CHAPTER 38
"Enough! Come back to your senses now!" Kai's voice boomed as his aura spilled out in threatening waves while glaring daggers at Ray.
Seeing his tall roommate standing in front of him, Ray paused.
He blinked a few times trying to stabilise his mind and slowly, he calmed down while taking deep breaths.
He staggered away from Flinn's bloody body as he stared beneath him with a confused look on his face.
The blood pooling beneath the Aspirant's body drew his attention.
He lifted his head up and noticed Van staring at him with a scared look.
His gaze swept across the crowd of gathered Aspirants causing the weaker ones to shudder under his gaze as they all took frightened steps back except for the more stronger teens.
'Wh-What happened to me?' he pondered inwardly as he slowly glanced at his hands that were dripping with blood.
He was unsure if the crimson liquid was his or Flinn's own.
"... Are you okay now?" Kai worried tone echoed in Ray's ears causing him to glance up.
For the first time, Ray could see a genuine look of worry, care and concern in his roommate's eyes.
This type of care didn't look fake, it didn't look like a facade like the way he always thought it was.
Ray's eyes grew moist in a flash as his heart beat loudly in fear thinking of what the corps would do to him when they found out he had killed a fellow Aspirant.
"What have I done?" Ray croaked out as he tried taking a step forward when.
His body swayed. All strength sapped away from him as the adrenaline pumping through him receded.
This caused the exhaustion and injury he was dealt with to wash over him as his eyelids suddenly grew heavy.
He lost his footing and was about plummeting to the ground while a last minute notification chimed in his mind.
[Quest Comple…]
His consciousness slipped drifting into the great beyond while Kai rushed forward grabbing his roomie before he could hit the ground.
Seeing this, Van dashed forward and stood beside Kai who helped Ray's unconscious body.
He slung one arm across his own neck as he wrapped his hand around his waist.
Van too went to the other side and placed Ray's limp hand around his neck and with that, the three roommates walked away from the scene hoping to reach the Corps' clinic in time.
The other Aspirants stared, blinking confusedly at what had just happened today.
'Humph! Waste of time.' Trisha scoffed inwardly as she turned around and began walking away calmly.
So did the other Aspirants leaving Flinn's friends to rush forward and help their unconscious, disgraced friend to the healer.
***
Five hours had already passed as Ray could be seen regaining consciousness.
His eyes slowly fluttered open as his vision now cleared a second later to see a white ceiling above him.
He touched his body and saw that he was covered in a pristine white sheet that looked more like a blanket of some kind.
"Ugh…" He groaned as he lifted himself upright while grimacing in residual pain.
Looking around him, he could see a few dozen beds too that were half filled with some injured soldiers.
'Oh. I guess this is the clinic eh.' he mused inwardly as he rubbed his temples.
"Huh?" His eyes caught something on his body and he turned to stare at his knuckles.
The shattered fingers of earlier were fixed.
Touching his body and head over and over again, he realised that his injuries were all mended and all were gone in a flash.
'So the Corps got a healer type meta here. For the healer to mend my broken body so easily means they are of a high grade.'
Sitting properly, he stared blankly at the ceiling recalling the events of what brought him here and he couldn't help but frown.
'That was very unlike me. What happened? How did I suddenly lose my mind?'
His frown deepened as the same words kept repeating in his head over and over again.
"Die, Die, Die!"
'Was that really me speaking? Am I changing? Or am I losing my mind? Something is up here and I feel like it has to do with this system.'
His brows knitted deeply as he suddenly recalled something prompting him to check it out.
"Speaking of the system…"
The glowing screen materialized in his view and he proceeded to skim past it.
"It said something about bloodline activated… what was that?"
He didn't need to scroll for long though as the screen suddenly changed taking him to a different tab all together.
[Bloodline: 1/ 3 available]
'One out of three?'
Clicking on the bloodline with his mind, the screen switched again.
[Bloodline: Lightning/ locked/ locked]
'So the locked stuff are the other bloodlines unavailable eh? And what is this about lightning?'
Tracing his gaze down a bit, he kept on reading.
[Resonance: 2/300]
[Lightning: 10 percent]
The more he read, the more his brows deepened in confusion at what he was seeing.
'What do all these even mean?' he rubbed his temples confusedly.
[Alert: Bloodline Skill Available]
"Open."
[Lightning Bloodline Skill: Thunder Step]
[Description: This allows the user cross a distance of six metres within a second while channeling lightning to the sole of their feet.]
[Skill Cost: 5 MF per use.]
'Wait, wait, wait! MF?' Ray's eyes widened in pure shock as he stared at the screen being displayed in front of him.
His heart began pounding with excitement as a sudden adrenaline coursed through his body.
Hastily, he summoned his status tab instinctively.
The shimmering blue screen materialized in his view.
[Status]
[Name: Ray Dawson]
[Age: 15]
[Race: Human]
[Level: 1]
[Exp: 60/100]
[HP: 10/10]
[MF: 50/50]
'For real? MF as in meta force? Does that mean I actually awakened an ability?!'
He screamed inwardly like a little girl at this realisation.