While Ken stood there, lost in thought, yesterday's memory still lingered vividly in his mind. He wondered what could have happened.
"This is the spot, but there's no sign of dead bodies or blood. Was it just my imagination?" He thought, but then he wondered why the system stated that he had completed his side quest yesterday.
The quest stated that he must drink a human's blood. But if yesterday's events were imaginary, then how was the quest completed?
Thinking about this, he came to a conclusion.
"It must have been because I slept for too long. I heard that sometimes, sleep can rid one of hunger. That's why my hunger percentage was low when I woke up." He thought, relieved.
""Maybe it'll rise later, I don't know. But I'm glad I didn't have to complete that quest." He said, heaving a sigh of relief.
This was the only conclusion he could arrive at, even if it seemed implausible, yet Ken preferred it over the alternative: that he had indeed sucked a human's blood.
While he was busy thinking of this, he was unaware of the danger lurking above his head, or the fact that someone was planning an imminent attack on him.
"I must get rid of him." The voice whispered. Just as the fellow prepared to lunge at Ken, a familiar scent wafted his nose, causing him to halt for a moment. It was a smell he recognised to be that of… "Humans."
He looked to his right and could see two students approaching Ken. The students were both Scott and Travis.
They spotted Ken going towards this area and they had immediately followed after him. They were wondering why he was heading inside the bush when their first class will be starting in the next ten minutes.
At first, they lost sight of where he went to, but eventually they found him. He was standing all alone while staring at a certain spot on the ground.
"Ken!" Scott called out. "What the heck is wrong with you? Are you still asleep?!"
The sudden shout of his name had caused Ken to snap out of his daze as he looked at those approaching him. He was so lost in thought, while trying to figure out what exactly happened to him yesterday.
"Hey guys, what are you doing here?" Ken asked, noticing the concerned expressions on both of their faces. And the fact that they had thorns stucked to their uniforms.
"Shouldn't we be asking you that?" Travis retorted. "We found you heading inside the bush, and as your friends, we can't help but feel bothered. Now explain yourself, why are you here?"
"I… I had to take a piss. I couldn't hold it in, so I had to come here." Ken fabricated, though it was reasonable enough for the two students to believe.
"We should get going, class is about to start." Travis reminded them, and they had all checked their watches. Noticing that the class will be starting in the next two minutes, they had started moving.
But then, Scott took notice of Ken's pale skin and weary eyes, which was a contrast to his usual vibrant skin.
"Are you sure you're okay, Ken?" Scott asked as they left the bushy area and appeared in the park, which was now almost empty, except for a few students heading towards the class.
"Yeah, of course I'm okay. I'm just feeling a little sleepy." He said, to which the two students had instantly turned to look at him.
"You're still sleepy despite how much you slept yesterday?" Scott pressed. "Good thing we didn't wake you up yesterday."
"Wait, you guys came to my room yesterday?" Ken inquired.
"Of course!" Travis replied. "We came during dinner and lunch breaks, but you were sleeping all through."
Though Ken went for dinner break in the afternoon, he went quite early and returned back to his room early as well. So they must have arrived when he just started sleeping.
And since they also came during lunch break in the night, they will still find him sleeping at that time.
"I doubt you've eaten anything since you arrived at the academy." Scott said.
"I did." Ken replied, but the two boys thought it must have been some snacks he bought or something.
"You should try out the cafeteria food, it's so super delicious." Travis boasted.
"Yeah I know, I ate dinner there in the afternoon." Ken replied.
Although he remembered eating in the cafeteria, he couldn't remember how the food tasted, or what exactly happened in the canteen. This was due to the hunger he was feeling, and his hazy mind at that time.
Their conversation was however cut short as they got to the door entrance of their class. As they went in, they could see how populated it had been with their fellow students.
Still, the class was large and spacious enough to fit the large amount of them. And due to the amount of people that had arrived first, Ken and his friends were pushed to the back of the class.
There was some kind of mat placed on the floor, it was made in a way that it couldn't be removed off the ground. Some students had chosen to sit on it, while the others just stood close to it.
Ken and his friends had chosen to sit on it, since there wasn't any available chair for them to sit in. But it couldn't help but make them wonder what today's class would be all about.
Many other students had arrived after Ken and his friends, but they had also ended up at the back of the class, since it was the only area left with unoccupied mats.
In fact, there's still a large amount of these mats unoccupied at the back. It would be enough for at least fifty more students.
After some minutes had passed, the door had swung open and a lady entered, appearing to be their teacher for the day, but her classy appearance had caused a wild reaction from most of the students, especially the boys.
She had a long slender leg, with a tied-up blonde hair. She wore a round glasses which suited her tiny shaped nose and pretty small eyes.
Her elegant appearance sparked a reaction from the boys, who couldn't help but stare. As she walked past them, the boys couldn't help but drill over her beauty. Some were even whistling and calling her pretty names, but despite it all, the lady didn't bulge a single bit.
The reactions from the boys towards the female teacher had caused some of the female students to feel irritated and annoyed. It even got to the point where some of them had yelled out at the boys.
The teacher noticing this, had cleared her throat to call for decorum in the class.
"Welcome to your first class guys, my name is Angela." She said, introducing herself.
But that had also caused a few murmurings and cringe comments from the boys. She even heard some of them calling her Pretty Angela.
Sighing, she continued. "Guys… I know I'm pretty, but you should be mindful of how you act in my class. I hate when my class is being turned into a local stall. Please, let's maintain a mature and demure environment from now on. Thank you."
Most of the boys had started apologising, but that also was done excessively, which had caused Angela to shake her head off and ignore them.
"Alright, let's begin our class." She said while standing in front of the class. "Today, I will be guiding you on your first lesson which is meditation. Meditation, as many of you might know, is a way of sitting with your legs crossed and eyes closed. But here in the academy, meditation is much more diverse than that."
The students shared gazes with each other, as they wondered what the lady meant by this.
Then Angela continued. "To clarify your confusion, I'll explain why the meditation at the academy is different from the one you commonly know. There's something known as Qi, it is composed of the energy around you and the life force present in you. It is the basis of what a person must have if they are to obtain an elemental power. It is also known as Mana, but in the academy, it's famously known as Energy."
"You need to have a good control of this energy to be able to obtain any elemental power. But to control this energy, you must engage in frequent meditation. This meditation will not just help in controlling your energy, but will also help in increasing your energy affinity."
"Now spread out everyone, and be in a meditative position." Angela instructed, and everyone had immediately sat on the mat with their legs crossed on each other.
"Close your eyes and try to feel the energy around you. I need maximum concentration from everyone."
Although she said these, there were still some students who would open one of their eyes to glance at her. Noticing this, she then walked to the back of the class.
At the back, she approached one of the meditating student. Then carefully placing her hands on her back, she let out a bit of her own energy into the student's body.
"Feel the energy…" she whispered into the student's ears.
Feeling the release of energy into her body, the student could also feel the energy within herself and the energy surrounding her on the outside.
Moving on, she repeated this with several other students; as she placed her hands on their back, while releasing a little bit of her mana into their body to boost their cultivation.
After repeating this process with several students, it had eventually gotten to Ken's turn. She placed her hands on his back as she attempted to repeat the same procedure. But as she did so, something strange happened.