Thorne stood rooted in place, mouth agape, stupefied, watching Graald retreat back into the building.
‘That son of a bitch’. He thought sardonically, shaking his head.
Thorne decided to seek information instead of blindly attempting to navigate the supercity. He walked up to a middle-aged petite woman who had no spectrum crystal. She had just finished whatever she was doing and was now walking out of the building.
“Excuse me.” before Thorne could even finish his sentence, she held up her hand and scrunched her face patronizingly. She began to speak in a high-pitched drawl of disinterest and contempt, speaking very slowly, “I am not interested, I do not care abo-“She halted her monologue upon seeing Thorne and, more specifically, when her eyes fell on his red and amber crystal.
Her face suddenly paled, and she immediately diverted her eyes and looked at the ground; “I-I-I apologize, revered cultivator. I meant no disrespect.” She bowed deeply, her voice raw with fear.
Thorne gazed down at the bowing lady bewildered; ‘what is up with her.’ Thorne thought to himself, ‘I guess cultivators are quite influential. Whatever, I just need directions, not a culture lesson.’
“It's fine. Could you give me directions to the Zupu Academy?”
She scrambled out of her box and forced a shaky smile onto her face; “of course, of course, I have a map of the city; I can upload it to your spectrum link.”
Thorne stared into her eyes and scratched his head, “Uhm, I don’t have one,” he muttered lowly. “Can I just absorb it or something with my spectrum crystal.”
She looked at him dumbfounded, “You want to absorb a tech packet into your body?”
“Uhh, no, of course not. I was just joking,” Thorne stammered, “is there another way to use the map apart from the spectrum-link thing.”
The lady furrowed her brows in conflicted thought before sighing, “You can just take mine.” She then reached into her pocket and handed over a grey tablet-like object, “the map is already uploaded on it; it will pop up when you turn it on,” she muttered grumpily, and before leaving, she had one last remark under her breath, “damn barbarian thief.”
Thorne ignored the comment, uncaring of her sentiment. He pressed the only button on the tablet, and it immediately lit up and displayed an interactive map in resplendent blue and yellow colors. A legend above the map displayed multiple symbols with a description of what they represented.
In the center of the map was the most alluring site. The symbol was simply a “Z” and was the site Thorne desperately desired to reach.
After tinkering with the tablet-like device, Thorne figured out how to set a destination with a glowing green path indicating the way to the academy.
He determined from the map that he was currently situated in some administrative building owned by the academy; hence, the distance to the central area of the academy was relatively short.
‘Oh fun, only fifty miles in a little under an hour, Thorne imagined the big man giggling to himself in some room over Thorne’s frenzied situation, ‘oh whatever, fifty miles isn’t too far’ Thorne sighed heavily to himself before shining a tenacious smile, ‘just a little jog round the block.’
The smell hit him the most. It was a far cry from anything he had ever smelt on earth; synthetic air clogged with a rusty metallic scent wafted throughout the city. Trains climbed skyscrapers at a ninety-degree angle; hovercars flew in designated air zones regulated by vehicles with the academy crest planted proudly at the front.
Thorne, however, did not have time to gawk and admire. He needed to move. Immediately, Thorne started running into the street, his legs pumping and pumping fast, very fast. He reached speed well past the Olympic athletes of earth, the red and amber energy powering his already fit body.
The relatively sparse foot traffic ignored Thorne’s antics, not desiring to disturb a revered combat cultivator.
While running, he cast his eyes down at the tablet in his hand to check how many miles were left.
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’Forty-eight, shit!’
Thorne estimated that he only had about forty minutes left until the inauguration of the new semester started. I'm not fast enough,’ he realized.
Thorne stopped in his tracks, allowing his thoughts to clear. He glanced down at his map and saw one of the icons approaching his location from the direction opposite the academy.
His eyes crinkled and illuminated in desperate, crazed glee while cooking up a last-ditch plan.
‘This has to be it!’
Glancing at the map, Thorne prepared himself the best he could while his desired icon grew closer and closer: ‘One-hundred miles, seventy-five miles.’
A low whirring could be heard, reverberating off the city wall. The street he was on was noticeably empty of pedestrians. ’Fifty miles, twenty-five miles, ten miles.’
It was then that Thorne saw his desired ride: one of the zooming, indomitable mega trains. He had no money, so he knew he couldn’t board it like an average person, so instead, he decided on the next best thing.
The train flew closer, speeding at a mile a second. Requiring no tracks, the white train floated on the ground using some form of electromagnetism. Thorne closed his eyes for a millisecond as it grew closer and took a shallow, calming breath.
His world slowed, allowing him to see the train clearly, its bullet shape much resembling the high-tech trains of Earth.
Bending his knees, Thorne prepared himself; ‘Three…two…one, NOW!’
Thorne threw his body at the train, and the world sped up again. Thorne desperately threw his hands around; they flapped like fish, trying to grasp at anything. But he couldn’t find that anything; he was slipping off. He clawed and dug at the smooth train exterior, grasping at the walls, the windows, anything, the world flying by him. His skin tore slowly, the resistance the amber energy granted him only extenuating the pain by making it longer.
His body was nearly wholly horizontal; his limbs were tearing through the air, ready to be pulled away. Thorne's eyes closed for a moment, and he let go.
In a flash, one of the windows adjacent to him opened, and a big hairy hand reached out and flung him into the train.
Thorne rolled heavily into the lush train compartment, the floor denting slightly. He soon got up and looked around. There were two humans in the compartment, well. Sort of humans. One was a yellowish stout, toad-like humanoid creature with big eyes and even bigger hands. Its skin was flabby and congealed, making its face appear to be always frowning. The being cowered in the edge of the training compartment, almost tripping over his orange academy uniform; blowing on his reddened hand surely hurt due to the air resistance.
The other passenger, a pale petite girl, seemed human but had sharp elf-like ears, dissuading Thorne from believing she was human. She wore an ornate blue uniform and was clearly also of the Zupu academy as the crest shone proudly in the upper right corner. She had oceanic deep blue eyes and a sharp, stunning face adorned with a tiny Roman nose; her silver brown hair flowed down her shoulder like a river stream. She looked at Thorne, her thin brows furrowed in concern and incredulity.
Thorne righted himself and started to dust himself off, a broad, unabashed smile painting his injured face.
“Oh, hello.” He then glanced awkwardly at the frog-like creature and nodded in genuine gratitude, “Thanks for saving me.”
The two people looked at him speechless, then dropped their eyes to his right hand where the academy crest was situated.
The creature Thorne dubbed, frog man” looked up at Thorne, his short figure barely reaching Thorne’s belly. The frog man's small gelatin mouth quivered in some unknown emotion.
Seeing this, Thorne raised his eyebrows and waited silently for the creature to do something.
The frog man sputtered, spittle flying out of his mouth as he squealed in a high-pitched voice, “WHO ARE YOU? WHAT ARE YOU DOING? I-I WILL AT-T-ACK YOU.” While speaking, he took a step forward, quickly glancing at the beauty beside him for motivation.
Thorne looked blankly with a slight smile on his face. He was unsure of the frog man’s combat strength; maybe he could decimate Thorne, but he knew one thing: the creature was a coward and wouldn’t fight.
“Well, I do apologize for my intrusion.” He looked sincerely at both of the train car inhabitants, “but I would appreciate it if you don’t attack.” Thorne spoke calmly, the small smile still present, amused by the situation.
Ring, “Arriving at the Zupu Academy, thank you for traveling with us!” A pleasant artificial voice intoned, the message sounding throughout the room.
The wall that Thorne had been desperately clinging to just minutes ago suddenly disappeared, allowing the passengers to walk out.
Still dumbfounded by the bizarre human, the other two students stayed behind in the car for a second, allowing Thorne to walk out of the car first.
Thorne, smiling shamelessly, cast one final look over his shoulder to the two students, “It was nice getting to meet you guys.” With that, the once menial laborer from Earth left the deadly train and entered his new home: the Zupu Academy.
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Lyra Valtear watched the human man briskly walk into the academy, his curly brown hair waving behind him. Soon, he disappeared from her sight in the small crowd of students awaiting inauguration. She frowned, perplexed by the human as she remembered her brief interaction with him if you could even call it that.
Her confusion vanished shortly after it appeared, remembering what her mother had taught her.
‘You must always act with class and pride,’ inwardly scoffed at the mantra. She had been taught to act in that manner from a young age, yet as she grew older into a young adult, she found that repressing her true self was ever so frustrating. But she did not stop or falter. It was her duty to not stop or falter after all.