9 Meeting

"I'm back!?" Seeing the familiar lake in front of him, he knew he was now back at the School. Thinking back to what he just experienced, Enzo was still dazed from it all. It was like magic.

"To think that stuff like this could be possible, this is definitely a path I want to walk!" Enzo stood up and while stretching his legs, he couldn't help but exclaim,

"Wow, the feeling I got while stretching in my consciousness is almost the exact same as stretching in the real world!"

Suddenly a slightly fearful look appeared on his face.

"What if I tried to kill myself in my consciousness, would I die in the real world?" Thinking that far, he shivered slightly and brushed off the topic. He then recalled the images the spirit figure had shown him and he couldn't wait to try it out.

"Wait, since I found my Core, does that mean I've already finished the stage?" Enzo was slightly confused on how this system worked. He knew that some disciples had stars on their chest, which represented the stage they had reached in their training. Some had only a single white star, which meant that they were still in the Core Consciousness stage while others had two white stars, showing they've entered the Core Guiding stage. Since Enzo found his Core, he was unsure of how much progress he had made, he'll have to find someone to ask.

Looking at the sky, he saw that the sun was just barely out.

"It doesn't seem to be night just yet, maybe some people might still be out training." Enzo was thinking about heading to the Yard of Reflection to ask for help, but then remembered that Elder Jao guy.

"Maybe there's a better place to go. That's right! Kaiden gave me a map! I really have to pay him back in the future!"

Turning around, Enzo headed back to his room. He grabbed the door handle and pulled on it, only to find that it wouldn't budge.

"Ah, that's right!" He needed the appropriate token to gain entry into his room. He fumbled around in his pocket and when his face went pale.

'I left it in the room!!!' He staggered back with a look of horror on his face. His body trembled as he leaned onto a nearby pillar with dismay. His body slowly slumped over until he curled up into a ball.

"How could I be so clumsy!?" He didn't know what to do now that he was locked out of his room.

Click

Suddenly, Enzo heard a sound come from his room or rather, the door which barred him entry. Enzo rubbed his eyes as the door gradually opened. There stood a man, body permeated with dry blood. His clothes were ripped and torn and as he stood in the doorway, he seemed to notice something to his left.

"Hmm?"

That's right, this man was Ruen, the top disciple from the Echelon and protector of Cota Nomidas bead. He's also the same guy who was dragged through dirt and mud and carried on the backs of various disciples.

Suddenly Ruen took a step forward as to go and question the kid who sat by the pillar when the door began to close.

"NOOOOO!" Enzo jumped forward when he noticed that the door was closing.

"What the??" Ruen was taken aback and quickly sidestepped as to avoid contact with the kid.

Enzo slammed into the door with all of his might, but it was too late. The door had already locked.

Filled with despair, he looked at the man who stood beside him, tears threatening to fall from his eyes.

"Don't you see what you've done…? I've lost everything because of you…!" Enzo spoke with heart wrenching pain, as though the man before him had killed his family.

"Huh?" Ruen was baffled by the scene before him. Hadn't I just woken up? Have I somehow wronged you while I was unconscious?

"How am I supposed to get into my room now! My token is on the desk in the room! My last chance to get inside...If only you had kept the door open a little longer than I could have gone in to grab it…" Enzo leaned up onto the door in anguish.

"Haha…" Ruen chuckled slightly.

"You…" Enzo glared at the man "You think this is funny? I can't use any facilities without a token, I can't eat without a token, I can't do anything without a token. Now we are both locked out and you're laughing? You're worse off than I am, at least I can go back to village 3…"

Hearing the words of the boy in front of him, Ruen couldn't help but shake his head. Kids these days, always putting things high up on a pedestal. He definitely needed to be taught a lesson.

Ruen walked up to the door and using his core power, drew some energy lines quickly on the door. Within a matter of seconds, a click was heard and the entire formation for the door was deactivated. He slowly pushed open the door and looked back at Enzo nonchalantly,

"Are you happy now?"

"I..." Enzo had forgotten just where this man had come from. He had fallen from a rift high above the ground. Why was he worried about not getting back into his room with him around? He was just begging to have his face slapped.

"Forget about it, come inside, I have some questions to ask you."

Enzo nodded his head with slight awkwardness.

Ruen turned back and headed into the room while Enzo followed closely behind.

Ruen quickly grabbed the chair which was situated by the desk and turned it to face the bed. Taking a seat, he motioned towards Enzo to take a seat across from him.

With slight hesitation, he walked forward towards the bed and slowly sat down. If one listened closely, they could hear a slight spongy noise, like a handful of wet noodles being squeezed firmly. Ignoring the sound, Ruen looked Enzo in the eye and got straight to the point.

"What is your name?" Ruen asked while fidgeting with his hands.

"...Enzo...sir."

Seeing the nervous look on the boy's face, Ruen stopped moving his hands and said in assurance,

"You don't have to be so tense, I'm not a bad person. Forget about what happened earlier, I don't antagonize others over small ordeals like that."

Hearing the man's words, Enzo could finally calm down a little. He had been fretting on how to apologize to this man, but it turns out he never put it in his eyes to begin with.

"Sorry about that. My name is Enzo, I'm from village three and just recently got my disciple token."

Ruen took a quick look behind him and saw the blue token with a slightly golden tint. He picked it up with his index and thumb to give it a closer look.

'Although this token is well maintained, the materials used to forge it are of extremely low quality…' Seeing the token up close, Ruen couldn't help but frown. This token wasn't imbued with any Elemental energy! Where he was from, all headmasters of a School would imbue their identity tokens with a portion of their Elemental energy as to avoid counterfeits.

Setting the token aside, he looked back at Enzo.

"Do you know the name of the planet you reside on?"

Hearing the man's question, Enzo had a puzzled look on his face. The name of the planet? He had truly never been told! He had lived in an extremely confined area his whole life. These past few hours have been the farthest he had ever traveled in his entire life. It wouldn't be to far off to say he was only a tadpole swimming in a droplet of rain. He could only say he had no idea.

"I...don't know!"

Ruen sighed at his answer. After seeing the material that the token was made out of and the lack of Elemental energy, Ruen suspected the Galaxy talasman threw him far away to a planet with weak spatial laws and Elemental energy. If back then he had sufficient Elemental energy to fully use the Galaxy talasman, he would have been transported to somewhere with stronger Elemental energy and spatial laws.

"I see." In actuality, the name of the planet he was currently on didn't really matter much. There were countless planets throughout the vast universe and names were just a way to identify them. Knowing the strength of it's spatial laws and potency of it's Elemental energy was enough.

"Tell me, how much do you know about Elementalists?" Ruen figured that since he was here, he might as well help clarify any troubles this kid was having with his training before he left to find Cota Nomida. He is the inheritor of his bead after all.

"I...don't know much about that either…" Enzo could only lament at his bad luck. Can't I get a question I can answer with confidence?

On the other hand, Ruen wasn't too surprised to hear that.

"From what I can sense, no one within a 10,000 meter radius has entered into the First Stratum yet. I can also tell that you are only in the Initiation stages." Ruen seemed to peer directly into Enzo's Core.

Enzo shuddered slightly, but brushed it off quickly while saying,

"Uhh...I...actually have some confusions that I would like to have cleared up, could you help me?" Enzo asked Ruen with slight hesitation, as though fearing he might get faced with a hard rejection.

However contrary to his thoughts, Ruen replied casually,

"I don't mind answering some of your questions, however I will only answer three. I need to find new clothes and search for a more suitable planet to further my training."

I can only ask this man three questions? Racking his brain, he needed to make full use of this opportunity. He knew the chances of finding another person like this would be near impossible. I should probably start off by asking him something general though.

"What exactly is an Elementalist?" Enzo had always wanted to know just what exactly it was he was trying to learn. Although he knew walking the path of an Elementalist would make him strong, just knowing that much would implement him in the future.

"That is a good question. Many years ago, I happened to receive an invitation from a place far, far away from here. It was called the Falling Star Library of Aldebaran, and it possesed records of everything that had ever existed throughout the countless amount of planets. Through sheer luck I was able to get an invitation to look through their archives. I looked through many books, scripts, and diaries when I came across one of the library's oldest written record. It depicted the ancestors of Elementalism, the founders. Five people, each sitting across from one other, all sensing their Core simultaneously. Thereafter, all five of them Guided their energy at the same time. As they didn't know what to do next, one of the five became enlightened and started to refine his Core, purifying its energy. The four, seeing what he did, started to imitate him…"

Enzo was fascinated by the story.

"...With his core refined, it's true color was revealed and he now knew what his element was. He was fire, the first Elementalist to be born. Others followed behind him, the second saw her core was blue. She was water, the second Elementalist to emerge. Shortly after, earth and wind were born. The fifth however, stagnated slowly, his refinement taking far too long. His fellow peers left him behind, bursting through the first stratum, then the second, while he continued to slowly refine his Core. One day, when the sun had set and darkness had fallen, his peers cozily seated at the pinnacle, his core had finally finished its refinement…" Ruen looked up at Enzo, as though to make sure he was paying close attention.

"He was Spirit, the fifth to emerge on the path of Elementalism!"

Enzo had a look of excitement on his face, but surprisingly, it quickly died down when he realized his question didn't exactly get answered.

"That was a neat story and all, but I still don't know exactly what Elementalism is, just what is it?"

Ruen exhaled deeply, then looked up at Enzo.