Inside a training room in Stormhold Academy.
A young crimson haired youth could be seen holding a beautiful black gun with silver engravings.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Three gunshots rang as soon as the youth clicked the trigger.
But surprisingly all three bullets followed different trajectories after being shot from the same position.
"Finally! After two weeks of trying I finally succeeded in controlling bullets in mid air."
The youth was none other than Damian Valcor.
It has been two weeks since he arrived at the Stormhold Academy and all that time was either spent on training or doing breathing exercises.
"Sigh…Although I can control bullet trajectories now, doing so puts a lot of stress in my mind… I'm already having a headache."
As he wiped off the sweat off his forehead, Damian couldn't help but sigh.
Manipulating bullet trajectories might seem simple but was actually incredibly hard.
Bullets by themselves are already travelling almost 4000 feet per second.
People find it hard to even see them, much less control their direction with their mind.
Only after trying repeatedly and improving his stats, was he even able to achieve this almost impossible task at his current Rank.
Even then, it was mostly thanks to his will power being so strong, that he was able to achieve this result.
It seems he might have still underestimated his Will stat.
He planned to ask more information about this from a Professor later on when the classes start.
"Status."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Name: Damian Valcor
Age: 15
Rank: F+ → E-
Talent: S
Core Attributes:
Strength: 15 → 31
Speed: 17 → 33
Stamina: 19 → 29
Vitality: 22 → 30
Aura: F+ → E
Will: 129 → 140
Skills: —
Shooting: B- → B+
Hand Combat: B
Telekinesis: E+
Aura Control: E+ → D-
Weapon Arts: —
━━━━━━━━━━━━━
After his intense training for the past two weeks, many changes were reflected in his status.
Most important was that his Rank has broken through to E- finally.
Even his Aura core made some progress and broke through two times to reach E Rank.
"Hmm… it seems my rank won't increase unless my stats reach a certain number.
Even though my core is already at E Rank, my overall rank remains at E-.
I broke through to E- rank after all 4 of my core attributes broke through 25 stat points.
Does it mean I will need to reach 50 stat points each to break through to Rank D?"
As he was mulling over his thoughts his gaze couldn't help but move to Will stat which has again increased.
"... when did this happen?"
As he was looking for a reason for this sudden increase, he found the reason soon enough.
"Telekinesis… So after my hours of trying to change bullet trajectories I developed this skill as well.
I can later on try to move other things as well through my mind."
"Also… does it mean that Will stat can be increased if we train mind related skills?
The same can be applied to other stats as well then… need to figure it out later."
As he closed his status screen, Damian couldn't help but clench his fists with an excited expression on his face.
Feeling the power of his physical body increasing day by day was an exhilarating feeling.
And feeling the Aura revolving in his body and core, it felt like he was on drugs.
"Phew… Let's head back and get some sleep.
Tomorrow is the Orientation day for First years."
Yes, admissions were already done for the first years and the dormitory was already packed with new students.
He received regular updates through his watch from the Academy.
Even his Rank has been updated and he moved to a regular room based on his rankings.
Nothing much changes for his room, as he was already staying in a similar one.
Only top students of a year received better accommodations.
While walking towards his Dormitory, Damian looked at the hologram from his watch.
[Name: Damian Valcor
Class: 1 B
Year Rank: 231
Status Rank: E-]
There were a total of around 400 students admitted every year in Stormhold Academy.
As his Rank was not that great in Entrance Examinations, he was assigned 231 Year Rank based on that.
Not all top students took admissions in Stormhold Academy as many equally strong academies were emerging around the Federation.
So it was not surprising that despite ranking in the 900s he had such a relatively high rank in his year.
"Hehe… I wonder what others would think if a student with Rank E- was only ranked 231 in the first year."
As he was looking at his hologram, a voice rang out from behind him.
Damian turned around to see a purple haired beauty standing behind him and smiling.
Startled, Damian asked, "Can you see my Hologram?"
"Not really… but I'm the Student Council President… I have access to all the information of every student inside Stormhold."
Elizabeth smiled, before continuing.
"Your progress has been impressive these past few weeks.
I won't waste much of your time since you have a big day tomorrow.
Care for a small walk with me?"
"Please, Miss Murdock."
Damian gestured politely with his hand before falling a step behind her as they both went to a small garden around the premises.
"You can call me Elizabeth from now on. I'm sure we will be interacting a lot and I don't like the sound of Miss Murdock."
"... Alright, Miss Elizabeth."
Elizabeth shook her head at his formal way of addressing as she smiled, but she didn't say anything.
As they were walking inside the garden and engaging in small talk, Elizabeth stopped and looked at Damian with a serious face.
"Now to the actual reason why I sought you out.
Your information has been classified as Rank S in the Federation by SFD and they also made sure to wipe out all traces of your involvement from the Norrington incident.
But they did report everything to the Academy as well as the higher-ups in the Federation.
You don't need to worry on the Academy side as for the next two years, I will be the one in charge.
But I don't know if the Federation will have some plans for you."
Damian kept quiet as he listened, not interrupting her.
"I have been keeping track of all the progress regarding the incident and the reaction of SFD as well.
And although they did manage to keep your involvement hidden in official reports.
They didn't warn any of the students or teachers from Norrington School to not reveal your information.
From what I can see, they are deliberately trying to let the organization behind the attack find out about your involvement.
Otherwise, it would be too clumsy on their part to not even think of this. So make sure to stay alert all the time as you might get targeted by those terrorists when you leave the academy."
****
Elizabeth kept looking at Damian's face while letting him know everything she found out.
But not a single change happened in his expression from the start till the end.
It was as if they were not talking about an evil organization targeting him and SFD using him as bait.
But rather just enjoying a night walk in the garden.
Just as she was about to continue, she saw him open his mouth for the first time.
"Do you happen to know the name of the organization behind this attack?"