Blood of the Ancients

Yves continued going to the training center. He started to get used to the environment, but there was something very evident in all his classes.

He was the weakest. 

In all his classes he was the weakest in terms of powers. Even the children, in terms of powers, are stronger than Yves, but they can't beat Yves in a fight because of the biological strength between a child and a teen.

Rumors started circulating that he was a result of nepotism or that he had dirt on the principal, but they were quickly dismissed when they met Yves.

The only thing preventing Yves from being ridiculed more than he currently is is due to his extremely charismatic personality. He is a people magnet. His stories about his time in the forest are very popular with the children. His experience in jail and his encounter with an A-rank being are popular with teens and older since there haven't been many encounters with them since the start.

However, his life is looking very well on the outside, but on the inside, a cloud of inferiority continues to grow. No matter how much he tries, he can't get stronger or even talk to Ink again. Every day that someone younger or new appears who is stronger than him, his self-esteem lowers.

Yves hit a breaking point when he was walking and saw a fight between two children no older than fourteen, he tried to break them apart from each other, but Yves couldn't do anything due to how weak he was. 

At the time when teachers intervened, Yves was the one that suffered the most damage. 

People tried to cheer him up, and he faked that it didn't bother him, but everyone knew that his once glowing aura of pure excitement and curiosity that attracted people was fading away.

Yves stopped socializing, and people gradually got further and further away from him. To give him space to heal, but in Yves's mind, they were ignoring him because of him being extremely weak.

Yves hates training class as he has to spar with people, but he is always the worst one. At first, people started picking him to join their team as they wanted to know how strong he was; however, the more they saw him fight, the more they realized that he couldn't really do anything. 

At this point, all Yves could do was produce an ink knife but nothing else.

Everyone else has unique abilities, which are due to their mythological being, but no matter how much Yves tried to talk to Ink, there was no one to contact. 

Yves was beaten every time, and everyone who defeated Yves looked at him with pity; they also hated to see such an incredible person lose and lose, but they found it incredible how someone in his situation still stood up and tried to improve every single day.

No one mocked Yves, as in their eyes he was a token of hope in the currently messed-up world.

Yves is stuck in his room, reading about how more and more beings continue to appear every single day while he is here enjoying his life, not doing anything to stop this madness and reach his dreams.

This realization changed him; he is in his second year, and he hasn't seen any changes in his strength or anything outside the human realm. Everyone is advancing while Yves is cheering them on while dying little by little on the inside. 

There had been many times when Yves had been close to being kicked out from his lack of growth; however, people still vouched for him and kept him in, however, with a warning.

Federico warned Yves that if he didn't grow this year, he would be kicked out entirely of the town. 

With the growing number of refugees entering, anyone who is not worth keeping or contributing anything to society is being kicked out and left to fend on their own. A majority of these people are powerless and don't last more than a day.

Yves could only lie in his bed and contemplate a world where he would have rejected Ink's proposal and advanced like everyone else. Ink still hasn't done anything for him to grow.

Last year Ink proposed to Yves that if he continued, he would eventually be able to enter his trial and become stronger, but after that Ink has been completely silent.

Yves stayed home for an entire week, and no one tried to contact him, as everyone thought that he was kicked out, and they were scared to fight back due to their lack of strength against the stronger adults.

A ray of hope presented itself to Yves.

"Are you ready?" 

Yves heard the voice of Ink, and he was so destroyed that he didn't care; he just nodded. There was no more anger towards Ink, just disappointment.

"Very well then, say goodbye to all of your friends, as you will be gone for a good while."

"How long?" Yves looked at his ceiling, imagining that Ink was right there.

"It depends. From one or three human months"

"Human month?"

"In this trial, every month will signify a year and a half in my trial." 

Yves got up, dressed, and walked outside for the first time in a week. Through this time he was sulking from all the pent-up emotions that only grew every day.

Yves arrived at the training center and went to his fifth class. The training center where he greeted and said goodbye, then promptly left before he could answer any questions. 

He went to all his classes and did the same. With the exception of the classes that are with Leia and Fabio.

He went to both of them personally and told them that we would leave for a month or three months for an unspecified reason. He didn't rule out the possibility of his ever coming back.

Before leaving, Yves went to Leia and confessed his feelings for her.

He tried to say something, but he could only say, "I love you," before promptly being teleported out of nowhere.

Both Fabio and Leia were left stunned by both events. Fabio was confused about where Yves went and was mostly surprised that his best friend was in love with his sister. Leia similarly is stunned, as she never paid attention to her feelings, but she feels happier every time they are together but dismisses them as being happy for having a friend who talks and talks while she just listens.

…

Yves woke up and saw himself stuck in an indefinitely sized white room. 

All he could see was the ink writing.

You will know when you are ready to leave. Just train until you unlock it.

Below the writing, many pens lay there, and a thick ink spilled.

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.

The sound of a large clock ticking on top of Yves marked the beginning of his first trial.