The Ascension Age

Of course, Aire would never admit it. "Ahem...I don't know what you are talking about," Aire said as he glanced at afar.

Zule laughed out loud in response, saying, "Hahaha! Sure, you don't."

Aire then quickly changed the topic into a more pressing matter as he asked, "So, what happened after the mission? Is everyone here? Where are the bracelets with the Stellar Energy? What position did we end up with after this?"

Zule then headed to the other beds by the side and opened their curtains soon after. Sure enough, Altina and the others were there, sleeping. "I have to say, you've left me impressed. You woke up way faster than anyone else. We were expecting the first ones to only regain consciousness on the second day."

Aire immediately understood why that happened. Obviously, it was because of the transformation his body had received when Stella entered his body. It wasn't a surprise that his body could process and eliminate the toxins that kept him asleep faster than the rest. 

Once again, Aire wouldn't say that. Nevertheless, he still had to reply. "Is that so? It seems like I have some resistance against the drug used in the bracelets, I guess."

"If you say so," Zule showed a faint slime as he replied, making it hard to know what he was thinking. "Anyways, they're fine and will wake up eventually." Zule closed the curtains after that before continuing, "Your bracelets have been retrieved, and the number of Stellar Bubble Energy has already been calculated. Later, you can access the mainframe of the school and use your Student ID to take the same amount of Stellar Energy from it."

"And the positions?" Aire was still curious about that. After all, after the situation went out of control, he didn't stop to look at everyone's numbers anymore.

"Oh, that!" Zule smiled once again before giving Aire a thumbs up. "You did amazingly well, finishing your mission in the 33rd position." 

He then continued to explain, "I was watching it through the monitoring airship's broadcast from here. In the end, a few of those leaders you tried to ambush were able to escape. Not to mention that there were many other teams in the main area that weren't caught by that trap of yours."

Aire couldn't help but feel excited. There were over ten thousand Risers participating, each team with four members. On top of that, Aire's initial standing point was much farther away than the best-ranked teams in this mission. Last but not least, Aire knew that he held the team back during the first part, so it was way better than he had expected. With that, he could not help but say, "Great! Are all the other missions finished already?"

The reason Aire asked was because not everyone took the same mission as Aire's team. There were many other missions happening for Risers of the same age as his team. One must remember that classes in the Ascension Age School were separated by age as well. 

Back then, when Aire's team went through the initial tests, they got a total of 6074 points, which put them in the 4759th position. Each team mission gave a total of 1000 points for first place. From there, one would get 999 points for the second, 998 for the third, 997 for the fourth, and so on. 

That's why Aire felt so excited. Being in the 33rd position meant that they received 967 points, which would be added to their ranking. Let's not forget the fact that Aire's mission definitely had more than 2000 teams. After all, there were more than 1000 participants, which meant that more than half of them wouldn't even get a single point in the end.

Zule then nodded in response to Aire's question, saying, "Of course, all missions can't take more than three days. Otherwise, they would become too expensive." Zule then connected his communicator to the display in the room and showed the general classification, telling Aire, "Take a look at where you're placed right now."

-Dormitory 174, Room 863: 7037 Points.-

-Position: 2411th-

Aire couldn't help but laugh out loud as he said with glee, "Hahaha! Now, that's what I'm talking about!" In the very first mission, they went up 2348 positions. How could Aire not feel happy? "Next time, our starting point will be much better."

Zule nodded, saying in response, "That's not all. You finally got the chance to gain some experience. You won't freeze like a statue or pass out like an idiot next time."

Aire's mouth twitched a little as he responded with a light snort, "Hmph! I don't need you to tell me that. I know more than anyone else how bad I did."

With that said, Aire went back to his bed and found his clothes there. He quickly changed before asking Zule something else, "By the way, where is the kitchen? I'm dying here!"

Zule smiled in response and decided to go eat with Aire after that. 

Time passed, and the second day after the missions arrived. One by one, the Riser students woke up and were finally able to see how well they did. Of course, there were those who knew that they didn't get anything, so they instead took a look if they lost a lot of positions.

Unsurprisingly, Altina was the second one to wake up in Aire's team. Her physical health and strength were better than Sera and Kymei. Well, it was better than Aire's old body as well. One could only wonder if Aire would even wake up on the second day if Stella didn't appear, let alone in the first.

"What?! 33rd position? Hahaha! That's great!" Altina, obviously, was delighted with the result as well. "From the looks of it, the other groups' rankings on the other missions didn't go very well. Well, that's good for us as well." 

In any case, Altina was more interested in another thing as she decided to ask Aire, "By the way, other than the Stellar Energy from the Stellar Bubbles, what did we get from our mission rank as a reward?"

Aire shook his head as he replied, "I don't know. It'll be announced once everyone recovers. Well, it shouldn't take too long now."

Altina nodded after hearing that. It wasn't like it hadn't happened before. With that, she said, "So be it."