“This is…crazy,” Thorne whispered as he immersed himself in the strange glowing screen. “So, this is what everyone else was working with.”
Looking at all the different numbers, levels, and abilities amazed Thorne. Apparently, the system was so much more than just a tracker, but even if it was just this, Thorne would be plenty satisfied.
Thorne collapsed down into his…bed. ‘So, I’m in my dorm.’ Thorne recognized as he looked around the dark place, ‘So they installed the system, and then Master Graald took me back.’
Thorne remembered the horrifying image of the violet cultivator, the awful agitated energy. He had thought he was going to die. He had never felt such power before, even in front of Master Graald or Master Khal.
Thorne’s eyes flicked through the red and amber spectrum status, ‘Huh, so the two spectrums level at a different pace.’ Remembering his time back in the forest, Thorne’s eyes widened in realization, ‘The amber likely levels up based on what I endure and roughly how much damage I take, while the red is the opposite, and levels based on how much I destroy and kill.”
Rubbing his head, Thorne remembered what Master Graald had done to him. His head still ached from the phantom pain. ‘Why was he so cold?’ he pondered. Master Graald had been distant and unresponsive to Thorne, a complete switch on how he had treated Thorne when he had arrived. ‘Who knows.’ Thorne sighed as he lay back in his bed.
Shaking his head, Thorne glanced up at the glowing blue screen. ‘Alright, so I need to focus on training my skills.’ Thorne decided as he glanced at the skill section. It was horrible; no skill above level six, and most were not even at level five.
‘Skills are the most important, but I also need to focus on my stats.’ Looking at his stats, Thorne came to a realization; ‘How is my perception so low, what?’ Thinking for a moment, Thorne realized the truth, ‘I never train or focus on my perception; I always go for the brute force approach.’
Even on his first day, he had barely sensed the approach of the leopard. Then, six months later, he was trapped physically and mentally in the snake’s domain. ‘I need to work on that.’ Thorne confirmed a solemn expression on his face. ‘If I don’t, it won’t matter how strong I am, I will die.’
Thorne looked around as he tried to locate the screen that hung on the wall. ‘There it is.’ Thorne thought as he located it; 1:09 UST. It displayed.
‘I need to get some sleep.’ He decided as he saw the time. Yawning, Thorn fell back into the embrace of his bed, ‘I’ll do all the thinking when I’m actually…awake.’ He thought as he drifted off into the land of dreams.
----------------------------------------
Master Graald stomped through the night passages of the academy toward the administrative offices. Not even bothering to stop or show identification, he raged through the entrance and forced it open with his bare hands.
“Where is Master Khal?” He shouted at the shaking workers. His veins bulged, and a seeping redness flowed throughout his face as his anger detonated in four simple words.
Sitting in comfortable seats were three human cultivators. They were all of the teal spectrum—cultivators of communication and clarity—and sat behind large monolithic computers.
Shivering in terror, none of the trio could even open their mouths due to the raging pressure that Master Khal gave off. It felt as if the air was cut off, and Master Graald held complete dominion over the laws of nature.
“Where?” he questioned again, this time in a low biting tone.
One of the cultivators, a plump human woman had the bravery to respond, and with some hesitation, she began to speak. “We don’t know…L-Lord Graald.” Shu stuttered out, not even able to look the Master in the eyes.
“When was the last time he was in the academy?” he asked, his rage cooling somewhat.
“Uhm.” The woman paused as he intently worked her computer, looking for the appropriate information and records, “His ship left three months ago, and he hasn’t returned since then.”
“Really?” Graald questioned, his eyes wide in surprise. Had Master Khal really been gone for three months? Master Graald had barely noticed, which he thought was a good thing. The less he interacted with that demon, the better.
“Thank you.” Master Graald spoke curtly, trying to hide his displeasure as he departed the room.
“Oh wait,” The woman shouted at the back of Master Graald, “There was a ship that arrived last night.”
Master Graald swiveled and marched back toward the woman as he dared to hold out some hope, “Show me.” He ordered.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Of course.” She responded as she navigated on the computer screen, “Here it is; this is the recording.”
Leaning over her shoulder, Mast Graald peered intensely at the Grainy recording, ‘So it’s him.’ Master Graald’s expression turned grim upon seeing the recording. It was Master Khal carrying an unconscious figure over his shoulder.
‘So, Khal took Thorne back.’ Master Graald nodded to himself, ‘That makes sense, but did he return.’
“Keep showing the recording.” Master Graald ordered as the woman was about to turn it off due to Master Khal leaving the camera's vision via a teleporter.
“I want to see if he comes back.”
Nodding, the woman did as he said and let the recording run.
“So, there he is.” Master Graald whispered, “Running like a rat.” He bit out.
The recording clearly showed Master Khal returning to his ship and leaving in the middle of the night, none the wiser... until now.
“Order all administrative workers to search for his ship.” Master Graald ordered as he looked sternly at the three administrative workers, “That is the new top priority. Understood?”
----------------------------------------
Thorne woke up. He withdrew his swords and cast a fervent gaze around before hopping out of bed, an old habit from the wilderness.
“You’re crazy,” Zal muttered upon seeing his roommate get up.
Thorne ignored him, walked over to the table, and pulled out another piece of his stored meat. Have you received your schedule?” Zal asked as he walked over to the fridge.
“What schedule,” Thorne responded as he took a massive bite of his dinosaur meat.
Scoffing, Zal pulled out a metal card from his spatial storage. “This, check your spatial storage.”
Upon checking, Thorne realized that he did, in fact, have a schedule. Pulling out the piece of metal, Thorne examined it closely.
Thorne Kramer Three-Day Schedule:
10 UST-12 UST: Amber Spectrum Training with Master Graald and Student Zal
1 UST- 2 UST: Red Spectrum Training with Rank Two Mentor
3 UST-8 UST: Team Training
8 UST-10 UST: Sparring
‘Hmm, this is interesting.’ Thorne thought as he read over the schedule, ‘Though I wonder why I’m only being taught by a rank two mentor and not Master Khal.’
“So, we have a training session together,” Zal said as he watched Thorne read his schedule.
Nodding, Thorne looked back at Zal, “What level are you?” he asked.
Furrowing his brows, Zal seemed surprised by the question before his eyes widened, “You probably don’t know this, but it’s rude to ask that question.” Zal spoke in a severe tone, “If I wasn’t as benevolent as I was, I would have killed you.” Zal said as a slight smirk ran across his face.
“You couldn’t kill me,” Thorne said as he stared at Zal, oblivious to the joke.
“Sure.” Zal chuckled, “Ah, whatever, I’ll tell you, I’m level seventy.”
‘He’s almost as strong as me.’ Thorne realized, ‘I can’t keep being so overconfident.’
“Thank you.” He grunted as he returned to his food.
“Well,” Zal said in an expectant tone.
Looking up from his food, Thorne saw Zal standing over him, his arms crossed.
“You can’t just ask my level and then not tell me yours.”
Sighing, Thorne willed the blue screen open and looked at his level. “Overall, I’m level seventy-three. In the red spectrum, I'm level eighty. In the amber spectrum, I’m level sixty-six.” He revealed, seeing no reason to hide the numbers from Zal.
Whistling lowly, Zal looked at Thorne in surprise, “What resources have you eaten up, damn fatty.”
“What?” Thorne was totally befuddled this time: “What are you talking about?”
Equally confused, Zal looked back at him, squinting, “How many resources have you taken to get to that level? Dual spectrum cultivators are notorious for leveling extremely slow.”
“What do you mean by resources?” Thorne asked.
“Like energy crystals, circulation pills, or natural treasures.” He spoke, dumbstruck at Thorne’s question. “Did you not use any resources?”
Thorne looked down at his food, “I ate…meat. Does that count?” he asked seriously.
“Damn, is the jade celestial your wife? How are you so lucky in your leveling,” Zal asked as he looked at Thorne in amazement.
“Training,” Thorne responded, deadpan.
“Sure.” Zal grumbled as he walked away, “Training.”
Thorne looked at the back of the departing Zal in befuddlement, ‘What’s he so worked up about?’
‘Ah, whatever, who cares?’ Thorne thought as he returned to the delight of food.
He quickly finished his routine and even took a shower for the first time. He had to stay in there forever, the dirt and grime in his body so much that the bottom of the shower was almost stained brown by the time he was done. He had, of course, taken baths in the lake in the forest, but he had to be careful and limit the time spent bathing due to the unknown dangers of the water lurking below. For the first time, he could relax and simply enjoy the cleaning of his previously disgusting body.
“Thorne, let’s go; we have to go meet Master Graald,” Zal shouted from the other room in the dorm.
“Alright, I’ll be ready in a second,” Thorne responded as he pulled on a fresh robe.
Smiling to himself, he walked up to Zal, and the pair departed from the dorm. ‘Finally, time to train the damn amber spectrum.’ He thought in glee.