I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die.
I calmly thought while I ran. Calmly. Very, very calmly. While thinking about the possibility of my death, I felt my body burning in pain as I ran and took in air. My lungs were burning, the small gashes on my skin caused by running around trees and skidding on the ground to dodge attacks made my situation even worse. The sweat on my skin and my back was running as the early morning sun began to rise.
Running on the uneven ground of the forest in the Academy outskirts, I heard the guttural howls and hungry barks of the hounds chasing after me.
Shit, I'm definitely going to die. What the hell are these dogs doing here on Academy ground anyways?
I knew I had been running without direction for what felt like days, but what choice did I have? I channelled Potentia through the tips of my fingers and looked at a gigantic green tree root blocking the only path I made out in the shaded forest. While I used my Art, I looked down at my black-and-gold Metimur watch to see how much Potentia I had reserved.
Available Potentia: 9 / 14
Why'd my limit have to be so low. I guess all that practise was for naught.
As I ran, I pushed off the ground and vaulted over the tree root with all my might, transferring the Potentia in my fingers into the tree root. After I jumped over it, I rolled over and got up, pushing my feet against the dirt to accelerate and run as fast as I could.
While I ran, I turned back and watched as green wisps of Potentia began to form around the root, the root itself having a transparent but weak green glow. The root began to slowly move from the dirt, soil falling off of it as it lifts itself from the ground. I noticed three of my pursuers through the small opening the root made as it got off into the ground, hungry and upset at my constant running.
All three of them were very similar in appearance, each hound having two heads and branch-like horns. The dog-like creatures had long vine-like tails. I could even make out their dark green fur that resembled the patterns of a tree's leaves, likely to improve their camouflage as they hunted their prey. Unfortunately for me, they decided they wanted to have human for breakfast.
[Accessing Information...]
I glanced at my watch as it downloaded information about the hounds.
[Successfully accessed!]
[Uploading information...]
Species: Lesser Viridian Orthus
Class: F-
Notes: Lesser Viridian Orthus travel in packs and are typically led by a pack leader. They move faster under the sun and can regenerate through photosynthesis. They are relentless hunters. They're not very intelligent, and easily evadable during their lunges.
Absorbing the information given, I realized that the hounds had already closed towards the animated tree root. All three of them positioned their bodies to jump over it while the root slowly rose higher from the ground. Within the next second, I linked the leftover Potentia in my fingertips to the Potentia I left on the root. As the moment passed, the three Viridian Orthus jumped over the root.
During their leap, I tugged onto my linked Potentia, causing the root vigorously lifted faster than it had been. One of its ends completely uprooted as it rose and slammed onto all of the three Orthus, causing them to yelp and yowl in pain.
"Have a taste of my Art, you damned mutts!" I shouted, still running. I grinned widely as I felt a sense of relief come over me, before hearing beeping coming from my watch. I looked down at it and saw a system warning.
[Warning: Your Available Potentia has fallen below 30% of its maximum value.]
Available Potentia: 3 / 14
I'm screwed. I didn't realize controlling the root would end up using so much Potentia. I'll black out if I use any more of my Art.
Reading the system warning, I knew I had to get back to a populated area so the Academy security could take care of the Orthus. I hope Mori and the girl got to safety or to the rest site. I'm worried about their safety, but Mori seemed strong enough to defend them without three dogs on his trail.
Running, I looked back to see if they were still chasing me and saw nothing. I reached into my pocket while gasping for air, and felt my phone's cracked screen. "Come on, come on, please work.," I spoke out loud to myself after grabbing it. I tried to unlock it but the screen was fully shattered and displayed nothing but a random array of colours. "Shit," I said, and accelerated my running speed while I huffed in exhaustion.
I need to keep running. My phone's busted and the Academy's issued watches' comms are down right now too.
While sprinting with as much energy as I could muster, I noticed a cliffside wall past the thick leaves of the autumn trees. "It's a dead end here? How'd I get to the northern section of the outskirts?" I said out loud in frustration. I felt a sense of dread as I ran towards the face of the cliff, knowing that the northern cliffsides were the furthest from both the Academy and the City's borders. "An hour of running and this is where I end up?" I muttered in aggrieved disappointment. I couldn't count on security either, since a singular missing student would probably be caused by truancy or sickness, and the patrols weren't going to find me alive by the time they get here. The Academy security wouldn't expect there to be four F- Class monsters so close to the Academy's territory. Because neither did I.
"Wait," I said under my breath. Where was the fourth one?
I looked down in fear at my watch and read two important phrases, 'led by a pack leader' and 'relentless hunters'. A howl erupted from beyond the darkness of the forest, as the cliff's shadow is overcast onto the clearing I ran to.
"Haha. Ha. Ha... ha..." I laughed in resignation, realizing the terrible situation I was in. As I laughed, I saw four light iridescent green eyes appear in the shadowy glade. They each slowly looked left and right before placing their intense gaze onto me. In that moment, I knew I was just a meal to these creatures. "How'd it comes to this..." I thought to myself. I really might die.
----------------------------------------
- Four hours ago -
I open my eyes awake to the sound of my alarm clock. On it was [5:00 AM], so I stood up from my bed. Rubbing my eyes, I took a glance at my phone's calendar that said: October 6 - [Orientation Day]. Then, I looked at the small mirror on my desk and saw my reflection: short dark green hair, pale skin, light green eyes, and an average-looking face. I knew I wasn't the best-looking guy, but it'd be nice to be just a bit more above-average.
Walking around in my room as I got ready, I picked up the Metimur watch that the Academy's mail requested me to wear from today onward, along with the Academy's Imperial Crest from my desk and began to pin it onto my blazer. While pinning it, I looked at a portrait at the corner of my desktop and saw the photo that me and my older sister took when I was younger, with her carrying me while I was using my Art trying to make a small seed sprout. The younger me on the portrait wore a toothy smile, with mud on his face and light green hair still growing out. On the other hand, my older sister was wearing her regular red glasses and red lab coat.
She was trying to please me then, I remember. I was upset because she wouldn't get me a matching lab coat, like a brat.
I looked at the portrait for one more moment, then placed it back down the desk before grabbing my courier bag and heading out my apartment.
Going down the stairs, I went directly from the backroom to the general area of the flower shop. In the shop were various displays of autumnal plants, some made for decoration, some for backyard farming, and some for gift-giving. Unsurprisingly, much of the stock was still there and I hadn't sold much as of recently. But, that wasn't much of a problem since the shop runs by itself.
I walked past the plant displays, touching every single one to check on their textures. At one point though, one of the sharper-leaved plants cut a finger of mine, to which I simply bandaged. After checking the plants, I walked outside, running into an old man carrying a box of freshly-made pastries and bread walking past the flower shop's. His face was worn-out from his old age, but he had a cheeky grin as he took notice of me.
"Oh, there you are, Aster!" he said, as I smiled back.
"Hello, Uncle Theo!" I responded, taking the box from his hands and walking along him, making sure I matched my pace to his. "Where are we heading today?" I asked.
"Oh, nowhere really," he says. "Just heading home from the bakery. I picked up some bread for your Aunt Linda and some pastries for the songbirds. You know how those little pests love their sweets," he continued, chuckling a little after.
"Oh, I see. Then let me help you carry these until then, I'm going the same way anyways!" I offered, with a kind smile.
"Hoho. Then who am I to reject such a gesture, Aster?" he said, slapping me lightly on the back. "Would you look at that! I see that you're wearing the Imperial Crest? Which Academy are you going to?" Uncle Theo prompted, inspecting the silver-coloured badge on the left side of my blazer.
I smiled at him, and said, "I'm going to be studying at the Academy of Nouvem from today on, for a program called 'Artistic Floristry'. It's just so I can run the flower shop better and have it be listed as a specialized store."
The old man looked at me with gladness and relief, "I'm glad you haven't given up on your studies, Aster. I'm sure your sister would be proud."
"I hope so," I said, with a small tinge of melancholy in my heart. For a short moment, there was a silence that began between the two of us.
"Hey, kid. I know that your Art isn't exactly what you hoped it would be and that it's nothing like your sister's, but there's nothing wrong with working in a flower shop. You make people smile all the time, and that might be something you can be proud of," Uncle Theo said, his face full of care and concern.
I looked at him for a moment, and noticed his house being just a few steps away. A sadness in my heart began to grow, before being stomped out as I said to Uncle Theo, "I know, Uncle. Thank you very much for your concern." I looked at him with a strong but certain gaze, "I know I'll make Sis proud. Who knows? Maybe I can be a Support Agent for the government?" I said half-heartedly.
He smiled at me, taking the box. As he took the box of baked goods, I felt his hand touch mine and a blue glow seep into me. "Here's a little gift from me, Aster," he said before entering his house.
His door being closed, I looked down at my hands and felt energy rise up within me. I shouted out loud towards the window, "Thank you for the gift, Uncle Theo! I'm not exactly sure about what you did, but thank you!"
"Be quiet, kid! It's barely 6:00 AM!" I heard a voice shout out from the house, "My Art is called Formidable, a Duellum Portens! Make sure you use it to make a name for yourself today!" he added.
"What? I'm not going to fight anyone to get famous!" I objected.
"I'm not telling you to fight, kid. I'm encouraging you. Stand tall, kid! Sometimes, Arts can make you braver. After all, it's not just a combat Art!" he shouted, before audibly closing the window he spoke from.
"Oh... Well. Okay," I muttered to myself before I took a deep breath in. Thank you, Uncle. I won't ever forget your support for Sis and I.
Deep in thought, I continued walking towards the Nouvem Transit bus stop, and waited for the next bus. Unsurprisingly, given how early I had left to go the Academy, there wasn't anyone on the streets besides a few early birds starting their days.
As I waited for the next bus, a blue light from the Academy-issued watch illuminated as it notified me with an alert. I pressed it, causing text to appear on the watch.
[Accessing information...]
[Accessing profile...]
As the two alerts displayed, a soft golden smoke-like hue began to surround me at the bus stop. Around me were golden ripples of light that seemed to imitate a waterdrop falling into a pond, and a calm feeling enveloped my chest. "Beautiful..." I said quietly, staring in the awe-striking gold of the watch as well as being delighted by the ripples it was emitting.
After a few seconds, the golden hue slowly dissipated, along with the ripples it caused. And the watch alerted me once again.
[Successfully accessed!]
[Uploading information...]
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
As the two alerts popped up, another set of alerts came.
[Welcome to the Metimus System, Aster Iris!]
[You have been successfully enrolled into: The Academy of Nouvem]
[More information and features will be available once Orientation is completed]
[The communications systems are currently undergoing maintenance in preparation for the coming semester]
Reading the set of alerts, I closed my mouth from the beautiful display of gold earlier as I began to fiddle with the watch. Currently, there weren't many features besides the currently unavailable [Communications] and the [Profile]. There was also a greyed-out feature with a sonar-like icon, but it was also currently unavailable.
"I wonder what my profile says. I did provide them with some basic information three weeks ago," I said out loud, before tapping the [Profile] feature and prompting a loading screen to show up.
[Accessing profile!]
Name: Aster Iris
Class: Unavailable [Assessment Required] | Level: Unavailable [Assessment Required]
Portens: Unavailable [Assessment Required] | Art: Control Flora [F]
Base Potentia: 14
Available Potentia: 14/14
Physique: Unavailable [Assessment Required]
Techna: Unavailable [Assessment Required]
I looked at my personal information in awe, digesting the statistical version of me being presented. A lot of it was unavailable, but it seemed like most of the information here needed to be assessed by the Academy before being updated.
This is pretty interesting. I hope I don't end up with awful scores, but if memory serves me right, the only good rating I'm going to get will probably be in Techna anyways. Ah whatever, the only thing I could practice was my technique anyway.
The sound of the Nouvem Transit bus arriving in front of me interrupted my disappointed thoughts, and I immediately got on. Unsurprisingly, there weren't any other passengers besides a smiling fresh-faced guy with a red ponytail, wearing what seemed to be a white buttoned top, black slacks, and a red blazer. Just like mine, except that my blazer was dark green. As I walked past him, I noticed that pinned onto his blazer was the same Imperial Crest as mine, except that his was black instead of silver. I looked at his cheerful eyes, which seemed to have been looking at my Imperial Crest.
"Hey! Nice to meet you! Judging by the crest on your chest, you must be going to the Academy as well right?" He erupted in a boisterous and bright voice.
I smiled back. "Nice to meet you too, and yes I'm—" I said, right before he interrupted by standing up and aggressively shaking my hand.
"Thank god! I thought I was crazy for being the only student to go to the Academy this early. It's not far from here after all, so I get why everyone else would go later. The Orientation doesn't even start until 8:00 AM, and they'd have to kill two hours until then. But there'd be no fun in that! Early bird catches the worm, after all!" he chattily said. He prompted me to sit in front of him with a gesture, which I gladly accepted.
Ignoring much of his rambling, I looked over his crest one more time before asking "Are you a new student? I'm a new student too."
"Yeah! I am! I'm one of the seeded students for the Academy though, so I'm not unfamiliar with the place," he said.
Seeded students were selectively picked students who would take their last year of secondary school in an Academy that chose them. Makes sense why he's so giddy and spirited.
"My name is Mori Brightstar," Mori said with a gleeful smile. I could almost burn my eyes from how sunny his face was, "What's your name, green-hair?" he tacked on, extending a hand towards me, inviting a handshake.
"Nice to meet you Mori, I'm Aster Iris," I returned his smile, and accepted the handshake.
"Haha, I knew that already. You should definitely check your watch when you can, so you can get basic information about someone quickly. Might be good for social situations," he chuckled, tapping playfully on the watch on my wrist as he and I began to shake hands. As I held his hand, I felt him hold mine firmly, and began to see a bright-yellow aura shine from his hand, and instinctively winced.
Expecting to be hurt, my hand instead felt warm as the yellow aura transferred over to it, and the finger I bandaged earlier shone greatly. "Sorry for the surprise. I saw the bandage as soon as you got in, so I figured I may as well make a good impression," Mori said with a slightly-regretful smile, likely from seeing the reactive wince I made.
"No, it's all good. Thanks for that, I appreciate it," I immediately followed.
"Haha, great! I'm glad to have been a help, even if it's minor," he exclaimed loudly.
After he spoke, the bus announced our arrival to the Nouvem Lightrail, an extraordinarily fast and Art-powered railway system that allows us to travel to the various sectors of the city, as well as to places just outside of it. I lived in the Emerald Ward, which was in East Nouvem and completely on the opposite side of the city from where the Academy was. So, getting to the Lightrail was a must if I wanted to get anywhere close to my new school.
"We're here already! Quick, I just checked for the Lightrail schedules on my phone, and there's one arriving in two minutes. Let's make a run for it!" he said, immediately bolting into the Lightrail station as soon as he spoke.
"Huh? What? Shit!" I said, immediately chasing after him into the station. As I ran, I remembered Mori's piece of advice about the watch, and checked it. On it, I saw a new set of text as I glanced at Mori.
[Accessing profile!]
Name: Mori Brightstar
Class: I | Level: Savant
Portens: Duellum / Magus | Art: Energy Accretion [A-]
In shock, I realized how much higher his Art's grade was than mine, and saw that most of his information was already assessed. As I looked at him running, I saw his shoes glow in a yellow light than the one he healed me with. He breezily jumped and vaulted over one of the ticket booth gates, and ran towards an arriving Lightrail train. "Shit, I need to go faster or I'm going to miss it," I said, seeing a potted plant near one of the gates.
As I ran, I channeled Potentia into my fingertips, and shouted to the ticket booth conductor, "I'm sorry! I have no time to pay today, we're going to be late!" During my shout, I held the potted plant, which grew a strong and thin branch that I used to jump on and leap off of onto the other side of the gates.
"Hey! You two aren't allowed to use Arts inside government buildings! The hell are you doing? You're going to hurt yourselves!" the conductor shouted at the two of us, as I ran towards the beckoning Mori who already got into the waiting train. "Also, what the hell do you mean late? The Academy gates don't open until 7:30 AM! It's only 6:20 AM!" were the last words I heard before making it onto the train.
Huffing, I grabbed my chest and looked at Mori, "Shit, dude! What the hell was that? We could've waited for the next train!".
With a wide smile on his face, he said, "For an F Class Art user, you're not too bad. Ha ha!".
As he laughed, I retorted, "For an A Class, you're not bad yourself."
"Oh? You challenging me, Aster?"' He said with a serious face, forcing his mouth to make a really exaggerated underbite.
"Yes, I am. Bring it," I responded, mimicking his face.
As we stared at each other with the faces of cavemen. we bursted out laughing for a few minutes.
----------------------------------------
We finally arrived at the Academy gates, after leaving the Academy's Lightrail station. In front of us was a gigantic marble wall that extended further than I could see. Various gargoyle-like statues sat on top of the various marble pillar walls, and a closed black steel gate stood on front of us. Beyond the gate, I could see a white fountain, with golden engravings and hieroglyph-like symbols chiselled onto its surfaces, and various sets of extremely extravagant buildings that extended for kilometres. Outside the walls, there was a thick forest and a few paved paths under the autumn trees that appeared to surround this side of the Academy walls. Next to us were a few more buildings with various security patrolling around the main gate and the main outdoor area.
"Welcome to the outside of the Academy of Nouvem!" Mori said excitedly, "The forest you're looking it is called Eterna Forest, though I myself am unsure of what the name's origin is from!" he tacked on. "They've got a pretty useful area here, given that there's a couple stores just outside the walls of the Academy so students can quickly grab things and go if they want to explore around the general outskirts of the Academy," he continued.
"Anyways, if you'd like, we can walk around Eterna Forest just to kill some time! We won't go in too deep, so I got you covered if we run into any danger," he smiled as he began guiding me towards the paved paths of the forest, walking backwards just to continue talking to me.
"You sure? What if monsters attacked us? I heard that since the Academy is so far out of the City, random monster attacks were more common," I asked, wary of the dangers monster posed to humans, especially weak ones like us.
"It'll be fine. Security here is active at all times of the day, and they even patrol inside the Academy, so it's going to be fine! Plus, as I said before, I got you," Mori reassured me, even flexing his bicep and holding onto as a sign of strength.
"Alright, let's do it. Quit it with the flexing, you barely have any muscles," I said to him, laughing at him as he goofed around.
"Yeah? Well, I can always rely on my Art! I could beat a couple of F class beasts up, no sweat!" he said to me. "Anyway, let's go already! I'm getting antsy because of constantly waiting for you," he teasingly motioned at me, before running into the forest.
Luckily, I was ready this time and sprinted after him. "Why the hell are you always running?!" I shouted.
As we ran, I felt the cool breeze make its way through the forest trees, causing the leaves above to rustle. I saw a few students sitting on a few of the forest benches in this section of the forest.
"Come on, let's keep going! There's a rest site thirty minutes away where we can watch the scenery," Mori called out as he ran in front of me. I followed him as swiftly as I could, making sure I was careful enough not to tear my new uniform onto any twigs or branches that we ran past for the next ten or so minutes.
"Do we really have to run? I just bought this uniform!" I asked, mildly annoyed.
As we kept making our way, I looked around and made out orange, red, and green-leaved trees with various species of small forest creatures, like green-feathered songbirds with red beaks and rainbow-coloured snakes, settling on their branches or leaves. Noticing the variety of creatures, I slowed down as I began to enjoy the scenery.
Slowing down further, I eventually took a seat on a tree stump and gestured towards Mori, "I'm going to take a few minutes to enjoy this!". He nodded simply, and stayed with me for the while. For around twenty minutes, I sat down and breathed in the fresh air, looking around and taking in the environment. But, before I got ready to go, I checked my Metimur watch to see if it had any information to provide about the interesting animals I saw earlier.
[Uploading information...]
Species: Threcian Songbird
Class: G
Notes: Non-combative. Likes to eat seeds from plants of the Acer genus. Commonly captured and domesticated for their beautiful singing.
[Uploading information...]
Species: Lesser Yur Serpent
Class: G+
Notes: Will defend itself. Its bite is venomous, but not deadly. Some Lesser Yur Serpents may evolve into their Greater variations under extreme circumstances.
This is incredible. I wonder if they have a database for plants too.
As I finished looking through the information being provided by the watch, I looked at Mori who had been enjoying the scenery along with me. "Having fun with your new system?" he asked.
"Yeah, it's like a gold mine of information. It's almost unbelievable how much data is stored in this, and how accessible it is!" I responded with a childlike excitement.
"Not surprising from someone who has flowers for both of his names," he joked lightheartedly.
"Yeah yeah, whate—" I said, before being cut off by the loud screaming of a girl.
"HELP!!!" a voice called out from deeper into the forest, followed by the loud howl of some sort of wolf. As the cry of help came to us, both Mori and I instantly turned to run deeper into the forest.
Making our way, Mori looked at me and shouted, "Why are you running with me? Go get security! We're half an hour away from the Academy! You need to go back now!"
"What? Are you stupid? There's no way I'm letting you deal with whatever's happening alone!" I shouted, as fervour in my heart began to rise.
Mori gave me a face of disapproval, before shaking it off. Then he said, "Fine, but if things get dangerous, you're going to run away and look for security, I'm basically your senior after all."
"Are we seriously talking about seni— Fine! I get it!" I retorted before cutting myself off, as I trained my focus on making my way to the location the scream came from.
We ran as fast as we could, and when we arrived to a small clearing in the forest, we saw three gigantic leaf-furred wolves prowling towards a female student. But, as soon as we arrived, one of the wolves began to pounce onto the girl.
Shit, we were too late. This can't be happening to me again, could it? Once again, I'm powerless. Weak.
"The fuck are you standing there for, Aster?" Mori's voice came to me and snapped me out of my daze.
Where the wolf was pouncing towards the girl, Mori was standing instead, his entire body covered in a dark red aura. A red forcefield-like capsule was protecting both Mori and the girl, but the barrier itself was clearly cracking as the wolves began to swipe and tear at its exterior. Further away, the skid marks of the rebounded wolf could be seen as it laid on the ground, seemingly in pain.
"Get out of here and get help! I can deal with this!" Mori shouted at me before turning towards the girl and asking "Are you alright?".
As I fully left my dazed state, I saw fear in the girl's eyes as she looked past Mori's look of worry and into the dark area of the forest behind him.
"Mori! Move! There's something behind you! The shield won't keep you two safe!" I shouted, quickly dashing around two of the wolves to hopefully distract. Luckily, two of the wolves attempted to bite and slash at me but I managed to slide past underneath them, causing them to collide with each other. With my distraction, Mori quickly glanced behind him and pulled the girl with him as he rolled over to the side, causing her to tumble with him.
On my peripheral, I noticed the third wolf get up, and run towards Mori. "Look out!" I shouted, as the wolf pounced onto him. "I'm fine!" he shouted, as he put another barrier up, knocking the attacking wolf back. "I can't keep these up, I'm running out of Potentia. Again, I need you to go get help, Aster! Please!" he shouted at me, "There's a fourth one somewhere here, I saw its eyes. You need to go, NOW!" he warned me.
Do I run? Should I run? Was that the right thing to do? What would Sis do?
I felt a tinge in my heart as I contemplated my following actions within the half second I had. I looked at Mori's face and the girl's face behind him. Fear. That was all I could see from both of them. Looking into Mori's eyes, I knew he already thought himself a dead man. But he still wanted to at least save me and the girl. Courage. That's what he had. Something I'd been lacking for a long time.
"Stand tall, kid! Sometimes, Arts can make you braver"
In a burst of energy, I felt Uncle's Art course through me, a blue aura flowing within. "Formidable, huh?" I muttered to myself. In the half second of thought I spent, I managed to figure out a way to get both Mori and the girl to safety, but it would still be a gamble.
I shouted, "Look! I need you to trust me. Run with the girl, away from wherever the creature creeping around is hiding at, and find someone! We can all escape!" I shouted out loud.
"What?! Are you insane? Your Art is F class for god's sake! And even if you had Poten—" Mori argued before being cut off my by the eruption of my voice.
"JUST TRUST ME!"
Looking at me with disbelief, he gave me a look of anger and worry, before saying, "Alright! You can't die on me! We'll come back as soon as possible!" he shouted before bringing the girl with him. I guess the gamble turned out well.
As he ran with the girl, the three wolves looked at them, ready to give chase. Of course, I wasn't going to let them. I didn't want my gamble to send Mori off to be wasted.
"Hey! You stupid dogs! Why don't you come and get me!" I shouted, before channelling Potentia into the grass below the four of us, which sprouted quickly, if only to aggravate them with minor vines. As the vines erupted, the hounds began to bark in anger, and immediately broke out of the weak and thin vine strands.
"Oh shit. Guess I gotta run! See you guys later!" I said out loud to the wolves, feigning friendliness in reaction to how fast the wolves got out. Before they full broke free, I made a run for it as fast as possible.
I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die.