Aurea looked at Zenon, who still had his hand firmly clutching the boy's uniform head. He occasionally darted his eyes toward the boy, who was still trying to escape that monstrous grip.
Not even bothering to lower her neckwarmer, Aurea chuckled and said with a serious tone,
"Let go. Now."
Zenon gritted his teeth as he clutched the man's head even harder, but eventually gave up and released him. The man instantly stepped away from him as if he was some sort of monster and held his nose in pain.
The crowd eventually dissolved due to Aurea's intervention, and it wasn't long until they were left alone. Aurea chuckled and said,
"Not a good first day. I do suggest that you keep your mouth shut, I don't want to hear any other lie or something as outrageous from you."
"I already said... it's your problem if you think I'm lying. What would I win from doing so?"
Aurea remained in silence for some seconds before saying, "I don't know, that's why I'm stopping you already. So make an effort and stop lying."
---
30 minutes later...
Half an hour later looking at the nothingness and still no meeting or whatever the hell is supposed to happen there. And the Leviathan was peacefully sleeping on top of Zenon's shoulder while invisible to the naked eye.
'Agh! When will this thing start for f-'
"Greetings, everyone."
As if he called the demon itself, a tall man appeared on the stage just behind the microphone. Zenon instantly recognized him, Harbor. He didn't even bother to put his cigarette out and continued talking.
"I am Harbor. Some of you may know me and some may not. Summarizing, I'm a Visionary, I carry a Lineage just like you bunch and I will be responsible for this fucking meeting because Dan won't move his lazy ass here."
Some laughter erupted as he took a good look at the almost filled-up center and laughed, "Seems like this year we got some numbers. Didn't expect so many Unseens here. This meeting won't last for long anyways, and you are getting pizza after listening to it anyways."
Some people raised their heads in expectation of receiving a delicious pizza for the celebration of New Year's Eve, some even opened their mouths involuntarily.
"Anyways, let's get into the matter. First of all, congratulations on surviving the Awakening.
While for some of you, it may have been not as bad as they thought, for some others, it must've been hell. Nonetheless what matters is that you are here, alive.
Secondly, I will explain to you what you will be doing from now until 1st February.
Keeping it short, we will prepare you for the First Layer. Dan has prepared a special course just like every other year for you to improve your fighting skills.
It's not obligatory in case you are a bookworm and want to learn the theoretical part of everything. I suggest doing the latter but the choice is yours anyways.
Getting into the important matters. You bunch of untrained idiots are not children anymore. No more calling for mommy, and no more calling for daddy. The only person that can help you inside the Layers is yourself and only yourself."
'Sheesh, he has a good way to motivate people.' Zenon thought as he rested his chin on his fist.
"Now, I will explain to you what the Layers are all about.
Let's begin with a curious fact, shall we? As strange as it may sound, there's no such thing as outer space in the Layers. You could fly at the speed of light just upward yet you wouldn't reach the atmosphere at any time if there's one of course.
There's been some testing I've even overseen and we arrived at the conclusion that the Layers are not a spherical planet."
Some people even gasped at this statement. It was known by every living human being that to breathe or just stay on the ground you needed some sort of gravitational force and oxygen.
Yet he just said that the Layers weren't a planet?
'Hell, I only know the basics about planets and I know how crazy that must be.'
"Of course, this is based on a hypothesis, since no matter how high we flew... and survive the respective flying Layer Beasts - which are not weak by the way - we couldn't even see the form of a spherical planet, so we arrived at that conclusion.
It could be wrong, it could be right. For now, believe that the Layers are a horizontal plane or a universally immense planet."
'Now... that makes more sense. Still, how high must you go- no, how big must the Layers be?!'
"To properly describe the Layers as a whole, is an unknown-length terrain that defies most scientific laws, especially gravity. You could be walking on an Earth's gravity mountain and then suddenly fly away in a Moon's gravity ocean.
Well, fear not, as you can only land inside a First Layer which is not that big.
But, what does the First, Second and the rest of the Layers look like? In short, they are islands. Islands that can be as big as the Earth's radius or as small as Pluto's. This of course means that there are multiple First Layers, Second Layers, and so on.
However, their danger goes exponentially up when we reach other Layers.
Don't worry, the Angels were kind enough to set up... how do I explain this... dedicated Rifts for each Layer, so walking is a no-no.
The Layers also have a specific way of very fast transportation. So don't worry about walking the Earth's length just to get somewhere.
Anyways, let's focus on the actual matter."
Harbor fixed his suit while getting a proper hold of the microphone. He looked around for a moment and said,
"As per the Seven Angels decided some centuries ago, you must challenge at least the First Layer.
Here is where all the Layer Beasts reside. Well, they reside in all Layers, not just the first. When we send you in, there's a high chance that you met up with a settlement or similar.
When you do so, don't worry about it and just introduce yourselves, try not to say anything about your Lineage and you'll win some valuable teammates to complete the First Layer. You just need to kill the group of Layer Beasts guarding the Rift and jump inside.
Don't worry as all Seven Layers have the same method, the difference is how hard it is to do so. Because trust me, the Second Layer's Rifts are hell compared to the First Layer. They also need a different method to be completed after you clear the Rift but that's a matter for the future.
Now, here's the catch. Past the First Layer, there are growing Rifts. These Rifts once they mature and stabilize, they'll become a gateway for Layer Beasts to reach our planet.
These Rifts are always protected by Layer Beasts, may they all be First-Rank or Fourteenth-Rank. The job of an Enlightened who has survived the First Layer, is to find these Rifts, stop their growth, and be given access to the next Layer.
If you don't manage to stop it, well, luckily we have ways to localize where the Rift will appear on Earth… that way we prevent incidents such as Australia's.
Next, in case you are curious again. The Layers' history is extremely complex, and we don't know even the tiniest part of it. You will come across several mentions of the Angels and previous civilizations, which makes us think that people actually lived and were born there.
But, that's not important.
What is truly important, however." Harbor straightened his back, threw his cigarette away, and said with a stern voice,
"Even if you are inside the First Layer, there's a chance to come across something as monstrous as a Sixth-Rank Transcendent or even a Tenth-Rank Mindless.
So, stick to already known areas and avoid those unknown, which appear more often than you may think of.
Well, that's what I need to say, any questions?"
Most of the students looked at each other in hope that somebody would ask the questions they had in mind for a long time. One of them raised her hand and asked,
"How do we exactly enter the First Layer? Like, do we just hit the sack as the Awakening or... how?"
"I didn't explain that? Must have slipped out of my mind then. I'll properly explain it then.
To enter the Layers you need to use a Rift, similar to how Layer Beasts can arrive here. These are very noticeable as they take up a large amount of terrain and give off a distinct smell that makes you somewhat drowsy.
The Rift you will be taking will be the one the government prepares for the Mass Jumping on 1st February. That way you can blend with the crowd and actually reach the First Layer since you still are Unseens and therefore targeted by Fire.
At least that's the initial plan. It's more than probable that I'll change due to recent events. Anyways, 1st February... that's one month from now, so let's get straight to the point."
Harbor jumped from the stage and punched a metallic plate. Then, the stage... opened? And revealed some tables filled with metallic thimbles.
Then, four more people - probably Enlighteneds with a Lineage - came in and each took a plate that contained several of those things.
They quickly went through every single student and left one on their hands, and finished in less than five minutes.
Zenon took his thimble and played around with it for a while. Even though it looked inoffensive... for some reason it made him uncomfortable.
He could sense his Familiar getting worried about it, and thought,
'What's wrong? It's just a piece of metal, right?'
"This is kind of a surprise. Dan has prepared these registers to keep track of your Elemental Souls and such." Harbor said,
"You just need to put them on and they'll automatically read your Tier, Familiar, and other information, that way we can focus on making a good program for you guys. It'll also serve us to prepare the ranking system to further motivate you."
As if a lightning bolt struck Zenon, his entire body stiffed at the sound of "automatically read".
His uncomfortableness turned into mild anxiety and he looked at his familiar, which stared at the thimble with hostility.
Things... may go south really quickly...