Still sitting cross-legged on the ground of the silent room, Yune's inquisitive nature was practically feasting on all the new things he was learning about his mark and powers while doing small experiments.
For the first time in a long time, Yune felt accomplished with what he was doing, the warmth inside his body felt like something that filled a previous void. There wasn't a moment that Yune didn't have a big smile on his face. Having so much fun, time went by in what felt like a blink of an eye.
Yune was still inside the silent room when he saw the other students leaving class. On the wall behind the wall Yune spotted a clock, reading 07:55. A few hours had apparently already passed, and it was now time for breakfast.
Seeing this, Yune's stomach couldn't help but growl.
'Yes, I am hungry too. Good timing stomach, let's go eat.'
With the marking phenomenon happening at exactly midnight, Yune had skipped an entire day's sleep. But for some reason he didn't feel tired at all, his body full of energy.
Practically storming out of the room, Yune hastily walked towards the group of students, wanting to follow them as he didn't know where the cafeteria was.
But as soon as Yune was seen walking towards the students with a pace faster than theirs, the students also quickly picked up their pace as they preferably didn't want to interact with Yune.
Yune tilted his head in confusion, but then realized why the students had picked up their pace. So, Yune slowed down his pace.
'Is that really all because one person thought I might be from the Mujag family? How scary can a family be?'
Well, Yune didn't mind the privacy this misunderstanding created, not being bothered to waste time talking with anybody. They might also just use him and then throw him away when he is worth more than their investment, just like at the orphanage…
With a sigh, Yune just followed the group from a distance until they entered the cafeteria. It was only at that moment he got a feeling of the real scale of the academy.
There were thousands upon thousands of students in the cafeteria, and there were still plenty of empty tables. Also, apparently, this was only the cafeteria for the first-year students. With not even every student eating breakfast, Yune couldn't even imagine how many people were at the academy in total.
The hundred students Yune had just met were just the students of one of the classes the students could follow. There were numerous other classes, and the students had free will to choose whichever class to go to. Apparently, the class Yune was dragged to wasn't even that popular, and on top of that, it was the nighttime class, which isn't a popular time to follow class.
Snapping out of thought, Yune quickly made his was up to the growing que of students to be served their breakfast. Grabbing a tray, Yune made his way down the line. There weren't many food options, but Yune wasn't picky and ended up with baked potatoes, some steamed vegetables, and some type of meat.
Sitting down at one of the empty tables, Yune quickly ate his meal. It wasn't particularly good, but it was a healthy meal that provided a lot of energy, nutrients and protein that would benefit them while following class and training their body.
Once done with his meal, Yune immediately stood up and walked out of the cafeteria. Looking at his student ID, a room was assigned to him in building D.
Even though Yune wasn't tired he had decided to at least take a powernap. Well, Yune also had another reason. He just couldn't wait to take a look at the room where he was going to be staying at for the coming few years.
Yune hadn't been instructed where this building was, but luckily it was clearly indicated. While admiring the various facilities that were on the campus, Yune quickly arrived in front of what looked like a grand hotel, stretching well over a hundred meters from side to side, at least thirty stories tall.
'Building D…'
Looking down at his student ID to check if he didn't misread, he saw that he was really at the right place, building D. It was way bigger than Yune had expected, and if he were to base it from the outside appearance of the building, his room was going to be a lot better than he had expected.
Walking inside he was greeted by a nod from someone who appeared to be a receptionist. She wore a formal black and white suit and had a kind smile as expected from someone in this line of work.
Giving a nod in response, Yune walked past the reception desk and began walking towards a set of stairs that were in front of him.
Yune's only purpose of going to this building was obviously to go to his room, but before even having arrived at the stairs of the building, something caught his eye, immediately stopping Yune in his tracks.
'Reward, 1 small mana stone…'
Yune's eyes widened as he saw this text on one of the many flyers on the wall, immediately focusing his full attention on it. On the top of the wall, where these flyers were hung, it read: Contribution Board.
Already stepping closer to it, Yune began reading the numerous flyers that covered the wall. There he read all kind of requests, each of them stating a reward at the bottom of the flyer, either rewarding contribution points or mana crystals.
The reason why Yune was so shocked, seeing mana crystals as a reward, was because that was the exact thing he was hoping to have right now.
Yune had been experimenting with his mana for hours on end, and he had already improved pretty fast, getting comfortable with using his mana.
But Yune still found the process to be slow. He wanted to use his powers more, experiment more and improve faster. And for that he needed more mana.
Yune was taught that there were only two ways to increase mana quantity, the first one being to continuously use mana as much as possible.
This, Yune had already been doing. He was even using his mana at this very moment, activating his mana to achieve a constant weight reduction of 5%. Not only was this practice in and of itself, but continuous use would also increase one's mana quantity.
But this was a slow process, which Yune didn't really have the patience for.
The second way to increase a person's mana quantity is to consume mana crystals. Mana crystals are a resource which contains a concentrated amount of mana. Nearly every monster has a mana crystal inside their body, even plants or some ores are filled with mana.
But obtaining these mana crystals was not an easy task. Mana crystals from plants or ores are very rare, and suffice to say that getting mana crystals from a monster's body was no easy task.
For that reason they are worth a small fortune on earth. That was why Yune was so surprised to see that they were given as a reward for numerous quests.
Having his eyes set on wanting to receive mana crystals, Yune's eyes darted around all over the wall looking for a quest that he could possibly do. And this didn't take long. Not even a minute later, Yune's eyes were glued to one specific flyer.
[Blue Leilani flower collection quest]
[Location: Red hyperion forest - Distance: 5 kilometers - Danger rating: 0.1]
[Reward: 1 tiny colorless mana crystal per flower]
Yune couldn't believe his eyes when he saw this quest. It was very close by, the danger rating was the lowest he had seen, and the reward were mana crystals!
Grabbing the flyer off the wall, Yune walked up to the receptionist with glistening eyes.
"I want to do this quest, please!"
The woman chuckled seeing the excited Yune holding a flyer in his hand.
"Okay, go for it. But please return the flyer on the contribution board."
Quickly turning around, Yune's cheeks couldn't help but become red as he quickly hung the flyer back on the wall and quickly left the building. As soon as he left the building, though, all the embarrassment was quickly drowned out by the pure excitement he had, thinking about being able to get his hands on mana crystals.
Once again following the directional signs on the academy campus, Yune quickly arrived at the front gate of the academy. Beyond that laid the city? Yune didn't really know what to call it, but it looked like a city, just fortified to the max.
Not even having stepped foot outside of the academy, Yune spotted what he was hoping on finding, a bus reading city border North.
'That is where I need to go!'
With an unfolded map still in his hands, Yune ran towards the bus, just barely getting on it in time. Once on the bus, Yune got a quick scare forgetting that he needed money, which he didn't have, but the bus ride turned out to be free. Thank you, taxpayers!
Driving through the city in the bus, Yune didn't have any time to be bored. Even though all the buildings were made from the same three materials, they all looked vastly different, be it from shape, size, or just overall design.
Yune even passed by a building that was shaped like a whale… The reason for this interesting design, Yune had no idea.
After a good 15 minutes of driving, Yune had arrived at the last gate of the fortress city, which was the last stop of the bus.
There were only one or two students that were dropped off. The rest were all adults clad in armor and equipped with weapons. They looked exactly like Yune had imagined mercenaries to look like.
But this was not what Yune's eyes were focused on.
Not even two kilometers away from where he was standing laid the red hyperion forest he needed to go to. Even from this distant the trees looked massive, they must have been well over a hundred meters tall! Excitedly, Yune ran off to the forest without looking back again.
"Is that kid going to the forest alone? Bad idea…"
"Seems like it. He has a uniform of the academy, so he is a marked. He should be okay."
"Even so,- Well, what do I care?"
The mercenaries commented as they saw Yune running towards the forest on his own, but at this point Yune was already too far away to hear. Full of energy again, Yune was using his powers to decrease his weight to reach the forest quicker, if only for a little.