Despite everything Gary had been through, Apollo still had this strange aura surrounding him that told the Werewolf on an instinctual level that the person was quite dangerous. It wasn’t that the Altered used it in any conscious way to threaten him, it was just there and made Gary aware that he should treat him with respect as he had done the head supervisor.
The visits between the two of them had been short, their interactions practically nothing, and yet, his words were quite weighted on Gary’s mind the last two times they had spoken. When thinking about it, before thinking about getting better than Xin, or anyone in the AFA and AFC, he needed to beat this person in front of him, he just had no idea what level Apollo was at, or his two teammates that were with him.
“I’m happy that you took my advice and made it through your group at the top.” Apollo said.
It was good that Apollo had broken the ice, because the conversation between the two groups was lacklustre for a while.
The three from each group stood opposite each other, looking into the other’s eyes. Sty, had his arms folded as he looked away from the group. Clearly something had happened between the two of them, because before Sty was a part of them. First the classroom and now this, it wasn’t hard to put the two things together.
Numba was feeling nervous. Out of all the people that were currently there, he felt out of place. After all, he knew that he hadn’t done enough to deserve his place, and he felt like the weakest of the lot.
His draw against Sty could be considered a fluke, and he felt like if the two were to fight again, Sty would surely win.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t quite manage to stay at the top.” Gary replied, pulling Numba into a friendly type of headlock, while he was still dazed and in the middle of his thoughts. “This guy took that from me.”
Hearing this, Apollo’s eyes landed on Numba.
“Huh, what are you saying, Gary? I only made it here because of you in the first place.” The Goat Altered quickly refuted the praise, not wanting to set up the wrong expectations like he had done before, with the last group of people they had met.
Hearing this, the look on Apollo’s face changed.
‘Huh, I didn’t take him to be a softie.’
For a brief moment, he even questioned his evaluation of Gary. He had taken the green haired teenager to be the same as him, but if Apollo was in the same shoes, he would have never given up the number one spot, even if they were a close friend. Yet, there was still a feeling that the two of them were similar.
“Since you guys arrived here before us, care to tell us what this special lesson is all about?” Gary asked.
Both Snow and Wu looked at each other before giving an answer. “This is our first time here as well. Although it was on our timetable, we were told to wait until we were called, so here we are.”
It was strange, that only the six of them were involved in something, and it made Gary even more curious what they would be taught. Was it just a coincidence that the AFA didn’t start those lessons before there were six of them? Did it have anything to do with the number? Was it hard to prepare, so they preferred to do it with a larger group at once? There were too many reasons to guess. The only fact they did know, where they were the top three students that passed the facility.
“I’ve heard from the students before about this.” Apollo stated. “Those that pass through the facility as one of the top three students in under a month get rewarded by the AFA by being allowed to take part in a special course.”
Although the others started to get excited after hearing these words, Gary was getting nervous. What if this special course was some type of training that only Altered could do. Lately, his Werewolf self was getting into more trouble, and he had already come close to getting caught a few times.
Although he wasn’t a cat, he felt like he had already used up many of his nine lives.
While the teenager was worrying about the unknown, the sound of the double doors could be heard opening up. The doors looked to be made of thick steel, an entire arm’s length thick, and coming out was an extravagantly dressed adult who they could only assume to be the teacher.
Black was the predominant colour of his outfit, mixed with a few tinges of red. He was dressed in a black coat, had a pair of black boots, and his black gloves were holding on to a large staff, with a large ring at the end. That ring was further adorned by many black feathers, seemingly coming from the same bird as the one his golden necklace had. His onyx hair was pointed upward like a feather and his neatly shaved and groomed beard covered up his round face.
“My name is Crowley Corvus!” The teacher introduced himself, lifting both his hands. “I will be the one to act as your teacher, if you choose to participate in my lecture. If you think you have what it takes to be, then please come and follow me.” A bang of the staff on the floor ended his sentence.
The teacher said nothing else, as he turned around and entered through the doors, while also somewhat flapping his arms, making his cape look like wings. It was as if a human was trying to fly, but clearly Crowley was moving nowhere.
Numba looked at Gary.
“What was that all about?” The Goat Altered asked.
“I don’t know, maybe he’s just role-playing or something.” Gary replied with a shrug. Unsurprisingly, all of them followed him into the room. As if on cue, the moment Sty entered, the steel doors behind them shut closed, and once done, a locking mechanism was heard.
There was a worry in Gary’s head, why would they need such a thick steal door, and why did it need to be locked.
*****
My Werewolf System Webtoon is out! You can now read it on the BILI BILI COMICS APP. Weekly Webtoon chapters. Check it out, help it grow, and there might be news of an official My Vampire System Webtoon someday.