Game

"It seems you still don't understand your place"

She continued, the smoldering intensity of her gaze increasing by the second.

However before she could erupt, a gentle, soothing voice echoed from amongst the crowd of students.

"Instructor, don't be angry at them, after all it's my fault"

Alice gaze dimmed, albeit a little she really didn't know where to draw the line for this brat and honestly it was starting to annoy her. After throwing a stern look to the class she decided to drop the matter.

"Everyone back to your seats"

The students breathed a sigh of relief and couldn't help but give Eva look of thanks, their impressions of her becoming all the more favorable.

Eva scanned the classroom seemingly looking for something; her eyes suddenly caught the neat bun of white hair poking up while the head it was attached to was on the desk supported by two arms hiding the face of the person of whom it belonged to.

Arius had fallen asleep sometimes during the lecture, he was truly too tired. Eva jogged happily towards Arius, a smile still plastered on her face, even when she shoved the sleeping David off the seat next to Arius, that beguiling smile never left her face.

David who jolted awake was angry and was about to retort, however the gaze he caught from a couple of his classmates stifled his anger, confused on why they were staring at him that way he looked towards the Michael for help.

Unfortunately all he received was a shake of the head; David feeling much wronged, looked towards Alice, their instructor definitely wouldn't be biased right?

However when he saw the look on Alice's face, he resigned himself not to ask. He couldn't help but think that was the scariest face he had ever seen her wear. Defeated he sighed and walked to the back of the class to find somewhere to sleep.

'how bias, it's a women's world we live in, a man can't even sleep in peace, who's the brat anyway and why's she dressed like some stuck up noble , bitch didn't even look at me like I'm some lowlife punk, if it wasn't, whatever I'll deal with her later'

"yawnnnnns"

'I'm really tired'

On the other hand Arius whose sleep was disturbed by the scent of jasmine that kept wafting across his face causing his nose to scrunch up. The pleasant scent which wasn't there before caused Arius to raise his head and swerve it left and right in order to discover its origin.

However he didn't need to look long as he immediately noticed David's absence and the beauty sitting in his seat, which stunned him. Sure he had seen beauties before but the beauty of the girl in front of him carried a rare innocence that bade one's protection.

The beauty in question who noticed his gaze lingering on her smiled at him, waved a little and threw a silent "Hi", of which Arius promptly nodded his head before resuming his sleeping posture.

Eva was astounded, she didn't expect Arius to brush her off like that, had her charm finally failed her, she suddenly showed a smile different from the one she had showed before, and this one seemed more genuine.

'This was expected, it wouldn't have been fun without a little challenge, fine I'll play your game for now, I'd like to see how long you can last'.

Arius on the other hand who had his head back on the desk quietly muttered to himself

"Another one, I wonder how persistent this one is"

Arius with his face was obviously very experienced in these games, he couldn't even be bothered to spare another thought about the matter neither did he find interest in listening to Alice's lecture so he began to think of how he was going to train his new powers.

'Should I tell Alice, she looks very dependable but then again she's part of the academy, and I really don't trust the academy. The old man is just too mysterious, only god knows what he's thinking half the time, the library still seems like the best option, I'll just pick up a couple of random books along with those on scribbling magic'.

After settling on a decision, Arius again activated the basic strengthening rune like before; he had been doing this ever since he succeeded the first time. And after repeating it several times he discovered he began to understand it.

He discovered the rune he formed wasn't technically a rune, it was too trifling to call it such, basically he discovered merely covering a material with vi increased its sturdiness. Although crude, it worked however the moment he lost concentration the vi he was holding together to coat said material escaped his control.

He had been looking for how to fix said problem, directing the vi to form different shapes and forms, sometimes the vi in his control suddenly fizzles out, other times his head gets attacked with sudden headaches.

Currently he was fixated on finding the correct pattern to form the rune, he made the vi he gathered in his palms form a circle with an s inside attaching from one end of the circumference to the other, similar to the outline of the yin yang symbol.

Immediately he completed the loop he felt something pop up in his mind, an image exactly like the one sitting in his palm, and a connection between it and the vi model in his palm. It was like the feeling you get when immediately you see something, you remember an event or something else connected to it.

It was an unusual feeling because Arius couldn't recollect when he encountered this image before or if ever he had encountered it, but it was stuck in his head now and he was sure that this was it, he had succeeded in creating his first rune.

Overwhelmed with ecstasy, he raised his head with the intention of shouting, but that was when he realized he was still in class so he held himself back diving back to his former posture.

Alice who was about to round up her lecture felt a sudden shift in the air, an inexplainable feeling washing over her, a feeling she only experienced in two places; the research lab and in the Fabled Court.

She unconsciously turned her gaze towards Arius, but seeing his head on his desk, she dismissed the possibility brewing in her mind. Soon after, the feeling vanished making her second guess her thoughts.

'Am I perchance wrong, maybe I'm just tired?'

"Alright, that's the end of the class, by the end of the week we'll have a mock battle in preparation for next week's event so you all should report at the dive by 10 am"