"Okay, this is as far as I take you, I have to get to the academy grounds before tomorrow." Steve said to Xenon as they reached a harbour at the edge of the island.
In the distance, just a few steps away from them a giant wooden boat with no sails, oars or steering wheel stood perfectly still on the water, not swaying or rocking even as people climbed onto it occasionally. Steve led him to the boat and he boarded it, joining the handful of teenagers already on board.
"I guess I'll see you on the academy the next time me meet." Steve said to Xenon as the boat was preparing to depart.
"I guess so, see ya." Xenon replied. Steve waved and jogged back into the island, when he was just almost out of sight, he glanced back, grinned at Xenon as his body surged with blue lightning.
The charge of lightning formed a circle and the radius increased to just completely encompass his body in a circle of lightning and then the circle imploded, Steve vanishing with it.
"He could teleport?" Xenon muttered, his jaws hanged in shock.
The boat shuddered, giving everyone a scare as this was the first time it showed any form of movement, Xenon moved away from the edge to the middle of the boat.
'I'd rather not go for a swim.' He muttered.
The boat was big enough and the passengers just enough to make everyone move freely without having shove each other.
'We are more than 450 on board and there's this much space, just what was this boat designed to carry.' Xenon mused.
"Ahem!" A buffed middle aged man with slightly greying brown hair –and light beard– stood at the bow of the giant boat, facing the passengers, he made sure everyone focused on him before continuing.
"If you are here on this boat, I believe you are aspiring for a spot in the list of students to be admitted to the Askesis academy this year, if you are here with any other intentions, or have boarded this ship by mistake or error, please get off now before we depart!" The man announced, his eyes darting around the crowd which started to stir, a little amount of people –most of who got on to see their friends/relatives off– got of the boat, once the crowd started to settle down he addressed them again.
"I believe those of you left here are the ones who are willing to participate in the entrance examination?" He asked, everyone responded positively, some nodded their heads, some said a fairly audible 'Yes', while some others did both.
"Okay then, I am Captain Rogers! Would you all kindly find a place to sit or hold on to as we depart for the examination site... I am afraid I cannot tell you where we are headed until we get there." He added the last part when a teenager sporting white hair and pale skin raised his hand to ask as question.
'Ah, just great, he has a bunch of children in his giant boat and is taking us into the middle of the ocean without telling us our destination, if not for the fact that he isn't offering us candy this would have definitely been a kidnapping.' Xenon said inwardly.
Of course it was none other than Xenon who raised his hand to ask a question, but the captain of the boat answered as if reading his mind. Everyone scrambled to get a seat on the captain's order, people were colliding with each other more often now.
Xenon found a perfect place to seat at the stern, his seat gave him a full view of the boat while drawing almost no attention to him. A scarf appeared in his hand materializing from thin air –of course he took it from his inventory. He tied the scarf around his head, covering his hair that was bound to draw attention to him if left open.
Captain Rogers stood at the bow of the boat watching as everyone settled in, once they were all seated he turned around facing the open ocean, he put his hand on the rim and muttered some words, spiritual energy flowing from his hands into the ship, his action caused the network of runes embedded into the boat to glow in blue for a few seconds and the boat to shudder once more.
The glow of runes caused the crowd to stir in awe, but the excitement was short lived as it became drowned in the excited whispers the crowd produced as the boat started to move, barely unnoticeable at first but then it became more pronounced as the boat moved faster and faster, at some point a bluish aura surrounded the boat and it seemed to stop moving to the passengers, but the ship was actually moving very fast and the bluish aura was protecting them from being blown off the ship.
"I'm definitely gonna race this thing one day." Xenon muttered in excitement as he could slightly feel the speed at which the boat was moving due to his ability. 'Status'
_________________
NAME: XENON PRASEDYMUM
AGE: 15
LEVEL: 10 | EXP: 4410/ 25600
STATE: ANXIOUS
HP: 15/15
OUSIA [<]
Stage: 2 (Transitional)
Progression: 87%
Àse: 300/300
Spirit Contract: 1 (Kusin)
ATTRIBUTES [<]
|Strength:14| |Agility:22| |Endurance:15|
|Intelligence:20| |Senses:18|
[Fatigue:1% | Vitality:98%] Stat points: 9
SYSTEM SKILL: SCAN (Lvl 3)
QUESTS [<]
MAIN QUEST: Pass entrance examination into Askesis academy
SIDE QUEST: Gain full mastery over Hypercelerity
DAILY QUESTS:
▪︎Meditate for 2 hours. Reward 50 exp
▪︎Drink 4 litres of water (0.5/4). Reward 50 exp
_________________
"Nothing much has changed over the month. I should probably use my stat points". He muttered. 'Strength +2, Agility +2'. He instructed the system after a lot of contemplation.
_________________
ATTRIBUTES [<]
|Strength:16| |Agility:24| |Endurance:15|
|Intelligence:20| |Senses:18|
[Fatigue:1% | Vitality:98%] Stat points: 5
_________________
'I really really really want to put more into agility, because not only will it make my movements and coordination smoother, it also will increase the efficiency of my ability, but you never know, anything can happen' He decided
He finished tinkering with the system and dozed off. After hours of riding at breakneck speed, the blue aura surrounding the boat faded making them defenseless against the assault of the wind, but the boat has slowed down considerably at this point making the assault of the wind nothing more than a sharp breeze.
"You are free to move around." Captain Rogers announced from the bow and every passenger moved almost immediately going towards the rim of the boat all around to get a view of the open beautiful blue sea.
Even Xenon was entranced by the view, there were very little bodies of natural water left back on earth so he couldn't help but appreciate scenery. However he didn't linger for long as that was not what made him rise to his feet, his goal was the captain.
He walked to the bow of the boat and stood a little to the side, one step behind the right side of the captain. He could faintly see wisp of spiritual energy flowing into the boat from Captain Rogers, it was almost imperceptible to the eye, he could only make it out because of his senses.
'How much spiritual energy does this guy have in his Ousia for him to maintain a constant supply to the colossal boat'. Xenon wondered.
"I don't have an infinite amount of àse". Captain Rogers said
"Huh?" Xenon looked at him, bewildered
"I said you're making the wrong deductions". The captain said not taking his eyes off the ocean
"Can you read minds?" Xenon said slowly
"Oh, no". He looked at Xenon and chuckled "No. But I could guess what you were thinking from the look on your face. This is not the first time a curious mind within my passengers come to ask about my boat".
"Oh". Xenon almost panicked because of the possibility of Captain Rogers discovering the system if he had psychic abilities. He calmed down and expressed his curiosity this time. "How does it work then?".
"It's quite simple actually. I just activate the engineered runes with àse and then the runes do the rest itself, it collects àse from the environment, circulates it around the boat, using it to propel as well as fortify the boat. The only time I expend my energy is when the blue aura surrounds the boat, that is my spiritual energy turned barrier by the engineered runes." He explained
"Well we were covered by the barrier for a very long time, how were you able to cover the whole of this colossal boat for that long?" Xenon inquired
"It is also quite simple. I gather the àse collected by the boat from the environment, using it directly instead of expending my spiritual energy." Captain Rogers smiled at Xenon while replying.
"Wait, wait, what?" Xenon was dumbfounded. "So you're telling me you were meditating while putting up a barrier and steering the ship simultaneously?"
"Not quite." Captain Rogers shook his head sideways, slightly.
"What do you mean?" Xenon asked, he frowned as he tried to make sense of the words the Captain said.
Captain Rogers laughed for a few seconds before turning back to him. "Okay, let me say it this way. I just explained to you how this boat works, now tell me again how it moves using spiritual energy with having a spiritual core, ousia."
"The runes are engineered to gather energy from the environment and circulate throughout the boat through specific pathways" Xenon replied
"Now tell me what you do when you meditate."
"I gather the energy from the environment, process it, and feed it to my ousia"
"Thereby?"
"Strengthening and developing it"
"Great." The Captain was beaming of excitement. "Now imagine circulating the processed energy through the numerous pathways in you body instead of into your ousia. Just like your heart pumps blood and your veins transports it and your body makes use of it but in this case the environment is your heart, your ousia is a pathway and your entire body is a conduit, making use of the energy"
"But...but...but-but that not po...ssible." Xenon's voice grew weak with every syllable.
Captain Rogers patted his shoulder. "You should probably take a seat. We are halfway to the venue!". He said the last sentence loud enough for the whole passenger crew to hear and no sooner had those words come out of his mouth that 3 sea vessels came into view.