BANG! BANG!
"Argh…!" Ramon yelled in fear, jolted awake from his sweet dream where he was the strongest astral traveler in the world as he scrambled for his sword.
"Ramon! What are you doing?!"
"You're late! It's after 7 already, we need to leave".
Ramon sighed in relief; he recognized that voice. 'It's him'. He glared at the door in rage. 'How dare he disturb my dream?!
His thought process paused, suddenly remembering the sentence, then his eyes widened.
"I'm late!" Ramon yelled in panic.
For a long time, since he was 5 after watching the crystal recording of the Fate Destroying Emperor, Ramon developed a yearning for power.
This yearning grew even stronger after watching Joel's crew kill a Dragon.
Ramon also wanted to hunt and kill a Dragon.
Since then, he yearned to learn about astral energy and grow powerful. Through his home teacher, he was able to grow more powerful but he still didn't learn much about astral energy, only the little known to non-users.
He could read about it but Ramon hated reading, this left him in constant torture of curiosity for years.
After years of waiting, Ramon was now 10, finally he could learn about astral energy but on his first class, he was late!
That was unacceptable!
"I'm coming!" He yelled at the wooden door. "I'll be there soon!"
'Do I need to bath? I'm late!' Ramon stared at his sword that was wrapped with leather, he almost picked it but a silhouette of a blonde-haired woman appeared in his head.
'Ramon, you're a man now, you're about to go to a prestigious academy'.
'It's up to you to make the Brenden family name proud'.
'Always obey your teachers, don't be stubborn, be disciplined and hardworking and most important of all, don't smell, always take your bath'.
'Who knows…, you may find a wife in school'.
"Ugh…!" Ramon grimaced.
Rushing outside with a bucket, Shaggy was surprised at first but he quickly understood his intentions. "Ramon, this is not Hope Town".
He laughed. "There's an indoors bathroom".
"Indoors bathroom?" Ramon's eyes widened, he was always used to fetching water and bathing outdoors or in the public Brenden family bathroom.
Ramon's eyes widened. "Like the patriarch's indoors bathroom?"
"Oh, your patriarch has one". Shaggy smiled. "But yeah, like that one".
Seconds later, Ramon was in the bathroom, isolated and all to himself in this clean environment even as water ran down his body through something that was called a shower. Shaggy said a mage constructed it.
Throughout, Ramon felt on top of the world. 'So this is an indoors bathroom'.
His eyes twinkled like the stars in a night sky. 'This is more than a bath; this is a discovery!'
'I love school already'.
When Ramon came out, he felt fresh and ready to go. "I'm ready!"
Seeing him, Shaggy smiled. "Good".
Ramon wanted to rush but Shaggy refused, he explained as they walked. "There are multiple departments in the academy, the most prominent being the Wildlife department where Mr. Patrick is the H.O.D".
Ramon looked at him. "What's a H.O.D?"
"Head of department".
"That fat man is an H.O.D? Favoritism!" Ramon gritted his teeth.
"Mr. Patrick is, sigh...," Shaggy rubbed his nose. "You'll learn for yourself".
"Other prominent departments are the history departments, the education department, and the weapon department. There are many more minor departments with focus on different other topics in the academy".
"Your fresher class for today is AST 101, Basics of astral energy. It is under the education department and your instructor for today is Mr. Guendouzi".
"Hmm," Ramon rubbed his chin. "That sounds familiar".
A few more seconds later, they finally arrived after 2 minutes of walking. The hall for the class was a 500 capacity large stone building.
From outside, they could already hear the instructor speaking.
Ramon's eyes narrowed on hearing the voice.
"You, you're a fresher right?"
"Yes, instructor".
"Tell us your name…"
"Where do you come from…?"
"…"
Series of serious logical questions later…
"What is your type in girls?
Ramon's eyes widened. "It's him!"
He rushed into the hall, startling the full lecture hall even as Shaggy scratched his head, already seeing a headache coming as all attention was suddenly taken from the instructor and placed on the late student.
The instructor smiled on seeing him. "Welcome, fresher".
"It's you!" Ramon glared at him.
"…" The instructor was speechless.
Yes, it was Ramon's home teacher, Guendouzi and at this moment, he had a bad feeling even as he tried to communicate with the boy through eye contact.
It took guts to communicate with Ramon through just eyes.
Ramon understood nothing. "Stop blinking your eyes at me! Did a fly perch in your eyes?"
"…" Guendouzi's eyebrows twitched.
Getting no reply, he kept on glaring at him. "Why didn't you tell me? You teach here?!"
'F*ck! Don't act so familiar, you'll ruin my reputation if they know I homeschooled a brat like you for money'. Guendouzi felt like crying.
He never expected the little brat to get a scholarship here.
If he knew ahead of time, just to keep his reputation here in the school, he would never have accepted the big money offer to take him in as a student.
'I guess I'll use a strategy on him'.
"Fresher, what is your name?" Guendouzi's tone turned strict.
"Huh? What are you saying? Stop acting like you don't know me…"
BOOM!
Ramon could not tell what happened, he only knew that Guendouzi's astral energy briefly spiked and the next moment, he seemed to be hit by something as he was sent flying the next moment.
He found himself sitting while still not understanding what happened.
"Fresher, number 1 rule in my class, never interrupt my lectures".
Ramon glared at him. "You…!"
"For the 2 freshers who just joined us, I'll start all over again".
"The topic for today is astral energy".
"The energy of nature is called astral energy and astral practitioners and beasts absorb and store it to empower their bodies, prolong their lives, and use astral techniques that are only possible through astral energy".
It was that exact knowledge that Guendouzi taught him after he became 7 and as the instructor spoke, enraptured, Ramon became focused as he completely forgot the goal that he was hellbent on accomplishing just a second ago.
Noticing this, Guendouzi sighed in relief. 'Luckily, he's still the same'.
It was the exact same topic that he taught Ramon years ago but this time after getting to where he stopped then, he didn't stop, he continued.
"The paths of astral practitioners are divided into 2, there is the warrior path and the mage path".
"There are more subdivisions under both astral paths".
Instructor Guendouzi drew a chart on the board, drawing 2 boxes and writing warrior path on the left and mage path on the box in the right.
As he drew, he explained. "In the astral world, new applications of astral energy keep on sprouting due to the imagination of astral practitioners but there are only 2 established major subdivisions of the warrior path".
"The warrior path is subdivided into Evolvers and Transmutators".
"Evolvers are those astral warriors whose astral energy type enables them to either strengthen their bodies or objects, mostly weapons".
"As for Transmutators, these are astral warriors who change the neutral quality of their energy into another quality. The strongest warrior and leader of the Lightning Manor, the Lightning Emperor is a Lightning Transmutator".
"The growth path of an astral warrior is decided on the day they awaken astral energy, this is because your astral energy type is fixed on awakening".
"In your next class of the Wildlife department, all of you freshers will finally be tested to determine the type of your astral energy".
Guendouzi smiled as he continued his teaching. "Apart from the warriors, the mage path is subdivided into 3 major subdivisions".
"The 3 subdivisions are Warlocks, Manipulators, and Transmutators".
"Warlocks are mages whose astral energy type enables them to conjure objects from astral energy, most Warlocks conjure weapons to fight in battle but there are others like the Light Fairy".
"She conjures mystical medical tools to heal unhealable diseases and injuries, that is why she is hailed as the greatest Doctor in the world".
"Manipulators are mages who have telekinesis-like powers, their astral energy type enables them to control animate and inanimate objects to use in battle, giving them a lot of variety".
"As for Mage Transmutators, like warriors, they have the ability to change the neutral quality of their aura into something else but to a much greater extent".
"Mage Transmutators is further subdivided into Elementalists and Mystic Transmutators. Elementalists are those whose affinity are focused on any of the major natural elemental energies, while mystic Transmutators are those who major on mystic forces like light, darkness, and poison affinities".
"This is the basic composition of the astral world".
"In our next class, I'll focus on the astral energy power system".
"I wish you luck on your day".
Picking his briefcase to leave, Guendouzi paused, looking straight at the students. "You, that fresher, meet me in my office.
Ramon finally snapped out of his reverie. "Huh?"