"Regular old school?" Ace noted with a raised, "You just learn basic stuff like math, science, literature, and history. We also had Athletics too, but there was no magic or potions. So, classes today was a lot like that. A little more subdued than I expected... Not having magic have not been a problem at all."
"I see..." Lotus nodded in understanding.
Ace looked down as he said, "What about you, Grim? Hm?"
Seeing Ace's frozen expression, Yuu paused in his steps and muttered with a nervous frown, "Grim? Huh?"
He looked back nervously only to find the cat missing. A foreboding feeling weighed down on the three as Lotus heard Yuu muttered nervously and rushed to the window of the interior halls, "I got a bad feeling..."
Deuce accompanied him before calling out to the two of them, "Look out the window! The furball is making a beeline through the courtyard!"
Sure enough, they could see a black and white cat with a trident spike tail cry out how he wanted something more exciting for class and how it was so boring just sitting. As he went on, Lotus smirked, "So... Skipping class on the first day, is it?"
"Headmaster is gonna be pissed..." Yuu moaned in agony.
"Making a break for it already." Deuce shook his head with a shrug, "He never learns..."
Ace sputtered a laugh as he he turned Yuu, "Pft. Your first day as a Supervisor and you already have to report you lost track of him. So, you do want help catching Grim?"
"Yes, please!" Yuu answered desperately.
Ace gave a thumbs up and ran through the hall as he shouted, "Buy me a chocolate croissant!"
"Then, I'll help you for an ice latte from the cafeteria." Deuce responded with a wide smirk.
Yuu grumbled hesitantly knowing he was living on money he receives from the headmaster for his lunch per week.
"You better watch out." Ace pointed out with a sneer, "Grim's getting away! You want that?"
Lotus shook her head with a sigh and patted his dorm leader's shoulder, "I'll help make some snacks at night while you study. At the same time, Grim won't be getting his canned tuna for two days and that can pile up if he keeps making trouble."
"Thanks..." Yuu nodded to the two with a sigh, "It's a deal."
"It's a deal!" Ace smirked and glanced over to Deuce, "Now then, Deuce, shall we clean up after our pathetic, little supervisor and classmate?"
"Sure thing, Ace." Deuce sneered as well, "I'm looking forward to lunch."
As they ran off, Yuu sighed before following after them, but Lotus stopped him and said, "I'll meet you in the next class for literature. I have something of importance to do first. You go with Deuce and Ace. Also, let Grim know that, if he doesn't come back, I'm stacking his days without cans of tuna by two days."
Yuu looked like he was ready to complain, but he bit back and sighed in defeat, "You'll just disappear if I say no, right? Fine. But, make sure you get there. Otherwise, we'll have to wait till dinner, if you miss lunch and the class together."
"I got it." Lotus smiled before leaving.
She then left the halls for the dorms where she had already cleaned out another room prior for her own uses. She then took out a pill from the ring and swallowed it feeling the effect of her heavy body growing lighter. She took a deep breath before calling out Ying Hui, "Do you feel that energy too?"
Ying Hui nodded, "Those bad guys must've called upon some kind of beast into this world. But, master, are you sure you don't want to return to our world?"
"Even if I could find a way, I just might end up in an unfavorable place." Lotus responded, "More importantly, it must've been difficult to find a way to get here. Those people have only been sending cultivators who are Nascent Soul and higher. At this rate, I don't know how the Dark Mirror will be able to protect everyone if they keep sending more. I need a way to seal their movements and subdue that beast and them."
"Then, what about learning about arrays made by your own space?" Ying Hui called out, "You've only learned about spatial arrays from books. You could give it a try. Xiao Li-"
"I got it..." The spirit grumbled and sent a book out to them from the ring. It was a large book with a gold binding and red and white cover. On the cover stated "Secrets of the Levitating Earth Sect."
Lotus grinned and said as a heat grew in her chest and a cold breath drew out from her lips, "Xiao Li, Ying Hui~!"
"Wah!!!" Ying Hui screamed and jumped back into the ring the moment she felt the room drop by twenty degrees, "We didn't steal it! I swear! We didn't!"
"Then why are you hiding?" Lotus continued to smile as the temperature in the room grew colder, "Do you realize what this is? Xiao Li?"
"The heirloom spells of the Levitating Earth Sect..." Xiao Li responded with a grumbled.
"And they are?"
"One of the oldest sect to date and have been known to be legendary in the field of arrays dating back to five million years." Xiao Li responded.
"Mhm..." Lotus nodded her head in false praise, "Good, good. Now, what does it mean if I have their book in my hands?"
"Um..."
There was a moment of silence before Lotus said, "It means... that they could detect that the book has reappeared somewhere outside of the spatial ring! Do you want them to come and hunt us down when I'm still so weak?! Do you want me dead? If so, just say it! I'll beat you up right here right now..."
As she scolded the two with a scowl on her face, she withdrew the temptation to spank the two child-like spirits and sighed as she quickly threw up a barrier and glanced into the book, "So, how did you guys got it in your hands? Does it have to do with the previous owners of the ring?"
"Yes..." Xiao Li whimpered like a little boy and responded, "One of my previous masters was the heir to the sect many years ago and inherited the book. However, because it was filled with so much knowledge on powerful arrays that my previous master was hunted down and killed just so they could obtain it. It was half a million years later before my next master found me in a little realm. But, he didn't have the ability to create arrays."
Little realms were small worlds as small as a room to as big as a universe filled with creatures and plants. Cultivators often traverse into these worlds to find treasure or use their luck to come across something good to improve their life or cultivation. However, there were time limits to them and requirements are rather strict, such as certain level of strengths or items or skills.
As for the Levitating Earth Sect, it was a famous sect that began around the time her brother in her previous life was born. A million years had passed when the sect's god-like skills in creating barriers and arrays were known across the land. However, five hundred years after she had hired one of them to set up an array for her and her brother, they ran across trouble with the humans and retreated into seclusion and hiding. Many aren't certain if the sect even exists anymore.
So to have one of their secret heirlooms in her hands was like a treasure trove in her hands! How careless of her spirits to just shove it out of the ring without a barrier!
Though she was still upset, she sighed and said, "Enough. I'll let you off this time, but, the next time you do this without consideration, I 'will' spank you till you can forget about sitting at all."
"Yes..."
It took her ten minutes to learn the basics and another ten to get at least one or two of the spells down. It wasn't as difficult after having read through a guide a week back. After doing so, she stuffed the book back into her ring and hurried to class where she met the pitiable Grim and the others.
Once lunch came around, she got her lunch consisting of a sandwich and salad. However, she had only just found a spot when she saw Grim and the others got into a fight with some upperclassmen. She sighed and watched the guys fight off the delinquent upperclassmen as Grim and Deuce did their best to do so with Ace out of the picture.
In truth, it wasn't too difficult for Grim as it had been for Deuce as fighting was against the rules and he was pulling himself back because of that. When the show was over, the delinquents were annoyed by this fact and tried to do something again. However, Lotus sighed and walked over to them and patted their shoulders with a wide smile, "Now, now. It's lunch time and we're all hungry. I'm sure your pasta is going to go soggy too."
"What are you-?!"
The taller one with silver hair questioned in confusion as she secretly dropped a white bead on the ground and shifted the energy in her eyes as she stared straight at them with a sneer, "There's always a next time to get a better egg for your pasta, but there isn't a next time if you choose to continue this silly game... Don't you think so... Senpai?"
Seeing her gaze, the two froze in confusion as they backed away nervously. The short one with red hair stammered, "H-He's right. M-m-my p-pasta is getting soggy, so I'll let you off easy this time!"
The two delinquents quickly turned around and ran for their life with their food trays in hand. Grim folded his hand with a smirk on his face, "Hmph! Those guys were all talk! And, never come back!"
Yuu sighed, "Think before you act..."
Lotus shrugged as she picked up the white marble, "Hmph! Didn't they threw the first punches? This should be called self-defense, self-defense. In my opinion, we aren't in big trouble and we didn't give chase when they backed off. That's already enough. Anymore and we'll be more responsible for the mess than them. They're the ones who had a problem, not us. From now on, let's just stick to a bigger crowd."
"Hah..." Deuce mumbled quietly to himself in thought as he realized this and sighed shaking his head in dismay, "They're so many people trying to get into this prestigious school, but they let in guys like that."
She soon found the group nearly exhausted as they plopped down on the bench where Lotus chose to sit next to Ace and Yuu. Grim, having been retrained, tuck himself right next to Deuce now under the watch of another student with magic, but that quickly changed after he began munching on the omelette rice he got from the line. With a blissful face, he commented happily about the food before noting something to Ace and Deuce who were happily munching on their food, "So we saw your guys' dorm this morning, but what are the other dorms like?"
"You know about the Great seven statues displayed on Main Street, right? There's seven of them so there're seven dorms."
"Huh? Geh!" Ace nearly jumped when he saw Carter appear out from behind him with a friend, "You're the guy from this morning!"
"You tricked us into painting those roses for you!" Grim pointed out with a scowl.
"Saying I tricked you is so mean." Carter said with a sigh, "I wasn't doing it because I wanted to. It's just how things are done in our dorm."
Deuce shook his head in dismay, "You were grinning all the while..."
"Now, now, Deuce-chan." Carter smiled, "Those are only for inside the dorm, so now I'm your kind upperclassman."
Lotus smiled at the sight of Carter and waved, "Hey!"
The guy smiled back with a wave as he and his green hair friend with the green clover mark on the left cheek bone and black-rimmed glasses sat down next to them with their trays.