Chapter 130 128 - More Changes

"I'm not seeing things am I?" Chris said, shocked from seeing Milo control electricity.

"Nope, you knew I had stories from this summer, this is one of them, and it isn't a good story." As Milo finished this sentence he trailed off and a lot of pain could be seen in his eyes.

Chris and Mark knew that New York had been attacked, but Milo, Krista and Allana hadn't informed them of how bad things had really turned out. Milo did so out of wanting to forget what had happened, while Krista and Allana just weren't as close to the two boys as Milo was. Milo took a seat as he retold the story of the attack for the umpteenth time. He had grown more numb to the feelings tied to what went down by this point. One would only see how much pain he was in when telling the story if they were able to read his mind.

Chris felt bad for being so brazen with Milo after hearing what he went through. Mark knew exactly how Milo felt, as he too had been a victim of the Fellowship. As Milo told the two of them about the reawakening that occurred from it, and about his fight with the cardinal, they were able to see just how evil the Fellowship were. Hearing Milo recount the sights he saw of people being killed at the Fellowship's hands, they knew that if they were in Milo's shoes that they wouldn't have been able to stomach it like he had. The thing that drove Milo to fight on his own at that point, stemmed solely from his desire to keep his loved ones safe.

"Once we're outta here, we'll definitely put a stop to them," Chris said in an attempt to cheer Milo up. Mark nodded in agreement to the statement. Like Milo, Mark also wanted to get revenge on the Fellowship.

Seeing the determination from his friend's allowed Milo to relax a bit more. They truly cared for Milo and his mentality after going through something like this. The two of them were definitely candidates for what Zenox had said about gathering allies. Mark would also be likely to help solely for getting revenge for his family. Before asking them for their cooperation though, he wanted to get through school first. Living his life would be a priority before delving into some mission to save the world, he still wasn't strong enough.

After telling them more stories, particularly about what life closing gates was like, it was getting late. Milo still hadn't heard from Zach or any of his other friends, so he assumed everything would be going smoothly.

His friends left soon after as they hadn't unpacked yet, and it was also getting late. The next day, Milo would be seeing just how many people were joining him in the X ranked class. They would be future teammates as well as opponents based off of how the X rated class rankings worked. Not only this but he would also get to finally see Zach and Maria for the first time in ages.

Waking up the next morning, Milo made his way to the weapons hall and when he entered, Mikael was practicing the swordsmanship he had been teaching to Milo. Milo stood there watching his teacher strike and slash as if it were a dance. He was in a trance seeing the masterfully completed moves. Eventually Mikael noticed he had a visitor and stopped his practice. Milo walked up to his teacher.

​ "It is good to see you again Milo, I look forward to seeing how far your training has come," Mikael said.

Mikael didn't daddle any longer and asked him to show him some sword techniques. Milo did as he was told, showing some of the fluid like motions, seeing this Mikael frowned a bit, causing Milo to stop when he noticed.

"Am I doing something wrong?" he asked his teacher.

"No, however I feel you are trying too hard to emulate my own style," Mikael responded, "you should think of the sword as an extension of yourself, by trying to emulate me, you are taking away from your own strength, by not infusing your own self into your sword. It is more like you are trying to put me into your sword if that makes any sense. I am grateful you see me so highly, but I want you not to be shackled by the limits of my swordsmanship, and instead prosper by developing your own style."

Hearing this, Milo thought on it for a bit, this made sense, he and Mikael had different builds, Milo was also significantly younger and with the system he would eventually be stronger. By using Mikael's style and only Mikael's style of swordsmanship, he was using a style of swordsmanship that may not suit himself. After this realization was seen in Milo's eyes, Mikael smiled, with Milo's growth rate, it wouldn't be long until Milo came up with a solution to the problem that was shown to him.

After his training, Milo returned to his room and showered before getting ready for class. He got everything he might need, but decided to let Alucard stay in the room rather than bring him to class. Alucard still hadn't met Waki and Milo wanted the two to meet outside of class before bringing him to class. By promising that Alucard could watch TV while he was gone, he convinced the snake to stay behind in the dorm.

Milo headed down to his homeroom class after getting a quick breakfast to see his friends had already begun to chat. Chris, Mark, Zach, Maria and Allana were all sat down chatting about their summer. It was strange seeing Chris, Mark and Allana in his normal classes but it was a welcomed change. Milo made his way over to the group and took a seat among them. When he sat down, Maria was telling them a story from her summer internship, apparently she was stuck in an office position for a guild located in London. A rift opened around the guild headquarters while their strike forces were out closing gates. Because of that she was forced to protect the other staff members who worked in the office by fighting the beasts that appeared, until backup arrived.

Hearing about Maria's experience that summer made him feel bad as she definitely was someone who wanted to close gates and gain experience like Milo. After telling her story, Maria turned to Milo and asked how his summer internship went. When he told the story of his summer, she puffed her cheeks in jealousy, it was obvious that she wanted the same experience Milo had. Hearing about how he was put on a strike squad off the bat and was even given a leadership role in the squad was a crazy thought. He was a student just like them and he had already been set as a strike squad leader. It wouldn't come as a surprise to them if he started his own guild once he graduated.

After chatting some more, Milo noticed Waki was nowhere in sight, he asked Zach and apparently like Alucard he was back at the dorms. According to Zach he was being a bit more rowdy recently as he had gotten older, and he didn't want his beast to give their homeroom teacher a poor first impression. Milo told Zach that after classes he had someone for him to meet, but wouldn't tell him who, which caused a puzzled look from Zach. Chris and Mark both knew what he was talking about but decided not to spoil the surprise.

Soon their homeroom teacher arrived and seeing who it was caused a bit of shock among the group. Their homeroom teacher was none other than the headmaster of the Awakened Academy and a close friend of the GAA president. Sheldon O'Neal or as he told them to call him, Mr. O'Neal started the class by welcoming the new X ranked students. At the end of the last school year, there were 19 students in the X rated class. Now 28 students were present, meaning 9 new students had tested into the X rated class at the ability evaluations for their second year.

He started by introducing the class ranking system, each of the X ranked students were ranked according to their scores on their final exams at the end of the previous school year. The new student's names were added to the bottom of the list. Seeing his name at the first ranked position reminded Milo that many people would try to compete with him for the top spot. Mr. O'Neal was going over how to rise in the rankings and had just finished explaining that a spot could be claimed by defeating the person who they challenged for their rank, when a student who Milo didn't recognize raised his hand.

Mr. O'Neal stopped and called on the student, allowing him to speak. The student was one of the newly X rated students that had gotten in through the ability evaluation on the previous day, and was ranked at number 24.

"How soon can we challenge those who are ranked above us?" The student asked.

Mr. O'Neal smirked as he knew why the student was asking. The student thought he could contend with the previously ranked X rated students. "You can challenge someone now if you truly wanted to," Mr. O'Neal said to the student. Mr. O'Neal knew that the only way for the new students to know their place in the class was to see first hand how lacking they were when compared to the students who hadn't needed to retest to get into the class.

The student then smirked arrogantly, "then I challenge the number one ranked student," he said.

There was silence from the class, everyone who knew who Milo was all turned to look at him. Milo originally didn't want to fight anyone on day one, but at the same time, by being the first ranked student he would have to deal with a lot of challenges throughout the school year. By being challenged today, he could make a statement. A statement that said, "go ahead and challenge me, but I won't lose."

Thinking this way, Milo stood and looked at the student who had challenged him, "I accept."