3 - How It All Began (2)
The night passed as if nothing was happening to the world, but at that moment Ocien didn't know what else to do. He simply existed until he felt his shoulders being shaken violently.
The Instructor responsible for transferring Ocien was apprehensive trying to find out what happened to the boy and had to use force to wake him from his trance.
"Instructor Yonan." – Ocien stammered when he recognized who was shaking him.
A sigh of relief escaped the instructor now that he would finally receive the answers he needed.
"Ocien, what happened here? Why didn't you answer when we knocked on the door?" – Yonan asked, trying to be as professional as possible.
The reality was that he was furious, if it weren't for the fact that the boy was leaving today he would have punished him severely for the simple fact of making him wait.
"I-I used my resources to advance to the 2nd Star." - he said without much life in his voice.
The Instructor checked Ocien's Circle and nothing unusual appeared, just the fact that there was only a single Star in his 1st Circle. His anger began to take control, his ears and neck began to turn red and veins began to stand out on his forehead.
"That's no reason for you to stay that way, Lents need resources to advance, it just means you need more!" – he said, almost shouting.
Thinking it was just a problem with the boy's knowledge, Yonan directed his anger at him without thinking twice with the impression that Ocien would wake up from that daze and readily agree with him.
But that didn't happen, even as the minutes passed.
"What resources did you use to overcome the barrier?" – asked the instructor, voicing the doubt that arose in his mind.
For the first time Ocien briefly woke up from his lethargic state, with a ray of hope, something must be wrong with the resources he used.
"Two Mana Stones and five Cores". – he replied, grasping the possibility.
The instructor's face almost immediately took the form of a frown, his mouth almost open in a smile like the one we breathe heavily through clenched teeth. Doubt took a new form and the difficulty of explaining the situation only made him more embarrassed due to the way he acted just a few moments ago.
The Academy's resources underwent a rigorous review, even he received the same Cores as the apprentices, not to mention the precision with which each Mana Stone was processed. The Schools received Nuclei with energies lower than fifteen, but all very well classified. The academies, in turn, received Cores between fifteen and twenty-five points that are distributed according to each year completed.
By all accounts, the boy used more than the limit that his body should support, or better said, he should not continue the absorption without exceeding the barrier.
Weighing the possibility that the boy was lying, Yonan thought it more prudent to sacrifice a Mana Stone to be sure. They are expensive, but for someone like him, who has hundreds, a single one doesn't make a difference.
From his pocket he took out the Mana Stone and handed it to Ocien.
"Refine this stone so I can be sure." – asked the instructor in a serious tone.
Ocien just nodded in agreement and focused on the stone.
Seconds passed and the Stone crumbled in his hands, Yonan injected mana into the boy's body to see the result, but nothing happened. One Mana Stone would be enough for the first signs of a Star to appear, but nothing happened.
"Boy, I don't want to lie to you, but there's probably something wrong with your body. You will probably never reach the 2nd Star". – said the instructor after a long pause to organize his thoughts.
Ocien's nightmare only got worse, at that moment all he wanted to do was sleep and never wake up.
"From what I remember from his record, you awakened as a Warrior too, maybe that's the path you should take and not that of a Mage." – Yonan continued trying to console him.
An awkward and without much hope smile appeared on Ocien's face, with more than half of the school year he was going to be sent to a school where he would need to start over on the Warrior Path from scratch.
Would this really be possible?
Yonan informed the Academy's top management and like a bunch of curious people they surrounded the boy, poked, analyzed, carried out new tests, more mana stones were absorbed by the boy until they reached the same conclusion as the Instructor. Ocien's path as a Mage was a dead end.
When Morian found out about this, his office nearly collapsed in his rage of shame. The plans changed, he didn't need a son like Ocien, he needed to hide the boy so that no more shame would reach him.
The boy's new fate has been decided. The 3rd level school in the city of Almage, a long enough trip that no one has ever heard of the Debulis.