The next day Darian woke up,with sunken eyes,and deep eye bags as if he had been stung by a golden comb bee,or punched directly in the eye,although it was a bit exaggerative to say he had been been beaten up,afterall his eyelids had not turned black,and purple yet.
Today was a unique day on several accounts,it was Darians first day being late,but ofcourse that was not an impressive feat,simply because no one had ever been late.
And Aster made sure he knew that," Your late Edward's",he said,slamming the chalk board duster on his desk,a loud boom!!,filling the space.
For a moment there,the loud noise had caused,Darian to tense up, his once slack shoulders in a few seconds gaining military posture.
Not only was this the first time he came late,but it was also the first time he had been repremanded infront of entire class,infact this could be added to the list of firsts,as he had become the first to experience puplic humiliation.
" I expect this to be the last time",Aster said sternly,on the elevated benches looking down both Benjamin,and Galahad placed their individual palms over their faces shaking their heads,they had tried to wake Darian up,they tried knocking on his door,and screaming,with Benjamin eventually whaleing on the door with continous hits.
Seeing it was useless Galahad took it upon himself using his right arm to horizontally cover Benjamins chest area slightly moving Benjamin to the side,then aiming his kick,to knock the door down.
Then before Galahad could kick through the door with his leg,Darian simultaneously opened the door with a slumpt expression,while moving the back of his hand over his eye.
" Ten more minuattes",in a whining mannor.
At about a single seconds time frame of the door opening,Galahad would Lose balance from only standing on one leg,and making sure his kick avoided Darian,causing him to Quickly fall on his back,when he saw this Darians expression was a dull,annoyed but confused one.
This uncharacteristic scene from Galahad made him think that he was still dreaming," are you kidding me",he said while tired ,and yawning,his eyes limpid as he slammed the door back shut.
Once this scene had unfolded upon Benjamin's eyes,pointing at Galahad he could not help himself but laugh,"pfftuahhahahaha",
Galahads long locks had sprung themselves like a velvet curtain over his face,the laughter made him slightly more annoyed,as if his intelligence had dropped, he tried blowing the fallen strands of hair away from his face before finally thinking to use his hands.
Now back to the present.
Darian nodded then clutched his brown leather messenger bag,making sure it properly hanged over his right shoulder,and walked head held down to his seat.
Benjamin whispered from his seat," in an almost taunting manner," we tried,we tried",In truth this was somewhat more embarrassing to Darian as his father had trained him the art of timely awakening.
Thinking about it now it made him sad, reminiscing of the past,as he slept Charles would,burst in at times with pans,hitting them to together,producing a loud noises,while he would simultaneously scream ," wake up!!,Soldier!".
This all took place within his mind,as he went to his seat,when he sat down,he finally gathered his thoughts ,and whispered gently to himself,"I guess that was his way of preparing me".
After that warm but somber thought left him Darian,took a deep breath,and sighed ordering the accessories on his desk,taking out the necessary note book from the drawer compartment stored beneath his desk.
This entire time while he was going about his business,some female glares had come his way out of interest,no it was more accurately to say it was out of curiosity,and judgement.
One of them being young lady Astrea,who looked at him for a second before rolling her eyes,but Darian knew,and did not care,infact he smiled,this had been the first time in a long time that he had slept peacefully,was he exhausted yes, but his mind was clear,and refreshed.
Unbeknownst to Darian,Annabeth had also glanced at him,but unlike others her glance was not out of judgement, but out of concern.
She was the only one to notice something deeper, Darians hands as he wrote would wobble or contract, his feathered ink pen would fall out his grip,and his hands would shake for a full minute or two.
Seeing such a scene she gently persed her lips out of concern before turning back.
The cause of this was simple,Despite Darian healing his hand,the shards had given him severe damage, severing a few tendons,even piercing his veins,physical healing did not fully erase the trauma his hands had gone through.
Later Aster continued his rants,Darians knowledge was at a very high level compared to the average student,so most things that were said,were things Doulos had already taught him,So he simply filtered most things out, sometimes the lessons would just bore him.
But ofcourse Doulos knew this was a possible outcome,so he made sure there were things Darian himself would not know or would be surprised by,Darian wondered about this very risk himself," when will the interesting stuff start",Darian thought impatiently gritting his teeth.
Breaking out of his mental stooper,Darian tried his best to focus on the current lesson,as Aster continued," There are many stages to a mages refinement,into a true powerhouse,but before that are the basics"
"But even after that two basics stand out interms of combat,one the enhancement of a mages body in all aspects,and two the principle of telekinesis,I'll be speaking on the later one".
"As mages it should seem to you very,easy to manipulate the Natural world around you by infusing mana into them,and the process is extremely fast,in your earlier years you should have also noticed,it's much harder to manipulate the inner workings of something you have not created".
"Mana in its Natural state has no mass has no fixed velocity,it's the possibility of all things,mana only gains these properties when it's manipulated by the physical world".
"When mages use spells they concentrate mana,but the mass concentration actually slow it down,instead of releasing your mana in a wave,or signal one must think about it as your natural will,your intent exerted on the very world itself".
" when that skill is implemented mana does not travel,it simply appears, ignoring all distance, ofcourse the cast time still depends on the mages mind,but the input happens simultaneous to its Output".
"Using this method mages have created telekinesis,instead of completely saturating something to gain perfect manipulation over it,mages can invelop the outer silhouette of something ,and with the prior method every motion seems instantaneous without delay".
As Aster said this he flicked his hand,and around him everything began to levitate,his pen his desk,his flower vase the books even the duster floated as if it had lost the sense of gravity,and momentum.
The students,were amazed some tsked,others took offense this skill was not as easy or fundamental as Aster had said,In truth even Darian had trouble in this aspect at his best the amount of weight he could maneuvre was equivalent to an elephant on Earth,even then manipulateing multiple individual things of varying sizes simultaneously,was in another tier,almost impossible to him at this point.
This is why even Darians expression changed,Soon enough as if having their own sense of life,each object flew rearranging themselves back into its original spot infact,Asters table looked more neat,and ordered then when Darian had walked in.
Then something else that was considered uncharacteristic occurred,Astrea held her hand up high in the sky,for all to see,this could be considered another first on her part aswell.
Her question was simple one Directed at Aster," Sir can you please explain,what paths are",This question must of been in the minds of most of the attending Nobility something hinted at by their mentors,or vaguely explained.
Aster chuckled,"we haven't reached that part of the curriculum,but consider this a boon".
"First what is a path,Paths were an ancient system created before the great destruction,some say a patriarch created this system,in its Most simple form its an ancient classification system whereby,all magic is classified as a member of a path".
"Each path has one hundred standard spells,these tend to be the strongest spells a path has access to,as they originate from before the great destruction,in a time considered the renaissance of magic,and architecture".
"Due to that very fact the other potential millions of spells,Outside the standard have been considered weaker based on the recency of its inception".
"Each Path follows a certain theme,hence the spells within a path have certain Patterns, your curriculum with me will eventually involve you choosing your own,and learning how paths Counter each other".
The entire class,had been inthrawled in the toon Aster strummed,as if he gave them water in the scorching heat of the desert,the silence was palpitable as he managed to maintain their attention for more than a minute.
But yet it was clear they wanted more,but who had the Guts to give the follow up Question, would Astrea of Noble dawn,be the one to step up again.
Is it the heir to the keraunios family Simon Hermes keraunios,the Child of thunder.
Was it Annabeth,also known as the red wind,would she set her Blade towards the goal of satisfying the quenching thirst of her curiosity.
Would it be Lucian greystorm,the Pirates Son,the heir to the seven seas,was he willing to remove himself from the cloak of shadow.
Or was it lady Ivory,known as the Ivory princess,Her true name Isolde,the older twin Sister to Artemis,and daughter to the Red general.
These set of protagonists included,Julius his brother Edward,Edward Kinsley,Artemis,Yulang,Siegfried,Galahad,and Benjamin.
Along with Darian they would all individually shape the world in the coming future,but even he had not asked a question, this was not due to fear,the truth was while everyone scanned through the information they were given they realised it was a goldmine,it allowed them to connect so many theoretical dots of their own.
The value of the previous answer alone made them question themselves on the appropriatness of asking a follow up question.
Luckily out of everyone there,one person out of pure curiosity,a person without much ambition raised her hand.
To Amy,and Annabeths surprise, it was Anastasia,Aster glanced at her for a bit in confusion,before retracting his gaze,"you may speak".
The next Question that was posed,was clear ,and Concise," how many paths are there,and what do they do",she said energetically,infact the entire process of Aster answering the first question,and the next being posed occured in less than two minutes.
One thought rang across Darians head,"she went straight for the money",this was what he had wanted,and if her question was given a proper response,he would get what he wanted without putting in a single word himself.
Aster was in a good mood,and this student of his was not fond of participating in class,To turn her down was to discourage the lass.
So in good faith he anwered her,"There are approximately 28 different paths,from the top of my head,it would be".
Just as those words of confirmation came out of Asters mouth, many began writing as much as they could in their notebooks.
" Aah yes theres the Refinement Path,Demon path,Darkness Path,Creation path,Element path,Nuclear Path,Primordial Earth path,Calamity path,Hunger path,Soul path,Alchemy Path,Transformation path which also goes by the name beast path,Ruler path,law path,Order Path,Theft path,Prisoner Path,Hunter path,Barbarian Path,Combat path,Knight Path,War Path,Mind path,Art path,Author path,Astro path,Machine Path,Great Aeon path".
Aster said all this as if singing an old nursery rym,he would spin at times showing the dramatic side to things,as he listed them off consecutively,even taking off his top hat,after that was concluded the class gave him a round of applause as he dusted off his top hat.
Darian realised something perculiar about the way Aster had listed them off,it seemed as if they had a predetermined ranking,or deeper symbolic meaning behind there placement.