| Click!

  A sharp headache hit the boy as soon as his finger lightly touched the button. The pain was horrendous, taking aart of his vision and causing him to cry in pain. It seemed to radiate from his eyes and spread throughout his head. His breathing became heavy, and Oliver didn’t even have the air to scream. All he could manage were a few guttural sounds.

  But just as fast as the pain came, it disappeared.

  The boy remained lying in bed, his forehead drenched in cold sweat. Still rec from what had happened, he tried to recall what the captain had mentiohat the effects could vary for each person. He was grateful for asking that question and waiting to undergo the evolution when no one else was around.

  Oliver opened his eyes again; his vision was blurry aive to the light around him. The images seemed brighter and more colorful, with a flood of information aails he had never noticed. For example, he could now see rust spots he bottom of the beds. With just a gnce, he could observe all 48 beds and tell which were made and which weren’t.

  The pain was one sign that the evolution had occurred, but Oliver was still unsure of what had been affected.

  ‘Maybe it just improved my vision?’ the boy thought. ‘Or maybe it ged my eyes?’

  Oliver grew nervous; he didn’t want his eyes to take on a neearance, although few people would likely remember his brown eyes.

  He quickly jumped out of bed and rushed to one of the bathrooms in the barracks. o one of the sinks, there was aronic mirror. Upon clig the switch, his image appeared before him.

  ‘Phew! No ges,’ Oliver sighed with relief.

  He also checked his height and hair.

  ‘Nothing seemed to have undergone any drastic ges,’ Oliver cluded.

  The boy returo his bed and opehe Status Page to see what had ged.

  [+2 Agility Points!]

  [You got a new Boon!]

  | Status Page| User: Oliver [Nameless]| Level: 2 [Pawn]| Experience: [58/200]|| Stats| Strength: 6 [Pawn]| Agility: 14 [Knight]| stitution: 5 [Pawn]| Energy: 14 [Knight]

  'Hmm, I improved agility, that'll help avoid attacks. A bit of stitution would be best, but I’ll make it work.' Oliver began thinking about how this might affect future battles.

  “SLAP!” Oliver gave himself a quick sp on the forehead, whided up being louder than he expected.

  Fortunately, no one was near his bunk. Only now did it occur to him that he would o hide his new abilities or devise a reason to start using them.

  ‘I got a new Boon, just like I never expined my old one. If the new one is more visible in bat, maybe I could say I'm finally trying to train it?’ The boy scratched his head, still uain. No other recruits were using noticeable Boons during exercises, so perhaps he would also o refrain from using his.

  Looking back at the Status Page, he explored the ges on his Boons.

  || Boons| Insight [Pawn][Growth]| [Use 200 Experience Points to Upgrade]|| Observation [Pawn]| [Use 200 Experience Points to Upgrade]

  ‘Shit! Another ohat es my EXP points’. Oliver cursed his luck.

  But was this a blessing or a curse? He didn’t know, especially sihering enough experieo level up was already difficult enough.

  'Another involving my Vision. Is this some type of specialty?' Oliver pondered.

  After clig on the Boon, its description finally appeared.

  | Observation| Your vision allows you to uand your oppos and their behavior.| You identify your oppo's flow of attad defehe Boon level is [Pawn], and you use it against oppos of the same level or lower.| This Boon has [Growth], meaning it e experieo be upgraded.

  'At least this one has a clear use in bat,' the boy celebrated, finally having something that could help in the uping csses. Still, he remembered that he o start exerg his Insight. So far, he has only used it in the fiasco of analyzing hologram equipment.

  "Hey! What are you doing there?" A boot shoved him out of bed before Oliver could turn to see who was talking.

  "Ugh! You're all sweaty; you'll make the bottom bunk smell. Sleeping itom bunk is great, but mine has to deal with that stench!"

  Oliver didn’t o guess who was pining. It was evident that his bunkmate, An, stood there frowning, judging Oliver for being dirty and lying in bed.

  "Oh… did css end early?" Oliver asked, trying to ge the subject. He knew how An could be a ing freak.

  "Yeah, the Energy bat and Hand-to-Hand csses are having a joint session tomorrow… Don’t ge the subject; get out of that bed and take a fug shower!" An almost screamed the st two words.

  Oliver was kicked out of the barracks and forced to himself up. Afterward, both boys had an ordinary evening, returning to the Sed Battalion hall early after eating at the mess hall. Unfortunately, there weren’t many forms of eai within the Academy.

  “Ah! Isabel sent a message. She asked us to activate the chat feature on the gau. How do I do that?” Oliver asked.

  “Chat feature? I know there are several features that we are missing. But I have no clue how to activate them. Maybe some kind of password?” An answered. The boy even sidered asking his House for advice, but getting involved with his family would only bring him more headaches.

  “I should’ve asked her how to activate this damn thing.” Oliver stared at the gau, recalling his versation with Astrid.

  “Have you tried thinking ‘Chat’?” It was su obvious suggestion that it hadn’t crossed his mind.

  'CHAT!'

  A translut s with a small keyboard appeared in front of him. The s was divided into two ses. On one side was a list of open chats, and clig on them dispyed the exged messages.

  'This was so obvious!' For the sed time that day, Oliver spped his forehead.

  || els| General| First Battalion [153]| Sed Battalion [0]|| Hand-to-Hand bat [53]| Energy bat [51]| Ranger on bat [31]| Crystal on bat [18]

  The zero o the Sed Battalion quickly ged to [1]. Clig on the general chat revealed thousands of messages.

  | Oliver Nameless - Ehe el| [RandomGuy1] Damn, the Sed Battalion finally figured out how to use chat.| [Ner] Took them long enough; now they’re finally catg up with the First Battalion.

  'Damn! They know way more than they let on.' Oliver cursed the First Battalion.

  The introdu of the chat was just one of several discoveries the Sed Battalion made after finally gaining access to the els. They also discovered that accessing the i and sending messages home ossible. Oliver had no oo message outside the Academy, but talking with Isabel beyond brief corridor versations and watg videos oube was nice.

  || els| TransportTruHell [3] [Private]

  || TransportTruHell| [BelRedFanGirl] What the hell is “TransportTruHell”?| [AquiAn] It’s the best name I could think of for the group. If you have a better one, you pick it.| [AquiAn] ( °□°)︵ ┻━┻| [BelRedFanGirl] I don’t know what’s worse. The group’s name or your username.| [AquiAn] You really shouldn’t talk about someone’s username.

  While eating breakfast, Oliver spent a few minutes catg up on their argument over the el name. He had never felt so tired, even though he had goo bed earlier. Now that he had access to the i, he had stayed up too te on the very day of a Field Mission.

  Oliver shoved some oatmeal into his stomach, just enough to keep from getting hungry, and ran to the transportation area. It was a new se he had never visited before. It was located south of the mess hall, he isnd's edge. However, the road to get there was easy to find and well-marked, uher buildings with only a number painted.

  Approag the building, the difference was noticeable. In addition to its dome shape, it ainted entirely green with dark green spots. The attempt to camoufge the building clearly distinguished its importance.

  Outside the building was a long line of recruits, and Oliver could reize some of them from his csses. Usually, a css would have hundreds of students, but because all the Ranger on bat csses had been bihere were thousands of students.

  Oliver approached a group of cadets he khe group discussed the strategy each had for dealing with the Crabits. Some depended on their Boons, while others hoped to crush them with brute attacks. Before Oliver could speak about his strategy, a otion broke out in front of the building.

  Ten officers emerged from the door, one of them Captain Musk, who clearly appeared to be the most experienced.

  “Cadets! Today, you will embark on your first field mission,” the officer said loudly enough for evehousands of students to hear.

  “Be prepared. We leave in 10 minutes. For those who’ve never used teleportation, try not to vomit.”

  GCLopes