Silence descended on the table but it lasted for only a moment.

Aegon’s expression still showed how terrifying that memory really was.

“Pfft, you got me there for a second.” Travis broke this strange ambience with his loud laugh.

It made the whole group laugh as well though Aegon’s and Roy’s laughs were a bit forced.

Sitting around the table were most of Aegon’s friends, those being basically everyone he went with on his very first mission.

Percy, Linda, Travis, Roy and the notable only addition to the group, Anna, only one person was missing….

“Damn that was a good laugh, it just might have been worth it skipping class today.” Percy added while wiping a few tears from the corners of his eyes.

“Yeah, never though catching up with you guys would be this fun.” Linda commented from the side.

Aegon was looking at Roy, seeing his equally strained expression and sensing that their silence was getting a bit strange he just continued telling everyone about his past couple of months.

“Though apart from that my life has been pretty standard, I have been training exceedingly hard.”

Travis, Percy and Linda simply pretended they didn't hear such ridiculous words while Roy nodded with a knowing look, obviously agreeing with his friend.

Yet Anna couldn't really ignore what she’d heard and blurted out.”You? Training exceedingly hard? That's the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard today…actually scratch that, the most ridiculous thing I heard this week. You and Roy are the most frequent visitors of the ‘The Bar by the Tower”. Is that a thing someone who claims to be exceedingly hard working would be known for?”

Everyone around the table shot her a glance filled with pity.

Aegon stood up with a flourish. “Well my dear sparring partner, let me, a humble senior, explain the profound meaning behind our actions.”

“Anything that requires incessant repetition and dedication, be it done by the simplest of farmers or the greatest of alchemists, will benefit from strategic pauses to reinvigorate one’s spirit and to appreciate the small but often most meaningful things in life, like going to the bar with your friends.”

Anna was left dumbfounded at Aegon’s response, exasperated at his theatrics and unable to refute his premise as amidst all his nonsense hid an interesting idea.

“Besides, just to drive my point home, my theory and its effectiveness has its living proof in me and Roy, we both broke into the Forging Bone Stage a month ago.”

Pleasantly surprised expressions coloured the atmosphere around the table and just when the praises were about to rain in, thus completing Aegon’s performance with it’s deserved applause, a sudden loud sound came from behind him.

In that direction a straight ray of pure white light shot into the heavens, cutting the horizon in half.

Without a word the group rushed towards the commotion which turned out to be in the mountain side where the students' rooms were located.

A crowd had gathered by now and they all ran past Aegon’s home before finally reaching the 400 ranked houses at the midway point of the mountain path.

The white pillar of light still burned furiously and around its source where the charred remains of what used to be a room and its accompanying garden. Looking past the white light’s radiance a lithe body was sitting cross legged with closed eyes seemingly unaware of the surrounding destruction..

Looking closer, Travis noticed the blond air, the delicate features and a furrowed brow from what he assumed was pain.

“It’s Bella.”

The group felt the need to act yet they couldn't do anything at all, a group of elders including Richard and the ever elusive First Elder were present and currently forming an array that sealed and protected the girl from any outside influence.

Time ticked away slowly, only a few minutes had passed but amidst the hushed talking of the other students, who were already coming up with the most extreme theories, and the silent inner worry that the group felt for their friend, those short moments felt like hours.

Yet that wait eventually ended.

In complete silence the pillar of light vanished from the ground up in a mere moment, leaving only a gash in the clouds above and a collapsed girl on the floor.

Travis acted without thinking and ran past the security perimeter set around Bella’s House and straight towards the array but, as expected, he couldn't break through an array set up by the Elders, only a few short moments after his deranged emotion-filled run had begun and he had already been dragged back to the group.

Aegon felt compelled to point out the stupidity and ultimate futility of Travis’s actions but even he had enough emotional awareness to refrain from commenting on such an ocassion.

Meanwhile the Elders were already surrounding the unconscious girl and soon enough she regained consciousness, from a distance they could see them talking with the girl but couldn't quite make out what they said.

A few seconds after, Mentor 1 lifted his head from the ground and talked in a tone clearly audible to everyone present yet maintained his focus on Bella and as such his back was to the crowd.

“What you did was reckless, achieving Flowing Stream isn't something to be trifled with, I don’t know what method you used nor will I ask but if you were slightly more unlucky you could have joined your room and turned into a pile of ash.”

Richard paused and flashed a smile so wide it was noticeable even from his back.

“Luckily that didn't happen and you are now our youngest Flowing Stream Disciple, congratulations.”

And just like that the crowd erupted into a buzz.