Sounds of chatter immediately rose in the hall.
"That Woshalden?"
Celia tapped the microphone twice. When the noise died down, she continued.
"The intelligence test has concluded. Your cards should now display your estimated intelligence, qualitative existence, and overall student evaluation."
Another wave of voices swept through the hall as students glanced at their cards and began comparing scores.
I quickly checked mine. The card had already updated itself.
Name: Hale Servas
Age: 17
Qualitative Existence: Minor-Grade-3
Combat Grade: B++
Estimated Intelligence: 183
Abilities:...
Ability Grade:...
Overall Student Evaluation: 3987
Seeing Minor-Grade-3 next to my name made me sigh. I knew our abilities were sealed just to get us in, but still—it stung. That was the level of strength I'd had when I was nine.
3987.
So that's what the overall student evaluation is—an aggregate ranking. Still feels low, though. Sure, my qualitative existence is suppressed, but with this combat grade and intelligence score, I should at least be somewhere in the top thousand.
I glanced sideways.
Hayley was still staring at her card, frowning.
I leaned over.
Name: Hayley Servas
Age: 17
Qualitative Existence: Minor-Grade-3
Combat Grade: A-
Estimated Intelligence: 179
Abilities:...
Ability Grade:...
Overall Student Evaluation: 3985
3985?
So she ranked two places higher.
They're clearly weighing qualitative existence above everything else. Probably sorting everyone into Q.E. tiers first—then ranking them again by combat and intelligence inside each grade.
"Let me see your card."
Her voice snapped me out of my analysis. She was holding out her hand.
"You've seen mine. It's only fair."
"Sure. It's not like I'm hiding it or anything." I passed it to her, but she snatched it like she'd just won a prize.
Her lips curled into a smug grin.
"Ha! Why's your combat grade so low? Did you go easy on the instructor?"
She gave my arm a light punch.
"You're too relaxed. You need to take your training more seriously." She winked.
"You're barely above me," I muttered. "B++ is just one step below A-. Besides, my intelligence score's higher. We both know brains matter more."
"Nope. I got an A. You got a B. That's a full grade apart. And my O.S.E. is higher. Clearly, combat matters more."
She crossed her arms, smug.
I shook my head. "There's still the ability grade. That's gonna shake up the rankings."
"Sure, but your ability's not that much better than mine. And don't forget we've got the joint ability too."
I sighed. "Fine, whatever you say." I changed the subject. "But look—there's someone between us in the rankings. Isn't that weird?"
She nodded, eyes narrowing slightly. "Yeah, it does seem a bit odd. Looking at our positions, they probably grouped us into Q.E. grades first. Given our combat grades and intelligence, we should be above everyone else in Minor-Grade-3. Guess we'll find out who it is soon."
"Yeah. Doesn't matter for now."
Celia tapped the mic again. The room fell silent immediately.
"As you've probably guessed, those cards are your student IDs," she said, her voice steady. "You'll need them to access almost everything on campus. In case you're wondering when your qualitative existence was measured—your cards read your life essence directly. As you train and improve, they'll auto-update."
"You've seen your O.S.E. Tomorrow, you'll register your abilities. After that, we'll assign your ability grades—which, as you know, can change everything.
A Minor-Grade student with a broken ability could crush a Lower-Grade opponent."
"Turn over your cards. Your class and dorm assignment are now visible. You'll be given today to get used to the environment. You're dismissed."
She turned and left the stage. Multiple doors opened up around the hall, allowing us to leave.
I caught up with Hayley, and we made our way toward one of the doors in the northern section of the hall.
Once we left the hall, she said "The entire Reale seems to be a single building, but using spatial manipulation, the interior is likely the size of a small city."
"Yeah, I think so too, this makes the mission many times easier."
Hayley's expression turned solemn for a moment. "Let's not talk about the mission. We still have three years left.
There were transport points at designated areas, these could be used to easily teleport around the school. We joined a few others and used a transport point to get to the point closest to the dorm rooms in the three thousands. After walking for about ten minutes, we finally reached door 3985.
Hayley took out her card and unlocked the door. She glanced at the one beside it—3986. "Let's meet up here in 20 minutes, we have to find out who that person is."
I glanced at the door a bit "It'll be a bit odd if we both just showed up at his door, it'll be more natural if one of us does it"
She immediately retorted "I'm not doing it"
I raised my hands. "I don't want to do it either."
Pursing her lips, Hayley paused for a moment before holding out a clenched fist. "Rock, paper, scissors."
My mouth curled into a smile "Just what I was thinking." I hold out a clenched fist too and we began.
Rock Paper Scissors
My smile grew wider, into a triumphant grin, looking at her hand, she had thrown paper while I threw scissors "I win."
Her face twisted with irritation. She didn't say another word—just stormed into her room and slammed the door in my face.
Why is she so angry? it's just a game
I sighed
"Since I'm still out here, I'll just do it myself."
I knocked three times on the door. After waiting a few seconds without a response, I was about to knock again when the door opened.
"It's common courtesy to wait at least a minute before knocking again, Hale Servas."
The boy standing in the doorway had brown hair, blue eyes, and wore a plain blue T-shirt with white baggy pants.
I froze.
It wasn't that he knew my name. Or that he somehow knew I was about to knock again.
It was that the boy in front of me couldn't have been older than thirteen.
Regaining my composure, I asked, "You knew I was coming, didn't you?"
He didn't reply immediately. He just smiled, then turned and walked back inside, leaving the door open behind him. An invitation, apparently.
I hesitated for a moment. Something about him felt off. But if he really knew that much, I had to at least hear him out—and eliminate him if it came to that.
His room was about eight by seven—probably the standard size for the dorms. From behind a door on the left came the sound of running water; that had to be the bathroom. The rest of the room was sparsely furnished, almost too clean. I couldn't see inside his wardrobe or drawers, but everything in plain sight was either a basic necessity or related to studying. Above the air conditioner was a small bookshelf, its contents neatly arranged.
A bookworm.
"You can sit here," he said, gesturing to a small cushion beside the bed.
I didn't argue. I sat down as he climbed onto the bed and sat cross-legged, staring directly at me.
Then he spoke.
"Yes, I did know you were coming. More accurately… I knew that one of you would knock on my door."
I stared at him. He definitely knew something—but something about him felt… off.
My expression grew solemn. A flicker of murderous intent crept into my eyes, though I kept smiling."That's quite impressive," I said lightly. "I'm curious how much you actually know about us."
He waved his hand at me dismissively, without a hint of fear or wariness in him, He completely dodged my question "Don't be so inflexible, you're smart and that makes this easy."
He tossed his student ID at me.
I caught it, my eyes lingering on his face for a moment before dropping to the card.
Name: Phil Hamon
Age: 14
Qualitative Existence: Minor-Grade-1
Combat Grade: E
Estimated Intelligence: 300+
Abilities:...
Ability Grade:...
Overall Student Evaluation: 3986
What do they mean three hundred plus intelligence, could it be that the test couldn't measure his intelligence? Also that name Hamon I've heard it somewhere before.
"Yes, it's exactly as you're thinking, they were unable to estimate my intelligence."
I looked up at him
Did he just read my mind? This boy was extremely dangerous, my dad had someone cast a mental spell on Hayley and I. The spell could block even higher-grade mental attacks, yet this kid could read my mind even though he's just a minor grade. He's extremely dangerous, I have to eliminate him before he causes any problems.
I moved my hand slightly, I was about to use one of my abilities.
"I strongly advise against that. Of course, you can go ahead and see what happens but I can guarantee the shadow king won't be happy if you fail this mission at the beginning."
I froze "Who the hell are you?"