"Welcome to your new home, this ring is where you all will live for a quite a while"
That was the first thing I heard after walking into this the room
My resulting thought was of course 'What the hell is this'. I had been pulled here for something but all it said was the time and place, no other information attached.
'No no, lets think logically here. This was the day after they tested for my roh capacity, which probably means this is...' A dawning realisation which was couldn't be described as anything but really 'I'm in the cadets to be one of the fucking divers. Oh I am so very dead.'
Though honestly despite my thoughts just now I really didn't seem to actually care all that much, I didn't have anything anyways at least here I had a chance to actually do something.
Looking around at all the other children here, all of which were my age. My thoughts went to just how sad they all would be. sure I was in the same situation but they actually had families, I was just some person from the outer rings with no family. This was actually more of an opportunity for me then it was anything else, to them this was just a death sentence despite this not a single one showed emotions of fear or even apprehension.
My attention was quickly turned to the burly old man who had welcomed all of us in as he begun to speak again. "You will be handed out ID now, these are both your keys and your identification these will contain your designation".
Another man, walked around handing out the ID, which were linked to a chain and were by all means dog tags.
'Another promising sign' I thought to myself sarcastically.
After being handed my ID I noticed how little it actually had engraved on it
Corps: 053J
Designation: 4
"Attention, I will be your primary instructor for the next year, you will call me Axmon"
'He has a name?'
"Lastly, you will be given your own rooms with your designation on them. I expect you to keep them clean and tidy. That is all, go to your rooms until called for. Dismissed" Axmon said
'I thought all names were banned, all schools taught about the danger of having a name. How even a nickname can be dangerous sometimes, designations were not under this effect since your designation was normally just the location you stayed in and so it wasn't truly a unique identifier.'
I realised I was too deep in my thoughts when I turned to leave and I was nearly the last one out the door despite how close I was to it.
As I walked down the hallway I noticed many others trying to make friends with those around them but I just walked forwards making sure not to talk to anyone. I just focused on getting to my room and situating myself.
The lecture room we had just been in was at nearly the opposite side of the ring as my room, it being in between designation twenty three and twenty four.
'That means there are nearly fifty people here with me. That's a whole lot more people then I'm used to'
Continuing to walk down the heavy direction which I went through since almost everyone else went down the light direction. This ring was really damn small, walking in the heavy direction was very noticeable along with how much I could actually see it curving upwards. The simulated gravity on a ring this small is really not nice, but I had been in worse.
Arriving at my room I noticed the ones going around the light direction start to pass me to get to their own rooms. they would travel further to get to their rooms yes, but it would be much easier for them then going around the heavy direction despite the longer distance.
Pressing the ID against the door handle which after a delay made a click and opened the door for me to go inside.
It was a nice room, even bigger then the one I had shared with four other people just the night before. A large space in the middle with a desk and a nice bed. I'm sure the other kids would be annoyed by what is here but honestly this was almost heaven for me compared to what I was in before. The one thing that piqued my interest was a pod which rested next to my bed.
'Why have two beds?'
I sat down on the bed and begun to reorganize my thoughts. I started by listing all the information I knew about what happened recently.
First, yesterday after working in production I was called to take the mandatory roh capacity test which all those who are sixteen and above are required to take. This was my first time doing it and it seems I was then flagged as someone with high roh capacity, high enough they think I am an atlas carrier.
Second is this morning I was woken up with a message on my tablet that I was to arrive at the 053J ring in the lecture hall within half an hour, which I barely made it in time for because I was on the opposite side of the station.
That was about it, I honestly thought I would have a bit more information but there honestly wasn't much.
'How high must my roh capacity be if I was flagged as an atlas carrier. Considering I've never heard the atlas whispering in my head but I was flagged anyways must mean my capacity is insane.' I felt excited by the thought. 'Do I actually have potential that high?'
This was the only logical thing that could be the case, but also meant a major problem.
'All ability holders receive the atlas system, which is some mythical creation that implies it comes from 'the great tree' and those that have it can get information about plenty of things along with unique rewards but at the cost of doing missions or killing monsters. People without abilities can receive the atlas system but are unable to understand the written language. They can only understand the initial speech when receiving the atlas.'
not having an ability in a situation like this is not good, considering all the others will have.
'Why did this have to get so complicated so fast'
Axmon's voice boomed in the speaker above my door. "Attention, go to training hall B immediately."
The dog tag I still had in my hand I proceeded to put around my neck and follow the instructions given.
Opening my door I looked to see training hall A just a few doors away from my room, of course I wasn't going to training hall A. I was going to training hall B, which as I guessed was on the opposite side of the damn ring.
'I hate this already.'
Walking on the light direction over to training hall B I noticed the girl who had just left with faint char marks on her arms as if the hair had been singed off her arm but the hair on her head was fine.
'What the hell am I walking into.'
The door to training hall B opened as I approached it and inside was just a large white room with a pedestal and a ball in the middle. I just simply walked in and the door closed behind me.
'Another roh test?'
I heard Axmon's voice through another speaker above the door again "This is where your roh is accurately tested from, unlike the test you have taken before this test pushes your body to the limit of what it can achieve. Now put your hand on the pedestal."
Following what he said I put my hand on the pedestal and after a moment I felt a weird sensation, it was like water was rushing through my arm all throughout my body and as more and more of what I presumed to be roh passed into my body I started to heat up.
fans started up to which I felt how insanely cold it was, but despite that my body was still burning. I wasn't even able to take my hand off the pedestal, It felt like it was completely glued. The pressure kept building and building endlessly.
I felt like I was about to pass out, no I hoped I would pass out to avoid this insane pain. Then it just stopped, the pressure stopped building and the pain quickly faded.
Axmon's voice resounded again saying. "The test will now begin, The roh which has been put into you has put your body to the maximum limit it can handle and now we will test how much there is by syphoning it all out of you."
'Let me guess. This is going to be painful isn't it?' Just as I thought this my senses seemed to blink in an out of existence, I was conscious the entire time but reality around me seemed to vanish and then come back again and again.