Now with my mom squared away I got back to my future which would bring me out of this hellhole. Only if I knew what I left behind. Maybe things might have been different then.
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The goodbye was fairly simple, it was just normal goodbyes all around with a tear jerking one from my mother. I on the other hand was feeling slightly suicidal, every student in the program had to live in a dormitory and though classes were still a month away, I had to be present within a week. I could not go without telling my folks which meant a very sticky mother which meant no dampeners which meant being bombarded with very bad thoughts. Both my other options namely M.G.P. and my best friend where out of the picture which took all my excuses. Their thoughts were not normal and being subject to them was despair inducing, I only made it through using my pets as a buffer.
Leaving the house, the first thing I did was turn the dampeners on and the sweet embrace of dullness hit me making me sigh. I felt annoyed mutters from my black jacket, white tea shirt and dark green pants but even their thoughts were downed to a whisper which made it super easy to ignore. All my belongings were in a backpack and suitcase and on I went to a bright future. I might look a bit funky but it was not half as funky as most explorers.
For the first time in my life, I got to go to the fifth level of the city which was a rather exciting experience. The city built upwards and was divided into vertical 'divisions' with the more important stuff higher up. My family lived on the third layer while my best friend was on the fourth.
Thinking of my friend made me think of the last call I had with him, he did not get into the program which led a bit of an argument. He thought I would accept the program and start our professional lives together just like we had promised, but this was a once in a life time opportunity and I could not pass it by. I told him as such, one thing led to another and we were currently in a bit of a funk, but knowing him he would come to understand my point as well and when I get out, I would use my elevated status to boost both of us to the stratosphere.
My thoughts in order I walked down the set of stairs, my home was a massive apartment in a row of massive apartments in a 10-story tall housing complex hanging hundreds of feet in the air. The teleporter was at the ground floor with all of the many stores and store consoles while the garage console was on the roof. These complexes were built so the people staying in there never needed to move anywhere, even the jobs usually were inside these very complexes, in my opinion these were just gilded prisons built to keep the lower middle to upper middle class happy but I wanted more out of life than the lot assigned to me otherwise I would not be taking an occupation as dangerous as an explorer.
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My musings carried me to the dome and in I went. In the holographic screen a golden icon popped up that depicted a high-resolution image of the facility I would call home for the next six months. I clicked on it and a host of identification enquiries popped up including but no limited to biometric scans psionic scans and good old passwords. The exam halls had scans but this felt excessive, I knew domes had multiple level of checks and scans but this felt like what I sometimes watched in military movies. My agitation was picked up by my bonds and I had to send soothing waves of calm before they did something stupid and I suffered. Soon enough it was over and the teleportation sequence started.
Coming out of the dome was a surreal experience. It did not hit till that moment but I was in the fifth level of the city, there were only two levels above this but no level was so encompassing as the Institute of Monsters and Magic. Arguably the best academy in the whole world and certainly the largest it was one of the world's greatest marvels. Its radius was 3 full kilometers and unlike most buildings this thing was a mobile fortress in the shape of a perfect sphere, it was surrounded in this glasslike material that apparently could be psychically controlled and was strong enough to withstand full-powered blows from SSS-class monsters. Not only that but the transparent material could imitate any weather, had super advanced temperature and a whole host of other things I had no idea about.
What was inside was no less magnificent, there were a very and I mean very long series of domes that lined the circumference of the sphere at an alleviated position that gave you very good view of the whole place and the tabloids could not capture how good the place looked. The did the 'technology meets nature' theme perfectly with the futuristic architecture combined with strategically placed plants and trees that gave it more of a garden feel with terraces and even trees growing out of certain sections of certain buildings.
"Ahem."
My gawking was cut short by a cough. I noticed a diminutive woman wearing some sort of formal robe looking at me.
"Yes?"
"Sir, you have been standing at the entrance of the for a prolonged period of time which is thoroughly discouraged. My I ask for your identification?"
I blushed and gave her my credentials.
I knowing smirk came across her cute face as looked over my identification holograph.
"Well, that explains it, if this vista had you stumped. Well, you have seen nothing yet."