The sound of the AI speaking brought the trio out of their reverie as they each turned their gazes towards the massive tinted booth at the top.
“Zoey Starhaven, please approach the black pod on your far left. Atticus Ravenstein, approach the white pod in the middle. Kael Stormrider, approach the black pod to your right.”
The trio turned their gazes towards their assigned pods and then looked at each other before nodding and immediately approaching their respective pods.
Atticus found it odd about the AI’s instructions. ‘Why is my pod the only different one?’ Atticus pondered while gazing at the pristine white pod sitting in the middle of the room.
Apart from that, compared to the other two pods, his was larger, way larger.
‘If this was about rank, then shouldn’t the pod belong to the first rank?’
It felt odd, incredibly so. Atticus didn’t need to be a genius to know that he was being given some sort of special treatment.
It was a simple fact that would make many individuals happy, but Atticus had experienced enough in life to know that not everything was flowers and roses.
‘Let’s just see how it goes,’ Atticus decided.
Both Zoey and Kael also noticed the difference but chose not to say anything about it.
Seeing each of them in their positions, the familiar voice of Isabella suddenly sounded,
“What you’re about to receive today, as you all know, is called an Exosuit. Exosuits are simply symbiotic nanotechnology that was discovered by our top scientists in the human domain 5 decades ago.
“During this period, the scientists discovered an extraordinary ore, whose name is currently classified, and using it, they were able to develop a suit capable of boosting an individual’s power to incredible levels. The suit had undergone lots of version changes over time in order to achieve the current version.
“Now, the process of assimilating an individual with the suit is a tedious process. Throughout the duration of your first year, your artifacts have been gathering data on each one of you. Which has been used to make an exosuit tailored for each students.
“Assimilating with the suit will take everything from you. It will be up to how much you can hold on to determine how well you will synchronize with your suit and in turn how powerful you become.”
The trio listened to Isabella’s explanation without uttering a word. For Isabella herself to come and explain all of these things hinted at how important the exosuits were.
But Atticus’ thoughts were elsewhere. ‘An ore, huh?’ Isabella hadn’t mentioned the name or given any details about the ore used for the exosuit, but it was sure to be an incredible material if it was being used to make something as powerful as an exosuit.
‘I need some of it,’ Atticus couldn’t help but desire some of it. He had learned a lot about blacksmithing during the past months and in turn created a lot of things.
This special ore sounded like the perfect material for him to use for one of his creations.
However, he didn’t even know the name of the ore, not to talk of how it looked. He even had no idea how he would get it, but Atticus just knew he would eventually get it.
After adding a few more explanations, Isabella ended her speech, telling each of them to hold on as much as they can.
Those words sounded so ominous that the trio couldn’t help but gaze at each other once again.
None of them were required to wear any suits or take off their clothes.
“Now, each of you should get into your respective pods,”
As soon as Isabella spoke, each of the pods suddenly opened, releasing gusts of white smoke in the process.
They each couldn’t help but once again pause.
Zoey and Kael had both paused because of the ominous white smoke coming out of the pods, but Atticus had paused for a different reason.
‘I should check it before I enter.’ When he leaves the pod, he would be doing that with his exosuit.
Atticus would like to document just how much the exosuit improved his power.
‘Status,’ Atticus thought, and immediately a holographic screen materialized in front of his face.
Character Profile:
————————
Name: Atticus Ravenstein
Age: 16
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Attributes:
————————
Strength: 255 >>289
Agility: 297>>325
Endurance: 305>>330
Vitality: 294>>320
Intelligence: 47>>52
Perception: 40>>44
Charm: 33>>38
Will: 34>>37
Level: Expert >> Expert+
Talent: Mythical
Bloodline: Primordial Elemental Bloodline
* Level 3
– Fire: 12.4>> 40.9 %
– Air: 12.3 >> 40.1%
– Water: 11.8 >> 38.8 %
– Earth: 11.6 >> 39.5%
* Level 2
– Light: 50.7 >>2.3 %
-Darkness: 42.5 >> 1.9%
-Space: 0.9 >> 0.2 %
*Level 1
– Lightning: 16.3 >> 80 %
-Ice: 14.3 >> 78.3%
Locked Bloodlines –
– NONE
Abilities:
————————
Innate Skills:
* Conceal [Potential: Mythical]
– The ability to conceal your level from anyone regardless of rank. You may choose what level you want to be shown.
– Current mastery: Mythical
Life Weapon Skills:
* Transcendent Slash: Godspeed Grace
* Endless Strike
Normal Skills:
* Arcane Barrier [Potential: Transcendent]
– Current Mastery: Expert+
* Elemental Mimicry [Potential: Transcendent]
-Current mastery: Expert-
*Ethereal Clock [Potential: Empowered]
-Current mastery: Advanced+
A 16-year-old expert rank; the entirety of the human domain would flip upside down should they get any whiff of this.
It has to be remembered that the greatest geniuses that had appeared so far in history, the likes of Magnus, Avalon, had only ever gotten to the expert+ rank at 20 years old.
Not only had Atticus achieved this at 16, if the human domain were to find out just how strong his battle strength was currently, they would all simply jump off a cliff and commit suicide at the unfairness of it all.
Atticus gazed at his status in approval.
The year had been incredibly long, and thanks to the peaceful time that had come immediately after the Dell incident, Atticus was able to dedicate his time to training. He had improved significantly.
Looking through his stats, it was very obvious that Atticus had put a lot of emphasis on training his space element.
Practically all of his time after class was spent inside the space elemental room. And instead, he had trained his other elements in the advanced training room back at camp.
He had broken through to level two just recently, and it went without saying that the abilities that came with it were completely worth all the stress he had gone through.
‘The light and darkness elements are also good,’ if not for the overpowered space element, Atticus would have been in complete awe of those two elements. Their abilities too had been mildly overpowered.
He had also experienced growth in his arts mastery. Atticus had suspected it since before he even broke through, but breaking into the expert- rank of his elemental mimicry art had brought about an incredible change in his constitution.
As Atticus tried out the changes in the advanced training room, he had been completely flabbergasted.
In essence, the Atticus of before compared to now was like heaven and earth.
Staring at the ominous pod for a few seconds, Atticus took in a deep breath and entered the pod in the next instant. He lay down inside the pod, its door instantly closing.
A weird feeling immediately enveloped Atticus. The pod was cold, incredibly cold and empty. The white smoke that kept on coming out from the small holes in the pod increased in intensity as it enveloped the whole of Atticus’s form.
But that wasn’t even what was on his mind.
He felt completely alone.
Isolated.
As though no matter what he did he could not leave the pod. He was tempted to immediately use his space element to escape, but Atticus mustered everything in him and held himself back.
He took in deep breaths inside the pod, trying his best to calm himself down. That seemed to do the trick as Atticus was able to get his heart rate back to normal.
As Atticus continued taking in deep breaths, a hatch just below his lower back silently opened up without Atticus having any idea.
And from it, a pitch-black thick viscous substance started slowly jutting out of it as though it had a life of its own.
If one should look closer, they would see bluish runes, akin to the writings of an ancient lost civilization, flickering to life and dimming in the next second.
As soon as it made contact with Atticus’s clothes, it was as though it never existed. There was no dust, no remains; that part was instantly obliterated.
Then, it made contact with Atticus’s lower back, and an unimaginable pain immediately assaulted him.
…
Isabella removed her hand away from a button that allowed her to talk to the trio in the other room.
She turned her gaze to the side to see Harrison standing silently with his hands clasped behind his back. His gaze was directly focused downwards, on the white pod in the middle of the room.
Isabella walked towards Harrison, reaching him in a second.
She immediately remarked with a sigh,
“I hope you know what you’re doing, Dad.”
