Biohuman

Lee Seng moved over to sit in the middle of the sofa. He sighed in relief and looked around. The living space layout was rectangular. A huge TV screen was hung on the opposite end of the wall. The TV was playing some random Guild TV show. Evan scrunched himself in the corner of the L-shaped sofa, knees up and hands on his phone. He continued to scroll away after waving at Lee Seng.

Lee Seng pulled his phone out and noticed a new notification pop up. It was from the group chat.

Olivia: So I met my roommate leaving the room.

Olivia: Her name's Elizabeth Walt. She's a Glass. She gave me a bag of treats as a welcome present.

Ritsuka: Woah, that's nice.

Evan: You hit the jackpot on the roommate then!

Olivia: I guess. She seems nice. Anyways, I'm coming down!

Lee Seng: I'm in the room with Evan.

Lee Seng moved and took a selfie of him and Evan. Lee Seng smiled as Evan noticed and took a picture.

"Hey! You should've said you're taking a picture!" Evan shouted. Lee Seng laughed and sent the picture to the group chat.

"It's just for the group chat." Lee Seng smiled. The group chat continued to ping with emojis of laughing and hearts. Lee Seng slipped his phone back into his pocket and moved towards the TV. The TV depicted a cameraman following behind an Adventurer. They were in a thick forest. It was quiet and the Adventurer was moving slowly.

Lee Seng watched as the Adventurer came to a stop, putting his arm up to signal the cameraman to stop. He moved his hand towards his lips, lowering all of his fingers except his index and 'shushed' quietly. The Adventurer slowly looked around and settled on something off in the distance to the right. The cameraman moved to look at the right side and Lee Seng noticed something dark moving in the distance.

"What's that?" The cameraman quietly asked. The Adventurer signaled for the cameraman to be quiet. The dark thing started towards them.

"Dammit, it spotted us. Get ready!" The Adventurer shouted. The cameraman started to move backwards. He cleared distance between the Adventurer and him and turned back to show the Adventurer was fighting a bi-pedal creature. It had black fur and resembled a cat. The cat-like creature swung its claws at the Adventurer who dodged.

In a single dodge, the Adventurer pulled his huge sword off his back and sliced downwards. The cat-like creature jumped backwards, getting nicked by the huge sword. The sword pulsed and the Adventurer lifted the huge sword in the air. The cat-like creature screamed and charged at the Adventurer. The Adventurer dodged the first two attacks and blocked the third.

The Adventurer grunted and pushed the cat-like creature backwards and quickly ran his finger onto the side of the blade. The blade began to screech a loud sound. The cameraman yelped and covered his ears.

"Argh!" Lee Seng yelped. He immediately jumped backwards, covering his ears as the screeching noise continued. He winced in pain as he watched. The cat-like creature screamed and staggered backwards. The Adventurer moved forwards and slashed diagonally downwards. The cat-like creatures body stiffened for a moment and immediately split in half. The top-half of the cat-like creatures body slid off the bottom half, thumping onto the ground. The bottom half fell forward and the Adventurer quickly attached the huge sword onto his back.

"All clear!" The Adventurer yelled with a big motion. The cameraman removed his hands from his ears and slowly moved towards the dead cat-like creature and the Adventurer.

"Ah, what're you watching?" Ritsuka asked. Lee Seng turned, uncovering his ears and noticed Ritsuka had a huge bag of stuff and Olivia was besides him.

"Oh, some Guild show. The Adventurer killed this huge bi-pedal cat creature with a single screech of his blade and huge slash." Lee Seng pointed.

"Ahh, you're watching that episode." Ritsuka moved over to the coffee table and set the snacks down. "I guess they would be playing the re-runs right now. That episode has some more cool stuff if you continue watching. That cat creature turns out to be a form of lycanthropy. It's some weird lycanthropy mutation strand that creates were-cats. Agile creatures that have great dexterity."

"Oh, that's cool. I haven't seen a were-cat before." Lee Seng turned to look at the TV. The Adventurer was pointing out the different features and explaining what the creature was to the viewers.

"Yeah, lycanthropy is strange," Ritsuka said. "But come get your snacks." Ritsuka waved Lee Seng over. Evan scooted off of his spot and stood up to grab his snacks. Olivia placed some snacks on the table and grabbed her chips and moved to sit on the L-shaped couch. Lee Seng grabbed his chocolates and watched Ritsuka grab chocolate covered pretzels. The two found a spot on the couch and sat down.

Lee Seng opened his bag of chocolates and threw a chocolate into his mouth.

"So, how did your personal thing go?" Evan asked. Lee Seng turned to look at the three and shrugged.

"It went how I expected it to go." Lee Seng answered. He chewed on the chocolate and gushed as the chocolate melted in his mouth.

"Who'd you meet if you don't mind me asking?" Olivia asked. She dug into the bag of chips and stuffed a couple chips into her mouth.

"Number 1," Lee Seng said. The three stopped chewing on their snacks and looked at him in surprise. He shrugged and grabbed another chocolate.

"The President of the Academy called you over? For what?" Evan pried.

"Just stuff she needed to run by me from my dad." Lee Seng threw the chocolate into his mouth and started to chew. "Nothing big." Silence filled the room. Evan seemed stuck on the shock while Ritsuka and Olivia continued to eat their snacks. Lee Seng turned to look at the TV and noticed it was on commercial, so he turned back to look at his friends.

"You guys get your schedules, yet?" Lee Seng asked. "We should compare our schedules to see if we have any classes together."

"Oh, good idea!" Olivia chimed. She wiped her hands and fingers together, cleaning the crumbs and wiping her hands on her pants before pulling her phone out. Lee Seng licked his left hand fingers and wiped them on his pants before pulling his phone out. The four opened their phones and went to the Academy app. They all pulled their classes up and moved to look at each other's schedules.

"Holy crap, Lee Seng! You're taking all advanced general studies?!?" Olivia said loudly.

"Oh, you're taking advanced general studies, too?" Ritsuka turned to Lee Seng.

"Mmmhm, are you?" Lee Seng nodded.

"Yeah, let's see if we got any classes together."

The two moved their phones closer and compared.

"Wow, we have the same general study classes. I guess I'll be seeing you every day." Ritsuka said. Ritsuka lifted his hand for a high-five. Lee Seng high-fived as Evan moved back onto the couch.

"It looks like Olivia and I have like one class together and that's it." Evan said sadly. "You two get all your generals together, hmph."

"C'mon don't pout, Evan." Olivia sat next to him, patting his shoulder. "Some of us aren't meant to be as smart as these two. At least we all have lunch the same time, right?"

"Oh, you're right." Lee Seng pointed. "We all have lunch together, so that means can sit together at lunch."

"Mmm and it looks like our specialized training is at the end of the day too, so we can walk home together." Ritsuka added.

"It won't be the same! Curse my brain!" Evan shouted, knocking his head with his knuckles.

"We can still study together." Lee Seng pointed out. Evan stopped knocking his head and looked at Lee Seng and the others. Ritsuka and Olivia nodded.

"Yeah, we can study together. Those two could probably help us with our stuff, too!" Olivia added.

"Yeah, right. I don't want to become a tutor." Ritsuka denied.

"Oh, c'mon. It's not tutoring if we just need help once in awhile."

"Yeah, that's fine." Lee Seng shrugged, digging for another chocolate. "If you need help with your generals, let me know."

Evan and Olivia's eyes lit up and they both high-fived each other and happily continued eating. Lee Seng smiled as he glanced towards the hallway. Manny and Liz stared into the living space as they passed. Manny stopped at the door, locking eyes with Lee Seng.

"Hello." Manny waved. Olivia turned and seemingly got pulled into his charm.

"Oh, hi." The three waved.

"Are you guys the new transfer students?"

"Yeah, we are." Olivia blurted out. "Who are you?" She glanced and recognized Liz. "Oh, my roommate! Hello, again. Thanks for the snacks!"

"Yeah, no problem." Liz smiled.

"Ahh, she's your roommate?" Manny asked. Liz nodded. "My name's Manny Valentin. I'm Lee Seng's roommate." He pointed. The three turned to look at Lee Seng who stuffed two chocolates into his mouth and nodded at them.

"Yeah, he's the one." Lee Seng pointed. Manny and Liz stepped into the living space. Lee Seng snapped his fingers and waved a finger at Manny.

"What?" Manny asked.

"I gotta talk to you about something in private later." Lee Seng spoke.

"About what? You can't tell me now?"

"That's why I said in 'private.' I'll talk to you later in the room."

"Okay, suit yourself. You know me, I'm okay with whatever."