Vivian

Sorin strolled through the Academy, its sheer magnitude evident in the numerous facilities it boasted, a testament to the wealth and power of a Tier 3 Arcanist. There existed areas such as the main cafeteria used by all three years and also various dining areas for students to choose from.

Sorin had developed a fondness for certain dining areas he frequented. In contrast, he had only ventured into the main cafeteria on two occasions, finding the bustling atmosphere and constant student gatherings to be rather displeasing.

There's also the training grounds where students can test out spells and spar eachother.

Sorin had been searching for his upperclassmen Vivian, in and out of the the magic Academy for a while. However, he couldn't find any trace of her.

Sorin had approached several senior students inquiring about Vivian's whereabouts, yet their responses yielded no helpful information.

His primary goal currently was to unlock the secrets of the time element. And to do this, he required a vast amount of knowledge towards this abstract element. 

As no spell formulas of the time element exists, Sorin was forced to create his very own. However, Sorin barely knows anything about time.

Sorin possessed a unique understanding of time compared to the people of this world because of his experiences on modern Earth, where scientific knowledge was far more advanced.

However, even on modern Earth, time remained a profound mystery with many secrets.

To create his unique prime spells, he required the fundamental knowledge of time. Perhaps he could find information in the core library that could give him a hint towards his path as an Arcanist.

The laws that govern this universe is much more different compared to earth. This implies that time might also function in a unique way as well.

This led to Sorin needing the help of an upperclassmen like Vivian to get this kind of knowledge. Even then, any information on time might not even exist in the core library but Sorin remained resolute.

Amidst the individual pursuit of answers, the truth emerges. Without this personal exploration, can one truly comprehend and advance as a human being?

Only when you search for answers yourself would the outcome be clear. Otherwise, how could you know and progress?

*Pitter-patter*

"Hm?" Sorin extended his right hand, feeling the gentle droplets of water fall upon his palm. "It's beginning to rain," Sorin pondered.

Sorin had searched for Vivian for quite some time, the world gradually descending into darkness, with no sign of her in sight.

However, fustration held no place in his calm and resolute heart, but rather a focused determination to achieve his goals.

After having spent a few hours trying to find Vivian, Sorin promptly decided to leave this for tomorrow. He needed to continue his refinement of his Mana Cube.

Sorin knew when it was time to stop. He wouldn't waste any more time searching for someone that might not even be in the Academy. "Perhaps she's busy doing a mission," Sorin muttered.

As he made his way back towards his room, his thoughts remained centered on cultivating his Mana Cube. However, just outside the Academy, the sound of laughter and voices caught his attention. Sorin felt that this scene was rather familiar.

With his curiosity piqued, he approached the source of the commotion.

There, in the Academy's vicinity, he found Vivian once again. She was cornered into a wall, encircled by the familiar trio. Their laughter and taunts were harsh, and Vivian, with tears in her eyes, pleaded for them to leave her be.

Sorin watched the trio physically and verbally attack her.

Her once neat and tidy hair was being pulled forcefully by one of the individuals surrounding her. 

The person who roughly pulled her hair continued to berate her with cutting remarks, her voice dripping with cruelty. 

Sorin, hidden from sight, observed the situation. His emotions were locked away, but a slight sense of annoyance somewhat stirred within him. He had rescued Vivian once before, and it seemed he might need to intervene again.

Sorin was deep in thought. 'The bullying is more severe then I thought. It seems Vivian had provoked someone quite badly.'

Sorin needed the help of an upperclassmen to obtain the privileges to the core library for free.

He wasn't in his second or third year, so he lacked the privileges to access it, and he couldn't afford to squander his limited funds in pursuit of information that might not even exist.

Nevertheless, the Academy had a loophole that students could take advantage of. The colored badges, which indicated a student's year in the school, can be given to others, allowing one to borrow and use them.

Upperclassmen could give their badge to first years so they can gain access to the core library. However, not many would do this as the information in the core library is very valuable. The badge only had a few hours that can be used a week which meant upperclassmen were very stingy with their badge.

With how expensive getting access to the core library is, upperclassmen tend to give these badges out to first years to rent at a lower price

This was a simple way to get quick money for upperclassmen. And all it took was a badge that was given to them for free as a second or third year!

Sorin planned to ask Vivian to borrow her badge to gain access to the core library.

After having saved her once from her bullies, Sorin thought they would stop because Arcanists tend to be very busy people. However, the bullies simply relocated where they would torment Vivian. Sorin deduced that the enmity between them was quite bad considering they were wasting their time tormenting a girl.

It seems they had taken Sorin's warning to consideration and now were bullying Vivian even more ruthlessly just outside the Academy.

After a few moments of contemplation, Sorin decided not to intervene. Sorin simply needed to borrow Vivian's badge a few times. He wasn't going to solve all of her problems just to do this.

'With her personality and temperament, if I ask, she'd probably accept my request to borrow her badge to return the favour.' Sorin thought.

-

*Sniffle*

The sounds of faint crying could be heard.

Amidst the looming darkness, the gentle radiance of the moon illuminated a lone figure. Her frail, trembling form quivered in the rain, while the biting chill of the air added to her discomfort.

Her disheveled and tarnished appearance would garner many looks of pity as her body lay motionless on the floor.

As the rain continued its melancholic descent, Vivian's form became a canvas for sorrow. Each drop seemed to etch tales of longing and despair upon her drenched silhouette. "I feel so cold..." she muttered weakly, the shivers in her voice echoing the poignant melody of the rain's lament.

In the weariness of the moment, Vivian's muted voice carried a subtle plea, "What went wrong for me to be treated like this?"

Her eyes, veiled by the damp curtain of her abyss black hair, projected a wearied image, as if the weight of the world had settled upon her shoulders. "What twists of fate led to this?" she pondered, each word drawn out with the fatigue of unanswered questions.

"I was just trying to do the right thing... and now, I'm the one they're coming after?" Vivian uttered, her voice tinged with a simple honesty that echoed the complexity of her emotions. The burden of feeling unfairly treated weighed on her, leaving her tangled in a web of anguish and confusion.

Vivian's self-directed words echoed in the solitude around her, as she reflected on the unfairness of the situation that fell on her. Despair seemed to engulf her weary soul.

'This world is so unfair... Why do people like them escape consequences for their cruelty while honest and hardworking people get mistreated.' Vivian lamented with bitterness.

'What's the purpose of my life, if there's only suffering and torment? I thought an act of kindness would be rewarded, but now... I'm beginning to doubt it.' Vivian wept silently, her tears flowing down her ruby eyes.

Throughout her entire life, Vivian had always remained steadfast and hardworking. Her family were merely 'commoners' that had saved enough arcane crystals to send her off to the Academy.

Vivian, not wanting to let down their expectations, had studied and trained tirelessly. Despite her only having a medium affinity towards the Azure Cube, she had overcome this with hard work and patience.

She had managed to reach the upper stage of a Tier 1 Arcanist, which was above average amongst her piers.

Her journey as an Arcanist was going slowly, but nevertheless, it was a smooth one.

That was until she provoked a person at the start of her second year. Vivian had always been the quiet and introverted type so she never had any friends and only spoke to a few people on occasions.

However, Vivian had witnessed a fellow student get extorted of their arcane crystals by one of the trio.

Vivian had been somewhat close to the trio of girls. She had been a part of their study group a few times as she was quite smart. This led to their relationship being not too bad, however, she was basically an invisible member of their group.

Vivian, despite her inherent shyness and meekness, carried with her the wisdom given by her parents that kindness would always be rewarded. This belief had led her to intervene and voice her opinions towards the injustice she witnessed.

At first, everything turned out well. The girl that was extorting the student had stopped as there were other students nearby. Vivian had been the catalyst which gave other students the courage to also voice out their opinions.

They also shared a similar disapproval towards her heinous methods in obtaining arcane crystals. She was somewhat notorious as she was a troublemaker whilst also having some relations with a third year in the Academy, so no one had bothered to stand up against her.

However, just because Vivian voiced out her opinions, she had somewhat embarrassed this person as other people had been nearby. It hadn't been her intention, she simply wanted to stop her act of extortion.

But, this had led to her smooth journey as an Arcanist become much more difficult.

She had become a target for bullying. Everyday, she would constantly be called names, have false rumours spread about her and constantly be avoided.

This made it so missions became much harder for Vivian as she couldn't join any groups to hunt mana beasts. She had to wait for the easier missions which took a lot of luck and patience. It would only take a moment before an easy mission gets taken by another student.

She had always been a very quiet and diligient student in the Academy so not many students believed in the rumours. Nevertheless, it clearly showed she was being targeted so nobody wanted to get involved with her.

The Academy didn't mind the extortion of students as long as it wasn't too extreme. The Academy had always been a place where the strong was valued. If you were so weak that you couldn't even protect your arcane crystals, they wouldn't pay much attention to you.

However, if someone of a higher year extorted someone that was at a lower year, the Academy would issue out the appropiate punishments.

This fostered a good competitive environment. Grievances can be settled at the arena near the Academy's vicinity. The school has built this for their students so they can garner battle experience amongst each other whilst settling disputes.

However, the school had severe punishments for students that use spells to attack other students without permission. 

It would nearly guarantee expulsion or you would have to pay a hefty sum of arcane crystals that would even make wealthy families think twice.

'Mother, father, I'm sorry... I don't think I can go on much longer. I'm sorry for not being able to live up to your expectations...' Vivian weakly sobbed in the darkness.

At this moment, Vivian feels utterly hopeless. Her life had taken a turn for the worse. Her refinement of her Mana Cube had stagnated significantly and her resources were starting to run out. This meant she couldn't rent spells and cultivate as comfortably as she did in the past.

'I wonder how that person is doing.' Vivian thought.

The one person that had somewhat alleviated her problems had been a first year. He had managed to save her from her tormentors despite being complete strangers, which caused her to feel strange whenever she thought about him.

Throughout her life, apart from her parents, no one had ever went out of their way for her.

'It would be nice... If I could meet him again.'

'But... Why would he? We barely know each other. And he must have heard the rumors about me. Perhaps that's why I haven't seen him in weeks...' Vivian's thoughts weighed heavy on her chest, causing her pain as the bone chilling cold was sapping away her energy, bit by bit.

'This feeling of helplessness... I hate it.' Vivian thought dejectedly, mocking herself.

Amidst the shroud of darkness, Vivian was completely alone, enveloped by the relentless, mournful rhythm of raindrops, evoking a profound sense of despair and melancholy. 

To her, it feels as if all hope is lost.

However, at this moment, Vivian suddenly heard the faint sounds of footsteps gradually coming closer to her.

*Tap. Tap. Tap.*

The echoing footsteps grew louder with each step, shattering the steady rain's rhythm, piercing through the profound silence.

As the sound of footsteps reached her ears, Vivian weakly turned her head towards the source of the sound.

Through her tear-blurred vision, a silhouette gradually took shape.

The person's features remained shrouded in uncertainty, but as Vivian gazed upon the silhouette beside her, she discerned the two familiar violet eyes that gleamed ominously within the darkness.

"Am... Am I hallucinating?" Vivian's weak voice wavered.

This however, was her last thought.

She had used her last bit of energy to say those words, drowsiness beginning to overtake her, and she couldn't fight it as darkness slowly closed in on her vision.

-

"Did I perhaps wait too long?" Sorin mumbled to himself. Sorin had waited for 45 minutes before the trio had left.

This was so it seemed as if Sorin had miraculously found Vivian by accident when he had witnessed the entire scene.

Sorin was currently soaked by the heavy rain, he was definitely looking forward to returning to his cozy room in the Academy.

Kneeling down, Sorin gently scooped Vivian into a bridal carry. He intended to take her to the infirmary. The Academy wasn't completely heartless, at the very least, it provided free, basic healthcare to it's students.

Sorin had lifted Vivian up effortlessly.

The tier 4 treasure had strengthened him quite significantly which made Sorin's journey to the infirmiry much easier.

'I can ask about the badge tomorrow. As I'm not learning any spell formulas currently, I can resume taking all the other lectures.' Sorin thought.

'Soon, the subject selection will take place. The first 2 months of the Academy let's all the students experience different lectures on various topics. Sorin could pick a sub lecture for free to go along with the main lectures such as magic theory. You could choose multiple sub lectures, however you would have to pay arcane crystals.'

'In the novel, the protagonist picked the alchemy sub lecture. I'm definitely not going to do the same thing. Instead, I'm going to pick the spellwright sub lecture. Professor Oris had been the person in charge of the alchemy sub lecture which meant there would be obvious problems the protagonist would face.'

'I should also spar more frequently with Krau. His family had somewhat researched body cultivation, which made them quite famous. Krau had developed rich combat experience from all his trainers. Apart from him being somewhat reluctant to study spell formulas, he's a very hardworking individual.' Sorin mused.

'With more students becoming Tier 1 Arcanists, I feel that the first competition might start soon. I wonder what I should do.' Sorin contemplated 

'I plan to get at the very least, the 10th rank amongst the first years. Only in the top 10 are the rewards given by the Academy worth my time.' Sorin thought.