Just an old Book

"Try not to die by tripping over yourself, Quinn!" A boy shouted down the hallway, laughing uncontrollably right after.

Quinn dismissed the petty mockery as he carried on walking down the school corridor. The harassment had become a daily occurrence for him, but it still bothered him just as much as it did every other day. Thus, he wasn't able to hold back his desire to retaliate.

Quinn slowed down his stride and stopped. He pushed his glasses back up onto the ridge of his nose as they had slipped down from his face. Just from looking at the glasses, it was clear that he needed a new pair - One could tell that they were heavily worn. The glasses looked crooked as he wore them, and even the temples had tape covering them.

He then turned around and immediately raised his middle finger, responding to the slander, "I bet you don't even know how many fingers I'm holding up!"

Upon hearing the taunt, the boy clenched his fist and started running towards Quinn.

"You level 1 piece of crap! When are you going to learn that you don't belong in this world?"

The boy placed both of his hands together, and a green ball of light started to form between them. When he was only a few meters away from Quinn, the boy threw his hands forward and a green beam shot out from the palm of his hands.

Quinn had nowhere to go, and the ray of light was too fast for him to dodge. Hence, he knew that all he could do was grit his teeth and bear the pain. As the light hit him, his body was lifted into the air and sent flying backwards onto the far-end corridor wall.

"What's going on?" A student among the crowd said. "Are they fighting on the last day of school?"

A crowd had immediately formed outside, interested in what the commotion was all about. One of the female students ran over to the wall's damaged part to check on the assaulted student's safety.

As the dust started to settle down, Quinn's slightly curly black hair slowly came into view. When the smoke eventually cleared up, the female student finally saw who it was. She instantly backed away and continued on with her business as if nothing happened.

The moment that the female student had returned to her friends, he could see that they were laughing at her.

"I can't believe you tried to help him."

"I didn't see who it was." The girl retorted, her cheeks flushed.

After that, Quinn stood up and lifted his glasses that were thrown on the floor. To his dismay, one of the hinges had fallen off once again. Instead of wearing the worn-out pair, he let it hang on his hand.

"Damn it. Not again..."

It was the last day of school for Quinn, so he hoped that someone wouldn't try anything with him. He was sick and tired of their doings, but he wasn't the type to ignore those either. He had seen people who had chosen to keep their heads down and tolerate the harassment. However, their treatment was far worse than what he received.

He didn't bother to stay at school like the rest of the students, he picked up his broken glasses and proceeded to leave school. As he walked past, he saw the students having conversations among themselves in their circles. Some were laughing, while some had tears, thinking it was the last time they would ever see each other again. However, Quinn wasn't a part of any of that, and he didn't want to be. Cliques would not welcome him anyway. He was the weird one.

When he finally arrived home, he immediately went to work. Living in a single bedroom apartment with just enough space to fit a single bed and desk, was enough for him. A TV was mounted on the wall, but Quinn would merely use it as a background noise source and didn't watch anything.

The apartment was provided to him by the government, since he had no living relatives and was only sixteen years of age. On top of his bed was a single suitcase that contained all of his belongings that were neatly packed.

He walked towards a cabinet, immediately pulling a drawer open which accommodated a single book. It was a large and thick hard-bound book, weighing about half a kilo. The front cover of the book was in a colour that mimicked a lighter shade of blood. In the centre, the lonesome fronts of an upper and lower jaw bone could be seen, both coloured in the swampy shade of brown. The upper jaw sort of had four separated fangs. Meanwhile, the lower one had two sharp teeth on the two far ends on the overhead and five evenly spaced underneath.

"Let's try again today," Quinn said as he lifted the book and placed it on top of the desk.

He then quickly went to his bag to pull out a little test tube that was half-filled with a colourless liquid.

"Test 112, Hydrochloric acid. Let's see how it goes?" He then started to slowly pour the liquid out of the test tube onto the book.

"So far, there is no reaction." He proceeded to continue to pour all of the test tube contents on the book, but there was no reaction at the end of his experiment.

Carefully, he examined the book while jotting down the results in his notebook. Seeing if there was any damage done, yet the book looked the same as always.

"Another failure. Why won't you open? Why did mum and dad even have this thing?"

One hundred and twelve times - This was the number of different ways that Quinn had tried to open the book. Not only did the book not open, but it seemed like it could not be damaged either. He had even tried burning the book, cutting the book, melting the book, though nothing had worked against the book that seemed utterly durable.

Lying on his bed, he turned on the TV for its sole purpose, making background noises. He never really paid attention to what was on. With it, the sound of other voices made him feel less lonely.

Upon turning on, the TV displayed an ongoing NEWS show.

"The peace treaty with the Dalki race has lasted for five years now, but officials are saying that tension is rising once again. Now, we must prepare for another war…."

The mention of war had always been shown on the TV nonstop ever since a certain day thirty years ago. The human race received a visit from the so-called Dalki. They had the physique of humans, except for their skins that were riddled with scales and the presence of tails that were similar to what the dragons had.

With no real clue of why they had suddenly appeared, they immediately demanded that the Human race hand over their resources and wanted to use them as slaves. Of course, the humans decided to fight back, but they quickly found out that their modern technology was useless against them. Bullets couldn't penetrate their skin, and as for tanks, well, Dalki had airships.

Every individual, disregarding the gender, was told to fight for their planet, and that included Quinn's parents. The war went on for years, so he grew up not knowing what his parents looked like.

When the humans were on the brink of defeat, a select group of people came forward - These people had special abilities. They began sharing their knowledge of how they obtained such power in hopes of turning the tide in the war, and thankfully, it worked. Even so, the Dalki were still strong, and a seemingly endless stalemate led to the peace treaty signing five years ago.

Obviously enough, human greed got the better of humanity, and instead of sharing these powers with everybody else, the higher-ranked governmental officials decided to keep them for themselves. Only those with money could learn the more powerful abilities while everyone else was left with scraps.

It was something that needed to be done. Poverty had taken over the world, but people had powers and were using them uncontrollably, unlike before.

Quinn was given nothing when his parents died. The government agreed to pay for his living expenses while he was still in school, but that was it. When his parents died, him being at the age of ten, an agent appeared at his doorstep and handed him a book. He was told that it was the only thing that his parents possessed - One that they passed down when they died.

"Why is the world so unfair?" He uttered, lamenting about his situation.

Getting out of his bed, he started sauntering towards his desk. He picked up his glasses which were still slightly broken and decided that he needed to fix them. He noticed that one of the lenses was slightly out of place, and tried to punch it back into its frame.

"Come on! Just get in!" He shouted as he tried to forcefully fix the glasses. The frustration he had been bottling up was on his face as he struggled furiously with the lens.

Unfortunately, the lens suddenly crumbled into pieces, one of the shards of plastic even created a deep gash in his thumb.

He screamed and kicked at the table.

"Why does the world hate me?"

After a while, he calmed down and started to clean up the little pieces of glass, noticing that a piece had landed on top of his book. As Quinn removed the piece of glass, a drop of blood from his thumb landed on top of the book.

The object plastered on the centre of the book started to glow, and suddenly, the book began to float, hovering until it was on eye-level with Quinn.

Quinn darted back and away from it. The glow from the book made his room look emptier with the little bed in the corner and the solitary seat beside it.

"What the hell is happening?!"

The book started to emit a blinding radiance as it shook uncontrollably. A few seconds later, it finally opened up, pages after pages were being turned. Quinn couldn't take his eyes off of the shining book - It was as if he was in a deep trance. The words written on the pages of the book weren't in any language that he had seen before. Nevertheless, for some reason, he felt like he could understand it.

When the book reached its last page, it started to disappear, gradually turning into dust. At the same time, his body suddenly felt weak. Quinn's vision was starting to fade, and with that, his eyes pulled shut.

But just before he passed out, there was a single message that he heard.

 <Congratulations you have been granted the Va....>

Unable to maintain consciousness long enough to hear the final words, Quinn duly passed out.

Daily Quest

Gradually, Quinn's eyelids started to flutter open and his vision soon returned. His head felt heavy and his body was slightly sore. As he lifted himself off of the ground, he touched his head gently to see if he had injured himself.

'Why does my head hurt so much?' He thought, bewildered and unable to make any sense of what just happened to him.

After patting his head all over, Quinn then went to pick up his glasses that had fallen on the floor, not too far from him. Regrettably, only one lens that was left intact, still, Quinn put the glasses on out of habit. He felt a little disoriented and his vision became slightly blurry.

He took them back off and noticed that his vision only turned hazy when he put the glasses on. 'Wow,', he thought before he quickly rushed to his desk to grab a pencil. He proceeded to draw the letter "A" on the wall and stepped back. He continued to move back until his back had hit the wall that was on the other side of the room. The figure 'A' was still there, and he could see it clearly.

"What?! But how?!" Quinn said slowly, mind-blown. He was still trying to make sense of what had happened to him.

Somehow, Quinn's vision was now perfect. He had lived his whole life with terrible eyesight, but strangely, he could now see clearly. His mind started flashing images of the events that led to his passing out on the ground. The more the memories flooded his mind, the more one thing stood out - the book.

When Quinn surveyed the room, he felt panic building up in him. The book was missing…

"The book! Where the hell's the book?"

He looked everywhere for the book, yet he couldn't find it. It couldn't have gone missing in such a small room, so its disappearance was baffling.

"Where's the damn book?" he lamented. He imagined the book at one corner of the room hidden and out of sight, somehow living and silently enjoying his misery.

"Maybe it's like my socks. They go missing all the time. Ahh, don't be stupid. This is a book we're talking about, not a sock." He muttered, trying to reason the uncanny comparison.

Quinn tried to think hard about what had occurred a few moments before he collapsed. He took his mind back, moment by moment, and then he suddenly remembered the book hovering in the air. Then, just before closing his eyes, he heard a few words.

"What was it?" he thought. "A type of system message?"

As soon as Quinn said those words, a status screen appeared right before his eyes.

[User: Quinn Talen]

[Race: Human]

[Level 1]

[0/100 exp]

[HP 10/10]

[Strength: 10]

[Agility: 10]

[Stamina: 10]

"Whoa," Quinn said.

It was like the old games people used to play all the time when the earth was not in danger of being overrun by some alien creatures. Quinn noticed that, on the status screen, there were more tabs that were placed on the top. Accordingly, even without doing anything and just by reading the tabs in his head, the screen automatically switched to the [Skills] tab.

[Skills]

[0 skill points available]

[Skill locked????]

[Skill locked????]

….

It was strange, but he played along, curiosity fuelling him. His life was normally characterised by boredom as he had no friends, and was the loneliest child in the school. On the skills tab, Quinn wasn't really able to see much. Everything seemed to be locked and slightly greyed out, so he quickly moved on to the next tab,

[Shop]

[Unlocks at level 10]

"Can I do anything?" he wondered.

The last tab was the [Quest] tab. Finally, it seemed like a tab that wasn't locked behind a requirement.

[Main Quest]

[Reach level 10]

[Daily Quest: Drink two litres of water]

[Reward: 5 exp]

After checking everything that the system had to offer, Quinn had to just think about closing the system, and it did. When he thought about opening it again, the screen immediately popped up in front of him.

There was another thought on Quinn's mind that explained what was happening to him- the book that his parents had left him was an ability book. These books could often be bought at very high prices from the military or a company. Some were even sold on the marketplace. He had never seen any of such books, but only heard of them in whispers of fellow students that would have nothing to do with him.

However, Quinn had never heard of an ability book that promptly disappeared, granting the user a system such as the one he currently had. The ability books were designed to be learnt manually. It wasn't something that one could pick up and instantly understand how to use, and it definitely did not appear as a screen overhead when one thought of it.

A smile started to slowly appear on Quinn's face. This was great news for him. He had always been a level 1 ability user because he could never afford to buy any ability books. To his fortune, he had something that he could use. His mind raced, reeling out options for him. He had things he could practice, things he had never done before. The book would help him, he thought.

"Water bending, come on!" Quinn said as he raised his right palm forward towards the kitchen sink, expecting water to gush from the tap at his command. Embarrassingly, nothing happened.

"Ok next! Wind, Wind, out!" Quinn did the same again, but there was nothing happening.

After trying out many different things according to all the abilities that he had seen before, it turned out that he was unable to perform any of them. He made his way to his bed and sat dejectedly on it.

"What the hell is this useless thing? Is it really just a system ability?"

Quinn thought about it for a while. If it truly was like a game, then perhaps, by completing the quests, he would eventually get stronger and unlock more skills. He had heard the students in school gush over those memories, which were shared to them by their parents. Some of them still had these games, which were now antiques sitting in their homes. Maybe it was his mistake that he was treating it like an ordinary ability book when clearly, it was not. He was still unable to find it, and ability books did not disappear into thin air.

Usually, ability books were based around one ability. It was important for a person to select their first ability book carefully, since a regular human body could only perform one ability attribute in their lifetime. If one got transformability as their first ability, they would only be able to acquire other skills that were related to this attribute. For instance, if someone obtained fire as their attribute, they could solely dedicate themselves into gathering skills that the attribute fire could utilise. But this book was different, he felt it. What ability book could completely heal his eye defect?

Quinn went to open his mini-fridge, grabbing the bottles of water that were inside. He soon began downing the water bottles one by one.

"Damn, how much is two litres? My belly feels like it's going to burst."

After finishing his fourth bottle of water, the screen popped up in front of him, and a new notification message appeared.

[Daily Quest complete, 5 exp has been granted]

[5/100]

"Well, at least I know how the system works now," Quinn said, satisfaction evident in his tone.

A loud knock from the door startled Quinn. He jerked and almost threw the empty bottle of water he was holding on the ground. The knock came again. There was only one group that knocked like that, the real soldiers. Quinn dashed towards the door and opened it. As he opened the passageway, standing in front of him was a large, muscular, bald-headed man wearing a black military uniform, signifying the earth attribute. There were several medals on his garment. His name was written on the area of the uniform right above his chest - 'Sergeant Griff'.

"Boy, it is time for you to vacate your room immediately. The vehicle has been waiting outside for five minutes already."

With everything that had happened, Quinn had forgotten about his move today.

"It's time for you to head to military school," Griff announced.

Military School

Due to the war between humans and the Dalki, every individual was required to go to military school for the duration of two years. Although humans and the Dalki were currently embracing a peaceful period, nobody believed it would last forever. The Dalki were not to be trusted. Their taste and hunger for power and their desire to control creatures they considered to be beneath them, could hardly be kept at bay.

Every single day there would be news regarding one race antagonising the other, even on the verge of waging war. The citizens had this foreboding that an altercation could break out at any moment.

Quinn quickly went to the toilet before heading off with Sergeant Griff. His bladder felt like it was going to burst any second now because of the sheer amount of water that he had drunk.

Once he stepped out of his room, welcomed by the outside world, something strange happened. A new notification screen appeared in front of his eyes.

[Your body is being hit by direct sunlight]

[You are affected by the sunlight]

[All stats will be halved while you are exposed to the sunlight]

All of a sudden, Quinn's body felt extremely sluggish. He felt like he had just finished running a marathon and now needed to rest. His arms and legs felt heavier than usual, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Quinn proceeded to inspect his status while Sergeant Griff gave him a strange look for stopping as soon as they had set foot outside.

"Are you okay, boy?" the sergeant asked, getting ready to apprehend the boy in case he planned to make a run for it. Every year they would have some unwilling to come peacefully.

However, Quinn was not listening, nor did he have any plans to escape his responsibility. He was merely too busy looking at the screen before him, seeing that his stats had gone down. However, it wasn't just his stats, his HP had also been drastically reduced.

[HP 5/5]

[Strength 5/5]

[Stamina 5/5]

[Agility 5/5]

'What kind of drawback is this?!' Quinn wanted to shout out, but he was still aware that he was no longer alone.

"Quinn?" the sergeant called out again.

He was still staring at the screen as another notification appeared.

[You have received a new quest]

[Daily quest: Avoid direct sunlight for 8 hours]

[Reward: 5 Exp]

Quinn's mood was lifted as soon as he saw the new daily quest. Unlike the one that required him to drink water, this was something that he could do naturally just by sleeping. If the system worked the same way it did in games he had heard about, that would mean that once Quinn had earned 100 Exp, he would be able to level up and also increase his stats.

Hence, the more daily quests Quinn got, the better it was for him.

"What are you doing walking so slowly?! The school will eat you alive if you carry on like that!" Sergeant Griff shouted, waking him up from his stupor.

Quinn reached a large bus parked just outside of his apartment block. When he entered the bus, he noticed that it was already full of students who should be the same age as him. Some steps back, Griff stood watching him, his hands behind his back. Quinn had not even realised that the soldier had stopped. When he turned back to look at Griff, he could have sworn that Griff was a stone statue.

He turned back to the bus in front of him and discovered that he didn't recognise any of the students. That could only mean that they had all come from a different school. He felt a little relieved. With these new people, maybe the bullying would stop. Since nobody knew him, he had a chance to impress them, maybe even make some friends.

He opted to sit at the front of the bus since it was the only seat that was still available. The screen popped up in front of him immediately as he sat down.

[Stats have returned to normal]

It appeared that avoiding direct sunlight meant his stats would instantly return to normal. He was happy for it, since his body felt reinvigorated once again. As if a heavy weight had been lifted from his body

'Well, at least it looks like it's only direct sunlight.'

The students were all talking to each other in excitement, but that stopped as Sergeant Griff boarded the bus.

"Alright, it's time for us to head to the military academy," he announced, signalling the driver to begin their departure.

The bus jerked to life and started to move. The students were finally on their way. There was silence in the bus throughout the journey. Whenever a student started to speak, Griff would immediately glare in their direction, prompting the student to shut their mouth.

Griff didn't even have to say anything, since they all knew what he wanted, just by staring them dead in the eye.

About ten minutes into their journey, the pop-up screen came up again, and Quinn received another message.

[A substance in the air has been detected]

[You are feeling sleepy]

[Resistance +1]

Quinn found this message quite strange. So, he started to check out the interior of the bus. He noticed that half of the students were already asleep and the other half were drowsing off. He tried to fight it, but felt his body getting heavier. His eyelids were shutting down. At long last, even Quinn felt dizzy as sleep hovered around his consciousness.

[Your resistance to the substance has increased]

[Resistance +1]

Then, he heard the sound of loud footsteps coming towards him. He looked up to see Sergeant Griff hovering above him.

"Looks like a few of you were able to resist the sleeping gas. Guess we'll just have to bag you."

A black bag was thrown quickly over Quinn's head and his vision was completely covered. The gas started to slowly creep up on his consciousness, overpowering him. There was nothing he could do. His hand fell limply by the side and he dozed off, abandoning consciousness.

****

After a while, Quinn felt a splash of cold water chucked over his head. It served its purpose, immediately jolting him awake. The only thing that he could see upon opening his eyes, was a greenish smoke that dominated his surroundings.

He and several other students began to lift their heads to look around them. There were currently a total of five hundred students standing on a plain open field, in a strange place that none of them seemed to recognise. The puzzlement on their faces spoke volumes.

"This is where the lot of you will spend the next two years of your life," the voice of Sergeant Griff explained.

The green plain was not the only thing the students saw. There were three futuristic, huge buildings directly in front of them. The buildings were human images sculpted entirely out of glass. Each one stood at least sixty feet tall, but that was not the only thing that the field overlooked. They were standing on an elevated platform with a city in front of them, a hidden city. Everyone was already dressed up in a military uniform and there were technological marvels appealing to them all.

These devices were too advanced for their time. There were mechs moving crates and there were building machines, enormous things rising high into the sky with their crane. There was no one inside the machine, yet it laid down panel after panel of glass on a building that was still in construction.

There were flying ships, coming too close to the ground that Quinn was afraid that they would crash into the high rise buildings and send a shower of glass falling on the people in the city below. However, no such thing happened. They all followed a particular path. Then there were levitating trains which rose high into the air, running on rails that none of the students could see. Some of the technology they were witnessing had yet to be made public.

After the first war with the Dalki race, the humans had managed to make leaps in all sorts of technological fields. This was because they had managed to salvage a lot of equipment from the Dalki once the war was over. The military had decided to keep most of it for themselves. Some of the things they had found would just be too dangerous for the public to use. At least, that is what they claimed.

When Quinn finally managed to stop gawking at the new world he had been thrust into, he felt the weight on his hand and noticed that there was something placed around his wrist. It was a digital watch, yet there was nothing displayed on the screen yet.

"Placed on your wrist is your lifeline. It will identify you as a student at this military base. It will allow you to access certain areas, pay for food, and all sorts of other things. When not in use, the wristwatch will display a number - Your corresponding power level," Griff said.

It sounded to Quinn like he was speaking some strange foreign language, and from the confusion on the other students' faces, he was sure he was not the only one having difficulty understanding what the man was saying."

He had believed that his life might change after coming to military school, but it seemed like it was going to be the same game, only in another place.

"We will immediately begin testing your respective levels. Don't move until you are called forward, understand?!" Griff shouted with a smile on his face and everyone just nodded. The sergeant looked frightening with his smile. It was completely contradicting his hard face. "Good luck!"

Ability Level

When abilities had first been introduced to the human race, people had quickly discovered that some were far more powerful than others.

The abilities themselves were also different from person to person. They were dependent on how many mutant cells could be activated within the body and how much a person's body could withstand.

Not long after, came the introduction of the power level system, which differentiated between a total of eight power levels.

These levels indicated how many mutant cells were in the body but not how strong the ability was. The military further divided them into subcategories. 1.1 1.2 ... all the way to 1.9. just to identify everyone.

There were two ways for people to obtain abilities. There were the so-called Originals, and the people who had learned one.

During the war with the Dalki race, some people in distress started to exhibit powers, which the human mind could not comprehend. Scientists claimed it was humanity's last stand against extinction. The power the Originals could display had come as a shock to the Dalki and had proven to be enough to push them back.

These new superheroes realized that they could share their powers with other people. So they did it quickly since humanity depended on these strange powers for survival. They wrote down how they accomplished this and put the information down in things that would later become known as ability books.

After the first war had ended, the books were no longer distributed freely and instead started to go on sale to the public. The first ability users had realised, that their powers now put them at the top of the food chain and they wanted to make the most of it. The military decided to keep some of the more powerful abilities to themselves.

From that point forward, ability books ranging from level 1 to 5 were the ones sold to the public, while giant corporations and the military connived with the first known ability users to keep the higher-level versions to themselves.

As such, if one was an ability user, they either belonged to an Original family or one would have learned the ability from a corresponding book. Unsurprisingly, the Originals were stronger and accessed higher levels than the rest of the human race.

Additionally, not all ability users had chosen to share their abilities with the outside world and some had decided to keep it exclusive to their own bloodline. Originals usually had the strongest of abilities that couldn't be measured using the power system.

After the demise of his parents, Quinn had not had any family members to support him. He had lacked the means to buy even the cheapest ability book and as far as he knew his family had not been special enough to be an Original.

Now, after all these years, it seemed like he had managed to obtain an ability after all. Even though he never heard of an ability book like his before, so he didn't even have a clue what power level it had mutated his cells to.

Usually, on the front, there would be a technique that could help you master your ability up to a certain power level. Unfortunately, the book had disappeared and with it whatever knowledge it had contained.

Quinn lifted up his hand to look at the watch, which indicated his current power level was one. When he looked around, he noticed that everyone else's watches currently showed the same number.

Sergeant Griff was standing in front of all the students, calling out names in groups of five.

These students would then be transported somewhere to take the test. Quinn was hopeful at first thinking that he might have been able to change his ability level for once, but the screen which had popped up before him caused him to worry.

[You are being hit by direct sunlight]

[All stats will be halved]

He had no correlation on how good 10 Strength, 10 Agility, and 10 Stamina were. He just knew that it would be greater than his current 5, which didn't bode well for this upcoming test.

But if his eyesight was anything to go by, then it should mean that it would place him at least in the top condition of a normal human being. Right now though, Quinn felt incredibly weak and sluggish.

His body felt extremely hot, and he was sweating buckets. Quinn thought it was a good thing he had drunk a load of water beforehand. Otherwise, he would have been extremely dehydrated.

"Hey, are you okay?", a stranger standing next to Quinn asked.

The stranger had slick blonde hair and hazel green eyes with a chiseled face and sharp jawline. He stood before him at a height of 6 foot 2 inches tall compared to Quinn's 5 foot 11 inches. He looked to be the type of person Quinn would have usually avoided in his school as everyone would always pay attention to them, and boy did Quinn hate attention.

"If you want, I can call someone for help," the stranger offered.

"It's okay, I'm just a little bit nervous about the testing," Quinn lied as he tried to ignore his tired body and stand up straight.

The stranger's eyes roamed over Quinn's body with concern. Quinn was quite skinny for his age, not having a lot of muscle on him, and right now, he looked incredibly weak. To the stranger, Quinn looked like the type of boy who would be a prime subject for bullying. Being in a new place and not knowing anyone's power levels, of course, he would be nervous.

Quinn sighed. If he was to get a level 1 rating again, the same thing from his school would most likely repeat itself.

"Well, don't be. I'm quite strong, you know. If anyone messes with you, you can come and ask me for help," the stranger offered, smiling. Quinn returned the smile, yet he couldn't help but feel uneasy.

Quinn didn't usually get on with the active, positive type of person. In fact, he did not get on well with anybody, but he found it hard to dislike the boy, especially for being the first person to offer his help.

"The name's Vorden, by the way," the other boy introduced himself and placed his hand out.

Quinn looked at Vorden's hand. It was the first time in his life someone had treated him like a normal human being, but he was afraid that would quickly change.

Should his ability turn out to be a low-leveled one, he would probably take back his offer of friendship, but at least for a short time Quinn just wanted to forget about all that.

"My name's Quinn," Quinn replied as he shook Vorden's hand.

[Use of an ability has been detected]

[The ability has been rejected]

Once the system messages appeared, Quinn looked at them strangely. He then noticed that Vorden still hadn't let go of his hand. Then the system repeated the message once again.

[Use of ability had been detected]

[The ability has been rejected]

Quinn forcefully pulled his hand back. The system was clearly telling him that Vorden was trying to use his ability on him. The other even had a puzzled look on his face as he stood there.

"What is your ability?" Vorden eventually asked.

"I…." Quinn paused, thinking for a while whether he should answer or not. Ultimately, he wanted to see Vorden's real reaction. "I don't have an ability."

Vorden no longer had a puzzled look on his face, but he did not look pleased either, as if the answer had been insufficient to sate his curiosity, but before he could say anything, Sergeant Griff made an announcement.

"Next group, Quinn Talen, Vorden Blade, Peter Chuck, Layla Munrow, and Erin Heley. Come to the front to take your test!"

No Ability

Once the five students heard their names being called, each of them began to make their way towards the sergeant, who was waiting for them in front of the crowd.

Apart from Quinn and Vorden, there was another boy in their group. Peter looked to be the most nervous among anyone there. He would constantly look around him and he couldn't stop fidgeting either. His body frame was quite small, but it suited him for he wasn't that tall either. Looking at him reminded Quinn of himself. A small frame with glasses and scruffy brown hair, he was not much for a physical attraction.

The other two members were both girls. Layla had short brown hair and a tall figure and she was carrying a bow on her back, which surprised Quinn since not many people carried a weapon these days apart from a specific group of people called Pure.

They were a group of people who claimed that abilities were a blight upon humanity and instead opted to use weapons. However, they were very rare and Quinn had never met anyone who belonged in the faction in his life. He had merely heard stories about them.

Erin, on the other hand, was the type of girl whose beauty turned necks. Her proportions were perfect, not too big and not too small, and she had long silky hair with a magnificent golden hue. The only problem was her facial expressions. Even while walking through the gathering of people, not once did her expression change. It stayed stiff and neutral and made her appear cold. The awe on the faces of the other kids was lost on hers.

As Quinn was walking to the front, he noticed that he couldn't recognize any of the students there and it seemed like the others were not familiar with anybody either. Quinn could only assume that this was done on purpose.

Their group soon stopped just behind another group that was being transported to the testing area.

Vorden walked around and greeted each one of the people in his group with a handshake and a confident smile. Vorden was very polite, so most of them accepted his greetings. All of them, except for Erin.

She merely stared at Vorden's hand when he offered it to her, then turned her gaze away after a second.

"Come on, you don't have to be like that," Vorden said as he placed his hand on her shoulder.

A terrible mistake. Erin moved faster than anyone could react. She grabbed Vorden's wrist and twisted his hand. Specks of ice started to crawl up his hand and began to freeze his limb.

They were making a scene, and everyone gleefully watched.

"Wow, she has ice abilities?" one of the boys said.

"Isn't that very rare?"

"I would let her freeze me any day."

Several students expressed their amazement in unison.

"Stop it, you two," Griff barked at their little fight. "If you have that much energy to pick a fight, then save it for the test!"

Erin immediately dropped Vorden's hand, leaving him gasping in pain. Slowly, his hand started defrosting. He scrambled back to the line and stood behind Quinn, his face flushed with embarrassment.

"Can you believe her?!" Vorden complained, "I nearly lost my hand."

"You can't just go around touching people without their permission," Quinn replied.

"Yeah, I know. She's lucky I didn't wipe the floor with her just 'cause she's a pretty girl."

His words were creating enemies for him. Many of them admirers of Erin who felt disgracing Vorden might earn them points with the beautiful girl.

Looking at the people around them, Quinn could tell what the others were thinking. It was on their faces. Instinctively, Quinn moved away from Vorden, hoping that others wouldn't mistake the two of them as friends.

At last, Quinn and the others were called forward and were told to stand inside a square, drawn with white lines on the ground. The space inside of it was just big enough to fit the five of them in.

One would notice that outside of the square, there was a hooded man who was standing nearby.

"Send them away!" Griff ordered.

As soon as Griff gave the command, the hooded man planted both of his hands on the ground and the square started to light up, shining in a bright purple color.

"An ability to transport others, huh," Vorden said, leaning forward to speak into Quinn's ears, much to the latter's discomfort. "What a rare ability."

The plain fields faded from their sight and they were thrown into a whirlwind of colors. The very next second, they found themselves in another outdoor area, this time an empty wasteland. There was no sign of life nor greeneries.

Two people stood before the group. A woman dressed in black and next to her another man whose face was hidden beneath his hood. Quinn could not make out the badge on the arm of either of their uniforms, making it impossible to tell what rank they possessed.

The woman held a tablet in one of her clutches, busy thumbing through it. She ignored the group that had appeared before her and continued till she was done. Once she had finished, she shifted her gaze to the students and began to speak.

"Hello, I am Jane and I will be the one in charge of your test today. Once the test has been completed, I will be updating your information and your score will then be reflected on your wristwatches." Quinn noted that her face appeared to display the same emotional range as Erin's.

"Now, who should we call first? Oh, it looks like we have a couple of previously levelled ones?" Jane noted as her eyes ran across her tablet screen. The tablet seemed such a delicate thing to hold in this place where the beautiful city was out of sight. The information the woman made mention of had been passed down from their previous schools.

"Peter Chuck, step forward."

The nervous, small physiqued Peter did as he had been told, looking even worse than before. Quinn thought that he appeared unsightly, yet he looked to be in perfect condition if you were to compare the two. At least Quinn was able to stand up, whereas Peter looked like he would fall over at any second.

"What is your ability?" Jane asked.

"Eh, I don't have any ability," Peter answered quietly.

Quinn and the others now understood why Peter had been so nervous. Having no ability wasn't rare. Because of the war, many children had ended up as orphans like Quinn. This usually meant that there was no chance for them to buy an ability book.

"Don't be afraid Peter." Jane said, "Here, take this."

The hooded man, who was standing beside Jane, suddenly conjured a book in his hand and held it out quietly. Jane took the book and handed it over to Peter.

"F-for me? You're just giving this to me for free?!" Peter asked with utter excitement in his voice. "Thank you!"

"Study the book in your own free time. When you have finally learned to use it, you can come back to redo the test, but for now, I'll have to temporarily award you a level 1 power status."

Even though Peter had received a level 1 power status, he didn't care about it. At this moment, he only felt hope. His life could finally turn around due to the book that he had just received.

"Quinn Talen, step forward," Jane ordered, looking at him.

Quinn did as he was told.

"What is your ability?"

Result

Quinn considered this entire charade to be ridiculous. It was quite clear to him that the tablet Jane held already had all the information on him from his previous school. They should know that he had never possessed any ability and that his financial status would never allow him to buy one… and yet he struggled with the answer to her question.

Before coming to military school Quinn had done a bit of research himself. Unlike Peter, he already knew that the military freely gave all students who had no ability their very own ability book. Everyone would receive a level 1 Earth ability book.

This way, all those students like Peter would suddenly become indebted to the military. Not only that, but the military also had a hold on nearly all of the Earth type ability books and the corresponding skill books. In other words, if you ever wanted to increase your strength, you would have to stay loyal to the military, and in return, they would give you more power.

Before Quinn had been granted that system from his book, he had made up his mind to accept it. Even if he didn't join the military after two years, an Earth ability was handy to have. With it, one should be able to find quick employment since the Earth ability was useful in construction.

And this was exactly where the problem came in. Quinn already seemed to have an ability, which meant he was unable to learn a new one. The ability book they would give him was practically useless. He was also pretty sure they would keep tabs on every student they had given the ability book to, meaning the teachers would expect him to use earth powers one of these days.

Quinn took a deep breath and answered, "I don't have an ability."

Just like before the hooded man standing by Jane's side plucked a book from thin air and handed her the book. Her eyes were cold and emotionless as she handed it to Quinn.

Quinn took the book from Jane, but suddenly another screen appeared before him.

[Unable to learn this ability]

[Would you like to convert the book into 10 Exp?]

Quinn had somewhat expected the system to display the first message but the second one truly surprised him. He was really tempted to take the book and use it as a form of Exp but he knew there would be questions asked later on.

"I'm sorry, but I don't want it," Quinn said as he handed the book back to Jane.

The instructor looked at him with raised eyebrows, the first sign of her being able to actually display any sort of emotion. In her five years working as an instructor, this was the first time someone with no ability had rejected the book.

"Please give me one moment." Jane walked away from the group of students who all looked at Quinn as if he was some sort of freak. Once she was far enough away from them, her hand went to her ear to activate the electronic piece inside.

"A student by the name of Quinn Talen doesn't want to accept the ability book. I await instructions on how to deal with this outlier," Jane asked, speaking into her earpiece.

"No need to force him. Just let him take the test and report back if he shows promise," the mysterious man on the other side instructed her.

****

As the man hung up, he couldn't help but think that this Quinn seemed like an interesting student. He began to check on the corresponding file, which left him puzzled. The student had no ability and according to their research, he also should not have any relations with the group Pure either.

"Let's see how long you can survive in this cruel world, Quinn," the man said to himself, leaning back into his seat.

****

Jane adjusted her suit and headed back to the group of students.

"Apologies, for keeping you all waiting," Jane noted stiffly. Then she turned to Quinn. "Although you don't wish to accept the ability book, you're still required to take the test."

He found this to be quite the bizarre request. Was there really a need for him to take the test as someone without an ability? It felt like the only reason they wanted Quinn to continue was to humiliate him for refusing their 'help'. Making him feel small and insignificant might lead to him approaching the military on his own and eventually beg for the ability book they were handing out.

"Please follow me."

Jane took Quinn a little further out onto the field where Quinn noticed that there were huge craters in the ground, burn marks, patches of the ground scorched and burned like there had been some fire. This was all done during the previous testing of contestants.

"Please proceed to destroy the targets in front of you as quickly as you can," Jane instructed him, "The test will begin immediately."

As soon as Jane finished talking, three targets popped out of the ground at random locations around the wasteland. They were metal round targets with a red dot in the centre.

The problem was when Quinn tried to look for the targets, everything appeared like a blur in the distance. He noticed that his 'perfect' eyesight suddenly wasn't so perfect anymore.

'Is this because I'm out in the sunlight?' Quinn thought.

Quinn had no choice but to slowly run-up to each of the targets and hit them with his fist one by one. Unsurprisingly, his time ended up being incredibly slow.

After this Jane asked him to complete two other tests. The second one was in regards to this Strength test. All he needed to do was punch into a huge drum-like machine. Quinn gave it his best shot and hit the drum as hard as he could. The drum vibrated and made a small sound eventually displaying a digital number in the centre.

"Strength 5," Jane announced and noted it down on her tablet.

For the final test, there was a big circular machine with many holes on its front. It hovered over the ground without touching it. Once the test started the machine fired holographic spikes at the examinee. All Quinn needed to do was avoid being hit by the spikes for as long as possible.

The machine went up in levels and eventually got faster and shot out more spikes. It was a torturous process, and Quinn soon got tired of dodging and was hit. The machine whirred and ceased working.

"Agility 5," Jane announced this time and once again noted it down.

Quinn had heard the words from Jane's mouth and it started to make him wonder if there was some kind of link between the scores she had given him. This test focused on Agility and he had scored a 5, which was the same as his system. The same was true for the test before, which had revealed his 5 in Strength.

Quinn sighed internally. If only he could have taken these tests at night, he would have most likely doubled his scores. However, if his ability was indeed one allowing him to evolve, he could always try to take that test again.

"Quinn Talen, your overall current power level is that of a level 1 ability user," Jane informed him.

Quinn clenched his fist and went back to stand with the others. He knew that the days ahead of him as a level 1 user would be harsh, but hopefully, that would change in due time.