The following days passed without anything out of the ordinary happening; the lessons were hard for Yoel to keep up with at first, but after the third day he believed he was getting the hang of it.
Refinement of his core had begun, although he didn't want to touch anything without being completely sure about what to do, as one simple mishap would cost him his avon core.
Life with his "friends" went on smoothly, and he never spoke to Selene again apart from the simple greetings they would exchange if they passed by each other.
So far, he was enjoying his time at the academy. He would sometimes forget his own goal while immersed in various studies.
While he still completed his manual's training regime every day, he hadn't managed to make any more visible improvements in understanding his own technique.
His body was steadily growing stronger, he could clearly feel it, but his mind was lagging behind.
Sweat trickled down his bare body as labored breaths escaped his mouth. He had just finished one of said training regimes from the Silhouette Arts manual, one of the minor ones, of course.
If he were to complete one of the major trainings he would have to occupy most of the academy's training facility to be able to perform it.
As he completed his usual stretches, he looked longingly at the shower. Sometimes, he would feel a tingle slither down his spine.
It only happened while he was at his dorm, and he never really cared enough about it due to it not really affecting his daily life.
Without much pause, he went into the bathroom and softly closed the door behind him. He was alone in his dorm, but as far as he remembered, this had been a habit for him.
It was hard to break away from it.
The tingles that ran down his spine were almost too light to even consider them harmful or disturbing to his body.
He quickly showered, savoring the hot water as it washed down his fatigue and embraced his aching muscles. This part of the day was always his favorite one, he could just float away in his own thoughts without any care in the world.
After his shower, he quickly dried himself off and put on his night clothing; he had a date with his bed early today.
Every Sunday, he finished his chores just a tad bit faster, when he laid down he would usually read this one specific book he was really interested in.
It was a book about a fantastical world similar to his own, with many different types of people, races and so on.
They had similar abilities to the Blessed, which went under the name of "medeis".
The storyline so far intrigued Yoel the most, as each of the characters had a rich personality and background.
Whenever he read it, he would get immersed in it and time would float by as if it had never existed.
He never had time to read the book in the middle of the week, and he believed that if he did he would be unable to focus on his tasks.
As he got more absorbed in the story, he almost didn't realize he was falling asleep.
And so, with as much strength as his half-drowsed state could muster, he closed the book and put it next to the cabinet of his bed.
***
Morning came as it always had– with no ability to see the sun set or rise, they all relied on the artificial lights of the campus's roof.
The cube rang with an irritating tone that Yoel despised but still used as an alarm. And since it had been so close, Yoel only suffered more from the annoying sound before he finally managed to stop it.
As his hand swiped over it in an attempt to touch the cube, the minimum requirement to turn off the alarm, he came upon a sudden realization.
I will never be a morning person.
Indeed, not once these days could he wake up easily from his deep sleep, and when he did he simply felt… weaker.
He quickly rummaged through his wardrobe, which housed quite a small amount of clothes; Yoel never considered it a priority to buy more clothes for himself.
He put on a simple, somewhat warm shirt since the weather was getting colder and colder. It would have been a sweater if it wasn't so thin.
He ate a quick and light breakfast, a few sausages which were cooked and prepared for the morning, and two eggs which he cooked right then and there.
He also ate a bowl of cereal; …maybe two. His perception of a "quick" and "light" breakfast was changing as his body was slowly adapting to the physique of a "Blessed" and reaching newfound strengths.
Naturally, his slowly evolving physique required more than average sustenance in order to progress smoothly.
He quickly devoured his breakfast, washed off with simple water, and left with a peculiar haste to his legs.
The mornings, especially the ones on Monday were the worst in his opinion, but he was still eager to consume more information and learn.
The day began as any day would; he would barely keep himself from falling asleep in the planetary politics class. Lady Ariadne always wore a cold-hearted face, which was the only thing that kept him awake at times.
His jaw would always hang low in awe when he was in the Space Knowledge class. Truly, there was too much to learn about this subject. Mrs. Jude was always on the lookout for any misbehaving students, so he never even thought about talking to his friends.
He would somewhat struggle at controlling his avon, but he believed he was swiftly approaching the basic level of any Blessed in its control. He was falling behind just a little bit, however. The bald man, who was filled with tattoos never spoke more than he needed to.
The day was going as it had been the last few days, except for a few things.
For one, that scientist, at least Yoel believed he had been a scientist… didn't show up again after that day. A man he vaguely remembered from the first day because of an accident with the planetary politics class took over the enigma basics.
"I'm sure most of you remember me from that incident the first day, but I go by Cassiel, I will be teaching you in enigma basics."
Many of the students shook their head, indicating that they didn't recognize him, and an awkward atmosphere surfaced between them.
His lessons continued as normal, well they should have continued as normal… until today.
"Today, we're going to be doing something a bit different. I've discussed this with the rest of the teachers and they have all agreed to it, so I wish to present to you a new form of lecturing."
He brought his hand up and made a strange gesture with it. Once he did, a few figures became visible, as if they had always been there behind him.
Each of them wore fine suits, whether they were male or female, and each of them had a distinct characteristic about themselves.
"These are our class assistants. Graduates or fourth years, who have yet to decide what they wish to do with their abilities. They usually assist the older students, but you are all a special case."
"I really do not wish to sound cold-hearted and harsh when I say this– but due to the dungeon exam's extreme difficulty, the survivors of the exam survived purely because of their skills. If it had been any normal exam, the truly skilled and qualified would have been separated from those who had no talent either in the middle of their first year, or the second year."
A sour look slowly spread amongst the students. This topic was quite sensitive for all of them to speak about, and while many of them were strangers to those who perished in the dungeon, they still held sympathy for them.
"So, I will tell you this. Each of you will form a team of three according to the type of enigma you have, your physical statistics and avon capacity. Each of the teams will have a different training regime specific to their enigmas, and they will be taught how to synergize with their teammates."
"This will be a year-long thing; I expect a lot of roadblocks and I believe I am ready to face all of them. You will all be sorted into teams shortly."
With a clap of his hands, the class assistants each moved forward, their eyes carefully analyzing every student's movement.
Each of them held a stack of paper, which most likely explained their backgrounds, character, enigma and physical statistics.
Many of them looked over Yoel, not even considering him. Most of the stronger looking individuals didn't even bat an eye to him.
Most of them went to his friends, such as Vasil or Lilith. Vasil didn't even have an enigma yet, but he could still control the avon twice as good as him, maybe thrice.
They even went to Cole and Loki, who didn't show off as much. And a ton were swarming Brandon.
Don't tell me… I'll be left out like this?!