As soon as school ended, Jake, no longer able to contain himself, ran from school, eliciting cheers from the delinquents, still under the belief that he is the one who will lead them all. Blushing again, he covered his head with his raggedy jacket, moving even faster.
Outside, he managed to hail an old taxi. Although very old - fashioned and still driving on the road, the one major benefit was that it was cheap. Cheap to the point where it can be called free. This was only possible due to the push and contribution from the Earth's Unified Council.
Still jittering in joy, the shaking nearly dismantled the already rickety car, causing the automated driver to complain in monotone "passenger, if you have any emergency, you can call the emergency number, found in the pocket beside you, or you can also dial 001."
Feeling embarrassed, Jake sits still, hoping and wishing forb this journey to end as soon as possible. He starts to daydream, imagining discovering an unknown artefact, lucking out and finding it's worth millions of UD, and using it to get out of this rundown, backwards city, finding a cute waifu, creating a family. Most important of all, he hopes to find his missing parents, and the fate of his unborn sibling.
But a sudden jerk removes him from his dream, nearly crushing his already strengthened chest. After coming back to the seat, he asked what happened, rubbing his sore chest. "We have arrived to our destination. Please pay the full fee of 0.5 UD. I hope you enjoyed the trip, please come again." Although faint, Jake swore that he managed to hear some form of snicker behind the cold exterior of the robot. Next time we meet, I swear I'll send you to Grud if it's the latest thing I do, Government be damned!
Muttering in anger, Jake walks his way into the main atrium for the Federation, where he meets a sudden flurry of harpies, each squawking loudly, panic clearly visible in their eyes. The cacophony of noises present in the hall was clearly too much for Jake, for he had to cover his ears and nearly duck down.
Just as he was about to do so, a large hand grabbed him by the shoulders, dragging him to the reception. Looking up, he saw a grim faced Strados, clearly worried about something, yet forcefully smiling to him. With a questioning look, Jake prepared to ask him what had happened, but before he could even ask, Strados just told him "No need to worry. This is adult stuff. Leave it to us, and you just go around and improving yourself. We'll take it from here." Just as Jake was about to ask about his card, Strados interrupted him, waving his hand "Helena is missing today. Must be sick. Anyways, I'll hand the card to you tomorrow. Go and have a nice rest." Finishing, he shooed Jake away outside.
Befuddled, Jake blinked his eyes for a couple of seconds, before realizing that it would be better to go home and rest for today, for he did feel really sore after the extensive 'training' he did yesterday. He hailed for a taxi, and hopped on, before realizing it was the same one he had just taken. Both looked at each, before turning their heads simultaneously, one in embarrassment, the other in anger.
After the awkward ride back home, as Jake was going to enter the door, he spotted a tall figure beside his house. It was old man Edward.
Turning his head, he entered home, before slamming it shut, as a sign of anger, or obstinacy, towards the old man. Edward just looked at him, sighed sadly before turning back to return home.
As Jake went upstairs, he walked by his table while dropping of his things. Still feeling dazed from what happened today, concern slowly filled his mind, hoping that Mr. Strados could fix everything back to how they were.
Just as he was about to leave the room, the book suddenly opened itself, its pages flipping in sudden frenzy, before settling again to brand new type of page. Golden sigils covered the edges, glowing softly, emanating some sort of effect, to which he instinctively realized that it was for protection. Protection from who or what though, that he did not know.
As he was wondering again, glyphs suddenly filled the page, phasing through multiple languages, before settling in Earthorus, the common language of the planet. As he peered through the page, the following sentences filled his eyes:
Earth type art-
Name: Prathee Sanrak
Inclination: Defense
Description: Uses the Earth attribute to erect a barrier in a spherical manner, reminiscent to a dome. Barrier limit is 2 m from caster's body. Can withstand impact from stage one practitioners of any kind infinitely, stage two for an hour, and stage three for 3 strikes before collapsing.
Directions: Immerse yourself in earth from your own home planet, while running the incantation present in the book. The duration of the training cannot exceed more than 25 minutes, otherwise body will slowly start turning into rock, and less than 20 minutes, otherwise training would be ineffective completely.