Chapter 20 - Skipping class?

…

The day after, everyone of Dante's classmates walked into the classroom. They, as always, waited for a few minutes before their teacher could come. However, this time something fell off.

As the slightly tanned female teacher entered, she began to introduce herself, 

"Hello everyone! This is a beast taming class! As you all know, you can tame monsters in this world, but have you ever wondered how?! Today, I will explain to you the basics."

"Gregory?" 

"Present!"

"Fatou?"

"Present"

"Dante?"

"…"

As she made the presentation call, someone didn't respond. 

"Dante?"

"…"

She called again, but was met with silence. Everyone now found out what was amiss, they then started gossiping.

"He's even skipping class in the second week of school?" "What a fool!" "He really thinks too highly of himself!" "Even if he got accepted here, how can he be so full of himself?"

The rumbling continued on, but were quickly cut off by their teacher's voice. "Ho, I would like to see this so-called Dante." 

She may have assumed that he was a douchebag when listening to the students gossiping. 

"Teacher! He has a duel on Thursday, you can meet him then. A duel between him and another student will happen on that day." A girl with protruding front teeth told informed her.

"Ho, such a troublemaker, already having a duel with someone in the second week. You all however should follow his example on him. This academy is here to make geniuses, not students." Their teacher said with a smile. 

She was old, around 60 years old, but even so, she gave the vibes of a young teen..

…

The next day, everyone saw Dante attend Magic theory class. He didn't look in his right state of mind. His usual smug, not present anymore.

When he wasn't annoying, he was lazy and yawned all the time, but now, he looked devoid of any emotions. His eyes were unfocused and the gray had turned hazy and cloudy.

When making a movement, it looked weird, as if not familiar with his body…

"Good morning students. Today I'm going to teach you another law of mana." As she said that, a giant water ball appeared above the class.

"The state of your mana affects your spells, for example, see that giant water ball? What do you think would happen to it next if I were to make its mana vibrate violently?" Iris asked.

"Yes, you." A girl with long jet black hairs and blue eyes had lifted her hand and was given permission to speak.

"The spell will change from its state." 

"Correct, but what do you think will happen to that water ball?" She asked again. Nyx looked lost as she couldn't answer.

"Alright alright, quiz time has ended now."

The water ball started shaking and rippling, after a few seconds, bubbles were exploding on its surface and began to boil.

"The spell becomes hotter, when there is a lot of movement from something, it begins to heat up. Now I'm going to stop the mana inside." Just as she said that, the water began to freeze into ice.

""Wooo!!"" Everyone in the classroom was amazed at this discovery.

"This is, however, difficult to pull off as it requires you to maintain the spell's mana into one place to make it cold. The opposite is true too, as you need to forcefully move them around while not nullifying your own spell."

When they heard that sentence, everyone remembered the moment where Sylph had pulled that out…

She on the other hand was looking outside the window, today's lesson completely useless to her. She was thinking about something.

Iris however noticed Dante's strange state. He looked attentive but wasn't at all, as if he wasn't looking at her but something in front of him.

Just before she was about to ask anything, the bell rang the end of class as everyone swarmed the exit. Impatient to test their new discovery.

Everyone was left out except Dante, who was slower than everyone and Iris. 

"Hey, little one, are you alright?" She asked, however, there was no worry in her voice. 

"I am, fine." He answered, his words had a strange feeling. Like one who was trying to mimic someone's else tone and voice.

Before she would react, Dante walked away as she just looked at his back…

On his way back, he encountered Sylph. 

"Last time, you asked me to bring you with me while hunting. I am going in the Dark forest at six in the morning, if you're a second late, I'm leaving." As if waiting for a response, she looked at him.

"Ok."

However, after noticing his eyes, she slightly frowned and then walked away.

…

Back in his room, Dante locked the door and walked into the leaving room. It was quiet, however when he opened one of the doors of a room, a horrifying sight appeared.

There were bones, flesh, entrails and all kind of animal parts. They literally made a carpet of living things, what was even more morbid were the three mass of flesh in the middle of the room.

They were pulsating and wriggling with a strange heartbeat rhythm. From their bases, tendrils of flesh were grown and were extending toward the entrails on the ground.

They would then absorb the organic matter like leaches. Anyone at the sight of such a horror would have vomited or even felt sick.

The flesh masses were slightly smaller than him, so around over a meter. When Dante approached them amidst this red macabre, they started pulsing rapidly.

"This, won't. Do" Dante tried to speak, but his words were stuttered and hard to comprehend. "They will. All die. Failed product, need of. Life force." 

As he said that, two of the masses of flesh started fusing with the third one. The third mass of flesh started pulsating very rapidly as cocoon like matter started forming around it.

The little boy amidst this morbid scene, didn't bat an eye or show any emotions. Just silently looking at the scene in front of him.

…