The instructor did not wait.
I followed him away from the fountain, leaving Lisa Vulkan and the staring first-years behind. Akari fell into step a pace behind me, quiet enough that most people would forget she was there if they weren't paying attention.
Class S.
I had expected 1-A. The board from orientation had even made that feel settled. Apparently, my scores had rewritten the placement before the first proper day could even begin.
The instructor stopped before a reinforced door marked with a silver crest.
"Class S is not a standard first-year division," he said. "You were placed here because your entrance results exceeded the ordinary ranking brackets. Do not mistake that for comfort. Should you slack off in any way, we will not hesitate to kick you out."
Have I offended him or something?
He opened the door.
The room inside was smaller than the main lecture halls. There weren't individual seats, but rather three steep tiers of continuous wooden benches that curved gently toward the front of the room.
Only a handful of people were already there.
Nova Proteus sat near the window, his posture perfect, golden eyes half-lidded as if he were bored. Despite the resemblance, I could tell he wasn't Onyx. Onyx had a similar appearance, but he looked a bit older than Nova. Besides, Nova had medium-length platinum hair compared to Onyx's long white hair.
That reminds me, where is Onyx? It's safe to assume he's at the academy, but what class did he end up in?
I decided I would go looking for him later... or maybe I wouldn't. The more we stayed away from each other, the better. I wasn't ready to face a monster like him.
There were four others in the class.
A tall elf with white braids and a research badge, a broad-shouldered boy with burn-scarred gloves and blonde hair, and finally, a girl with deep-blue hair and a calm, measuring stare.
There was one empty seat left in the back row. It almost seemed to call out to me.
"Noir Drake," the instructor said. "Sit."
See what I mean?
I took the back seat. Akari remained by the wall with the attendants permitted to elite students.
Only then did Nova look over at me. His eyes seemed as disinterested as before, but now he had a slight smirk on his face.
"So you're the one who nearly reached me by one point. You're much... smaller than I imagined."
I heard a voice call out to me directly in my mind.
"I didn't expect an individual such as yourself to have the ability to use Telepathy."
"This is a one-way channel. There's no need for the formal act."
"In that case, I'll oblige. So, what do you want? I'm assuming you wouldn't just use Telepathy for no reason, right?"
"Nope. I simply wanted to speak to you. You're much more delicate than I thought you would be. Are you truly Noir Drake?"
"Of course. Who else would I be?"
"I see. Well then, Noir, I hope we get the chance to fight. I want to see your strength with my own eyes."
"Alright. It's a promise, then."
"Yes, a promise."
The conversation itself only took a single second in the real world. It seems Nova had a Mind Acceleration skill of his own, and he could share its effect with others. Something not even I could do.
Well, it's more like I've never tried, but that's beside the point.
Nova looked at me one more time, then turned to look out the window. That was his signal that we were done with our discussion
.
I turned my attention back to the instructor.
"Class S will operate under separate evaluation. Higher archive access potential. Higher mission priority. Higher scrutiny. If you fall behind, you will be removed and replaced."
No one spoke.
"Your first joint assessment is in three days," he continued. "Until then, you will complete individual control trials and submit archive request forms. Class S students may apply for second-tier Grand Archive access immediately."
That got my attention.
It might not have been as deep as I wanted to go, but it was definitely a start. I already knew what I wanted to request.
Information about spirits, specifically how to enter the realm they reside in.
Speaking of spirits, maybe it was my imagination, but I thought I saw a few Greater Spirits when I was heading to the classroom. Despite the Ether they possessed, they looked so human that I didn't bat an eye.
Next time I see one, maybe I should interrogate it.
For the rest of the period, the instructor began going through the history of magic. He said this was to make sure we didn't forget how we attained this 'great power'. I don't speak for everyone, but it wasn't exactly interesting.
I had information about the internet, so I decided to dabble in something to pass the time.
People back on planet Earth had all kinds of technology. I'm surprised I never heard of Earth before, back when I was a god. But nowadays, there's a lot I don't know.
Anyway, humans back on Earth had sonars, which allowed them to detect things using sound. Fishermen used them for, well, fishing. Using a transducer, they released a sound wave into the water. The sound wave would travel through the water, and once it hit an object, it would bounce off and send an echo back to the transducer.
The transducer could then calculate how far away the object was.
I planned to use that concept, but in a more practical way.
I closed my eyes and focused on my mana. I used Perfect Control to release a thin pulse of mana around the classroom. By focusing on my mana, I was able to get an almost omniscient view of the classroom. Through the pulse, I was also able to form a mental image of the people in the class.
Although, the images appeared as energy signatures, making them messy and rough.
I'm guessing the energy signatures were their mana.
To get better data, I released another pulse and increased the density of my mana. This time, it was much clearer than before. But there was still one major problem.
I could only see those mental images for a moment before they disappeared. The same went for my view of the classroom. If I wanted to keep seeing those images, I had to keep sending out those pulses.
So, that was a failure.
Well, not a complete failure. In the future, I could probably use this to sense nearby enemies, so I guess it wasn't a total bust.
Well, the magic way didn't work, so I decided to try making an actual sonar using sound.
I enhanced my hearing with my mana, but that turned out to be a bad move. I could suddenly hear the sound of footsteps from outside, birds chirping in the distance, and the sound of the instructor teaching.
It was sensory overload.
To fix this, I had Khaos focus on specific sounds, like heartbeats, blood-flow pressure, breathing, and everything else I needed. Everything else was blocked out.
The easy part was done. Now came the hard part. I now had to convert the auditory data into visual processing.
But—
Leave that to me.
My eyes were closed, so up to this moment in this part of the experiment, I couldn't see anything.
Then—
I suddenly began to see things. Specifically the people. They appeared as glowing silhouettes. In the left side of their body was a glowing core that pulsed. Connected to that core were lines stretching outwards through the body.
I'm guessing the core was their heart and those lines are their veins.
Nova was a bright gold. The elf, a light teal that kept flickering. The broad-shouldered one was an orange-red. The blue-haired girl was a dark and ominous azure.
All of this from sound alone huh? Amazing.
I wanted to test the limits, so I began to expand my range. I was limiting myself to the people within 15 meters of me, but now I expanded through the entire classroom.
I was able to see Akari who was at the back of the classroom, with the other maids. She was a dark violet.
I noticed that the silhouettes weren't as bright as before. So, to fix that I shrank my range and the silhouettes grew brighter.
You have created the skill World Symphony.
World Symphony huh? Cool. But why are you telling me this?
It's been registered as one of your Skills. Now you can activate it without going through this process.
That still doesn't—
"That will be all for today. Submit your archive request forms before sundown. Class S is dismissed."
The instructor gathered his papers, gave our class one last stern look, and exited through the heavy silver-crested door.
The moment he left, the tension in the room loosened slightly. Nova was the first to stand, dusting off his uniform without making a sound before walking past me toward the exit.
He didn't say another word, but the faint smirk remained on his face.
I deactivated World Symphony, letting the glowing silhouettes fade as my normal senses returned. I stood up, and signaled to Akari waiting near the back wall.
"Let's go," I said softly.
She gave a nod and silently followed me.
Is it just me, or has Akari been a bit gloomy lately?
I don't know.
When she was pretending to be a maid, she had a neutral face, but lately, that mask she wore had let out a small, quiet, lingering sorrow.
I gotta talk to her later.
I walked up to the instructor's desk and pulled out an archive request form. I scribbled down: Second-Tier Access — Spirit Realm Gateways & Greater Spirits.
With the joint assessment only three days away and the Grand Archives opening its doors to us, things were moving faster than expected. I dropped the slip into the box and turned toward the exit.