It was another day for Cyziel in the Styrtan Institute. He was currently in a specialized laboratory. He sat down again beside Lucia who was also a new student. They are currently waiting for their instructor to arrive.

The laboratory was filled with tables containing tools and modern gadgets. Each table is equipped with holographic computers, metals of different sorts and test tubes of different shapes. There is also an installed magical barrier for each table which could be activated to prevent destruction during experiments.

A man wearing an eyeglasses entered the room. It was Instructor Echo. "Good morning class!" He then shivered a bit after he noticed the presence of Cyziel. "Ehem.. So you finally attended my class. Quite late but I bet it was Garland's fault. For everyone else, please welcome your new classmate Cyziel."

Unlike the class that Cyziel and Lucia took before, there were quite a number of students in the class. Classes with Martha was only given for new students. They would need to attend at least 6 sessions of it.

For Echo's class, it was not the same. He was teaching science and technology which is a required subject for graduating. Styrtan Institute was not the same as the usual school. After your handler registers you to a class, you would need to take at least 30 sessions of that subject. This means that you are not always required to go to class as long as you complete the required number of attendance. Of course, there are exemptions. If you excel quite well like what Cyziel did in his first magic class attendance then you might not be required to complete all the sessions.

Some of Cyziel's classmates were already glancing at him even before instructor Echo arrived. They have seen his fight in the interclass competition. For those that didn't recognize him, they have still heard of his name. Once they heard it from instructor Echo, they were astounded. Some were elated to have him as a classmate but some were wary of him due to the news that they heard about him. He was only a new student but he is already in the competition for the top.

Some who didn't really believe the rumors, looked at his personal profile. Unfortunately, everything they heard seems true. Cyziel's profile was already updated and his ranking scared some of them.

Name: Cyziel Seratoris

Race: (Profile not updated)

Planet of Origin: Daraksta

Energy Affinities: *Redacted* (Private Information)

Elemental Sensitivity: *Redacted* (Private Information)

Combat Grade: N/A (Needs to take exams)

Magic Grade: 95

Martial Grade: N/A (Needs to take exams)

Technical Grade: N/A (Needs to take exams)

General Knowledge: N/A (Needs to take exams)

Mission Grading: A

Total Merit Points: *Redacted* (Private Information)

Remarks: *Redacted* (Private Information)

He was already ranked 18 even with lots of his grades still not being available. This should even be higher but giving Cyziel a magic grade of 100 might alert the other people that the instructors didn't want to notify. What even surprised the students was that he has a mission grading of A. They are thinking of how was that possible? They never heard of him doing any missions.

What they didn't know was that his grade was already lowered. Garland believed that Ortix and Volus was the one who killed and captured Tarak so only the two of them were given an S in their grade. If only the instructors knew the challenges that the group faced inside the cave, they would understand that even a grade of S would not suffice.

Echo tapped the table in front of him, taking the attention of all the students. "Okay. Stop staring at him. We will be starting the class."

Echo's lesson for today was about the power core. It was one of the greatest innovation of mankind. It was produced when the humans from Earth combined their engineering knowledge with those of the Enerka. Like the Auro race that Cyziel saw in the Audeo tavern, the Enerka was another non-humanoid race. They are known as the cybernetic race. They are born with an energy source and body that are made with metallic and conductive materials. Their appearance greatly differ from each other because they have almost unlimited ways to upgrade and augment themselves.

They are smarter than most of the races. They are also born stronger; They are equipped with defensive and offensive mechanisms even as child. There was only one thing that they noticed that they lacked when they arrived in Venturia. It is that their talent on Magic was almost non existent. Together with the early earthlings who could not use magic, they tried to produce an artificial magicus. Its result was the power core.

The power core became a tool to enable earthlings and enerkians to store Aether energy and Elemental essences which pave way to them being able to use magic.

Eventually though, earthlings developed their natural magicus as they stayed in Venturia so they were able to naturally use magic. It would seem that the power cores would have lost their purpose but it was far from the truth. Using Enerkians as their base concept, humans developed tools that use the power core as its source of energy.

Enerkians could use the energy they stored in the power cores to shoot flames or to fire lightning cannons but they are already able to do those things since they already have a natural source of energy. The only addition was that they could fire other projectiles like water or stone that they are not able to manufacture by themselves. This technology was still underwhelming for them so they programmed the power cores. These new power cores could shoot flames in a spiral or wide fashion. Today, Enerkians have more advanced power cores that really resemble magic.

As for humans, they developed what is called runes. These runes are no different from magic words that they use when casting spells. The only difference was that runes take energy from the power core. These means that people who are not that talented in magic but skilled enough to activate the runes could equip weapons that outstrip their capabilities.

"Lucia. I have meant to ask you. Do you know what is wrong with me?" Cyziel suddenly asked.

"I am also not that sure." Lucia shook her head, she didn't really seemed shock at his question. "Uhmm.. Could I see again your natural eyes."

"That's a bit risky but alright." Cyziel turned the color of his eyes to its natural color but it really didn't affect Lucia.

"Your eyes. The darkness has diminished or it is trying to hide. You told us that you could absorb all types of essence or energy. What type of energy or essences does the creatures that you fought before use?" Lucia asked.

"Honestly, I thought that they are only using Dark and Death essence combined with Aether or Nether energy-" Cyziel sighed. "Well, I think that they are also using different forms of Void energy."

"Death essence?" Lucia frowned.

"Yes. You also have used Life essence so that shouldn't be a surprise." Cyziel smiled. "Oh! Light and Life essences are both white in color so you might have mistaken them for each other."

"So I am sensitive to Life instead of Light?" Lucia asked.

"No no! You are sensitive to both if I am correct. I am sensitive to Life and Light essences after all."

"You are really not normal. Anyway, did you know that any human who were born with the affinity with the void suddenly died." Lucia pondered for a bit. "But I guess you might be an exception. Do you still remember the energy you absorbed in the creature of the wilds?"

"Ah!" Cyziel jerked. "Yes. That was one of the forms of the Void energy that I was talking about."

Lucia frowned again, seemingly not convinced. "I am not sensitive with the Void but are you sure that it really was the Void? Not something that just looks like one? Can you control all those energy?"

"Oh yes! I definitely could. I tried using it before. Well, let me try!" Cyziel then focused as he tried to control the energy stored in his magicus. He was trying to move them around. There was no problem at first but then the unexpected complication happened. There was a part of the dark energy inside the magicus that he can't move. He tried to force it to move but it wouldn't bulge. It continued to swirl around in a certain part of his magicus. Cyziel started to get furious. He can't understand what it was and why it won't move.

Veins started to pop beside Cyziel's eyes. Dark tendrils again appeared in his eyes. Not only did it cover his pupils, his whole eyes were now black. It was the same when he fought the twisted creature in the underground atrium. His rings started to tremble as if asking to be removed. The room suddenly got gloomy. Everyone with the exception of Lucia started to fall in a trance.

"Cyziel! Cyziel!" Lucia started shouting at him. She tried to shake him but it was to no avail. "Wake up!"

He seemed to to have lost control of himself. The dark tendrils covering his eyes suddenly crept outside of his eyes. It was now trying to cover his whole face. The pressure coming from Cyziel has become more intense. The people around the class are slowly losing consciousness. Lucia's breathing became audible and prominent. She was trying to catch her breath. The room also started to shake a little and some equipment even fell down the ground. Lucia finally used her divine energy again and directed it against Cyziel's chest.

"Ahhh!!" Cyziel finally woke up from his trance but his head was full of pain that he started to scream. "My head...It hurts!" The pain caused him to start losing consciousness again. He started to lose balance and fall. Luckily, Lucia caught him.

As for the other people on their class, they are already knocked out.

"Come! Let's go to the infirmary!"

Lucia first tried to assist Cyziel but as he finally lost consciousness, she started to carry him like a princess which was quite intriguing for those who saw them.

Cyziel woke up after half an hour. He saw two people beside him. One was Lucia and another was a man who was wearing a blue colored coat.

"You are finally awake. I am Doctor Bion. Do you feel anything wrong?" The doctor asked.

Cyziel sat down straight from his lying position. "No. I am fine. What happened?"

"Oh! You don't remember anything? Your girlfriend here told me that due to the quake, some chemicals in your class got released and caused your class to get poisoned." Bion chuckled. "I can't even believe though that even Echo got knocked out. Don't worry though, I already sent someone to check your class and they already seemed to be all conscious."

"He is not-" Lucia murmured but she was interrupted.

"Quake?" Cyziel asked.

"Ah! That's normal. Natural and supernatural events does occur from time to time but it was weird that only this building was hit though it was not really that strong." Bion answered.

Cyziel wanted to contradict him since he knew a lot about this world but then he remembered that there are also a lot of things that he kept on discovering after he went back. Just the world beyond the barrier was already a big mystery to him. Additionally, he already knew that he might be the cause of the quake so any misunderstanding would be good for him.

"Alright. I leave you two here. I will talk with your instructor that you are already fine." Bion then walked out of the infirmary.

Lucia sat down beside Cyziel. "What did you do?"

"You are right! Its not void energy! I can't control it. That abyss energy seemed to be similar to the void but it was actually not!" Cyziel then shuddered, fear filled his eyes. "I tried to forcefully push it out but I failed. I was initially scared then I got angry then it seemed to have broke out of my magicus by itself!"

"Calm down! Do you remember the times when something similar to this happened?" Lucia asked, carefully assessing the situation.

Cyziel thought hard, clawing at his memories. "Yes! When I first heard that Volus and Ortix was here. The next was when I heard that my family might still be in the capital. Lastly was when we fought against twisted creature but you guys were not affected by the abyssal energy during that time."

Lucia started to ponder. "Your emotions."

"What?" Cyziel's forehead wrinkled.

Lucia stared seriously at Cyziel. "Your emotions might be the reason. Excitement. Happiness. Fear. Anger. The Abyssal energy might have been getting triggered whenever you experience extreme emotions."

Cyziel placed his shaking hands on Lucia shoulders. "Then what should I do?"

Lucia shook her head. "I do not know. You are more knowledgeable and more experienced than me. You are stronger than me. You even have that power that you used to defeat that twisted creature. I believe that you would find your answer."

Cyziel closed his eyes and kept silent for a minute.

"You are right! This is the 2nd time you saved me!" Cyziel suddenly hugged Lucia then let her go. "I just need to control these abyssal energy." He then looked at his fingers and one of his rings momentarily materialized. "I refuse to believe that I won't be able to control it if I tried hard enough."

Lucia was looking away, blushing. "Its great that you seem to find your answer but remember that you should restrain your emotions until you are able to control it." She then looked at him again but this time, she was looking concerned. "That energy is dangerous. If ever you want to try to control it, I could help you so promise me that you won't just use it by yourself."

Cyziel smiled. "Alright. I'll remember that."

"Another thing!" Lucia got closer to Cyziel. "Promise me not to absorb any abyssal energy or even void energy until you are sure that you can control it."

Cyziel moved back. "Alright! I promise. I don't even know any abyssal or void magic." He then stood up. "Should we check what happened to our class?""

Lucia nodded, standing up. The two then went back to their class.

There was no one else in the Laboratory except for two people. They were doctor Bion and instructor Echo.

"Cyziel! Lucia! What are you doing here? You should rest. I already sent your other classmates away--Ah! Wait. Lucia you seemed to have not been knocked out unconscious. Did you remember anything about what happened? Have you seen or smelled anything?" Echo asked.

Lucia shook her head. "Uh.. No... I also have fallen unconscious. I just woke up earlier than the rest."

"This is really weird. The chemicals inside the containers here were not that toxic or poisonous. Unless, there was some magical phenomenon that happened causing the chemicals to react and knocking us out. It even affected me." Echo then smirked. It even affected Cyziel. I didn't think that he would also be that vulnerable. I guess he really is also just a human.

"Okay you two. If you feel anything bad. Come find me again in the infirmary. For now, you two should just go home!" Bion suggested, waving away at the two.

Cyziel and Lucia went out the room as instructed.

"So I guess, no more classes today?" Cyziel casually said. "You have plans to go anywhere?"

"Uhh.. I messaged your group mates that you got unconscious. I was also panicking earlier. " Lucia uttered, feeling embarrassed.

"What did they say?"

"They actually wanted to visit you but I said that you were okay so they should finish their class first. Still, they want to meet in the cafeteria." Lucia answered. "Did you not receive any message?"

"Hmm... Let me check.." Cyziel activated his watch. There was a notification message that says: 10 missed calls, 23 unread messages. "Yep. I think there are." Cyziel chuckled. "I guess we should go there!"

"Alright. I'll reply that we would wait in the cafeteria."