Chapter 2.
Saint takes his seat beside Beyce. Some moments later, a teacher walks in with his shoulders hunched over. He's a tall-looking man with a white suit similar to Beretta and Brugger. He clears his throat and begins talking with a deep voice.
"My name is Taiho; I'll be your home room teacher for the year. Now, If you're here. I'm sure you know what this school is all about… well, maybe not, uh…" Taiho grabs a dark purple cube from his desk. "I want you, one on one, to put your dominant hand on this cube; this will detect how much Mana you currently have." Beyce raises his hand. "Teacher Taiho, you said currently… does this mean you can get more Mana?" Taiho nods boringly. "Well, it's not that easy; you can't just 'level up' directly. You have to break your limiter, which everyone has a different amount of. Think of it like this: you have 1,000 apples. For every time you're exhausted to the point you can't use Mana again, remove 1 apple. When you have used up all 1,000 apples. Your limiter breaks. I just used apples as an example; it's not literally apples." Taiho says, laughing at himself, "I hope that answers your question." Saint stands up. "So, is there unlimited potential for everyone? Since you can just keep breaking your limiter." Taiho suddenly is behind Saint, with insane speed, "Well, aren't you the bright one? Joking! You're not that bright. No one has the same limiter. Yours could be a billion apples for all I know, and it increases every time you break it. So in a sense, yes, but no. The average Sangre De Reyes student only breaks their limiter 2-3 times or so. Now sit." Taiho pushes Saint back into his chair, and suddenly is at the front of the classroom once again.
"So, we'll go from left to right. Chop chop, everybody!" Plaster goes first; as he puts his hand on the cube, the cube lights up purple. Taiho raises his eyebrow. "Interesting," he says before writing down something on his notepad. "Next!"
The students all go one by one; once it's Saint's turn, he puts his hand on the cube, and the cube turns red instead of purple. Taiho suddenly gets up from his seat with immense speed and holds Saint's wrist off the cube. "Saint, see me after class, please." He says in a cold tone as he releases Saint's wrist (Saint's inner monologue: What was that about?)
Beyce and Ari go up after Saint; the cube turns purple like it did with the other students too.
Another student walks up, and his cube turns blue, and then, after him, a girl's cube turned yellow.
After everyone is finished, Taiho claps his hands twice
"Now check your IDs, and you'll see your official rankings in this school. Keep in mind there are, like… hm… I'd say around 5000 students, so… Don't get discouraged. Dismissed" Everyone glances down and sees their rankings; as Saint checks his, he's rank 4222 (Saint's inner monologue: That's so low…)
Beyce gets close to Saint
"What's your rank?" He asks excitedly.
"Uh... show me yours first," Saint responds hesitantly, looking a little embarrassed but unbothered
Beyce holds up his ID, and his rank is 4568.
(Saint's inner monologue: at least he's lower than me...)
"Here's mine." Saint shows his ID. "I'll catch up to you in no time." Beyce fist bumps Saint's chest.
Ari joins in the conversation and shows his rank.
"I'm 4001," He says, flaunting his rank
"Hey Plaster, what rank are you?" Ari asks from across the classroom.
Plaster chuckles confidently.
"3886." The classroom erupts,
Saint gets up from his seat.
"Hey, where you going?" Beyce asks curiously.
"Taiho asked me to meet him after class…" Saint responds as he waves Beyce and Ari off
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saint enter Taiho's Office
"Well, well, well, you're Carmelo's boy, aren't you? Your Mana turned red," Taiho says as he inspects Saint. Looking at his arms, and circling around him
"Uh... yeah, is there something wrong?"
Taiho's eyes light up
"Not at all; you do have poor Mana control though. But you have potential; I heard Carmelo's boy was coming here, but I didn't expect it to be this soon." Taiho says, as he's reminiscing about the old times, "What does that mean? Why did my cube turn red?" Saint asks curiously.
"... Carmelo is the only student recorded having his cube turned red. And I'm pretty sure you know your father's strength well... or maybe not." Taiho responds, more to himself than Saint, "Anyway, go get ready for class; I'll be there shortly." Taiho says, turning serious and opening his book
Saint returns to class. As he approaches the door to the classroom, he sees a guy peeking in shyly.
"You good?" Saint says casually, startling the shy guy, "Y-Yeah," the shy guy responds, stuttering.
It's an awkward silence for a moment.
"... Do you go here?" Saint asks, trying to lighten up the awkwardness, "Yes, I do…"
"... Alright... I'm Saint; you are?"
The shy guy shows his ID Instead of introducing himself (Saint's inner monologue: Kevo… rank 3883… is this guy the highest in our class?)
"Nice meeting you, bro..." Saint says awkwardly before heading inside; he takes a seat beside Beyce and Ari. He also sees Kevo taking a seat at the front of the classroom.
Taiho enters the classroom with Beretta and Brugger; Taiho takes the lead and speaks up.
"In exactly a month, you all will be competing in the annual First-Year Sangre De Reyes tournament. Now, this is not the major tournament in the school; that one's in the future. But here you will compete against other first years in other classes, as well as first years in your own class," The class start looking around at each other. "Those of you who have figured out your ability already will have an advantage; if you can awaken it before the tournament starts, it will benefit you. But take this remaining month to train and hone your skill either way. Any questions?" A girl stands up.
"What are the rules? Fight to the death, or what?" She asks nonchalantly; the girl is holding a teddy bear.
"No, you fight until the other one can't fight anymore. Or til they give up. Either one works. And your rank will get boosted for every win." Taiho responds.
"If everything is clear, your dorm rooms should be on your IDs by now. Go there, check out the school, and then I suggest you start training immediately." Taiho claps his hands twice before leaving the classroom with Beretta and Brugger.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------