A New Friend, Academy Dorm

"Just because one has power does not make them superior. The weak have their path to tread on, while the strong theirs."

Aria said with pure serenity. The tone of his voice made the soldiers feel a sense of security as if someone was shouldering the sky for them. On the other hand, for Shashi she felt as if the ground around her was sinking and she was subjected to endless burden.

She hurriedly trained her eyes towards Aria, but she did not sense anything different. The feeling was swift and vanished pretty soon. Jasmine on the other hand did not notice anything.

Aria looked at the soldiers and sighed deeply. For some reason he felt a sense of belonging towards the two people who were performing the duty despite their weak strength.

'The Universe is not fair, but balance exists everywhere. A person with power should be kind towards the one without power, whereas they should be merciless to one with power.'

A thought suddenly popped up in his mind, a hint of bloodlust suddenly waffled out of his eyes which vanished quietly.

This whole incident was just a short part of their journey to the Academy but the words spoken by Aria were still ringing in Shashi's mind and it was as if she was just about to grab something. So she hurriedly excused herself after they entered the Academy and left.

Meanwhile, Jasmine and Aria too parted ways to find their dorms respectively.

'Hmm, let's see! Ah, shit this thing shut down once again! Where is the boys' dorm? According to what Jasmine said, it should be right this way! Let's ask someone!'

Trying hard to control the tactical watch but it seemed a little too difficult to adapt for him. Very soon he found a boy dressed in similar uniform as him and his eyes gleamed in pleasure. Making his way towards him, he found a yellow wristband on his arm.

"Hey!" He called out to him and watched as [ Level: 1.9 ] floated above him.

The person in question did not respond and kept walking forward. Aria felt troubled so he quickly caught up to him and tapped on his shoulder.

"Hey, friend. Can you help me? I am a bit lost, you see." He blurted out.

It was this time that the person turned around. Judging from his looks he seemed around twenty with brown hair and a skinny figure.

"Are you talking to me?" A hint of puzzlement appeared on the person's face as he proceeded to question his doubt.

'Who do you think exists on this path, other than you?' Aria thought but did not speak out loud. For the last time he did that, he almost ended up in trouble. Remembering the scene from before he sighed once again.

"Ah yes, my friend. You also seem to be a new cadet right?" Aria asked again, trying to sound as polite as possible but unfortunately it wasn't possible.

"Ah yes, yes!" But the other party was apparently too happy for some reason and a smile appeared on his face.

"Hello, my name's Dron! What about you?" The other person introduced himself as he took out his hand for a shake.

"Hello, you can call me Aria." Aria said as they shook hands.

It was only now that the other person noticed Aria's red wristband.

"Wow, you are already Level-2, that's so great." Dron said with envy.

In response Aria just smiled. Soon Dron guided Aria towards the dorm. Along the way Dron introduced the layout which was created in an 'L' shape and the two respective dorms were located on opposite ends. He also introduced that due to the structure being quite old, new dorms were not created for the people other than male and female genders, but on the other hand they were free to choose any one of the dorms as long as the cadets living there did not have any problem.

"Wow, that's great. I did not expect the Academy to be this open." Aria spoke, praising the people governing the Academy.

'If the people here have this mentality, then I can guess why they haven't lost to the other races yet! It seems this will be fun!'

"I know right, but that's just the rules." Dron said as his facial expression was drenched in sadness.

Aria nodded in understanding but he himself was quite open minded.

Just like that they had reached the location of their dorm. The boys dorm was a huge building consisting of four floors. Dron had been admitted to the Academy just a week prior so he already had some knowledge about it.

"The first floor has the registration office along with the common canteen and kitchen. The first floor is for the Level-1 cadets and so on. Each floor has twenty-five rooms and each room can house two cadets."

Saying so they reached the registration office. There was a soldier seated on the chair at the reception counter. But unlike the ones at the gate he was not equipped with combat armor and had a crimson collar denoting his Level-3 strength and rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Infact once within Aria had hardly seen any soldier equipped with combat armor.

"Good afternoon senior, a new cadet has arrived to register." Dron relayed the message.

The soldier looked at Dron then towards Aria, whom Dron pointed out to, before asking.

"Name?"

"Aria." Answered Aria as he arrived beside the desk and looked at the person.

[ Level: 3 ]

The soldier fiddled with the slate in front of him as everyone waited.

'Hmm, that thing? It's the same as the one when I registered at Old Seven. What did Jasmine call it? Was it 'terminal'? I think so. Maybe I should ask her once again, she said I can contact her with the tactical watch. After this I should ask Dron to help me learn to control this thing. It's a novel experience for me, I have never felt this excited before.'