CHAPTER 2 - The Strange Dream

It all started derailing on his third day at the Academy.

Among the new students that were admitted in the Academy, not everyone would eventually get to study and become an Elementalist. The academies were only set up for less than ten years and the resources that could they could provide were all too low.

Hence, the forty students that were admitted would be further weeded out to make a batch of ten students. And it was through the Initiation that these ten be selected. They would be the chosen ones who get to learn about prana meditation arts and Elemental technique and become Elementalists.

Of course, the students that could not grab the chance this year were not simply asked to turn around and leave the Academy. Others would still get to study combat and meditation techniques, but it there was no way they could compare to the Elemental arts. The organisation Elementalists was the one who provided the Elemental techniques. These techniques were far superior to the ones that were available in the other classes.

There were other courses and paths that one can pursue at the academy. Elementalist were only the most popular ones because their might was widely recognized. Other classes that were taught at the academy included becoming a yogi, people who specialized in healing with prana and mental attacks, or a warrior, people who cultivated their body and were good with close combats. But even in the past, our nation had never produced a warrior or a yogi who could be compared to the Elementalists. Therefore, the inheritances for a yogi and a warrior were considered flawed.

So before the initiation test, the new students here had classes that talked about the basic theories of these courses that we would eventually be divided into. The classes taught the student about prana, the essence energy that flowed through all living and non-living in this world. They taught these classes in efforts to better prepare the students and to gauge out who was talented enough to stand out among the whole batch later in the initiation. Every student worked hard to improve and show their talents to the teachers.

And these precisely were the important classes that Azyl spent his sweet time sleeping through. All theory classes, to be specific.

Azyl was not crazy to go and directly sleep on his first day at the Academy. He had been alert and focused throughout the class. Everything had been smooth, and he had left the class wide awake. The only minor discrepancy was that nothing interesting was taught, other than stuff that talked about prana. He had thought they would learn fire manipulation or something like that.But from what Teacher Ren had explained, for the next two weeks, they would only have theory lectures. Just like the class was named.

The second day passed similarly. Azyl focused through the lecture, despite a part of him wanting to lie down and become lost in his dreams.

In these two days, Azyl had gotten to know his dorm mate - Zewoulf, a little better and they were already friends. Both of them were similar in a strange manner that they did not like to speak much. Azyl was shy and introvert, making him less inclined to speak up and converse with people. Zewoulf, however usually had a serious look on his face that made it difficult for others to approach. He just preferred to keep his silence. As they were dorm mates, Zewoulf talked to him first. And soon they were comfortable talking with each other.

On the third day, Azyl took a seat towards the back of the class like usual. He had opened his notebook to take notes when the pencil slipped from his fingers. He felt his mind go blank suddenly. The next thing he knew, he was standing in the middle of a battlefield. Or at least what was left of it.

The place was in ruins. All around him, he could see the traces of a terrible war that must have taken place here. The broken state of the place that he suddenly found himself in left him shocked. It was beyond anything that words could describe.

But what was as great as his shock at his surroundings was his curiosity.

He could immediately tell that this was something magical. Not some dream or anything, as his mind could not come up with this. But because of his lack of knowledge, he could not decide what was happening. He could not relate what he was seeing to anything that he had ever heard or learned of before. It was all too sudden and surprising for him. For a moment, a thought had occurred to him:

'Could this be a test or some technique used by the powerful Elementalists? Am I being observed right now?'

But there were no clues provided to him and he could only randomly stare around him. Before he could further explore the place he was in, he felt someone shaking him and the next thing he knew; the teacher was yelling in his face. That was when he knew it might have all been a dream. He was still in the class and the Teacher was berating him. The one shaking him had been a student who sat next to him.

He apologized to the teacher and sat down.

As he tried to make sense of what had just occurred, the strangeness of the experience struck him suddenly. He could clearly remember the details of the scene he had just seen. It was imprinted in his mind, unlike what you would normally feel after dreaming. This detail confirmed to him it was not just a simple dream.

'I need more information and knowledge if I want to uncover what that place was. Maybe there lies some kind of opportunity and it is just waiting for me.'

These were the thoughts that came to his mind the moment he gained peace after the teacher left. He felt a little excitement inside him.

Most of the time, Azyl would usually laze around and daydream. But finally something exciting was happening to him.

But just a second later, he felt that his body was experiencing a really fatigued state, as if he had run ten rounds around the academy. Once the teacher was out of his face, he instantly slumped back in his seat and this time, he really went to sleep. It was a little fortunate as he still had not had the time to properly register what had happened to him. Other wise he would have definitely jumped and shouted out in excitement and shock over that strange experience.

The teacher did not disturb him again this time, or maybe he did not wake even if the someone had tried to. The overwhelming fatigue had knocked him unconscious most likely. Only after the class was over and Zewoulf came to drag him back to the dorm did it register with him that the class was already over.

"Hey, do I look any different to you? Any strange marking on my face, maybe?" He asked him in dazed tone.

After he had come back, he had slumped back into his bed and laid down. His head hurt like someone was hammering into it. But after sleeping for two hours, it had become bearable. So when he started thinking about what had happened, he could not help but ask his friend if there was anything strange. After all, he had just experience something magical. It would be normal if there was like a pattern in the middle of his eyes, right?

"Did you hit your head on the desk earlier? Should we take you to the infirmary?" Zewoulf asked as he got up from his bed to check on him. While he still had a neutral look on his face, Azyl could tell that he genuinely thought something was wrong with him.

They had opposite personalities. One liked to laze around after classes, while the other would often revise what they had been taught and put in his best effort at all times. Yet because they were dorm mates, their friendship had came to be.

"Ahaha, it's nothing like that. I just felt something off about myself today in the class. I did not sleep in the class intentionally to tick off the teacher or anything. It was like I was overcome with tiredness and could not help dozing off." Azyl laughed off the serious expression that Zewoulf showed. He did not want tell his new friend yet what had happened to him earlier. At least not until he figured it out himself first.

And he didn't lie about what he said either. What had happened was not under his control and he would

"Yeah, and you better not pull off something like that in the class again tomorrow. Let me know if you feel strange and need help though." Woulf returned to his bed and picked up his notebook to review what he had written. He was straighforward in expressing his thoughts and did not beat around in saying what he felt.

Azyl, on the other hand hoped that he could get another chance to see that place again, so that he could search for any clues. His previous glimpse of that dreamscape had been brief, and even if the details were present in his mind, there was not much to gather from it.

Later that night, he went off to sleep, hoping that he could have that experience again. But nothing of that sort happened.

And so the fourth day at the Academy dawned.