Hero's Return 41 Exploring The School

Sora's breathing normalised itself, and he was now just letting out sighs of relief.

So: "Those voices... were they..."

Before thinking anymore about it Sora looked around his room, the only light inside it was the candles placed in random parts of the room, whilst light magic did exist and could be simulated through spatial magic, he preferred this way of lighting.

Sora looked towards the small bouncing ball.

So: "Mana"

The small ball grew to it's full size.

Ma: "Yeah?"

So: "Can you put some windows in here? The outside is still the field right?"

Ma: "Sure, and yeah, nothing's changed - I can't move anything around until you've told me to so even the craters that you left should still be there"

As Mana talked 3 windows formed in separate parts of the room, letting the light of the blue sky fully come through them, lighting up the whole room immediately.

So: "Thanks"

Sora stood up from his bed, now completely calm. Rin jumped off the bed and onto his shoulder.

So: "How long left until the first day? I've kinda forgotten, my heads been all over the place since yesterday"

Ma: "Recent candidates start tomorrow"

So: "Alright, thanks"

As Sora thanked Mana he began walking towards the portal at the entrance of his room.

Ma: "You going outside?"

So: "Yeah, I have a day left and my body needs to rest after yesterday, might as well look around"

Ma: "Alright"

Before Sora left he had a sudden concern. Turning around he looked towards Mana.

So: "What happens to you and this place when I'm not here?"

Ma: "Nothing really, you've already been confirmed as a student - you're room won't disappear until you've confirmed your departure from the school"

So: "Oh, alright"

With this Sora left the room with Rin. Mana shrunk back into a small ball and began bouncing around the room slowly.

[]

Going through the multicoloured tunnel for a short instant, Sora saw a light in the distance that was coming closer and closer until it fully eneveloped his vision. After the blinding light pa.s.sed Sora found that he was back at the room with all of the other portals going down for what seemed like infinity. Looking the other way he saw the towering doors that students were pa.s.sing in and out of, both on the ground and in the air.

So: "This is gonna take a while to get used to, where should we go first then?"

Sora looked towards Rin on his shoulder, who didn't know how to respond. Neither of them really knew where to go, Sora could sense that Rin didn't know.

So: "Well, should we just go around and check stuff out then?"

Rin nodded.

So: "Alright"

Sora walked out of the accommodations then began to walk through the corridor, whilst the corridors were definitely full of people, they were big enough so as to make enough s.p.a.ce around each individual for them to be comfortable.

So: "Wow..."

Sora was looking around at the variety of people that pa.s.sed by him, there were giant hulking figures that could easily be measured at triple his height, there were small, gnome-like people too. There were different races here all with different colours of skin, some even had some runic carvings in their skin that seemed to act like conduits for magic. Some of the people had horns, others had wings, there were truly a ma.s.sive variety to the people here.
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For Sora, who had lived in a human village all his life, seeing this many different races was overwhelming to say the least.

So: "Now that I think about it..."

Sora thought back to the candidates that were doing the test.

So: "Weren't all of us human? Eh, I'll ask Mana about it later"

As Sora walked forward another towering, open door could be seen.

So: "That looks like something interesting!"

Sora walked towards the door, slowly realising that there was something very weird about it. From the distance he was at when he first saw it all he saw was the door itself, not anything on the inside, but now that he was closer he found that anyone who went through it seemed to disappear into the door, like there was some kind of barrier in the doorway. All one could see was a silver coating on the door, as if all the door lead to was a silver wall.

Sora walked closer and put his hand through the door, seeing it disappear into it, it was like a mirror that didn't reflect anything, all he saw was his hand inside this silver wall. Confirming that it wasn't dangerous he walked straight through, seeing a giant mountain in front of him, it towered high into the skies, so much that it seemed to pierce through the clouds themselves, and even then it only seemed like the halfway point.

So: "What the..."

Sora walked closer and closer to the mountain and found that he was getting heavier and heavier, it took much more energy to even walk. Rin was also weighing down on Sora's shoulder.

Sora quickly dashed back and found himself getting lighter.

As he looked around at the other students, he found that all of them were climbing the mountain. This was the final piece of the puzzle Sora needed.

So: "Endurance training..."

Sora looked at the mountain and the hordes of students currently climbing it in their own different ways, most were just using their bare hands whilst others reinforced their ability to climb with all types of magic.

Sora smiled, then walked back through the silver translucent barrier back into the corridor.

So: "That's good to know"

Sora wasn't in a state to train, he just wanted to look around the school. Sora kept walking in the same direction.

So: "Now that I think about it..."

Sora looked forward at the corridor in front of him which also seemed to extend for an infinite distance.

So: "Does this ever end?"

Sora remembered what the Sta.r.s.eeker school looked like from the outside, and from what he saw a corridor that extended for this long shouldn't be possible. Whilst the outside building was definitely enormous it wasn't anywhere near what this corridor should be, Sora had been walking for at least 10 minutes now and the corridor still showed no signs of ending.

So: "Unless..."

Sora remembered that the school was built on top of a crater with a dark s.p.a.ce filling the lower section.

So: "This is all a separate s.p.a.ce... probably..."

Sora chalked most things up to alternate pocket dimensions for these things, as it was most likely the conclusion for most of the things he had been seeing.

So: "I wonder how many Spatial Magic users there are here..."

Sora began to grow lost in his thoughts, just the complexity of this school blew his mind, there were so many things about it that just didn't seem necessary. The 'School' itself was completely separate from the 'School Building'.

As Sora walked forward, completely lost in his thoughts he b.u.mped into someone. Snapping out of his thoughts he looked at who he just b.u.mped into. It was a cute human girl of about 5ft with black hair and gla.s.ses, she wore full black and seemed to have been carrying a large amount of books, books which were now on the floor. The girl had also fallen over.

So: "Oh! Uhhh... sorry... you okay?"

Sora crouched down and began picking up her books. She also repositioned herself and began picking up the rest of the books, Sora gave her the ones that he picked up and stood up.

So: "Sorry about that..."

The girl seemed to be hesitant to respond, she seemed like an introvert.

?: "N-no problem. Thank you for helping me"

So: "It's fine, sorry I was lost in my thoughts"

?: "Hm? Lost in your thoughts?"

So: "Yeah, I'm new here and was just thinking about stuff"

?: "Oh! Are you part of the new candidates?"

So: "Pretty much yeah, I'm just looking around before my first day tomorrow, you sound like you've been here a long time then, got any tips for me?"

?: "Oh, I was part of the new candidates too!"

The girl seemed to be more willing to talk with Sora.

So: "Really?! What are you doing right now then?"

?: "Same as you really, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. By the way I've been meaning to ask, is that a cat on your shoulder?"

So: "Huh? Oh, yeah. This is my partner"

Sora held his hand out to her as Rin ran down his arm and onto the back of his hand, extending his hand out to the girl so as to get Rin as close as possible. They had done this many times in the village.

So: "Her names Rin"

The girl laughed and pet Rin.

?: "She's cute, does she fight with you?"

So: "Yeah, she helps me out a lot"

The girl stopped petting Rin then looked at Sora.

?: "What's your name?"

So: "Oh, the names Sora, what's yours?"

Em: "Emphillia, wanna walk around with me? Might as well explore together right? We're both new after all"

Sora smiled.

So: "Sure, I don't mind"

Rin ran back up to Sora's shoulder as he moved his arm back down. Sora and Emphillia then walked together deeper into the corridor.

Em: "So where did you come from?"

So: "Came from a village pretty far from here, I came here with a couple of friends to get stronger"

Em: "Oh, why did you want to get stronger?"

So: "Well, doesn't everyone? Makes life much easier"

Em: "Yeah, I guess. So what do you use?"

So: "I kinda switch between weapons now, in terms of magic though I use light and darkness"

Emphillia was shocked.

Em: "Light and Darkness?! Together?!"

She looked at Sora with expectant eyes.

So: "Yeah, I have a weird affinity to both"

Em: "Wait so you can use both?!"

So: "Yeah..."

As they were walking Emphillia began to shift between the multiple books she had and after picking one out, opened it then began writing down notes at an incredible speed. To balance the books and do this at the same time was extremely impressive to Sora.

So: "You have some insane balance..."

Em: "Hm? Oh, yeah. I focus more on stuff like this than physical power"

So: "Really? What do you use then?"

Emphillia started writing slower as this question was asked.

Em: "Well... I'm not the strongest you see... I'm more of a supportive mage than anything else. I can't use aura like a lot of the candidates could, I barely survived by relying on myself to dodge multiple attacks - I focused on evasion atop that pillar and eventually everyone else took out everyone else until I was one of the last"

Emphillia's tone suggested that she was insecure about her ability.

So: "Isn't that impressive by itself though?"

Emphillia was surprised, she gave Sora a slight sideways glance.

Em: "What do you mean?"

So: "Well, it's not like evasion is easy, if no one can hit you then you aren't weak. Everyone survives in their own way right?"

Sora was just voicing his honest opinion, he didn't pick up on her insecurity. Nevertheless Emphillia smiled.

Em: "Yeah... I guess so..."

So: "You said your a supportive mage right?"

Em: "Yes, why?"

So: "Well... what kind of magic is support magic? Is it like a specific type, or?"

Em: "Oh, well I learn a lot of different types of magic, but I focus on the more ignored aspects of them, such as the healing aspect of wind, or-"

So: "Or something like refraction from light magic? Or corruption from dark magic?"

Emphillia was surprised that Sora even knew of these things, they were very lesser known magics.

Em: "Well um... yes. Things like those, although not something as difficult as corruption"

So: "Well that's pretty cool then, you can use different types of magic"

Em: "I don't think I could ever use darkness though, it just feels evil"

Sora smiled.

So: "It's not that bad, you just have to use it for a good cause..."

Em: "Well I guess..."

So: "Hey! What's that!"

Em: "Oh! It's another area! Let's go!"

...

Sora and Emphillia stayed together for most of the day, binded by their common unfamiliarity with their surroundings, as it got late they both went back to the accommodations and entered into their rooms after a short good bye.

[]

Sora walked back into his familair room, the small bouncing ball still bouncing around. Sora smiled and changed into his home clothes, before jumping onto the bed, Rin also made herself comfortable on his bed - Sora didn't even try to get her off anymore.

He looked towards the small bouncing ball.

So: "Mana"

The ball increased to it's normal size.

Ma: "Hm?"

So: "I've got some questions..."

Ma: "Ask away"

So: "I saw alot of races out there, but during my test I didn't see any. I don't think that there were just conviniently no other races there for this one, there was a bunch of people after all"

Ma: "Oh, each race get's tested individually in different places, specifically different tests"

So: "Really? Why?"

Ma: "Well some races have more or less affinity to magic or aura, some races are just naturally stronger than others too, it'd be unfair to be up against advantages and disadvantages out of your control. So they do same-race tests"

So: "Oh, guess that makes sense, next question. Is everything I've been in a pocket dimension? Since the school building doesn't look like it can house this kind of s.p.a.ce..."

Ma: "Yeah, specifically where we all are now is the dark s.p.a.ce beneath the school"

So: "Knew it..."

Ma: "The actual building for the school is reserved for only the most promising students, they even get their own floating islands if they're valued enough"

So: "Seriously? How powerful do you have to be to get there..."

Ma: "Those guys exceed the system you and your group used, either that or the headmaster see's potential in them and is training them directly"

So: "Jeez... last question"

Ma: "Yep"

So: "Where's the actual exit, we've been teleported into the school but I have no idea how to get out"

Ma: "That's easy"

Sora was surprised.

So: "Is it? I haven't seen one anywhere"

Ma: "Well, have you been paying attention to the dark, s.p.a.ce-like mist at the top of that giant corridor?"

So: "What? No, it's so high up that I didn't see a point. I was just focusing on what was in front of me"

Whilst you could definitely see the top at all times, the amount of people flying in the air and the amount of the people on the ground served as a good distraction. Most people just ignored the very top.

Ma: "Well you go through that, then you get teleported to the town that you saw before you got teleported to the tests"

So: "Really?! How am I supposed to get up there?!"

Ma: "Well you could either fly up by yourself or you could wait for one of the travelling teleporters could take you there directly"

So: "Travelling teleporters?"

Ma: "If you didn't notice because of the amount of people flying around, there are an extreme amount of small spatial sprites like me roaming the corridors too, just ask one of them. If someone stood still there would probably be at least 10 pa.s.sing around per minute, but thats if no one else is asking, cause of the amount of people there would only really realistically be about 1 per 2 minutes"

So: "Good to know..."

Ma: "That all then?"

So: "Actually I do have one more"

Ma: "Alright"

So: "Where do I actually go for my first day..."

Ma: "Oh don't worry about that, that's my job. Im in charge of both waking you up on time and then teleporting you to your cla.s.s"

So: "Oh, that's useful. Anyway, thanks Mana"

Ma: "That all then?"

So: "Yep, thanks"

Ma: "No problem"

Mana shrunk back to their small size.

Sora looked towards the ceiling and slowly closed his eyes, a smile creeping onto his face, he made a new friend today and was excited for the future, both for him and his friends.

[]

Message From Art

Hi, I'm guessing most of you read this on ur phone so if you do, check the Authors note.

TL:DR I'm inconsistent, I wanna be consistent, I'm going to set the time when these come out every Friday at 4PM GMT.