chapter 37

Lukas woke up late, for an obvious reason, and freshened up before heading outside. The first thing he did was get the food subscription pack for this month. He didn't go for a lavish one nor one that was too poor, just the medium option, which contained meat, weekly random sweets, and some normal stuff.

With that being done, he headed towards the facilities section of the academy.

The academy was divided into many sections, some public and some completely private places. Among the public places that any student could visit was called the facilities section.

This section was a little bit far away from his dormitories, about a five-minute walk from the arena.

This place was also crowded, and it was no wonder why. It contained the most advanced training units - golems! Along with the renowned gravity chambers that could increase gravity up to twenty-four times, and last but not least, the mana box along with many others.

He hadn't planned to visit this area this early. He wanted to focus on magic first. But now, realizing how the power scale of the towers increases on each floor, which was the most efficient way to earn credit points, he had to grow stronger now! At least breakthrough to the 2nd circle in a couple of months if he can.

The place looked like a theme park, with many small and big buildings scattered everywhere.

"This place is quite big," he muttered. Unknowingly, he remembered a cheerful face and another serious face wearing glasses.

"I wonder how Ria and Ama are doing," he pondered before gazing at the big building, which was around two stories high, with some weird blue transparent big pipes made of glass extended from here and there, connecting places from the first floor to the 2nd floor.

A huge signboard hung on the entrance.

"Alchemy Engineering Unit."

A separate branch of alchemy that combines things to create things or specific effects, like potions. This branch only focuses on mixing plants with mana along with sigils.

Yes, this was the way the tree on the hill beside the town of Erys, where he spent most of his childhood, was built.

He thought for a second before shaking his head.

"I have more important things to do," with that, he started heading for a specific building.

"Gravity Chambers."

Soon, he arrived at the entrance that was leading deep into the ground. Unlike the other facilities, it was built underground.

As he entered, he could see that many people were already present. Seeing how bulky all of them looked and were carrying close combat weapons, he couldn't help but compare his own skinny build with them.

This section was highly regarded as the section of warriors. In his past life, he himself also dreamt of training here, as he himself was once a warrior, however weak he might have been. It was a dream, and now he's finally here.

Of course, he wasn't his old self anymore. Nor was he a circleless warrior now. He felt weird.But still shaking his head, he stepped forward. Right away, those who were waiting for their friends and were about to enter the chambers looked at him.

Most of them were third-year cadets. Seeing someone with no badges and so young, the only conclusion was that he was a first-year. They looked at him weirdly.

Lukas didn't mind such weird gazes and headed for one of the chambers. He was too excited to finally enter one.

With his keen senses, he could already feel someone approaching him. He could guess what they would say, like "this place is not for kids, blah blah..." along those lines.

Thus, before the person could even approach him, he sped up, almost like running. And with a whoosh, he entered one of the blue circling portals and disappeared, and a small screen popped up above the door.

[Occupied, Current Zone: Level 1]

As soon as he entered the blue room with weapons like swords and shields hanging on the walls, he could immediately feel the pressure.

Lukas took a moment to adjust to the increased gravity in the chamber. Though it was only level one, he already felt as though he carried an extra weight on his shoulders. But this was why he had come - to grow his body stronger. He was sick of seeing his body couldn't catch up with his mind in terms of speed and reflexes.

He began with simple stretches and forms to ease his body into motion. The room didn't have any privacy. The blue walls were transparent, and anyone outside could see the situation.

This was for a simple reason. If someone collapsed, unable to bear the force of gravity, the onlookers could quickly press the emergency button, canceling the effect.

The person who wanted to stop the newcomer from getting hurt looked at Lukas with a somewhat amused face. The others surrounding him were also somewhat shocked.

For combat classes like theirs, endurance and strength were necessary despite having mana. They somewhat knew what endurance and strength were needed to train here.

And to think that a skinny-looking kid already had an endurance level of F. The kid wasn't even using aura as he shouldn't have grasped it so early. Thus, to stay at level one, one needed at least an endurance of an F.

They were somewhat shocked. Usually, for normal people, endurance stayed at -F at best, conveying how weak humans are.

As they were speaking, giving remarks on the newcomer, Lukas had completely the opposite opinion.

"To think, I'm so weak."

He didn't have the chance to practice or train in one of these chambers. But he was familiar with the force of gravity, from encounters with high-ranking demonic beasts when the force field collapsed and he and his crewmates were lost on the other side.

The force was already becoming somewhat tiresome for him. But he couldn't give up! He had to endure far beyond this level of gravity, at least tenfold, to kill the skeleton that was the culprit who turned his world upside down and gave him the title of "Orphan."Lukas continued his stretches and exercises, pushing his body to its limits under the increased gravity. Sweat began to pour down his face as his muscles burned. But he did not stop, nor did he allow himself to rest. He had come here with a purpose—to grow stronger.

He didn't want to use Aura so early, and of course, he can't now. As he's at the period when one wouldn't even consider him gasping a little bit of aura so early.

After some time, he noticed the people outside watching him with puzzled expressions. No doubt they found it strange to see a scrawny first-year enduring what most struggled with.

Soon the time of his meditation went far beyond the time limit the seniors outside talked about, which was ten minutes. This was pretty high for a first-timer.

Everyone's interest was piqued by him.

[To be continued...