After Mitrana failed, the next seven people lost without even being able to put up a fight against Gray. Once he was done, he was brought to the top of the platform to wait for the other 499 students.
He simply laid down lazily, waiting patiently for them to finish. Time passed as he idled, slowly but surely, the 500 slots were filled up three and a half hours later.
"Now then!" Eristi acquired our attention and continued. "The Venlier will arrive soon, everyone will get a sheet of paper with your daily routine and you must follow this. TO. THE. LETTER! Understand?"
Silence...
"I ASKED IF YOU UNDERSTOOD!"
""YES!""
All 500 of them answered in sync. It was a bit creepy and weird.
As Gray finally received his task sheet, he found a discrepancy in it.
'In the 'past' I didn't have so many blank spaces did I?'
Scratching his head, Gray raised his hand.
Unsurprisingly, a staff member answered quickly. "Yes?"
The same scene as the 'past' developed. Gray asked about his sheet, the staff member gave him the correct one and he was able to see the familiar tasks he hated.
[ 07:30, Wake Up. | 08:15, Breakfast. | 09:30 - 12:00, Caring for Xyfuls. | 14:00 - 15:00, Weapon Classes. | 16:00 - 20:00, Free training time. | 20:00 - 27:30, Free time (Lounge). | 27:45 - 32:15, Lunch Time (Cafeteria). | 33:00 - 38:00, Drills | 40:00 - 50:00, Free time (Dorms). | 53:00 Go to sleep. ]
"NOW THEN!"
With an attention grabbing shout before speaking, Eristi further explained.
"You may see spaces in which there is a time gap, these are NOT free times! During those times, you must actively go around and help out the crew with whatever you CAN do, this will help not only their morale but you will be able to make connections. Do you understand!?"
""YES!""
"Good!"
While smiling content with the responses Eristi informed them that the Venlier would be there soon and they could do whatever while they wait.
Surprisingly, Mitrana walked over to Gray before the others. Gray himself knew why, he said something this time unlike the 'past' where he didn't speak at all.
She asked a simple question.
"You do know Mist doesn't conduct lightning, right?"
Looking into her sea-blue eyes, he said.
"That was just some random bullshit."
Stumbling on his words, Mitrana looked at him as if he was crazy. Gray noticed and said.
"Leave me to my peace and quiet. I won't have much of it when we leave."
Eyeing him suspiciously she reluctantly left his area and met up with her friends.
After a few minutes, Laine met up with Gray who was relaxing on the floor.
"What did she want?"
"She asked me out."
"Did you say yes?"
"PFFT!"
Laine stared quizzically as Gray cracked up, seemingly dying of laughter.
"What? Did I say something funny?"
"NO, No not at all. You just took it too seriously. She didn't actually ask me out."
Realising this was another prank, Laine's brows scrunched up before a cunning smile broke out and he connivingly asked.
"That girl with those green eyes, did you fall in love?"
Gray froze.
Gray asked cautiously.
"Why?"
Laine smirked evilly and said.
"She's an 8th year you know. You won't see her when we get back."
Gray flinched at this. 'Conversations that I don't remember are really difficult to handle. Shit, what am I supposed to say, 'I know where she'll be in two years so it's fine'? ARGH!'
Unaware of Gray's inner conundrum, Laine continued.
"You might only have this chance to ask her out you know, there are 2,314 worlds in this orb after all. Not only that but if you remember."
He got close and whispered.
"She could also go to another orb if she tried hard enough."
Gray's nerves snapped.
"I, erm... maybe, I don't know."
Clutching his head, Gray toiled in his thoughts as Laine looked on surprised.
'Wow, I never thought Gray could be this hilarious to watch.'
After a few moments, Gray raised his head to speak.
"Sho-"
Suddenly, a blast of wind blew amongst all the students as the skies darkened. Skirts, were flipped. Gray instinctively looked around and saw a few colors.
'Green, Pink flowers, Yellow hearts and... Carrots?'
After the gust calmed, everyone looked at the source, they saw a ship that looked like a robotic eagle carrying a giant cabin. The real surprise was when they looked past that, towards the skies.
Gray's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. Although he remembered the Venlier, he, at this moment, also remembered just imagining or remembering it wasn't anything close to the majesty of seeing it up close.
It was, without a doubt, huge. It might've been as big as their planet. (7 times the diameter of earth) The ship was modelled after a Venifir, a space snake. The ship was 'coiled', so to speak, around the moon, rotating around it, seemingly waiting. Although very, very, very, ...very, very far away, the intricacies of the ship's different sections was clearly visible. The entire ship, if you could even call it a ship, was a gleaming brown-gold metal with red lines occasionally flashing along the exterior (skin?) of the ship.
'Monstrous.'
Gray was not, however, referring to the ship.
'Whoever built this... they're definitely a rank 5...'
Gray was in awe and not just him, all of the students were struck by the significance of this ship.
As the Eaglet, the Eagle like ship, landed, the students lined up as per instructions. They slowly entered and as Gray entered, he saw that the cabin was split into three sections. One was theirs, one other had the label: |{Chiron School}|
Gray's eyes glinted dangerously at the sign.
The last section was labelled: |{Cafe}|
They all knew why, there was no way they'd be able to make it to the moon as fast as 5 hours or less, especially if we travelled with just an Iglis-class spaceship.
As everyone filed into the cabin, they found their seats amongst the large lounge-like area.
Expected by everyone, the ship went towards, not the moon but, the number 1 Academy.
Led by the only Half Ascended on their planet.
Chiron School.
Not even a half hour later, they arrived.
As we stared out the windows, we saw the academy of legends. The place that raised 17 Emperor Class people. A 20 kilometer squared size compound with tens of hundreds of buildings, fields and more.
It was at that moment that Gray recalled the motto of their school.
'When facing an unknown opponent always, always!
...assume you're hundreds of times inferior to them.'
Those words resonated with Gray now more than ever as he was reminded how much work he'd need to even go through a minor stage in existences. He sighed. After some quick math, he realised he was only around a third, around 36%, to his first minor 'Ascension'.
As Gray thought about it, he realised he really didn't have much at all.
The only thing he had that could be called a 'Goldfinger' is his understanding of lightning.
'But you can't use an understanding if you don't have enough power damnit!'
In the end, after much deliberation, Gray ignored the Chiron school and began reading his new circulation method.
[Auran Serpent Union Method]
[Introduction:]
{"The Purity of Energy allows more potent and efficient attacks, however, what makes the energy pure? Is it the lack of impurities? Is it the Compressed version of the Energy? No, no not really. And Auran Serpents realised this."}
[Stage 1: Muddled -- Blemished]
{"The way Auran Serpents started to cultivate their energy purity is simple.
They 'spooled' it."}
'They what?'
Gray was shocked, although he knew about the technique, he never read it before and was surprised by the content.
He scrunched his eyebrows and decided to read on, seeing what the method meant by 'spooling'.
{"In order to 'spool' the energy correctly, you must remember the following points.
1. In case you are of a different species, you must use a substitute for a snake's body. Preferably a bone of some sort inside you.
2. 'Spooling' refers to circling the energy around something.
3. Unlike an Auran Serpent, other races don't have an Aeonic Orb.
4. You may die using this method."}
'A... what?
A-aeoni-ic what?'
Gray was baffled, he didn't understand anything about whatever this nonsense was!
Just as Gray was about to struggle repeatedly thinking about it, he snapped his head in the direction of the doors. Or rather, to be more specific, the people entering the cabin. One of the many boons of being at an Origin level Understanding of an element is being able to sense those of the same at the 1st Roots.
And the moment he snapped his head towards there, a girl stepped in. As you might've guessed, it was a girl from Chiron academy.
After attempting to remember anything related to this for a half hour or so, he was tapped on the shoulder by Laine.
"Let's go get some food."