3 Chapter 3 - The Ranking System

Zero was currently sitting in class with his head down and in his arms. His eyes were closed, but he was still awake. He was listening to the Teacher go over Earth's history, the races, and the NPA, as well as Mana and Mana Pool. Even the bracelets they were wearing. It was a recap of all their lessons over the past few months because a test was coming up.

The thing was, Zero didn't care much for that test. He didn't care for anything as of late. Besides, there was no way he would pass the test. No one backed him up, and no one supported him. People only viewed him as trash since his Mana Pool was zero. Unfortunately, one needed a decent Mana Pool to pass the test because this test was no standard test.

The test is known as Rank Up.

The Rank Up test was tomorrow. Students would be tested on a variety of things. Their general knowledge of politics, knowledge of combat tactics, warfare, battle, and how to use Mana; all of these things were essential.

Introductory classes for math, language arts, reading, and science were supplementary. Since in today's world, Humanity taught the basics of those things in grade and middle school. Due to the changes going on, Humanity figured it was time to change the age groups. Once you hit thirteen, you were considered an adult.

Humanity moved it down from eighteen. As such, once you were at least the age of two, you were thrown into schooling. Primary schooling was free, but wealthy families could hire tutors or place their kids in private schools. This allowed them to get the upper hand in becoming a high rank.

The Ranking system went from F to S.

F being the lowest and S being the highest. The Order is as follows:

F

E

D

C

B

A

S

Many things factor into what Rank one would be; Political Knowledge, Warfare Knowledge, Combat Tactics, Mana Pool, Mana Control, Magic usage, Martial Talent, and Martial Skill. Anything that outclassed or exceeded the top Rank and was too difficult to grade or judge would be labeled into five groups.

SS

SSS

SR

SSR

LSSR

The difference between the groups was vast. An SS was more substantial than an S by leaps and bounds, but an SSS was even more potent than an SS. This applied to all of the groups. Only three people held the Rank of LSSR, the High Commander that led Humanity, The Overseer of the Angels; Priscella, and the Overseer of the Demons; Diabella.

The Leader of the Elves and Orcs was SSR; meanwhile, the SR ranks were held by the Dwarfs and Vampires. There were a few other high-ranked personal amongst the races with Ranks of SSS and SS and even S, but they were far between. These Five Labeled groups were not easy to achieve, and only those who could achieve them were called Blessed.

"And with that said, you should all try your hardest. The class that has the highest grade will be given a Rank Up. The top performers will also be given a Mana Weapon and Armor of their choice. The said weapon will be from E to C rank value." The Teacher finished up her lesson. People couldn't help but enjoy her classes. They were easy to follow, and she was beautiful to boot with her plush lips and wide hips. She had her own little fan club from both the boys and the girls.

Since the Teacher finished the lesson, she looked over the class. She had seen Zefer with his head down and sighed heavily. She didn't understand why he was like this, which upset her. So she made her way over to him and slammed her hand on his desk.

Zefer!" The Teacher shouted.

Zefer rose his head from his arms and looked up at the Teacher with a dull look in his eyes. "While I don't expect anything from you, I advise you not to bring the class down! Do you understand!?" The Teacher exclaimed. The boy could smell her lovely lavender-scented perfume since she was so close. She had leaned over, which caused her uniform to hug all the right places giving the boy a piece of eye candy to look at. Yet, he seemed indifferent to the woman's lusty body.

"Yeah." The Zefer replied without care before laying his head back down. He closed his eyes afterward. The Teacher growled and turned away. "Useless!" She exclaimed. It was not necessarily directed at Zefer, but more so her efforts to get anything out of him. She wasn't upset because the boy had little to no talent or Mana Pool; she was more upset that he seemed to give up.

The boy had been relatively upbeat and cheery at the beginning of the year. He struggled even with his setback and did his absolute best no matter what anyone said. The Teacher found it admirable and did her best to support him, but something changed one day. The boy stopped caring all of a sudden.

He would come into class, just put his head down, and never say a word. When the Teacher tried asking him what happened, he just shrugged and said, "That's just how life is." She was devasted. Zefer was one of her best students in terms of grades. While he lacked Mana Pool, Marital Talent, Mana Control, and Mana Usage, he excelled in other areas, which was why she was so adamant about helping him. Even if he had none of the things the school was looking for, he could have been a strategist or even a researcher, but now he had just given up.

The truth was, he consistently scored one-hundred on every assignment and test. It came to the point where students thought he was cheating, so the staff investigated him. They made him take a test that was higher than his grade level. This was to humiliate him if he failed, but they never told him the test was of a higher grade level.

In the end, he passed with flying colors which left them astonished. Since they couldn't believe this, they gave him another test, meant for people graduating from the academy. In the end, he passed this one as well with flying colors.

They never caught signs of him cheating once, and due to this, they felt humiliated. They wanted to get back at him, but there wasn't much they could do. So, they just left it be. If Zefer was someone with a decent Mana Pool, they might have bumped him to the final classes, but they didn't. This left him staying in the same grade level as the others.

"Ms. Veronica, even with Zero's setback, we will still do our best!" One of the students chimed in to calm their Teacher down. The Teacher, Ms. Veronica, smiled at her students. "I am glad to hear it. I hope all of you achieve great things tomorrow, and remember to do your assignments and turn them in via Valnet. They are due by the end of the day. For now, class dismissed!" Ms. Veronica said aloud, then walked out of the classroom, leaving the students to their devices.

A male student walked over to Zefer and smacked him upside the head. "Look what you did; you upset Ms. Veronica. I honestly don't know why you are even alive. You have no Mana Pool, you can't even use magic, and you have zero Martial Talent. If anything, you would be good for target practice." The male student said rudely.

"Come on, Ruth. This guy isn't even worth that. If anything, he should just be a slave for the Demons or Vampires! At least then he'll be useful." Another student perked up, which caused the others to chuckle and snicker.

Zefer's eyes went wide, rage-filled them, and he instantly got up from his seat to push off his desk. Within a split second, he took hold of the guy who said something about being a slave to the Demons and Vampires by the collar of his shirt. In an instant, Zefer pulled him in only to slam his head into the desk.

The kid's head started to bleed, and he seemed to slump onto the ground. The kid was knocked out. Zefer had this wild look in his eyes. He was about to kick the kid on the basis before Ruth blasted him with Wind Magic that pushed him away from the kid and sent him to the other side of the classroom.

Zefer would push off the ground and look at Ruth and his friends with disgust and anger. "Ugh... this trash," Ruth growled and blasted Zefer with more Wind Magic until Zefer stayed down for good. After that, Ruth and the gang helped their friend off the ground and went to the nurse's office. As they passed Zefer, they spat on him.

Zefer laid on the ground, not getting up; although he wasn't out cold, he felt no reason to get up. He could do nothing. It felt so unfair to him that people like that had power while he did not. He hated it, and yet he could do nothing about it. So, in the end, he just gave up and laid there. After everyone left the classroom, he would get up and dust himself off. He knew no one was going to help him. No one cared about him. Now it was time to head home.

"I hate this place..." Zefer muttered to himself on the way home.