SSS Class Awakening: I Can Forge My Beast Soul Avatars
Chapter 6: Onward to the academy

Chapter 6: Onward to the academy

One second, he was standing in the awakening hall, placing his hand on the cold surface of the disc while everyone stared at him. The next, he was falling, dragged down into an unending abyss of pure nothingness.

’What the...?!’ he thought, flailing his arms to grab onto something. But there was nothing within reach in the empty, weightless space.

Suddenly, he hit a solid platform with a heavy, echoing thud. His bones shrieked under the sudden impact, his body tumbling across the hard surface like a rag doll.

"Ahhh, f*ck!" he winced, curling inward. His once uninjured body was suddenly wracked with a hellish, throbbing pain.

’Huff, huff... What did I seriously do to deserve this?!’ he muttered, laying bare on the floor as the agonizing waves slowly receded.

Ignoring the lingering ache, he struggled to rise to his feet. He couldn’t use anything for support; nothing existed in this dark, endless void.

It was an eerie, unsettling sight to behold. Atlas stared into the darkness, genuinely feeling as though the abyss was staring right back at him.

’Stare into the abyss and it stares right back at you... What the hell is this place?’ His face contorted in a cry of confusion.

He raised his head, searching for any sign of life, but there was absolutely nothing. Then, out of nowhere, a sharp, fluorescent white light ignited, completely clouding his vision.

He raised his right hand, shielding his eyes from the sudden, blinding influx of light against his retinas. "Hssss!"

The surrounding light quickly shifted, focusing its sharp glare onto a dull brown sphere that was floating and rotating in the middle of the large, empty space.

’A color! I’ve seen a color! It’s brown!’ He stared at the dull brown sphere right before him, unsure of what it truly meant.

But then he remembered the corporate lady’s exact words: "Look for the brightest color within you, then hold onto the thought of it strongly until it manifests. That color will represent your class." He recalled it as clear as day.

’This isn’t what you call bright.....right?’ Atlas stared at the dull brown sphere rotating in the endless void.

When he had first been pulled into this dark void, the very first color he could think of was brown — because, in a way, it perfectly represented his dull, lackadaisical nature.

But as he had held onto that thought, he had landed on this very platform. Now, the entire space was illuminated by that exact shade of brown.

Suddenly, a vital realization struck him. ’Brown? Wait.... that means...’

"Atlas has awakened to the Beastmaster class!!" The corporate lady’s sharp announcement violently yanked Atlas’s consciousness out of the empty void and slammed him back into reality.

He stumbled slightly, disoriented from the sudden environmental shift. It was a thoroughly draining experience.

All around him, the hall erupted into cheers, clapping, and ecstatic screaming. He was now the third individual from the orphanage to successfully awaken.

But as the cheering filled the room, it quickly faded into background noise. His mind was completely captured by something otherworldly floating right in front of his eyes — a glowing system notification.

[Congratulations, Atlas! You have been awakened!]

[Welcome to the Awakening System]

* NAME: Atlas

* AGE: 15

* TITLE: None

* ORIGIN: Orphanage

* CLASS: Beastmaster

* ASPECT: Beast Summoner

* Hidden Aspect: Beast Forger

* RANK: Dormant

* SOUL FORGE STATUS: Active

* RARE SKILL: Creator

’Huh?! What is this?’ he thought, his eyes wide.

Before he could even begin to process the floating text, the corporate lady suddenly grabbed him by the shoulders.

He turned his head toward her, his attention forcibly pulled away from the system interface to her face. Up close, he realized she didn’t look nearly as harsh as he had initially thought.

"You can remove your hands now. Shift aside, I want to check your rank and aspect," she said, gently sliding him away from the awakening disc.

He nodded mutely, the floating system notification finally vanishing from his sight.

Stepping back to give her room to work, he stood close to the head of the orphanage and Emma.

Emma looked like she was about to burst from excitement, her blue eyes glinting with pure joy.

"His aspect is Beast Summoner, and his status is of the dormant rank!" the lady announced to the room.

However, as she stared down at the interface, she noticed something unusual. The screen was subtly flickering.

’This is not normal...’ she noted to herself, keeping her observations quiet. ’The disc was working perfectly fine before he touched it.’

She cast a brief, suspicious glance at Atlas. ’Don’t think too much about it. It must be a temporary fault with the awakening disc. I’ll ask the tech team to get it checked later. For now, we have to finish this and wrap things up. I’ve been here long enough.’

She turned back to the remaining line of children. For the next hour, the rest of the kids walked up to the stage to try their luck.

In the end, only one other boy was able to awaken, scraping by as a dormant-rank Healer.

Out of the twenty-four children from the orphanage, only four had shown signs of a fruitful future. As disappointing as that ratio might look to an outsider, it was a far better outcome than returning empty-handed.

The ceremony concluded rapidly. The unawakened children were given gift packages of clothing and foodstuffs to help cheer them up, while the four newly awakened children prepared for their immediate departure.

Atlas stood off to the side, completely detached from the ongoing chatter. He didn’t have any real friends here and kept to himself; aside from the basic congratulatory nods, he had no interest in small talk.

Emma, on the other hand, was the undisputed star of the hour. Being the only one to achieve the Awakened rank, and as an Elementalist Mage, no less, she was being treated as a certified prodigy, receiving endless praises and well wishes from the staff and kids alike.

Once the goodbyes were finally exchanged, the unawakened kids boarded the shuttle bus to head back.

The corporate lady stepped up to the four remaining children, gathering their information files with a small, knowing smirk playing at her lips.

"Alright. While you all were busy exchanging farewells, I went ahead and prepared our direct transport to the Academy. I hope you kids are comfortable with flight..."

’Flight?’

Before Atlas could even register the word, the ground beneath his feet shuddered violently. A loud, heavy, rhythmic beating sound echoed from above, cutting through the air.

Atlas glanced up and froze as he saw something he had never seen before in his entire existence: an actual aircraft.

To the lower classes of society, such machines were nothing short of a myth. He had only ever imagined what they looked like or stared at them as tiny specks traversing the distant blue skies.

The aircraft closely resembled a metallic shark, sporting a long, sleek back fin and a large frontal cockpit where the pilot and passengers sat.

Three massive blades were attached to its roof, separated exactly 120 degrees from one another, spinning fast enough to effortlessly sever meat. The base of the vehicle featured a flat landing pad.

’Four separate wheels would have looked cooler, but this works too,’ Atlas thought in awe.

In this world, this magnificent piece of machinery was known as an airboat.

"Come on, get on already! We don’t have much time left!" the lady yelled over the deafening roar of the spinning blades. "You’re already late, and any further delay will affect your standing at the Academy badly!"

Atlas exchanged a quick glance with Emma and the other two boys. Without another word, they hurried forward, stepped into the interior of the airboat, and buckled in.

Within seconds, the vehicle ascended, soaring upward and vanishing into the thick blanket of clouds above.