"So what're you planning on doing with your free period today Koro" Beln asked with his arms behind his head. As Koro and Jorum walked beside him.
"I think I'm just gonna train to be honest. D2 doesn't have training facilities like these and the combat courses I'm interested in don't accept 1st years. How about yourself?"
"I'm actually looking at a crafting course for shapers. It starts right after lunch period." His friend smiled smugly.
"What about you big guy?" Turning to Jorum.
"Ah there's a body mod elective that I got permission to sit in on and then I'm gonna check out the gym club. Unlike you caster types I have to grow my physical strength if I want to advance. Muscle elasticity is very important" as he flexed his overgrown body.
The boys laughed on their way to the cafeteria to eat or in Jorum’s case to inhale anything he could get his hands on. Beln and Koro were pretty sure he'd eat the trays if he could.
Koro finally found himself alone as he waved his friends off before heading outside from the main building. The training center was located just a couple hundred feet from there led by a walkway going to the front doors.
It looked less like a training ground and more like one of the pod hotels that were littered throughout some of the middle rings. The building stood several stories tall, covered in tinted glass and shaped like a giant cube.
"Function over fashion I guess" he thought to himself as he looked up at the giant shiny black square.
Walking through the tinted doors he found himself in a lobby with the ceiling going up 2 floors, all of the visible surface a shining black with hard edged gray furniture arranged in an orderly fashion. The space was well lit but the rich black seemed to absorb it and the sound. It was…unnerving to say the least.
A long sleek counter sat across the room with several uninformed individuals attending it at stations. A few students were lounging about on the furniture as well. The sound of their conversations somehow deadened by the room.
Small elevators ran along the back wall on either side of the front desk, which were going up and down as others left or entered the complex.
"Welcome student, do you need a training space today?" A thin dark haired woman stared at him with an emotionless look but a cheery voice. As Koro wandered up towards the counter.
"Uh yes…yes please." He stammered out as he nervously stepped up.
"No problem. I just need you to place your wristband on this device here." She reached over and tapped a black block with a half circle cut out of it.
"Oh ok" placing his wrist in the groove, it began to glow a deep blue then beeped and stopped glowing.
"Koro is it?"
"Yes ma'am" he sheepishly replied.
"First time here?" She asked, tapping away at a screen behind the desk.
"Yes ma'am"
She gave a short chuckle. "That's ok, ill explain and don't call me ma'am. I'm barely older than you, you're gonna make me feel old." Koro nodded awkwardly trying to acknowledge what she said.
"So anyways… the Academy's Training Center is set up with a 100 private state of the art HoloRooms. We use your ID to assign you a room and the system will record all of your training data to assist you in the future. Assign training, help with technique, etc. These rooms can simulate a number of situations and even mimic Enki. The system will also use your ID data to stock materials to your room associated with your abilities. Which yours being.." she looked at her screen searching. "E'ona…."
He watched realization dawn on her face. The placid look on her face changed to one of fascination and wonder.
"Are you f'real" Her whole demeanor changed.
"Uh yes ma'am" taken aback at the personality switch.
"I told you not to call me that but like seriously kid."
"Yes ma…yes" he looked down at his feet
"Jeremy, hey check this out" a curly red-haired young man looked up from his holo and walked over.
"What do you need, Serena" she pointed to the screen. "I don't get what I'm looking for… oh shit really" as he looked up at the boy on the other side of the counter.
Koro tried to smile while looking embarrassed.
"Hey.." Jeremy tried to call before Koro talked over him.
"Sorry could I please just get a room, I don't want to make a big deal out of this."
"Right,right, sorry. Enjoy yourself, I'm looking forward to seeing what you do here." He smiled and walked back to his spot turning to one of his coworkers. Whispering to them, to which they glanced over with a dumbfounded expression.
"Sorry about that, you just surprised me, that was all." Serena trying to go back to her previous demeanor but with a twisted expression on her face. "Right a room…let's see" she searched over the screen.
"Actually I need to apologize, all our rooms are booked right now."
"Oh, can I book one for the future then." A defeated look overcoming him.
"Yes, we can do that. We schedule 30 minute blocks with a max 1 hour per day. We do however also have the rec room available all the time for everyone."
"Rec room?" He asked quizzically.
"Yeah the whole first floor just behind those double doors is an open gym space. It's equipped with everything you need but in a shared space. So you'll need to make sure you're being courteous to your fellow students and faculty in there. Are you interested?"
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"Uh yeah definitely." Nodding aggressively.
"Good I'm gonna send you a form just read it over and sign it. Ok" his wrist beeped.
He signed the agreement and reserved a room for 30 minutes every Tuesday and Thursday. Then headed into the rec room after Serena showed him that he could scan his wristband to come and go without having to talk to the front desk every time.
He walked into an orchestra of training sounds. The scuffs of shoes, the whooshing of powerful abilities smashing things and people breathing heavily or yelling to be heard. This was perfect, an entire room of like minded combat oriented people. "I will never leave… if I can help it." He whispered to himself.
Locating the locker room off to the side of the doors he just walked through, he changed into the now familiar jumpsuit. It was growing on him and besides it was way more comfortable than the uniform that was required. From there he hurried to find a comfortable space to start doing exercises.
He found a set of machines that were for training aura senses. A number of them were already in use as he watched his upperclassmen trying to maintain focus as they tapped holo buttons that would show up at random locations around them. One of the machines even seemed to have a group of students competing for a high score on it.
He settled into one of the available machines and reached out to his aura. Putting his palm down on the sphere that sat at the top of a pedestal in front of him. The machine glowed and whirred to life, his senses immediately noticing the energy that the machine was emitting.
He fumbled with it at first, embarrassingly smacking his head on the machine trying to turn around to push one of the targets, but it was only a matter of time before he was flying through them. Hitting almost every target as he dexterously moved about pressing them.
It had not felt that long but when he finally looked out at the room after a particularly good run, in his opinion. He noticed several people lined up at his machine, not so patiently waiting.
"I've been waiting here for like, forever. You mind stepping off so the rest of us can get some time in too." A particularly annoyed looking girl at the front huffed at him.
"Oh I'm sorry I didn't realize…my bad" as he stepped away from the machine, anxiously trying to avoid eye contact and wiping sweat from his eyes. “It's all yours” gesturing to the vacant machine. She huffed as she shoved past him and hopped into the device.
He looked at his holo to check the time. A whole thirty minutes had flown by and he didn't even notice. He also noticed a new app had popped up named 'Trainer Assist'. Clicking into it he found that all of his runs on the 'Target Cracker' were listed. There were also breakdowns about his body movements and health. As well as improvements and a tips section based on his data.
He explored a number of the machines, including just some general exercise machines after thinking back to comments Jorum had made about the importance of physical exercise. "I'll have to keep a healthy balance if I want to keep up with the other students here."
He had noticed other first years here as well, not that he knew their names or anything about them. Thank goodness none of his classmates were there just in case he managed to embarrass himself…some more.
It was getting to be later in the day as he checked the time and exhaustion was creeping in. Deciding he'd finish off at the shooting range ,he headed off to a grouping of them lined up along the wall. Just a few minutes to blow off some energy then he'd head home.
Reaching out to his aura one more time he summoned a bolt of pale yellow plasma above his outstretched palm. With a thought it shot out and smashed into a hologram on the far end. The plate-like image with circular targets on it, took the blow and a red marker glowed where the energy hit.
"Dammit" noticing the red marker showing his shot had gone wide. He began firing off more, only serving to frustrate him more as his shots missed. After several more failed attempts. He finally got mad enough that he stopped creating smaller bolts. Gathering energy into a large ball and grabbing his wrist with the other hand to steady himself as physical pressure started to amount around it.
Fffwwwssshhh
The ball shot off with too much force and smashed into the sidewall of the lane. A girl who had been throwing mud balls next to him shrieked and walked off in a hurry.
Breathing heavily he whispered to himself "I think I'm done for today." Before turning to leave the range feeling defeated.
Barrett stood there edging closer to watch the weird white haired who was throwing…plasma bolts, maybe? He wasn't sure. The boy seemed strong but untrained, probably a first year with the way his attention was focused all on summoning up those bolts. As he went to greet him though, the kid turned his direction with an annoyed look on his face and too much speed.
WHACK!
Koro ran into something, smashing his face into a sweaty student who was now grasping his arms trying to steady both of them. Looking up he saw an older boy who was squinting and trying to stretch his face as his nose seemed to be bleeding slightly.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention and I…" Koro panickingly backed up trying to wipe sweat away.
"Ohw no, iw was in da way," the other student tried to talk while clutching his nose to staunch the bleeding.
"I really didn't see you. I'm so sorry, so sorry."
"I promise it's alright. Just a little nose bleed" as the boy let go of his nose before trying to smile. More blood rolling into his lip.
"Phew, aghh gross" trying to spit out the blood.
"Well I was actually on my way out but do you want me to go get you some first aid or something" as he attempted to help.
"I was actually trying to come over and talk to you, if you had a minute." Now talking with his head leaned back.
"I was actually hoping to head home, sorry." Now feeling like he needed to escape the awkward conversation.
"Wait, please I promise it'll be worth your time", holding his hands out as he repositioned himself in front of Koro.
“Uhhh ... .ok” sounding defeated as he finally stopped trying to get around the other student.
“Good…hmm” clearing his throat before opening his mouth again. ”The name’s Barrett…Barrett Andalor” holding out a hand to shake with a broad smile on his face.
“Uh Koro… Omni” taking his hand which the other boy took and shook far too violently.
“Its a pleasure to meet you Koro….wait did you say Omni” pausing at the revelation.
“Yes?” shying away again.
“Is your brother Zeke Omni, by any chance?!” he suddenly said excitedly.
“Yeah that would be my brother. He graduated last year, did you know him?”
“Of course I know him, how could I not. He was one of the best duelists here and was my rival for the last 3 years” he spoke proudly.
“Oh, he's never mentioned a Barrett.” Koro scratched his head, a wry smile awkwardly stretched across his face.
“Maybe he mentioned me by one of my sweet nicknames. ‘The Stone Sniper’ or maybe ‘Demon of Earth’” flailing in his excitement.
“Nope” continuing to try and keep a smile on his face. “Look, I'm sorry I've never heard of you but you said you had something important to tell me” trying not to sound agitated.
Another student around Barrett’s age ran up to them. “What did he say Cap’, is he in? Those plasma bolts looked insane. I wanna see more of what he can do.”
“I was getting to it, Jarren.”
“Wait. What is this about., look if you're looking for a duel. I'm only a first year student. I mean I got approved but like give me sometime you both look like fifth years.” Koro panicked at the thought that these guys were actually attempting to bully him.
“No, no wait, sorry. That's not it…sort of” Barrett stumbling over his words.
“Sort of. Look no way i'm out of here..” he moved to get away.
“Wait, sorry. That's not what I meant either. I meant to… look um let me start over.” Taking a deep breath.
“My name's Barrett Andalor, I'm the Captain of the Dueling Club and after what I saw you do with those plasma bolts. I've never seen energy like yours and I bet you have some crazy combat power and if you really are only a first year then I know we could see you in advanced dueling by 3rd year or sooner. So ... .whaddya say, you in?”
Koro’s eyes went wide.