Elias pov
Once again, I'm attempting it, and I'll get it this time.
I hold a basic pencil on the tip of my finger, carefully balancing it on my hand, and my hand shakes slightly from my own nerves. I need to show some actual progress. I'm one of the few people in the entire Academy with a spirit. I can't be a burden to my family any longer. I have my golden finger, I just need to use it.
The unique rock Pale told me to collect, the liquid inside glows faintly, the essence of time slowly seeping out. It's almost empty.
A cool sensation overcomes my body, my mana flows from my mana heart and into my surroundings, it twists in curlicues as I slowly change it to time mana.
The rock makes it easier to convert after a minute, my mana fully turns into an ethereal mana circle resembling a clock.
As soon as it appears fully formed, it slams into my eyes, causing them to itch slightly.
I flip the pencil off my finger, and my vision splits.
I see a pencil hit the table and fall to the floor, another one going too high, sticking into the roof. The itching gets worse.
The sound of the pencil hitting the floor hits my ears, my eyes bolt to the floor. There is no pencil on the floor. Beep, beep, beep. My focus breaks.
Prediction failed, mana conversion improved by 1 second, time delay route of failure.
The pencil that never left my hand, finally falls as I rub my eyes, the itch sensation isn't going away.
Need more practice, time mana to affect proper use.
Beep, beep beep.
My phone alarm goes off.
Sorry, Pale, I need to head to the academy. I'll probably get some more practice in over there, though. Thank you for all the help so far.
Pale, I know you can't really answer properly to my question, but will I be ok at the academy? I know I'm not strong, and from what you showed me briefly, I need to be strong to survive what happens. Will I really be able to help, or will I still be a burden?
Can't say, depends on you, future not certain, can be changed.
O-Ok, if you say so, I'll do my best, and again, thank you for putting your trust into someone like me. I won't let you down.
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Lucien Dusk pov
"You remember what your task is?"
"Yes, grand master, I do. I've read the Academy's list of students, and I have picked a few interesting people I thought would be a great asset to us."
I hand my report to the grand master.
A few seconds pass as the grand master scans through my report.
"Mmm, interesting, you have some good edits here, make sure they don't become corrupted and become false heroes."
"I'll do as the frozen mother teaches."
"Good, now it's time for you to go out and truly become Lucien Dusk."
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Scotts pov
I stand in front of a giant gate, and it's slightly nerve-racking as sweat sticks to my hands. Considering how big this place is, it reminds me of the giant castle when I first interacted with Sapphire, but it is fully intact and lived in.
I would have walked in already, but I feel a crushing weight on my left leg. Thankfully, this isn't from nerves, it might be worse, a clingy younger sister.
"Don't go, it's too early for you to leave!" She is bawling her eyes out on my leg.
"Come on, your brother needs to get to class on time."
"But-"
"No buts, come here."
My sister reluctantly lets go, making sure she looks as sad as possible, walking back.
"Love you son, see you soon."
"Y- Ye love you lot too, safe journey home." I wave back at my family.
So, this is Black Dragon Academy... I know a black dragon, you know.
What!
Ye, she was h- great to hang out with, loved sparing her, sad they don't exist anymore.
What is this random lore dump, Sapphire?!
I felt like sharing, I don't need to if you find it annoying though, oh, and Dragon no longer exists here- uh, never mind, you don't need to know, it will only confuse or distract you from learning, maybe after, just know it happened, and they could come back through dungeons, but can't naturally exist here anymore.
How am I meant to react to this information, Sapphire!
And why would I tell you how to react? That doesn't make sense.
You know what I mean s-
Thud
Getting distracted by Sapphire's nonsense, I didn't realise there was a person in front of me, which I promptly walked right into.
"Sorry, I was distracted, my bad."
I walked into a giant of a guy, he was wearing the academy uniform, it was a black tailored blazer with a red and gold lion that had a deep red stripe going down his shoulder.
"No worries, man... oh, are you new?"
"Ye? Why?"
"Oh, um, here you go, take this, you might find it useful." Why isn't he looking me in the eyes?
He hands me some sort of leaflet.
"Open it after you have finished your classes ok."
"Sure, will do," I say slightly slower than normal.
The guy then darts away in a hurry.
That was strange.
Ye... I'm going to go and find out where the hall is now.
I stuffed the leaflet into my pocket and carried on walking around.
I wandered around this castle of a school for around 10 minutes before I decided to ask for directions. A nice teacher showed me the correct way. I'm not too good with directions, apparently, I was somehow in the wrong building entirely, Opps.
----
"Ahh man, I should have got here sooner, the place is packed."
I entered the hall, which was extremely fancy, not what I expected. It had a giant chandelier in the centre of the room, something I didn't know, however, was that the chandelier was filled with mana stones where lightbulbs should be, filling the room with a large amount of mana.
All the chairs were fancy, not the normal cheap plastic garden chairs or those wooden stalls with those annoyingly placed white balls on top right where you needed to sit. No, these were cinema-like chairs with amazingly soft cushions, you could just melt into them.
A grand stage filled a chunk of the room, a microphone in the centre, giant curtains at the sides, and what seems to be a piano to the left of it.
If the room wasn't filled with people, this hall would most likely smell of well-maintained wood, but instead, it just has a horrid smell of people.
And with all these people came noise, they were chatting away, their voices overlapped one another, becoming an unbearable mass of noise.
This room was unbearable, so I turned around to leave.
rattle
rattle
Why isn't the door opening? I just came through it.
rattle
rattle
This can't be happening, right?
I quickly look around, hoping I'm not the only one attempting this.
Searching around the hall, to the left and right, I can see some other students attempting the same thing as me, but no one seems to be batting an eye at them, just like me, they're being ignored.
Around 10 more students come through the doors, before a verbal click is heard.
A lot more students start looking around now, the panic from them is almost palpable.
Before anything else can happen however, the light from the chandelier brightens ever so slightly, it seems no one else notices this except me however.
All sound ceases.
I swear I can hear my blood flowing through my body.
"Hellooo students! I hope the sudden silence didn't spook you too much, but it's a precaution I decided to take as you lot can get a bit loud."
The microphone on stage booms throughout the halls, the vibrations bouncing off the walls.
The echo is horrible as it rattles my brain, I do my best to shield my ears with my hands.
A man who seems to be in their late 40s appears on stage, he wears a pure white tuxedo, with grey combed hair.
"Oops, my bad it appears I have it way too loud, hope this is better. Now I am the head master of black Dragon Academy, I am here to give an amazing and rousing speech to you all."
…
"It appears I have misplaced the script… um, guess I'm winging it then."
Some of the teachers within the room shake their heads, it appears this might be a common thing that occurs.
"This academy is for training all kinds of heroes, fighters, mages, scientists, explorers, and so much more, we will make sure the next generation will be just as grand and favoured as the last."
"To do this we will-"
The head teacher starts to blab about random things like how the school was made, why it was made and some random teachers.
After 10 minutes
"So I don't bore you any longer your phones will be buzzing in a few seconds, these will be all the classes you can take and how to get to said classes while attending this Academy, don't be too hasty in what you pick."
"Oh and anyone from a non-hero family, you will have mandatory 101 classes to get you atleast fought up on what the basic."
"That sho- mm oh right thank you, something I forgot to mention, this is for everyone, but for anyone who lives on campus it's extremely important. You will be provided a unique currency that will allow you to buy things from the Acadamy it self."
"This will include training equipment/rooms, food, additional training time, and many other things."
"You will be provided x amount of this currency a month, the amount provided will change depending on how well you are doing educationally, your combat prowess, and what rank you are within your class year."
"You can gain additional currency by doing missions the Academy provides, if a teacher provides you with extra ones, or my favoured way, betting on spar matches between one another, to make this last bit fair, this method only applies to combat-focused students/ones aiming to be heroes, if they are not this is not allowed."
"That should be everything, so hop along to your classes and all that good stuff, good luck."
A puff of smoke engulfed the headmaster, and soon disappeared, the head master is no longer in sight.
He seemed a bit eccentric don't you think Scott?
Ye a bit.
Before I can finish my conversation with Sapphire my phone vibrated, checking it quickly I see I have a map of the school, which tells me where my 101 classes are and when they start.
My first class seems to be called the basics 101.
——-
"Hello New Year's, I'm Ashley I'm your tempt teacher, I will be teaching you the very basics of aura and magic."
"Just so you all know, there will be a test at the end of the Lessing if you pass this test you will be able to go to any of the classes you want to, otherwise you will need to retake this class until you pass."
"As I am an aura user I will be talking about aura first… actually not fully I just remembered, so the first thing you need to know is you need to make sure you focus on either aura or magic first."
"The reason for this is becuase if the balance between your aura and magic is to close the two type of energy will start clashing within your body, this at the most extreme cases will kill you, or mutate you into a momster, at its early stages you will have harder time using you own Abilitys, headaches and other similar symptoms, so make sure one dominates the other. At this Academy, we teach students to go for either a fully 100% into one or roughly an 80- 20 split of these two powers."
"Any questions before I continue?"
"You with the silver hair."
"W-what's the difference between aura and magic?l
"Aura is internal energy anyone can unlock, while magic/mana is external energy you bring into yourself, which needs to be turned into the current type of mana for the school of magic you are in to use said school of magic."
"How do you gain Aura and magic?"
"There are two methods of gaining aura, the proper way and the desperate way, the proper way is you do intense training and eventually you will unlock aura, the desperate way is you find a strong being who can use aura and they fully unlock it for you.
"The reason why I call this the desperate way is that it is only used in desperate situations like a civilian somehow getting inside a dungeon and they need their aura unlocked as a quick defence against miasma corruption."
"What is miasma corruption?" I ask.
"Miasma corruption happens when the miasma in the air within dungeons can affect your aura, mana, or body. Changing it into miasma, which in turn will eventually turn you into a mindless monster."
"Mana or aura will protect you from miasma corruption, as it also allows you to slowly filter out any corruption you might have accumulated, but if the miasma is stronger than the amount of mana or aura you have, it won't be able to protect you."
A couple more questions and answers happen before information about mana and magic comes up.
"So to get back to the original question, I will now talk about mana. Mana is a type of energy that is within the air, you will need to learn how to sense it before you can absorb and store it within your body, to learn that, you will be taught a type of meditation that allows you to sense and store it, you will learn more details in the proper class."
"Now, time for the quiz."
Question 1 out of these 4 statements is true.
You know you should start a quiz at the back first right, the easy questions are in the front, I'd do them last as they take the least brain juice to answer.
Oh, that makes sense… why brain juice Sapphire, why call it that?
I wanna.
Question 20
Select the most correct statement.
A. There are no absolute rules in all forms of combat.
B. Stronger combatants usually defeat weaker combatants.
C. Combat outcomes can often be predicted through rank evaluation.
D. All previous statements contain truth depending on context.
Ummm, with one do you think Sapphire A sounds right?
Why are you asking me, I ain't your cheat sheet, I'll help you get stronger not cheat and learn nothing.
Oh, I guess that makes sense… but come on 1 answer, can you help me with one?
Mmmm, what's in it for me?
Never mind, I'll do it myself.
Good, I'm going to listen to music in the meantime, good luck.
Mmm ye I'll stick with-
I'm a bitch, I'm a lover
I'm a child, I'm a mother
I'm a sinner, I'm a saint
Sapphire, I can hear it.
Oh oops, my bad is it distracting?
YES
Good
I'm joking, I'll make it so you can't hear it.
Thank you.
I go with answer A and move on to the next question.
Question 19
A Rank 18 hunter and a Rank 19 opponent engage in combat. Which conclusion is most accurate?
A. The Rank 19 individual automatically wins.
B. The Rank 18 individual cannot damage the Rank 19 opponent.
C. The outcome depends on factors beyond rank alone.
D. Rank differences only measure physical strength.
If this were a video game I would have said A, but it's real life, and there is a bunch of stuff that can happen to change the outcome, so A can't be right, B doesn't make sense the rank difference isn't that high for that to occur, well to me anyway… let's do C.
Question 18
Out of these statements, which one is true?
A. Aura and magic are identical energies used differently.
B. All races can naturally communicate with spirits.
C. Using both Aura and Magic equally is considered dangerous.
D. All magic beats can become companions.
Mmm, I tap the pencil on my cheek.
A doesn't sound right, B might be right, D I don't think so… C seems right though as well… let's go C again.
————-
Just as the quiz ends
By the way Scott you got question 20 wrong and a couple of others, though you like to know.
What! Really now you tell me, I swear I can feel your smile… and can you tell me why I was wrong?
Yeee, I'm not the best at hiding it. And the reason is, all the statements were partly true so D was the actualanswer, but you could also be right with A but they are most likely looking for the D answer.
Really, that's such an annoying question.
"You will receive your answers in 20 minutes, you may leave for now."
I head out of the classroom and look for a nice spot to sit down, finding a bench outside to sit on.
A sigh escapes my lips, "Man, why does there have to be a test in the first lesson, that's just horrible."
What do you expect from an almost military-like school, where they actively tell you to fight one another for money.
"Ye, you're not wrong."
Of course I'm right it's me, want to talk about anything before you get your results, or do you want to listen to music?
Ohh um music, I'd like to actually relax for a bit.
Mmm, I don't know if this really works… but I always wanted to sing this to someone, is it cool with you?
I don't see why not sure.
Sapphire clears he though quickly.
{Sapphire asked for permission to use illusion magic on you.}
{y/n}
I mentally press the Y.
My environment changes suddenly, from the outside of the Academy, on a bench, now I sit on a rock, I smell salt in the air, and sand sticks to my shoes.
Sapphire stands by a beach, her hands lightly holding an acoustic guitar.
She is wearing baggy clothing that hangs off her, a white top with a slight V cut out at the bottom, which should show her stomach slightly, instead however there are bandages hiding her skin. She wears blue baggy trousers and sandals. These bandages also appear to cover both her arms and hands completely, why, I wonder what it hides?
Her fingers dance against the fretboard, coaxing a warm soothing riff to fill this empty beach.
Saw it by the water
Doin' all the things for the better
Sapphire sways back and forth in tune with the strings, the woody sound of the guitar adding an almost sombre undertone.
My head and foot match the tune of the music, and some figures appear around Sapphire, doing different actions, one small, a child, playing with a stick, like a sword.
Only to shift and change into another one a teenager in size, was waving for them to follow them.
The warm feeling intensifies as the songs slowly escalate in speed, ever so slightly.
And you'll look and tell me, "Baby
You remember what I said?"
I know who you are
You'll be fine
I know who you are
Looking at Sapphire, the words struggle slightly, not wanting to come out. Her voice is still soft however, it comes out as soulful and almost in a manner of someone wanting something but isn't confident in actually saying it.
The sky shifts slightly, but goes back to normal just as quickly.
The music continues and so do the lyrics, some get louder and some quieter, along with some, Sapphire struggles to speak, as unseen memories overwhelm her.
The tone changes to a sombre one, one lingering for something. Her guitar cracks slightly, and the meadow darkens, I go to speak, but she seems not to notice my expression, and she quickly changes the tune back, the beach brightens once more, but her gutaur, it's still cracked.
Soon the song came to an end.
I just wanna say I love you
One more time
I love you…goodbye
T, this was a lot more intense than I was expecting… I look at the guitar, it's still cracked… I dart my eyes back to her, her eyes. They are shouting not to ask.
(If you want to listen to the song it's called At the Beach, in Every Life.)
What do I say, do I say anything, this was hard for her, but what do I do? I wish I had more experience with this style of situation.
…
Sapphire, that was a nice song, wa-who, who was it for?
I was debating whether to sing it to my brother or the whole family. Her face drops slightly, before recovering quickly.
Why did you share it with me?
I… well you are the only person who can hear it now…Anyway, here are a couple of other songs.
Sapphire changes into song before I can ask more questions, so I guess she doesn't want to talk about it right now. I should thank her for sharing the song.
After a couple more songs.
Buzz buzz
Oh, the results are in.
I open my phone and look at my results.
15/20 right now- pass
Pass requirements 14/20
Fuck, just about passed, geez.
You need to study more.
{system repeatable mission, in your spare time read a book and gain more knowledge about this world and its powers.}
{on completion 5 coins}
Oh, nice a repeatable mission let's go, free coins.
You could help yourself know.
I am, you got your repeatable mission, now you should probably look at what classes you can get into.
I take a brief look at the classes, but it seems I do have a mandatory one, that being Spirit Beast training.
Right ye the Buru person mentioned something about that, it's in 2 hours… let's see what that pamphlet was about.
I reach into my pocket and take out the slightly crumpled pamphlet and open it.
A blinding light takes over my vision, and I reflexively cover my eyes with my arm to hopefully protect them.
Ohh, a teleportation circle, sneaky… adventure awaits.
I can feel Sapphire doing some sort of daft pose.
"Man why can't I just have a nice rest, it was so nice under this tree on this bench.
*****************
Word count 3811
Hello everyone, I hope your day has gone well and everything is going fine, I hope this chapter is ok, I know it might be a bit dense with info, I hope that's not too bad and that the music bit at the end was good, I hope I got it across well.
I plan on attempting to get the release schedule to be every Sunday morning :/.
I hope everyone enjoys this chapter and I hope you all share your thoughts, anyway, have a lovely day/night and I'll see you all next chapter :D.