Wren was sat in the cafeteria with Liam and Carlos, recounting the events of his lesson over a bowl of some weird tasing pasta that he’d completely forgotten the name of.

“What do you mean you couldn’t use your armament?” Carlos said incredulously.

As soon as they saw him, both boys knew that Wren hadn’t had a good lesson. He’d appeared from the cloud tunnel with an overcast face and a look that screamed of disappointment. Neither of them had ever seen Wren like that before and were a little shocked. Given that they’d only met a few days ago and didn’t know each other all that well, they never would have expected Wren to look so depressed. It didn’t suit his face looking so upset. They were so used to his wry smirks and cheeky grins that they didn’t even know he could get like that.

It had taken them a while to get anything out of him. He hadn’t said anything on the journey over to the cafeteria instead walking glumly in silence. It was only when he’d had a few bites to eat that he finally started to open up. The powers of a good meal.

“I mean, I couldn’t use my armament.” He said shooting daggers at Carlos.

“But, but, how? They were all F rank? Everyone can use an F rank armament.” Carlos replied.

“Well apparently not me.”

“It’ll be alright. You probably just need a different weapon. Try a sword or something next time.” Liam said trying to sound reassuring. He wasn’t fooling anybody.

“That’s what the instructor said to be honest.” He paused, huffing. “She also said there’s a possibility that I just won’t be able to use armaments at all, she told me about someone who was in the same boat.”

“I highly doubt that’s the case at all, things like that are super rare. You just need to find the right weapon for you, I just know it.” Liam told him.

“Anyway, what was the real issue? I know that the thought of not being able to use an armament is quite concerning but you know its not set in stone, so why were you so depressed walking out of that lesson?” Carlos asked, getting straight to the point.

Wren looked at the two boys sat across from him and then looked down at his food, choosing to twirl a piece of pasta round and round his bowl.

“You can tell us.” Liam said. “Right Carlos?” He nudged the boy in the ribs with his elbow.

“R-right.” He spluttered, sending a mouthful of pasta right back into his bowl.

Wren raised his gaze from his food and searched the two boys faces, looking for any signs of dishonesty or mockery.

“It wasn’t just that I couldn’t use the armament. I don’t know how it went in your classes, but the final part of our lesson was when they let the armaments take over and let them teach them.” Wren told them.

“Yeah, same with me.” Liam said.

“And me.” Carlos agreed.

“Well I was sat on the side-lines watching them, I couldn’t really do much else, and they were all incredible. It’s like they’d been born holding those weapons, their bodies moved so fluidly, it was like I was watching a dance. And the entire time I was sat there I was just thinking that I can’t do that. Maybe I’ll never be able to do that. It just got to me a bit.”

Wren looked away, blushing. He was surprised he told them. He wasn’t going to originally, but as soon as the first few words left his lips, the rest just poured out. He felt good for saying it, like a weight lifted off his chest, but he would never tell them that. He was embarrassed enough.

“Anyway, enough about me, how were your lessons?”

~

Wren had decided to turn in early for the night. He’d gone straight to the dorms from the cafeteria, changed into his sleepwear and climbed into bed. He was eager to put the day behind him. Both Liam and Carlos had elected to stay on campus for a little while, hang out and see where the night took them. Wren knew that really they just wanted to give him some space and he was grateful, it was kind of difficult to ever be on your own in a place like this.

The only issue was, he couldn’t sleep.

His mind kept replaying the days events over and over in his brain. The one recurring image was when he’d failed to connect with the armament. That feeling of his energy hitting a wall. To tell the truth, it shocked him. He’d never felt anything like it, it was complete and utter rejection. And the funny thing was that it hadn’t come from a girl, or a friend or anything, it had come from an inanimate object.

It was humiliating in a way.

He chose to distract himself instead. If he couldn’t sleep and his mind kept playing painful images, then he needed something else to focus on.

He pulled up his system screen and opened the status tab.

[Status]

[Name: Wren Spectre]

[Race: Human Level 2]

[XP 20/200]

[HP 20/21]

[EP 20/21]

[Strength: 5]

[Speed: 14]

[Stamina: 7/7]

[Skill points: 1]

He’d levelled up and got a skill point thanks to his fight with Chadwick, but he hadn’t yet decided what to spend it on. He could put it into either strength, speed or stamina. He knew that each one would have its benefits but he was stumped. In comparison to all his other stats, strength was the most lacking, it would make sense to bring it up and level it out a little bit. On the other hand he was already naturally fast and he knew that if he placed the skill point into speed he would become even faster, he liked that idea a lot. Stamina was just useful in general, and was integral to a fight, he would consume stamina when using a combat move so the more he had, the longer he could fight for.

It was a tough choice.