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*Earth*( Year 3910)
*Center Region*
*Arcane Citadel Academy*
*Entrance Ceremony*
Ophelia spoke calmly and gracefully as her green eyes glanced amongst the students pausing on Navir for an instant before gliding pass.
Navir look at this woman finding her familiar but just can't put his finger on it, maybe he had seen her before but he was drawing a blank artwork.
.""Before we begin, to make things easier we will be separating you into 4 different groups, at my side are 4 instructors of the academy, they will be teaching you everything you need to know to survive in the other world"".
.""If I call your name go to bench A"".
Ophelia started listing a bunch of names of which Navir, Illise, that same Leon Heart fellow and the woman who was staring at Navir were apart of.
.""50 is now in group A, if I call your name now go to bench B"".
Ophelia began listing more names and throughout this entire process some students began to get extremely nervous especially those who were placed in group C.
One student on bench C raised her hand which Ophelia acknowledged."Ma'am, w-what is the criteria for these placements, they just seem kind of random."She said in denial, how could she possibly be so low.
Ophelia smiled at this."I can assure you, this is the furthest thing from random, this was the placement given to you after intensive research and analysis, for right now group A is the group with most possible future prospects."She said glancing amongst the A group pausing once again on Navir and by default Illise.
."Anymore questions, I'm all ears for right now so get it off your chest."Ophelia said looking around not seeing anyone she prepared to speak but then saw a hand and was surprised at who it was.
Navir held his hand up with a question."Where is everyone else and why so serious."He asked calmly, it was just a game after all, but yet the prestige was enormous.
Amongst the students a few of them were also curious of this and a small sub section smirked, Ophelia smiled."Oh, Navir you will see when the time comes."She said mysteriously as she place her finger on her lips.
Navir nodded but Illise on the other had frowned.'How does she know his name, have they ever met, no maybe she looked at his records and memorized his face.'She thought shaking her head, but even that would still be weird.
.""Alright then moving on, I will tell you something, amongst you there are some who are talented common men and others who are rich pampered princesses"".
.""From backgrounds so high they could call upon the sea of stars and some so low even calling for food would be a bother"".
.""But here at Arcane Citadel Academy, only the strong survive, if you are poor this is your chance to climb the ranks and even if you were born rich, you too can build something of your own"".
.""From the time you stepped into the academy gates you are no longer a mere mortal man or woman, you are now NineEther Adventurers, take from me what you will but always remember one thing....."".
.""Adventure to create your path and take control of Ether, only then would you see the Nine and gain the infinite power of the source"".
As the students heard that they collectively felt a chill in there spines even Navir and he doesn't know why, he felt like something entered his body and gave him a tingling sensation to his fingers.
Ophelia kept her smiled as she looked around at everyone."Good, thank you for coming, I shall hand you over to your instructors, they will introduce themselves."She said walking off the podium, giving Navir one last look she left through the door which she came.
One of the instructors stepped forward."Hello students, my name is James, physical training instructor of the Arcane Citadel Academy in the mortal world."He said calmly.
The others also introduced themselves, the other guy stepped forward."I am Tommie, your Sword instructor here in the mortal world."He said giving a nod of greeting.
."I am Claire, your general education instructor here in the mortal world academy."The first lady stepped forward smiling at everyone.
The last stepped forward."I am Michelle, I'll be your nurse and psychologist here in this academy, nice to meet you all."She smiled brightly shaking at the students.
James stepped back to the podium."Alright, your entrance ceremony is over, instructor Claire will share out your schedules so pass them around."He said analyzing everyone.
Soon all the students were holding their schedules, Navir looked at it curiously, on the paper he saw that each group would have training four times a week, then two days for general education and the last day would be a rest day.
."At the end of two full weeks we would then be confident enough to send you off on your adventure to the NineEther realm."James said glancing at particular student."Any questions?".
One student raised their hand."Sir, when you say at the end of two weeks training, do you mean that we have to stay here for the entire two weeks?.He asked with apprehension.
."Hmm, it seems that none of you are very well informed, this academy is a dorm academy, meaning until those two weeks of training are over you will not be allowed to leave"".
.""You can but the training would be considered incomplete and you will have to start over again from scratch"".
That caused an uproar amongst some of the student, they weren't made aware that they would be spending two weeks in the academy before they get to go home.
.""Hey that's not fair, some of us are busy people you know, who will take care of our businesses"".
.""Yeah, not all of us are peasants with nothing to do"".
The instructors stood calmly amidst this turbulent sea, after the student calmed down a bit James came forward again."We are not forcing you to do anything, but your money was already paid, if you leave now you will have to pay again or wait on another acceptance letter from us if you're talent, but it wouldn't be guaranteed."He said.
Some of the students whispered amongst themselves, Illise who was sitting next to Navir looked a bit guilty as she glanced at him, she knew about this part and selfishly chose not to tell him.
Navir on the other hand was serene, he had a feeling something like this might happen and plus he'd already said his goodbyes to Whitney, when he returns to her he will be a different man.
.""Go now that everyone is on the same page, followed this door on my left to your dorms, you all were given phones sponsor by the academy, that will be your key to getting around the dormitories, good day"".
Claire clapped her hands."Alright, you may leave in an orderly line, group A can go first, the last to leave will be group D."She said as she smiled sweetly.
With that Navir along with the other's entered the door leaving the other's behind, on the other side was a dimly lit tunnel they were now walking through.
.""Is it just me or does it feel like we're going down a slope?"".
Someone said random, other's also felt the same thing, it was like they were going down a hill, maybe headed to the basement of the academy.
Navir stopped walking as he glanced around, Illise also stopped with him."What's wrong Navir, did you notice something?."She asked also looking around.
The lady Maria who was constantly staring at Navir also stopped, she grinned as she glanced at specific locations around her, her bodyguards instantly enclosed her.
The extra large fellow Leon Heart also started to notice something fishy, he put his arms up in combat ready position."Who is there, stop hiding like a cowered and show yourself!."He said loudly projecting his voice hurting the ears of some.
*Ching*!
*Shh*!!!
At speeds unreasonable for the human eye to keep track of a sliver light flew through the group of students, Navir's eyes constricted as he took a step forward but the silver light flew pass him.
Illise on the other hand felt her heart drop, reflecting in her eyes was a silver dagger ready to penetrate her eyes and destroyed her brain, she froze up unable to move a muscle.
.'Am I going to die?'.
*Puh*!!!
*Drip*!
*Drip*!
.""Ahhhh!"".
.""Kyaa!"".
Illise stood with her eyes wide open, her heart pulsating through her chest and her head feeling light as the dagger centimeters away from her right eye was stopped in it's tracks by a powerful hand.
The hand belonged to Navir, instantly after the dagger flew by him he knew that he wasn't the intended target, instead it was the only person behind him, Illise.
With quick reflexes he managed to stop the dagger thrown but it sliced open his hand as blood poured down like a fountain, he dropped the dagger.
."Ah, I ended up saving you again, Whitney will be angry."Navir whispered calmly as he looked at his hand which started to turn purple possibly poisoned."..I will need an antidote for this."
Maria seeing Navir injured eyes lit ablaze, she clenched her teeth as she jumped into the air with a flip, landing on the ground she pull a knife from by her leg.
*Puh*!!!
.""Agh!"".
Maria stab seemingly wild at a location in the dark but a cry of pain sounded out, Maria twisted the knife and pulled it out as blood spout into the sky.
She glanced around running to another place and stabing someone else, with amazing speed and precision she moved around the tight tunnel taking out over 5 masked individuals.
.""Wait wait, this is just a test, stop it's just a test!!!"".
From down the tunnel a person came running, he took his mask off revealing that he was James their physical education instructor, his face was pale as he went and check on his colleagues.
."Is that so, just a test huh, yet someone got hurt, I think it's only fair I hurt you back a bit don't you think so."Maria said as her violet eyes were cold and emotionless, she raised her knife again swiping at James neck catching him off guard.
*Tin*!!!
Passing through the students expertly a shadow appeared blocking Maria knife with a knife of their own, Maria grinned."Good day to you as well, HAA!."She said as she pushed the person away.
The Shadow backflipped landing like a cat on the ground, they had on a black cat mask and was dressed fully in black assassin like clothes.
."Interesting, you're stronger than all these weak so-called instructors, let's have a go."Maria said grinned harder, she moved off almost disappearing.
The shadow calmly raised the knife to their neck blocking Maria's sword and with impossible easy they continued blocking every single move, no matter what Maria did or feint she tried they were all useless.
*Ching*!!!
Maria hopped back now serious as she held her bleeding hand, she glanced to the wall where her knife was embedded."You are strong, but this is something else, it shouldn't be possible."She said regaining her smirk.
Navir squeezing through the student came up front, he walked pass Maria getting a surprised expression from her as her eyes gained complicated emotions.
The Shadow also took a step back from him, Navir gazed at this person."You went too far, you almost killed someone, why."He asked calmly, he clenched his working fist tightly.
James came up."We didn't try to hurt you or anything, we had everything under control, we were just testing you, that dagger that was thrown at the girl had a wire, we would have stop it."He said frustrated as alot of his fellow instructors were injured badly, some fatally.
The Shadow sighed deeply."We're really sorry about this, I didn't expect for you to get involved so it got complicated."They said taking off their mask revealing herself to be Ophelia.
.""The masked Shadow is Ophelia, our student council president?"".
The students were stunned, they were trapped in some elaborate scheme by their academy, Maria frowned at this reveal, she didn't care before but now she knew it was that bitch that was stronger than her.
Ophelia looked at Navir apologetically."I'm truly sorry Navir, here this is the antidote for the poison."She said giving him a small capsule pill.
Navir took it gazing at her for a moment before throwing it in his mouth and swallowing, instantly he felt a weird calmness, then a tingling in his hand and the pain was gone along with the purple color, even his mouth pain was gone.
."I'm sorry again Navir, everyone on behalf of the academy I apologize to you all, I hope you can forgive us, we took it too far."Ophelia said bowing her head deeply, her green eyes were genuinely apologetic as they glittered with guilt.
The student especially the guy's seeing her expression felt bad that she felt bad, coupled with her beautiful appearance her current demeanor was just fatal.
.""Well um, it's probably just a miscommunication"".
.""Yeah and no one got hurt really bad, I guess it's ok"".
."'"Ophelia no need to feel bad, we're sorry"".
A few of them said trying to comfort her, they even apologized, Maria seeing this scoffed folding her arms."How are they falling for that evil woman's schemes, ridiculous."She said rolling her eyes as her four bodyguards surrounded her again allowing her to rest.
As Ophelia took control of the situation and calmed everyone down a few nurses were called taking the injured instructors to get fixed up, they cleaned Navir's wound and wrapped it in bandaid.
After that led by James they reached the end of the tunnel and entered an entirely new world, stretching as far as their eyes could see were rows and rows of connected buildings.
The streets were beautiful paved, around were trees and right in the middle was what seemed to be a Colosseum for warrior's.
But strangely enough there was no one here, everything was silent and the place was chilled from the lack of body heat.
.""This is where you all will stay as you complete your 2 weeks of training, the dorms have everything you will ever need, Tv, books, food and various other entertainments"".
.""Every other day as you are out with your instructors the janitors will come around and clean up after you, changing your sheets, sweeping etc"".
Navir squint his eyes."Strange, no one is around and everything is empty, no gamers, no games, I don't like this."He said calmly as he glanced around.
."Yeah it is odd, it's almost as though..as though."Illise said as she paused in thought wondering if she should mention it."Maybe...".
James gazed at Illise."Some of you have probably came up with your own theories, but you will never truly know till your 2 weeks are over, only then will all your questions be answered."He said with a stern expression.
."Alright go ahead and make yourself comfortable, your first lesson begins at 7pm tonight, oh one last think, keep your phone on you at all times, that will be your most important device."James said as he started to walk away already."Your phone also has your room number, 100 females, 100 males, two of you have the same number, now good day".
James walked off leaving all of them awkwardly standing, they glanced amongst each other not knowing what to do.
."Dammit do I have to take the lead in everything, do cowers know no shame."Leon Heart said mockingly as he took out his phone looking for his dorm number."Mine is dorm 1 room 6, bye losers."
Leon Heart left them behind as he went off to his dorm, Illise already had out her phone seeing dorm 2 room 1, she glanced over to Navir."What dorm and room are you in Navir, i would like to have hope but I doubt heavily it's mine."She said peeking at his phone curiously.
."..Dorm 1, room 6...."Navir said, he blinked his eyes then gazed off at the direction that the abrasive fellow Leon Heart left."Do you think he will try to kill me in ma sleep?."
Illise covered her mouth sniffling a laugh that almost made an outburst."He wouldn't do that Navir, Leon is not a tyrant you know, infact his family is very noble, just brash, wild and overly confident."She said with a smiled, she took his hand."Come I'll take you to your room."
Maria standing under a tree with her guards watched Navir till he was completely out of her sight then she left also.
~~
*Arcane Citadel Academy*
*Backroom*
On the other side of the academy a door opened and Ophelia walked into a dimly lit room having only one source of light reflecting in her direction.
Ophelia came up behind a big chair and bowed her head."Sir, what do you think of them, I personally give my approval to a few."She said calmly as she glanced up.
Infront of her was a mysterious dark figure sitting on the chair and staring at an array of monitors Infront of him, they were showing all the students live and some were showing what had already happened.
.""Interesting, this year's batch has alot of great potential, especially among five that I've seen, but that one, Navir was it?"".
The mysterious man grinned as a pair of red eyes and a set of pearly white teeth burst through the thick darkness.
."Yes sir, I personally recommend him, his potential is by far the greatest I've ever seen in my life and I know him well, it's very unlikely that he would fall into the abyss."Ophelia said speaking great on Navir's behalf as a reminiscent glowed radiated from her eyes.
The mysterious man glanced back at Ophelia showing a corner of his face into the light reveal smooth wrinkle free skin.
.""Right, he was apart of that platoon, the Shadow, if I remember right you were also-"".
."Sir, this is not about me, I would appreciate it if you focus back on this year's new students so we can better understand them and train them properly."Ophelia said with annoyance but keeping her head bowed, she took a pill from her pocket and shakily placed it in her mouth then she calmed down with a sigh.
.""Sure, we'll have to face this demon in the future anyway, but for now I'll leave it be"".
The mysterious man turned back to the screen looking at a recording of Navir stopping the poison dagger with his bare hands.
.""Truly Interesting"".
~~