Emmia watched as Luna dozed off. Lunch had arrived for Luna and the nurses were kind enough to bring Emmia some lunch so the two girls could eat together.
Although, Emmia was sure she could hear whispers along the lines of
"It doesn't count!"
"What do you mean, 'doesn't count?' She's here again!"
"But she's totally fine!"
"You don't know that! Now cough up!"
"Arrgh..."
'Wierd nurses,' Emmia thought to herself as she recalled the furiously whispered conversation between the nurses.
After lunch, Luna started to doze off as Emmia talked about yesterday's evening, and very soon sleep had claimed Luna into its comfortable embrace.
In the end, Emmia just sat there in comfortable silence as her friend slept in peace.
Without having anything else to do, Emmia stewed in her thoughts.
'How can I make this work?'
'I need to account for the pain.'
'Maybe there is some material that can help....'
'No, minerals are useless...'
'Maybe the ones found elsewhere?'
'How am I supposed to get those....scratch that thought...'
'Maybe something shape of the mineral?'
'Different shapes could help?'
'I've noticed that quantity does matter..'
'But what's the threshold for that...'
'Can I absorb two minerals at once?'
'I don't think so, but I haven't tried before...'
'Oh wow, I really really ignored my gift,' Emmia felt a twinge of guilt for persistently ignoring an integral part of herself.
'Anyways, I can't procrastinate anymore...'
'Maybe I can try something with universal energy?' Emmia felt a random thought strike her mind.
'I should talk to Mr. Melvin...'
'Universal energy does seem to solve a lot of things...'
'Wait..if I can absorb minerals...then does anything work....'
'I mean it should only be rocks....'
'But.....'
Emmia blinked as her train of thought was broken by a shifting sound in front of her. Staring, she saw Luna shift her body to sleep on her side, facing Emmia, as her raven black hair threatened to spill over and cover her face.
Entranced, Emmia's eyes traced Luna's face, just like she would analyze a sketch.
'Huh, she really is...pretty.'
Emmia felt the thought pop up in her head without any warning as her eyes suddenly settled on Luna's thin lips.
*thump*
Suddenly, Emmia could feel her heartbeat against her ribs, acutely hear the ambient sounds around the room, and see almost every detail on Luna's face.
This trance was only broken when Luna shifted again, laying on her back this time.
Blinking, Emmia felt her neck and face heat up as blood rushed to her head.
'What...WHAT....WHATT??' Emmia screamed in her head as she buried her face into her palms.
'What the heck was that....' Emmia sighed into her hands, making sure to stay quiet in case she woke Luna up.
'I mean, she is pretty....yea, objectively...it's what anyone would have thought...I had a totally natural reaction...,' Emmia repeated in her mind, completely ignoring where she had been intently staring at.
'I think I should leave Luna to rest...Yea, that should be good.' Emmia made a decision, which was completely arbitrary and not at all influenced by her previous thoughts.
Taking one last glance at Luna, Emmia headed out to go to the person she wanted to meet the most, Melvin Homes.
Taking the steps to the upper floors, Emmia headed out to find her teacher.
'Let's see, I remember it being on the second floor...uhh....which room number was it again?' Emmia thought to herself trying to remember his room number.
'I guess I'll just have to check each door one by one-'
Emmia didn't have to look around for much. A few doors down, she found the room that she was looking for.
Glancing left and right, Emmia knocked on the door nervously.
"Come in," Mr. Melvin's even voice rang out behind the door.
With a click, Emmia entered the room greeting her teacher, "Good Afternoon Mr. Melvin."
"Ah, good afternoon to you too Ms. Struze," Mr. Melvin gave a pleasant smile to his student.
"What brings you here today?" Mr. Melvin maintained his smile as he placed the form he was holding onto his desk.
Suddenly, Emmia felt a chill run down her spine as she remembered Mr. Melvin saying with the same smile 'Do not come to me asking about the syllabus or what will be the structure of the exam. If you do so, then I reserve the right to fail you then and there.'
Realizing that she could be misunderstood, Emmia hurried to explain her reason for her visit, "Mr. Melvin, I'm not here for that- I mean I'm not here to discuss- No, I mean I'm not here for what you're thinking I'm here for." After ending her extremely convoluted sentence, Emmia gazed at Mr. Melvin wide-eyed and unable to make another coherent sound, hoping that he would understand her intentions and not throw her out immediately.
Raising an eyebrow, Mr. Melvin propped his chin on one of his palms as he motioned for Emmia to sit down. "Go on."
"Hah," Emmia sighed in relief, her tongue finally unraveling itself. "Thank you for hearing me out."
"Actually I came here for advice on my gift."
"I didn't like my gift for the longest time....it's just too painful to use...but something happened recently that made me change my mind.."
"I want to get stronger, I mean in terms of fighting, but I don't know how to do that."
"I did learn some martial arts from my sister, but I'm just too weak to use them..."
"I tried imitating my brother, but...he's just on a whole another level."
"I don't know what to do now, and I want to know if there is anything I could do with my gift to get better?"
Emmia watched as Mr. Melvin slowly nodded, pondering whatever Emmia had just said.
"I see," Mr. Melvin finally said.
"And why so suddenly?" Mr. Melvin asked Emmia. "Is it because the exams are coming up and you think that you would fail them?"
Melvin Homes wanted to gauge the reaction and answer of this young girl. Based on that, he would decide whether it was worth it to help her or not.
"I..." Emmia hesitated for a moment before answering, "My sister was hurt recently...I know that she goes on dangerous jobs without telling me to keep me safe and whatnot, but...after seeing her hurt I just felt helpless..."
"I don't have any strength to help her out even if I wanted to .... but I want to make sure she's safe..." Emmia stopped herself from adding, 'And I don't want to lose her like grampa.'
With that thought in mind, Emmia finally realized, 'Grampa's disappearance really affected me too I guess.'
All this time, she thought that she was doing fine, but in reality, the subconscious fears and trauma that were buried deep inside were slowly being pulled to the surface by the swirling conflict that was slowly engulfing the city.
"Hmmm," Mr. Melvin hummed thoughtfully at Emmia's answer.
Hearing her teacher hum, Emmia fidgeted slightly, unsure of what to think of his reaction. 'Did he like my answer?'
'Will he help me?'
'Or maybe he's going to kick me out now-'
"Ok, I'll give you guidance," cutting through Emmia's thoughts, Mr. Melvin responded with an unreadable smile.
"Really!? Thank you so much, Mr. Melvin!" Emmia exclaimed in excitement. The first hurdle had been crossed.
"Don't get so excited so easily," Mr. Melvlin continued after seeing his student's reaction. "There's still a lot of hard work ahead if you want to get strong, especially after the fact that you have practically never used your gift."
Emmia scratched her cheek sheepishly after hearing her teacher point out her foolishness.
"You're gift is..."Mineral Merge", correct?" Mr. Melvin asked after flipping through his class roster for a few seconds. There he found Emmia's name, and various other details about her along with special remarks from professors if necessary.
'Would you look at that?' Melvin thought after reading the special remark left in her details.
'If the student approaches any professor to seek help about her gift, refer her to Melvin Homes. - Gavin Ruth'
"Yes sir," Emmia nodded, fidgeting slightly.
"Well then, let's head to the practice room," Mr. Melvin smiled and stood up.
"Already?" Emmia's voice cracked in surprise.
"Why? Did you not expect to use your gift today?" Mr. Melvin responded with a wry smile.
"N-no, I- I mean that I thought we would discuss..." Emmia trailed off as she too stood up, mostly due to her teacher already leaving the room.
"It's better to practically view your limits rather than just discuss," Mr. Melvin smiled. "Theory can only get you so far."
"I-I see," Emmia agreed as the words made sense to her, not that she particularly liked them in this context.
Mr. Melvin led the two downstairs to the first floor and then headed one more floor down.
'Where are we heading to?' Emmia questioned in her head as she looked around in wonder. She had never heard of there being a basement to the academic building, but in hindsight, it made sense that there would be one.
"If you're wondering where I'm taking you, we are going to my own private training room," Mr. Melvin helpfully filled in his clueless student.
"I seE?" Emmia's voice rose an octave at the end.
"Wait the teachers have their own training rooms?" Emmia blurted out the first question that popped into her mind.
"Of course, why wouldn't we?" Mr. Melvin replied. "In fact, there are such training rooms available to advanced students as well, albeit not private ones."
"Whoa," was Emmia's only response. If not for this day, Emmia would have had no idea that there were such training rooms. With that thought, a small flush of shame passed through Emmia.
'I'm a student and I don't know these things.....I need to do better,' Emmia thought to herself.
Sensing Emmia's inner turmoil, Melvin chose not to say anything.
"We're here," Mr. Melvin announced as he placed his palm on the side of the door.
'What's he do- ohh,' Emmia realized what was going on as she activated her ability to see universal energy. Her eyes were frosted over with a ruby red color, causing both of her eyes to become like red gemstones shining softly in the ambient light of the hallway.
'Amazing,' Emmia stared deeply as she watched the world turn white with black lines streaking towards Mr. Melvin. The black lines twirled and snaked their way into the wall disappearing into it in a specific pattern. Emmia watched this display of moving art with speechless awe as Mr. Melvin finally finished inputting his password into the wall.
'She can see universal energy, that's good,' Melvin noted to himself as he pushed open the door.
"Follow me," Mr. Melvin spoke up after seeing Emmia was still standing still looking at the door.
Breaking out of her trance, Emmia hurriedly nodded, her universal energy vision getting canceled, but not before catching a glimpse of Mr. Melvin's body which was filled to the brim with universal energy.
'Amazing,' Emmia thought to herself and followed her teacher.
Inside the room, Emmia gazed around wide-eyed. She had expected the room to be completely empty like the practical room they used for UE 101. Contrary to her expectations, the room was filled with materials. The floor, walls, and ceiling were all made out of black stone which reflected softly in the firelight coming from the fireplace- no a forge- sitting in the far end of the room. Adorning the wall close to the forge were hammers, tongs, chisels, and various other tools that Emmia didn't know the names of. Near the forge, was a large anvil made of some unknown material that almost came up to Emmia's waist.
The most striking thing to Emmia was that, pushed up against the right wall, there was a plethora of various things. Rocks of different colors, shapes, and sizes, metals of different textures and colors, materials that looked like horns, scales, feathers, and claws, and even scraps of metal weapons lay there. But what drew Emmia's attention the most was the things hanging on the wall. There, stuck to the wall were designs upon designs of various things. Carts, swords, bows, spears, lamps, disposal units, machine arms, engines, frames, forest crawlers, oceanic nets, walls of different shapes and sizes, and plenty of other designs filled up the entire wall.
Emmia just stood there in amazement, her mouth gaping, her eyes trying to devour all the sketches and designs in front of her.
Seeing his student's reaction, Mr. Melvin chuckled. He sent a pulse of universal energy into a specific spot causing a soft light to fill up the room, making it much more visible inside rather than just having the forge light illuminate everything.
"How is it?" Mr. Melvin asked Emmia, mostly out of curiosity.
"Its-its amazing.." Emmia managed to shut her mouth as she ripped her eyes away from the wall.
"As you can see, I'm actually a blacksmith, other than being a teacher here," Mr. Melvin started gesturing towards the forge and anvil.
Emmia just nodded, still stunned by the wall of sketches.
"I also make designs for plenty of other things upon request, but blacksmithing is my main profession," Mr. Melvin continued. "Anyways, enough of about me. Let's hear it, what are your limitations?"