Chapter 3 – Trinity Academy

The next day started suspiciously normally. No alert had been issued overnight, and William felt tempted to accept the convenient explanation that he must have imagined the whole episode yesterday. Things would be so simple that way—he could pretend he hallucinated it all and go on about his college life like usual. And yet he couldn’t shake off the little nagging feeling saying otherwise. He hated to admit it, but his gut sense was right more often than not.

“How are you not nervous?” Finn asked, his hands visibly trembling on the lecture hall desk. He wore glasses, and could easily be mistaken as fifteen or younger due to his short and scrawny appearance.

Finn Mutton was one of the first friends William made in college, and although he sometimes lacked a spine, William appreciated his normal upbringing and family situation. As the second son from a regular middle class family, his older brother died during the initial dungeon break twelve years ago.

That was actually a common story among many families, so William still considered him as normal as you could get. As only Finn survived among their two children, his parents doted over him like no tomorrow.

Unlike his hard-working brother, Finn spent most of his time laying on his dorm room sofa grinding mobile games while neglecting everything else.

“It’ll be just like any other exam,” William replied. “No big deal.”

He hadn’t shared with Finn anything about the events last night. Finn had a tendency to panic, and that was the last thing William wanted to deal with right now.

“But the initiation isn’t just any school test. Our future gets decided in a span of two minutes. How is that even fair? What if I don’t even get a power level of two?” Finn moped with his hands over his face, lost in his own world. “I can already imagine my mom’s face, she’s going to be so disappointed.”

“Life has never been fair,” he said, biting down what he really wanted to say. “Might as well get used to it.”

As much as he liked to rag on Finn for getting nervous at the smallest things, he had to admit that he hadn’t slept well last night either. The initiation was just too important. Unlike Finn, he didn’t have a family to fall back on if things went poorly, and he couldn’t stomach delivering fast food for the rest of his life.

Right on the hour, the door to the classroom burst open and Luke Brightsteel walked in with a group of students. He wore a tailored dark navy blazer, with meticulously combed blond hair and an appearance of unmistakable media-readiness for the initiation today, where there would be plenty of cameras flashing on all the new prospects. Luke scanned the classroom angrily before locking eyes on William.

Finn was lost in his own worries as usual and hadn’t noticed the dagger staring contest, and continued to talk. “Well, you know my grades are bad, and my mom’s gonna kill me if I can’t at least be a healer–” he stopped, finally noticing the approaching problem.

“Didn’t think you had the balls to come in today,” Luke Brightsteel sneered, planting his palm on William’s desk rudely. William’s eyebrow twitched with irritation. Don’t show weakness, he thought. Luke was flanked by a group of three male and two female students that frequently hung out with him. Needless to say, they were all from elite families.

The male upperclassman called Jared Pain added with a smug grin, "You should probably know that Luke is going to one of the big seven, and I already have a sponsorship from Blue Mountain. What about you two? Anyone bother to sponsor you two yet? Maybe Kicken Chicken?”

The two girls of the group giggled as the upperclassman started to mime a cashier.

The mockery was annoying, but they had a point. Sponsorships were the reason why all the students were dressed to impress today. For the average guild aspirant, getting the attention of a recruiter from one of the top guilds could be the golden ticket to a life of fame and luxury. But like all things in this world, nepotism played a major role. The Brightsteels, the Pains, the Mardurs, and all the other elite families shoed-in their heirs for those positions.

Somehow, unlike on any other day, today William felt a bit more confrontational than usual. He noticed a shiny tint on Luke’s face, quickly realized its true nature, and let the poisonous words simply slip out of his mouth without caring about the consequences.

“Nice makeup.”

The laughter from their group instantly ceased.

Finn shrank in his seat, as was typical of him.

“Hey, don’t piss them off, those guys can cause us a lot of trouble,” Finn whispered anxiously to him.

Jared and the others looked at their leader for his reaction. There was a brief pause, and Luke looked angrier than ever.

“You better not let me catch you on your first expedition,” he finally said.

It was a thinly veiled threat. What happened on expeditions into the gates was beyond the control of the government. And with that, the crew turned and left.

More people were beginning to enter the lecture hall, including a rather gorgeous girl with long black hair who squeezed past Luke’s crew before quickly darting over to William and Finn. She wore similar elite family attire to the two girls from Luke’s group, except her blouse appeared to be just a bit more properly tucked in. Her appearance gave the vibe typical of a brand ambassador to a skincare company. Clean, elegant, and captivating—that is, if she fixed her attitude.

“What did you do this time?” she asked, her eyes accusatorially landing on William.

“Mind your own business, Evelyn,” he replied, not in a mood to explain himself.

Evelyn’s eyes then switched over to Finn, who buckled under their intense gaze. “William pissed off Luke and his gang,” he blurted out.

“Great. The school board just told me that they’re canceling all of our final exams, and now I come here and find out that you’ve pissed off the darling son of one of the great families, whose mother, if you didn’t know, also sits on the school board. As if this day couldn’t get any more wonderful.”

Finn nearly fell out of his chair, and even William looked up in surprise. “They’re canceling our exams?”

Back before the dungeon break, year-end college final exams were considered a sacred rite, a path to a good career. Even now in the post dungeon break era, exams were still a defining moment in a university student’s life. Regular jobs still had their place in the world, and so did final exams.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Evelyn crossed her arms. “Yeah. Which means all of our studying is going to be flat out useless. Apparently the government is pressuring all university students to join combat training. I think they’re expecting more breaks to happen, so we’re being trained to fight. My mom said that it’s going to be mandatory for everyone our age.”

William recalled that Evelyn’s mom worked in some kind of important government-adjacent position, although he wasn’t sure of the specifics.

Evelyn Moon belonged to the renowned Moon family, considered one of the minor elite families and known for producing skilled blade users. She was also the current vice president of the college’s Charitable Aid Society. When William first joined the school, she self-nominated to look out for him due to his vulnerable background as an orphanage child who went through government subsidized schooling for delinquent children—the only schooling available to unclaimed orphans. She definitely helped him acclimate to the school’s culture, which William appreciated as he was mostly self-taught through grade twelve, but sometimes it felt like she was patronizing and treating him like a sickly abandoned cat, like a pet that she had the responsibility of taking care of.

It was also clear that her main purpose for joining the Charitable Aid Society lay in padding her resume and advancing her future career. That’s why whenever William caused any trouble, Evelyn would be the first to appear to chastise him. His success at school was an extension of her own perfect image to the professors who would write her recommendation letters in the future.

He doubted that she’d bother talking to him at all if he wasn’t useful to her in this way. After all, she was still a minor elite family’s daughter, and he and Finn were nobodies. They were acquaintances by circumstance and nothing more.

“I wasn’t aiming for a career as an awakener, but if the government is this keen on making it part of our curriculum, it’ll be something I need to take seriously from now on,” she said with her arms crossed. “If I’d known this beforehand I would’ve taken more elixirs.”

“But aren’t elixirs like a fortune each?” Finn replied.

“Yeah. My family saw some on the market, but I only had one. They’re even more expensive than usual lately. I heard that the Brightsteels have been buying them in bulk for Luke, just like they did with Cassius.”

That name rang a bell for William. Cassius Brightsteel was the older cousin of Luke and one of the strongest fighters in humanity’s arsenal. He was the first to clear a crisis level gate seven years ago.

“Elixirs huh… so even here, it’s pay to win,” Finn said in a dejected voice.

“Pay to win?” Evelyn asked with a confused look on her face.

“It’s a gaming term.”

Evelyn scrunched her nose at the mention of gaming term as though she’d smelled something foul, right as the loudspeaker in the room crackled to life.

All students are required to report to the auditorium to prepare for initiation. Attendance is mandatory.

“Alright, let’s get going,” Evelyn said. “I’ll see you there, and don’t you cause any more trouble William.”

“I won’t,” William replied.

Watching Evelyn rush past the students and disappear through the door again, William rose from his chair and took a much needed stretch. Today was one of the only occasions that he wore a formal collared shirt, and he wasn’t used to how it squeezed around his neck uncomfortably even after unbuttoning the first button. He looked at Finn, whose blazer was a size too large for his small stature and fit awkwardly over his shoulders.

He mentally reviewed his preparations—breathing exercises, fire ability specific techniques, energy circulation, and anything else to distract himself from thinking of last night’s strange occurrences—as he descended the stairs with Finn.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Finn said, his face pale with nervousness.

William put a hand on Finn's shoulder and straightened it. “Try to breathe through your nose for two counts, then exhale through your mouth,” he said. “The forums said that that helps with nerves when casting.”

Finn tried to follow along as William explained the basic breathing technique to him. They quickly made their way to the auditorium hall, sliding down the center aisle as the dean of Trinity Academy and several older tenured professors sat on the stage near the podium. Some of the newer professors sat below the stage facing the students in the front row.

“Professor, where’s the orb?” a male student sitting in the front row asked Professor Usha, who taught abstract calculus, which William did not look forward to taking next semester.

“They’re running a bit late because of an accident on the intercity highway. City news says that traffic is at a standstill,” Professor Usha sighed, adjusting her glasses. “But the initiation will happen today, you have my word on that.”

“So we just have to wait here until they arrive?”

“That is correct, Mr. Sicon,” Professor Usha replied. “Patience is a virtue.”

William felt a nudge on his left from Finn, who held his phone out to an image of a capsized truck burning on the intercity highway with a slew of crashed vehicles behind it.

“It’s bad,” Finn said. “We might be stuck here for a while.”

An accident… it really is a strange day, William mused. Maybe that thing from yesterday caused the accident. He tried hard not to think of those yellow eyes flickering in the darkness, that dark form climbing ever so slowly across the second story of the abandoned apartment building.

The university dean—a clumsy older man wearing a violet cap and gown—appeared to have just finished a heated conversation with some organizers as he rose to his feet and stepped onto the podium, adjusting the microphone before beginning his speech.

“Students of Trinity Academy,” he said, his amplified voice carrying effortlessly across the auditorium. “As you may have heard, due to a major traffic accident there will be a delay in the initiation ceremony today. Unfortunately, the initiation process falls under military jurisdiction as a matter of international security and is therefore dictated by the government. It cannot be rescheduled, so we will stay in place until the caravan arrives, however long that takes.”

He paused for effect, his gaze steady as he continued. “As always, we ask for your patience and—”

A distant rumble like a thunderstorm interrupted his words. The lights flickering ominously, and the microphone screeched. Concerned whispers erupted from the audience. William felt a chill run down his spine involuntarily. He suddenly had a horrible sense of deja vu.

“Huh?”

“What was that!”

“Did you feel that?”

“Yeah, I did!”

“Was that thunder?”

Students looked around at each other in confusion as the dean frowned and tapped the microphone.

He adjusted his cap and continued in a somewhat frazzled tone, trying to take back control of the situation. “Ahem, settle down students. No need to be startled by a bit of thunder. Now as I was saying… We ask for your patience during this time and will provide accommodations for those who require lodging overnight—”

A second, more intense boom rang through the auditorium, knocking out the electric lights overhead, sending vibrations through the seats, leaving behind only the overcast light from the side windows to illuminate the auditorium. William leapt up from his seat, fully alert. His body reacted instinctively—this was no thunder.

At that moment, a low foghorn sounded from far away, a deep, vibrating monotone note that persisted unbearably long.

Something began to click in his mind. A foghorn. Now where did he read about that before? An article from half a year ago appeared in his mind. Scientists have speculated that an unusual gate break could conduct a strong enough force to generate an…

To generate what? He couldn’t remember the rest.

Warning. Alert confirmed. Lockdown commencing.

A robotic female announcer, unlike anything William or any of the students at Trinity Academy had ever heard, spoke from the intercom above. Metal sheets fell in an avalanche of steel from the windows above, then locked shut, completely sealing off the windows in walls reminiscent of a prison, plunging the auditorium into darkness.

A female student let out a high pitched scream.

All one thousand of Trinity Academy’s staff, students, and faculty were now locked in and sealed off from the outside world.

Backup generator activated.