'Grade A?!?' Vander couldn't even believe that someone got that grade without being an Alpha. Alice was the strongest person he knew and she didn't even get an A.
Looking at the student who received the score, Vander remembered him. The person that Vander thought he recognized earlier was Eric. The tenth ranked student at his highschool.
'How's this possible!?' A pre-awakened student that was one of the best in his high school, went to the 100th ranked University. But he didn't even qualify to become an Alpha. This made Vander wonder what kind of monsters those Alpha students were.
Alice by his side was also shocked. Her eyes were wide open while staring at Eric's score. Her strength that she was proud of, couldn't even be compared to a past classmate who couldn't even become an Alpha of the school.
"He's a pre-awakened, you're not. You'll be able to catch up to him in no time." Vander reassured Alice while holding her hand. Caressing it with his other hand.
"He's not the one I want to catch up to." Alice turned her head away and stopped holding Vanders hand.
'So, she wants to reach the Alphas.' Vander believed that Alice wanted to become an Alpha, since even Eric wasn't her goal.
'I need to start training even harder too. I'm already behind in dexterity and strength. Now I can't let this useless [Record] stop me from catching up to Alice.' Not wanting to be left behind anymore by his lover, Vander had a new found determination to become stronger. Maybe not as powerful as an Alpha student, but somewhere close to Eric's level.
"Yo, if it ain't fifty. Oh look and it's his best friend fifty-one." Eric getting down from the platform noticed his former classmates.
"Haven't seen anyone else since graduation. Most of the others outside of the top ten didn't even bother to enroll in a ranked university. So what are you guys doin here?" While speaking he walked to the far edge of his platform towards the couple waving hello.
"What do you mean by that Eric? We're here because we want to become heroes. You know, save some people, while earning money. How bout you bro? Why is someone who was ranked in the top ten and a pre-awakened in this University? You probably could've gotten into a University ranked within the top fifty." Vander questioned back jokingly, wondering why he enrolled in Moridrange.
"C'mon Vander, you were one of the smartest students at our highschool. I even attended some of your study sessions man. You should know why I enrolled here." Eric questioned why Vander didn't know with his knowledge.
"Didn't you know I wanted to become a high ranked hero? And do you know how hard it is to become one of those high ranked heroes? You need to graduate as an Alpha in any of the 100 ranked universities. I thought I would be able to start off as an Alpha in any lower ranked universities so I enrolled here. But I overestimated myself. I couldn't even be an Alpha in the lowest ranked university. So becoming a high ranked hero is even harder than I imagined." Eric explained the difficulties of becoming a hero to Vander and Alice.
"My bad Eric, I actually didn't know. Didn't do too much research on this subject since I didn't think I would awaken. I didn't know becoming a hero was going to be this hard." Vander apologized to Eric.
"It's ight. At least you guys had the guts to enroll in a ranked university though. I'm pretty sure less than quarter of us that awakened actually enrolled in a ranked university. You know everyone is afraid of the high difficulty and the mortality rates of ranked universities and all." Eric praised Vander and Alice for enrolling at Moridrange.
"Well… to be honest, I didn't know that much about ranked universities and their difficulty. And definitely not their mortality rates. I just thought the best heroes in the world would be in those universities. So I researched more on heroes and ranks instead." Vander admitted about his lack of knowledge.
"Why would you enroll in a ranked university if you didn't know much about it then." Eric questioned.
"Because…" Vander put his hand around Alice's shoulders. "I wanted to be with someone. Someone very special to me."
"No way. You guys finally got together." Eric was in disbelief. "Since when."
"Since the graduation ceremony." Alice responded this time.
"Of course. You guys left the ceremony early. Well congratulations. I knew you guys would eventually end up together. Always doing the same things together, even taking all the same classes."
Another student just finished his test. Sarah graded her with the tablet and looked around to find out who was going next. Sarah looked around and stopped at the students chattering. She decided to pick Vander to go next.
"You. Vander Hall, you're up next."
Stopping their conversation, Vander turned around and began to walk to the cube.
"Alright Vander, Alice. It's good seeing you guys. And Vander, good luck. You're going to need it." Eric went back to his group.
"Good luck." Alice also chimed in to show her support to Vander.
Standing right in front of the metal cube, Vander took a deep breath. Positioning himself at the center of the cube, he began to go into his punching form. Almost like Alice, his right foot positioned a step back while squatting. He brought his right arm back while twisting his body to the right as well. Taking another deep breath, Vander punched the cube while twisting his body back.
Closing his eyes, Vander believed he did good. He followed the techniques he learned from Alice to the tee.
Opening his eyes, he saw the cubes' blue aura moving. Pieces of the aura started to separate and form the blue numbers. Floating above the cube, the number 499 appeared.
"Grade F." Sarah put the results into her tablet.
'Fuck.'