She looked at him — and her eyes, usually so kind, held only distance."Don't call me that again," she said.
Kael froze. "…What?"
"I said don't call me again." Her voice utterly cold, as he if he was some stranger. "You're… you're just a Summoner now. An F-rank. You won't last a week in the academy."
"Lucy, wait," Kael said, taking a step forward. "You're joking, right? Come on—"
Slap
She slapped his hand away before he could reach her. "It's over, Kael. I don't have time to waste on someone useless."
The words hit harder than any anything.
Around them, whispers spread like wildfire.
"Did she just break up with him?"
"Figures… who'd stay with an F-rank Summoner?"
"He was Rank 1 yesterday. Now look at him."
"Guess even top students can fall."
Kael stood frozen, the noise around him fading into a blur. His chest felt tight, the mark on his hand burning faintly.
What… is this feeling?
He clenched his fist, staring at the glowing sigil — the symbol of his new, pathetic class.
F-rank… useless…
A hollow laugh escaped him. "Heh… after all that training, all those years…"
His voice cracked, quiet and empty.
No one came to comfort him. Not the classmates who used to ask for his notes, not the teachers who once praised him, not even the girl he loved.
In a single moment, everything he was — the top student, the model trainee, the academy's pride — had shattered.
Now he was just Kael Draven, F-rank Summoner.
Kael walked through the academy courtyard, the sound of laughter and whispers chasing his footsteps like ghosts.
"An F-Rank Summoner? Hah!"
"I never liked him anyway"
"guess, he deserves it who asked him to flaunt around"
He didn't respond. He didn't even look back.
His so-called friends — the same ones who'd shared notes, laughed in the dining hall, called him "model student" — now turned away as if he carried a plague.
"Well," he thought bitterly, "I suppose it's not uncommon."
He lowered his gaze as he stepped outside. The academy's vast marble doors closed behind him with a heavy thud, and the cool wind brushed his face. Above, the sky was covered in dark clouds.
"Dark," he murmured , "just like how my life's going to be."
His voice was hollow — stripped of all the quiet confidence he once carried.
Everyone knew the truth: Summoners were a failure of a Class.
No matter the rank — A, S, even the mythical SSS — the result was always the same.
A Summoner's power didn't come from within, but from the beings they could call forth.
And those beings… were rarely loyal.
Monsters, spirits, or demons — most Summons turned on their masters the moment they were summoned. A summoner had to subdue his summoner beast to gain powers, but how can just slightly strong human can even do that?
"Even if I had awaken a class," Kael muttered, watching the faint glow of his mark fade beneath his glove, "what use is it… such an useless class?"
He wandered aimlessly until his steps brought him before the Statue of the one of the First Awakener and Heroes of Humanity— a towering monument at the center of the academy's courtyard. The figure stood cloaked in mystical looking fabric, holding a massive greatsword.
Johann Revess — The Divine Warrior
The man who defied his fate.
During the Age of Awakening when Mana first appeared in the world ,it was Apoclaypse, over 80% of the world's population was wiped out and during those time of chaos many heroes rose and he was most unique among them, others had S rand or such class but he started with F rank Warrior yet rose to match those with S rank and such powerful classes.
Kael stared up at it in silence. The tales said Johann was born with one of the weakest affinities ever recorded — even lower than F-Rank — yet he changed the world. They said he was an limit breaker.
"Stories…" Kael whispered. "That's all they are."
But even as he said it, something flickered behind his eyes — a quiet defiance, small but stubborn.
"There must be a way," Kael whispered, his voice barely louder than the rustling wind."There has to be…"
His gaze fell to the faint, Purplish mark glowing on his hand."The lady… or who ever was that said, I am powerful," he murmured. "Maybe she was talking about my talent."
Talent, something only one in million awaken along with the class.
Even if it was foolish hope — it was still hope.
Kael didn't wasted time, as he rushed back home, or rather in his dormitory room.
Kael's room — a simple bed, a desk, and the faint scent of old paper. He'd lived alone here since his first year. An orphan, raised by the academy's sponsorship, with no family name beyond "Draven."
He sat on the edge of the bed, the silence pressing close around him. His eyes wandered to a single photograph pinned above his desk.
It was a picture of him and Lucy, taken a year ago at the academy gardens. They were both smiling, bright and full of promise. In the photo she was looking at him warmly, with love filled eyes.
She had written something on the back, in her delicate handwriting:
"Kael and Lucy — the best couple in Academy."
Kael traced the faded ink with his thumb, a hollow smile ghosting across his lips.
"She loved me once… or at least, she loved the Rank 1 version of me," he muttered.
"Not the failure I am now."
"Who am I kidding…she never loved me at all," he said in cold voice, clenching the photo in his hand. "She only ever saw me as some future investment."
Kael tossed the photograph into the dustbin. He looked at it for a moment and then shook his head.
"Even if I don't have any Talent, I still have my sword mastery" He mumbled, keeping his hope at the bare minimum.
Taking a deep breath, he sat cross-legged on his bed, closing his eyes. He focused on the faint pulse of his Summoner Seal — as he opened his Soul Status.