Alaster

The higher you are, the more it hurts to fall, so Elior continuing to train like before without any change in his personality is impressive.

The most important feature of an archaeologist is not intelligence or knowledge, but patience and not giving up. I have been striving to reach this stage for a long time.

I want to reach a point where I stop feeling hopeless whenever I face an obstacle, but it is not as easy as I imagined at the beginning. If I ever face what happened to Elior, I am not sure that I will remain the same.

Unconsciously, my respect for Elior increased so much and I was looking forward to meeting him again very soon.

"did you face any luck yesterday?"

Flame asked me, trying to change the subject of Elior, and I went along with him.

"Not much, what about you?"

Flame's face suddenly turned red and he seemed to be having a hard time answering.

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

I tried to fix it, but Flame didn't give me a chance to continue.

"I started learning Ether comprehension a week ago already, but my progress is still very slow."

I looked at Flame with some pity, he had been through one week of slow progress and was already starting to give up. His resolve was very weak.

"Do you know who is the only person who can make you succeed?"

I took a quick sip from my coffee cup and looked at Flame with an unnoticed smile.

Flame's expression changed immediately and he looked at me strangely. I didn't notice at the time, but I realized after a long time that all the expressions on my face became expressionless, which made Flame uneasy.

"Who?"

My smile disappeared and I pointed my finger at him, although he did not understand at first, but he did after a few seconds.

"With your talent, you are the only person who can make your life go downhill, and you are the only person who can make yourself a successful person. If you do not have the necessary confidence and courage, you will most likely not achieve anything in your life."

Flame's expression went blank and he looked at me as if I was some kind of philosopher, even I myself was surprised, everything that had just happened was automatic, I didn't mean to do any of it.

My father told me this sentence several years ago, he disappeared and it has not left my mind since.

"Thanks, I really needed this"

Flame patted me on the shoulder before standing up.

"We have to go to class now..."

The tone of Flame's voice changed slightly and became quiet. I don't know why he changed so much in less than three seconds. I felt that I had a role in this, but I did not feel guilty.

What I just said is 100% true, if Flame got sad because of me telling the truth, then I should probably stay away from him, from what I know hanging out with certain types of people can slowly make you similar to them.

With my knowledge of Flame, which is about 24 hours of friendship, I still think that he is not sad, but something else, as he thanked me...

I thought about it for a while but eventually forgot about it, I really don't care about people's reactions to my words since I wouldn't change myself for anyone no matter what.

We got to the classroom after three minutes of walking and I wasn't very surprised this time. This building is not different from the one in which we took the test, the only difference is the chairs and the tables in the middle that made the room look like a high-level university campus.

"Let's take a seat, there's no time left!"

I immediately rushed towards the last chairs and took a seat for myself next to Flame who preceded me. There were a few dozen students other than us in the room but I didn't have any time to look at them, unfortunately.

The whole class was like a five-tiered staircase with five wooden tables on each level in order to avoid crowding among the students and provide a comfortable and discreet environment for them to take notes.

The separation wall was decorated with a variety of maps of the vast continent of Friden, in which all human beings lived, in addition to many different pictures of the founders of the institute.

In the front of the classroom and above the wooden platform where the teachers are supposed to stand, a wide whiteboard is hung to provide visual aid while teaching the students.

All in all, this is the most luxurious and classy classroom out of all the classrooms that I have ever seen, whether in media or in real life.

'I should have expected this from the Imperial Institute...'

"Hello!"

My thoughts were suddenly interrupted by an unknown person who entered the classroom. In a long brown robe and clothes decorated with drawings of stone dragons, entered a tall man with brown eyes and black hair.

Externally, this person appears to be in his thirties and not very old at all. This professor is <Alaster Stoneheart> and he is probably my main teacher for this year.

I've heard some rumors about this professor from Flame earlier and one of them is that he doesn't take his work as a teacher very seriously, if that's true then we might have very bad luck.

Anyway, the scene in front of me was not normal, endless airwaves shot through the classroom and scanned all the students including me and clearly came from Professor Aster.

The strange thing was that no one in the class had a surprised expression like me, as if they didn't sense what had just happened.

'It's weird...'

I sensed that something was definitely not right but I couldn't understand what it was.

"Hi! My name is Alaster Stoneheart! You can call me Mr. Alaster!"

Mr.Alaster extended his hand widely and quickly lowered it onto the long platform in front of him, the sleeves of his long robe spread all over and emitted the aura of a medieval martial master.

Something about Mr.Alastair really bothered me but I couldn't figure it out, as if he was secretly trying to figure out something about me and needless to say I hated it.

"Our first lesson will be about visualizing the Ether correctly!"

The teacher, Alester, grabbed a black pen from the table designated to put important things for teachers and began to draw many pictures on the whiteboard.

Although his drawing is not very good, I still have some understanding.

'there...'

I identified something strange in the drawing, and specifically after the ether had passed the lungs, my forehead wrinkled a little when I saw that, but I did not speak.

I don't know why, but Mr.Alaster's expression brightened a lot when he saw my forehead wrinkled and immediately pointed at me.

"What is your name?"

I felt a little nervous, there was no one in the direction that Mr.Alaster pointed to except me and Flame, but his finger was clearly pointing at me.

"Venture Cazador"

"Well, Venture, is there anything wrong with the illustration?"

Mr.Alaster's smile continued to widen as he looked at me, and I couldn't help but sigh.

"Actually, after the Ether-infused blood reaches the cells, it must inject a very certain amount, but you put random amounts on the illustration."

Teacher Alastair's expression brightened until I thought he was manipulating this glow with some tool.

"That's actually true! The process of transferring the Ether to the cells has to be very precise or else the attunement will become really bad, the only thing that would happen in that case is you would get dozens of collateral damage like…"

Mr.Alaster seemed like a broken down car, it only needed a slight nudge and it would return to the street and move at high speed.

Mr.Alaster, after finishing this boring subject, wrote eight paragraphs describing a particular thing.

"This is the simplified process of inhaling oxygen. Oxygen is absorbed through the nose or mouth and then goes to the lungs to be stored in the blood. After that, with the help of the heart, the blood is transported towards the cells of the body, and of course with some other substances that I do not remember, and then it comes out. carbon dioxide"

Mr.Alaster spoke with a cold expression as if what was on the board was of no importance.

The teacher then pointed to the other side of the board where five paragraphs were written.

"These paragraphs talk about the breathing process, if the oxygen is tens of times heavier, a severe reduction in the blood structure and a significant change in life in our continent. The process becomes much slower and every breath may become very difficult for the body. This is the limit of the average person."

On the other hand, Ether is not tens of times heavier than oxygen, it is hundreds if not thousands heavier!

the time passed quickly, and we signed some documents at the end of the class but it wasn't a big deal. just signing to never harm another student physically or psychologically.

....

.....

"Venture! That was so amazing! I never thought about the amount of energy. How did you really find out…"

I was in deep thought as I walked out of the classroom and suddenly heard a flame sound behind me, after regaining my consciousness I looked at the rest of the students who had just come out of the classroom.

Two students attracted my attention especially among more than eight others. One of them was tall, 190 cm in height, with a broad face, black eyes, black hair, and wore glasses. I felt a strange aura of science around him, which made me think that he was a very intelligent person.

The other person was slightly shorter at 180 cm in height with brown hair and black eyes. His head lowered towards the ground with his shoulders crooked created a sad and dejected look, which made me feel that something strange had happened with this person recently.

The depressed person wore simple black clothes, nothing so exciting.

It took me three full seconds to memorize their appearance and immediately looked back after that, Flame was looking at me strangely and I don't know why.

"Do you know these people?"

I asked about the names of the two people who caught my interest, and I expected an answer from Flame. I always asked him about things related to the institute, and he always knew the perfect answer.

I realized after only moments that memorizing the names of dozens of students is difficult even for someone like Flame.

"I don't know, I've never seen these people before."

As I expected, Flame didn't know their names but it wasn't like it mattered too much, after all, we were in the same class, it is only a matter of time until I get some information about them.

I don't know why they caught my attention, but from what I do know there's no harm in trying.

.....

(Third-person perspective)

As soon as the class ended, Mr. Alaster disappeared into the concrete wall next to him and moved around the institute at high speed, within a few moments finding himself in a spacious and bright office.

Mr.Alaster looked at the person sitting on the chair behind the table and lowered his head for a moment before raising it again.

The person sitting on the chair had white hair, a short white beard due to old age, and bright blue eyes. This person is the principal of the institute!

If Venture was here, he would recognize this man immediately, the man who was in one of his father's pictures and seemed to be the leader.

"what do you have?"

The principal of the Institute smiled slightly when looking at Mr.Alaster, and it seemed that a storm might emerge from his blue eyes at any moment.

"I just noticed a talented student. What's strange is that he wore a necklace that looked exactly like yours, as if it was an exact copy."

Teacher Alastair maintained a steady smiling expression as he spoke, and although he did not know the meaning behind this necklace, he felt that it had a certain benefit that could make the principal interested.

across the room, the principal slid his hand on the wooden table forcefully and looked at Mr.Alaster with a glowing gaze and a serious expression.

"Keep an eye on this student"

"as you wish!"

Just a moment later, Mr.Alaster disappeared into the floor and stored the Institute principal's orders well in his mind.