Several days had passed, and we arrived to be in what looked like a coastal city. The buildings here looked way different from what I was used to, well-kept and are also much taller. While approaching the town from the mountainside, I could see the harbor and the vast expanse of blue behind it.

This was the first time I had seen the ocean.

“Whoa is that the Sea?’ I said as I focused my vision. “I can’t even see the end.”

“I thought we could see Atlantis across the sea, but all I see is blue.”

“This isn’t the puny rivers and lakes you find back at the shrine,” Timothy said, puffing out his chest.

“This vast blue landscape is the absolute territory of us Merfolk.”

He raises his head even higher, his scaly fin-like tail swishing back and forth like an excited puppy.

Upon reaching the city, I found out the true scale of what it was like.

Hundreds of people moving about going on with their daily life, Vendors calling out to others trying to make their next sale, the atmosphere differs greatly from the shrine. It’s so busy and crowded, as if everyone present in the city was in a hurry to get somewhere.

“What is this?” I squinted, trying to make sense of what I was seeing. “I’ve never seen a picture move before and it’s so big. What is it even made of?”

“Oh, that’s called a screen. It’s a magic tool that manipulates light using tiny crystals, all powered by mana, of course,” Allan said, pointing at the large screen.

“Come, we won’t be spending much time here, refill on our supplies and get to the ship before it departs.”

“Mr. Elbir, thank you so much for your services. Here is what I owe you.”

"Much appreciated and thank you for choosing Acrux Airlines."

The cruiser owner said before leaving.

I continued looking around the city, dizziness setting in as I try to take in this new environment.

During my stupor, we continued to follow Allan around as he made purchases from the different shops.

“Alright, I have all the things we need.”

“We will take a ship to get to Sakaisho and from there we can take a stream carrier to Atlantis.”

We boarded the ship and set off to the merchant island

It took us about a day to cross the ocean and get to the Island of Sakaisho.

“This is known as the hub between Atlantis and Haakuni. It is also a commercial hotspot although it is in the domain of the Yokai. It is somewhat of an autonomous region,” Allan said, his finger pointing up.

“It also connects to Atlantis via the stream carriers, which is where we are heading.”

Most of the journey across the island of Sakaisho had been uneventful. It was quite similar to the port city, but it seemed to be the home of a lot of affluent individuals and was more of a luxury island than anything else.

We arrived at a large building complex. Many races seemed to be gathered here: Yokai, Merfolk, dwarfs, Elves, and even... Humans.

I grew up in an environment where it was mostly yokai, Apart from my mother, I had never met another human. It’s not that humans were uncommon in Haakuni I’ve just been unlucky enough not to come across any. It was a strange feeling, but I didn’t dwell on it too much and continued following Allan as he approached the complex.

“Mr. Florin, you’re finally here. Care to explain why you’re so late?”

A tall elven woman with short brown hair shouted as we entered a room.

“We barely have enough time to make it to town hall before the selection exam registration ends,”

“Right, my apologies didn’t expect it to take this long,” florin said a slight giggle escapes his lips.

“Honestly, why didn’t you just get a proper escort? It would have saved so much time.”

“Yeah, the guy is weird like that, he prefers to go on his trips incognito,” a tall Brown-skinned Merfolk said as he approached us.

He approached us in a very confident manner, his presence was extremely overwhelming and his stature was just as menacing. Not to mention many heads and whispers were aimed at him, he must be someone of high significance.

“Yorha, nice to see you in good spirits,” Florin answered.

“Never been better, Hmm,” he said he turns his attention to us.

“This must be Jave’s son, but who’s the little lady?” Yorha asked.

“Oh, I forgot to introduce you guy syhis is Atsumi Hoshiko she is another student of Ayame Shino,” He said gesturing to me.

“She will be my next year’s recommendation at the academy.”

He nudges me forward.

“Hey, why don’t you say hi?”

He quickly threw me into the spotlight.

“Uh hello my name is Atsumi, nice to meet you,” I said timidly, unable to keep proper eye contact with the behemoth standing before me.

“Hello little one, my name Is Yorha Lemuria it’s a pleasure,” he said with a bright smile on his face.

“Mine is Eina, I am this idiot’s assistant,” said the elf woman glaring at Allan.

“Great to see fresh talent coming in makes me feel at ease for the future,” Yorha said before letting out a hearty laugh that shook my very soul.

“What brings you across the border?” Allan inquired.

“Haha was taking a brief vacation, but by her majesty’s request, had to call it short. The Deepwater fiends in the Sevia expanse seem to be acting up again so I’ll be stopping in Procyon for a bit.”

“I guess you can accompany us then,” said Allan.

“Why not,” Yorha replied.

We went down a huge flight of stairs that seemed to descend several feet. The architecture I normally used in Haakuni was completely gone and replaced by limestone-like structures, walls mostly white with gold patterned inscriptions and trimmings. It was as if I had entered a castle. The architecture itself seemed to tell stories about historical events and other things of Atlantean culture I was not familiar with.

“General Lumeria, your escort has arrived.” Two young men gestured for us to enter what seemed to be some kind of miniature submarine. Compared to the others, this one was noticeably more extravagant.

“Man, talk about lucky,” timothy said while jabbing me with his elbow.

Me, still admiring the décor, replied with a meek, “Yeah.”

Upon reaching what I assumed were the outskirts of the city, many Merfolk dressed in uniforms awaited us.

We went up from the ocean to another underground complex.

One male with spiky blue hair and sharp teeth approached us to greet the general.

“We have awaited your arrival sir please this way, her majesty awaits.”

“Thank you. See to it that my guest gets to their destination.”

“Allan, my friend, I will go now, little ones,” He said with a bow.

His endearing smile was unbecoming of his rough face.

We said our farewells and separated.

“Right, let’s get going, “Allan said, after dealing with the paperwork regarding our arrival.

“Do you guys wanna go on a little trip?” Allan said, his usually cheeky grin surfacing.

“Alan, now that you are here, there’s a lot of work to be done,” Eina said as she grabs him by the ear and drags him away.

“Hey let go, we just got back. Give me a break,” Alan said, his attempts to break free being fruitless.

“You’ve been pretty quiet on this trip Atsumi, miss your home already,” Timothy said.

“I’m just overwhelmed is a…..”

Before I could finish my words, we had exited the main complex, and it left me speechless.

A large expanse of bronze, gold and white.

It was the same white with gold patterned designs I had seen in the port, which seemed to be etched on every building. The city itself was in the shape of a Circle with countless concentric circles that get smaller as you get closer to the heart of the city. The Entire city seemed to span tens of miles in diameter.

Countless floating platforms housed even more buildings, the city folk themselves seemed to be riding their very own floating platforms as well but what really stood out to me was at the very Center of the city, that tower ... It had gone past the clouds and seemed to touch the sky itself not only that the peak shone like a second sun.

“Hey you ok?” timothy asked.

Alan realizes what I had been looking at and speaks up.

“Seems the watchtower has caught your eye, though it’s only natural, you haven’t seen anything like this,”

“Watchtower, why do they call it that?” I asked.

“You can see most of the main island from there, not to mention the light at the top is an artifact that keeps the Deepwater fiends away. Atlantis wasn’t always peaceful like this”

“Deepwater fiends, are those similar to Cryptids?” I asked.

“Yes,” Allan replied, “matter of fact they are the same thing they just come from underwater, the Servia expanse has the largest number of Cryptids on Gaia, mostly because they are located deep in the abyss where they are difficult to deal with, even for the merfolk.”

“There are many of these spread throughout Atlantis, but this one is special.”

Timothy, now just as intrigued as me, asked, “how so?”

It’s not only is it the largest of its kind, it also serves as one of the docking points for the Sky Spire Chariot, which is also known as the floating island Neveah.

I’ve read about this before it was built during the lost ages by the ancient Nephilim. They built a massive artifact that lifted an entire island from the ocean.

“Yeah, it’s usually free-floating around Gaia, but once in a while, it docks here. I’ve only seen it once though,” Allan said.

“Enough chat. We need to get to the academy, Allan,” Eina said .

Before i turned on my heels to follow the two elves, looked up at the Massive tower that stood in front of me.

My understanding of the world I lived in continues to be challenged.

It had been two weeks since we arrived in Atlantis and it had also been a week since timothy left to take the entrance exam. The exam itself was an entire week, so I was expecting him to be back today.

Allan had been busy at work during that time in preparing my seal, he had done the various tests on me beforehand, and each time he unlocked it I was close to blowing up his house.

“Come one let’s get this done,” he said

I followed him into the large yard that surrounded the house

“Right this seal will be somewhat different from what Shino had done, basically it will not only conceal the true nature of your mana it will also act as a secondary mana pool, it will dilute your mana and I will use this sword to resonate with it. I Will also use it to store the excess mana that leaks out.”

Even though you don’t meet the requirement of using it as you have no affinity to earth magic, I will be placing a converter,” he said as he prepared his tools

“Converters aren’t easy to make and it isn’t cheap either and like I said, it will take months to get a proper one working on you.”

“Right, your mana will be slowly converted into earth attuned mana and will be stored in the weapon, and the converter will be this glove so keep it on you at all times.” he said

Most of the day had passed and Alan is now writing notes after testing this new seal on me. Every time he removes the old one to test out a new one, mana rushes out like a dam being opened. My vision gets blurry and my body heats up tremendously, not to mention the feeling of being close to exploding. It’s very exhausting.

“Sir Allan, young master Timothy, has arrived,” said the maid named Erin.

“I am victorious,” Timothy shouted as he entered the backyard.

“From that introduction, I assume you passed.”

“Damn right I did, and I placed in the top 20 out of over 1000 candidates.”

“Congratulations,” I replied, still exhausted from the previous appointment and the crippling pain it had induced.

“Come, let me help you up,” Timothy said as he approached me

“Thanks,”

“The semester will begin in a month. Take your time to prepare. The curriculum is tough,” Allan said.

“I will,” timothy replied

“I guess it will be my turn next year,”

I had only been exposed to the small world at the shrine, I can’t say that I wasn’t nervous I know I’m better than Tim when it comes to just martial arts but in terms of mana and Qi, I had some ground to cover.

“I’m sure you’re gonna pass,” Timothy said as he parts my shoulders.

“Let’s not worry about that for now Allan interjected,”

“Erin, get these two something to eat. I’ll be heading out for a bit.”

“Yes Sir,” Erin said with a bow.

I lay on my bed reminiscing over the events of the past month. So much had changed and I am still drunk on these new experiences, but I can’t help feel but feel anxious and a little scared.

“No point brooding over it now,” I said to myself as I rolled over and went to sleep.