"Kael Sunstride, come in one minute or your awakening will be canceled!" Jack shouted.
Alex was surprised to hear that name.
'Now that I think about it, I didn't see him this morning… don't tell me he got caught. But still, he should be here by now?' Alex looked back to see Kael.
He wasn't alone—many students were looking around and mumbling after hearing Jack's words.
"Where the fuck is Aedric? Maybe he knows where Kael is," Alex muttered to himself.
"For the last time Kael Sunstride come here." Jack looked around as he spoke.
---
"Where is Kael?" a middle-aged man spoke with an angry tone. He was standing on the second floor of the school corridor, looking down at the field where the awakening was taking place.
He was the class teacher of A-3, which was also Alex, Kael, and Robert's class. Around him were three other class teachers.
"It's really surprising that he is late on such an important day," a female teacher said with a frown.
"Don't worry, he is on the way," another male teacher said with his eyes closed.
The other teachers sighed with relief after hearing his words. After all, he was a Tier 2 climber and the strongest among them—his mana sense could sweep through the whole school.
---
"I am done waiting… Ne—" Jack had lost his patience and was about to call the next student when a loud voice interrupted.
"WAIT, I'M HERE!"
Everyone looked back and saw Kael running toward the platform—wearing… pajamas.
"Holy moly," Alex was shocked, then suddenly felt like laughing.
As Kael passed by Alex, he heard Alex speak lightly toward him.
"What happened, baby? Did someone fu—" Kael's mouth twisted, and even though Kael didn't fully hear the words, he knew exactly what Alex had meant to say.
"Tch, how can this guy be so unserious and toxic at the same time," Kael muttered under his breath as he hurried to the platform.
While walking, he didn't forget to glare at Robert—the person who had made his ass feel so hot and painful.
Robert smirked in response. Even though he had also gotten into some trouble,but comparison was the key to inner peace.
"So you're Kael, huh… okay, go and quickly put your hand on the crystal pillar," Jack said in a nonchalant tone.
Kael nervously pressed his hand on the pillar.
---
Down the platform, Alex looked at Robert with a puzzled expression.
"Why the heck is his talent still the same? Don't tell me that was really a parallel world." Alex questioned whether he had traveled into a parallel world or not.
Suddenly, a strong light flashed across the world, but it was so fast that Alex might have been the only person on the planet to notice it.
"What was that?" Alex looked at the platform. He was only able to catch the source of the light because of his constant imagination—that he was the strongest person in the world.
This imagination wasn't something Alex was actively forcing himself to think about, but rather a thought that had lingered in his mind ever since he acquired this talent. He fantasized about it, and it was a normal thing—Alex could say for sure that almost everyone around here fantasized about the same thing.
But the difference was that his fantasizing had really made him invincible at this moment.
"It is said that when a person awakens a talent, it always manifests in some way." Alex's thoughts went back to the general knowledge classes, where they had been taught that when a person awakens a talent, it always causes some change in the environment or in the holder themselves.
Though the changes are usually so small that most people would miss them—just like Robert's awakening. If there had been a strong person or a fire-element climber nearby, they would have definitely detected the surge of fire element around him.
Still, the magnitude of what a talent causes also depends on how strong the talent is at the moment it awakens. If Robert had possessed a very strong fire affinity, the element would have surged to a degree that even mortal eyes could see.
But there are still many unique and different talents in the world that manifest in ways even the strongest person might miss.
That's why there is a famous saying in the Tower of Worlds: "An elephant should crush the ant while it can, because later that same ordinary-looking ant might not even need to call others for help."
Alex used Inspect to see what talent Kael had awakened.
And the moment he looked, he became speechless.
---
Kael swallowed his own saliva as he looked at his status panel.
[ Name: Kael Sunstride
Title: Sunshine
Level: 0
Class: N/A
Talent: Absolute Speed, Light Affinity (Unstable Currently)
Str: 12, Con: 11, Agi: 14, MP: 8
Skill: N/A ]
Two talents. TWO FUCKING TALENTS! AND A TITLE TOO!
Kael screamed internally, so excited and shaken that his whole body trembled.
Jack looked at Kael shaking silently and thought, 'Why are these school kids so weird? If you awaken a talent, that's good, and if not, that's normal. But don't act like this—it makes me feel so awkward... ~sigh~ That's why I don't like this job, he just don't get paid enough.'
"Ok, NEXT!"
Kael happily went down the platform, even giving Alex a peace sign while grinning like an idiot.
Of course, he didn't forget Robert, but he simply ignored him—he didn't want to ruin his mood.
---
"It seems that I fucked up a good time." Alex smiled, not knowing where he had gone wrong.
Right now, he was questioning whether Robert got the fire talent because he had tried to give him a light affinity. If so, then had he messed with time, or had time played him?
But one thing was for sure—time was a very complicated domain.