The Academy [1]

"Okay class, that's it for today." The teacher at the front of the room said with a bored tone.

In fact, I don't think a single one of those students heard what the teacher just said since many had already piled out as soon as the bell rang. I slowly packed up my stuff and walked over towards Johann. He waved at me, and we walked out of the classroom together towards the cafeteria.

"So, how's your condition coming along? Any memory loss still?" Johann said in a mocking voice.

I feigned ignorance at his childish comment and continued walking along the noisy hallway.

Thinking back to the lessons taught here at the Academy, I shook my head in disappointment. The combat theory class and the weapon management class were both useless and boring. I had known all of the information since I was probably around 14 in my previous world. I secretly hoped that the remaining classes would be more interesting.

Arriving in a long waiting line, Johann and I waited for about 15 minutes until we got our food. The smell was not the best, but it was definitely something to look forward to. We found an empty table and sat down. I seriously looked at the weird looking food in front of me. With two pieces of bread, some veggies as well as some meat slapped into the middle, it was indeed a very innovative and creative way in making food; both easy to eat and prepare.

Holding up the food item, I took a big bite of it and a taste of heaven flooded my tongue. It was so good in fact that I accidentally hollered out in joy after eating it. Many turned their heads towards our direction and looked at me with disgust. I noticed the gazes but paid no heed to them as I was too busy enjoying my food. Johann also seemed to notice as he quickly pulled me over and exited the lunchroom.

"Didn't I tell you before to keep low? Don't tell me you really have Amnesia." Johann whispered in a stern voice.

"What's Amnesia?" I asked innocently with a twinkle in my eye.

"Stop it. This is serious, if lots of people get fed up with you, we can't really do much to stop them. Although we have a big family name, it's hard for us to protect you from the bigger families."

I nodded my head and took another bite out of the food in my hands. I closed my eyes and walked away calmly, leaving a speechless Johann standing in the middle of the hallway.

Attempting to find a peaceful place to eat, I ultimately found myself in a completely random place once again. I looked towards the box in front of me and tilted my head towards the side. I reached my hands out and touched the box, however, nothing happened. Relieved, I sat down and leaned my body against the greenish metal box sitting in the corner of the hallway.

Finishing up my food, I slowly got up and started for the flight of stairs next to me. Though, as I was walking up the stairs, I found myself face to face with the greenish box once again. Repeating this process a couple more times, I finally noticed something off. There was a subtle, yet domineering wavelength traveling from the box, disrupting the energy in the surrounding air. I took a step backwards and quickly pulled Hailstorm from out of the crest on my hand. Slowly backing up step by step, I prepared myself if anything were to happen suddenly.

My decision was correct as a humanoid creature the size of an 8 year old child suddenly jumped out of the box. With the box suddenly vanishing into thin air, the figure came rushing towards me at insanely high speeds. Caught off guard, I channeled my soul energy into Hailstorm and released a wave of subzero air, freezing the surroundings into solid ice.

"Who are you?" I asked while attempting to analyze my opponents attributes.

However, instead of responding, the figure savagely continued running towards my direction albeit at a much slower rate. Its body was slowly starting to freeze into ice and its features were also starting to become visible.

With an oversized and deformed head, the creature had a grayish-red skin color. Its face was contorted into an unnatural grin and all of its yellow teeth were showing. Its features were strikingly similar to that of a human yet so different at the same time. It also had a smaller torso as well as limbs in comparison to that of its head.

It was now unable to move, but it still ferociously crawled towards my direction. I shivered and observing the weird human-like creature close-up made it seem even creepier. I frowned and immediately channeled half of my soul's energy into Hailstorm. A strong gust of freezing wind blew past me as Hailstorm shined with brilliance under the dim lighting of the hallway. Frost flew up into the air and everything surrounding me was shattered under the immense cold and pressure exuded from Hailstorm.

After a few minutes, I heard a shattering sound and the space around me distorted, turning everything back to how it used to be. Kneeling with one knee on the ground, I gasped for breath after realizing how much energy I had used up. Putting Hailstorm away, I lifted my head up and saw a tiny gem sitting on the floor. I crawled back up onto my feet and went to pick up the yellow gem.

"Oh? A [Mana Reserve]? It looks… Artificial for some reason."

Tucking the yellow gem back into my inventory, I noticed that an illusion or barrier must've been set up since nobody noticed the commotion I caused previously. I still wondered why there was a monster hiding in the Academy, though. I concluded that it must've been a test by the Academy to see if we were experienced enough to handle such situations.

Walking back towards the cafeteria, I heard the bell rang and knew that I had to report to class in around 5 minutes. I quickly made my way towards the combat quarters, where my next class is held.

Stepping into the vast room filled with people, I carefully and quietly trudged over to where Johann was sitting. Right after sitting down, I heard the bell ring, signaling that the class had started.

"Okay everybody, today we will be continuing our martial arts instruction. For the third technique you need to…"

As I listened to the instructor blabber about useless martial arts that don't even need to be taught, I quickly began to cultivate back my soul energy that I lost.

After what felt like moments, I opened my eyes and heard the bell ring. I let out a long yawn and walked out of the room along with Johann. My next classes were the most I was looking forward to as I have never learned of a single one of them before. History, Math, and Science.

Sitting down patiently in the classroom, I noticed that the classroom was pretty much empty. Even Johann was nowhere to be seen. Only a select few were sitting in the seats and most of them were either on their watches, playing on some strange device that looked like a glass brick, and or talking to peers.

Even after hearing the bell, I still didn't see the teacher show up. I was starting to become irritated as time went on, but then a young woman around the same age as us showed up from behind her desk.

"My bad people, I was too caught up with research." The girl said with an exhausted voice.

She had two huge dark circles under her eyes, pure-white hair that flowed all the way to her waist as two golden eyes. She would be considered beautiful if not for the messy getup and the lack of expression that she held. Wearing an oversized lab coat, she trudged lazily towards the front of the room and started mumbling her lesson.

I scanned the room and saw that everybody was still doing the same thing as when class started. I then returned my attention back towards the front of the room.

She was currently talking about something called Quantum Physics, which I had literally no clue what it was. After talking for some time, she suddenly switched topics and started mumbling Mathematical formulas that we needed to understand. I of course didn't know anything, but I still tried to write down stuff that I wanted to learn. Then after around 15 more minutes, she suddenly switched the topic to History.

I attentively listened to her lesson but aside from the few historical events that sounded quite familiar, I did not understand anything else at all. After a whole hour of continuous mumbling, the bell finally rang and the students quickly walked out of the classroom. I still had quite a few questions to ask though, so I decided to ask the teacher who was staring at the ceiling blankly.

"Uhm… Miss?" I asked with hesitation as I never got to learn her name.

"What do you want? And also it's Miss Lilia, not Miss."

"Miss Lilia, I have a question regarding this…" I started to list off all of the things I had questions over.

"You never listen in class, what caused the change of heart?" Miss Lilia mumbled in disgruntlement.

"Uhhh…It's because I learned a lesson and I now believe that knowledge is the key to life!" I replied in a rather positive tone.

"Bullshit. Nobody ever listens to my lessons, I wonder why I'm even volunteering as a teacher here. Now get out of here before I fail you."

I silently sighed as I lowered my head down and walked away. On my way out, I made sure to leave a comment just loud enough for Miss Lilia to hear.

"Hmmm, I guess I need to find someone else to help tutor me in exchange for a few Premium Coins…"

I could just imagine the shocked face that Miss Lilia probably had right now and I thought to myself, "Any second now…"

"Wait! I'll help you!" A weird high pitched voice sounded shakily from behind me.

"Gotcha."

"Well, since you said that you would fail me if I didn't leave instantly, I decided that it would be best that I left." I said sarcastically.

"No, no! I love your enthusiastic attitude towards learning and as a teacher I will gladly help any student that has a desire for betterment!" Miss Lilia hurriedly replied.

'Hehe. If what he said was true, then those Premium Coins can help fund my research projects until the end of my days.' Is probably what she's thinking right now, I thought to myself.

"Oh well, if you say so. How about we meet in your classroom everyday after school?" I suggested, while taking a Premium Coin out of my inventory.

"Yes, of course!" Miss Lilia immediately responded after seeing the Premium Coin in person.

With a twinkle in her eye, Miss Lilia quickly left her phone number with me and quickly left the room. It only took a few seconds for Miss Lilia to come back with a pile of books and resources.

"Let's begin, shall we?"