The last thing I'd expect to wake up to was a four finned fish with a disturbingly human-like face to be staring at me, ''What the hell?!'' Quickly getting up to get a better view of my surroundings. I'd realize the water and fish was separated by a dome of glass. The dome was surprisingly large being around 14 feet tall and 12 feet in diameter. The sound of a button being clicked would draw my attention towards the other side of the dome. On this side a table full of strange objects, some even appeared to be fruit. Above the table a floating holographic monitor would display a stopwatch on one side, and an unplayed video with Nebulay seated. Approaching the monitor and tapping the video would show Nebulay staring into the camera waiting for a brief moment before beginning.
"Matthew Aiarc, this is your proof of worth. If you survive and complete these two simple challenges then I will make you my student, and turn you into an alfors." Nebulay would pause for a second to allow the information to be understood before continuing, "The first challenge is to eat all the food on the table. Don't worry your biology was studied while you were asleep all the food presented is edible for you. Your second challenge is to escape this dome and swim to the surface without drowning. As you can see your being timed so complete this quickly, and good luck."
''Well damn. This can't be too difficult I mean it's just food. I wonder what delicacies he's curated for me'' Thinking to myself as my hand would grab a black squash-like vegetable with two spikes coming off the top. Biting into the vegetable would annihilate any remaining thoughts of this being an easy challenge. In that moment. What felt like my tongue being cut all around, and dipped into citric acid would assault my mouth. ''AGGGHHHH WHAT THE HELL DID THIS OLD MAN GIVE ME!'' Holding back a scream to keep a strong image I could feel the pain subside very slowly. Having learnt my lesson I would search for anything not spiky. The sight of what appeared to be an orange would catch my eye. Grabbing the fruit and peeling it would reveal a toothpaste colored inside. Despite appearances it tasted like a sweet potato. Even after picking out similar looking fruit I had barely made a dent in the amount of food on the table. Seeing the time tick up to 16 minutes, and the lack of progress would make me begin to falter. But. the prospect of power would knock me back into sense and force me to keep trying. Grabbing two different vegetables each different in appearance and biting it.
''They taste like nothing!?'' This revelation would shock me and I'd begin to experiment grabbing two vegetables, a fruit, and eating them all would amplify the taste of nothing. As if I was chewing water. Realizing this was the trick in the challenge. I would begin to cram a bunch of food in my mouth trying to chew it all then swallowing it as fast as I could the stopwatch reaching 20 minutes would make me go faster as I would begin to smash the vegetables and fruits into a collective mush before swollowing it all. The table would be clean of food as the time would hit 23 minutes. Winding my fist back and punching the dome it would form a small crack that would begin to grow in size as water would begin to push through the largest cracks and the entirety of the lake's water would force the dome open. As soon as th dome would collapse I woul swim as fast I could towards the light which I believed to be the surface.
*On the shore of the lake*
A dwarf-looking man with a beard and hair made of fire, crimson skin, and bright orange eyes would stand 4 feet away from the water's edge. His blue fur pants flowing in the wind. His eyes locked on the murky waters of the lake.
''Its been around 30 minutes... Could he be dead?'' Nebulay would slowly approach the water contemplating if he should jump in to check on the young man. Suddenly the young man would burst out of the water his turquoise hair wet and dripping water. His ice-blue vestments would be ruined.
"I'm surprised you made it! I was jus about to jump in the water to save you!" Nebulay would shout a giant toothy grin covering his face.
Matthew would look towards Nebulay before shouting, "YOU CRAZY OLD MAN YOU ALMOST KILLED ME!"
"You're overreacting." Rolling his eyes as he replied. Nebulay would head over a hill as Matthew would get onto the shore following him. After climbing over the hill the sight of a jeep-like vehicle would come into both of their visions.
"What's is a jeep doing here?" Matthew would say
Nebulay would turn to him with a confused look before replying, "What's a 'jeep'? This is an MV-783." Opening the driver side door he would motion for Matthew to enter with him. After dealing with the tribulations of the day Matthew would give up trying to make sense of the situation. Getting in the vehicle before waiting for something to happen.
"...Well?" Matthew would say impatiently
"You're not buckled up." Nebulay would reply pointing to a seat belt. Watching Matthewp put on the belt he would flip a few levers saying 'Match', 'Cintre', and 'Carso'. The sound of flames would come from the back of the vehicle as Nebulay would put on a pair of goggles, "Hold on!" He'd say smiling ear to ear as he'd put in the coordinates '241567-AIT8' in the center console.
"Nothing's even happening why would I need to hold o-" Matthew's sentence would be cut off as the vehicle would launch itself 200 feet into the air before facing towards the sky and blasting off into space. The sudden acceleration sending Matthew back into his seat as they'd quickly leave the planets orbit and would quickly enter the atmosphere of a nearby dwarf-planet. Surprisingly landing safely on a metal platform in the middle of a purple rainforest. Above them the blue star would shine on the planet lighting up the platform greatly. "Did you enjoy the ride?." Nebulay would say smiling at Matthew who was throwing up all the food he had ate an hour prior.
"YOU PSYCHOTIC GEEZER! YOU COULD'VE GIVEN ME A WARNING OR BETTER YET HAVE GONE S-L-O-W-L-Y!!" Raging at the man who was currently not paying attention as he would walk away to the corner of the platform where a long clear tube would head off into the distance somewhere. Nebulay would walk in the capsule as he would be shot off giggling along the way, "Is he a child or something?" Mumbleing under his breath as he would get into the capsule and be shot off into the distance. A good four minutes had gone by before he finally reached the end where a quaint wooden cottage would be located. Nebulay would be on the porch. Reading something on a holographic tablet. Oddly enough he had obsidian reading glasses.
"You've finally arrived." Nebulay would say as he stood up, "We're going to continue your training tommorow. Till then get yourself comfortable and we'll move to the basics. Your room is the first open door on the left."
"Alright... Cruce Nebulay zin Komdot... Sir?" Matthew would try to speak respectfully as Nebulay's tone was serious. His nervousness would quickly be thrown out as Nebulay would begin to laugh in his face pointing at him like he was a freak.
"You crack me up! You can just call me Sefron. Keep the formal stuff for when we're in public." He would say wiping tears of lava from his eyes.
"Sefron? You're name isn't just Nebulay?" Matthew would question kind of curious.
"Of course not. Did you think Rell's name was Eybat?"
"I thought he was just a weirdo... Kind of like you." Mumbling the last bit as he would begin to think about the prison riot.
"What was that last bit?~" Sefron would say getting closer to Matthew. Cupping his hand around his ear to better hear.
"Nothing." Matthew would say as he would walk inside seeing an open door to his left. The room itself didn't look too special. Having to grab the wooden door to open it instead of it automatically opening reminded him of Earth.
On the middle of the right wall would be a large king-sized bed that would be hovering eight inches off the ground. On the left-side of the bed would be a small dresser with a lamp with no cables on top.
A similarly looking dresser without the lamp would be on the opposite side of the bed.
Across from where Matthew was standing a bay window with a ledge to sit on would reveal the setting blue star the sky had become a seafoam green color out from the purple vegetation a flock of deep purple birds would appear forming into a V formation their four wings flapping in the distance. It all looked so. Surreal.
After burning the image of the sunset into his head Matthew would turn to his left seeing an open closet with seven t-shirts, and seven long-sleeved shirts.
Looking closer he could see that he had four black shirts, three seaweed green shirts, four wine red shirts, and finally three white shirts.
They would be accompanied by seven shorts, and seven pants. Five black pants, and two khaki pants. Five light blue shorts and two white shorts.
The bottom rack of the closet would contain eight pairs of white underwear. Grabbing one of the white shorts, and underwear Matthew would head off to find the bathroom.
After Matthew successfully found the bathroom he would head off to sleep worried, but slightly excited of what will come tomorrow.
*Matthew POV*
The morning was surprisingly normal. Ignoring the weirdness of the breakfast. Currently I was outside a few feet away from the house. Sefron was walking over once he was across from me he began to speak.
"Im going to assume you've never heard of Veks and core energy so we'll start with a simple explanation. Veks are split into four main groups pure, impure, physical, and abstract. An example of a physical Vek would be the heat barrier you saw Rell use, or the electrical powers he has. Any questions about that?" Pausing he would wait to see if I had any questions.
"How many types of Veks are there in each group?"
"In the pure set there is only one In the abstract there are two, and in the physical there are nine. Impure has four but it could have more. This is because impure is when you mix multiple Veks to create a new one."
Sefron would explain.
"All the abstract Korfs are potential and dream. All of the potential energies are electro, gravitational, kinetic, bond, thermal, radiation, sound, radiant, and chemical. You don't have to worry what each does. You only need to know about core energy."
"Core energy?" I would question as I would focus more into the conversation thinking of how Rell utilized the 'Veks' against that big guy.
"Yes, core energy. It's the energy all life produces. It's the weakest form of power energy, but it's used to power your Veks. It's made when you break down food." After answering my question he would walk towards a nearby stone, and would punch it. A fist-sized indentation would be left where ue had striked.
"This is a simple usage of kinetic energy. It's a fourth generation Vek." Not caring about if I was confused or not.
"Woah, slow down. Let's wind it back. You said it's the weakest power are there others?"
"Oh, sorry I got ahead of myself!" He would say chuckling.
''If he keeps acting like this I'll get no where.'' Contemplating if I should ask for the next nearest teacher and test my luck with them Sefron would answer my original question.
"Besides core energy there is natural energy which comes from celestial bodies like planets and stars. Finally there is cosmic energy which simply comes from the universe. These two energies fall under 'loaned power' which its named is self-explanatory." Ending his explanation he would walk over towards me till he was about 7 feet away.
"So I guess this training I'm going to do is gonna draw out that core energy?"
"Correct! The key to drawing it out is to overflow your body with food, and exercise so it had a reason to burn it en masse. Then meditation to feel the strota of the energy, and finally you'll be dropped into the wilderness to survive so you'll use it practically." He would say the last bit with a toothy smile.
"Huh?.. Dropped in the woods?" Dumb founded at what I had heard.
"I'm only joking, you won't have to deal with that till the end." He would say shrugging. He would begin to jog along the edge of the clearing. Motioning me to come along.
''This guy has a screw loose or something. It doesn't really matter I'll just escape before he can enact on his insane plan.'' I would soon follow suit as I would catch up and jog along side him.
"Alright time for a break! You stay here." Sefron would say as he would head inside the small house.
Huffing and puffing try to regain my breath. ''40 laps! Is this guy nuts?! I thought I was gonna pass out on the 10th!'' I would think as I would get dizzy.
Sefron would walk out holding a blue metal bottle, in his other hand would be a green metal bottle with a oxygen mask coming out of it. He would hand the blue bottle to me as he would begin to breathe from the red bottle.
Looking inside the blue bottle would surprisingly be water. I would quickly drink almost two-thirds of the entire bottle. I would still be confused on the contraption Sefron was breathing from. He would notice my staring and would take off he mask after closing the valve.
"If you're wondering what this is it's hydrogen. Deuterium, and tritium to be exact. I use nuclear fusion to get energy instead of eating." He would say nonchalantly before trying to breathe from the mask.
"WHAT?!" Astonished at this revelation. Wondering if he was joking.
"What's wrong?" He would say confused on why I had just screamed.
"Nuclear fusion is only in stars right?! How are you able to do that without dying!?"
"It's because I'm an arborn. Our species live and are born on stars." Eve though he gave a simple explanation it was still confusing.
"I knew there were aliens... But to this extent I ad no clue..." I would say thinking of the applications of such a biology, ''I'm not an astronomer, but I'm pretty sure nuclear fusion occurs in stars. Which means he's essentially a tiny sun! He must produce 40, 60, or even 100 times more energy than a human!''
"Anyways enough about that. Let's move onto meditation." Having finished breathing all the hydrogen in the bottle he would sit crossed legged on the ground, "Try to feel the energy being made, and the existing energy."
5 minutes turned to 10. 10 turned to 20, and 20 turned to 30 yet still no feeling. "I don't think this is working..." I would say disappointed at my failure.
"That's expected it usually takes two orbits to feel it. Which for Earth time is about a year and three months." Getting up and stretching as he would speak.
"Really a year? Is it that difficult?"
Sefron would nod as he would explain further, "Some people take six orbits, seven years and eight months. It just depends on the person and species. Species that produce a large quantity of energy can easily locate it. Species that produce little take a lot longer. The sun is setting so let's go to sleep now." He would inside and up the stairs.
Falling on the bed I could feel my aching muscles begin to finally rest. I would stay up a bit later to try and meditate further but it would lead to nothing. Falling asleep I would awaken to the feeling of heat on my skin and being surrounded by fire. Looking around I could see a large amount of fire and humongous flares. The sound of crying would draw my attention down as I could see a small baby and two parents. All three with crimson skin, and their hair would be made of fire just like Sefron's.
''What is going on?''