Awakening (2): A slacker, an F-rank ability user...

Two minutes remained. Anxiety appeared on the faces of the students gazing up at the night sky, their bodies trembling slightly.

One minute remained.

Thirty seconds remained.

Time remaining...

"It's here."

Someone murmured the words. A speck of bloodlike color appeared beside the full moon hanging high above. Slowly, the color deepened, tracing a blood-red rim around the disklike moon. The shape of the Blood Moon gradually emerged, its bloody moonlight spilling down onto one reverent face after another. For an instant, heaven and earth seemed shrouded in blood.

An invisible energy descended. No one could resist looking up at that splash of blood-red in the sky at this moment. Something was quietly changing.

Yan Pei stood up, putting away all his irreverence, and gazed skyward with reverence as well.

The moonlight grew stronger, dark and seemingly a little ominous, yet this was the greatest gift bestowed upon humanity.

Ye Jiang trailed behind the students, playing on her phone. Suddenly noticing that the screen had turned red, she gave a puzzled "Hmm?" and slowly looked up.

The Blood Moon had appeared, the Double Moon hanging high above. She stared at this sight she had never seen before, thought for a moment, then raised her phone toward the sky.

Click. There was only one full moon in the shot.

The sound caught the attention of a student ahead of her. Glancing over and catching her disrespectful behavior, the student's eye twitched hard.

Ye Jiang noticed nothing. She studied the photo on her phone for a moment, refused to accept it, and took another.

There was still only one moon. No matter what, she could not capture the red one.

Pursing her lips, Ye Jiang gave up.

"Wow, I've awakened!"

An excited voice broke the silence of the training grounds. It was a student from Training Room A.

Yan Pei glanced over and looked away indifferently, but the next second, he heard that student shout, "It's a B-rank wood ability!"

B-rank?

B-rank right upon awakening?!

Suspecting he had misheard, Yan Pei whipped his gaze back.

"I've awakened too! It's a B-rank spatial ability!"

"Me too! A B-rank wind ability!"

"Me too! A B-rank healing ability!"

"Me too..."

"Me too..."

More than ten voices rang out in succession, all reporting B-rank abilities. A count revealed twelve of them, all students from Training Room A. There were only thirteen students in Training Room A in total, and so far, Ming Xia was the only one who had yet to awaken.

Everyone was stunned.

Twelve. What did that mean?

Usually, at most one or two people in a training ground would awaken B-rank abilities. Most training grounds would not produce even a single B-rank ability user.

Those who reached B-rank upon their initial awakening could often advance to A-rank through practice and accumulated experience, and the existing A-rank ability users numbered only

eighty-seven. That alone showed just how rare ability users who reached B-rank upon awakening were.

But what had they just heard?

Twelve B-rank ability users!

This... this was simply unheard of. It was staggering!

Yan Pei hurried over to the twelve students. The assistants followed a step behind.

"They're really B-rank abilities?" Yan Pei asked doubtfully.

The twelve students touched the newly appeared Blood Moon marks on their hands and summoned their Ability Systems to show Yan Pei. They were indeed B-rank abilities. They had not lied.

Yan Pei stood dazed, while the three D-rank assistants cried out excitedly.

"It's true! Our training ground has gone godlike! This is a miracle that'll go down in history!"

They were simply happy to have gained twelve geniuses.

Amid his shock, Yan Pei could not hide his jealousy. Hearing the assistants, he blurted, "That's impossible!"

It was impossible for so many B-rank ability users to awaken.

Absolutely impossible!

How could something like this happen?

The appearance of twelve B-rank ability users was already enough to draw attention, and the lead instructor's loud denial only added fuel to the fire. The students could not help gathering around. Seeing the crowd forming, Ye Jiang wandered over unhurriedly. Upon reaching its edge and seeing the red-light systems in front of the students, her brows shifted.

She had never seen these things before.

Ability users could touch their Blood Moon marks to use their abilities, and could also summon their Ability Systems to display them externally. But experienced ability users would not do this for no reason, so she had never seen one.

What's this?

Just as she thought that, the twelve students spotted her. Yan Pei's attitude instantly ceased to matter, and they all ran over to Ye Jiang.

"Teacher, I awakened a B-rank ability! Aren't I amazing?"

"Teacher, I have a super-awesome fire ability! Hehe!"

"Teacher..."

The students from Training Room A all clamored to share their good news with Ye Jiang.

Other students awakened abilities during this time as well, but with the students of Training Room A having set such a brilliant precedent, those other newly awakened students received little attention.

Ye Jiang looked at the beaming faces of these students and listened to their good news. When they finished, she asked:

"What are abilities?"

The excited reports abruptly stopped.

The students stared blankly at her.

"Huh?"

You're an ability user, and you're asking what abilities are?

Chapter 19: Awakening (2): A slacker, an F-rank ability user...

"You really know how to joke, Teacher! Haha!"

"Teacher Turbot has developed a sense of humor!"

Ye Jiang: "..."

Do I look like I'm joking?

Yes.

Not a single person in the entire training ground thought she was doing anything but joking.

What else could it be, if not a joke?

The assistant instructors here were all ability users. They had heard that Assistant Instructor Turbot was even an externally hired ability user who had accepted an Ability Control Bureau mission. If she could accept missions on Part-Time Cat, didn't that make her an ability user? Although she had never shown her Blood Moon mark or displayed her ability...

So it was a joke.

The atmosphere grew lively again. The students crowded around Ye Jiang, chattering as they shared their joy. Some even demonstrated their abilities on the spot, setting off their fire abilities like fireworks. Yan Pei stared at the scene, his face dark and ugly in the bloody moonlight. His jealousy made it utterly impossible for him to share these geniuses' joy. He was a B-rank ability user, but he had awakened over a decade ago. He had only been D-rank when he first awakened, and it had taken him over a decade to evolve to B-rank.

He was considered outstanding. Generally speaking, the higher the rank of someone's initial awakening, the better their aptitude, and the smoother their subsequent evolution would be. It could be said that the rank of an initial awakening indicated, to a degree, the ultimate heights an ability user could reach. Of those who awakened at D-rank, only an exceptionally talented few would evolve to B-rank. Most reached their limit at C-rank.

Twelve B-rank ability users awakening in a single training ground meant they could look forward to twelve A-rank ability users in the future. That number was terrifying and unprecedented. Yan Pei was jealous to death.

Although the students were also shocked by this number, their thoughts were much simpler. After their shock came congratulations filled with shared pride. Students from all the other training rooms ran over to soak up some good luck.

Outside the crowd, the only person present with double-A potential did not join in the celebration, standing to one side and quietly watching the excitement.

A student spotted her and asked, "Ming Xia, haven't you awakened yet?"

The question was direct because the students all believed she would awaken. It was only a matter of time.

At those words, the other students all turned toward Ming Xia.

Twelve B-rank ability users had awakened in Training Room A. Then what about Ming Xia, who had the best aptitude? What would she awaken?

Ming Xia raised her hand, revealing the Blood Moon mark on its back. She had awakened.

She gently touched the Blood Moon and summoned her system. She made no attempt to hide it, so those nearby immediately saw a-

A.

Gasp-

Ming Xia had awakened an A-rank ability!

Silence.

No one in history had ever been A-rank upon awakening. Not Captain Qin of the branch bureau, nor the person currently ranked first among ability users. If she was A-rank upon awakening, then... where was her upper limit?

After the silence came an uproar.

"Aaaaah! An A-rank ability!"

"Heavens, it's actually an A-rank ability!"

Yan Pei abruptly turned toward Ming Xia, unable to believe what he had heard.

A-rank?

How was that possible!

Yan Pei's heart raced. In several long strides, he reached Ming Xia and said urgently, "Let me see!"

Ming Xia had originally been displaying her system screen, but when Yan Pei, the lead instructor, approached, she put it away instead. Yan Pei had unconsciously used a stiff, commanding tone. Hearing him, Ming Xia raised her eyes slightly and looked at him calmly. Meeting those eyes, Yan Pei realized that the person standing before him was now an A-rank ability user, and a record-breaking genius at that, no longer the ordinary, unawakened student she had been before.

He clenched his fists, his expression ugly.

Ming Xia ignored him, walked around him toward Ye Jiang, and stopped before her. "I awakened an A-rank ability," she told Ye Jiang.

This was not showing off, but sharing good news, just like the other students from Training Room A.

Ye Jiang: "..."

She fell silent for a moment, then asked again, "What are abilities?"

Ming Xia: "."

A joke was enough once. Twice, and it was no longer funny.

But since Teacher Turbot was the one making the joke, she said nothing about it. Ignoring the joke, she asked Ye Jiang for the first time, "What ability do you have, Teacher?"

Ye Jiang was just about to say she had none when a student from Training Room A suddenly pointed at her left hand. "So that's where your Blood Moon mark is, Teacher!"

Ye Jiang looked down and discovered that, at some unknown point, something blood-red had appeared on her left index finger.

Hmm?

When did that get there?

Ming Xia also saw the ability mark and said, "You're finally not hiding it anymore, Teacher?"

Ye Jiang: "..."

She discovered that the students had quite a few misconceptions about her.

But explaining was out of the question. She had no intention of doing so.

Ye Jiang lowered her head to study the extra thing on her hand and heard Ming Xia say beside her, "Abilities awaken on the day of the Blood Moon and are divided into five ranks: A, B, C, D, and F. A-rank is the best, and F-rank is the worst. What rank is your ability, Teacher?"