the teacher began explaining some things about the yellow tree, the great change that made energy invade the entire world, meanwhile other people sat around James.
a lot of what he explained was already common knowledge, even so, there was no harm in listening to him explain things.
he slightly eased his sound spell, so people could whisper among themselves.
"already common knowledge that the yellow tree creates various structures coming from its roots, these structures seem to be recreations of things from other worlds, they are often random constructions but extremely important, among them exist the citadels, citadels are all the constructions that concentrate some power inside themselves, no matter their rank.." he continued explaining.
'after that invasion, there was a large number of humanoid species coming into the world, like mermaids, werewolves, vampires, lizards, the world became so big and dangerous, what a thing' he thought, adjusting himself in the chair.
"hey, hey friend" he heard from the side of his chair, looking he saw the man sitting beside him, calling him "it's a very introductory class isn't it, don't worry, we'll have more fun classes after this" he said with a smile.
he was a young man like him, with blond hair and a slim figure, most common awakened ones had that physique, he had a friendly face and simple clothes.
"ah yes, it's not hard to know these things, my name is James" he said, stretching out his arm in a handshake.
"my name is Fill, nice to meet you, I joined this month" he accepted the handshake "all students are instructed to take at least 1 month of introductory classes, but there are other more fun classes during the afternoon, I think you'll like them"
while paying some attention to the class, they also chatted, one of the most important parts of the schools was to form groups, create the base for the future contacts of the awakened, that was quite important.
James opened his phone and checked a few things, on the school website he could already see his room and had the virtual key, he also checked his classes for that day and a bit of the map, and saw which classes he could add to his time there.
'this is interesting, I'm going to learn a lot here, but that's not the most important thing, this school acts like a clan on its own, it's a part of the government where even though we are not considered a clan, we are doing missions for the Ccha and bringing things to it, we are a clan but without the true union of its members'
"so Fill, what classes are you taking?" he asked.
"I'm taking introductory classes, martial arts and alchemy, with a few complementary ones, and you?"
he looked over his list "I'm taking introductory classes, martial arts and a few optional ones to choose from, which do you think I should?" he showed the list of classes he could join.
"that depends on your current formation, you should choose a class to help improve your element, if needed choose theoretical classes for some cultivation areas, there are also other areas of magic, like vocal spells, runes and writings"
they returned their attention to the teacher.
"at the end of this month you'll have a basic test, which all explorers need to pass, it's called the tutorial, it's a creation of the yellow tree and will allow you to explore its creations much more easily, besides giving some powers to you, in this school there's a special room with a connection to the tree, we'll use it to send you there"
"inside it you'll have to pass through at least 5 stages and at most 10 stages, you'll connect with the system of the tree, they will allow you to earn things directly from it by exploring dungeons, it's important to have one because it's of great help in obtaining items and materials"
'does this system have anything to do with you?' he asked his system.
'I see'
"those who are not awakened will awaken after the second stage, in the fifth stage there will be a great challenge, and then you can leave, those who want to continue, the stages will become increasingly harder and more random, so they are not mandatory for now" the teacher continued explaining while showing some representative images on the screen.
meanwhile he chose some classes to take, he chose magic classes for when he had his element, and some others.
there were many magic systems in the world, trying to do several at once would lead to nothing, he needed to focus his time, not that he was in a rush for anything.
the teacher continued explaining things about the tree, some dungeon systems and a bit about the world's history after magic, and then returned to talk about the citadels, and how they were impactful in the history of human reconstruction.
"an example of a citadel is this one" the big screen showed what seemed to be a recording from afar, in it it was possible to see a large structure shaped like an hourglass, it was huge, the size of a block and several meters high, James slowly opened his mouth "this is the space-time hourglass of Yun Luko, one of the citadels being controlled by the government, it's using the citadel's ability that we modified the space of the schools, making small places become large"
there were several areas in the hourglass, it was visibly impressive and frightening, with its colossal size it was possible to imagine that even a medium clan could live there, or a small city.
Fill and the girl next to James looked at him, noticing a strange reaction, James was looking at the screen with an expression first of veiled astonishment, and then a small sadness, narrowing his eyes and slightly biting his lip.
the woman beside him looked at his face, then at the screen again, seeming to notice something.
after a few seconds thinking, she gently touched his shoulder, seeming to wake him from a trance, he slowly turned to her.
"you.. are one of them?" she said very quietly.
James's eyes trembled slightly, "yes, I was there" he said normally, his face returned to being serious and plain.
she turned to the front, also serious, "I'm sorry" they looked at the screen again.
40 years ago, at the beginning of the energy invasion, on that very day, some citadels began to appear, one of them was the space-time hourglass of Yun Luko, when citadels appear, many things can happen, one of them is it coming activated, needing someone to conquer it to deactivate it, like a dungeon, but when they come like that, they come stronger than usual.
when the hourglass appeared, kilometers around it froze in time, without any warning, they became paralyzed, no one could enter, or leave, it took 36 years for an awakened to defeat it.
the people inside weren't frozen forever, some were gradually awakened, and then transported to the yellow tree, but others were not so lucky, that was James's case, he stayed frozen there for 36 years, entered at 14, and left at 14, but 34 years in the future.
his eyes went down, then back to the screen, the presentation about that citadel had already ended.
"another one was the Pirate Warship Duo" it was a giant ship with red sails, looked like a true gigantic pirate ship, smaller than the other, but still seemed able to carry two other regular pirate ships inside it, only one ship appeared "they have the ability to fly, and carry powerful cannon shots, these are just two, there are hundreds, and that number only increases, they are one of the wonderful things of this world" he finished saying with excitement.
James wandered a bit, remembered the past, where he lived with his family, read his novels all day, watched anime, had friends, the world seemed so good, that should have been his world.
'it's all right, things are better now' he calmed down, returning to his usual self.
meanwhile, beside him 'he was there, maybe if I talk to him..' the woman thought.
"hello, my name is Agatha, we haven't met yet" she said, extending her hand.
"James, nice to meet you" he shook her hand, "you already know Fill?" he said, giving her space to see him.
Fill smiled cheerfully and also greeted, "I'm Fill, nice to meet you too"
"so, you joined recently too?" Fill asked.
"yes, I joined a little before you, so we're all new right" she said smiling.
"now let's move to the last topic of today's class" the teacher said, clearing the board "you must be wondering what is this thing inside your soul sea, this strange will, understand, in this world there are things far beyond our comprehension, or explanations, there are 3 great immeasurable forces that you'll deal with your entire life, these are the Earth, the Sky and the World, the Earth and the Sky are wills that dictate many things in this life, what monster will appear, what ability you'll get, your luck or misfortune, but don't worry about them yet, the union of the two is called the World, what we know is that it controls the balance of the world, if something becomes unbalanced, these two wills join to fix it"
"when a cultivator ascends to a higher rank, he has a brief connection with these wills, and may receive teachings from them, it is theorized that if a cultivator could stay connected long enough, he would have all the knowledge of the universe, because the World carries all this knowledge, but knowledge has a price, you can only take a little, the higher the rank, the more knowledge you can acquire, if there are no questions you are dismissed" the teacher turned, ending the class.
the students began to get up, putting away their pcs that they used to take notes, and chatting with their classmates as they left.
he received a notification on his phone, he had received a written version of that class, along with a video of it, he checked and there was an area where he could review all the classes of that month again, for him it would be the first time actually seeing them.
"hey James, looks like we have the same class now, want to come with me?" Fill asked excitedly.
"sure, it'll be my first time taking martial arts classes" James said, getting up and waiting for the line of students to open space for him.
"don't worry, I'm well trained in that, I can...