Chapter 20: Re-Evaluation
I answered the awakener’s association officer’s questions for the next thirty minutes.
Most of them were what you’d expect.
I told him a clean version of the truth, without going into the details of me fighting.
He wrote it all down.
"You’re registered as F-rank in the academy."
"Yes."
"And now?"
"I should be a C-Ranker. The academy infirmary did a scan this morning. The healer logged the readings and was about to send them after some more checking."
He marked something on his form, then looked up.
"You’re going to need to come back to the association building within the week. Mandatory re-evaluation of your rank. We don’t allow awakeners to operate at a misregistered rank, especially not after clearing a gate above their listed tier.
We’ll be running the formal core measurement in front of three witnesses."
I exhaled.
Hiding my rank wasn’t an option. The association’s misregistration penalties ran from heavy fines into license suspension, and a suspended license meant no academy, no gates, no legal awakener work of any kind. Whatever I lost by registering accurately was less than what I lost by trying to stay an F.
"I’ll come."
"Within the week."
"Yes."
He handed me a card with the association’s contact details, told me a vehicle would drop me off wherever I needed to go, and signaled to a driver near the cordon.
I climbed into the back seat. The reporters at the perimeter shouted questions I didn’t answer. The car pulled away from the curb and took me home.
The house lights were on when I unlocked the front door.
I’d barely gotten my shoes off when Cecilia was at the end of the entry hall.
She was in plain black pajamas, her arms crossed over her chest, and the look on her face was the look of someone who had been waiting in that exact spot for a while.
The living room television behind her was on with the sound low.
"You absolute moron."
"That’s not a nice way to welcome me in."
"You walked into the gate. Didn’t you?"
"How’d you know."
She uncrossed her arms long enough to gesture at the screen behind her, then crossed them again. "There is news about a student entering a gate and clearing it. Although it doesn’t have your face on it, the fact that you look bruised up says enough.’
She stepped toward me, the temperature within the corridor dropping by several degrees.
"You beat two students this week and now you think that means you can walk into a gate?
The danger outside the academy isn’t a student in a controlled arena, Ash. There’s no instructor watching to call the match. You could have died in there. You could have died, and the first your mother would have heard about it is a phone call from the association telling her to come identify the body, if your body remains that is. Don’t be cocky just because you beat a few children. The world outside is different. You’re going to get yourself killed."
She stopped two paces in front of me.
"Idiot."
I smiled at her, softly.
"Oh? Do you care about my well-being?"
Cecilia’s mouth twitched.
She snorted.
"Don’t flatter yourself. Mother and Father are on vacation. If you died while they were away, I’d be the one who got the call. I’d be the one explaining to them why their son went into a gate alone and didn’t come back out.
So stop being an idiot. Stop risking your life for nothing. There are people who love you, you absolute moron. Don’t waste it because you wanted to feel brave."
She held my eyes for one more second.
Then she turned, walked across the entry hall toward the stairs, and went up them without looking back. Her bedroom door closed at the top of the landing a few seconds later, the click of the latch soft in the quiet of the house.
I stood at the foot of the stairs for a moment, the news still playing low in the living room behind me.
After turning off the television in the living room, I headed towards my room, closing the door behind me. Then, I took a quick shower to rinse all the grime and dirt that had accumulated during my expedition in the E-Rank gate.
After that, I laid on my bed, checking my new status screen.
[ASH ROWAN]
[Class: Physical Enhancement]
[SP: 200]
[Rank: C]
[Strength: 100] [Agility: 70] [Stamina: 69] [Mana: 70]
[Skills: Afterimage Step (A) | Tempered Channels (D) | Buddha’s Palm (C)]
[Inventory: Core Improving Pill]
The reward for clearing the gate arrived, increasing my four attributes by 10 each. This was a massive upgrade, and I could feel the difference.
In C-Rank, my attributes were considered mid range, which was really good. Unfortunately, I was unable to reach a thousand SP from the gate.
"I will just start entering more gates from now on." I muttered under my breath, as I slowly drifted to sleep.
