Dyon’s feet dragged across the floor as he weaved through the bustling pillar.
As far as he knew, there were six sub pillars and a center one. Each of the six sub pillars were named after the pillar families and Dyon was just lucky enough to be assigned a dorm in the Patia-Neva Pillar.
‘Hopefully this means I can avoid too much trouble for the time being.’
Aside from this moment of temporary relief, something else confused Dyon. There were just too many students, ‘are their families really this large? If they’re all really part of the pillar families, this is going to be harder than I thought’
Dyon finally made it to the other half of the pillar after descending to the bottom floor. The large space narrowed into a hallway that led into a lounging area. A pond identical to the one in the library graced the center, allowing a few students to meditate around it on the available platforms.
Looking at the water, it didn’t seem to be water at all. Dyon hadn’t paid much attention to it before, but the pond gave off an ethereal feel. The substance inside it ebbed and flowed, but seemed to have no real mass. It was almost like a gas sometimes, and other times like a liquid. But, its most defining characteristic was its golden color.
‘What an interesting pond. It would have to be artificial for it to be here, but it seems so real,’ Dyon thought in a trance.
He walked slowly to the edge and stretched out his hand to dip it in –
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?”
Dyon snapped out of his trance to see a tall red-headed girl with her hands on her curved hips. The influx of tight leather cleared up his cloudy vision instantly.
“Are you trying to get yourself killed? You clearly have no cultivation and you clearly see no one else around you touching the energy currents, but you think a first year like you can? You must be trying really hard to implode from the inside out. You should already know about the dangers of the ponds, it’s the first thing they teach you at orientation and it should be something you would have learned even before coming here. In fact, why aren’t you wearing your student issued robes? What about your emblem? Faction affiliation? Do you even go here?”
Dyon didn’t seem to be listening, his eyes kept scanning over the voluptuous woman in front of him. Dyon had never been one with any real tact, coupled with his immaturity he stood no chance against the girl in front of him. That wasn’t even considering that fact she was wearing tight leather short shorts and a crop top.
“I sure am glad I came to this academy,” Dyon said while finally looking up from his daze, ignoring the fact this girl was nagging him despite clearly not wearing a uniform herself.
“Pft, you’re so weak yet you have time to think of frivolous things. Remove me from your thoughts, you think I’d want a man who I could beat without lifting a single finger?”
Snickers filled the lounge as a group of 3 male students wearing yellow robes reminiscent of traditional Chinese chang pao.
“Do you need us to handle this weakling, Ava?
Ava looked over in disgust, “clearly not”.
Dyon seemed unbothered by what was going on as he continued to smile, “beat me without lifting a finger? Maybe so. But, what if I beat you? Would that be enough for you to take me as your man?”
Ava turned to Dyon and raised an eyebrow.
Dyon continued as if not sensing the 3 boys staring daggers at the side of his face, “probably not right? Although I know nothing much about this school, I’m fairly certain that you aren’t the strongest. If being stronger than you was all it took, wouldn’t you already have a man? So why not overlook my weakness and have a chat with me?”
Even the hostility of the 3 boys was stifled as silence reigned the lounge.
Whispers came soon after, “first he tried to kill himself with the pond and now he’s messing with Ava. Does this kid have a death wish?”
“He’s new, he clearly doesn’t know what’s going on”
“What an idiot, I hope you enjoyed your barely over a decade old life”
“Not the strongest? Maybe. But that’s only because of her age. Who does he think he is?”
Finally, the leader of the 3 boys couldn’t hold back anymore and charged forward, “HOW DARE YOU?! This is Ava Sicarius, she ranks amongst the top 3 of last year’s juniors, and you dare flirt with her? Who are you? What is your family name? Who gave you such courage?”
Dyon flicked his wrists. A metal skateboard without wheels appeared, allowing him to hop onto it. He shot into the air, just out of reach.
Ava’s eyes glowed with curiosity, ‘although he’s weak, he sure has some interesting things on him. He may be quite smart too, Darius wouldn’t dare jump at him while he’s hovering over the pond. If he missed, that would mean his death.’
“Come down here and fight like a man,” Darius boomed in anger.
The truth was that he was a little flustered. He had never seen the device Dyon had pulled out, and aside from those who’ve reached high tiers of cultivation and flying beast tamers, flying was not possible except for a few unique cases.
“No thank you, you seem a bit angry and I’m weak, remember? But if miss Ava wanted to come up with me, I wouldn’t mind” Dyon said with a smile.
A devilish smile appeared on Ava’s face as a wrapped whip appeared in her hand, “I would love to come up with you, why don’t you come down a bit?”
‘She doesn’t look too happy,’ Dyon thought with a shudder.
“I don’t usually make it a point to disappoint beauties, but I’ll have to make an exception today. I’ll see you around little Ava.”
A look of disdain appeared on Ava’s face, “who’re you calling little Ava.”
Unfurling her whip she shot a beam of energy directly at Dyon’s receding back, but, before it could reach him, it sent ripples across a translucent energy shield.
‘that whip… something seems off…’ thought Dyon.
“no need to be so feisty, I’ll play with you another day. Considering your chest, you’re right in being agitated when I call you little Ava, I’ll come up with a new nickname for you later,” Dyon shouted as he entered another hallway, riding quickly towards his room.
Torrents of red flooded Ava’s chest, as she heaved breaths in anger, “I’ll teach him a lesson soon enough.”
A cold wind made Dyon shiver as he flew away, ‘that was too close, luckily the protection I built into this board is able to stop the energy they use, or else I’d be screwed. That aside, it seems like there are other families in this school. But, most importantly, it seems like I missed orientation, so I have no clue what’s going on. Dammit Libro, you should have said something.’
After weaving around aimlessly for a while and ensuring that no one followed him to his room, Dyon finally came to a stop along a row of metal doors. After finding the one appropriately labeled for himself, he flashed his card along a panel before entering.
A sea of blue assaulted his senses as he once again found himself looking at large panels of glass facing the Focus Lake. The room was decently sized at about 20 square meters. There was a bed, a meditation platform, a closet built into a side while, as well as an empty book case.
Dyon was happy to find white robes lying on his bed. They looked exactly like the robes those 3 boys from earlier had on. Maybe he had cursed Libro a little too soon.
Dyon pulled out a small metal disk and threw it at his door, ‘that should protect me for the time being. Even if they find my room they shouldn’t be able to get in. This’ll allow me to practice and sleep in peace.’
Dyon threw his robes into the closet while walking towards the one door he had yet to explore. Inside, he found a bathroom which he was quite content with. After a shower, he sat down to think about the past events. What intrigued him the most was the pond.
‘It’s odd, even in all of the basic books I’ve read, there was nothing about an energy filled pond. And even if there was, why would it be dangerous to touch? I assume it might be because of an influx of energy my body wouldn’t be able to handle…’
The truth of the matter wasn’t far from what Dyon thought. You could consider the energy in the pond as electricity, except in this case, the best conductor was the human body and not metal. If Dyon had touched the pond without sufficient cultivation to handle the influx of energy, he would have imploded.
Dyon shivered when he thought of this, ‘seems like I came quite close to dying today. I need to be more careful in the future. I’ll also need to thank her properly.’
Setting aside his curiosity towards the pond and its origins, Dyon slipped on some comfortable grey sweat pants and a new white shirt. Just as he was about to hop into bed for some sleep, he heard a scream come from the hallway. Although his device blocked noise going out, noise coming in was another matter.
Dyon jumped up, sprinting to the door.
“I’ve had a bad day today Eli, I hope you won’t be making it worse. Hand over the common stones you have.”
A skinny boy trembled with his back facing the wall, “I- I don’t have any left Darius, I swear.”
“That’s the wrong answer,” Darius motioned with his hands towards one of his followers, “let him know how I feel about that answer, Red.”
A boy looking to be around 15 years old walked toward Eli, cracking his knuckles. An ugly scar ran from the right of his forehead through to his left cheek, giving him a sinister appearance beyond his years.
A disgusting grin appeared on Red’s face, “hold him down for me, Blue”.
The other one of Darius’ followers seemed to be Red’s twin. His scar ran from left to right and his sinister grin was in no way inferior to his brother, “you can’t handle this weakling by yourself, Red? That’s a little sad.”
Before he moved to help his brother, a sigh of disappointment permeated the air, “can’t you 3 find anything better to do? How would Ava feel knowing her suitors were such dicks?”
The pleased expression on Darius’ face froze as he spun back towards, “dicks you say? Oh, what a coincidence, it’s you,” Darius’ eyes narrowed.
“Ah, yes, it’s me”
Although Dyon looked calm on the outside, his brain was running on full alert. He had no idea how powerful these idiots were as he had no hands-on experience with cultivation. He had to gamble. As long as their cultivation was within the first realm of the foundation stage, their strengths were still comparable to regular humans, albeit marginally super-human, he’d be able to use the self-defence training he already had. But, if they had attained higher achievements, not only would their strength be many multiples of that, their bodies would be as tough as steel.
However, as soon as he thought this, his hopes were dashed, “I’d really like to see how a first year with no cultivation plans on dealing with someone at the 3rd layer of the foundation stage,” Darius said waving at Blue to go out.
‘FUCK’