The Ghost System - Chapter 34

“As you can see here, District 1 is the largest district and it’s at the Center of Pangea.” Teacher A retraced the large circular border on the map.

“It also has the lowest population density.”

Rhys tried not to scoff thinking about how District 1’s citizens enjoyed larger living spaces and lavish lifestyles. He heard rumours once that there were no homeless people there.

“District 1 is home to government head quarters as well as ordinary District 1 citizens. I’m sure you have all heard about how wealthy District 1 is. In comparison to the four districts in Sector 5, yes I would say the standard of living is a bit higher there.”

Teacher A brushed past what was probably an awkward subject for him, seeing as he worked for the military and the military was responsible for Sector 5’s lower standards of living.

“What you students don’t know is, at the very Center of District 1 is what the military refers to as District 0.”

The map on the board zoomed in to reveal a thin gold borderline cutting through District 1, creating a smaller mini-district in the middle of the District.

The classroom broke out into whispers again at this revelation. For their whole lives they believed that there were only twenty districts, four districts in each of the five sectors. But somehow this District 0 had been kept from them.

Rhys would have been shocked like the rest of the students if Aria had not given Connor and him a brief explanation of this already.

“And this special District is home to the noble families.”

Rhys noticed Georgie clutching the pencil in her hand, gripping it so hard that her fingers were turning white.

“During the Xerserth invasion, after the world governments fell apart, humans only defence against the slaughter were the people who had been living in secret from the rest of the world. Those who knew about the existence of cores long before the invasion and had already gained abilities from them. They became humanity’s only hope while the military powers were still joining hands.”

Rhys watched as Georgie’s trembling hand combed her hair behind her ear. She placed her hand in her lap out of his view.

“The groups or ‘families’ that saved humanity and shed light on the cores during the struggle, asked for and were granted status and private land within Pangea.”

“All the noble families enjoy a status higher than normal civilians. Each family head has the same privilege as a Governor with the Government, and a select few family heads’ have the same privileges as a General within the military.”

The same statuses as Governors and Generals was a pretty high status. Rhys guessed that those titles came with insane privileges as well.

“The most intriguing thing about the noble families is that they do not infuse with cores. The official statement from them is that since their bloodlines absorbed cores for so many generations, the core abilities became part of their DNA, so children from noble families are born being able to use their powers.”

Rhys stared at Connor from the side of his eye. Connor did not infuse with a core but he had electrokinesis. There was no doubt about it now, Connor definitely came from a noble family.

“Also know that noble families not only give birth to ability users, they also collect them. Most of the families offer places to outsiders, thereby growing their forces. Because of this, the need to legally prove that a person is part of a family became a reality. That is why all members of a noble family share a middle name. Of course the biological family members usually share a last name as well, but those brought into the family on contract are granted the family’s middle name.”

Rhys stared up at teacher A, full of anticipation because this was what Aria detailed to him and Connor.

“To name a few of these prestigious middle names, Fract, Tardras and Saki are quite famous. So if you meet a person with any of these middle names, be aware that you are talking to a noble family member. Like I’ve said before they have more privileges than a normal civilian so do not be rude to them.” Teacher A’s tone went deadly serious and he stared down the students to let them know that he was serious. Which only begged the question: what happened to those who upset the nobles? And why wasn’t Connor living in Sector 0 with the rest of his family?

“You’ll learn more about them later, so I won’t take any more questions about this topic.”

Some students dejectedly lowered their hands.

“As for the rest of this class, we will go through with your weapon consultation.”

Instructor A ducked below the desk for a moment and came up with a stack full of files. He went around to each desk and handed each person a file.

Once a thick file was placed in front of Rhys, he cautiously opened the cover and was surprised to see his profile picture staring back at him.

“In these files are the comprehensive notes written by the overseers who watched each of your matches. In them you’ll find constructive criticism about your performance during the tournament as well as suggestions about what type of weapon you should think about getting.” Teacher A nodded and gestured to Instructor A to take over.

“Yeah so-” He snatched away a person’s file from them and held it up for the entire room to see. “You’ll see your appointment times with the weapon consultants on the front cover of your files.”

He pointed his thick finger at the information printed inside the file. “Just give the consultants your files and answer their questions. Then they’ll prepare the gear that you need. I want to remind you that they’ll give you the gear you need, not necessarily the gear that you want.” Instructor A glowered down at the students as he spoke.

“Sometimes the freshmen don’t agree with the weapons that are given to them and think it’s their place to argue with the consultants-”

Instructor A’s fist slammed into the desk, causing the student who was sitting there to jerk backwards in shock. Rhys just frowned up at Instructor A whose aura was completely even and calm, the man was just pretending to be angry to scare the students.

“I better not hear about that happening this year. Be grateful that the General is willing to spend so much money on people like you who haven’t even pledged your allegiance to the Military, yet.”

Rhys blinked in surprise when he saw his appointment number and consultation time. His was the first appointment and he had exactly three minutes to get wherever he needed to be.

As he was about to speak up and ask where to go, Teacher A addressed the class. “As soon as your appointment comes up, you may leave through the door at the back.” He pointed in the direction of some sliding doors at the back of the class. “They are waiting for you right through there. Come straight back to class as soon as you are done-”

Instructor A barged into Teacher A’s announcement, rubbing his big hands together excitedly. “Those of you won’t don’t have appointments in the next thirty minutes will join me outside for a little sparing. Your Teacher and I were out on a mission yesterday so we didn’t get to see you guys in action. There’s nothing like some one-on-one matches to get to know my students better.”

He was wearing a mask but Rhys could practically see the man grinning underneath.

“Those of you who are getting consultations first, don’t worry, you guys can fight when you come back.”

Rhys cringed at Instructor A’s behaviour. The guy was practically drooling to see them fight. While instructor seemed like your typical fighting obsessed hothead, Teacher A was refined and more academic. Total opposites.

While the rest of the class exited out the front doors, Rhys shuffled around the desks and opened the door to the back, where he found none other than Professor Killian standing in the middle of a small weaponry workshop and waving like the goofy mad scientist he was.

“Hi Rhys,” His prefect white teeth sparkled and bleach blonde hair shone making Rhys squint.

“Hello Professor, I wasn’t expecting you.” He slid the door shut behind him. “Are you really a weapons consultant because I thought you were more of a core researcher?” Rhys hopped onto the metal stool the Professor gestured him to take a seat at.

“I was actually focused on Gem gear and weaponry for a long time before I found my passion in trying to understand cores.” He chuckled while shifting his circular glasses up his face.

“And because I am in charge of you three staying at the Glowry residence hall, it’s best for me to create your weapons.” His eyes lit up as he reached for the file in Rhys’s hand. He brought out a sketchbook and pencil as well and quietly flipped through the pages of Rhys’s file, circling and underlining as he went along.

Rhys stared intensely at the Professor who had entered a state of intense concentration. Professor Killian was clumsy, but quite driven if he moved all the way from Sector 1 just to study cores. He seemed friendly but that could simply be a ruse for him to get Rhys and the others to trust him. Rhys was having trouble deciding whether or not the man was trustworthy.

[‘He’s not. No one is. He will be nice until he get’s a whiff of how valuable you truly are, then he will either try to contain you or kill you.’] The teacher snapped at him.

“Your biggest weakness is distance.” Killian suddenly spoke. Shutting the file, he looked Rhys dead in his eyes.

“You have a formidable defence. From what I’ve read in the file, the only element that had any affect on you was electricity. Other physical and elemental attacks don’t seem to hurt you either…”

The Professor rested his head in his palm and stared sideways at Rhys.

“Thus, In a real life battle scenario, you would be the last man standing but with no way to defeat your enemy if they kept their distance from you.”

“But I-” Rhys wanted to remind the Professor that he was very capable of offence too, but Killian cut him off.

“Yes, I’m aware that you can inflict devastating attacks on your opponents, however that’s only possible if you can get close to them. It worked for you in the tournament because nobody knew about your ability.”

Rhys could only nod sombrely. Since he saw his profile and a vague description of his ability in the newspaper, he knew the other A rank students would read through everyone’s profile, trying to find a way to get an edge on each other from the provided information.

“All it would take for someone to best you, is for them to keep away from you.”

It was a reality that Rhys was aware of, so he was hoping that his new weapon could fix that problem for him.

“Sure you could wait for your opponent to get tired and stop running from you, but who’s to say that you won’t be the first to tire? Or, what if you’re on a mission with a time limit and you don’t have the time to wait for your opponent to give in?”

Rhys nodded in agreement, he would be in trouble if he couldn’t think of a way to solve this.

“Good, I see that what I’m saying isn’t shocking you. That means you’ve already thought about some of this.” Killian took a few minutes to sketch and scribble on the sketch pad. He suddenly got up from his chair and walked over to the wall of hanging hardware behind him.

He unhooked a few items from the wall and collected them in between his fingers. A few more minutes of searching, and he turned downwards and rummaged through a large wooden box and from it, retrieved a metal suitcase.

The Professor slapped everything down onto the desk.

“Seeing as how your clothes don’t fall off your body when you use your power, Am I right in saying that anything directly touching gains your power as well?”

Rhys nodded slowly, “Sort of-” He paused thinking about how to explain his views. “Anything flat against my body will become intangible when I become intangible.”

Rhys picked up the stray pen on the desk and placed it flat against his palm. He then phased his hand and the pen through the desk.

“See when it’s flat against me like that it works. But when I do this-”

Rhys held the pen perpendicular to his palm with his fingers and began to move his hand downwards towards the desk. The pen’s tip made contact with the table first and stopped moving, while his hand continue to move downwards and phase through the length of the pen.

“Interesting.” Killian shifted his glasses up his nose again. “At first I thought your power was a completely physical attribute, but seeing this I need to shift my thinking a bit.”

He stared at the pen for a moment. “What you’ve showed me makes me think that your power functions more like an energy that you coat your body in than just a physical attribute.”

Rhys’s eyes shot to the Professor who was obliviously biting his lip and looking beyond Rhys. Rhys was unsettled that the Professor had pretty much inadvertently described his aura, which was the source of his Spectral form skill.

“And if you’re power is like an energy that coats your body, then as you get stronger you should be able to manipulate it or stretch it someday.”

[‘This human is accurately describing the aura manipulation you will unlock at level 5, even though he has no knowledge of spiritual energy. Kill him swiftly so that he does not learn any more.]

Rhys reminded himself to be guarded around Professor Killian.

“Try this on.” The Professor busily strapped what looked live a leather, fingerless glove to Rhys’s hand.

“Okay, point your hand that way.” The Professor pointed it to the side. “And make a fist.”

Rhys pressed his hand into a first, automatically a blade the length of his arm shot out of the top of the glove.

“Woah!” He jerked in surprise. His swung his arm around a little trying to get used to the weight pressing down against his wrist.

“Okay, release your hand.”

Rhys did as the Professor said and watched as the blade retracted back into the wrist brace. It was a cool weapon, definitely something that would throw an enemy off guard. But, Rhys could not picture it as his weapon.

“Can you try use your power on this weapon, I want to see if you are able to make something this size intangible.”

Rhys nodded and concentrated on his hand for a moment. The wrist brace was a little thicker than what he was used to covering with his spectral body, but he was sure that he could do it.

[Spectral form used + 5Exp]

After he applied the skill, he easily phased his hand and glove through the table.

“Excellent.” Professor Killian grinned wickedly as he opened up the silver suitcase. “Rhys, I’m guessing that you don’t have any experience using whips or chains in fighting do you?”

Rhys shook his head as he stared at the two objects in the box.

“Well then you’ll need to start practicing.” The Professor took out the whip and the wrapped chain from the box. “I’ll have your weapon ready in a few days. In the mean time I want you to practice with either of these. Actually just train with the chain.”

The Professor quickly snatched the whip back into the box.

“As you can see this is actually a Gem weapon. The Crystal within this chain will be similar to the Crystal that will power your weapon-”

“Wait, I’ll be getting gem-powered gear?” Rhys’s eyes went wide with the news. He knew he would be getting a weapon, but gem-powered gear? For a freshmen? How wealthy was the military exactly?

The Professor nodded as he nudged the chain closer to Rhys.

“Your final weapon will be similar to the brace I gave you earlier, but instead of a sword shooting out, a long chain with a blade at the end will be launched from the gauntlet. If you aim it at faraway enemies, you can sink them with the blade and keep a sturdy hold of them while you attack them.”

Rhys stared blankly at the Professor. Still trying to imagine what such a weapon would be like. Wasn’t something like that too risky? If his opponent managed to dodge his chain he would be left wide open. Even worse, if his opponent caught his chain, he would be in big trouble. The more he thought about it the move he began to worry.

“And one day, when you’re able to cloak the entire chain in your intangible ability.” Killian’s eyes glowed with excitement. “Just think about the possibilities.”

“Um, what about the Gem-”

“I have to go now, but I’ll see you back at Glowry later. Feel free to take the chain with you!” Like a man on a mission, Professor Killian dashed for the door leaving Rhys’s question unanswered.

Rhys picked up the chain and apples out the sliding doors, just as a larger man with a beard stepped inside. He was probably the weapon consultant for the other students.

Rhys fiddled with the chain in his hand as he walked through the classroom to get to the others who were supposed to be fighting outside under the supervision of instructor A.

The chain link was only as thick as his thumb but it felt extremely tough. Probably some kind of reinforced metal. The chain had a jagged blade linked to its end which had a small dark blue gem embedded in it.

Rhys knew a lot about raw gems, but those that had been tampered with and forged into weapons were a different story. They had a tendency to change colour and clarity so there was no way for him to know what properties the little gem held. Furthermore, the Professor left the room without answering his question. In the meantime he would try and get used to fighting with a chain, and he would need to reach level 5 as soon as possible.

“Aaaah!” A terrified scream pierced Rhys’s ears. He jogged to the end of the classroom and out the door to find out what was going on.

There he saw Sampson standing with his usual malevolent grin as his flames engulfed another student.

“Stop it, don’t hurt him!” Georgina shrieked in horror as she watched Kataru be engulfed in flames.

“Sit down trainee. Don’t involve yourself in another student’s match.” Teacher A snapped at her from the sidelines.

Although Sampson was smiling, he did not look very good. His breathing was ragged and his aura was warped around his legs. He was not bleeding but he had obviously sustained some damage.

“But it’s not fair!” Georgie protested. “That fiend tricked Kataru! You all saw it didn’t you?”

She desperately turned back to look at the other students who blatantly ignored her cries.

“Don’t ignore me-”

A sudden cry from Sampson cut her off. The concrete ground at Sampson’s feet suddenly broke apart and sunk further into the ground as if a force was pulling the area downwards.

Sampson strained his legs to keep his himself standing but the force proved too much for him and he sunk to his knees. His flames dispersed and a furious, slightly charred Kataru emerged from the flames victorious.

“How dare you.” He glowered down at Sampson. “I offered you a hand in friendship when I knocked you down the first time. However, you took advantage and used my outstretched hand as a means to burn me. Now you shall pay the price!”

Rhys watched excitedly as Kataru’s aura spiked. A gravity manipulation core was so rare. He wanted to know how much disturbance the guy could make at full power, that and it was always nice to see someone kicking Sampson’s butt.

“Okay that’s enough!” Instructor A stepped between them. “Today is just a friendly spar, no need to kill anyone. You two, go over to Teacher A to get healed.”

Sampson and Kataru glared at each other as they made their way to Teacher A. Sampson never failed to make enemies of just about everyone he met.

“Ah, you there.” Rhys looked up to see Instructor A peering at him over his mask. “You’ve just come back from your consultation right?”

“Yes.”

“That’s ‘yes sir’ to you, trainee.” Instructor A snapped back.

“Yes, sir.” Rhys corrected himself and tried not to look annoyed.

“Okay then, you can come have a spar with her.” He pointed at Georgina who was fussing over Kataru.

“Maybe you can tire out that loud mouth of hers.” He muttered a little too loudly.