Inverse System

"Expulsion?! That's ridiculous! We were put in this position, how is that even fair?!" Xenia protested.

"Then don't settle. Prove that putting you at the bottom was a mistake and rise up in the rankings. If you can't do that, then good riddance," Wallace coldly spoke, inducing an angry reaction from the girl.

"But—!" She was interrupted by a velvety smooth voice from the center of the foyer.

"Please be quiet. If you're weak enough to be put that low, it serves you right to have the threat of expulsion," said the spiky-haired man that entered late, enraging her even further.

"And who the hell are you?" She angrily reacted.

In response, he showed his tablet screen to the group, displaying his ranking.

"You are ranked: [1]" it said.

"Wha… You're Sho Anagi?" She spoke in disbelief.

"Sorry, but I would rather a weakling keep my name out of their mouth," he arrogantly scoffed, ceasing the conversation.

"Why you… I'll show you who's weak..." She began approaching him suddenly being held back by Clyde, telling her to calm down.

"Hey! Let go! " She struggled.

"That would be unwise. We wouldn't want you getting suspended on the first day," Clyde explained as Xenia grunted in dissatisfaction, calming down to the point that Clyde released her.

"All first-year Ranger students, please make your way to room 15 at the west end of the first floor. Your first class will begin there," an announcement played over the loudspeakers, sending all of the first years down the hall to their left, all the way to the classroom at the end of the hall.

When they arrived, they saw 5 rows of seats that elevated up a set of stairs, each row housing 6 people and labeled with a letter corresponding to a class. The front row was S, and the back row was D. Rein, Xenia, and Core all sat at the back along with the other members of class D. When everyone settled into their seats, one singular teacher walked into the room.

She had long purple hair tied in a ponytail, dressed in a white button-up top and black pants. She came in smoking a cigar, puffing it out as she entered the room.

"Sup. I'm your homeroom teacher, Zophie Willow. Welcome to the first class of your academic lives. Each of your seats has your names on 'em, so no need for introductions," she blew another smoke of cloud, the S class students sitting at the front waving the smoke away from their faces.

"So, guess I'll explain what this class is," she propped a whole stack of books on the table, each with their own subject.

"Math, History, Geography, Chemistry, and Physics. There will also be a battle strategies class, but the principal will be teaching you that," she explained.

"This class is basically the same as what the non-Ranger students in the school get. Same curriculum.

Your performance during these classes will earn you points based on how well you did. At the end of each month, we'll be having examinations. If you score #1 in the class during any of the classes, you will be awarded 30 points, and will go down by 1 point the lower you score. Meaning if you score last in the class, you will only be earning 1 point.

Each class will take turns in battle strategies with Julianne during the days of the week. Class S starts today, class D goes on Friday, and every class goes in between. These classes are the only way to earn points during school hours, the rest of your points will come from your out-of-school activities. That's pretty much it, let's get to it I guess."

"Wait! I have a question!" A student in the second row raised his hand.

"What is it?"

"You said 'non-Ranger' students. Those exist here?" He spoke, confused.

"Yeah, all those people wearing school uniforms. Technically, we're different schools, but we use the same building. They also help set up some activities for Ranger academy, so I guess you could say we're a branch of their school. Oh, and there's a different principal for that school, though most of the time he ain't even here, so Julianne covers for him a bunch. Gulf Academy is what it's called," the teacher explained as she turned back around to get back to what she was doing before.

She summoned a holographic board and began teaching them mathematics, the class they have on Mondays. It was incredibly difficult math, more difficult than anything the entire group had ever seen. Out of the students in class D, only two of them seemed to be understanding what the teacher was saying.

But the entire time Rein sat in that class, he was devising plans, and strategies to get as many points as possible.

"Only three people can advance per class each month. Xenia, Core, and I are at the bottom three with the threat of expulsion on our asses. I'm not really worried about Core, but I need to make sure Xenia can score well on these exams. Got any ideas Versys? Anything my System can do to help her?"

"I thought you'd never ask. During your fight with the Steal System, I was able to unlock my knowledge about contractors. On top of a primary contractor, which is Core in your case, you can assign semi-contractors. We call them 'secondary contractors'. Forging a secondary contract has no direct benefit to you. Instead, the contracted will be the one benefiting.

For each secondary contractor, you can assign a stat and a skill to them. By assigning a stat to a person, they can benefit from 20% of that stats value. But be careful, once you assign a stat, you can't change it. You can assign more than one person to each stat, so two people can be benefiting from the same buff at the same time. Don't worry though, they won't be leeching 20% from your stat, it's more of a bonus.

On top of that, if you look at the skills tab in your menu, you can see 2 types of skills, passive skills, and technical skills. For every contractor, including your primary one, you can assign one passive skill. Same thing here, once a skill has been assigned, you can't unassign it until that person dies. Only 1 skill can be assigned to each person, so two people cannot benefit from the same skill, unlike the stats," Versys informed.

Rein smiled to himself in satisfaction, conjuring up different plans to advance in points.

"So how do I assign a secondary contractor?" Rein inquired.

"Well, you actually already assigned one. After your match with Clyde, you held his head and said my name to inform him about your inverse power. That's actually how to assign a secondary contractor. You still haven't given him any buffs though. A new tab in your System should've popped up now that you've unlocked this knowledge. The 'contractor' tab."

Rein opened his menu, and to his surprise, the tab was right there, beside the Spring history tab. He opened it, seeing a large mugshot of Core's face, with the words "Primary Contractor" under him, with a smaller mugshot of Clyde's face underneath in the "Secondary Contractor" section.

When he pressed on Clyde's face, he was granted the choice of a stat and a skill to assign to him. He left it be for now, saving assigning a stat to him for later.

"So I just have to touch them and say your name with the intention of making them a contractor?" Rein made sure.

"That's exactly right! Do note though, if you give her intellect, it won't instantly boost her knowledge. That would just be unreasonable. Intellect is more your aptitude to learn things, so keep that in mind," Versys explained.

"Sounds good. I should physically see a change in her confused face when I do this… Right, here I go," he quietly reached for her shoulder, Xenia oblivious to it as she was looking at the board with clear pain and confusion on her face.

"Versys," he whispered as his hand made contact with her shoulder.