1 month after the first duel, the Headmistress' office…
A magic crystal hovered in the air of this office and it displayed a video, showcasing moving pictures speaking.
"My love, please don't leave me!" A masculine voice reverberated as the spectator, the most distinguished individual in Centerpoint Astral Academy folded in pain, enraptured by the moment recorded in the video.
"My love, if you leave me, I'll die!"
"I can't live without you".
"You are my everything".
"You are the breath I breathe".
"You are the light of my world".
"If you leave, my life will become colorless".
"Please bear with me, it's just a temporary problem. I'm a strong and talented man. Give me time, believe in me, I'll work hard and recover from this".
A feminine voice sniffed as the beautiful mermaid princess wiped her tears. "I'm sorry Ian, I can't stay with you".
"You're broke, you're miserable, you have nothing, you're a good for nothing".
"I can't stay with a broke man, sorry".
"Please! No…!" The male mermaid cried.
Amid the voice coming from the magic crystal, another sobbing voice was heard in the office as she sniffed. "Why would you do that to him?"
"That's so cruel".
"I hate you Ada!" She wiped her tears.
Knock! Knock!
Hearing the knock on the door, this lady sat upright immediately like a switch was suddenly turned on in her head, triggering her other personality.
With one wave of her hand, the magic crystal disappeared as all her tears, the soaked tissue papers, and all the untidiness in her office disappeared.
The person at the door didn't wait before pushing the door open.
Like she expected, it was her assistant, Sheila.
"You didn't wait for my reply before entering". She complained.
"I'm sorry…," Sheila said casually before suddenly pausing as she noticed how ridiculously clean and tidy the office was.
She directed a suspicious look at the lady who rubbed her nose on feeling her gaze. "What?"
Sheila's face turned even more suspicious on hearing that. "You were watching another episode of My One True Love again, right?"
"Ahem…, no".
"You're lying!"
Cough!
The headmistress coughed violently. "Ok, ok, you caught me". She sighed. "You're so boring Sheila," She complained.
She looked at the ceiling of her office seemingly in thought. "What's the use in having so much power if you can't even enjoy it?"
"Sheila, it's good to enjoy life you know".
Sheila looked at her and rolled her eyes. "Why do you sound so much like an astral traveler? Your students would be so disappointed if they hear you".
"That's their problem". She pouted.
99% of astral warriors in the Centerpoint Astral Academy would never believe if they were told that their headmistress had this side to her.
Lady Openda was a middle-aged neat looking woman with dark brown hair that was neatly tied behind her. Like Guendouzi, she was always on black scholarly clothes, making many mistake her for a strict and disciplined individual.
In reality, she loved watching romance series than cultivating.
"Ok, what brought you here Sheila?" Lady Openda looked at her assistant with an inquisitive gaze who only rolled her eyes in response.
"You told me to compile a file on the 4 Specialists and I'm not surprised, you forgot again watching those series of yours".
"Don't drag my series in!" Lady Openda argued.
Sheila rolled her eyes.
"At least, my series are better than 90% of the real-life relationships around," Waving a hand, the papers appeared in her hand as she looked through them.
Sheila stopped what she was doing, exasperated. "That's why you're still single".
"Same to you".
"…!" Sheila fumed.
Ignoring her fuming assistant while smirking, Lady Openda read through the file. As she read, she commented idly. "Compared to the previous set that only had 1 Specialist, I'm still surprised that 4 managed to appear in this set".
>Specialists<
>Name: Aegon Winsmoke<
[Realm: Low-tier Legionnaire Stage Mage]
[Astral Path: Manipulator]
[Affinity: Fire]
[Specialist Ability: Amplified manipulation abilities and ability to control both animate and inanimate objects.]
[History: Rivalry with Ramon Brenden.]
…
>Name: Ramon Brenden<
[Realm: Low-tier Legionnaire Stage Warrior]
[Astral Path: Evolver]
[Specialist Ability: Unnatural sword talent and technique comprehension abilities. Incredible proficiency with a sword, and a rare golden astral energy manifestation from the sea of consciousness.]
[History: Beef with Aegon Winsmoke.]
Lady Openda raised her head from her book, inclining her head to look at her redhead assistant. Sheila had beautiful reddish-brown hair that complemented her already glowing beauty.
"This, is everything here accurate?" She asked.
"Yes". Sheila answered without looking back as she crosschecked through a few things to confirm that everything was in order in the office.
"He has golden astral energy manifestation?"
"Yes". Sheila finally turned her head to look at the Headmistress. "He's the only one with such energy manifestation across the whole school, and I've never heard of an astral warrior manifesting that".
Her face showed curiosity. "Is there anything special about it?"
"No".
"I can literally tell through your face that you're lying".
Lady Openda flatly looked at her assistant. "No".
Sheila no longer pushed; Lady Openda never said no 3 times.
"I noticed something else, you wrote rivalry in Aegon's file but in Ramon's, you wrote beef, why?"
Sheila chuckled. "It was only a true rivalry for just 2 weeks".
"After their first duel, Aegon vowed to fight Ramon again and win to regain his pride while the fool kept on persuading Aegon to join his crew".
"In the past month, they've fought in the ring 2 more times".
"Both times, Ramon won again, even more convincingly than before. He's shown great ability to learn from his mistakes and improve".
"He's really talented, I doubt he can lose to the same opponent of his realm twice". Sheila grimaced. "My only problem with him is that he's pretty foolish".
Lady Openda chuckled. "I get why Aegon will take Ramon as his rival, but why does Ramon have a beef with Aegon?"
Sheila looked at the Headmistress. "Because Aegon refused to join his so-called crew, he feels that Aegon betrayed him".
"…"
Both ladies burst out laughing.
>Name: Elmas Elden<
[Realm: Low-tier Legionnaire Stage Warrior]
[Astral Path: Evolver]
[Specialist Ability: Undefined.]
[History: None.]
Lady Openda rubbed her chin. "Of that Elden family?"
"Yes". Sheila answered.
"These freshers are truly special".
>Name: Freya Atreus<
[Realm: Mid-tier Legionnaire Stage Warrior]
[Astral Path: Warrior Transmutator]
[Affinity: Wind]
[Specialist Ability: Partially defined. Freya has showed abilities with her bow and arrow that defies logic, her archery instructor concluded that her specialist ability is related to manipulating probability.]
[History: None.]
Lady Openda became even more interested. "Already a mid-tier Legionnaire Stage Warrior and has a specialist ability related to manipulating probability".
"These freshers are truly something".
She rubbed her chin. "Sheila, help me keep an extra eye on them".
"Yes, ma'am".
…
1 month disappeared in a flash to Ramon after the duel as he continued his progress, taking full advantage of his scholarship to this prestigious astral academy.
This 1 month and few weeks in the academy premises already validated through his incredible growth that coming here was the best option he could get.
Though he was still a low-tier Legionnaire Stage Warrior, his sword skills kept on increasing by leaps and bounds and through his rewards gotten from his bets in the combat arena, he already bought 2 new sword techniques.
Apart from practicing his skills and sword techniques, the only other thing in his daily schedule was cultivating and attending lectures.
Of course, Ramon felt a bit frustrated by his slow growth in terms of his astral energy but Shaggy already advised him to be patient that this was the fate of astral warriors. Cultivation was a slow burn and patience-intensive task.
With every class that he attended; Ramon learned more about this world even as he grew to know more of his classmates.
Of course, his attention was mostly on Aegon that he had sparred with 3 times already. He wanted him so badly in his future astral traveler crew.
Today, the class was WLD 104, knowledge of the Winged Assassin.
The instructor in this class was a short brown-haired middle-aged man under Mr. Patrick's wildlife department. "Like you all already know, Winged Assassin is the name for any bird of prey in the wild capable of taking an astral warrior's life".
"Today, our focus will be on the young ones of the Storm Peregrine Falcon".
"Like you were taught in your history class, the Eastern Typhoon Continent is called so because of the presence of the Typhoon Eagle, the resident apex predator whose mere presence affects the climate of our continent".
"The ancient rival of the Typhoon Eagle is the Storm Peregrine Falcon, Storm Falcon for short. Today, we'll be discussing on how to survive an encounter with anyone of its weak offsprings".
"In the wild, since we can't fly yet, astral warriors are vulnerable to attacks from birds of prey in the sky".
"This is why in a student unit; the presence of a scout is very important".
"Most birds of prey prefer speed over defense and offense, this is why against them, it is important to spot them early and react appropriately by hiding".
"If you can hide, the next priority should be to cripple its wings through any means possible to reduce its speed or immobilize it if possible".
"That is the only realistic way to stand a chance against them".
"As for their body characteristics, young Storm Eagles are…"
"As for their affinities, they are…"
The instructor taught for 45 minutes before finally bringing the lecture to an end, after which Ramon went to pester and ask Aegon again one more time.
"Join my crew!"
"Get lost!" Aegon was losing it.
The other students were not surprised, they were used to it.
Attending class after class, cultivating, training his skills and techniques, Ramon lived daily in the Centerpoint Astral Academy as time passed and in the blink of an eye, 4 more months passed.
It was already 2nd semester and finally, one night while cultivating in his room, Ramon finally felt it.
He saw the astral energy of his sea of consciousness rise above a level.
He was about to have a tier breakthrough.