20 Roommates

After the students were taken back to the campus not a single sound could be heard but the heavy steps of the discouraged students walking back to their dormitories. Lieutenant Dragonfang's words turned out to be true, Uriel did find out the answers he was seeking for, and then some more.

The sudden realization that the apocalypse came and went without any fanfares made him shudder.

As soon as Uriel snapped back to reality, he noticed someone following him closely on his way back to his dorm, someone he didn't expect.

"Uh, Sam, what are you doing?" He asked.

"What do you mean what am I doing? I'm going to my dorm room..." Said Sam.

Trying to make it less awkward, Uriel hurried up his pace.

"Are you sure it's this way?" Uriel inquired after noticing they were still walking the same way after a long while.

"Uh, yes... I'm right there." He pointed towards the same building where Uriel lived.

"No way! We've been living in the same building and never noticed, how crazy is that?" Uriel was excited, for the first time in his life he had someone he could call a friend living near him. In all truth, though, he never had a friend before anyways.

"Yeah, I guess... I would have thought you were following me, if not for the fact that you were walking ahead of me all this time." Sam said with a wry smile. He wasn't in such high spirits as Uriel.

At least until they got to the same door.

"Uh? I think you got the wrong room..." Said Uriel.

"No, no, this is my room I'm quite sure. Look, that's my bed." Sam pointed to the bed right in front of Uriel's.

Each room in the male dormitory they were located had six beds, but Uriel had never actually met most of his roommates because of his odd schedule and unhealthy habit of staying up late studying.

Whenever he woke up, his roommates were already gone, which was the reason there was never any warm water for him, and he only came back late after everyone was already asleep.

"I guess we're roommates..." Uriel shrugged trying to hide a smile that wanted to come out.

"Could it be? Are you the weird guy who's never here? I mean, It's not that you're weird, well, you are weird but... that's not it! You're always either gone who knows where or sleeping late, I never saw you awake, not even once! we always joke about you being a ghost, a robot or something" Sam said, now he too was smiling excitedly.

Although he wouldn't use a word like 'friend' to call Uriel, at least he was harmless and a nice guy. For a long while he had been wondering who might the student assigned to the bed in front of his' be and now the question was finally answered.

The rest of the week was off for the students who participated in the incursion. As an excuse for their moody behavior most of the students replied that they were simply too tired after the 'party' offered by the army, when in fact, they were traumatized because of their sour experience in the incursion.

When class started again Uriel made sure to arrive on time at professor Pangeotis lecture. There were several unoccupied spots because most of the students that were missing either died at the incursion, joined the army or simply quit their studies.

The empty seats were an awful reminder of their terrible experience, but Uriel wasn't as depressed as the rest of his classmates.

He survived, he still had a job at the library, he found out he was roommates with Sam, he managed to acquire a trait and, best of all, there was a cute girl now sitting besides him.

That girl wasn't Tina though, she was almost as tall as Uriel, she wore tight fitting clothes and a black leather jacket with a fearsome depiction of the head of a woman with snakes instead of hair.

"What are you doing here Medusa?" Uriel whispered.

"You said you were in the same class as Cassandra the other day and figured I wanted to come too..." She said blushingly.

"Didn't you pay attention to colonel Windfire's speech? she was drafted, I mean, really drafted." The last part he whispered so low it was almost inaudible.

"I know, ok?" She replied a bit upset that he didn't get the hint. She signed up for the anthropology class only because Uriel was in it, unknowing that it was one of the hardest lectures in the whole college.

"You two..." Professor Pangeotis was about to scold Uriel, but the room was almost empty and he was in no mood for witty remarks. "Please remain silent while we're in class."

The lecture was about lifestyle in medieval times. He showed a lot of pictures of garments, weapons, tools and even buildings, all the while pointing out different aspects of their possible use and cultural meaning.

It was an important subject that Uriel loved... as a child. There was absolutely nothing new to him, some of the pictures the professor showed to them were taken from books he knew by hand.

Soon, he started to get bored and wished he had one of those fancy tablets the other students had or even a smartphone. That way he would be able to secretly browse other books or even further his studies about the ancient language he theorized about on his vlog.

Finding himself alone within his thoughts he realized something that had gone completely over his head up to that point. He was sitting in the last row to avoid Tina, only this time he had no trouble to look at the pictures being shown in the screen in front of the class.

'How can this be, I thought I was nearsighted... could this be a side effect from my trait?' He still refused to accept that his trait was limited to a body modification, but if his sight was somehow cured it wasn't that bad of a deal.

Still, he wanted to find more about his trait.

It was then, that a small piece of paper was pushed over in front of him.

'Do you want to eat lunch with me after physical training?'

Thinking it was a nice opportunity to ask for help, Uriel quickly replied with a short 'Yes' in reply.

The lecture ended just a few minutes before noon and Uriel walked towards the physical training facilities yawning. He wasn't tired, though, simply bored. He couldn't figure out why everyone thought why professor Pangiotis class was so difficult, all they had to do to pass with good grades was to read huge boring books until late night, every night.

'Oh, right... I guess it is difficult after all.'

Reaching his destination he was greeted by Captain Silvermane's shouting as usual.

"Alright maggots, don't even think on slacking off or I swear on the flag you'll regret the day you were born!"

Now the nature of his nickname wasn't as mysterious as Uriel believed before.

'It must be his trait, why else would he have such a nickname. If Miss Dragonfang's trait is related to reptiles, I bet captain Silvermane's must be somehow related to... body hair!?' That thought made him cringe for a few seconds, but then he picked up the pace to avoid getting nagged by the captain.

The man seemed to be staring at the crowd with a curious look, as if he was looking for something he misplaced.

"Where is the wimp? Where's miss Cassandra?" He asked.

"She was drafted." Replied Uriel amidst pants.

Of course captain Silvermane knew all too well the meaning behind those words and his face became sour for a brief moment. When Uriel realized this he quickly added.

"She got a Heavenly rank trait and decided to enroll"

"That's excellent news! See guys!? that's what happens when you work hard in the physical training!" He yelled to the top of his lungs with a wide smile that refused to abandon his face, completely forgetting that Cassandra was anything but a hardworker and she wasn't interested in the slightest on the physical training course.

So far, the only low note on Uriel's day had been the absence of Cassandra who he was looking forward to meet again. He was interested in her, not in a romantic way, but he wanted to know more about her trait.

Or at least that's the story he thought to himself.

Anyway, he had the perfect excuse to speak to her since he was friends with her sister, but he had no way of contacting Luna.

During the class he didn't want to stand out in any way, but the difference between those who didn't have a trait, those who had an evolved trait and those with an ascended one became evident.

Despite his newly found stamina, he quickly found himself struggling just to keep up and ended up sweaty as always.

After a quick shower, he left the facilities and he was surprised to find that Medusa was already waiting for him.

"What? how did you get here so fast?"

"Oh, I saved some time by not taking a shower!" Medusa said.

"And you want to hang out dirty?" Uriel replied without minding his words.