakening ceremony, the moment you activate an Arcanum, it means you passed its requirement. But there's a catch to it. The easier the condition, the weaker you'll be. One's Arcanum is driven by the user's experience. If your experience isn't worthwhile, then so are you and your Arcanum." His voice was aloof, yet it sounded a bit cold.
With the new set of information, it was easy to know who would be strong and who'd be weak. If someone lived a mediocre life—that is, waking up, training till their legs gave out and all their energy was spent without anything huge happening in their life—then their Arcanum would be weak. Although one could make up for their weak Arcanum using their experience and strength, it was only applicable in the short run. In the long run, those with stronger Arcanum would be able to further strengthen their Arcanum and strength, eventually toppling over the others.
"That's the last question I'll be answering, and with that, the lecture has ended." Mr. Aziel immediately vanished from the class.
'Just how much time passed while I was thinking! The thought could barely even take two chapters!!'
Dom sighed and stood up with the rest of his friends. They were barely out of the hall when they heard the sound of something hitting the wall.
"How dare you show your face here!" A student adorned in riches asked as he pushed the person—orphan—that asked the last question against the wall. The victim trembled, his eyes pointing down, not daring to look at the assailant's eyes.
Looking at the frightened state of the orphan seemed to make him angrier, making him go in for a punch. His hand was suddenly stopped mid-air by a ... fire fist?
'Who dares?' He thought, taking his eyes up to the owner of the fist. On a normal occasion, he would have been flustered by the appearance of a beautiful face, but right now he was way too angry to care.
As if she read his thoughts, she replied, "I'm Natasha, nice to meet you. I'd suggest you leave this poor orphan alone," Nat said with a smile.
"Like I give a fuck!" He withdrew his hand from her grasp with a bit of a struggle and turned his aggression towards her.
'Shit!' Seeing how the rich scum withdrew his hand back from her grasp while it was still coated in fire showed their vast difference in strength. While she was unable to make the fire burn due to how weak it still was, the fire still augmented her strength.
'She's strong,' the aggressor thought, his expression turning more serious.
"Do you really want to help him? You don't even know what he has done." His voice this time was lower than before, but it was still aggressive.
"Yes," she replied without much thought to it. After all, what was there to think about? She was rescuing an orphan.
"Then so be it." He turned around and walked out.
Nat walked towards the boy who was being bullied and hoisted him up from the floor. "Hey, I've introduced myself earlier, so who are you?" Nat offered her hand with a soft smile on her face to ease the kid.
The boy looked at the smile on such a beautiful face, his heart skipping a beat and his eyes filling with adoration and gratitude.
"I-I'm Daniel, nice to meet you," he stuttered as Nat pulled him up.
"I'm Dom."
"I'm Aurelia."
"And I'm Atlas."
The boy became a little frightened as he found himself surrounded by so many people.
"These are my friends, and you can stay with us for the meantime. At least, until you are safe," Nat smiled at him, warming his heart and making him feel at ease.
----------------
In what looked like a tech laboratory, many computers were aligned orderly, with robotic parts scattered aimlessly, disrupting the sense of orderliness. The lights were turned off, with the only source of illumination being the constant flicker of light coming from a table where a man was seated.
The man was obviously old. His hair was white due to the passage of time, accompanied by a short white goatee and a hunched back. He was wearing a white lab coat and goggles as he tinkered with a chip barely the size of a shirt button. Despite the chip being extremely small, the old scientist seemed to know the precise places to touch to make it work.
After a few minutes of tinkering, the chip seemed ready for use. The moment he finished making the chip, he pushed himself back and erupted in maniacal laughter.
"Ha ha hi hi hu hu. After how many years, it's finally ready! This might as well be my life's work!" The man laughed some more before slumping back down in the chair.
"Well done, Doctor." A voice suddenly permeated through the room.
"Who's there?!" He immediately stood up from the chair with a button in his hand, supporting himself with a table.
'How did he even pass through my defense system? Don't tell me the school sent him!'
Suddenly, a masked figure manifested behind him, slitting his throat with a dagger. Not even a speck of blood could be found on the floor, leaving nothing to be traced back.
Not long after, the masked figure returned. He examined the floor to ensure there was nothing that pointed towards murder. After confirming everything was in place, he walked towards the chip and disappeared alongside it.