ALL NOVEL I will strive beyond this cursed bloodline!
Chapter 45: Prepare for the midterms.
After all the upheaval that brought the sudden classes with both powered and magical girl outfits, the school came into a more normal day.
Even if some still tried to pester her about her thunder-aligned supposed powers.
Not that she had any, well...She may be able to do a sneaky sneaky with her spells...
But the smart students would catch her in the mana manipulation so she refrained herself.
Besides, it would be embarrassing if someone with a skill for identifying the type of skill one had was to be around.
And those did exist since apparently the student council always had someone with that skill in their rooster.
How did they even manage that?
God knows.
She suspected foul play and probably either a teacher or [Hero] with a longevity skill was at play keeping students frozen in time.
Yeah, she would also accept that deal if her only skill was of the information-gathering type.
So when they brought forth a student gathering in the auditorium, she didn't overthink about it.
"What do you think they want to speak to us about Eli-Eli?" asked her always loyal pink-haired friend.
"Probably news about a tournament or something." Answered the blonde girl.
Her mother always complained about how predictable these things were while the [Fate blessed] were involved.
Granted, she didn't call them that, but after her latest findings?
Yeah, she now understood more about things.
Like how Akira & Rena jumped to levels 10 & 15 in one match alone.
While she had to fight 3 stacked matches and lose 2 of them. Even if the records stated she won 2.
And even after that taking that into consideration...
Yeah, she didn't think she could sneak another win that easily again.
She didn't even want to try to use her now renewed knowledge about how [Identify] worked.
To use it like before was bound to bring either faulty or incomplete information.
She did use the skill in itself though.
Getting some interesting information out of that.
| Identify |
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This skill allows the user to bring information from the Akashic Records to understand and visualize the hidden truth of the world at large. It brings information to the level that the user is capable of understanding. If the Akashic Records doesn't have the information, it tries to pry said information from the target of the Identify skill.
While some can resist the influence of the skills usually the target will not notice the effects of the skills. If the said target has a good affinity with the world or has experienced the influence of the Akashic Records before they may notice this skill.
If the skill is reinforced by [Idea] it will bring information closer to [The Truth] at the expense of [Mana] the larger the difference between the user and the target, the more mana is expended. If the target doesn’t intend to share information with the user the mana cost can grow. In case of getting reinforced by [Idea], the skill is more aggressive in its recollection of information. So the target may notice the intrusion. Since in this case, the skill sounds the [Soulscape] of the target.
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A whole new paragraph talking about [Idea], and how her skill it seemed to try and encroach into the [Soulscape] of its targets.
That...Was scary, if nothing else.
Also, it should be impossible. She didn't know how one of the most basic forms of her skill could allow tampering with something that was supposed to be sacred.
She didn't want to dwell too much on it and felt like she had visited quite enough Alexanders in her soulscape.
Also, he was going on vacation...How was that even possible?
Wasn't he part of her soulscape?
Wait...How did he even end up there?
She felt like something was going there, but somehow always found something more important to ask...
Oh well, if it was important Alexanders would have brought that up anyway.
Or her mother. She felt like her mother would know about this and brought it up if it was important, so for now, she focused on the announcement to be made in this student meeting.
And soon enough it would start.
"Look Eli-Eli, the student council!" Said the pink-haired girl to her left when they had found a seat.
And sure enough, there they were.
The five most prominent students of this academy.
From the powered side the vice president Lilly Hartley, a fire-aligned manipulator.
How did she know?
Well, hard to not notice the spark of fire that was stuck in her hair and orbiting around her.
Then there was her secretary, Selen Dawnstrike. She was from the magic side apparently she was a holy-aligned kind of priestess or something.
She wasn't too sure about the details since [Contract] type mages were hard to get a read on depending on the type of contract they made and the spirit or god they tied themselves to.
After that, it was the treasurer Magnus Embersteel, also a mage...Kinda.
Rumors were that he was more focused on artifact creation than the standard type of magic if you believed that.
A weird specialization to have since usually that was delegated to either Tinkers on the powered side or powerful archmages.
After him was Asher Sterling, the head of the Disciplinary Committee, a powered with electric manipulation type skills. Not much was known of him besides that his powerset had a base in thunder-aligned manipulation.
His fights tended to end too fast for anyone to catch anything, she was of the personal idea that he was probably built as an assassin type.
And last but not less important the Student Council President.
Evangeline Galaxidae, she...was the one in this student council generation to hold the [Skill] that allowed to identify the nature of another's skills.
Her skill also allowed her to peak at the type of [Origin] one holds if the rumors were to be believed.
So she was being nurtured and guarded by powered and mages. Rumors told that after her graduation she would be trained up to standard and join [The Twelve]. If she showed talent they would turn into a thirteen-type name. If not...Well, she would still work for them even if in a more mundane type of support.
“Greetings, first-year students. My name is Evangeline Galaxidae.” Said the silver-haired girl, giving a pause so the chatting could die in the auditorium. “For those of you that don’t know. I’m the student president and a third-grade student.”
Sure enough, there were a few people with some hushed laughs here and there. She was one (If not the one) more popular student on campus. Her heritage was of a princess from a foreign country that rarely spoke with the world at large. Her skill was among the rarest form possible to obtain.
And if that wasn’t enough? She was rumored to be one of the few cases of someone getting approached by [The Twelve] in public. There were rumors of students being approached by heroes here and there. But nothing so public.
Some got scouted by a group of heroes here, a cabal of mages there, and a few even got scouted by Villains to work as henchmen or minions. Not that anyone would accept that offer… Not publicly at least.
And that one she found out because one of such offers had arrived for her powered persona. Some group of villains called [The Abyssal Twilight], her perusal of the offer, showed that they were a mid-tier A-Grade threat organization. She wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
They would not accept her till graduation and only if she was at least B-Tier, though.
“Now, some of you might be wondering what this meeting is for.” Started once again speaking the silver-haired girl. “And is to congratulate you for finishing the first half of your evaluation period.”
And at this point, she pushed a button on the podium. Bringing down a massive screen showing the names of all the first-grade students. Among them, one was highlighted…It was…Her name…The name of the student council president.
“As you can see, like you. I just got into this school.” Obviously, there was a disorder in the auditorium. After all. They found out their student council president was a first-grader.
“But before you ask, no. I’m not a first-grade student but a third, as I said.” She smiled at that.
Even Elizabeth was confused by this.
“The way we decide who is a first, second, and third-grade student is simple.” She said while raising her hand.
And with a snap of her finger, the names on the screen disappeared, well. Most of them. Some remained, those remaining were of the high score achievers on both magical and powered. Almost at the top of them were Akira and Rena, followed by Michael and Rossie.
And a few spots below was herself…Yeah…She was having somewhat of a hard time keeping up the pace, even though she had a better stat count overall…She really needed to decide on either a specialization or to admit to being somewhat weaker at the early levels.
“And no. We will not be showing the [Names].” Smiled the student president. “Now those that remained are the ones we as [Student Council] believe will manage to go past the first-grade status.” And of course, at that statement, all hell broke loose.
They just got told that at the end of the year, they would not be guaranteed to go into second grade by some arbitrary thing decided by another student…A student that also got into the school at the same time as them!
Akira, of course, was among the more vocal who said nothing of value. She, on the other side, was thinking quite deeply about this. Not sure how to go about it, she just raised her hand.
“Well, this wasn’t going to be a question-and-answer meeting.” Said the silver-haired girl while looking at Elizabeth. “But since you are quite polite, we will address you…Miss Starbright.”
And like that, they passed a microphone to her.
“What is the metric by which they decide who goes past first grade?” Asked the blonde girl.
Some still were screaming at the injustice of the world, and among them, Akira was the most vocal of it.
“THAT ISN’T FAIR! WE ALL PUT OUR BEST EFFORT!” He said while taking the microphone from the blonde girl.
Rude.
“Well…Most of us.” He said while giving her the stinky eye. Even though he was sure that she wasn’t [The Shadow Empress]…He still hated her for some reason.
“Thank you for your unwanted opinion…Akira.” Said the silver-haired girl.” Now answering to Miss Starbright.” She said while pushing another button on the podium. Cleaning the screen of names.
“First Grade Students are those that the school deems that after three years here will be at best High F-Grade or Low-D Grade.” And like that, a few photos of…known average heroes show up on the screen.
A few search and rescue magical girls were there, too. Those were not powerful enough to cast more complex magic, but they had enough power in them to at least fly and relay messages in case of disasters.
“The school will not be liable for those of you that believe that can contend with High C-Grade threats with the power of a low F D-Grade.” Smiled the silver-haired girl at Akira. Who could only acquit at that. Fighting a C-Grade Villain as an F-Grade Hero? Yeah, no way that was going to work.
“Second Grade students are those deemed that can achieve at least C-Grade and the third year are those deemed that can achieve at least A-Grade status.” And on that note, she ended her presentation.
And turned to one of the magical student members of the council. The man pretended to not see her, though, so she only sighed and carried on.
“On the magical side…Well, the higher the complexity of your spells, the higher your grade is. But as a basis, they use knowledge to graduate you. So it’s more normal and in line with what you would expect from a school.” She finished her presentation at that.
“Does that answer your doubts, Miss Starbright?” Asked the silver-haired girl.
Elizabeth, for her part, only nodded. That seemed a…interesting way. But it was an impossible way to prove unless you had a skill that could peer into the nature and power of others.
“And by the face Miss Starbright put, she noticed the crux of the matter.” Said the student president, smiling at the students. “This relies solely on the school having someone with the ability to gauge your powers…That or a tournament. But you will still be graded by the school even if you decide to go that route.” Soon enough, more and more students understood the problem. If they wanted to rise far above, they would have to either spill the beans or fight their way up.
And on that note, almost all turned their eyes toward Akira and Rena. They had left quite the impact after all. A few more turned their eyes towards Chloe and herself too. Even though Chloe wasn’t really her powered persona, she had suffered the infamy. And they thought she was that thunder-powered girl. Whoever she was. At least she was keeping a low profile and didn’t join the fights, granted. No one would want to fight her after she made that barrier crack. How much power was behind that skill?
“And that is why yours truly got accepted in third grade, even though I’m also just a little shy of 15 years.” She did a little curtsy on this.
“My [Unique Skill] allows me to know the threat level of someone valued by my own standards. And the type of skill they hold.” She said, revealing her Powerset to the world. Flabbergasting most of the students in one sweep. Well, Akira didn’t see a problem and just acted as if nothing.
“That isn’t special enough to grant you a free pass to third grade.” He said in a mocking tone. “My Divine [Skill] lets me…SADASDFSDF” Started saying before Rena shoved a glove in his mouth, muffling his voice.
“Sorry for my friend President, but he is right. Your skill, even while rare, should not allow you a free pass.” Added the red-haired girl.
“Anyone with a [Info-Gathering] skill is free to try his luck. If they can give me the average feels they get from the student council, I will grant them a pass to third grade.” She said while smiling. That…seemed suspicious.
“This does not include the magic side. You are on your own on that. I only have control over the powered side.” And on that note, several students from the magic side canceled their [Scrying] spells.
“Not that they would work, our [Wards] would make you wish you didn’t try,” said the black-haired man on the student council side. She was still wondering why he was using a modified uniform that seemed brought from an army school.
“Wanna try your luck Eli-Eli?” Asked her pink-haired friend.
She…Didn’t want to, not here.
“Appraisal!” Came the thundering voice of Akira. To no avail. “WORK YOU GODDAMMED SKILL!” He was starting to work himself up, so she ushered her pink-haired friend far away from him.
Most of the other students were doing that too.
Most of the other students were doing that too.
Even that shy girl Chloe did so when she noticed Elizabeth moving away from him. Did she have a death wish?
Granted, she didn’t use [Identify] on the poor girl out of respect, but unless her skill was strong, she should steer clear of Akira…No wait, was she on the list?
She didn’t read them all…Perhaps she too was among those deemed to raise to second grade?
Either way, “Akira, you don’t have any [Skill] that would allow you to take that test.” Said the silver-haired girl with a tired expression.
That was an interesting confession, that implied that she could glance more than she gave herself credit for.
“[Identify].” Intoned in a low tone the blonde girl while Akira kept screaming at his inexistent skills.
And sure enough, she got quite the information.
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Status |
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Name: Evangeline Galaxidae Title: Servant of the Akashic Records Alias: Student Council President, Future S-Class Hero Level: 26 |
Health: 100% Mana:100% Stamina: 100% Stress: 0%
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Strength: 10 Constitution: 20 Agility: 10 Dexterity: 10 Intelligence: 150 Wisdom: 150 Charisma: 50 |
Skill: Knowledge Trace Subset Skills: -Decryption. -Analysis. -Stealth. -Firewall. |
| Notice: |
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Status Auto allocation is optimized. Turn it Off? Y/N. |
She also got a wink from the student council. That…Didn’t take that much mana…? Did…Did she got whitelisted by that [Firewall] skill?
Or was it because they shared a somewhat similar title? They both had that '[Akashic Records]’ thing on their title.
“That will be quite enough Akira.” Said the student council president.” If any of you wish to skip grades, go to the student council. We will evaluate your case and if you wish to solve this like meatheads…” added the silver-haired girl.
“We will deal with that too,” Came the albino-looking guy. He felt…Dangerous.
“Now…Onto happier things!” said the orange-haired girl while moving the student council away from the podium.
“We will start the social service next week!” In a happy, carefree tone announced the secretary of the student council.
That…Somehow dropped the mood from almost a riot to somewhat...More calm.
Wonder what that was about.
Only one thing was sure so far. She was going to ignore the prompt that was flashing in the Status Screen of the President.
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