Lost Origins: SS Ranked Awakening-Chapter 80: Akilina

Kieran thought about the instructor’s words through the night. The battles were going to start tomorrow in a section in the camp which had been dedicated to challenges and fights like this. According to Derrick who had given him some additional information, it was called the arena.

A place that had been dedicated solely for challenges. Personal or not, all challenges took place there.

By now, most recruits must have made up their mind on who to challenge and some might have even sent requests, but Kieran still hadn’t found anyone who caught his interest.

’It’s not going to be ready tomorrow anyways!’

He thought while going through the previous rankings and how they had changed overtime. A large group of names were going to be missing from the current list — those who had graduated from the camp.

Still, he managed to narrow out the current set of recruits who were in their final stage before leaving and there was one that stood out almost all of them, always ranking first compared to the rest in the sake stage.

<<Asher Black : 16000>>

Kieran looked at the name which had a rather insane danger rating next to it. There was no doubt that he was going to have the number 1 spot on the ranking list.

Speaking of which, Kieran just realized that amongst all his searching, he had yet to actually take a look at the new rankings which had come out for almost a day now.

<<Asher Black: 16000>>

<<Akilina Adramalech: 15765>>

<<Dustin La morte: 14000>>

<<Karlos Dagon: 13700>>

<<....>>

Kieran looked at those at the top of the list with extremely high danger ratings. The difference between the first and second wasn’t that much, but the gap between the second and the rest was substantial.

Another thing he noticed was the the surnames of the second to the fourth, they all bore the surnames of several pillar families; Adramalech, La morte and Dagon.

Looking further down the list which ended at a hundred, he spotted Leora’s name in the top twenty and just as he thought, she was a noble. Not just any noble, but from a pillar family, just like the second to fourth. Her surname was Wildearth, a rather unique sounding name for a pillar family; Kieran thought.

Just like August had said, there was no one in his stage who had made it into the list, not even in the bottom rankings.

Now that he had seen the list, Kieran began to make his research on the bottom rankers. He needed someone to challenge after all, but he wasn’t too pressured.

His weapon wasn’t ready yet and they had 10 days to make challenges. He was in no rush at all to participate.

’I should go check the first fights tomorrow’

........

It was a new day and the battles were going to commence today. Kieran had spent the rest of the night watching past battles that had been recorded, so he had a rough idea of what to expect from those who were already in the rankings, and after young through the several videos he could find, Kieran finally understood why his instructor had advices them not to bother challenging any one that wasn’t in the bottom ranks.

The recruits on the list were on a whole different level, especially the number 1— Asher Black.

Kieran couldn’t see his current self coming close to being a threat to him at all. Even Leora, the library receptionist who always acted bored was a force to recon with when she fought.

There were also several other strong people who didn’t rank in the top 20. People who didn’t put much thought into the ranking list, just getting a position they thought was good enough and securing that for the rest of the month.

Kieran had watched a lot of videos and he had seen the attitude of those people.

Another person who had also caught his eyes was the second place ranker— Akilina Adramalech.

He recognized her the moment he saw her first video. She was none other than the receptionist he had first met in the canteen when he had taken advantage of the camp’s free food to fill his extremely hungry self.

Ever since that day, he had only ever seen the cold receptionist once. He had no idea that the Russian looking lady was not only the second most powerful recruit, but that she also hailed from the Adramalech family.

A family that was hailed as ’Humanity’s Demonic Sword’. The books and records described them as a bunch of battle crazy geniuses. The smallest family among the nine pillar families, yet the most feared.

All these things said about them only made the figure of Asher Black more mysterious. The name Black didn’t stand out in any form and yet he had managed to make it to the top.

’Could he be a commoner too?’ Kieran thought of the possibility.

Looking once more to the screen of his watch, Kieran navigated his way through the camp to arrive at the Arena where the challenges were going to be held.

Arriving there, he was met with a scene more lively than that he had witnessed in the missions hall — the busiest place he had seen until now.

The loud chatter of recruits who hadn’t seen each other for a while, taking this opportunity to catch up left Kieran feeling a little uncomfortable as his eyes searched for a secluded spot where he could be alone.

Unfortunately for him, all the spots he found were already taken up by figures that made him even more uncomfortable, the ruthlessness in their eyes and how quickly they sensed him when he looked at them for too long served as enough warning for him to know that just like him, they didn’t want anyone close to them.

"Sigh!"

He let out a deep sigh, feeling his heart beat within his chest.

He was just going to stand there till the arena was opened up, which should happen in a few minutes.

Closing his eyes, he took in deep breaths and started practicing the breathing technique from the Lost Origins manual, slowly removing himself from the world around him, no longer bothered by chatter around him or the hostile gazes that had flashed past him.

Feeling his heartbeat calm down, he opened his eyes which were back to looking detached from the world around him.

It didn’t take long for the arena to open and the crowd slowly started to make their way in. Those who were here to spectate taking a seat, while those who were here to fight headed towards another room. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

The whole structure was built on one of the mountain tops. It mirrored the looks of the colosseum he had seen in history books with several stages in the middle.

Kieran looked up at the now shining sky that looked like it was about to rain previously, a faint smell of the sands of the desert reaching him.

’This mountain mustn’t be that tall’ Kieran noted within him, turning his attention to the stage where someone had appeared, dressed like an instructor.

Luckily, a holographic screen was projected into the sky, saving him the stress of squinting his eyes.

Now that the figure of the instructor had been projected clearly, Kieran managed to recognize him. It was instructor Marcus, the second instruction for their daily drills.

"Ahem!"

He cleared his throat and brought the arena to a calm with that single gesture, all eyes on him and what he had to say.

"Alright. I’ll only say this once, so you better listen. The rules are the same, five chances to challenge, 10 days of battles. Make your choice wisely."

Marcus said and left the stage immediately.

’That’s all?’

Kieran wondered. He had been expecting something more from how he carried the attention of the crowd, including him.

The holographic screen changed showing a list of pairings, matching the number of stages available.

<<Micheal Reynold vs George Brooks>>

<< Julian... vs Gabriel .....>>

<< ..... ... vs ..... .....>>

<<..... .... vs .....

.....>>

Kieran watched as the announcement was made and the randomly stated challenges were brought up.

There were no way to know which pair would have to fight and anytime of the day, forcing all the recruits who had put in a challenge, or had received one to show up at the Arena until they completed their challenges.

The ten people who were stepping onto the stage about to fight were all rankers, five of them wanting to raise their rankings.

BEEP!

With a deep beep, the match commenced officially and the ten people shot towards each other on their respective stage.

Each welded different weapons, while some fought with their bare fists.

Switching from fight to fight, Kieran noticed something which caught his eye on the third — a visible burst of power.

’An ability?’

Kieran’s interest was piqued as he saw someone finally use their ability.

It was still a little strange how after getting into the second year, everyone seemed to suddenly possess an ability which made him wonder if this was a camp meant for ability users only, and if it was, how come he was sent here?

’Did the detective know something I don’t, or was it at the outpost?’

Kieran tried to look for hints.

He hadn’t known about the strange power within him until recently, but somehow he had been sent to a camp which was filled with awakened like him.

It didn’t sound like a coincidence to him.

BANG!

A loud noise from one of the stages brought Kieran out from his world of thoughts.

It was still from the third stage and it seemed like the opponent had also activated his ability.

Despite having watched videos of the previous challenges and seeing their power being used, it still felt different seeing them being used live, in front of him.