Chapter 8: True world

Somehow every student in the class gets energized and starts to chatter loudly. Even the sleeping ones wake up.

Karl lays his head down on the desk. He tries to control his breathing. Karl smells his sweat, his throat all dried up, his vision blurring. He feels a large shadow over him.

"L-Leo! Are you okay? You look like you ran a marathon." Karl somehow looks up and sees Andressa.

"Yeah, I am just bit tried."

"What happened so suddenly?"

"Well, I was practicing my magic and suddenly the circle disappeared. I tried to summon it but it didn't come."

"You got mana fatigue. Don't push yourself too much when you recently got released from the hospital."

"Mana fatigue? This feels different from normal fatique like my body refuses to cast spell."

"Does it ache somewhere?"

"No. I just feel tired as hell."

"That's weird. You should see the doctor before going to the dorm." "I think about that." Karl sluggishly stands up. Majority of the students are leaving the class.

'Ugh. These kids talk too much.'

"So, where are you going now?" Andressa asks in curiosity.

"The next class?"

'In the watch it said that it is basics of elemental spell.' Karl recalls Leonard's logs.

Andressa doesn't say anything and stares at Karl.

"What are you looking at?" Karl complains.

Andressa sighs loudly "You do know that you can't attend the basics of elemental spell, right? As it is only for the five basic elements."

"What? Then when is my next lecture?"

"Tomorrow? Leonard. You have the rarest element in the planet. With the Sentinel family manipulating every spell possible, you think they leave the potentially strongest elements to the public?"

"Then I can't attend any other element's lecture?"

"No, you can't"

"What about this all students? They all have basic five elements?"

"Majority of humans have the basic five elements. Only 1 in Millon have a different element from the five. Of course, selective breeding can affect your element too."

"Okay. This makes me feel a lot special."

"Don't get over your head. This element is a huge liability as there only 3 known spells ever recorded while there are hundreds if not thousands of spells for the basic elements."

"So, I have to search for it in the library?"

"Yes! Looks like you still have little common sense left."

'Cliché.'

Andressa turns around and looks back. "Well, I have to go now. I have a lecture to attend."

"Yeah. I am going to see our teacher first then the doctor."

"Good, see you tomorrow." Andressa smiles widely at Karl and runs away.

'I wonder what is her element. Earth? Water? Should be earth, it suits her.'

Whistling to himself. Karl walks leaves the class. 'Now. Where I can find that man?'

He picks a random direction and just follows it. On the way, he sees various class with students learning different things. In the first class he sees an old man who is around Karl's height drawing a very complex magic circle. In the second class there is fairly young woman reading in an unknown language. 'Sounds like Hebrew with a British accent. Weird.'

The third class is different than others. It is twice the size of the other classes with no desks and an elevated platform in the middle. Karl sees a man in his early thirties with dark red hair standing in the middle of the platform with a sword in his hand. Karl notices his attire is different from other teachers. He is wearing white tank top which is showing his well-defined arms with a tight performance legging on the bottom. He glances at around with his fiery eyes.

Two students with swords in hand steps up on the platform. One student has red hair with black on his strands and the other has dark brown hair with bits of white. The man takes a striking stance. The red-haired student rushes at the man, performing a slash from above. The man simply puts his sword in the path of the slash. The student's sword just bounces off. Unbalancing him. Without waiting, the man performs the same slash as the student but his slash looks more heavy, perfect. The student's sword breaks just by the weight of that man's strength and the student fells on the ground.

"Out."

The man orders in a heavy voice. The student stands up on his feet, picks his broken sword up and steps down from the platform. Other student who was waiting for his turn, takes stance. Instead of running like the red haired student this one waits for his enemy to close in. Seeing this, the man holds his sword close to his chest and walks slowly towards the student. The brown haired student slowly walks left. Now both are encircling themselves. Both of them waiting for the other's first move.

Finally, the man attacks with a side slash. The student tires to block the attack with all of his strength. Then he just loosens his hand and steps back. Redirecting the attack. The student puts his right feet forward and performs a piercing attack. 'Looks similar to fencing.

'Unfazed. The man just blurs and appears next to the student. 'What? He teleported? No, He just moved too fast. I almost missed him.' The student's senses follows the man but his body couldn't. The man puts his sword at the student's throat. With that the sparring ends.

"Good decision. To redirect such attack, you need quick thinking and your sense are sharp. Just train your reflexes. Also don't hesitate." The man humbly advises the student. Then, he turns towards the red haired student and says something. But Karl mind doesn't focus on it at all.

Instead, he is focusing on the very back of the crowd. A certain blond head is popping up drawing Karl's attention. 'Is that Mikaela?'

Just as Karl thinks of her name, she looks at Karl's direction. 'Shit. Did she saw me?' Karl quickly hides behind a wall.

'Did she saw me? No. Let's just pretend I was never here.' He just walks away from that class in a hurry. After passing for a while Karl passes a corner and sees the restroom.

'Let's see how restrooms are in other worlds.' With this Karl enters the restroom. Inside Karl sees a series of holes in walls instead of urinals.

This makes Karl somehow uncomfortable.

Karl looks ahead and sees a series of doors with normal flushes seat toilets. He also notices that he is alone here.

'Thank god, that my dorm has normal toilets.' Karl opens the normal toilets door and stops. After a few seconds he clicks his tongue and walks towards the holes. He unzips his pants and releases his shower.

'I don't know why but this hole is making think that something is going to come out of that and bite me' Karl elaborates to himself.

Finally, his shower ends and zips his pant.

CRACK!

CRACK!

BOOM!

A golden spear comes through the wall behind the hole. Spear stabs Karl straight into his stomach. Blood drips on the floor.

Karl falls to his knees, hands on the wound and head feeling numb. Adrenaline rushes in. Karl looks up and sees the same blond hair.

"You were taking too long that I thought you ran away."

"H-Hey, this is a men's only restroom. When did you changed your gender?"

An annoyed look appears on Mikaela's face. "Don't joke around, Leonard. You were the one who attacked Kareena."

"How rude. Just appear in a private place and accusing me of such allegations that so without evidence."

"I have evidence the warden confirmed that a boy entered during th-"

Karl glances back at the exit. 'I can make the run for it. I just need a distraction.'

Karl smiles and waves at Mikaela "Hey there, Jason." By reflex Mikaela looks at her side to check and Karl makes the run.

"HEY!" She puts her hand straight in the air and a golden circle appears just above her hand. In a spilt second a spear formed out of that circle. Karl sees the spear forming.

Mikaela throws that spear with the intention to kill. Karl steps aside dodging the spear. The spear flews straight ahead of Karl and collides with wall making huge sound.

BOOM!

Karl exits the restroom. He looks down at his hand and it is fully covered in blood. 'Fuck!'

Karl tires to summon his circle again. But fails. A lot of blood is lost from Karl's body affecting his vision. Bleeding and the so called mana fatigue makes running very difficult for Karl.

Suddenly a spear fells just behind Karl. A small explosion occurs and Karl gets blown away. Coughing Karl somehow gets up and sees Mikaela standing just ahead of him.

"Don't make things difficult for everyone here. Just admit that you attacked Kareena." Karl glances around and sees many students gathered around just looking at him.

He even spots the tank top man and other teachers he saw from earlier. But not a single one of them is coming forward to save him or to challenge Mikaela's authority.

'How primal. Weak getting trampled by the strong. Is this because Kareena belongs to a knighthood? Or Mikaela is someone special? Anyhow this was the world Andressa warned me about.'