Surprise

Ashton doesn't really understand what kind of dream was that no matter hard he tried to...

It felt so...real, so much so that he's starting to believe that it was real instead. Granted the world he lives in right now, too? That might've actually been the case.

Still, none of that made sense to him. He tried searching online but found nothing, he referred to books too but still, nothing. In the end, he could only drop the subject altogether and just move-on with his life.

No use in being invested into something he doesn't understand to begin with anyway.

Just like this, life continued for Ashton. Days passed as he adjusted to his new life and continued his magical studies.

Each day he could feel himself substantially getting stronger and more vigorous. It was such a weird feeling since he can easily tell that he's much stronger compared to his fully grown self from his past. There's just no comparison to be made.

With the time that passed, he also learned more and more about the world of cultivation, eventually painting a full idea of what it's like in his mind.

Sufficed to say, his initial assumptions were correct, this world was indeed dangerous. In fact, it's even more dangerous that he initially expected.

See, he found out that there's just no way to avoid it.

Even if his goal was to just become a hermit and just study magic all of his life, there's no way he'll be able to avoid confrontation. Sooner or later, he'll have to fight. There's no way he can't, life wouldn't allow it.

As days turned into weeks, then weeks turned into months, Ashton fell into a stable routine that 5 months flashed past him since the beginning of the academic year.

And while the past six months were nothing but peaceful, it failed to lure Ashton to it's lair.

Ashton knew...he just knew that there's no way this peace would continue just like this. Something has to happen.

And to nobody's surprise, he was correct.

"...alright you brats, listen up." Aisha walked down the aisle as she said this, "your Final Exams for the first semester is coming up. It will happen next Monday so I want you to prepare."

"To that extent, your schedule for this week is cleared. Use this time to do some last minute training to prepare yourselves. Is that all clear?"

"Yes, Prof." The students replied in unison.

"Those who are close to their breakthroughs, don't forget to get me or other trusted people on speed dial. I trust you all to follow the rules or else we will some serious problems. Alright, that's it for me. Now, scram!"

The students then stood up and began leaving the room.

"Hey, Ash. Alice and Blake said that they're already at the meeting place."

"You mean Aunt Rosie's?"

"Same thing."

Ashton rolled his eyes, "Seriously, why the hell do you guys treat that place like some sort of a secret base? I mean, all we do there is eat and lounge around."

"Heathen!" Mary called out in a scandalized voice, "How dare you! That is our bunker! Our last line of defense against the normies! Don't you ever sully it with those foul words of yours."

Ashton groaned and said: "Yeah, yeah whatever. Let's just go."

At this point, Ashton already relented and allowed himself to get dragged-on by these three. Honestly, at first he was hesitant to join them since he was still adjusting to his life as a teenager...again, but they never really gave him a chance to get-away from their grasp.

In the end, he became friends with them and came to knew more information that he didn't knew in the past.

For example; it turns out that Mary's curse was particularly troublesome

As they grew more comfortable around each other, they eventually revealed the type of curse she have. Ashton shared his first to them, then eventually he knew hers.

Mary's curse it the 'Curse of Negativity', this basically punishes her every time she feels negative emotions as she would feel it twice as strong. Ashton could see many ways on how this curse could seriously ruin someone so he pitied the girl quite a bit. He never showed it though since, that's would be insulting to her.

If it were him, he wouldn't want anyone to pity him too. It's demoralizing and could possibly make someone feel...'less' in general. Not a good a thing in the first place, even more so if Mary was the one to feel it since her curse would make it worse.

At the same, this made Ashton feel like he had it easier. At most, he can't use intermediate offensive spells and that's it. Mary on the other hand would seriously suffer from this, this is why Alice and Blake tries their best to distract her.

But of course, since Ashton now knows this as well, he's in it as well. Alice and Blake never really specifically told him to do so but the hints were there. He'd be a fool to not notice them. He didn't mind it of course, their friends anyways.

Speaking of friends, Ashton didn't really go out of his way to expand his social life. What little he has right now is just fine with him. He's acquainted with the rest of the class he's in as well as those from the Combat Class but not really close enough to call themselves friends.

Honestly, he just didn't see the point nor he's to keen to discover anyways. He's already used to being a loner anyways so Mary, Alice, Blake and Aria were good enough for him.

Mary and Ashton boarded the transit and eventually arrived at their destination.

"I don't see them anywhere though." Ashton murmured as soon as the two of them arrived at the shop.

Behind him, Mary walked past him, dragging him towards a corner. Ashton frowned and allowed himself to be dragged around. Eventually, they arrived at a door. Mary went behind him and pushed him inside.

That's when the lights flickered on and he was greeted with:

"Surprise!! Happy Birthday, Ashton!"

Phewwtt!!

Alice, Blake and Aria was inside, wearing party hats and small confetti bombs in their hands. There's party decorations on the walls and a cake at the middle of the table.

A helpless smile appeared on Ashton's face as he entered the room.

"So that's why I felt like I was missing something important when I woke-up this morning." Ashton said while shaking his head.

"Seriously? You forgot your own birthday?" Blake asked, sounding a little incredulous.

"How did you guys even know? I don't remember telling you about it." He asked.

"Yeah, you didn't. It was Aria who discovered it." Alice stated, looking at the timid librarian.

"You usually leave your stuff unsupervised whenever you're cramming. Your profile was open and I kinda saw it but not everything in it of course. I saw your birthdate there, October 15, so I took note and told them about it a week ago." Aria mentioned casually.

Looking at her, Ashton wouldn't have known that she was the same, stuttering mess, that she was during their initial meeting. Aria had come out of her shell, which is a sign that she's comfortable around them.

Ashton nodded and humored them by also wearing a party hat. Of course, his was special, he was the birthday boy after all.

This was new to him. He's never really been one to celebrate birthdays, neither is he one to actually pay attention to his own age. He just lives life as he pleases before and that habit followed him in this life.

Still, he wouldn't refuse this. It's not a bad feeling.

They proceeded with the celebration. They sang happy birthday to him and even asked him to make a wish before blowing out the candles.

Ashton was really glad that the rooms were soundproof or else, Blake would've already brought the house down with his loud and screamer vocals as he used the karaoke.

Alice was pushed to the brink of insanity as she comes 'this' close to murdering him with her bare hands. Aria was just there, looking culture-shocked while Mary just looked done.

Ashton himself just find this funny. He figured that he should just let this pass since it's a special day of course.

However...for some reason...Ashton feels really strange.

He doesn't know why but he feels a bit uneasy. Initially, he thought that it's just because he forgot that its his birthday today but then again, it didn't really disappear.

Ashton felt cold and he doesn't know why. He also feels like someone's prickling his skin with needles and it was getting uncomfortable.

Aria seems to have notice this so she leaned towards him and asked: "Hey, what's wrong?"

He looked at her and hesitated, he opened his mouth to speak but to his surprise, his voice wasn't coming out. It's as if his throat was plugged or something.

Before he could even say something to her using sign-language, his world was rocked by a sudden explosion.

The impact was so strong that everything, including him, tumbled around the room. His head hit something hard and then he lost consciousness.