(*splash*) Heavy strained breathes could be heard as a skinny dark figure dashed across the lonely downtown alleyways of Sou’Crest city. Draped in a cloak covered in red symbols and tightly gripping a satchel, the figure-Maiel lifted his head up to see how far he had to go; a lot further, not even a glimmer of the Institute’s towers caught his eye through the many buildings that enclosed his view. Frowning and whispering something profane about living in the slums, he picked himself up and continued running, trying to ignore his pleading lungs, being late wasn’t an option after all.
After repeating this pattern of stopping to curse and sprinting madly for about half an hour, Maiel finally ended up panting heavily in front of the city center, the southern lagoon that slightly glowed under the soft morning sunlight. “If that cause there are manabeasts in there…” Maiel whispered to no himself. “Once again another mystery of the lagoons, that I have no desire answering…”
For now though, he turned over to the other spectacle in his field of view, situated right next to the lagoon, long enhanced marble walls rose up to form three mighty towers covered in pulsing mana veins casting a shadow on a number of buildings and facilities, surrounded on all sides by intimidating mhorce walls. (*Dinnn*) Getting dizzy at the sheer size of the towers for a moment, Maiel became aware of the loud ringing sound in his ears. That was- It’s the bell!! Classes were starting! Pulling up his satchel and deep breath, Maiel haphazardly ran along the sidewalk, bumping into an assortment of people and getting annoyed remarks thrown left and right. He arrived in front of the Institute entrance a minute later, not bothering to look for any guards, he ran straight to where his class- Basic Konstruct Development was supposed to be.
* * *
Hemed sat down on the hard wooden chair and let out a nervous shaking breath, he was finally here, at the Institute. Glancing around the brightly lit room he noted all the other candidates that were qualified enough to learn here, some by their family wealth and others like him through years of dedications and studying, unlike the DE pilot classes where one can join if their talent rank was high enough, in konstruct engineering these were the only two categories that existed.
Whilst waiting quietly, Hemed picked out a few interesting faces from the rest of the crowd. A well-built blonde with deep green eyes caught his eye first, not due to his good looks but simply because he didn’t seem nervous at all, playfully sitting cross legged and smiling, trying to initiate small talk to the tall girl next to him who acted oblivious to his advances, she also stuck out like a sore thumb. Liane Rogridge, Hemed had seen her face all too many times on newspapers. Though she came from the great Rogridge family, for some reason her body could only store around twenty percent of raw mana, granting her an F rank talent equivalent to a commoner and making her quite infamous among the noble families. Being a disgrace to her family that prided itself on producing some of the very best DE pilots in the Leperium, it seems she had been sent off to learn konstruct creation here. Hemed stared for a moment before looking away from the talentless princess, noble born made him sick. The only other people to receive Hemed’s attention were a youth ripped with muscles and strange tattoos who dwarfed almost everyone around, stoically staring at the clock ticking by on the wall and a short boy with colorful soltech rings on his fingers who shifted about on his seat uneasily.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
As Hemed tried to get a better look at the valuable looking ornaments, a clicking sound was heard and the door opened to reveal a tanned middle aged woman wearing a baggy blue jumpsuit who confidently strode into the room She glanced at a document in her hand and cheerfully exclaimed, “G’morning, you lot ehh- class B right, yeah you all can call me Mr’s Lawsin, got it, I’ll be your class teacher an’ your basic konstruct instructor for these next few years, have a problem with at?” As Miss Lawsin arrived at the front of the class, Hemed noted that she seemed to be a native southerner as evident from the accent. Looking around her new pupils faces, Lawsin raised an eyebrow in surprise, perhaps the appearance of Liane intrigued her? Then again plenty of noble born came to the Southern Institute so it was probably someone else. Before Hemed could attempt to track her gaze, Lawsin whipped her head around and started jotting some things down on the whiteboard, “K class, im pretty sure you know what konstructs are and all that boring stuff, so today we’re gonna be learning some basic magical runes for mana condensation alright…”
(*Clack Clack*) Just a few minutes after Lawsin’s lecture began Hemed heard an approaching set of frantic footsteps that grew louder by the moment. Everyone in class including Mr’s Lawsin turned towards the door when suddenly “AHH I refuse to be late!!! The door blew open as a boy that looked like he had been ravaged by a pack of wild manabeasts stumbled into class very unceremoniously, his uniform scratched in multiple places and his cloth satchel covered in mud and dirt. Adjusting his glasses, Hemed got a good look at this uncanny specimen that stuck out more than everyone in the class combined.
* * *
Looking at the gazes directed at him from the rest of the class, Maiel regretted his life choices and began slowly backing away from the doorframe “Ahh well I think I’ll come back tomorrow, yeah byee-“, “Would you be one Maiel Torchment?” the instructor interjected curiously, staring at his degraded uniform. “Y-yes I’m Maiel m-miss umm…”, “Lawsin, and ya better not forget, anyway there’s no use in ya stayin out is there, come in and sit down.” “O-ok” Maiel awkwardly shuffled into the class, trying not to make direct eye contact with anyone. He passed by the rows of desks in silence, suppressing his curses when he bumped into the elbow of the human goliath who glances at him strangely and ended up sitting down behind a smart looking guy with glasses who he felt had been staring at him the most. After he sat down, Lawsin muttered something incomprehensible and turned around to to continue with writing her note. Though this time everyone’s attention was focused on Maiel and a torrent of judgmental gazes fell on him. Feeling suffocated by the scrutiny, he lowered his head and whispered pitifully “Oh great Enigmarus… send help.”