Chapter 283 Volume V - Chapter 1: Toward the End of First Year
The sun's rays were brighter and hotter than ever with the coming summer. The blue sky was cloudless, taking away the shadows where people could cool off in the already too-high temperatures. At least that was the case a few hours ago... before I entered the building I was in.
I was standing in my training room with my eyes closed, my spear firmly in my hand. I didn't move a muscle in any way. I just... waited.
Finally, when I felt a movement in the area to my left, my hands moved spontaneously.
I raised the hand that was holding my spear and used my other hand to support it.
~ting!
The sound of metal hitting metal echoed in my ears, I successfully blocked the attack and focused on my opponent's next move while taking a quick but deep breath in and out.
Instead of retreating after the attack I blocked, she was circling around, preparing for a second attack.
The sounds, the wind, the smell, the movement of light that I could faintly make out through my closed eyes... everything was entering my mind, synchronizing with my mana, and spreading through my body as the next attack appeared in my mind.
With my eyes closed, I raised my spear again, this time aiming the shaft toward my left side. I didn't try to block the attack but rather pushed the shaft of my spear forward with all the sensations and instincts coursing through my body.
My opponent hesitated, even if only momentarily, I felt the pressure of the wind on my face and an intense silence filled the space.
"Oh?"
The voice of a middle-aged woman broke the silence. Then I slowly opened my eyes.
Immediately to my left, just a few centimeters in front of my cheek, stood the metal tip of a spear. The two slender hands holding this spear belonged to a woman. Her dark green hair was pulled back in a ponytail and her brown eyes were full of surprise. She was a beautiful woman, but the wrinkles that had begun to appear on her face showed that she was getting older. She was wearing ordinary grey training clothes.
"I didn't expect this..."
She took her brown eyes off me, slowly focusing on the shaft of my spear, which was only a few millimeters in front of her forehead.
Just like before, she had expected me to block her attack. Not a counterattack like this.
"Have you already mastered the third movement, Adrian...?"
She stepped back, away from the shaft of my spear, and looked at me with eyes full of surprise.
"Didn't you say it's only been two months since you mastered the second movement? You used to have a rate of development that terrified people, but this makes no sense whatsoever!"
My history professor, who was also my spear instructor, looked at me with eyes full of real awe. But I could also see the pride and excitement behind that awe.
I stepped back, a little afraid of her reaction.
"Thank you?"
The professor realized her overreaction. She stepped back in the same way, coughed slightly, and straightened her posture.
"I... might have been a little too surprised. Anyway, let's forget about it."
She nodded her head up and down in agreement, and then a smile appeared on her face. She pressed her spear lightly against the ground, leaning against it.
"You know today is the last day, right?"
I paused for a moment, then it suddenly dawned on me.
Right... I had forgotten.
The academy is going on summer vacation for about two and a half months. And tomorrow... is the last day of classes. And they are going to have an end-of-year ceremony...
"You can continue to train in the room if you want. Contact me if you want, and if I'm available that day, I'll be happy to help you again."
The Professor released her spear into the air. But before it hit the ground, the spear was enveloped in a blue light, turned to dust, disappeared, and entered the professor's dimensional inventory.
"Rest for now. You'll have to do a lot of standing at tomorrow's ceremony as the top-ranked student among the first years. Oh, also... you've made your specialty selections, right?"
Specialty selections...
The first year of the academy was, according to most of the students, no different from high school even if it has a few sides of its own.
I didn't go to high school, so I didn't know what it was like. But almost all the students said that the academy really started in the second year. Because students in the second, third, and fourth years were no longer restricted from interacting with first years. In addition, special courses were now available based on the specializations chosen and the person was moving directly into a university-style education rather than a high school-like education.
There were many choices among the specializations. As far as I remember, there were theoretical specializations such as Runic Research, Mana Theories, and Dungeon Studies, as well as specializations such as Guarding, Hunting, and Military, which emphasized more on individual power. Of course, these also have their own sub-specialties...
From these and more, one to three could be selected as main specializations.
"Yes, I did. I plan to concentrate on Hunting and Military."
The professor nodded in agreement and stretched slightly, a smile appearing on her face.
"Good, you have made the best choices for yourself."
With that, she turned and headed toward the exit of the training room.
"Goodbye then!"
"Goodbye..."
I was alone in the room within seconds. An intense silence enveloped me for a moment, my eyes squinted.
I raised my hands, opened and closed my palms, and then clenched my fists.
I've grown stronger. That hellish training Lithoa put me through has been more effective than I thought. Among my peers... I'm not sure if there's anyone who can compete with me, or even if several of them could beat me if they jumped on me at the same time.
And yet, why is it always like this? Every time I think I'm getting even stronger than necessary... I actually feel like I'm falling behind.
During the preliminaries, during the accident at the academy, among the A and S ranked creatures in Neutral, and now when I think about what Aiden has accomplished and what I need to do to heal him... I feel like I'm not as strong as I should be.
"Haaa..."
Finally, I took a deep breath, wiped my sweat with my towel, splashed cold water on my face, put on my everyday clothes, and left the training building.
The moment I stepped outside the training building, I felt countless eyes on me. They were much more intense than before, but it had been a long time since I was used to it. So, I continued on my way without changing my facial expression, without focusing on them even a little.
The intense stares continued until I finally stepped into my room, but once inside I could breathe freely. The first thing I did... was to let myself fall into the armchair and stare at the white wall.
The ceremony... After that, the first year of the academy will be over and I'll have about two months to do whatever I want. And in that time, I need to get what I need to help Aiden recover.
"Lithoa... you're sure what you're talking about will work, right?"
'Of course it will, brat! Do you think I'd keep something in my storage that I know won't work?'
I raised my left arm, focusing on the bracelet I was using as my dimensional inventory item. Soon a blue glow appeared in front of me, and an object appeared out of nothing in front of me.
This object was a disc the size of my palm. It was as thick as a book of several hundred pages, yellowish brown in color, and covered with many motifs. Aside from that, one of the most distinctive features of the disc was a great hole in the center.
I snatched the disc from the air and examined it again and again.
About half of the motifs on it were glowing, but the other half was so faint, let alone glowing, that I could barely tell that there was a motif there.
"I still can't use it yet... Are you sure I'll be able to make it work in a month?"
'Trust me and keep transferring mana to that thing. As it continues to charge on its own, and you keep pouring mana into it, you will soon be able to activate it. So just do what you have to do.'
With a deep sigh, I looked at the disc again. I began to do what I had been doing every evening for the last week, ever since Aiden's experiences had hit the news.
I slowly pushed my mana into the hole in the center of the disc, guiding it along the barely visible motifs, while the disc suddenly began to absorb the mana hovering over it.
The glow of the shimmering motifs slowly began to seep into the faint ones, so slowly that it was barely noticeable, almost invisible to the eye. However, the disc's mana absorption was so high that I was only able to keep it going for a minute or two, after which my mana reserves slowly bottomed out and I inevitably stopped transferring mana to the disc.
The number of shimmering motifs had indeed increased, but they didn't seem to be any different from before. The change was that insignificant.
I clicked my tongue, placed the disc back into my bracelet, and closed my eyes, not even bothering to get up from the couch with my depleted mana reserves. As I slowly surrendered myself to sleep, I repeated to myself what I repeated every day.
I will do it.
I'll do it before the end of the summer, no matter how long it takes.
When we start our second year at the Academy... Aiden will be awake with us.
*(A/N: My first year at university is about to begin, unlike Adrian... So I'm going to be a lot busier than I used to be. I've been publishing two chapters a day for about two months now, but with classes and other things going on, I probably won't have much time to write anymore. So I've decided to reduce the number of chapters per day to one like I used to back then.
Of course, since writing is my hobby, it has become a habit for me. So there will probably be days when I write several chapters a day. When that happens, I will post two chapters a day. If I'm not as busy as I think I am, maybe I won't even need to do one chapter a day and continue to publish two chapters. The number of chapters per week will probably range between 7 and 14. I'm sorry, but unfortunately, this is the situation. As for the chapter schedule... it will most probably stay the same. You can expect a new chapter every day at 00.00 for UTC+8.
Also, I will add this note after publishing the chapter. So the chapter price will not increase, don't worry.)*
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