The sky was clear, and the sun rose from the north. There was a thin layer of dew on grass and flower, and birds chirped on the trees singing the morning song.
Neil, with his black carriage, was already on duty. Eon woke up early in the morning and was currently in the backyard looking through his small patch of garden, where he planted some vegetables and flowers, but all the plants seemed dead for some reason, leaving him quite bewildered. Second was on his cooking duty and was busy making breakfast for Haze and Eon. Eon just woke Haze up, and she was busy getting ready for her academy. She wore a dark green dress which Second suggested for some reason and a black bucket hat on her head.
Three of them sat around the table, eating their breakfast in silence. It was a big day for Haze. She was a little nervous and a little excited. Eon and second also had a long day planned.
Dropping Haze at the academy, Eon and Second made their way towards sector 17, 'The Common Fair Zone.' The Common Fair was the smallest sector out of all sixty-eight sectors in Aurora city. The sector stretched for a hundred and ten kilometers and was the major district where most businesses were located. The Common Fair markets offered everything from daily necessities to magic artifacts, potions, and magic manuals to legendary spells. You can even buy a residential property here.
"Neil, take us to Sector 17, 'The Orchid Street,' "Second commanded from inside the carriage. Hearing the command, Niel moved the carriage; it took them more than thirty minutes to reach sector seventeen. Even though the animal pulling the carriage was proficient in small spatial jumps, the distance between the sectors was still too big to cover up in one jump for the animal.
Soon the carriage entered the 17-sector main road and moved forward slowly. The main road was quite big and wide. On both sides of the road were two-three-story buildings, each had a signboard on top of them, which helped customers know about the kind of stuff the store sold. After every four-five stores, the road divided further into small streets going deeper into the market; those small roads also had small shops built on the sides.
Eon and Second looked outside the carriage window. The road and shops were bustling with people. Not only humans but all other kinds of species could be seen walking on the road. There were some with long height, some were short, some had different skin colors than the rest, and some had other unique features on their bodies.
The carriage taking some twists and turns, slowly made its way towards 'Orchid Street.' Soon Eon saw a blackboard hung on a pole pointing toward the orchid street. Orchid street is one of the famous streets in the city. As long you have the money, you can shop for every kind of magic/mystic-related item here.
The street was half the size of the main road. But it still gave people a place to ride in their vehicles compared to other nearby streets. "Neil is like a walking map. He knows every place in the city," Second praised as the carriage entered the street. He was quite impressed by the carriage driver, who rarely spoke, and even Eon was approving of his way of work and built up quite a good impression of him.
"How far is it," Eon asked in a faint voice.
"The shop is nearby, master."
"Oh, let's walk then," Eon made his decision. Stopping the carriage, Eon and Second stepped out of the carriage and started walking on the street.
There were all kinds of dazzling and mysterious shops on the orchid street. Eon and Second walked slowly as they looked around the shops. If they liked something, they would enter the shop and buy it. After walking for fifteen minutes, they reached an empty shop. The shop was like any other shop on the street. It was a two-story building and had a glass front door at the side with a big glass window at the front to display the products. Eon observed the shop from outside, Second had bought this empty shop two days ago, and it was Eon's first time seeing this. Second unlocked the door with a key and pushed open the front door, there were a few pieces of paper scattered on the floor, and the whole shop smelled of medicines, likely the last shop products smell still lingered in the air.
Eon looked around the shop and checked for any crack or damage. 'Hump! Like it matters' Second grumbled inside as he followed Eon behind in inspection. He never liked the idea of do not use magic for everything, but he did not dare to say it aloud and only thought in his head. For Eon reading someone's mind was easier than breathing, but because of his 'No Magic for Everything Policy,' he rarely did something like that. That was the only reason Second dared to have these thoughts.
"It's a good place," Eon commented while inspecting the floor and walls of the store.
'It's just a little smelly and dirty,' he thought, but as the thought came into existence, a powerful wave of energy released from the ground, and light swallowed everything. After a few seconds, light dissipated, revealing a brand-new store, it was devout of any smell and dirt, and even the paints and cracks on the walls had been fixed.
"Hmm, much better," Eon nodded, whereas Second, standing in the corner sneered in his head as he looked at Eon. Sensing his gaze, Eon shot him a narrow glance, but he was too lazy to say anything. Eon naturally ignored him. 'What should we name the shop' Eon thought. Putting his thoughts back in his mind, Eon used the stairs at the back of the shop and made his way towards the second floor. Because of the magic renovation, the second floor also looked like new.
The second floor was the same as the ground floor and had a big glass window. Eon moved near the window and looked at the bustling street outside, 'So Cold, ' Eon Felt in his heart, his face showed no emotion as he observed, and his grey eyes were neutral to all creation. It was not that Eon was emotionless, but at his stage, he did not partake in the working of the universe, and the time and the path he walked had made him lose most of his emotions and humanity, leaving only a few stubborn ones behind.
"It will take some time to grow exotic flowers, at least one month. Let's wait then," Eon murmured, standing close to the window. 'I also must take care of those damn rats first, who are eating my plants,' he thought. After some time, Eon made his way towards the stairs and walked down.
"Let's head outside," Eon Said to Second. It will take some time before he can grow flowers and sell them. He was in no kind of hurry. Eon and Second strolled on the streets, but no one paid attention. They seemed completely invisible in people's eyes.
'I have to buy something for pumpkin too, but what would she like?' Eon thought as he walked. How can he forget about her? She was his daily dose of happiness.
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After waking up early in the morning, Milan completed her usual daily routine. She looked in the mirror at herself; she wore a simple crème color dress and a green jacket on top with fancy knee-high platform black boots. Taking a last look at her apartment, she locked the door behind her and walked toward the Aurora academy. From today onwards, difficulty in her life would be increased by one start.
Haze stood in front of 'Hall of Doors,' Eon had dropped her outside as outsiders were not allowed to go into the academy.
It was Haze's first time alone in the outside world, and she was feeling a little scared and anxious inside. Her hands were sweating, and she was having second thoughts about entering the academy. Feeling hesitant, she squeezed the nexus cube in her hand lightly. 'Whoosh' bending the surrounding space, a red 'Anywhere Door' appeared in front of her. Lifting her hand, Haze slowly turned the doorknob to the right. With a little push, the door opened, and Haze stepped inside.
On the other side of the door was a small hallway, which was completely white. At the end of the hallway was another white door with a small golden metal plate with 'Milan Elev' written on it. Entering the red door, Haze slowly made her way towards the second door.
Standing in front of the main door, Haze hesitated again, but suddenly another small hallway connected to the Haze hallway, and a beautiful woman walked out of the door. Haze stared at the new figure, recognizing who she was. Her body turned stiff, and she forgot what she wanted to say.
Because of homeschooling from childhood, Haze had little contact with new people, and because of that, she developed a little introvert personality and would get anxious in situations where she had to talk with strangers.
Milan looked at stiff Haze with a calm expression, who was unable to decide whether to open the door or not. She felt their introverted personality resonated with which each other.
"Good morning, Haze. You are even earlier than me," Milan said with a smile as she seized Haze up.
"G... Good morning teacher," Haze stuttered, with her head down.
"Let's go in" nodding her head, Milan patted Haze back to calm her down and opened the door. She understood her feeling. She also felt the same way on her first day at the academy.
Milan's workplace was quite big. It had a lab, a library, a room for rest, a private office, a study room, and a kitchen and washroom. She placed her bag in the lab and showed Haze where to put her stuff.
"You will use the study room from now on," she said, leading Haze to a room. The was empty with only a table and chair inside.
"You can access all the rooms in the workplace, except my lab, don't enter without my permission, Ok," Milan said sternly, looking into Haze's eyes.
"First, put your stuff down, and then let's go to the library and get all the stuff you will need for your foundation" saying that she walked outside the room, leaving Haze to settle. Milan wanted to finish everything as soon as possible, so she could return to her research and finish her incomplete work. The one thing she valued above all in her life was Time, which will never come back if once gone.
"The academy is huge, so if you ever want to visit accessible places in the academy, like the library, common room, study room, and labs, you come here at the front door and select the facility name on your nexus cube before opening the door, this will directly connect our place to the library or place you selected" Milan explained patiently as both of them stood at the front of the front door.
---
The vast hall was dead silent, a peculiar smell lingered in the air, making people feel somewhat comfortable, and from time to time, one would hear walking and page flipping sound coming from deep inside the place. The Aurora Academy Library was huge. It took up to 20% of the space of the whole Aurora Academy and had countless floors. In the library, on every floor, Column by column, an enormous number of bookshelves as tall as a few hundred meters stood straight, filling the whole library. In between the columns, there were narrow rows that people used to navigate the library.
Milan and Haze closed the door behind them, which produced a loud creaking sound reverberating in the huge library, disturbing its peace. They slowly made their way toward the librarian's desk.
An older woman in her seventies sat at the desk with glasses on her head. The desk was chestnut brown; it had a name tag and a few thick books on it.
"We are looking for books on the Concept of Colour and related Concepts," Milan spoke softly.
After hearing the ancient-looking older woman did not even look up, she flicked her finger, and a green card appeared on the desk. Milan picked up the card from the desk. Holding Haze's hand, she made her way inside the library.
"With this card, we don't have to look for anything. Everything will be delivered to us," Milan explained to Haze, who nodded back.
After ten minutes of walking and changing multiple paths, which leads to empty library study rooms, they finally found an empty room. Milan stood in front of the door and placed the green card on the cardholder at the side of the door. The door unlocked, and Milan pushed open the door. What greeted them was the same scene as outside, but the room size was considerably smaller, only a few hundred meters tall.
"You must study every book here related to the Concept of Color and others, it may take a few months, but you must understand and grasp every concept related to Colours as it will determine how strong and how far you will be able to reach future."
"I'll ask the librarian to connect this part of the library to our workspace, so you can spend your time worrying free and put your heart into creating your memory imprint."
"Here, this is a chant for forming memory imprint. It is really important. Every free second of your day should be spent chanting this mantra in your mind" Milan handed Haze a golden paper, which had a non-understandable character engraved on it. Haze took the golden paper, but when she looked at it, she found it hard to understand any character written on it.
"How silly of me, you don't know the 'Language of World,' don't worry. I'll get you a language potion, which should help you understand the chants on the paper," saying that Milan opened the door and left the room, leaving Haze behind to study.
Haze moved to the first row and picked the first book on the shelf, 'Theory of Colors.' She grabbed the heavy book and placed it on the desk to study.
---
'Malory should have some language potion' Milan held an unknown potion bottle in her hand and gulped it down while still in thought. Opening an anywhere door from her lab, she walked into it. Milan had no patience; she wanted to finish everything in one day so she could spend the rest of the week on her experiments.
The anywhere door opened into a dark door. The room had a few wood shelves on the side walls, which held glass bottles filled with weird stuff, and the whole room smelled pungent.
"Milan, you finally showed up. Did you agree to my request to take on a mission" a beautiful woman walked out of another room. She wore a black dress and a pointy hat, which showed her witch profession.
"No, I don't intend to take on a mission yet. I come here to ask if you have the 'World Language' potion. I need for my student," Milan responded.
"What a pity. I hope you do understand that now we cannot progress further without better resources. If you don't want to stay at the seventh sequence, you should think about it" shaking her head, her voice was filled with disappointment, but she did not show it in her voice.
"As for language potion, I have some you can take it" a small glass bottle filled with blue stary liquid appeared in Malory's hand, which she handed to Milan.
"Thank you for your concern. I'll surely think about it," Milan thanked as she opened the 'Anywhere Door' door again and walked in.
In reality, Milan's current financial situation was not good because the resources required for experiments were quite expensive, and her curse-suppressing potions were also rare and took a lot of money to buy. Buying all these things left her with zero money by the third week of every month, but she was also a little scared of going on dangerous expeditions with her friend. This left her in a dilemma. 'I have to find a part-time job outside for money' she made up her mind.
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After strolling for an hour, Eon and Second stopped in front of a shop with 'Daoist Poor Soul Shop' written on it. The name caught their attention or especially Second. Eon and Second swiftly entered the shop.
The shop was full of stuff. Some of the selves had weapons on them, some had silver and golden Talisman, and there were a few shelves with miscellaneous broken stuff that looked dug out from the ground. At the back of the store was a big glass refrigerator that contained red, blue, and yellow color potions and some bottles filled with myriad types of pills.
Eon looked through the selves as he tried to find something for Haze, a sword she does not know how to use, a hammer she can use this,' Eon imagined Haze using these weapons and laughed inside. After looking through stuff, he finally settled on a bracelet made by connecting multiple golden leaves and was big enough to be rolled two times on her hand. The bracelet was of superior quality. Seeing the bracelet, Eon decided to buy it. With Second at his side, Eon walked to the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper looked like a middle-aged man and sat behind the desk with his eyes on a book.
"Shopkeeper, how much is it worth" Second voice sounded again in the middle-aged man's ear.
The shopkeeper lifted his head and looked at two young men, but his mind was in turmoil. 'When did someone enter the store? I did not even sense them, and they clearly look like normal humans,' he thought as his head moved toward the front door and a small bell on top of a door, which rang whenever some entered the shop, but the bell clearly did not ring in last thirty minutes.
"How much? We do not have much time" Second somewhat annoyed voice sounded in his ears again, bringing him back to reality. His back was drenched in a cold sweat as he looked toward the two men.
"My lord, you can take it for free."
"What we look like a someone who does not have money," Second said, raising his one eye.
"No, my lord, you misunderstood; it was a piece I made in my free time. You can give me whatever you feel like."
"Mm, here is a gold coin. It should be enough" tossing a gold coin, Second and Eon hurriedly made their way out of the shop. Eon had no idea how money worked in the material world because the system changed on every planet and kingdom, it was a waste of time to remember all that stuff, and he was too lazy to care about it.
Second was an even bigger egotistic when the shopkeeper said, 'any price,' he started cursing in his mind. 'Any price, you mere mortal, you wait; I'll teach you to lesson later' Second thought. He did not want to show Eon that he was also inexperienced in the case of money. This was why he threw the gold coin at the shopkeeper and directly dragged Eon straight out of the shop in case the shopkeeper said something or asked for more.
When Eon and Second left, the shopkeeper finally heaved a sigh of relief. He felt the aura the speaking men gave for a second was similar to the aura of Dao he felt when he first became a cultivator and experienced 'Dao Resonance,' which caused his legs to go limp and his mind to stop working. He thought, 'Whose black face I looked at in the morning.'