[Host will now return to world.]
---
"Hhhhhh—AHHhh!"
Aegon's eyes shot wide open as he gasped for air.
He remained on the floor, left side of his face sticking to the floor.
He fluttered his eyes, his glasses were now cracked but still on the ridge of his nose. All round him were overturned and scattered tables and chairs of a classroom.
He groaned while dragging himself off the ground. Squinting his eyes because for some strange reason everything was blurry.
Even as his cracked glasses sat on his face.
The classroom was deserted, the only thing out of place was the stone barricade at the far side of the room— near the door.
Aegon scratched his head.
"Uhmm... Hello?!"
He called out, completely confused.
A figure stepped out from behind the barricade.
Green-black hair, almond coloured eyes, lips pressed into a tight line and an expressionless face. She wore a skintight midnight black jumpsuit, blue inlays running along its sides and across her chest.
The suit looked more provocative and decorative than functional — with every step it stretched thinner and thinner in all the right places.
Aegon squinted his eyes trying to get a good look of her as his eyes were still blurry.
"Who are you?"
She stopped, pointing lazily at him, "Take off the glasses."
"What?"
She sighed.
"I hate this part. You've just awakened which means your eyes fixed themselves... So you using glasses is now redundant. So take off the glasses."
Aegon hurriedly took off his glasses, tossing them on the floor and blinking twice to see that his vision was perfect.
"Thanks. Who are you? Where is everyone?"
He asked confused.
"I'm Amelia. I was sent here but the government to make sure when you turned into a Aether-Beast I would stop you. And everyone's outside waiting for me to come out with a beast's head...
Advice, get some new friends kid, absolutely no one thought you'd survive the awakening."
She said without fluff.
'Damn. She's direct.'
He thought whilst just scratching his head, not knowing what else to say.
She rolled her eyes.
"Was actually banking on killing an Aether-Beast today, maybe sell the beast core and buy a drink. Oh well, let's go."
She gestured towards the door behind the barricade.
She led the way and Aegon followed closely behind her, hands fixed by his sides and curious about what exactly was going on.
It was like he read the entire book, just five chapters because he heard it had an amazing harem but the more he read it the more jealous he got about the MC.
So he dropped the book and just read the fanfic he saw online, only having snippets on what was going to happen and also he vividly remembered the MC's best friend dying during the first two chapters.
But here he was, Aegon Dhalar himself and walking through his school halls with an incredibly direct woman who occasionally glanced over her shoulder at him.
It was almost as if even she was surprised he survived.
'Might as well ask the weird questions now and get them out of the way, worst case scenario, she thinks I have amnesia or I went a little crazy.'
"Kheum," he cleared his throat, "Where are we?"
She stopped, raising a brow and turning to him.
"You don't know where we are?"
"Uhmm... I don't really remember a lot from before, everything's a little foggy."
He intentionally avoided eye contact with her.
She shrugged it off. It wasn't unheard of for people to suffer some kind of mental trauma after awakening.
"We're in your school. You were in class when your awakening trial began and you fell off your desk onto the floor.
As is protocol, everyone in the school evacuated outside and they alerted the government who deployed me, an Ascendant, whose job is basically to watch you.
I spoke to your friends and teacher and absolutely no one thought you'd survive an awakening trial so i got the barricade just in case."
"So no one thought I'd make it, damn!"
He cursed.
"At least you did kid, also while we're talking about it... For documentation purposes what faculty and affinity did you awaken..."
She tried to feign nonchalance but her eyes peering to the side of her head said otherwise, she wanted to know badly.
He didn't read a lot but from what he did read faculties and affinities meant everything in this world, from class to jobs.
But there was also no lying about it, even if he did now there would be some test in the future for him to prove his faculty and affinity.
He slid his hands into his pockets. Cleared his throat once more and tried to run through it like a man saying he was unemployed.
"Kheum... I awakened an Aether Studies faculty and... A replication affinity."
She sighed.
"What a shame, least if you awakened something useful you could've proven your classmates wrong but..."
She voice mumbled more and more until it trailed off entirely.
They moved downstairs, the mummers of students and teachers now being slightly heard from afar.
She turned to him once more.
"What about your Aether control?"
He lowered his face.
"Pathetically Poor."
She stopped, placing her hands on her waist.
"Did you do something in your past life for the trial to hate you so much? I mean fuck, man. Pathetically Poor, you get poor just for understanding the basics of Aether and the world."
He raised his hands to scratch the back of his head again—
She saw his hands move and immediately knew what it meant, her eyes shot wide and perplexed.
"You don't know what Aether is?!"
She unconsciously screamed, her voice echoing throughout the empty halls.
"I- I never got around to learn it?"
He said in a tone that suggested that he was more fishing for an excuse that would work.
She fully turned to him, arms crossed.
"Oh come on, kid. Don't give yourself a disadvantage before you even begin..."
She drew a heavy sigh.
"I don't normally do this but it'd be practically associated suicide if I let you go back into the world like this.
Basically, the entire world around you runs on Aether, which is the universe's energy— like an invisible current that flows through the world.
It's the fuel that awakeners use to reach their affinity.
I don't need to tell you everything because you'll already be taught this when you reach the awakening academy."
"Wait, so they'll accept me even with a useless affinity?"
He asked.
"Haa," he laughed, "They have to, they can't have people saying there's inequality in the academies."
They finally reached the front door of the school hall.
The sun sprawling into the halls from outside.
She turned to him, "This world's gonna try to chew you up and spit you out. Learn how to survive. It's the only way."