XVIII
Today the tournament would start.
'I hope I get into a good class.'
The overall exam rankings were just to decide who you would fight against in the tournament, while the tournament itself would decide what your real ranking would be.
Every ranking had a specific class, where the mandatory classes would be shared, and the people of the same class would share a building.
The rankings went as follows:
Culmen: 1–10th Place
A Class: 11–100th Place
B Class: 100–1000th Place
C Class: 1001–2000th Place
D Class: 2001–3000th Place
E Class: 3000–4000th Place
F Class: 4000–5000th Place
The top ten were the Culmen, people who had actual political power in the academy and could make decisions for the people of their year.
Normally, they would meet up with the Culmen from the other years and make decisions regarding all the students in a meeting that they called the Culmen Circle.
This was to imitate the political system of the outside world, as it worked similarly.
For example, the corpora would make decisions in their own territories, but regarding the whole country, they would always send their heads to vote on decisions.
Similarly, the Zenith, or first place of each year, would always have the vote with the greatest power. Every first place had ten votes, and according to your ranking your number of votes decreased, with second place having nine and the tenth place only one vote.
Considering that some classes had students numbering in the thousands, it was pretty simple to handle the space problem.
How would they handle one thousand students in one classroom?
They didn't.
Classes B to F were further split into three groups, each one having the same mandatory classes but in different orders.
The mandatory classes were Soul Control, Duels, and Exploration.
For example, class B-1 would have Soul Control as the first class, while class B-2 would have Duels at that time, and class B-3 would have Exploration.
You could choose not to take Exploration in your second year, but for all first years it was mandatory, as being a soul explorer was the job humanity needed the most right now, and with the high mortality rate, it was almost impossible to keep personnel stocked.
Caecus did his morning routine, put on some sporty clothes, and used his soul phone to search for the duel room he would be assigned to.
The academy had a system that would watch your duels and decide the winner, so referees weren't necessary most of the time.
Nonetheless, every duel room had cameras where every single duel would be recorded and streamed to the outside world.
For every class, there was a different building.
Depending on your ranking, you would move up a room or go down a room.
Caecus reached the building for class B and got a notification when he stood before the entrance.
It was the Psychéion app.
It was a message that explained the procedure of the tournament and had the rules listed.
"Alright, I'm supposed to go to the area before and grab a sensory suit…" he muttered
Caecus followed the instructions that were presented to him and reached a small hut before the building with the duel rooms for class B.
There was a sign in the form of a man standing there, along with some text, but Caecus was unable to read it.
'This seems to be the men's dressing room.'
He stepped inside and was greeted by multiple boys his age who were undressing or putting on new clothes.
'Oh… best to just ignore them.'
There was a locker with his ranking number inscribed on it, which Caecus opened by infusing it with his soul essence.
'Ah, this is why they wanted our measurements…'
There was a skin-tight suit, made of a long-sleeve compression shirt, along with a pair of gloves and some pants, which were also skin-tight and didn't end at the ankle but had a built-in pair of socks with soles.
Caecus took off his hoodie and shirt and put on the compression shirt.
After a few seconds of struggle, he finally managed to get inside, and when he did, the compression shirt tightened even more around his frame, making it act like a second skin.
'Wow! This just feels like I added another layer to my skin…'
Wondering if he should keep his underpants on or not, he quickly decided against taking them off when he sensed most of the other kids leaving them on as well.
Unfortunately for him, he also sensed the few kids who didn't.
'Eek! Why is it so big?! I'm lucky that I didn't go to the bath…'
Again, with struggle, he put on the part of the suit made for his lower body, then the gloves, and felt both of them tightening around his skin, acting as a second layer.
'Oh fuck, I don't want to walk around with my little friend poking out from these pants! This is no different from just walking out naked!'
Caecus indeed sensed some of the other boys leaving it like that, having their little friends completely exposed, but most of them, luckily, infused their soul essence into the layer covering their private area and stopped the tightening.
Looking back into his locker, he found an instruction manual.
'Haaa, luckily they added this. Let's see their explanation on how to fix this…'
'Ah… makes sense. It would indeed be inappropriate to ask us our private area sizes during the physical exams…'
According to the manual, he had to infuse the fabric of the pants with his soul essence and swirl it around three times to activate a mechanism that would automatically cover his private area.
'The girls must be lucky, they can just wear their underwear and nothing is seen! This is a real struggle as a man. I don't want my dignity to be exposed!'
Caecus let out a sigh of relief when the compression stopped around his private area and checked if there was anything else in the locker.
When he found it empty, the blind boy checked the manual again and found that he had to link his "seal suit" with the academy's app.
He infused his soul essence into the suit again and at the same time opened the linking function of the app, which immediately found the suit.
On the app, the suit appeared with a depiction of Caecus' body, showing his body temperature, pulse, and other data.
'Wow, this is cool!'
Walking out, while checking the rulebook for the exam and heading towards the duel room he was assigned to, Caecus felt a little uncomfortable in the suit.
'I mean everything is covered up, but I still feel naked…'
Sensing that the other boys and girls around him wore the same thing, his awkwardness slightly decreased, but he decided to limit his echolocation for now, as he could still feel every single inch of their bodies, and it was wearing him down.
With an extremely red face, which he turned towards the ground so nobody would see it, he entered the building, which revealed a hallway that split into many different hallways.
Each hallway was extremely long and had a row of doors, which were most probably the duel rooms.
At the entrance, there was a resting area with water and toilets, along with a lot of seats where the participants could watch the livestreams of other fights or recharge their energy for their next match.
'I'm fighting Rank 816, and I'm supposed to go to room 815.'
Each room would decide your standing. If you won, you would move on to the next room, in this case room 813.
If you lost, you would either move down a room or stay in your room, depending on the outcome.
It was on the second hallway and only a few steps inside.
Caecus decided to drink a few sips of water and go to the toilet before the fight would begin.
He looked over the rulebook and made sure that everything was in place correctly.
'Alright, seems like I'm set.'
He entered the room, which was empty at the moment, and waited until his opponent, Rank 816, arrived.
After a few minutes of waiting, they eventually did.
It was a boy of around one hundred eighty centimeters in height, with broad shoulders and a well-built physique.
His bracelet revealed him as another Caelum member.
"Hello, my name is Magnus Caelum, I'll be your opponent for today, Cae- ehem- Rank 815."
'Something about him is suspicious. He acted like he didn't know me, but said my name, and his expression looks like he already expected to see me.'
"Hello, my name is Caecus Caelum, we're both from the same corpus… haha… nice to meet you." Caecus said while reaching out with his right hand to shake hands.
The boy tried acting surprised at seeing another Caelum member, but executed it poorly.
"Oh- another Caelum brother, I'm glad!" he said while accepting Caecus' handshake.
'This guy… something is really fishy here. He must have seen me on the theoretical rankings, and also, who doesn't look at their opponent's name before going into a fight?!'
Suddenly, a robotic voice resounded.
"Everyone, please get into your fighting positions, as duels will start shortly. Your selected weapons will appear on the right side of the room, and we expect you to grab them."
And just like the voice said, on the right side of the duel room, the ground moved upwards, and two pedestals appeared, holding a training sword and two training daggers.
Caecus grabbed the daggers and sensed the sword.
It was a simple broadsword.
'Everyone here seems to love swords. Amelia told me more than half of the people here use them… what's so great about swords anyway?! Daggers are way cooler.'
The two of them got into position and waited until the signal to start the fight.
Caecus already felt Magnus circulating his soul essence.
He was rank two, like almost every student here, and his soul density was alright, around a sixth of Caecus'.
The shorter boy decided to wait before drawing out his own essence until the fight began.
Finally, the robotic voice spoke again.
"We expect everyone to be in their positions. The first duels will start in,
10."
Caecus tightened his grip around his daggers.
"9"
"8"
Magnus infused his soul essence into his legs.
"7"
"6"
"5"
Now it wasn't only his legs, but also his sword, which he held straight in front of him.
"4"
"3"
"2"
Both of them started using breathing techniques to calm themselves.
"1"
A few muscles tightened in Magnus' body, along with Caecus'.
"Begin!"
Immediately, the bigger boy dashed forward, assimilating ten percent of his soul essence in the process.
'Is he dumb or something? Why is he so wasteful with his soul essence? He still has more fights coming up.'
Luckily, Caecus' comprehension speed allowed him to dodge perfectly without any problems.
He drew out his soul essence, and when the boy opposite him sensed it, it clearly got a reaction out of him, as he hadn't expected that level of density.
'For this first fight, I shouldn't assimilate more than five percent of my soul essence.'
Caecus drew out ninety percent of his soul essence, infused twenty percent into each of his blades, and infused his limbs and core with the rest.
He used his opponent's confusion and dashed forward, becoming a blur in Magnus' eyes.
With difficulty, Magnus deflected Caecus' first strike with his sword, but it left his wrist aching.
Assimilating another ten percent of his soul essence into his legs and the same amount into his arms, his speed started catching up.
'Why is he so wasteful with his soul essence?! It's like he's treating me as his only opponent!'
The blade of Magnus' sword quickly crashed down towards Caecus' head.
The blind boy jumped up, twisted his body, and let the blade glide off the dagger in his right hand, effectively parrying the blow.
Using the momentum from the parry, he spun in the air and delivered a spinning back heel kick with his right leg towards Magnus' chin.
All of the force Magnus had used for his strike transferred into Caecus' kick, and the added soul essence only made it worse.
Barely, Magnus managed to move his head back, but Caecus' heel still grazed his cheek.
Blood splattered onto the floor as his face opened up.
The blind boy landed on his feet and froze when he sensed what had happened.
"Are… are you alright?"
He quickly walked over to Magnus, who was holding his cheek in shock and applying pressure to the wound.
"Let me see it," Caecus said, softly removing the boy's hand.
It was deep.
The cameras, sensing what was happening, called an instructor to the room and quickly emitted an alarm sound.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Magnus reached into his pocket, still looking shocked, as Caecus turned away to 'look' at the door, checking if the instructor would come.
His soul essence gathered in his hand and was infused into an object that resembled a knife.
Caecus, still panicked, was oblivious to it, but the next moment he wasn't.
All of Magnus' remaining soul essence assimilated, around seventy percent, and.
Squelch.
The knife entered Caecus' back, right where his soul core was, but it stopped.
Just before it reached the blind boy's soul core, he assimilated thirty percent directly into the area of impact, preventing the blade from going any deeper.
This was the unfair difference in soul density.
Caecus spun around, grabbed Magnus' wrist, struck it, forcing him to release the blade, and twisted his arm behind his back.
'WHAT THE FUCK!'
Caecus screamed internally, adrenaline rushing through his body.
Strangely, it didn't hurt as much as he thought a stabbing would, but he felt intense heat and pressure where the knife was lodged in his back.
Magnus went unconscious due to soul drain, and the instructor entered.
"What happened here?!"
A tall man with a bald head and a beard rushed in. It was Mr. Marcus, the one who had supervised the written exam.
With dilated pupils and heavy breathing from panic, Caecus struggled to speak.
"I-I… H-he s-stabbed me after t-the round was a-already over. I… I injured his cheek."
The rules stated that the round would end after the first blood was drawn from a real wound, not something minor like a nosebleed, when the opponent was unable to fight, or when they resigned.
So the moment Magnus' cheek split open, Caecus had already won, although a bit brutally.
Mr. Marcus stayed silent for a second, then moved with incredible speed.
A medical team had already arrived for Magnus, but when they saw Caecus, they looked confused.
The supervisor took out a pain-numbing injection and prepared a syringe.
Caecus looked slightly frightened at what would happen next.
"Alright, you're 855, right? I remember you handing in your test first. I really liked your results."
The teacher distracted him, and then, with speed incomprehensible to Caecus, the syringe pierced his back and injected its contents.
"I'll pull out the knife in three."
'Pull out the knife?!'
"Three."
Caecus braced himself.
"Two!"
The knife was already out, and he felt Mr. Marcus pressing down on the wound.
'He tricked me… GAHHH IT HURTS!'
Even with the pain-numbing injection, an excruciating pain surged through his body the moment the blade was removed, making him feel nauseous as his vision blurred.
Tears welled up in his eyes.
The pain only lasted a few seconds before he felt a familiar red soul essence entering the wound.
Mr. Marcus was performing something only possible with high-level Manifestation stage control.
Healing.
New tissue formed rapidly, and warmth spread through his back.
Three seconds later, the wound had completely regenerated, as if he had never been stabbed.
Finally, Mr. Marcus removed his hand and turned towards Magnus, healing him as well.
"He wanted to cripple you. The blade was aimed directly at your soul core…" the instructor said.
'Yeah, I noticed that too. Luckily, Amelia taught me to always reinforce the area around my soul core with soul essence.'
"Which is clearly a violation of the rules! We can heal anything. Cut-off limbs, anything. But not broken soul cores!"
Mr. Marcus' voice was filled with anger.
"815, go rest in the resting area. We'll decide who your next opponent will be. You aren't badly injured. In an hour, your soul essence should be fully recovered."
Caecus nodded and left the room, still shaken by everything that had just happened.
He reached the resting area and sat down.
'What the heck is happening.'