13 Gates

"Let's first start off with how much you can currently recall. Tell me as much as you can remember."

Ethan put his hand to his chin, seemingly deep in thought.

"Hmm… It was around 100 years ago I believe. Gates began opening up around the world, allowing for strange creatures to exit them. I remember that some of these creatures looked like goblins and orcs, beings that existed from human myths."

Lucian nodded his head.

"So far so good."

"Nice! I must be some kind of untapped genius!"

James shook his head with a sigh.

"We were taught this back in middle school. If you couldn't answer this much, it would have been beyond pitiful."

"Eh??? Lucian, back me up here. James is bullying me again! Tell him I'm at least high-school level in terms of intelligence."

Lucian gave Ethan a tired look.

"If you were that good, you wouldn't need me to teach you."

"Hehehe right…"

"Ok continue, we only have so much time left."

"Ah right! O-oh ok, so like, when the monster things came through, they were evil, so they killed people. Um… Right! They blew up some cities too, some big ones."

Lucian looked at Ethan like he was looking at an idiot.

"Because they were 'evil'? Are you some kind of child?"

"It's easier to remember that way!" Ethan countered.

"Fine, fine, It's not like we know why they were hostile either way. For all, we know your idea of them being evil might even be correct. Keep going."

Ethan closed his eyes, and scrunched his eyebrows, deep in thought.

"Ok… So like, human weapons were able to kill the weak monsters, but the strong ones were able to avoid taking any damage. Not even nuclear warheads could kill some of them! When all hope was lost, people started awakening abilities. Only by using their abilities were they able to kill the creatures. Nobody actually knows where they come from, or why people could suddenly use them though."

Lucian nodded his head.

"Ok, what else do you remember?"

Ethan's face froze.

"What else was there?"

James sighed.

"Everything you just said was the bare minimum to graduate middle school. What have you learned these past few months?"

"Um… How to dodge properly in Light Souls? I even managed to kill the 'Named King'! Without getting hit even once, mind you!"

James's eyes slightly widened.

"While I do admit that is indeed impressive, your value as a functioning member of society is starting to be questioned."

Ethan covered his ears with his hands.

"Argghhh, don't remind me."

*CLAP*

Lucian clapped his hands loudly, drawing their attention.

"Ok, let's quickly go over the rest of the content. It's not a big quiz, so there isn't that much else to add. Just some fine details."

Ethan's ears perked up, "I'm listening."

"Ok. First things first. The creatures from the gates don't seem to be able to communicate with us, and any attempt at interrogating them only resulted in failure. While there are theories that they are under some kind of influence which prevents them from revealing info, nothing is for certain. Also, anyone who entered a gate never made it back out, so we don't have any clue what it looks like inside." Lucian explained.

"Yeah, some people tried to attach a camera to a tether and pull it back out after recording the other side, but the camera got fried. Any technological device that was sent through a gate got completely wrecked." James continued.

Ethan pulled out a paper and started writing down small notes.

"Ok, so we can't communicate with them, and we know nothing about them. Anything else?"

"We need to go over abilities, as well," Lucian responded, "as you know, abilities are ranked from F to SSS-ranked. With F-rank being regarded as trash, and SSS-ranked ability holders being viewed as messiahs."

Lucian's mouth curved into a self-deprecating smile.

Seeing Lucian's saddened expression, James walked up and put his hand on Lucian's shoulder.

"Don't worry about that. So what if you weren't born with a strong ability? While you are lazy, you're not dumb in the slightest. Even if everyone else looks down on you, just remember that the two of us will be by your side."

Ethan stood up and joined in.

"Yeah, leave it to us!" Ethan hit his chest with his fist and smiled.

Lucian looked at his two friends.

"Thanks, guys. Knowing that you two will have my back is more than enough."

The two of them didn't have strong abilities either, but they both had E-rank abilities.

Which were still considerably better than having an F-rank ability.

While no one really ostracized them as they did with Lucian, nobody treated them kindly either.

They were more of the loners in their class if anything.

"Ok, other than that, the only major thing to remember is the guild system and you're good."

"Hmm… Ok"

Ethan nodded his head.

"This doesn't seem like too much right?"

"This is why you should have gone over the course material at least once before. It's just a quiz so there wouldn't be too much on it." Lucian sighed.

"I have you right? Why do something so troublesome~"

Lucian's eye twitched.

"You lazy f*cker…"