While Dristle only saw Reylor as some self-entitled snob, the truth was very different. Reylor had accepted Eric’s request to watch over Aileen, while he had sworn to himself he would take care of Elany. He felt that this was not something he could do if they were placed in different residences. He needed them to be close. As such, he was unwilling to be somewhere that his was unable to accompany them at their most vulnerable time, which was when they would be asleep. That being said, He had not actually given up on Votran yet. He still had a plan.

Dawn was already breaking as Reylor brought the groggy pair out of the office with him. After asking around for awhile, he was directed to Jelet’s office. It seemed that all the offices were built with a similar principle- Having a seating area for guests or anyone waiting to see the official, with an actual office separated from it with a door. This waiting room was different than the other, however, as it was fitted with only a couple of couches and a coffee table.

Apparently he didn’t get as many visitors as Dristle. The door was open, so they let themselves in and sat on one of the couches.

“Hello? Jelet said, walking out of his office. “Oh, Reylor, what can I help you with?”

Reylor pulled out his ID device, along with the two he had collected from Elany and Aileen. “Hey, it looks like Votran isn’t going to work out for us, so I just wanted to make sure these got back to you.”

Jelet’s face darkened a bit, as he sat down on the other couch, facing Reylor. Ohhh, no. No, no no! That can’t be happening. We can’t lose a guy like him before even classes start! I mean, seriously, he totally wrecked all the magic in the area. Who knows what else he is hiding! And if he went to another school-well, that wouldn’t be a good thing.

After pondering for a bit, Jelet finally spoke up. “Hey Reylor, could you tell me what went wrong? If there is anything I can do to resolve it, I will do what I can.”

“Well, if you want to listen, I’ll tell you what happened.” Reylor related the story to Jelet, noticing Jelet’s face slowly turn red.

“Friend, if I might impose on you, could you stay for a day here? I would give you access to a guest house for the night and speak with the director here. I am fairly sure he would be willing to fulfill your request.” Jelet said, though his thoughts. were in a slightly different place. What the actual heck Dristle! You are so dead! You almost deprived us of not one, but two variants! And one of them is an undiscovered type!

Variants were magicians with rare abilities- such as Aileen being compatible with globes for making magical barriers. As for Reylor, no one had heard of a person being able to directly cancel magic except for S-Class Void magicians, not to mention the same person failing to show an affinity for anything. He was an entity that many magic academies would kill for!

Accepting the offer, Reylor brought Elany and Aileen to the guest house, where they all—Reylor included—fell fast asleep. It had been a long day and a half for the trio, and Reylor had exhausted nearly all of his spacial energy.

*** *** ***

Meanwhile, at the Votran Outpost:

A large man exited the spacial gate and resolutely began walking down the road to Votran. He had a relatively fresh scar on the right side of his face, and wore rough, hand-sewn beast furs. He had a large, two-handed sword on his back; which had a slightly curved blade. Its edge let off a soft white glow-obviously the weapon of a huntsman. If one could see under his clothing, they would also realize that his torso was covered in layers of runic tattoos.

The guards didn’t bother to say anything to him. They could tell he was oozing with some strange sort of power, and they didn’t want to get on his bad side. He was definitely on a mission.

“Dang, kid. Why’d you have to go out here, out of all places?” was mumbled under his breath.

*** *** ***

After Reylor and crew got some sleep and prepared for the day, they left the guest house and were promptly greeted by a servant who brought them to the dining facilities before taking them to the main administration hall. The headmaster had asked to see them before saying anything else.

After entering the Administration building, they were brought up the stairs and into yet another waiting area. However, this time they were immediately escorted into the inner office, where a middle aged man sat behind a grand desk. While he certainly had many more years ahead of him, his features showed that time and stress had not been kind to him. Nevertheless, he still held a noble bearing, and his eyes hinted at undisclosed intelligence. He welcomed Reylor into his office, and this time Elany and Aileen joined them.

“Hello Reylor, Aileen, and Elany. My name is Earlstine, and I am the headmaster here. I have been told many things about you-especially Reylor. That being said, I will get straight to the point. You were having a bit of difficulty with housing, yes?” Reylor nodded. “So you desire something akin to a squadron house?” Reylor once again affirmed the headmaster.

“Now squadron houses are usually earned by taking on assignments and ranking up. Taking on high class assignments, participating in defense activities for Votran City, and doing other distinguishable acts will grant reputation points. A group of people who have collectively gained over 2 million reputation points may then apply for a squadron housing unit. Other than that, S-Class residents may also be granted a squadron house.

“Granting a housing unit to people who have not earned it would create great dissatisfaction among our students, which is something we obviously want to avoid. That being said, I must ask: why do you believe you need a group house?”

Reylor related the stories of him, Aileen, and Elany; leaving out a few sensitive details such as he and Elany being from Splendor and Aileen’s brother being a timework phantom.

“I see. So you believe you cannot have complete confidence in their protection if they were to be separated. Still, this could be a difficult situation. I have potential solution to it, if you would be willing. I hear that you used a strange kind of energy during the entrance exam. As a research institute, we are very interested in this. If you would be willing to donate energy for our research, that would be reason enough for us to give you temporary squadron residence under the banner of you being a S-Class material supplier. What would you think of this?”

The deal was accepted. Even if they researched it, it was highly unlikely that they would be able to capture any spacial energy without the help of a Seldin or Seldin technology. Also, it would not be able to reveal the extent of Reylor’s abilities. This was a low risk solution to a complex situation.

Following this meeting, they were assigned a residence. They then also registered for their first set of classes. Reylor only signed up for the practical classes, curiously enough. To an insider this would not be surprise, though. He was a god Seldin, so his memory was perfect. Then combine this with his massive IQ and innate understanding of base materials of matter, and you had a being with an absolutely terrifying learning capacity. He had no need for a teacher; and in fact, one would only be a hindrance. It was far more practical for him to just read the textbooks and comprehend them on his own.

However, he still needed the practical courses, because this grant him useful battle experience and hone his perception and muscles. There were also many skills that were not available to him through books. He would have to learn these straight from the instructors.

The day went quickly, as they collected the materials they needed, acquainted themselves with where their classes would be held, and settled into their new residence. Things were moving fairly smoothly.

That night, even Reylor slept again. The fight at the entrance exam had taught him one thing-he still needed to be careful. He had been able to fight the spear off, but he had consumed a fair amount of spacial energy. If something else happened, he wasn’t sure he would be able to contend with it. So until he had mastered a high level of magic usage he must collect as much spacial energy as he could.

“Reylor, it’s morning.” A gentle had tapped on Reylor’s shoulder. In fact, Reylor was already awake by this point. Having sensed Elany’s karmic aura as he approached his room, he had already been wakened. Nevertheless, he didn’t want to startle her, so he pretended to still be asleep. Ok, maybe he also wanted to see what she was going to do, but who is going to judge? “Am I really still a Seldin?” flashed through his mind. Even he was beginning to notice changes in his previously stoic personality.

Reylor opened his eyes to see Elany peering over him. “Breakfast is ready,” she said with a shy smile. Reylor groaned inside. She does realize that I’m over a million years old, right? Nevertheless, it still warmed his heart, as he hadn’t received this kind of attention since he had started his term of work; and to be fair, his body was more like 20-year-old’s.

Aileen was already seated at a table when Reylor walked into the main area. She was staring intently at the fragrant biscuits and steaming gravy.

“Thanks for the food!” They ate everything, and Reylor was left thinking how Elany had become so good at cooking. He couldn’t ponder that for too long though, as it was time for class.

The first one was a practical, and as a general requirement for mages, all three of them were required to participate. The class typically met at general-purpose field, where mages could try out techniques without fear for destroying a classroom. Class began before too much longer.

“Hello class, a few new students have just joined our class, so please welcome Aileen, Elany, and Reylor,” She said, motioning to the three. The rest of the students greeted them. “And by the way, my name is Professor Helen.”

“Well, since it is your first day in class, we will begin where we began with the others—by getting a feel for you’re the quality and potency of your magic.”

Going in alphabetical order, she began with Aileen. “Aileen, please step up here to this mark.” Aileen followed the Helen’s instructions, placing herself in front of a mark in the dirt, and facing a column of targets spaced 50 feet from each other.

In this exercise, students would be instructed to fire the element of their affinity at the targets. Assuming the student was able to aim their shot, the number of the targets it was able to blast through would give the practitioner and instructor and Idea of the student’s range, while the size of the holes would give and estimate of their attack power. Of course there were many variables for masters of magic, but this was a fairly accurate test in the case of beginner magicians.

As instructed, Aileen focused her energy, visualizing a stream of void energy emitting from her hand. A concentrated purple stream of energy was shot out from her hand, blasting through two targets, and leaving behind rather large holes.

“Well done. It seems you have a relatively large mana pool and excellent directional control for a beginner. Nevertheless, it seems that you could stand to improve your distance comprehension. I will give you some exercises to work on after evaluating your friends.” Aileen nodded her head.

“Next is Elany. Please step up.” Elany also stepped up to the mark where Aileen had just been. The targets were magical constructs, so Helen was able to replace the damaged target with ease. Elany Put her hand up and began to emit energy in the form of a soft, milky glow. Helens eyes widened for a moment, before quickly casting a spell, which prevented any of the students (except Reylor, of course) from being able to see this energy emitted outward. “Holy magic. I have a holy mage in my class!” Helen almost squealed in delight. Holy mages were rare, and most would not go through the trouble to get to Votran, seems how Votran was so out of the way and was not superior to most other academies as far as the holy arts were concerned.

Still she kept her wits about her and prevented others from seeing Elany’s affinity, to keep others from pressuring her into their groups since she would later be able to heal their party members. She instructed Elany to practice her light magic instead when in public.

And then came Reylor’s turn.

“Could you set the targets up in the sky? I have used another form of energy before, but not magic, so I am not entirely sure what is going to happen, and I don’t want to end up wrecking the school if things go wrong.” She frowned slightly. “Does he seriously think he could damage the school, not having used magic before? Well, Jelet did say to treat his group well for some reason, and moving the targets really is not hard for me. I guess it can’t hurt.”

She set up the targets to extend toward the sky. As if voicing her initial thought, many of the other students began murmuring to each other. “Who does he think he is? A newbie could destroy the school? Give me a break!” “I know, right? How arrogant. I’m gonna laugh when he can’t even hit the first target.” However, there was one person who didn’t say anything, pondering what was about to happen. This was Flint, who happened to end up in the same division of this class as Reylor and his crew.

“Hey man, don’t you think they guy is full of himself?” a person next to Flint asked. “I wouldn’t be so sure. There is more to that guy than meets the eye,” Flint replied. “Hmph. Well see”

“Well, are you ready? Helen asked. She had laid out the targets in short order and was watching Reylor, concentrating on something. “Hey you need to use the bathroom or something?” A jeering shout rang out from a student. Reylor was above that, and paid the comment no mind. What he was doing, in fact, was learning how to switch his meridians to connect to his mana core, as this would be the first time he has actually used it. Spacial energy was far more useful and abundant in the spacial hall than mana was, after all. Having finalized the procedure he raised he head. “Yes, I am ready now.”

“Hey don’t do it here, the bathhouse is over there!” A few students laughed, but were silenced by a glare from Professor Helen.

He raised his palm to the targets. “Now if it is anything like spacial energy, I should put about this much force into it to destroy the first three targets. We’ll see what happens,” He thought. “Aileen, could you put up a barrier around everyone else, just in case?” Aileen nodded her head and surrounded the students with her barrier, which elicited multiple cries of delight. Of course, barrier mages were not terribly common.

“Good grief, just get on with it!” is what a student started to say, but the words stuck in their throat as they felt a sudden influx of magical energy. Seldin meridians were special. Not only were they capable of channeling energy perfectly, but they had a passive effect of drawing in and collecting energy. This effect would become many times stronger when energy was actively being used, so not only would the Seldin’s stored energy be used, but also the ambient energy. This was the case for spacial energy. Now magic energy was far easier to collect, and so in the end, the effect was a many times stronger.

The students and even the instructor felt a huge weight pressing down on them as energy poured out from Reylor’s palm. It exploded out into a purple beam that was twenty yards in diameter. It was fired with perfect directional control and exploded through all of the targets, continuing as far as any could see. Aileen suppressed a groan as her barrier blocked a pressure wave from the beam of void energy.

With that, Reylor lowered his hand and walked over to Aileen. “Thanks,” he said, patting her on the shoulder. The barrier was removed; allowing the teacher and students to receive a second shock—all of the ambient magic energy was gone. This was an effect seldom seen except from certain A+-Class and S-Class spells, because the mana density on Aretor was high, and It took a very high level ability to use so much of it up, yet Reylor had done so, and with an ability that could hardly even be called a skill!

The students and teacher were dumbfounded. The students were overwhelmed by the size of beam, which also emitted a terrible pressure. The teacher was thinking about slightly different things, “What if I hadn’t set up those targets in the air? It really could have made it all the way to the city walls, and maybe even broken through them! And what kind of affinity must he have! It must be exceptional—no, not even exceptional is that amazing with such a pure flow of energy. Could his be… flawless?”