Prince of The Abyss

Aether stared at the teacher as she started her class... There was just one problem: she had no idea what she was saying. How to build stuff and how to grow food, like, what was this? Wasn’t this a magic Academy?

All the others seemed to have quite an easy job understanding everything she was saying, which was really weird, since he was completely out of it.

And worse, his desk mate was sleeping.

Aether stared as Sena, who was calmly sleeping on her desk, like nothing was happening around her. Wasn’t she supposed to help him? I mean, he thought it was the most normal thing to do when you got a new student next to you.

Aether sighed, turning to look back at the teacher and trying to figure out what was happening, but before he could, he suddenly heard a voice in his head.

’Ignore her; it’s not like it will help you in any way.’ Aether froze; that was... Sena’s voice, but it was inside his mind...

’Huh?’

Sena lifted her head with a smile, winking at him.

’It’s a relic; my brother gave it to me when I was a child. It’s one of a kind, extremely rare. Pretty cool, right? We can talk without anyone hearing, and don’t worry, unless you talk to me, I won’t know what you’re thinking.’

Aether nodded, quite impressed by the relic. It was a bit similar to his earring, the one Lilith broke; well, they weren’t similar in what they did, but both had some sort of mind ability.

’So, what do you mean by ignore her?’ Aether asked, taking quick glances at the teacher in case she was looking at them while they weren’t paying attention. Well, rather at him, he doubted she would do anything to Sena. Their teacher most definitely knew who she saw; after all, why wouldn’t she do anything about her sleeping in class, for probably the hundredth time?

Nova smiled, summoning a small string that she played with around her finger. ’The Academy is divided into two parts: winter and summer, fall and spring, one where we come to class and study or whatever, and the other is practice, where we enter stories with the teams we make at the beginning of that season. Summer is coming pretty soon, and either way, these little study parts of the year don’t matter that much; they won’t teach you that much.’ She looked at the window. ’You will learn better with time by actually doing these things she’s talking about.’

So by what he understood, the system the Academy worked on was structured in two different phases: theory and practice. If he had to guess why, they had to give students time to also gain sync, since that way they would just lose time. And the theory part, probably to help with harder books or something, he didn’t understand that much. He might be on Sena’s side; he didn’t see any motive in having these classes.

But unlike her, he wasn’t untouchable; heck, if he did one wrong move, these guys would come at his head demanding he be kicked out or something.

What interested him more was what she said about the teams part. It seemed as if he was going to have to team up with someone, or more than one person. He didn’t know if he was allowed to enter alone. Neither did he want to; he had been alone for enough time; it was better if he entered with someone else. After all, the Academy made teams for a reason, because they knew it would speed the growth. Maybe not in Rank, but it does raise sync faster, and either way, his Rank was way above what it should be.

Speaking of it, from what he knew, now that he was a Seeker, he didn’t gain any sync from Readers... sad; it would have made things a lot easier if he could. Though, it wasn’t like when he was a Reader he had farmed Reader monsters.

’Team up, huh.’ Aether said to Sena, resting his head in his hand. ’I doubt anyone would want to join me after my introduction. I’ll just have to see who I end up with.’

Sena chuckled. ’I think you might be surprised... in my eyes, your introduction did the opposite. Plus.’ She looked around with the corner of her eyes. ’If the guys don’t want to join you, I’m sure you will find some girls happy to team up with you.’

Fate glanced between Aether and the many girls in class stealing glances at them,

Aether raised one of his eyebrows, confused, but he didn’t question the String Maker.

...

After an agonizing hour, the class ended. Aether watched as all the students started leaving the class. Sena got up from her chair. ”You’re a Seeker, right?” The girl put her chair back on the desk before starting to leave, but without her eyes leaving Aether as she waited for a response.

”Um, yeah?” He said, a bit surprised.

Nove nodded. ”Then I’ll see you next class. I asked because It’s only for Seekers.” And after that, she left, leaving him alone.

’Only for Seekers? What’s so special about it?’

...

...

Aether walked to the field behind the school, looking at the paper with all his classes. ’Affinity creation?’ Why did everything about this school have to be confusing?

”You’re late!”

Aether staggered a bit before looking up at a very angry man who looked to be in his mid-thirties... he had to say, the Academy had quite the young teachers.

Looking around, everyone seemed to be here, all the students except him, all in one line. Even Sena, Iris, and Orion.

Of course, Lilith was missing, but what did he expect?

”Well, it is my first day; how was I supposed to know where the field is-”

”I don’t care! Come here in front of everyone; you’re going to demonstrate today’s class.”

He could already hear the laughter of the other students, and It’s only going to get louder, since he had no idea what he had to do. But it wasn’t like he could do anything about it. So he sighed and walked to the teacher.

The man rested his arm on his shoulder, smirking at him. ”Alright, now manifest your affinity.”

...

’Shit.’

That was really not something he could do at all; well, he could, but he would just be screaming who he was. And while maybe some of the students didn’t know what the Abyss was, which he doubted, the teacher definitely did.

’Seems like I’m failing this class.’

Aether turned his head at the man, smirking as he moved his arm off his shoulder. ”Sorry, can’t do, nobody taught me... oh wait.’ He raised his palm to his mouth, acting like he had made a big discovery. ”You are the one that was supposed to teach me.” He chuckled. ”Why don’t you do it instead of me?” He

...

And then there was a long silence... a very long one. No one dared speak, but he could see the confusion and slowly building anger in the voice of the man. He was about to burst, but just as he was about to. Someone walked in.

”Calm down, my friend; the student is right.” Avius chuckled, playing with my beard.

The teacher’s anger instantly fell as he saw the man; it was clear that he had quite the reputation Avius had in the Blue Rose; he had to be one of the most respected people.

”You were told that Aether here is a new student, and even more, he’s someone from the Withered, who has not had the same opportunities to learn like the others... and yet you act like this; I’m quite disappointed.”

The teacher had wanted to say something but couldn’t; he knew not to talk back to Avius, so the old man switched his attention to Aether. ”Why don’t you go home for today? It seemed my message for the teachers had not worked, since I also overheard the events of your introduction and before it. But do come into my office as I said.”

Aether nodded, no wasting a second before heading home. He had never thought Academy life would be this boring... his first day had been quite the... experience, and a pretty bad one. The only thing good out of it... was that he had gotten inspiration to work on his Affinity manifestation.

After all... while for others, there might be limitations.

The Abyss was formless; he could change it into whatever he wanted.

If he learned to use it, he would be a lot stronger than he was now. And it was better to do it before summer came. That way he actually had some offense.

He just had to be creative about it. Though, when you have a blank canvas, it’s harder to think about it at first, than if you already had something done... but I guess, true creativity is born from nothing.