BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER SYSTEM

"At 8!" Benedict said.

"Alright, let's sleep early tonight, then."

When they left the cafeteria, Erik looked outside and saw that night already came. With quick steps, the two went to their room and, after that, to sleep.

***

DRIIIIIIIIIIIN!

"Oh... God..." Erik turned off the alarm clock and groaned as he got up from bed. His mind still felt foggy with fatigue despite having slept for about eight hours last night. After five solid minutes after having woken up, a notification appeared in Erik's eyes.

[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: QUESTS ARE AGAIN AVAILABLE. NEW TYPES OF REWARDS AVAILABLE.]

"Uh? That was sudden… I wonder what these new types of rewards are…"

Erik contemplated for a couple of seconds, but his sleepy mind could not understand what these new rewards were. Then, the young man asked the system.

<System, what are these new types of reward you are talking about?>

[ANSWER: THE SYSTEM FOUND A WAY TO STORE THE EXCESS ENERGY RELEASED BY THE NEURAL LINK-ESTABLISHING PROCEDURE, AND THAT COULDN'T BE PREVIOUSLY USED. THE BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER CAN NOW REWARD ATTRIBUTE POINTS TO THE HOST.]

<Attribute points, uh? This is good news! But wait a moment...> Erik noticed a small thing from the system's words.

<System, are you implying that most of the energy I gathered when doing new neural links got... lost?>

[ANSWER: SINCE THE USER HAS THE ABILITY TO ESTABLISH MORE THAN 54 NEURAL LINKS AND TO INCREASE STATS BY ABSORBING MANA, THE BIOLOGICAL SUPERCOMPUTER HAD TO FIND A WAY TO BALANCE THE NUMBER OF MUTATIONS BROUGHT TO THE BODY. THERE WAS A HUGE RISK FOR THE HOST OF UNWANTED MUTATIONS THAT COULD EVEN LEAD TO DEATH IF THE ENERGY WASN'T DISSIPATED.]

<So, yes... System; if the amount of energy I got from neural links was higher, does this mean I should have gotten more stat points?>

[ANSWER: HOST IS CORRECT. USUALLY, EACH INDIVIDUAL GAINS NINE ATTRIBUTE POINTS WHEN MAKING A NEW NEURAL LINK. STILL, I HAD TO NERF THIS SINCE IF YOU DID GET 9 POINTS FOR EACH NEURAL LINK, YOU WOULD HAVE ALREADY BECOME A MUTANT BEAST. NOW THE PROBLEM HAS BEEN FIXED.]

Naturally, Erik was pissed because he should have had 30 more attribute points from his neural links. Still, somehow he got only three per established link instead of 9.

However, the young man quickly concluded there was nothing he could have done and was at least glad the system found a solution to this problem. It was clear from the biological supercomputer's words that he would get attribute points as quest rewards.

Erik quickly got up from bed, put on his uniform, and headed to the bathroom. Once he got out, he found Benedict sleeping with his room door open.

"Hey, Benedict! We are going to be late!"

"Uhm...? What time is it?" the young man asked while rubbing his eyes.

"It's 7:00 in the morning..." Erik replied, "Get up!"

"Yes... Yes..."

After brushing his teeth, the boy walked to the living room and waited for Benedict to get dressed. Once he did, the two headed to the cafeteria to grab something quick to eat.

"C'mon, I don't want to be late the first day!" Erik said.

"I'm ready!"

Once they arrived at the dining hall, they found many tables lined neatly across each other and filled with food: eggs, sausages, pieces of bread, fruits, etc., alongside juice and coffee or tea. They quickly grabbed something to eat, and after a hearty breakfast, they left the building.

Classes were held in separate buildings, and each rank had one solely dedicated to them. Once outside the Red Palace, they found Amber, Floyd, Gwen, Anderson, Aaron, Mikey, and Martha boarding a bus.

"Hey, Guys!" Erik shouted. The students turned to look at the source of the voice, only to find Erik and Benedict.

"C'mon guys, you are going to be late!" Floyd shouted.

Benedict and Erik quickly went to the bus, and once they found their seats, the young man asked.

"Where is this thing bringing us?"

"To the dojo," Anderson replied.

"Hey, why didn't you say anything about this?" Erik asked Benedict.

"I didn't know," the boy replied.

Erik facepalmed.

"Hey, you didn't know it either!" Benedict replied.

After five minutes, they arrived in front of a massive building with yellow coloration. Erik didn't know why they chose to distinguish buildings by their colors, but whatever the reason, the place looked bigger compared to his old school.

"Alright, guys, let's go inside," Anderson said when they left the bus.

The group followed him into the building. After passing through an entrance, they saw a lobby decorated with pictures of past teachers and students, all wearing the Red Palace uniform. There were also countless chairs and couches here and there, with some students seated there waiting.

Then an old man approached the crowd of students waiting at the door, not knowing what to do.

"Welcome young fellas. I'm master Rook." He said with an impassive look. "You must be all new students, I guess," he said, looking at the hundreds of students in front of him. If this is the case, follow me; we will start evaluating you soon.

With that, the elderly man led them down a flight of stairs and onto another floor. The group followed the instructor inside the building, which was quite big compared to the ones back at school. There were several training rooms, and there were also some areas where people could rest.

Their path took them to several areas where various people were already training. They were all peasant-ranked students but had come to the red palace at least a year prior. Erik and his group passed by these individuals without saying much.

They then passed several doors until finally reaching a big metal double door leading to another corridor. When they reached the end of the hallway, they found themselves facing a large room.

On the walls stood rows upon rows of weapons ranging from swords to spears to bows and arrows, along with shields and other items. They were there purely to embellish the room and had no other purpose.

"Wow, so this is where we will learn how to fight?" Benedict asked.

Master Rook nodded. "However, this is only for the martial art class. For weapon training, you will head to a room based on the teacher you will get assigned."

"If this is the martial art class, why did they hang the weapons here?" Erik muttered, but his comment was unheard by the others.

"So…Welcome, everyone!" Master Rook announced, "This is my dojo. The place where all of you first years will learn hand-to-hand combat from me!" he said. "But today were are not here to learn martial arts but to evaluate you. Soon other teachers will join me, and together, we will assess what will be the best-suited weapon for you. Of course, if you already have brain crystal powers that allow you to conjure weapons, you better say so. You will be assigned to a master of that weapon. If you have a different kind of power, we will see together what will be the best for you to learn," the teacher concluded.

No one said anything, but many wondered why they didn't do this the previous day instead of wasting a whole day of training to find out the best-suited weapon. The truth was that, as Benedict said, they wanted to give enough time to the students to familiarize themselves with the place and the other students. This was, after all, a new environment, and the first-year students were generally sixteen-years-old. It wasn't easy for them to suddenly start living outside their houses with a bunch of random people.

"I hope you had enough time to familiarize yourselves with the place because you won't have this leisure anymore," the teacher said while looking at the students.

"Now, as you may know, we really need to understand where your talent lies while handling a weapon. You may wonder why it is required to learn a weapon, and there are multiple reasons. Most of you have a weapon conjuring brain crystal power, and it is clear that to learn how to use such powers training is required," the teacher said.

"But think about this, what will happen if you are on a battlefield with no mana available and no ammunition in your rifle, and multiple thaids around you? You will be sitting ducks!" he shouted energetically.

"Now, without mana, against thaids, you will probably die a horrible death, but if you have a bit of luck. With your improved strength, you will be able to at least defend yourself against them if you have a white weapon…"

"Besides, there could be powers better suited to be used in conjunction with weapons," the teacher said while walking up and down the room.

"Now, before we begin, I want you all to introduce yourselves. Let's hear it. Tell us your names, what type of power you can control, and any other information relevant to your abilities or talents," the old man requested.

A girl named Maria raised her hand. She wore long blonde hair tied into two ponytails and looked pretty. Her skin was pale, and her blue eyes shined brightly in the sunlight coming through windows on either side of the room.

"Hello! I'm Maria, and I can..."