11 – Before Disaster Breaks
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Few days have passed. Cyziel spent his time mostly on three things. One was recuperating. He was far from his peak strength due to the injuries he received and over exhaustion of his energy. He would usually go outside the village without someone seeing him and finding a good spot where he could cultivate his body and restore his energy.

Second was gathering information regarding the current society. He mostly spent this time with Volus and Ortix. This part also included the three of them gathering necessities to adapt with their current environment. One of which was buying additional clothes which they bought from Madam Jena's modern clothing shop. They also bought their own runic watches that is used by current humans in their everyday life for communications, transactions and a whole lot more.

Lastly, he spent his time reading the texts that was given to him by Ru. This included stories originating from the other human races when they still haven't been in Venturia. For one, he had read quite a number of publications from Earth on their experience on how they escaped to the planet of Venturia. Another thing that he had read from the text are some of the technologies that didn't exist in his race. The list of technologies he had read goes from simple appliances to complicated machines like modern cars.

Today though, he has another plan. Specifically, he would be attending instructor Martha's class which Garland has enrolled him in.

Cyziel asked quite a few students until he arrived in outside of what seems to be a small room. *Knock Knock*. He tapped at the door.

"Come in!" An old but mellow voice was heard beyond the door.

Cyziel opened the door and he entered the room. He could see a short, old, and bulky woman that is probably a dwim from the Teeny planet was standing in front of a class of five. He also saw a familiar face in the class. It was the girl with Draka who kept staring at him from before.

"And you are?" The old woman smiled at him.

"I'm Cyziel, instructor." Cyziel bowed his head.

The old woman raised her head a little. "Oh! You are the new student that was enrolled to me by Garland! If you still don't know who I am then I am Martha Harkzin. I usually teach history but I am also one of the assigned teachers for new students so they could catch up fast. Anyway, please sit beside Lucia since you are both under Garland." She pointed at the seat in the middle, third row from the front which was beside the girl he was familiar with.

Cyziel sat beside her and the lessons resumed. Martha was discussing lessons on the history of how humans started to settle in this planet.

300 years ago a calamity of cosmic proportions had occurred. A strong energy was emitted from somewhere that was felt by the whole creation. After that, different planes started to connect with the material plane. Universes intermingled. Worlds started to collapse. Creatures died or mutated. Lastly, this world appeared.

It was said that the humans from Earth were the lucky ones to be visited first by this mysterious planet. It was true at least for the humanoid races since there might be other creatures that arrived in this planet. At the start, humans from all races thought that they would die whenever this world visited them. The reason for this is because the size of this planet is so enormous that it would blot out the sky. A collision with this planet would surely destroy the other planet in its way.

In reality, what this planet would only do is to stop in front of a dying planet as if waiting for the people in the other planet to evacuate. 

Humans are curious creatures so most would start to send ships or those who knew magic flew directly towards this planet but of course the outcome was not desirable when they forced their way in. This planet has some form of magical or electromagnetic barrier that protects it from the outside. It was only during an aether storm that it would allow another race to enter the planet. The towering black tunnels from the aether storms would even reach the barrier outside. The entrance of the black tunnels were also so huge in diameter that it looks like a dark portal that a small planet could fit in. In contrast, its exit was just a few hundred meters to a few kilometers which would be located in the regions of hope.

If their race is smart enough or brave enough, they would try to send ships to those black tunnels and they could finally reach this planet's surface.

Another way to enter is for this planet itself to absorb another planet as a satellite like the moon. This is what happened to the planet of Coryzanthuienplawontra. The barrier itself opened and pulled the other planet.

The planet of Coryn could still be seen at night but it can be observed that it is getting smaller and smaller. It is theorized that this is how this world feeds and how it gathers energy to power its barrier and allows it to move.

After hearing those information, Cyziel had a thought. What if the purpose of their people is to guide the people arriving here? What if the prophecies regarding guiding the future was actually this? If that is the case then, where is his people? Where should they guide them to?

As Cyziel was contemplating, Lucia was looking at him again. She seemed conflicted that she was opening and closing her mouth. Finally, she got the courage to talk. "You seem troubled. Is it because of the darkness within you?"

"Darkness? What are you talking about?" Cyziel frowned. He doesn't know what she was talking about.

Lucia frowned, she was quite sure that there is a problem with the man beside her. "There is something different about you. I can't quite seem to explain." She continued talking while pretending to listen to instructor Martha.

Cyziel then scanned her. He noticed light based particles flowing around her. He then come up with the most plausible answer. "Hmm! You seem to have an affinity with the light element which is quite rare but I got an affinity with the darkness so that is what you might be seeing."

Lucia momentarily looked at Cyziel but she thinks that there is still something amiss. She shook her head then looked back in front.

Is it the remnants of the energy from daraksta? Well, it would definitely soon disappear. Seeing Lucia's actions, Cyziel started to ponder. "You don't-"

"Excuse me young man! This is no time to be flirting with your classmate." Instructor Martha interrupted the two as she displeasingly looked at him and placed her right hand on her hip.

His three other classmates grinned while Lucia didn't really react.

"Uhh no. I was just asking her a question." Cyziel calmly reasoned.

"Then what is your question?" Instructor Martha asked in a grumpy tone as he thought that Cyziel was just making an excuse. Which in reality, she was actually right.

Cyziel paused for a second before thinking of a question that might actually be useful to him. "If she was familiar with the barrier in the southern forest."

Martha and his other classmates promptly looked at him. Even Lucia was strangely looking at him

"Hmm... I did not know how you knew of that unless you fell inside the inner forest. I am not supposed to tell you about that but if you wanted to learn more about it you could meet me after class. I also apologize if you were genuinely asking her that question but I doubt she could answer it." Martha nodded her head to him and continued her lessons.

They talked a little bit about the basics of magic. She tried to teach them how spells work.

Magic words or incantations are said to be a way to communicate with the elemental spirits or command the elemental essences. Even without understanding the structure of a magic, with these words, the essences themselves would try to form the basis of the spell. Mix in a source of energy like Aether then it would generate the spell that you desire.

For example, Firas is used to gather fire essences and Quas is used to gather water essences. There are limits though to the amount of essences you could gather and stronger spells require more essences and energies. The mages tower in the capital listed spells in different levels. If you are able to cast them then you would be considered that level in that element of magic.

Magic words are also mostly only used for lower level spells. The reason for this is because the more complex the spell is, the phrase that they need to cast out also gets longer. The command magic for gathering essences also becomes too ineffective because it is too slow that the spell will take a lot longer to cast.

Another weakness of magic words is that it becomes useless in places where there are no essences or spirits of that element in the surroundings which is why it is important to also have a good affinity with that element.

There are currently three known sources of essences. One source is the scattered essences in our surroundings. For example, water essences are abundant near the ocean. Another would be elemental stones which are solidified essences of that element. It is similar to an Aether crystal but it stores elemental essence instead of energy. Lastly, is in our own body if we have an affinity for that element.

Affinity for an element is like an uncontrollable faucet. This faucet is connected to the elemental plane but it only provides us with a limited continuous flow of essences until we are not able to store them in our magic organ. For example, if you can store up to 100 units of that essence and the faucet gives you 50 units of essence per day. This means that if you consumed all your stored essences due to the usage of magic then you need 2 days to reach your full capacity.

When the class ended, Lucia stood up in front of Cyziel then paused for a bit as if she was pondering something before saying goodbye and leaving. Cyziel didn't stop her as he thought that she probably understood what she previously saw in him. He instead talked with Martha regarding the barrier. He learned that it was still there and most people do not know about it. Instructor Martha only knew it because she came from the capital.

This barrier is what he meant when he was previously talking with Volus and Ortix. This is the one that restricted his people from venturing this planet. If it still exists then this means that his family was still somewhere stuck in here.

After leaving the school, he went to meet Ortix and Volus. They talked about the usual which is the information that each of them has gathered. Volus was able to get a map of the current regions where humans live. It was very useful to Cyziel. He learned that the current capital was the previous first principality where his family lived. That means that the capital was really his target which they already intended to go.

According also to the map, the landscape that he knew of was still the same. In the north was still the boundless ocean. The mountain chains were still in the west. The eerie forest still exist in the east. Finally, the vast plains of the south which extends up to the southern forest which is also where the Styrtan village was located.

Afterwards, Cyziel mentioned to the other two that he would be away for the next day because of the task with his group mates. The only reply that he got was that they will see him tomorrow and they did not explain anything else. He warned them not to follow him and not to cause any trouble but they said that they have no plans like that.

-- Ru's House (Styrtan Village) --

Cyziel joining the group of Vera was quite unexpected for the team but it was a great boon for them. Not only does it complete their 5-man team, Cyziel was even stronger than Vera who was the top student of their class. As for Cyziel, he didn't think that he would immediately be sent on a mission as early as possible but it was not really surprising since they are already in the middle of the school year.

Currently, today was the last day for Cyziel's group to prepare the things that they need for their mission so they needed to make sure that they pack up the things that they need. Cyziel went to Ru's after he met up with his friends. Luckily, he didn't arrive too late and was still able to lend his help.

"You didn't forget about the food did you?" Jorak asked.

Rika glared at Jorak. "Yeah! Yeah! You already asked me that yesterday."

"I finally finished packing up the medicines and potions we could use for tomorrow." Ru swiped the sweat on her forehead. "Cy! Can you carry those bags tomorrow? They are a bit heavy since they contain the tents that we would use."

"Yeah sure! No problem." Cyziel answered as he was helping pack up some refreshments. "By the way, how do we travel there?"

"Ah! We would be riding a caravan pulled by a hofel. The school lent it to us but we would probably pay for it if the caravan got destroyed or the hofel dies". Ru said with a smile, as she sat down in a chair, seemingly tired. "We can't use a car because mine is not meant to be used in the outskirts and my parents would not allow me."

Cyziel immediately understood what hofels are due to the magic of "harmony of speech". It was the fluffy horse like creatures that live somewhere in the valley of beginning. They have a strong body and due to the fluff that covers it, it is also magic resistant.

"We will be meeting at 7:00 Venturian time tomorrow aren't we?" Jorak asked.

"Yes! You also asked me that yesterday! Anyway, don't be late or we will leave you!" Ru jested.

"Okay everyone! I think this is enough! We still need to rest!" Vera was alternatingly slapping her hand with her other hand as she tried to shake of the dust in her hands. "By the way Cy, do you want to be the leader of the team?"

"Nope! You are better suited to it since you know the team members more than me." Cyziel quickly answered. He didn't even need to think much because he really don't want to lead them. After all, he already knows how hard it is to lead people.

"Are you sure?" Vera timidly asked. "You are the strongest in the team."

"Yep! You don't need to be the strongest to be the leader." Cyziel smiled at the 3 other people at the back of Vera. "Why don't you ask the others?"

Vera looked back and she saw her other friends smiling at her. "Hmph! Alright. I'll still be the leader so make sure to follow my orders!"

The group rested for a bit before they decided to leave.

After Cyziel got back to Volare's house. He started reading texts again about the other races. It has now become his favorite pastime. He actually wanted to read more but he knew that he needed to rest early because tomorrow will be the day for his first task with his group.

Cyziel didn't have much friends back then so this is quite a new experience for him. At first, he didn't know if he would enjoy his time with other people other than those 4 who he shared a life and death experience with. But as the days passed, he felt that this kind of life was actually not bad. Meeting new people, going to school, learning together were things he now looked forward to. So tomorrow, he promised that he would do his best for his team even though it would most likely be a simple task.

 

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