Channeling his essence into Lunar Whisper, Ryn felt the very core of his being resonating with his sword, their two existences overlapping yet always being one. Lunar Whisper was just the reflection of his heart, therefore a reflection of himself; guiding his essence through the blade he slowly opened his eyes, skeptical about what he was about to do. Maintaining the flow of essence, Ryn pricked his free hand’s middle finger, a drop of blood coalescing on it.
Suddenly, a feeling of drowsiness overwhelmed Ryn, his flow of essence had been disrupted and he quickly dismissed Lunar Whisper. His body fell back onto his bed, as sleep conquered him, his eyes shutting and his body gently curling up, as if he was a child again, curling up by his mother’s side. That sleep, Ryn experienced a myriad of dreams, from soothing and gentle to wretched and damned. He’d forget them all the moment he woke up though.
A few hours later he woke up, the sun had begun setting, birds singing and returning to their nests. It was oddly reminiscent of when he’d first manifested his Sword, after that excruciating… Ryn didn’t want to recall the pain he felt then. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes he slowly sat up, not wanting to throw off his body’s co-ordination by getting up too fast he focused lightly and summoned his status. He’d pricked his finger in the moment, he just felt like it was the right thing to do, what he needed most. Reading through his status, Ryn felt exhilarated finding a new section.
[Sword : Lunar Whisper]
[Sword Style : Dreamwalker]
[Sword Style Description : Dreams are the essence of the night. The night is the moon’s domain. A Steward of the Moon must has a degree of authority over its partner’s domain.]
[Ability One : Serene Sleep – Lunar Whisper’s slashes inflict its foes with an overwhelming need for sleep, its potency depending on the strength of its wielder relative to their foe. ]
[Ability Two : ?]
[Ability Three : ?]
[Ability Four : ?]
[Ability Five : ?]
[Ability Six : ?]
[Ability Seven : ?]
Ryn’s eyes widened with fascination as he read through his status, his mind filled with all sorts of thoughts.
‘Holy shit… isn’t that totally overpowered? Surely there’s a drawback? And Dreamwalker? That sounds cool as hell… I want to try this right now… it’s a shame I can’t test it practically besides on myself.’
Ryn slowly stood up and manifested Lunar Whisper seeing it in a totally different light.
‘Just what are you truly capable of?’
Ryn felt a deeper connection to the blade, as if he understood it better, somehow? He sent Lunar Whisper back to his Sword Heart and jovially walked over to the desk in the room’s corner. He took out his phone from his backpack and checked the time, it was only 6pm but the sun had already started setting.
‘Well that’s how it gets during the run up towards winter.’
His timetable said that dinner was served around 6:30pm so he’d head to the cafeteria at that time but right now, he wanted to check out a few things.
‘First thing’s first, let me put this backpack away, I won’t need it anytime soon.’
Ryn picked up his backpack and opened the cupboard, made from the same material as his desk, opposite the bed.
‘So that’s where I get it…’
Upon opening the cupboard, Ryn saw a prestigious black uniform with elegant white accents. The pants looked roughly tailored to his fit and the blazer had beautiful embroidery of the Eternal Sword’s emblem on its chest pocket. A white shirt was also hung up along with a black tie to complete the uniform. It was rather high quality to say the least. Most school uniforms had minimal effort put into it however this looked like whoever designed it had poured their heart into it despite it not being a full fledged school and students only using it until they were sent to Anvil. Furthermore, most would leave the Centre if they conquered Anvil’s first forge, not wanting to associate themselves with Anvil further.
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‘I guess I’ll take a shower quickly and change into it before heading over to dinner.’
Ryn entered the bathroom, it was quite spacious, white tiles lining the floor and a small frosted window to provide ventilation and privacy when showering. Overall, Ryn was very pleased with his accommodation, not expecting to be treated this well. He really owed Vira of the Eternal Sword. Taking off his clothes and entering the shower, Ryn let the warm water fall onto his body, letting himself sink into the relaxation it brought with it.
After leaving the shower and drying up, Ryn used the deodorant from the amenities provided to him by the Centre. It had a rather pleasant scent, fresh and aquatic. Ryn got dressed into the uniform and looked at himself in the mirror, if he did say so himself, he looked quite good.
‘Now I see mom’s concerns.’
Ryn mused with himself in his mind as he left his room, five minutes remaining until dinner would be served. On his walk towards the cafeteria, he passed by the silver pyramid again, gazing at the engravings on it. It was getting dark but for some reason he felt he could still see well, perhaps this was due to his Sword Heart and his abilities.
The depiction of the Sun, Moon and Earth caught his eye once more, he felt drawn to it, as if he represented the Moon.
‘I wonder… Are there others like me out there? Who have a class and some sort of relationship to a celestial body?’
Ryn took one last fleeting glance before continuing his walk to the cafeteria. The cold only seemed to be amplified the darker it got, but luckily for Ryn, the uniform’s blazer seemed to have a layer of insulation within it. He really couldn’t thank Arisen Vira enough for his thoughtfulness.
Once he’d arrived at the cafeteria it was around 6:40pm. Dinner would last until 7pm so he could come back later, when it was less busy. But, if he did leave. most of the food would have been taken and he’d have to eat whatever was leftover which would have gone cold. Taking his place in the queue Ryn waited patiently, surrounded by the voices of teenagers talking about all manner of frivolous things. A boy with bronze skin and brown hair stood in front of him, the boy’s build was roughly similar to Ryn’s own. A small smile rested on his face and his eyes were a light hazel colour.
‘He looks friendly, maybe I should speak to him to pass the time.’
Ryn politely tapped the boy’s shoulder to which the boy turned his head around slightly, inquisitive as to who’d approached him.
“Sorry if I disturbed you, I’d just figured a conversation would be a good way to pass the time until we got our lunch. Oh I forgot to mention… I’m Ryn.”
The boy’s eyes seemed to hold no annoyance towards being disturbed which Ryn took as a good sign. Lightly outstretching his hand, the boy responded and shook hands with Ryn.
“Tobi, Tobi Darrivar. It’s a pleasure to meet you Ryn.”
Tobi’s voice was gentle and smooth, a voice which matched his cheery expression. Ryn was happy that his first attempt at socialising was a success, unless you counted his attempt during the assembly. Or if you ignore the fact he’d annoyed a literal Aspirant. Otherwise, Ryn was quite pleased with himself.
“What do they usually serve for dinner? I only joined today so I’ve honestly got no clue.”
Honestly, Ryn did not care what they were serving, he’d eat it as long as it was edible but he just needed something to start a conversation about. Tobi looked forward towards the queue before speaking.
“Today they’re serving chicken wraps and a selection of sides. From experience I can confidently tell you the chicken wraps are great, the sides tend to get stale quickly so I prefer staying away from them.”
“That so huh? From experience you say? How long have you even been here?”
Ryn was curious as to how long the people around him had been at the Centre, just how much he’d missed out on.
“Most of us have been here around five or six months, honestly you’re cutting it really short, what lessons are you even taking?”
“Oh me? I’m taking Wilderness Survival…..”
“…...And?”
Tobi had a confused expression on his face, almost as if he’d just seen a skeleton rising from its grave. Ryn was quick to respond, the reason why Tobi was frowning unbeknownst to him.
“Just Wilderness Survival, I’m not taking anything else.”
Tobi’s expression instantly dropped even further, as if he’d just been told a horrific piece of news.
“Surely you need to take some sort of practical combat lessons no? Even Lady Dahlia who is a prodigy amongst us partakes in the combat lessons as well as receiving extra lessons. Wilderness Survival is just a waste of time.”
Ryn didn’t know why but the dismissal of the course he’d chosen to study slightly angered him, from Tobi’s point of view it was a waste of time. Like hell it was, what good was a sword if he’d starve to death.
“I’m not quite following your point, sure a sword is great and all but what good is it if you’re dehydrated, starving, unable to find a safe sleeping spot etc.”
And so Ryn and Tobi reached the front of the queue all the while debating over which course was better.