Drew began processing what Ms. Varias had told him earlier as he went back to his seat. Being so absorbed in his thoughts, he wasn't aware that he had run into the corner of the bleacher seat. The tingling sensation in his knee made him wince as he limped back the rest of the way back. Wan who had slightly recovered her energy looked at Drew who was rubbing his knee. 

"Yo, you good?" Wan asked swinging her legs back and forth to get the blood flowing through them again.

Drew nodded. 

"Yeah, I just spaced out for a bit. I'm a bit exhausted from my match. I consumed a lot of Otrio." 

"Hey, at least you didn't pull any muscles." 

"I guess being flexible really helps with that." Drew smiled folding his hands together, "I think I just got lucky." 

"Ha, that's a load of bullshit." Wan spat. "If you told anyone else that, they would've killed you. You looked as though you've fought a thousand battles!" 

Drew chuckled. It's because I receive a lot of experience from battling at the Borealis. Those clients are nuts!

"Is it really that obvious?" 

Jay, who had been eavesdropping on the entire conversation, decided to respond. 

"Yes, but your fighting style. it seems familiar." 

"Well, it's not that uncommon. I just use all those textbook techniques and whatever I have. I mean, isn't that the purpose of these exams, to demonstrate what you know and can do?" 

"Fair point," Jay replied before continuing to watch the next group's battle, all four of his ears twitching. 

"He's an odd guy..." Wan whispered. 

"Yeah..." 

Time passed and the exam was over. The hall went silent, awaiting the results of the top ten. Drew tried his best but he knew that there were others that performed just as well or even better. He highly doubt that he could've made it into the top five let alone top ten but who knows.

"You nervous?" Wan asked. 

Drew shrugged. 

"Not really. I honestly don't expect myself to make it into the top ten. I would like to, but seeing how some of our classmates performed, I think I'd be happy just with passing." 

Wan jabbed Drew's shoulder. 

"Hey, but you did pretty well. Ya know, it's not every day you see a Low-Class student defeat a High-Class student." 

"True but I think I would've completely lost if Remus had a proper weapon. In speed and just overall physical ability, I was already at a disadvantage. To be honest, I'm actually impressed with your performance." 

"Aw shucks," Wan giggled. "You'll inflate my ego. I just had an Attribute advantage, that's all." 

"I'm dead serious." Drew laughed. "I even sent a clip of your match to the group." 

"You did what?!" 

Drew whistled. "Nothing! Anyhow, let's pay attention to the results." 

A loud clap resounded throughout the Arena. The sound from it bouncing off the Arena walls causing it to echo.

"Okay, students! I will now show the results of the exam!" 

A holographic screen popped up in the center of the arena with everyone's names on into. Next to each name, there was either a large green 'P' or a large red 'F'. In the column adjacent to the 'Ps' and 'Fs', numbers from one to a few hundred were listed indicating rank ran in chronological order. All eyes had fixated on the students in the top ten. 

To Drew's surprise, he actually made it into the top ten. To be more precise, he was number ten exact which made his heart scream. He was elated but instead of celebrating, he glanced over at Wan whose jaw had dropped down to the floor as she stared at the screen. Quickly, Drew averted his attention back to the top ten listed on the screen. There were names he wasn't familiar with filling up the ranks above him until he realized who was number one. 

"Holy Mother of Kraus." Drew gasped, his eyes widening to the point where they looked as though they were going to fall out of his sockets. 

Wan was number one, she had placed first in the entire exam.

She was frozen.

One second. 

Two seconds. 

Three seconds. 

Four. 

Five. 

Six. 

Seven. 

Eight. 

Nine. 

Ten. 

"What the HECKKKKK?!" 

Wan screamed not giving one care in the world about her surroundings.

Drew gave her an awkward look.

"Congratulations...?" 

>>>

The next day, Brix suddenly called up everyone at seven in the morning. There were no classes for the next few days since Monthly Exams were over. Plus, the largest fashion show of the year was going to be hosted at Ozwarth thus everyone in the Design Club was practically scrambling to prepare everything. Brix called since they were short-handed and since everyone was basically free right after Exams, they didn't mind lending a helping hand. It was around eight when Drew had arrived at the Design Club's room.

The club occupied a few back rooms in the Main Arena and it was absolute chaos. Long tables were covered in mountains of fabrics and accessories. Thread and pencils were sprawled out across the ground. Tens of club members, as well as volunteers, were running in and out of the rooms with trash bins, other materials, tools, and snacks. Rows of mannequins off to the side of the room were clad in custom made suits, dresses, and genetic equipment while smoke erupted in some parts of the room. Holographic models of different outfits were projected above the tables, being zoomed in and out to ensure measurements were accurate and not a single outfit was flawed. 

"We got a delivery from Kingsman!" 

"The outfits from Courtier have been received!" 

"If you'll stand still for a moment, I can scan you and take your measurements." 

"Shit, we don't have enough models!" 

"Ah, the accessory machine just broke!" 

"Fuck, I screwed up a dress!" 

"Drew, you're late!" Brix called from one table at the end of the room where the rest of the group was. 

"Hey! So it's crazy like this every year?" 

"Pretty much. We're all scrambling to get everything completed by Friday night." Brix replied. 

"Help me..." A dry voice came from behind Brix. It was Rider. He looked as though his soul had escaped his body. His dark skin had literally faded into a pale white color, dark eye bags had formed right under his eyes. Besides him were containers of chips and two empty bottles of energy drinks. 

"What happened to him?" Elias asked as he entered the room. 

"Oh, hey Elias. As for Rider, he has been using [Restoration] on everyone last night in order to keep us all awake. None of us have slept in twenty-four hours so we're all relying on Otrio to keep us awake. Sadly, our Otrio Capacity is limited so Rider has been using his Ability to replenish it." 

"No wonder why he looks so dead," Drew commented pitying Rider's current state. "Anyhow, what can we do to help?" 

"Um, well we need some spare parts to repair some of our equipment from the Mech Club so do you guys mind picking those up?" 

"Sure, just send us the list," Elias said. 

"Great, but take these too." Brix smiled before tossing both two leather messenger bags with a glowing blue Otrio embedded into their clasps.

Drew's eye widened. 

"Are these..."

"Yup, they're Compressed Armories in bag form. It's a prototype however, we figured out a way to make them cheaply thanks to Ms. Varias. Although the space in them is only about a cubic meter, it's should be more than enough for your errand. Don't lose them! Even though they are cheaper to make, they're still priceless." 

"Don't worry, we won't!" Elias smiled before dragging Drew along with him by the hood out the door. "Come on Drew, we should get this done as fast as possible." 

"Hey... wait one sec!" Drew screamed as he held onto his hat that was about to fly off his head. 

>>>

Outside of the Main Arena, Elias finally let go of Drew. 

"You didn't have to drag me!" Drew yelled. 

"Sorry, sorry!" Elias apologized in a half-hearted manner before his communication device beeped. "Ah, she sent us the list." 

"How far is it?" Drew asked as he readjusted his hat. 

"It's towards the west end of campus. If we walk it'll take us twenty minutes which is about the same time as waiting for the bus to come."

"Or," Drew cocked a grin as he placed his hat into the Compressed Armory bag. "We can race there using Otrio and it'll take us five minutes!" 

"I'm up for the challenge. I've been dying to get back at you after losing in rock-paper-scissors." 

Drew laughed stretching his arms. 

"You know, I don't make bets that I know I can't win." 

Elias smirked. 

"Oh, it's on!" 

"Alrighty, on the count of three. One. Two. Three-" 

But before Drew could finish, Elias bolted past him. In the blink of an eye, Elias was already tens of meters in front of him.

He could hear his voice of mockery in the distance. 

"Haha, try if you can green-haired bird!" 

Drew spat transferring his Otrio to his legs. 

"That dumbass." 

Casting [Aegis] beneath his feet, Drew commanded [Aegis] to launch him. With the force from [Aegis] coupled with the Otrio in his legs, Drew was sent flying into the air at a high speed. The distance he lost was instantly recovered as he landed just behind Elias who had slowed down briefly after noticing Drew coming in like a wrecking ball. (A/N: No pun intended) 

"Holy shit! How did you get here so fast?" 

"I told you, I don't make bets that I know I can't win."

As the cold wind rushed through their hair, a flight of stairs could be seen in their line of sight. 

"We'll see about that!" Elias roared his eyes glowing a bright orange hue. Suddenly, Elias's speed grew exponentially as he pulled ahead of Drew. 

"He just replicated my physical ability...that's a new one." Drew laughed as he watched Elias jump over the flight of stairs while using [Polarity] to reduce the impact of his fall. 

It was Drew's turn. With one big leap, Drew cast [Aegis] on his boots and grinded down the side rail of the stairs. Sparks formed the longer Drew stayed on the steel railings but Drew paid no mind to it. It reminded Drew of his hoverboarding days. It was a shame that his hoverboard had been destroyed that day thus he hadn't had a chance to purchase a new one.

Jumping off the railings, Drew put in a little more Otrio into his legs and dashed right to Elias's side.

"It seems you learned a new trick," Drew commented pulling ahead of Elias. "But you played your cards too early!" 

"And it seems you've gotten more persistent!" Elias shouted once again, his eyes glowing as he made eye contact with Drew.

This time, Elias cast [Aegis] right in front of Drew's face, causing Drew to reduce his speed. As he approached Elias's makeshift [Aegis] Drew planted his foot off to the side before spinning on the ball of his foot, avoiding a near collision with the [Aegis], before picking up his speed and catching up with Elias. 

"Dammit, I thought cheap tricks would stop you," Elias commented jumping over another flight of stairs. 

"First, you copy my speed now you copy [Aegis]? What kind of broken Ability did you acquire?"

"I'll tell you once we get there!" 

"Fine, but you better have a good explanation for it!" Drew said before bolting ahead of Elias. 

"Hey, wait up!" 

>>>

Before the duo knew it, they were standing right outside of the Mech Club's room. The room was located inside the academy's workshop on the second floor, well it took up the entire second floor. Inside the workshop, various contraptions were being created and experimented with. Some of the prototypes were being housed in steel lockers while failed prototypes rested in a scrap bin off to the side of the room. The smell of grease and oil was quite prevalent in the dimly lit room and dark smoke could be seen rising up into the air into a vent. Furnaces were located on each end of the room while robotic arms were lifting up hot plates of metal into cold water. The sounds of hammers being struck against the hot metal could also be heard, sparks could be seen flying every time a clean strike was made. 

It was essentially a sweatshop. 

"Welcome, welcome!" A young guy with a red bandana greeted removing his goggles. "How may I help you two?" 

"We're here to pick up some parts for the Design Club," Elias responded, sending the list of parts over to the guy's communication device. 

"No problem. Please wait a moment, in the meantime, you guys can fetch yourselves a cup of hot chocolate." 

"Thanks a lot." 

The bandana guy ran off to another part of the floor while Drew and Elias got comfortable.

Drew decided to initiate the conversation.

"Okay, you're gonna tell me what you just did while we were racing here? Don't try and lie to me. Tell me everything." 

Elias chuckled.

"I can't beat around the bush with you can't I? Well, it's another Ability I awoke once I reached E-Class. It's called [Skill Replication] it allows me to replicate one skill I've seen used by a person. This also includes physical abilities and Otrio Capacity. However, it comes with a lot of restrictions. I cannot copy a skill that I haven't seen. I cannot use the skill for longer than five seconds without it costing me extra Otrio. I cannot utilize other skills while I am using that one skill. I also cannot copy skills that don't match my Attribute. Finally, I cannot copy skills that are two levels higher than my own." 

"Woah, damn that's complicated but it makes sense. But let me ask, say that you went up against someone who has a D-Rank Ability, a hundred Krasos more Otrio than you at the moment, and a slightly stronger physique than you? What could you copy?" 

"Theoretically, I could only copy their physique and their Otrio Capacity but not their Ability. The reason being is that when I’m referring to levels I’m also including Low, Mid, and High Ranks.” 

Drew was envious.

"That's really good! I swear you're like one of those OP main characters from all those comics. You've got freaking Cheat Abilities. Meanwhile, I'm just a lousy side character with Abilities you can find everywhere. Man, I'm jealous!" 

"Don't beat yourself up too much," Elias said comforting Drew a little. "Even with that Ability, I could barely keep up with your speed. Anyhow, to me, you're one badass side character. Plus, with your battle intuition, you make your Abilities look way better than what the rankings say about them. Who knows you may have some secret origin story kind of like those hidden characters in a visual novel." 

Drew scoffed. 

"Okay, let's not get ahead of ourselves here." 

Elias tossed up his hands. 

"Fine, whatever you say Mr. Nightengale Drew Li. I think I might've drowned myself in too much of that unhealthy stuff over the past year." 

The two chatted for a while before the bandanna guy and a few other members of the Mech Club came back with several boxes of parts. 

"Okay!" He clapped, dust from his hands scattering in the air. "Here are all the parts you guys requested." 

Elias nodded opening up his Compressed Armory, the boxes flying into it until only some were left which Drew took the liberty of putting the rest in his own. 

"Thanks a lot for getting them quickly." 

"Not at all, it's always busy around this time of year. I kind of feel bad that you volunteers have to work overtime in order to make the deadline." 

Drew chuckled. 

"It's fine, as long as our hard work pays off, it's all worth it." 

"Trust me," The bandana guy continued, "it always is. The Design Club always gives a hundred percent effort when it comes to this event." 

"I hope so. You guys have a great day!" 

"Same to you two! Good luck!" 

>>>

"Oh, you two are back! That was extremely quick!" Brix greeted placing down some rolls of fabric. 

Elias and Drew opened their bags, the contents of them spilling out like a waterfall. 

"Yeah, luckily the Mech Club already had everything prepared so it didn't take them long to find what we needed." Elias smiled closing his bag. "Is there anything else we need to do?" 

"Mmh," Brix nodded, the feathers on her ears flapping in response. "If you guys could help the Culinary Club with prepping lunch that would be splendid. Wan and Sylv are also helping out there but it seems they're having trouble with the prep work." 

"I guess that's my calling card!" Drew said rolling up the sleeves of his sweater before putting back on his messenger hat. "Where do we go?" 

"Ah, next door," Brix replied. "That's where the kitchen is." 

"Thanks, Brix!" 

Exiting the Design Club's room, the duo walked next door where some people were preparing food for lunch. All the snacks and drinks have been opened up while the main course was being prepared over commercial ranges and long steel tables. Today's menu was mac n' cheese with fried chicken and roasted veggies. There were students from the Culinary Club as well as volunteers helping out around the kitchen, running around with pots pans filled with piping hot food. 

"Ah, deja vu," Drew said with a nostalgic expression on his face. 

 "Yup, this is definitely your calling card." Elias acknowledged as he pulled Drew to the back of the room where some students, including Sylvia and Wan, were cutting vegetables into small chunks.

"Yo, Wan! Sylvia!" Elias called waving his hand up in the air. 

"Drew! Elias!" Wan waved, holding a knife in one hand causing Sylvia to flinch.

"Watch it, Wan. You could've cut someone with that." 

"Eheh." Wan chuckled innocently, sticking out her little pink tongue. 

"What can we do to help?" Drew asked. 

"We need some help cutting these vegetables," Slyvia replied pointing to the mound of carrots behind her. "Unfortunately, we don't have a cutting machine here unlike the cafeteria so we have to do it by hand."

"Great." Drew smiled flicking the brim of his hat. "I can get this done in two minutes. You mind handing me your knife?" 

Flicking the blade downward, Sylvia handed her knife to Drew. 

Drew grabbed it by the handle and examined it. The blade had a few carrot bits on it but that didn't stop Drew from realizing it was a good blade. The knife was a standard 20cm Yaxell Ypsilon provided by Star. The handle was on the heavier side but it didn't pose much of a problem to Drew while the blade itself was sharpened rather recently, its tempered blade reflecting the light from the ceiling. Drew picked up a carrot and placed it delicately on the cutting board while aligning the blade of the knife with the carrot. Lifting the knife with his wrist while keeping the tip of the blade on the board, Drew cut off the top of the carrot.

It was a clean cut. No jagged edges. No bits of carrot remained on the knife. 

The noises coming from the kitchen drowned in the sound of Drew chopping carrots. His surroundings turned back and all he could see was the carrot, the knife, and the cutting board.

Chop. Chop. Chop. 

His hand moved at the speed of a starship jumping from galaxy to galaxy. One carrot was finished, the next one fell onto the board. A second later, the carrot was cut into ten pieces before being tossed into the completed bin. 

Meanwhile, the other volunteers have stopped what they were doing and gathered around Drew. 

"Woah, he's cutting those carrots really fast!" One of the volunteers exclaimed. 

"What is that speed? How are his cuts so clean?" 

"Drew's really skilled," Sylvia said in awe. 

Elias nodded in agreement. 

"The guy's got all sorts of talents: alchemy, cooking, housekeeping, hoverboarding, asshole-slaying...I've always wondered what he can't do?"

"Not sure," Sylvia tilted her head with curiosity, "he kind of remind's me of Pandora's box. Full of surprises and full of mystery. It kind of makes me wonder what his backstory is beyond what we know." 

"I'd suggest we try not to pry into it too much," Elias said in a low voice so that no one else could hear. "Drew doesn't know this but I asked my father about his past to figure out a little more but it was the first time in a long time my father told me that there were some things that I was better off not knowing. And I knew when he told me that that it was best if I did. He looks fine on the outside but deep down, he's still broken. If we open that Pandora's box now, it wouldn't be a blessing but a curse. When he's ready, he'll tell us but for now, it's best if we leave it alone."  

This made Sylvia even more curious but she understood that the boy who brought her out of her own darkness was still stuck in his own.