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C277

Emery kept finding himself being stirred awake during the night thanks to his thoughts running wild.

Before he managed to calm himself and drift off to a peaceful sleep, the sun rose and the birds outside started to sing. In his partially-awake state, he heard the noises of plates and sizzling oil from right outside his bedroom.

He rubbed his tired eyes, stretched his body and jumped off from his bed. Though he still felt tired, he forced himself to stay awake and peek outside.

He saw Klea setting a few plates on the kitchen table, while two pans wafted an amazing aroma throughout the room. It seemed she was preparing breakfast for him.

Sensing someone staring at her, Klea turned around and saw Emery peeking out from the bedroom door. When she saw Emery's tired face, she smiled and said. "Morning!"

She turned off fire from the machine, walked closer to Emery and pulled him out from the room before leading him towards the dining table. "Come here and sit, I'm cooking breakfast right now… Actually cooking from scratch, mind you, not like that artificial thing. Sit down and wait, I got this."

Emery picked the chair on the left and sat while watching her serve some food from afar. He knew that Klea was trying hard to act like nothing happened last night. Even though his curiosity was urging him to bring it up, he shook his head to get rid of the thought. It was probably for the best.

While he watched her, a few voices shouted from outside and Emery looked at the window. Right as he stood up and decided to look for the source of the voices, his attendant walked into the kitchen and told him some guests were looking for him.

"Ah, right! Emery, I invited the others here. Enjoying good food with friends is the best!"

Emery nodded at the attendant and she walked out to open the door for them. Julian, Chumo and Thrax all came barging in. When they saw Klea busy preparing breakfast, they looked at Emery and practically grinned from ear to ear.

"Come on, everyone, sit down and enjoy." Klea said, while walking with two plates on hand. She walked back to the kitchen two more times and sat after everyone got a plate in front of them.

The smell of the food made them even hungrier, but it seemed Thrax's curiosity overpowered even his hunger. He sat next to Emery and touched Emery's shoulder. "So! Tell us, are you two a thing now?"

Chumo's eyes practically bulged out from its sockets. Though the question shocked him, it was clear he was thinking about it since before the three of them walked in.

Emery had no answer and unconsciously he looked at Klea for help. Klea walked towards Emery, hugged him from the back, and answered. "I'm afraid not… Emery here was being a gentleman though, he let me stay here."

Klea gave him a soft kiss on his cheek before returning to her seat.

Klea's actions only made the three of them even more confused, or four including Emery. An awkward silence followed, before Emery forced himself to smile and say. "Hey, everyone, let's eat. Thanks for... preparing the food for us Klea"

The moment they started eating, it was like their questions disappeared into the nether. Julian started talking about his plans for the next 60 days and reminded everyone to always share any information they have and what method they use to progress in their training. In the end, they promised to always meet up at the beginning of each 10-days interval.

The five finished their meal, stacked the plates and went to today's first scheduled class with the flying mat.

They arrived at their first class while the place was still almost empty. They waited and talked a bit while the class started to fill.

Magus Nayla tapped her finger on the table and everyone instantly quieted. The class was about to start.

The lecture for today was about spirit reading and spirit control. According to her explanation, all magus possess the talent to do a spirit reading, but usually those with light element affinity would have the most advantage. Spirit reading could be used to enchant an object to move according to the caster's will or used on a person to let the caster feel the target's power and perhaps even influence them, if they were weak-willed.

The spell could also be cast on an animal or a creature to let the caster control them.

Emery and all his friends listened intently during the two-hour lecture. The lecture was followed with a coaching session where every student could try out their spirit reading capabilities under the supervision of Magus Nayla.

Within one hour, Emery and his friends were all able to lift a small rock using solely the spirit energy without the need to use any earth element spirit. The rock was directed to float around. Among them, Klea showed the most promise. Meanwhile, among the entire class, Anas, from the Kaleos group, attracted the most attention from the Magus, showing great talent.

After half a day of mandatory class, most acolytes would choose to start their duel challenges. On that first day, on average the 50 elite acolytes were able to win against one or two third-year acolytes.

Before they knew it, day turned into night and Klea returned back to Emery's place again. It seemed she was really serious about living with him.

They ate dinner together and talked about their respective homes back on earth. After what happened yesterday, it appeared Klea was able to speak more openly to him, both of them started to feel more comfortable towards each other.

With that, the first day came to a close and the second day had begun. Their class for that day was a lecture on Magus Ethics and Principles and their instructor was Magus Minerva. Just like the previous day, everyone concentrated on her lecture, eager to not miss even a single moment.

They studied examples of what a magus represents to each of their worlds and the difference between a magus actively involved in the society and a passive one, who focused on their personal cultivation growth, and advancement without a care for the world's political directions.

In the last half of the class, Magus Minerva talked about the restrictions placed on the acolytes from each world and explained the dangers acolytes posed to their world without the restriction.

In short, if a world goes through an accelerated evolution, the inhabitants would be exposed to dangers before they weren't ready for, while a natural evolution process would prevent that from happening.

Magus Minerva explained by giving an example of a caveman that was given a projectile weapon. Without the wisdom or restraint on using such weapon, it would only create a bigger catastrophe. The fact was: the wisdom of civilization could only be nurtured through a phase of time.

Hearing magus Minerva's explanation gave Emery and the others a new image toward the magus.

On the third day, they had a lecture from Magus Clio about their roles in the universal order. They talked about the history of animosity between humans and elves, the nine world, and each of their challenges. Most of the lecture was something they could learn from the database in their symbol, but the explanation helped them understand and summarize the information more efficiently.

The fourth day rolled in. When everyone came into the class, they saw Magus Rommy, the supervisor of Emery's match against Lodos several days before, already waiting.

On that day, they did not have any theory-based session. Magus Rommy ordered them to sit along the edges of the room, creating an empty space in the middle. One by one, the acolytes were called and Magus Rommy made each acolyte do a practice combat against him, before teaching them what to improve.

The enthusiasm was palpable. Everyone was eagerly waiting for their turn to receive their own personal coaching and see the faults in their fighting styles in order to improve themselves.

Emery came back tired that day, having done combat practice and defeated two acolytes for their duel challenge.

On the fifth day, they were split into groups and each were given challenges to complete. The class focused on training teamwork, and thus, each acolyte was assigned into a random group.

Emery's group finished the project without a hitch and continued the duel challenge progress by defeating a few more acolytes. Thanks to his hard work, Emery, along with Klea, were able to defeat their first 10 acolytes and receive a reward in the form of a familiar carved box containing a spirit foundation pill. As he already had a plan in mind, Emery decided to store the pill for later.

The sixth day came by. It was time for everyone to continue their personal studies. Chumo decided to train his archery using the knowledge he learned from Lord Izta in the Combat Institute along with Thrax. Julian went to the Harlight's facility to start his tactics training, while Klea went to Grand Magus Ororo's place to start studying advanced spells.

As for Emery, he had a Rave to attend.

To be continued