Quad

Four figures stood in a dark room. They were shrouded in darkness, yet they could see perfectly. They were all facing a large screen as their faces were illuminated by the little light it spat out. If you squinted your eyes, you could see three gold letter carved on the wall facing their backs - KGS.

"Any promising candidates?" A gruff voice called out. The man who had spoken had folded his arms, revealing his large muscles that seemed to burst out of his shirt. His face couldn't be seen, but it probably had a frown. This man radiated the aura of a soldier.

"We have many, this time." A thin, sharp voice could be heard. A tall woman with her hair tied up had spoken. Her lips were curved in a smile - a look that hundreds of monsters had seen only once. If that man was a soldier, this woman was a mercenary.

"Of course. After all, this generation is the golden generation." A bespectacled man had spoken. His square glasses clung to his face, making it feel like he had always worn them. He took them off as he cleaned them thoroughly with his shirt. Who knew how many times he had cleaned these very glasses after he slaughtered monsters.

The golden generation - every thirty years, the chosen heirs of the five great families were sent to Keystone to hone their skills and become world class gatekeepers. Perhaps it was a coincidence that every single time a heir came to this school, the other four were here as well.

"Yes, it's a pity. Ordinary geniuses won't be able to shine in their presence." A small, thin woman had spoken. Her long hair draped to the side like a silken coat, beautiful even in the dark. Her nails extended from her thin fingers like a cat's, waiting to cut up something.

"Yet somebody has shined brighter than them this time." The spectacled man spoke. The screen changed as a boy appeared on the screen. Short dark black hair and obsidian black eyes. His cold eyes radiated with an intensity that the four were all to familiar with, having seen hundreds of monsters wear the same expression.

"Noah Evans." The tall woman spoke. "A nobody. A commoner. He has no backing and no living relatives to speak of." She stared at his photo. "Fortunate. Large G-corps won't have a hold on him. They have nothing to threaten him with." The bespectacled stated simply. The muscled man snickered. "Fortunate? That's funny."

He suddenly let out a wave of killing intent. "That kid lost his parents ten years ago when Knightsville collapsed. And you have the audacity to call him fortunate? You still dare to...." "Enough!" The long nailed woman called out. The man stopped talking immediately. He could not go against her words.

The tall woman spoke. "Noah is an interesting child. He has the capability to overturn the world. After all, his potential was measured to be S rank. But that's not the strange thing. What's special about him is that his strength was projected to be as much as the golden generation. To be precise, upper S rank."

The bespectacled man smiled. "Interesting! A no-name commoner becoming an S rank gatekeeper! Now that's a story you'd read in a novel!" It was indeed shocking. Potential was hereditary, so two C rank awakeners giving birth to an S rank child was extremely unlikely. It wasn't impossible though.

"The five families have a lot of power with their SS rank leaders. I wonder what will happen if the APF gets an SS rank awakener too." The tall woman spoke. "That'd be interesting. I'd sure love to see those old coots faces if the APF becomes even more powerful than it already is!" The muscled man laughed loudly.

"Let's move on from Noah. Any other people we should keep an eye on?" The long nailed woman moved on. "Yes, we have a few. Take a look at this one." Another photo appeared on the screen. "Ethan Miller. Potential ranked F."

"F ranked? Why'd you bring up this piece of trash?" The tall woman spoke up. "That's because he's unique." The bespectacled man adjusted his glasses. "I came across this boy while looking into one of our important applicants. This boy cleared the first exam, scoring over 10,000 points." "10,000 points? That's impressive. He must have placed first in his centre!" The tall woman replied.

"Unfortunately, no. That centre was a.....special one. His competition was tough. Any other place and he would have ranked first." The bespectacled man coughed awkwardly. The entrance exams weren't completely fair. "Keep an eye on him." The long nailed woman spoke. "Find out everything about him. Find out if he's a threat. And if he is...." She didn't need to finish her sentence.

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Screech! The bus slowed down in front of a large white building. Shhhh! A set of doors opened as Ethan got out of a bus. He glanced behind. There were nine other people who he had never met walking out of the bus.

Ethan felt disgusted just by looking at them. One of them was a young master, and the other eight had spent all of their time sucking up to him. Ethan had sat in a corner, counting the seconds until they arrived at their destination. He walked forward, not wanting to stick close to them.

Tap...tap...tap. A blast of cold air hit Ethan as he walked into the building. He took in the scent of the surroundings as he walked forward. This place was an office building through and through. He walked up to a desk and fished out his gold card.

"Ethan Miller," he muttered, wanting to get the test started as quick as possible. "Sure. Please wait a moment!" Beep! Boop! "Here's your card. Thank you for waiting. Pease head to the first door on the left."

Ethan rushed towards the room. He didn't want the young master getting mad because a commoner had entered before him. He'd experienced their arrogance firsthand. The white haired kid's sense of entitlement to his hard earned cores had disgusted him. Pity he passed the first round as well.

Ethan entered a wide room with multiple desks arranged neatly in rows. He headed to a seat with his name plastered in fine black print. 'ETHAN MILLER'. He plopped down on the seat, waiting for somebody to come in.

Time ticked by slowly. Everybody had arrived. The young master had given him a dirty look, followed by eight ugly stares, but he'd ignored them. He couldn't be bothered with them. Tap...tap...tap. A man with a bushy moustache walked in.

"Alright kids, settle down. Any noise and you're disqualified." The room was immediately plunged into silence. "Heh, that sure quietened up you lot." A couple of kids frowned. They were probably the ones who couldn't stand being talked to like this. But nobody wanted to get disqualified over a petty issue.

"Congratulations on passing the test. That was the toughest test out of the three." His face didn't match his words. He must have gotten used to seeing hundreds of kids like this every year. "Now, for the second test, we have split all 10,000 applicants into 100 groups of 100. Only 2000 applicants will pass to the next round. Which means that only 20 of you will be advancing to the third round."

Nobody spoke. They digested the fact that most of them wouldn't pass this round. They were confident in the first round because of the large number of G-5 and G-6 ranked weaklings, but now they'd have to contend against people who matched their own skill level. There was no G-8 ranked awakener in this room. People like them wouldn't be worried about passing this round.

"What you're standing in is a Simulated Monster Environment Progression Tower, or a SMEPT." SMEPT? What kind of an acronym was that? Ethan wanted to laugh. Of course, being a commoner, he didn't recognise the value of the building he was standing.

"For those of you who don't know, live monster specimens are stored in this tower for research, experimentation and today, for battling." Everybody listened intently. Fighting in a SMEPT was something unheard of. Keystone sure was weird with its methods! "This tower is divided into a hundred levels, containing monsters from G rank to S rank. Of course, we don't expect you to the hundredth floor. We are testing your speed today.

"Each of you will be traversing the first 15 floors of this SMEPT." Everybody froze. Ethan silently calculated in his mind. 100 divided by 8 was.... He paled. This meant that every single applicant would have to fight at least three F ranked monsters. The whole room broke into chaos.

"Hey! That's not fair!" "F ranked monsters are too tough!" "Are you trying to kill us?" "Oi moustache! Do you know who my father is?" "I..." "Silence!" The moustached man slammed his fist against a desk. The kid sitting behind it shook in fright. "The rules are absolute! Any student unable to take care of F rank monsters is not welcome is KGS."

He glared at the applicants. Everybody stopped talking. Sure, F rank was doable, if they fought with everything they had. Most people here had aced the first exam, scoring slightly above 2000 points. Not everybody was unlucky as Ethan.

Everybody trembled slightly. "Now I don't want to hear another word from of your dirty little mouths! Get ready! The test starts in fifteen minutes! I'd better not hear a peep from you shrimps until then!"

Ethan gulped nervously. Perhaps getting into KGS wouldn't be as easy as he'd thought. He silently unzipped his bag as he prepared for the ordeal that would follow. "Life's a bitch," he muttered. He sighed as he prepared for the ordeal that was about to occur.