Chapter 79

"Alex? you're back!"

"Daniel? Were you watching as I got sent through the rift? How long was I gone?" Alex asked as he looked around at the destruction of the nearby surroundings.

Craters covered the land, the place where he had been not to long ago looked like a small war zone.

'He must've been frightened by the fact that I had disappeared.'

"You disappeared for a few hours, I thought you were gone for good." Daniel said while bringing Alex into a hug.

After a moment of silence Daniel spoke up.

"What happened to you, your uniform is gone, and I don't even see your weapons on you?" He asked as he looked Alex over.

"I'm not sure, all I know is that I was fighting an elf when he attacked me with a spear coated in some type of poison."

'A spacial domain. But… I also remember my light affinity growing dark, what was with that?'

"I woke up not far from here, thinking that I had died, but from the looks of things I was probably robbed. Whoever took my stuff must've not been able to read my books."

"they spoke an entirely different language there Daniel, it was weird to say the least."

Daniel looked over Alex one last time, making sure he wasn't injured. "Whatever the case, it's good that you are back, we can here the full extent of your report at our next meeting."

Alex nodded. "I need to take a shower and get changed out of these clothes, they smell like burnt meat from, like from the bakery in town for some strange reason."

"Do you have everything here under control, oh yeah, and what were those things, they didn't look like any other beast I know?"

"Whatever they were they are not beasts. How can I say this… they had no beast core." Daniel said as he looked at the mess he had made.

"What ever they were doesn't matter too much, I have this under control, you head back to town for now and get some rest."

"Alright."

——————

"You called for me?"

"Oh, your here already. I called you here to ask if you wanted to take part in the rune-writing competition this year. I won't be joining in unfortunately, so there is an open spot and Jim and Dan need someone that can keep up with them." Alex said as he rummaged through a basket.

"You want me to join them? I'm only a third year… I." A girl who looked to be Around Alex's age said as she held her set of glasses in her hand.

"You don't think you're ready? It's fine if you don't want to, Jim and Dan have been working on this project for a while and will do most of the more complicated work. Working with them will not be straining on your brain, in fact it may allow you to learn a lot, and if it goes well enough, you will find out that the possibilities that run through your mind will feel endless. Think of it as a good way to find inspiration for when you take part next year."

He put the basket down after finding what he was looking for.

"You… how did you know, that I wanted to go?" She asked as she looked at Alex with an uncomfortable look on her face.

"You don't have to worry, I'm no stalker or anything." Alex laughed as he saw the look on her face.

"I'm worse than that, I basically graded all your club work. Does this look familiar?" He joked as he put a cylindrical object on the table.

She put her glasses back on as she looked at the cylinder.

"I made this last week! How did you?"

She was cut off by Alex before she could interrogate him.

"It's just a replica. I was just trying to tell you that I could help you get it working properly. It might take a little while, but seeing as I won't be sitting out next year I could have plenty of time to help you finalize it."

"Why?"

"Why what?" Alex asked confused.

"Why would you help me?"

"I just thought it was a fair exchange. Besides from what I've seen, your device has the best chance of winning next year."

"You really think so?"

"Yup."

"Okay, I'll go." She answered a small smile on her face.

"Here's the key the the room. You know the way right?"

"I do." She answered while grabbing the key and leaving the room.

Alex sighed as the room once again emptied leaving him to open strange book.

"I've read this message over and over but I can't remember anything."

He scanned over it once again.

[To Alex.

After repairing your journal, I have realized that while you were here you learned quite a bit. However the rift wouldn't allow your findings to go back with you, so as a way to give back to you I scowered, every inch of my vaste and infinite domain for a match. Ever though it took a while it was worth it, it turns out that the random outskirts of my domain which I was certain had nothing but random scribbles, which is they technically what they are, but those random scribbles happened to also be a language used by your people. Even your diagrams and drawings were found within the mass of chaotic literature. If it was too confusing for you my library is similar to the library of babel from your world, just more advanced and less limited. Yes limited, there are some things that can not be translated no matter how hard you try, trust me I've tried.

With that said and done, the rest of this book is comprised entirely of your notes and work here.

Oz]

'These notes that are somehow written in my own handwriting and this message, are the only things I have giving me a hint to what happened after I passed out.'

He opened a drawer and moved a cube out of it and onto the desk. After pressing a switch over a dozen differently colored blobs appeared in front of him.

'This Oz, said that they wanted to give back to me. I know I wouldn't have been able to create these diagrams within a few hours, much less a few days, so I must've been in that world for a few weeks maybe even a month at most. At the very least it gives me some sort of glimpse into what happened.'

Alex flipped the the book to another page. 'This elf looks similar to the one I saw when I first got there, the only difference was the light blue hair. Even in the dark I could tell that she didn't have the slightest tint of blue in her hair. It was also much more easier to tell in the dim lighting.'

'Same chaotic mind as always, one moment I'm working on something the next I've sidetracked completely.' Alex closed the book and turned the device off.

——————

"Wake up Alex."

"Are we there?"

"No the bus broke down half way there." Taylor joked as he pulled Alex up.

"What?"

"I'm joking, we are here. You need to stop skipping out on sleep though."

"I'll work on it." Alex said as he followed Taylor down the aisle. Rubbing his eyes as he shook a sleeping leg.

The two of them activated their badges as they stepped off the bus.

"Hehe, looks like we finally have matching badges." Taylor laughed as he looked down at his badge while stretching his shirt out to see it clearly.

"We definitely do." Alex replied with a smile.

The familiar walk along the long path that lead to the dome, was now upon Alex. He tried to ignore the amount of people pointing at him and whispering his name, but the sheer amount of eyes that were locked onto him, made home uncomfortable nonetheless.

'They expect a lot from me. Last week my brother told me that he heard my name get brought up on the news, so I was expecting some of this.'

"Alex." A voice called out as Alex noticed Taylor disappeared into a group of his classmates.

He turned around as he heard a familiar voice. "Hologram girl."

'She spoke to me for a brief moment in that crowded room last year.'

"So that's how you remember me?"

"You never gave a name… although now that I mention it I don't think I gave you mine either."

"You do have a point. I would've expected you to at least remember me as cute hologram girl at the very least though." She teased.

"Is that how most people tend to remember you?"

"You'd be surprised at what guys tend to say."

"Well then… expect the unexpected, I guess." Alex said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"You mean expect the unexpected from you? I'll keep that in mind. Are you-" She was cut off as a voice called out to Alex from behind.

"Alex! Hey, how have you been?" Cameron asked as he put himself in between Alex and the girl who was speaking with him.

"I've been good. It's good to see that nothing permanent happened to you from last year." Alex replied as he took notice of Taylor who was returning closer to his side.

'I bet Taylor was enjoying watching.'

"Unfortunately, there was some permanent damage last year." Cameron said catching Alex off guard.

"What was it?"

"The lion that bit me was radioactive and now I've got super powers." He finished and after a moment of watching Alex concern switch to confusion, he laughed.

"No, but in all seriousness I think that I have honed my skills pretty well, you are gonna have some fierce competition. Most of it being me."

An idea came to Alex's mind as they spoke. "Well Cameron, I think that most of your competition will be coming from Taylor this year. After all he has made a lot of progress since last year."

"Oh yeah, you were the light mage from last year. Normally you would've made the top of the news or gotten named rookie of the year. It's like every bit of news glossed over your participation last year, but you definitely weren't far behind Alex."

The girl, who was beginning to look glum after being moved to the edge of the group, her expression shifted as she spoke up. "I remember you Taylor, you were the one who beat over twenty students in spars, and in one night. What was even more impressive was that they were all one or two years older than you at the time. My name is Abby by the way."

"Heh, you are all giving me too much credit. Most of those from that day were just hot headed, if half of them took the spars seriously then I wouldn't have done as much damage."

Several more people introduced themselves to Alex as they walked, and Taylor kept himself busy as he tried to downplay his actions and simultaneously get Abby to dislike him.

"You know last night I woke myself up."

"How did you do that?"

"I farted. The smell was so bad that I dreamt of a skunk, invading the boys locker room at school."

"That's… impressive?"

"It is?!" Taylor exclaimed.