Superior Healing, Superior Strength, or whatever the hell those feelings were that Stanley got from time to time; those had to be his true powers.
Stanley wondered if in fact his powers hadn't actually awakened, but were in the process of doing so, which was why he was showing signs of it without actually having it.
That was perhaps the case for why there was no activation ritual either. But then, which of the three would end up being his true powers? If one of them did, then what about the other 2? What were they?
In the end, he wasn't even sure if any of them would actually end up becoming his powers. After all, never in his life had he heard of someone showing signs of power without awakening it immediately.
Awakening was supposed to be like the flick of a switch that turned on the light. There was no way it could be like a tap that took time to release the full flow of water.
"Don't worry," Bradley said after seeing his brother's face. "We will figure it out soon enough. Just wait for after the assembly."
Stanley nodded and went to the assembly that took place in the training field. Over a hundred people were already there, with more joining by the minute. Not all Defenders were there, but every single trainee was there for certain.
Stanley found his way to the third-year trainees and got into a line.
"Oh, look who we have here. If it isn't our batch's highest-scoring trainee," a young man spoke from behind Stanley.
Stanley didn't even have to turn around to know that it was Desmond who was behind him. "What do you want, Desmond?" he asked. "I don't have time for your nonsense."
"Oh, nothing, nothing," the young man said as he came in front of Stanley. He had an elongated face with a sharp nose and short brown hair. He was taller than Stanley by half a head, so he looked down on him when he stood close to him.
"I was just worried about you, you see. You used to be so good, but after you were hurt, you can't fight at all. Since you don't have any powers, at this rate you might have to go and work on the farm very soon," the boy said with a sad expression on his face.
Stanley couldn't help but feel disgusted looking at the person in front of him. "Keep your worry to yourself, I don't need any fake ones," he said.
Desmond's face changed into disdain as he scoffed. "Hmph, fine. I can't wait to see your downfall, you damned Dull. I will make sure you don't pass the third year of training, so you will be forced to go work on the farm your whole life. Then, you can die there, just like your mother did."
Stanley didn't realize when his fist swung. It did so on its own and arrived at Desmond's face. However, instead of hitting him, his fist went right through his face, surprising him for a moment.
He balanced himself and looked around to search for his brother. It had been him that had just used his powers.
"Hah! You just tried to hit me," Desmond shouted. "He tried to hit me."
"He did," Bradley's voice came from close by as he appeared. He looked at his brother who was clearly angry. "What are you doing?"
"He spoke about mother," Stanley said angrily.
Bradley sighed. He pat his brother's shoulders and said, "Don't fall for such obvious baits. He's clearly trying to make you hit him outside of training to break the rule."
Stanley grumbled, but he couldn't say anything to that. He knew that if not for his brother, he would have most likely been in big trouble right now.
Fighting in-between trainees themselves was considered a taboo in of itself, but a Dull hitting someone Awakened was even more severe. If Stanley was found guilty, he wouldn't even be warned at all. He would be directly expelled.
"He tried to hit me," Desmond shouted, gathering the attention of the people that were gathered there.
"He tried to hit you, but he didn't," Bradley said. "Calm down."
"No, I won't calm down. He tried to hit me," Desmond shouted. "Teacher! Teacher!"
The people were starting to gather around to see what was happening, and it caused Stanley to cower a bit. Was it really going to be a problem?
"There's a difference between hitting you and trying to, isn't there?" Bradley asked. "You haven't been hit, so calm down."
"No, there's no difference. I won't stand until a teacher brings justice here," Desmond shouted.
"There's no different, you say," Bradley said. "Did it hurt when my brother tried to hit you?"
"What? No, it did not, but—"
*SLAP*
Bradley suddenly slapped Desmond in the face so hard that he didn't even realize that he had been hit. It was only after the burning pain followed that he realized what had happened.
"Did it hurt now?" Bradley asked.
"Y-y-you—"
"Bradley? What are you doing?" someone from the crowd asked.
Bradley put his palm up to stop the person for now. "Tell me, did that hurt or not?" he asked.
Desmond started tearing up from the pain as a red palm print appeared on his left cheek.
"See, you're crying. It does hurt," Bradley said. "So it's evident what my brother did is different from hitting you, isn't it? Which means he broke no rule."
Bradley stood up. "No need to crowd up, it was just a little confusion that has been settled," he said with a smile before turning toward Desmond.
His face suddenly turned serious and his voice full of hatred.
"Speak about my mother like that one more time and I will make sure you never speak again."
He then pat his brother on the shoulder once and walked away.
Stanley stood there with sparkling eyes, hoping that someday, he could be just like his brother as well.
Kids were never considered Dull. After all, a person awakened their powers mostly in their teenage years, so you couldn't consider them Dull at all.
However, the longer the years went, the more it was accepted that a person was Dull. It was usually only after one was no longer a teenager did a Dull truly see just how prejudiced the world was against them.
However, to Stanley, he didn't have to grow to see it. He had been seeing it his whole life.
His mother couldn't go to the town without being bombarded with rude and hateful comments every single step. They never attacked her or were violent, but the passive torture she had to suffer from their words and actions was still torture.
Dulls were usually easy to recognize. They wore simple clothes and were haggard. They were naturally poor as they were paid very little for the food they grew, and what they did pay them was never enough at all.
Dulls were considered the lowest of the low of society just because they didn't have any powers. After all, without powers, they weren't considered useful to the town.
A person who could create fire could help in a kitchen or the smithery. A person who could create light could help brighten up a room. A person who could reduce the weight of things could help transport goods.
Even a power as useless as being able to change one's skin color could be useful in the right circumstances. They could be used to notify people of the status of things just by the virtue of having a different colored skin at any given moment.
However, a person without any power couldn't even do anything that someone else could do more easily. Worse of all, they usually gave birth to Dulls too.
In a town that was constantly looking for the next strong fighter to protect them from the Crawlers, a Dull was the most useless thing one could imagine. They were just one more mouth to feed after all.
So, the general public couldn't help but despise the Dulls with everything they had. While there wasn't exactly anything against the Dulls in the town's rules, the public still discriminated against them.
Even the Mayor was pretty forward with not really caring about the Dulls. It was why he sent them to work in the farms around danger in the first place.
Now that he was close to being considered a Dull without a doubt, Stanley was seeing the discrimination slowly happen against himself as well. They always used to speak behind his back about how he was Dull, but they never took any action.
Today, however, Desmond did. Tomorrow, it might be someone else. They would speak badly about him and his brother wouldn't be around to take care of it every time.
He couldn't even fight back.
He started to feel rather terribly about the whole situation. In the end, all he could do was sigh and hope his powers awakened before he graduated.
He heard a commotion out of nowhere and looked around to see the Mayor walking in from the side with Illan. Illan lifted him up and placed him on a large podium that had been prepared before his arrival.
The mayor looked at the group of people and waited for them all to get quiet down.
A middle-aged woman walked up from the side and arrived by the mayor's side. The middle-aged woman was someone the defenders were used to seeing.
She had the natural power to amplify the sound coming from anyone that she touched. So, people usually liked bringing her along when making announcements.
She placed her palm on the mayor's back and the mayor started speaking.
"I'm sure you all know why you are gathered today," the mayor said. "There is a significant decrease in the number of Defenders, so we will have to supplement that by adding you trainees into the mix as well.
The crowd murmured at the announcement but the mayor continued.
"I'm sure you all are worried, but there is no reason to be. You will not have to go patrol the veil until you graduate unless there is an emergency. Also, you will always be with an actual Defender and won't be working alone," the mayor said.
"The 1st years will work twice a week, the 2nd years will work 3 days a week, and the third years will work 5 days a week. The third years will only have a single day of training since you have already learned most of what you need to learn," the old man said. "You will get more details from your teachers later."
"Now, there is another important thing that needs to be announced to everyone here," the mayor said. "There will be a new census that we will conduct of the town. It is about time we do another one. For the census, the defenders will be working with the trainees to figure out everything you can about the population of the town."
Stanley was only listening when a peculiar feeling struck him. The feeling seemed to try and tell him something, or make him something to do.
However, before he could realize what its intention was, his whole body started trembling since with the feeling, came the terrible memory that haunted him.
He heard the imaginary thud as the giant limb of the Ink Crawler vividly crushed his mother right in front of him once again.
Stanley tried to control himself, he tried to stand up. He tried to ignore the feeling he was getting to focus on himself.
When he was finally able to calm himself enough to snap back to reality, he heard the most crucial piece of information from the Mayor.
"Since we are in desperate need of farmers, your main objective will be to find out the Dulls as fast as you can," the mayor said.
"To start with, record every single Dull in the Defenders and Trainees that are over the age of 16 so we can immediately send them to go work on the farm. There will be no exception."
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