Chapter 44: Wardmates

The bronze-colored wooden door closed with a muffled sound. The young men on the other side of the door turned their eyes to the last person to enter the ward. The room was well-lit, and the suitcases and various weapons left no room to move in the small room.

A slightly fat young man sitting on one of the bunks looked at the droplets of water dripping from Alexander's hair and extended his hand in a friendly manner.

"It's raining..."

"Oh, my God! I'm soaking wet."

Alexander grasped the young man's outstretched hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Gabril Maximillian, nice to meet you."

"Alexander Valentia, likewise."

Alexander let go of Gabril's hand and went to bed. After drying his hair with a towel from his suitcase, he looked at the others in the ward. They all looked uneasy with each other. But since they were all sixteen years old, it didn't take long for the ice to melt.

An hour later Gabril took some snacks and beer out of his bag. The center of the room was cleared and everyone sat on the floor and started chatting.

Thanks to the help of Alexander Gabril, he met others.

There were surprisingly three people from Medical Sciences. Sharing a bunk with Alexander were Kaius Nicholder, Steve O'Brien, and Max Memphis. These were talented individuals who made it into the top 100. What they all had in common was that their families had always practiced medicine.

Gabril was from the Faculty of Political Sciences. The Maximillian family was a powerful family that had already produced major political figures. They had prominent companies and subsidiaries in the field of magical engineering. It would not be wrong to say that they were one of the leading families in the world.

Apart from these people, there was one last person. Alastair Dawnguard. The Dawnguard family was a family of assassins who did great things in the Ancient Phoenix War. Their main mission was to protect the leader of the federation and assassinate enemies.

But because of a mistake they had made in the Ancient Phoenix War, they faced destruction. They were ostracized in the political arena and collapsed economically. Alastair was tasked with resurrecting the Dawnguard family.

He had been training for this since childhood. He was a skilled fighter, ranked in the top ten of the Faculty of Defense Arts. His overall ranking was twenty-five - which was relatively high - so he received invitations from many groups.

Most of those in the Circle did not come from ordinary backgrounds. An accidental shoulder bump could turn out to be the heir to a great clan on Elysium.

"...then he approached me and said: 'You are not important to us, you will not see the light of day unless your family pays the necessary ransom!' I was so scared that I cannot describe it in words. Of course, two hours after he said that the knights of my family came and rescued me."

Gabril was telling a story about a kidnapping he had experienced when Alexander excused himself and stood up. They had to wake up early tomorrow and it was late. Gabril and the others understood and agreed with him.

"Come on girls, we have to get up early tomorrow, that's it for today! Let's have dinner together tomorrow."

Knock, Knock!

At that moment there were two knocks on the door of the room. Gabril opened the door and saw a box on the floor. On the box was the Ouroboros, the symbol of the academy.

Gabril took the box and put it in the center of the room. He opened it with a knife and took out a rectangular thing.

It was a smartphone.

"Are there any of these left in this era?"

Gabril tilted his head and transferred the Qi in his body to the phone.

[Energyprint detected.]

[Log in...]

Their guidance counselor had told them that they would manage everything about the academy from this phone. Alexander transferred his Qi to the phone and it unlocked.

As the world changed, technology kept pace with the times. With the emergence of divine energies like Qi and Mana, technology lagged for a while, but soon there was a revolution and Magic Engineering emerged.

Energyprint Technology was one of the technologies of the new era. Soon after people started controlling Qi and Mana, the world was rocked by thousands of murders. People who could do nothing before suddenly began to control energy and had superhuman powers.

Crime rates had broken historical records and unsolved murders were on an unprecedented rise. In short, the world had turned into a bloodbath.

So the federation headquarters had to work on a new technology.

Energyprint Technology allowed us to capture the shape, properties, and space-time imprints of the types of energy currently used. Every living thing has a different energy. So it was like a kind of fingerprint.

The new era brought with it new technologies. It was no longer possible to recognize people by their fingerprints. There were thousands of creatures, and thousands of techniques. The only way to detect them was the energy they used.

"Energyprint Technology... I remember in the entrance test they asked us to release our energy. They underestimate the power of academia."

Gabril fiddled with his phone for a while and then looked at Alexander.

"They paid credits according to the exam rankings. Alexander, how many credits did you get?"

After his phone was switched on, Alexander clicked on the app that said 'Student Profile'. He was presented with an information system with his photo. All the information he had given to the academy, including his photo, was written there.

He looked at the credit section.

"I have a total of five loans."

"It costs 10,000 credits to buy a house in the city. Rent starts at 300 Credits. A good meal from the canteen costs one credit."

Alexander continued to fiddle with the phone while listening to Gabril's words. In addition to an app that allowed him to view his information, the phone contained a map app with a map of the school, a messaging platform that allowed him to exchange messages with others, and a guide that provided all the basic information he needed.

"There are so many ways to earn credit," Steve said, climbing into bed and lying down. He was fiddling with his phone like everyone else.

"There are almost no restrictions. But the safest way seems to be to get high exam marks. Whoever comes first in the common exams gets fifty credits, and this is for each subject they come first in. We take at least fourteen subjects." With that Kaius hung up the phone and threw it aside.

Gabril's eyes lit up, "I heard that the plants in the forest outside the city are used for alchemy. We can collect them for those studying Alchemical Engineering."

While the others in the ward were discussing this, Alexander turned off his phone and stood up.

"I'm going for a walk."

- - -

Outside, the rain beat down hard on Alexander's body. Even the trees surrounding him had difficulty resisting the rain.

Alexander stepped into the muddy forest. His perception spread around him as his eyes scanned the surroundings for anyone. When he realized that there was no one in the forest, he kept moving forward. When he was more than a kilometer away from the nearest human, he stopped.

Heavy rain covered everything.

Alexander sat down under a tree and sat cross-legged. As he did so, a ball of smoke drifted out of his body.

That was Dark Soul.

"It's been a long day, Alex."

"Yeah... Is it good here?"

"It's beautiful. The rain acts as a cover. No one will hear you."

"Then I'll start. Wake me if someone comes."

"Consider it done."

After receiving Dark Soul's word, Alexander poked the dormant Sah Chakra. As he began to move it according to the instructions in Asura's Ascension, the veins around his neck began to swell.

His eyes started to bleed.

"Arghh!"

Chilling growls began to rise from his throat.

Alexander started meditating.