Spirit's Ascension-Chapter 84—Outside the Academy
Cole was the first of the three to regain his alertness, he looked around with fear evident on his face.
"Dead? how is that even possible?" he shouted out again.
Instead of a real response or something tangible. Cole received an unexpected response.
"Hahahaha, it works all the time," the man said with a joking voice.
"I think I have had enough fun," he said in a low voice as if talking to himself.
"You kids, relax; your body is taking some time," the man said in a reassuring tone.
Cole and the others felt completely vulnerable, but since there was nothing they could do to refute it, they could only stay quiet.
They all waited in a spot for a while, and just like the man said, they began noticing a difference.
Their vision was slowly being restored from complete darkness to extremely dim vision and finally to almost normal vision.
Now they could survey their environment more thoroughly. They were standing in a tent with a platform that had runes identical to the previous ones all over it.
If it weren’t for some slight changes, they could even say they haven’t left where they previously were.
The man standing by the machine was someone else. This man looked much more easygoing and even had a slightly comedic look than the previous man.
He stood there calmly observing the newly arrived students.
"Aren’t you guys too—" he suddenly stopped while attempting to say something as if he rethought the decision.
"I shouldn’t get them annoyed; I was already drawing it thin with that earlier joke," he thought to himself.
"Welcome to the slums," he said after a while.
Cole and the others were now completely settled; they left the podium and slowly approached the man.
"Here’s the compilation of all the things you are supposed to know," handing Cole something.
Cole observed the supposed compilation and felt slightly amazed by the points in it, but he knew that wasn’t the right time to check through so he quickly stopped.
"Since there’s nothing else, you all may leave," the man said.
Cole and the rest were immediately shocked.
"We may leave, won’t there be any sort of guidance or anything?"
"You guys are being trained to be formidable Spiriters; there’s no one that is going to spoon-feed you."
With that, the man moved away and went ahead to do other things.
Though they felt slightly neglected, there was nothing they could do.
The three of them quietly left the tent with reaffirmed gazes, ready to go fulfill their mission.
Outside the tent was somewhere slightly familiar to Cole. It looked to be the exact forest he came to when he wanted to begin his academy journey.
"Where exactly is the academy located then?" Cole wondered.
It looked to him as if the academy was intentionally trying to keep its exact location hidden.
"Do you know where the academy is located?" Cole asked Linda.
"Ummm, there are some rumors, actually, but no one really knows the exact location except the higher-ups," Linda replied.
"Everyone coming in comes through a specific teleportation platform."
Bryan nodded on the side as if in acceptance of her words.
"Oh, there must be a reason for that then," Cole said.
"Lets get out of here first, I know somewhere where we can use as our temporary base,"
With Cole in the lead, the three of them headed out of the forest, following the already prepared path.
It didn’t take the group too long to leave the forest and arrive in the clearing where Cole was previously knocked unconscious.
"The academy really does a lot to be mysterious," Cole thought.
They didn’t stop or slow down after getting out of the Forest, they kept walking while patiently following Cole.
As they approached the slum proper, different expressions were present on all of their faces.
Cole’s face was majorly dominated by nostalgia. Despite not being so long since he left this place, it all felt so long ago.
He had changed a lot since the last time he was here.
"Choosing to go to the academy was really the right decision," Cole thought.
Bryan, on the other hand, had a face of extreme interest; he looked all around, trying to see as much as he could curiously.
His eyes kept darting from one place to another while he walked.
Linda’s reaction was much different from the others, she looked extremely disgusted and uncomfortable.
"The air feels dirty," she said with an annoyed expression.
The others heard her and also seemed to nod their heads.
"Life energy does feel impure," Bryan muttered. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞
Now the group had entered the slum properly. They were met with different eyes that looked to be scrutinizing them heavily.
"They must be some rich people, why are they in the slums? " a woman said to a customer.
Conversations like this were going on everywhere around them in the slums.
People looked at them with strange eyes that made them uncomfortable.
"Ignore them; that’s how it usually is in the slums," Cole said to the others.
"We need to change and blend in as soon as possible, let’s get some clothes first,"
The three headed towards a part of the slum that wasn’t too crowded; in that area, there was a small-looking shop that displayed some low-quality clothes.
The three of them chose some clothes randomly and left as soon as possible. The shop owner felt blessed upon seeing their blessing and kept raining praises on them.
Linda grew excited by her words and even decided to give the woman a little more money.
After they left the shop, Linda kept smiling from ear to ear while her steps were light as she skipped.
"Maybe people in the slums aren’t really that bad," she said.
After a little bit more time of walking, they finally arrived in front of Cole’s former home.
Cole looked up at the building with a large smile on his face.
"I will see Mr. Evans again," he said while leading the others inside.
Inside the building, Cole walked faster and faster until he arrived in front of a familiar door.
Knock!
Cole was about to continue knocking when the door slowly slid open.
Cole’s eyes immediately widened in shock laden with fear as he stared at the room in front of him.
"What the hell happened here?" he managed to say out loud.
