The first descendant: My SSS Rank Awakening

Chapter 2

After a few seconds of silence, laughter broke throughout the hall. It came from the guild representatives, then the students, and soon almost everyone else had joined in.

There was no way in cold hell that Ron could have awakened such a powerful class.

“Vincent is actually messing with us,” one of the guild masters said, laughing so hard that a tear escaped from his eye.

“Does he really think we will believe every word he says just because he is the reader?”

“We are talking about Ron Arcade here. There is no way that result is real.”

Even Ron couldn't believe his eyes. A nobody who had been treated like a disease all his life had somehow awakened the most powerful class in the entire hall.

Society had taught him that the bottom was all he deserved. He had served almost every powerful family in the hall just so he and his mother could survive another day.

It had all been because of his defective bloodline, yet now the machine was saying that he had awakened a class greater than anything those precious bloodlines had produced today.

It had to be another joke planned to mess with his head. Ron had only hoped for an F rank, something that would find him proper work so his mother could stop going hungry and pretending she had already eaten.

But Vincent wasn't laughing. His face didn't change, and he kept staring at the result as though he was afraid to blink and lose it. Slowly, the laughter around the hall began to die.

“Don't tell me that you are serious.”

Henry's father stepped forward with narrowed eyes. Elijah had once been the city's champion, and most people still behaved as though he held the title.

Vincent swallowed. “Ron... I mean, Master Ron has awakened the most powerful class recorded today. He may even become the next champion of the city. At least, that is what the reader is saying.”

“Then the machine must be broken,” Elijah replied. “My family is the only family in this city with the bloodline and potential to produce its champion. That reading is false.”

“The reader has never been wrong before.” Vincent was already drenched in sweat and could barely force the words out.

“Then it finally took a hit and made its first mistake.”

Ron's mother slowly raised her head. Her tear-filled eyes moved towards Ron, who was still standing with his head high even though he looked just as confused as everyone else.

“You didn't die,” Maria cried as she rushed towards him. “You didn't die, Ron.”

She held his face and checked his body for any sign that the serum was killing him. She didn't care about his class. A few minutes ago, she had believed that she was watching her only child die.

Ron held her arms and tried to steady her. “I'm still here, Mom.”

“We need another reader, and I want you to call the Association Chief right now,” Elijah ordered. “This has to be a terrible mistake.”

Vincent opened his mouth to protest, but Elijah shot him a dead glance that stiffened his shoulders right up to his spine.

“You don't want to make me repeat myself.”

Vincent rushed out on wobbling feet and returned a few minutes later with the Association Chief and four senior awakened carrying a new reader.

The Chief took one look at Elijah. They were almost the same height and build, and clearly knew enough about each other to hate each other's guts.

“I heard that you questioned an official reading because it didn't bend to your will,” Damon said. “That sounds rather familiar, doesn't it?”

“Don't flatter yourself, Damon. I am only making sure that no mistake is made here. You, of all people, should understand that.”

“The only thing I understand is that the former champion is scared the title might leave his clan, and now he is behaving like a crybaby.”

Their auras clashed, and the pressure made it almost impossible to breathe. Some students collapsed and had to be rushed outside, but Ron kept his head up. He had spent too much of his life bowing because someone powerful expected it from him.

“Let us make sure this is actually a mistake,” Damon said as he turned away from Elijah.

Henry stepped forward with his chest puffed out, unlike the other students who could barely look up at the powerful Chief.

“Don't talk down to my father. Ron is a nobody, and everybody knows that. He isn't even worthy of an F rank, let alone an SSS rank. I am the only person here worthy of such a class, so you should test me instead.”

Damon looked at Henry before turning back to his father.

“Elijah, you really did raise your son to be just like you. He has all of your arrogance, but somehow even less sense.”

A few students laughed before quickly covering their mouths.

“Get on with it, Damon,” Elijah said through his teeth.

Damon gave him one final smile before turning towards Ron, who looked straight into his eyes without an ounce of apology.

“You're a brave one,” Damon said. “I hope you prove everyone here wrong. If you do, I would be glad to take you into the Association myself.”

That pulled another round of murmurs from the crowd because the Chief had never offered to take Henry in personally.

Damon led Ron through the verification before asking him to place his hand on the new reader. Everyone watched with their breaths held firmly in their lungs.

Maria's eyes remained glued to her son as he pressed his palm against the machine. Ron kept his face calm, although his heart pounded loudly in his ears.

The reader gave a low beep, and its screen went blank long enough for Henry to smile. Then a red light travelled around Ron's palm, and the same words appeared on the screen: SSS-RANKED COMBAT CLASS.

Damon's lips broke into a wide smile. “You can kiss your tyrant legacy goodbye, Elijah. The result is real.”

The hall erupted immediately. Everyone who had laughed at Ron earlier began hiding their faces, while the guild representatives who had surrounded Henry rushed towards Ron instead.

“Young Master Ron, I hope you will forgive our little misunderstanding,” said the same guild master who had laughed until he cried. “My guild can provide everything you need to develop your class.”

Another guild representative pulled the contract he had prepared for Henry from his coat and held it out to Ron.

“That contract was prepared for me,” Henry said.

“It was prepared for the strongest student in this hall,” the man replied without looking at him. “That is no longer you.”

Henry's mouth fell open, while the students also began forcing their way closer.

“We're really sorry, Ron. We didn't know that you would awaken such a powerful class.”

“Do you need your shoes cleaned? Whatever work you want done, I will do it.”

Ron watched them with disgust rising through his guts. They had treated him as something lower than trash, yet now they wanted to be associated with him.

One of the boys who had forced him to drink muddy water during their junior year pushed through the others with sweat gathering on his forehead.

“We should become friends, Ron. You and I have a lot of things in common.”

Ron's eyes moved to his forehead and the thin line of hair struggling to remain on it.

“The only thing we have in common is a receding hairline.”

The students around them burst into laughter, and the boy quickly covered his forehead before moving out of Ron's sight.

Just ahead, Henry and his father's faces burned from red to deep purple as someone else took the attention that had always belonged to them.

“This cannot happen, Father. You have to do something about it.” Henry held tightly to the fabric of his father's clothes.

“I would love to see him try,” Damon said with a laugh.

Elijah pulled his clothes out of Henry's grip. “I don't need to try because Ron cannot be allowed to keep that power. He does not have the bloodline, capability, or resources to control it.”

The hall instantly went quiet, and everyone who had been crowding around Ron began to pull away.

“Fate chose Ron, Elijah,” Damon said.

“Some people are simply higher than fate.”

“What are you going to do about it? Take what rightfully belongs to him?”

Elijah turned his eyes towards Ron. “Yes, that is exactly what I intend to do. Ron, you will give up the power you awakened and transfer it to Henry. Do not make me repeat myself.”