A youth was standing under shower. Warm water was pouring on his pale skin, making it rosier. His golden gems-like eyes were looking at his reflection on the mirror, deep in thought. [It is Fang Yuan]
"Ascended Jet! She felt like an immortal zombie from my previous life. Her soul core felt broken and very similar to the dead apertures of immortal zombies. And she is very dangerous. It felt like she could slice my soul. She is a much much weaker version of Spectral Soul... But..what about my soul core what is my soul core even be described as? but"
"cassia. What an interesting, girl!" Fung Yuan smiled.
"she seemed weak due to her flaw but...her aspect has to do with fate! She's either going to be a troublesome enemy or a good piece" he smiled again this time in a sinister way.
"This innate ability of mine...is truly wondrous. Having the ability to sense someone's worth and discern the nature of their powers is going to be extremely helpful. Knowledge is power. But there is more to this ability, much more. as the description said it is really telling and guiding me towards others with fate strings on them."
Innate Ability: [watcher.]
Ability Descriptions: [Not born of fate, you are free to see its mysteries unfold. With eyes of weaver the demon of fate powers, your gaze sees more than it should, it guides you to the end of the path you choose. an end you desire!]
Fang Yuan enjoyed the remainder of the warm shower. Then he dried himself.
''but this is no guidance to freedom but a net woven to imprison'' he smiled in understanding.
****************FLASHBACK*******************
Sunny and Fang Yuan was standing in front of the massive, seemingly indestructible red gates of the Awakened Academy. The Academy was, in fact, a city within the city. It was built like a fortress, with a high wall made of hard alloy, deep moat and numerous large-caliber turrets which were placed in certain positions to create a deadly air-suppression dome. No Nightmare Creature, not even colossal titans, were supposed to be able to break through its defenses.
It was a legendary place. Actually, many of the most popular webtoons, youth dramas and novels took place right behind that wall. Adventures, rivalries and romantic entanglements of the young Awakened heroes were the mainstream theme of modern entertainment. Never in his wildest dreams did Sunny imagine actually becoming one of these heroes.
But Fang Yuan wasn't interested in that and he was keenly observing the place. It would become his source of power.
The snow was slowly falling to the ground. It was cold and silent in front of the Academy gates. Except for Sunny and Fang Yuan, there was only one other person another new Sleeper.
It was a tall, slender girl of around their age, with clear grey eyes. she was staring at fang yuan's way with a rapt look on her face. She had strange, silver-white hair that was cut short and neatly parted to the side. Just like him, she was dressed in a police-issued tracksuit and had no personal belongings with her. On her head, there was a pair of old-fashioned headphones.
feeling the gaze Fang Yuan turned his head and looked in her direction. flinching the girl jerked her head sideways her ears though were red.
Sunny glanced at the girl and sighed, knowing full well what just happened.
But Fang Yuan kept looking at her.
"Her presence feels like the sun, radiant and... ever-burning. She felt sacred, yet also faul...and she has it too."
"a Sun, a Shadow and a fate." suddenly Fang Yuan stared at the awakened academy but not the gate but something else another presence he could sense, someone linked to him.
''this is going to be interesting'' then Fang Yuan turned forward.
Finally, the gates began to open. The giant, ridiculously thick sheet of reinforced metal slowly descended, creating a long bridge. The end of the metal bridge hit the special grooves in the ground and stopped moving after a set of loud clicks.
Sunny looked ahead, wondering what kind of life he was going to be living in the next four weeks.
Meanwhile Fang Yuan thinking about how to make the best use of time in the academy.
Seemingly free of such concerns, the silver-haired girl threw another short glance towards fang yuan and walked forward and stepped on the bridge.
"Come on, Sunless. Lets go!" Fang Yuan said as he stepped forward.
Sunny sighed and reluctantly followed. She never looked his way even once.
The Sleeper part of the compound was relatively small and situated in the southern part of the Academy, surrounded on all sides by training fields and parks.
It was a low, modern building constructed with reinforced materials. Like the majority of buildings in the Academy, most of it was hidden below the ground, leaving only a couple of floors above it. With its white, pristine alloy walls and wide windows, it must have looked beautiful in the summer, contrasted against all the greenery around.
Inside, the building was spacious and well-lit. Sunny, Fang Yuan and the silver-haired girl were taken to a large hall where a hundred or so of young men and women Sleepers of the same unfortunate timing as the two of them were already waiting for the beginning of the induction ceremony. Most of them were nervous, tense and excited.
Logistics of the Academy were a constant headache for the administrators since the rate at which the Spell infected people was always chaotic. There was no way to orderly structure for batches of Sleepers to undergo any type of standardized education on a shared schedule:
some of them had a full year to prepare for the Dream Realm, some only months, some even mere days.
That's why these induction ceremonies were held each month at the beginning of the year and then every week once the winter solstice began to loom near. Some of the Sleepers in the hall had to wait days to be inducted, while Sunny and Fang Yuan had lucked out and was delivered to the Academy just hours before the scheduled event.
Once inside the hall, they understood two things.
Firstly, everyone was well-dressed and in possession of a suitcase, a duffel bag, or at least a backpack carrying their personal belongings. They were obviously coming prepared, most likely from home,
sent off by their families. So Sunny and the silver-haired girl, who came empty-handed and wearing simple police-issued clothes, were not a norm as Sunny had assumed, but actually an eye-catching anomaly.
'Right. That makes sense.'
The silver-haired girl slowly walked away and disappeared into the crowd. fang yuan noticed Sunny was about to leave as well and decided to say something.
"Sunless, are you going alone?"
He looked at him with confusion before making a slight grimace.
"Yes, go and do whatever you want."
Without saying another word, he simply hurried away.
irritated but fang yuan limited himself to observing the sleepers for a while
-------------------------------------
Master Jet was not being overly humble when she called herself below average by Awakened standards. Even though these young people were just starting their paths as Awakened, their looks were dazzling. Everyone was handsome, beautiful and radiated health.
Sunny swallowed.
'Still, I feel like except that good-looking bastard none of them compare. She might not be as perfectly shaped, but... I don't know... she has a presence. It's like shadows become deeper and the temperature drops by a couple of degrees when she's in a room.'
Was this the difference between a Sleeper and a Master?
But all of these thoughts were just him trying to postpone the inevitable. Sunny already knew that he was in for a wild ride.
Because he could not lie, and all of these excited youths, regardless of their clothes, gender and looks, wanted to do one thing.
Talk.
Every one of them wanted to talk with fellow Sleepers. They wanted to discuss their Nightmares, their future journey into the Dream Realm, and everything in between. They wanted to ask questions. They wanted to be asked questions. They wanted to discuss something important or just chit-chat about stupid things.Everyone wanted to share.
'It's a nightmare!' Sunny moaned, disturbed and fearful. Fang Yuan just spared him a glance.
'I'm doomed!' Sunny thought.
Then, with a bit of grim determination, he gritted his teeth and slowly exhaled.
'Just think about it as a continuation of your trial. You survived the black mountain, so you can survive this, too.'
He had faced heroes, villains, monsters and even gods. Was he going to be afraid of a bunch of teenagers?
...He might have underestimated how scary teenagers can be.
In half an hour, pretty much everyone in the room hated his guts.
After a short series of conversations, Sunny had acquired a reputation of an obnoxious, foul-mouthed pervert. This reputation was quickly solidified. He was slapped a few times and even punched once.
He also discovered a couple of new things about his true self namely, that deep down inside he was apparently rude, arrogant, and more than a little bit lustful.
Once again an outcast, Sunny was eventually left alone. Well, unlike his friend.
People seemed to be drawn to him even guys. Unperturbed, he dealt with all and found a corner and stood alone. It looked like some wanted to approach him but they kept their distance.
However, he was looking somewhere, instantly his eyes moved. Seeing this sunny who wanted to approach just left.
Sunny kept looking around.
His eyes fell on a particular group of Sleepers. There were five or six of them, gathered around a tall, confident young man.
The young man had brown hair and a gentle, handsome face. His eyes were green, with a hint of friendly humor. His posture, figure and attentive gaze betrayed someone who went through extensive training. Everything about the young man screamed of nobility and strength.
Just at that moment, one of his companions was saying with a tone of amazement:
"Ascended? You have received an Ascended Aspect? What... what was your Appraisal?!"
The young man smiled humbly.
"Oh. It was "excellent."
Sunny stopped in front of the group, as though by accident. After hearing the young man's answer, he frowned and looked at him with disdain.
Then, with a voice full of utter bewilderment, Sunny said:
"Ascended, excellent? That's it? What's the big deal?"
His words hung in silence.
The Sleepers looked at Sunny with a hilarious assortment of emotions, ranging from bewilderment to
shock. The young man with humorous eyes just smiled politely.
To be honest, getting an Ascended Aspect during the First Nightmare was extremely rare. He was certainly someone special, maybe even outstanding.
Actually, despite their apparent differences, the young man somehow reminded Sunny of Hero... Auro of the Nine.
After a few seconds, one of the young man's companions finally blinked and said:
"Uh... friend, you must not know a lot about the Spell. Caster's results are truly remarkable."
Then, with a furtive glance at the remarkable Caster, he added:
"He is a Legacy, after all."
An actual, living and breathing descendent of an Awakened clan? Sunny reevaluated his opinion of the humorous young man.
Legacies were known to be trained for their eventual entrance into the Spell from the moment they could walk. For them, being infected was a certainty instead of a possibility.
They were extremely formidable people.
He made his frown deepen.
"Are you trying to pull a prank on me? You call this remarkable?!"
The bewilderment in the eyes of these Sleepers was slowly being replaced by hostility.
"Listen, friend. If you don't think that an Ascended Aspect is remarkable, then please share with us your own amazing results! What, pray tell, was your Appraisal?"
Caster himself was still keeping quiet and smiling. However, his defenders were growing restless.
This was exactly what Sunny wanted to happen. He smiled with utter contempt.
**********
AUTHORS NOTE:- hey everyone sorry again for a copy paste chapter don't get angry at me
add the novel to your library and share some comments it helps the novel be visible to others in the search lists plz~~~~~~