Popularly known as the sector of awakened research and advancement, Sector 5 stands as a beacon of knowledge and a testament to centuries of awakened innovations. The sector sits at the forefront of magical discovery, boasting an unrivaled institution of learning that attracts awakened students even from the far reaches of the continent. But it is not just the wealth of knowledge that has set the 5th sector apart, as it boasts the largest number of evolved and advanced citizens in the entire kingdom due to their recent breakthrough in the study of aperology.
Vanguard newspaper.
Sector 5, Year 2275.
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A day and a half later, Aodhán and Daruk stood at the hull of The Griffin, staring at the sector of magical advancements as it revealed itself in all its glory. They had rushed out of their cabins immediately after one of the crew members announced the sighting of Nematon, the port city of the 5th sector, and had joined the crowd of people gathered at the ship’s bow, struggling to get a glimpse of the most magically advanced sector in the kingdom.
Aodhán stood on his tiptoes, straining to see above the heads of others. Fortunately, a woman staggered, and Aodhán immediately slipped forward, pulling a snickering Daruk along with him.
“Young man, I was standing there.” The woman complained, trying to shove them backwards, but she lacked the strength to do so and eventually muttered. “Why are children these days always rushing? We’re literally going there.”
They both ignored the woman and focused their sight on the growing land mass before them, and a moment later, a multitude of towering spires revealed themselves, constructed with black metal and dark blue glass that seemed to absorb the rays of the evening sun rather than reflect them.
Runes covered each tower, shimmering with a myriad of colors that bathed the city below them in light. Almost every passenger gasped as the ship crossed an invisible boundary, and the magical energy around them suddenly intensified, becoming so heavy and dense that they could feel it flowing around them like a river tide.
Tiny motes of energy rushed into his core with every breath, and although it was too little to have any serious effect on his core, it felt like a cup of strong coffee on a particularly slow morning.
God, he missed coffee. Although the monks hadn’t really let them have the strong ones, even the weak ones usually packed a punch strong enough to wake them up.
The towering spires and skyscrapers loomed even larger as they drew nearer to the port, their surfaces rippling with energy as the runes interacted with the abundant energy in the air.
About 200 feet from the port, they were immediately greeted by a row of blue crystalline rocks that rose from the water, their surfaces shimmering with a glow that seemed to dance upon the waves.
If Aodhán had been close enough, he would have stretched his hands out to touch them, but alas, fate was too cruel. Immediately after the ship threw down its anchor and docked, Aodhán and Daruk rushed towards the gangway with a dozen other people who were just as eager as they were.
They made it into the port a few minutes later and were immediately enveloped in a cacophony of sights and sounds. Aodhán stumbled as cores blazed all around him, each one emanating a pressure that was several tiers higher than his own, but what surprised him the most was the fact that these cores were the cores of dockworkers and sailors.
There were a few dull cores around him that identified individuals that had reached the limit, but within the sea of blazing cores, Aodhán barely registered them.
“Welcome travelers; follow me, and I shall lead you to the inn of arcane awakening.” A woman shouted as she rushed towards a group of passengers who had just disembarked from the ship.
They turned to see a row of brightly dressed individuals waving flyers and banners that advertised several inns. One of them, a young girl about the age of fifteen, caught them staring and immediately made her way over.
“Welcome, young lords; follow me; let me lead you to the phoenix’s nest; we offer the best accommodations in Nematon.”
“We appreciate that, thank you, but we wanted to tour the city before night falls." Aodhán replied, and Daruk nodded, but the girl simply smiled.
“Then I shall be your guide. Also, night never really falls here in sector 5, thanks to the nexus of sunsets.”
The woman led them through the port, weaving through the passengers, sailors, and dockworkers with practiced ease. Sailors shouted around them, moving about as they loaded and unloaded cargo with surprising efficiency.
“What is this nexus of sunsets?” Daruk asked.
“First, my name is Yue, and the nexus of sunsets is one of our most prized artifacts here in the 5th sector.” She replied, pointing to a tower that he could just barely see from this distance, and continued. “See that tower? It is called the Tower of Ardelia, and it houses the nexus that glows bright enough to bathe the entire sector in a glow reminiscent of a sunset.”
“The entire sector?” Daruk asked with a stupefied expression, and Aodhán couldn’t help but shake his head in amazement. The fifth sector was one of the largest in the kingdom, second only to the 3rd and 1st sectors.
“Yes, amazing, right? It was imbued by a dozen grandmasters with a solar affinity, or so I’ve heard.”
At the pace Yue set, it didn’t take them too long to reach the main city. Everything around them screamed magic, and almost every surface was covered in glowing runes. The entire city was clean, unnaturally so, and even when a passenger littered the floor, it disappeared the next moment.
Yue pointed out landmarks as they walked, but Aodhán barely paid her any attention, completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of blazing cores around him as well as the number of evolved individuals he’d come across in the last few minutes.
Only a few minutes into the sector, and he’d seen more than two dozen evolved individuals, which was certainly more than he’d expected. What surprised him the most was just how common they seemed to be, as even a small kiosk owner selling something similar to burgers had the familiar ringed pupils that identified him as an evolved awakened.
Yue led them to the kiosk and urged them to buy the ‘palmes’ as she had called them, declaring them one of the best things in the sector, and after taking a bite, Aodhán had to admit that it tasted absolutely divine.
They continued the tour, and a few minutes later, Yue squealed in excitement. “If you like all you’ve seen so much, then you just have to see the Cornelian Park; it’s absolutely beautiful.”
They hastened their steps, eager to see the park, when they turned a corner and Aodhán bumped into a large man. Yue laughed as she apologized, but Aodhán and Daruk stood, frozen with fear, as they took in the man’s eyes and the two bands of gold that ringed his gray pupils.
The man accepted their apology with a smile and simply continued on his way. It was only after the man had left their line of sight that they turned back to Yue, who seemed to be holding back laughter.
Aodhán and Daruk exchanged a look of amazement, and Daruk whispered. “Oh, Raol, is that what I think it is?”
“Yes, Daruk, that man is at the second stage of evolution.” Aodhán replied, still awed. For over a month, he hadn’t seen a single evolved individual, but less than an hour into the 5th sector, he’d come across hundreds of evolved individuals, and now, a man with double rings?!
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“There’s no need to fear Doctor Ershing.” Yue laughed. “He’s actually very nice, and he’s quite popular in Nematon for being one of the youngest people to evolve to the advanced class.”
“What kind of doctor is he?” Aodhán asked as they resumed their tour, and Yue shrugged. “I’m not quite sure, but he teaches at the academy.” In an excited tone, she asked. “Will you be attending the tryouts?”
“Yes, we plan to attend the academy.” Daruk replied, and she sighed. “My birthday is in six months, but even if I awaken by then, I’ll have to wait half a year for the next tryouts.”
“I’m sure you’ll do great.” Aodhán replied and asked. “About the academy, how far is it from here?”
“The academy is at the center of the sector, so it’s quite far, but you can get there in two hours if you take a hovercar, or even faster if you go with a teleport station.”
Daruk and Aodhán exchanged a glance, and a moment later, Daruk said: “Forget the park and take us to this teleport station.”
It took them about fifteen minutes to reach the station, which was just a large building occupied by a row of hovering portals managed by an advanced-class portal awakened. They had run out of there when the man said the cost of teleporting a single person to the academy was 10 silvers.
At that time, Aodhán remembered to ask Yue for the price of a room in the Phoenix’s nest, and her reply had caused his belly to lurch for an entire minute. 10 silvers per night! Yet they had no choice, as she’d been incredibly helpful to them.
Like Yue had said, even after the sky should have darkened, it remained stuck at dusk, and the clouds were painted in several hues that stole his breath away. They arrived at the phoenix’s nest an hour before midnight, and while Daruk paid for the room, Aodhán gave Yue two silver coins as payment for the tour.
The phoenix nest was beautiful, unlike the inns they’d seen in Sector 8. It looked more like a hotel than an actual inn and was constructed with the same black metal and deep blue glass that were abundant in the whole city.
Daruk had asked about them, and Yue explained that the black steel was just plain Ragnar steel, imbued with the essence of shadow, while the blue glass was called Romanian glass and was imbued with the concept of space, causing buildings to be much larger on the inside than they looked.
Aodhán and Daruk experienced this phenomenon as they walked into the room they’d rented, and it opened up into a space five times larger than a normal room. After taking a moment to explore the beautifully designed room, they realized that aside from the bedroom and bathroom, there was another room that occupied more than half of the space.
A small sign by the door identified it as a training room, and Daruk opened the door to find a large room covered in reinforcement and soundproofing runes that shone with a mild golden light.
A rack of training equipment stood in one corner of the room, but what captured Aodhán’s attention was the raised, ringed platform in the center of the room. It reminded him of. Boxing ring, but it was a little smaller.
Aodhán walked into the ring, inspecting and observing it before creating a spear of lightning that he threw towards the other end of the ring. Instead of exiting the ring, though, the spear struck a blue energy shield that instantly shimmered into existence to contain the attack.
Aodhán grinned and said to Daruk, “We’ve got three days before the tryouts; we might as well put it to good use.”
….
Two days later, Daruk whooped in excitement as multiple spikes of ice shot out of the bowl of frozen water, and with a wave of his hand, they broke, shattering into finger-sized needles that floated in the air around him.
With a thought, the needles shot towards the opposite end of the ring, only to shatter against the translucent barrier, and Aodhán clapped vigorously in excitement.
“Finally!” he shouted as he walked towards the edge of the ring. “I was scared you weren’t going to make it before the tryouts tomorrow.”
They’d barely stepped out of the phoenix’s nest in the past two days. Everything they needed was in the building, and they’d taken their meals in the cafeteria located on the bottom floor of the nest.
Instead, they’d spent their time meditating and working on their skills. Aodhán had spent more time on the new skill he was trying to create while also condensing more of his will flames.
Daruk, on the other hand, had much more to do, so even when Aodhán was resting or speaking with the other awakeneds in the nest, he had spent his time honing his control over his affinity, and his efforts had finally paid off.
With a single thought, he could now convert water to ice and vice versa. One thing he’d realized, though, was that his abilities, willpower, and bloodline were somehow connected, and as he gathered and strengthened his control over his abilities, he unconsciously gained control over his bloodline as well.
With a thought, the chill of his aura erupted out of him, and it expanded to coat the entire ring in a thin layer of frost. The temperature within the ring plummeted, transforming it into an artic zone that infected anyone with the intense chill of winter.
“Oh, you want to play? Then let’s play.” Aodhán shouted as he jumped into the ring and landed on a floating platform of storm. Immediately, a small storm cloud rumbled into existence and expanded to cover the entire ring.
Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled, and the power of the storm began to intensify as he poured both energy and willpower into it. To be honest, it was an intimidating sight, but Daruk refused to be cowed; he’d advanced to the 14th tier the day before, absorbing all the remaining cores as they would have no need for them in a day if they passed the academy trials; if not, then they were a little screwed, but he couldn’t afford to worry about that now.
With a grin, he forged a large block of ice, and as it materialized before him, he shattered it, breaking it into smaller pieces that he forged into needles as long as his arm. With a thought, he imbued each needle with durability and minor piercing power, forcing almost all of the willpower he’d managed to tame into it.
The needles hissed as an icy mist emanated from them and then began to revolve around him. Still, he knew it wasn’t enough. Aodhán had faced an origin storm and survived; he had to do more.
A moment later, he took direct control of his bloodline, pressing down on it until he reached some kind of limit. A thick layer of frost covered the ground, and flakes of snow formed in the air. The temperature within the ring fell so low that Aodhán began to shiver uncontrollably.
“You want to play bloodline dirty; fine, I won’t take it easy on you.” Aodhán glared at Daruk as he dusted snow from his hair and body.
Daruk responded with a cold smirk. “Good, because I won’t either.”
The needles suddenly shot towards Aodhán, tearing through the air with great speed, but Aodhán just stared at them with an amused smile, as if watching a child throw a tantrum, and Daruk gritted his teeth in frustration.
The needles splintered a moment later as they smashed against a thick barrier made of storms. It dissipated almost as soon as it appeared, but before he could react, half a dozen storm spears shot down from the rumbling cloud.
Daruk raised his hands, trying to forge a shield, but he was too slow and the spears too fast. They nicked his arms and legs, cutting deep enough to draw blood but shallow enough that his natural regeneration could easily heal him.
Daruk hissed in pain, and Aodhán commented. “Your control and speed are still lacking, so I’ll make this easier for you even though I shouldn’t.” He finished with a wink, and a moment later, the storm broke and rain poured down.
Daruk was loathe to accept the help, but he would be a fool to refuse. With a flick of his palms, he converted the rain to ice, which he merged and transformed into long spikes that began to revolve around him with speed.
One by one, they shot towards Aodhán, but he simply dodged or blocked each one. The good thing, though, was that he had a steady supply of water, which meant he didn’t have to create the ice himself.
More spikes formed, and soon they rushed out in threes. A minute later, half a dozen rushed out every second, and Aodhán soon began to take injuries, yet it was obvious that he wasn’t even trying, as he hadn’t even tried to attack, which meant he was going easy on him.
Anger curled in Daruk’s gut, and he channeled all his refined will into his next attack. The three spears shot forward, but it was obvious that there was something different and dangerous about them.
Aodhán must have sensed it too, and as the spears shot towards him, he created another storm barrier, but Daruk had learned from his previous mistake, and instead of smashing against the barrier, the spears curved, changing trajectory, and completely bypassing the shield.
Aodhán’s eyes widened, but before Daruk could rejoice, the silk scarf Aodhán wore around his neck suddenly rippled and expanded before transforming into a block of storm that completely encapsulated him.
The spears struck, and the force of the attack broke the block and caused Aodhán to stumble backwards. Yet, it did little damage to Aodhán himself.
Daruk felt frustrated. While he’d been learning control, Aodhán had managed to create a new skill. No, it wasn’t a new skill; he reassessed it; it was more a genius manipulation of his {Create construct} skill.
The ability to change the shape of a construct after creating it was something Aodhán had been working on and had only recently perfected, as it required a greater amount of control than he’d previously possessed.
“Well, that last attack was something.” Aodhán muttered, slightly impressed, as he dispersed the storm cloud, and Daruk retracted his bloodline.
Daruk glared at him for a moment before sighing. “You could have killed me a dozen times and in a dozen different ways during that bout, but you didn’t.”
“That is true.” Aodhán replied with a smirk and continued. “But the reason for that spar wasn’t to win, but to test you and see how far you’ve come.”
“So, what do you think?” Daruk asked, and Aodhán smiled widely. “What I see is great potential; you’ve made great progress in the last few days, and you’ll make even more if given enough time to do so.”
Daruk smiled and nodded in gratitude. They stepped out of the freezing ring, and Aodhán continued. “The control I have now has been honed for a long time, but you’ve only had your affinity for a week. I think you’re doing great so far.”
Daruk ignored his compliment and asked, “So, what I need is more control?”
“Also speed and imagination.” Aodhán replied. “Remember, your imagination can be your limit; there are a thousand ways you can use your abilities; you just have to imagine them.”
Daruk observed him for a moment before he nodded. “I’ll tackle control first; the more control I have, the faster I’ll become.”
.