1. Anastasia Necron
2. Alistair Von Drake
"...."
"The hell?..." My jaw hung in disbelief.
I literally blanked out for a moment, just staring at the name etched firmly in first place.
The first thing I questioned when I regained my bearings was; 'How the hell did this happen?'
"She got here before him?" My familiar offered with a shrug.
"Not helping, Bubbles." I grimaced.
At the moment, I was furious at both the first and second place. I was furious at Alistair for... well, not getting first place. Most of my plans depended on the foolish decisions he would make as the first year's representative. But now they're all ruined.
Meanwhile, I was furious at the first place for... well getting first place. Seriously, what was it with her? As if her existence wasn't enough, she still had to further ruin my plans.
For context, I took a glance at the redhead. She stood quietly a distance away from everyone, her otherworldly features seemed even more pronounced with her eyes half lided, and the aura she was radiating seeming to say; 'Dont come near me'.
"Aiiiiish." I rubbed my hair in frustration as I glared at her. For some reason, her flawless visage, and her unbothered expression seemed to infuriate me. As if she didn't just ruin all the plans I had formulated for the past three days.
A thought I didn't want to entertain occured to me.
'Should I just kill her?' I found myself questioning. I mean, she was not a main character, no one would probably remember or miss her.
'Who am I kidding?' realization hit me. With looks like that how would no one remember her?
But then again, 'Even if I tried, could I even succeed?' The fact that she took first place, was a testament to her strength. And though that didn't indicate true combat power, it was at least a reasonable reference.
And for all I know, she had an ability that could insta kill me.
Not that I was going to try killing her in the first place. I was still a normal human from earth only less than two months ago. Even if I didn't feel anything when I killed Mira, killing someone who only unknowingly stood in the way of my plans, is still a lot too extreme for my liking.
I was insane, but my insanity hadn't quite reached those levels yet. Not to mention, now that I was looking at her intently, I could tell from the aura quietly humming around her, I didn't stand a chance.
'She's strong.' I let out a breath of air in realization. But then something crazy happened. As if hearing my thoughts, her half lided eyes gradually tore open, until her crimson orbs were staring right at me.
'...The hell is she looking at me for?' I inwardly scowled.
'Maybe she heard what bad thought you were thinking about her.' Bubbles quipped.
I did what any man would do, I stared right back, our eyes locking for a few seconds, before she finally tore her gaze away.
But the youths at the gathering grounds didn't miss that.
"Did you see that? The Necron princess and that pervert were staring right into each other's eyes."
My lips twitched. She was the Necron princess, and I was that pervert? The audacity. 'I'll have you know that I'm also a prince.' An exiled one, correct. But I used to be a prince nonetheless.
"What are you insinuating? Do you not know who the pervert is?" another girl questioned.
"He's that asshole who tried to rape his fiancee's maid, on their engagement day." A guy cut in.
I twitched.
'Dont these guys know I can hear them, or is it that they don't respect my presence.' I thought, but soon facepalmed. That was what a bad reputation gets you.
"He's a messed up character huh?" Another one added.
"But she's so out of this world."
"I don't think there's anyone more beautiful."
The conversation gradually shifted back to the redhead, which I was more than glad for.
After this ordeal, I finally had the mind to look at the rest of the rankings, and the environment.
In third place was Fabian Ashton, in fourth place was Rose, and in fifth place was Delilah Whetstone.
The bitch meanwhile was in eighth place.
Moving on to the compound we were gathered in. The ground was of fine bricks of cobblestones, there was also a large fountain in the middle of the compound that was spitting out blue colored water.
To the southeast, or at least where I thought was southeast, were three marbled layered buildings. And then from the compound, a pretty long straight walkway about a kilometer, leading to the northwest, where a huge almost dome like building stretched across the ground.
I knew where we were. The astral mystic institute's first year campus.
Before I knew it, another hour had passed. More youths had made it by then, and to my shock, the supposed boss was among them. He didn't dare to meet my eyes though.
On the seventy minutes mark since I got here, the bridge over the short stream suddenly ceased to be, catching the aspirants on it off guard, and sending them tumbling into the water.
"The entrance exam is finally over." I muttered to myself.
The moment I said that, the youths that fell into the stream also disappeared before our very eyes. A few moments after that, the same bronze armor wearing moustache proctor appeared in the air once more.
"Congratulations aspirants, you all are now students of the Astral Mystic Institute." he announced with a smile.
"The entrance exam was made to weed out the diamonds from the rough. And though I'd like to say you all did spectacular, it isn't like me.
So just like before, I won't waste your time." He paused taking in the weirded out expressions of most of the students, including mine, before waving his hand towards us, sending numerous navy blue bands at us. Each band found a student.
"First things first, The bands I just gave to you is your clearance to everything in this institute. I don't have to explain that, but I'm sure you'll catch on pretty quickly."
"I'll talk about your accomodations." he continued. "Those buildings over there are your accomodations." he gestured to the three marble buildings about a kilometer away from where we stood. I was guessing where we stood was the midpoint, because the huge dome like building by my estimates was also about a kilometer away.
"The number of your rank is correspondent to that of your dorm. From dorm 1 to dorm 40 are in the tallest building.
Dorm 41 to dorm 80 are in the medium building, and dorm 81 to 120 are in the shortest building.
Breakfast lunch and dinner are at 6am, 2pm, and 8pm respectively, served at the cafeterias on the ground floor of each building." He said. But what he also didn't say was that if one missed these hours, then the food was no longer free.
"Also," the proctor continued. "Each student will be entitled to a certain number of points each based on their rank. Note that these points can be used to purchase anything in this institute." He paused letting the silence take over, and letting the students wonder what he meant by that.
"Today is the last week day." he continued. "Classes start on Monday, which means you all have the free time to do whatever you want in these two days, be it explore, train, or anything you see fit."
"And before I forget," the moustache proctor's eyes grew stern. "Fighting outside of the arena without an instructor's oversight is forbidden. And anyone caught will be penalized. "But..." he paused. "That's if you're caught of course." he let out an amused chuckle. "Have a nice academic year students." he disappeared.
'Well, that was a rollercoaster.' Bubbles' voice rang in my mind.
"Tell me about it." I muttered. The year was going to be tough, especially with when we'd have a sadist as an instructor.
"Let's go check out the dorm." Bubbles materialized on my shoulder.
"Fine." I sighed. Not gonna lie, I was quite curious what the dorms looked like.
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Meanwhile, at the gulf of the astral mystic island, over 400 youths poured their frustrations in indignation at not being able to enter the island before the 30 seconds window closed. Unaware that an even more unlucky group were about to join them.
It started with a girl appearing in the air, then falling into the water. Followed by more youths, and more, and more, until over seven hundred youths had fell into the water.
These were all those that had failed the entrance exam. Some had been so far away they never even had a chance, some were still stuck in the fog, some in the mountainous region, some in the mushroom grotto, and some were on the final stretch of the bridge, just a few meters away.
But at the end, they just weren't part of the first 120.
*********
OKAY EVERYONE, THIS BEINGS US TO THE END OF VOLUME ONE. ITS A RELATIVELY AHORT ONE, BUT THE NEXT ONE QILL BE ABOUT DIVE RIMES LONGER.
GLAD YOU ALL READING MY BOOK, AND DONT FORGET THEM POWER STONES.