As he entered inside, a large hallway came into sight with many people going here and there. Damien saw many of the people present were gathered together at one place with their heads cocked upwards.
Wondering what they were looking at, he looked closer. He saw that it was an ethereal projection showing the layout of the whole Xeton Ethereal Foundation. It had all the information regarding where each class, department, hall, and other facilities were located.
He saw that the building had few floors, which were pretty wide enough that they spanned at least a few kilometers and looked aesthetically pleasing. He was surprised that a whole floor was dedicated to Bronze, Gold, and Elite batches each.
He saw that the hall where the induction ceremony was going to be conducted was located on the third floor, the same floor on which the Elite batches have their classes.
He etched the layout in his mind and set out towards the third floor. As he walked around, he could see some disciples helping the confused ones. Upon a closer look, he saw that their armbands had a double stripe, which showed that they were second-year disciples.
'Oh, senior disciples do volunteer to help out the freshers.' Damien wasn't surprised seeing them, volunteer. However, he noticed that most of the volunteers were all Bronze batch students who were managed by a handful of Gold batch students.
Knowing there was still time before the induction ceremony started, he decided to walk and take a look around.
He strolled towards the upper floors from the ground floor and didn't spend much time on each floor other than casually looking around.
He saw that there were many training rooms for practitioners with different elemental seed as the environment had to be adjusted accordingly.
There were alchemy, weapon forging, formation, ethereal, and soul cultivation departments in the two floors he had climbed so far.
Damien wondered whether he would have to learn all these subjects or whether he can choose. It was not that he didn't know the advantages of being a jack of all trades, but his ingrained habit of being lazy about things makes him nonchalant about these things. Besides, he didn't like learning things he wasn't interested in.
He noticed that there were huge libraries on each floor and other recreational facilities. In all, he felt as if this was a huge mall instead of an institute. He didn't even fully explore each floor and was still astounded by the various things he saw.
There were even teleportation formations to take one from one place to another easily. But they would have to use Spirit Stones to make use of that facility.
A second-year Gold disciple girl volunteering on the second floor saw a drop-dead handsome young boy heading towards her direction. Her eyes were first lured by his looks. But seeing the azure armband on his arm, her eyes sparkled even more as she sauntered towards him after fixing her hair.
"Hello there, junior brother. Do you want this senior sister's help to lead you towards the opening ceremony?" She asked with a coy smile.
Damien was busy observing his surroundings and was a bit startled to see a senior disciple approach him out of nowhere.
Damien smiled, "Senior sister need not trouble herself. This junior is merely looking around and can find his own way."
The girl puckered her lips, "Aww, don't say that. It is this senior sister's duty to make sure her juniors do not get uncomfortable on the first day itself."
She put her arm around his and said as she fluttered her eyelashes, "Come, no need to be shy. This senior sister is named Naina and will show you all the exciting places."
"Naina, where the hell did you go? We have got a shift now!" A girl came in from behind and caught Naina's arm.
"Huh? What shift? We just—"
"Shush." The girl interrupted Naina and looked at Damien, "I am sorry, junior brother Damien. She is too clumsy about these things." The girl awkwardly chuckled as he pulled out Naina's arm from Damien's.
She pulled away Naina while Damien amusedly looked at those two go away.
"Hey, where are you taking me? I was helping that new kid and…"
The girl clutched Naina's hand tighter and whispered, "Shh, don't go near him if you don't want to get hurt. Don't you know that Alchemist Azrael's personal disciple has dibs on him?"
"Wait, you mean he is Damien?" Naina asked with her mouth agape as she looked back to see Damien leisurely walking away.
"Phew, thank you. I knew a young and hot Elite disciple like him couldn't be so simple. Sigh...why am I so unlucky?"
Damien had an amused smile on his face thinking whether he had to thank Valentina for keeping 'Lady bugs' away from him in Luna's words.
As he got on the third floor and roamed for a little while, his eyes were lured by a beautiful narrow corridor without even a single person in view.
He noticed that there was only a single large door in the whole corridor, and this place wasn't even there in the layout he remembered. Being curious, he walked towards it, and a dazzling fountain surrounded by a lovely watered garden came into his sight.
"Whoa, this place is not where I am going to have classes. I wonder for whom they built such a scenic garden…" Damien muttered to himself. He felt that this corridor was only built recently.
*Klick*
Damien suddenly heard the doors behind him open, and as he turned around, a sapphire haired girl with extremely captivating beauty entered his sights.
Her skin was as beautiful as freshwater pearls, and her exquisite face seemed cold, unable to cover her nobility, which was bone-deep. This cold nobility made her seem as if she had transcended the mundane world and make others feel ashamed of their own inferiority.
'Reva Xeton?' Damien mentally shouted, wondering what she was doing here. He had only seen her once as he met her as Alchemist Azrael. Still, her breathtaking face that shimmered like the painted ocean was not a face he could forget so easily. He could still feel a pure and otherworldly aura from her engulfing his senses.
Standing close to her, Damien had to admit that she was pretty tall, almost as tall as him. Even though his height increased by around two cms within the past two months, he felt that she was at least 175cm tall.
She was dressed in an elegant snow-white flora dress, and her bosom seemed bigger, making Damien wonder if it was because of the dress.
However, her azure blue eyes were looking at Damien with a piercing gaze.
Her expression was glassy and didn't change much as she asked in a dry tone, "Who are you? This is not a place for you to wander about."
Damien gave a polite smile as he slightly bowed his head, "Aha, my bad senior sister. I got lost and didn't know that this area was only for seniors. I wonder which year a beautiful senior sister like you is in? Wait a sec...you don't have a student armband."
Reva squinted her eyes and said, "That's none of your business. You should leave now and don't ever wander into off-limits areas like these."
*Slam!*
Before Damien could say anything else, she went back inside and slammed the door shut.
'Ooof, this is surprising. Damn, she is too cold.' Damien sighed inwardly, speculating that he accidentally trespassed towards her quarters. He guessed that she couldn't be here for any simple reason and wondered if she was a disciple here.
He wanted to strike up a conversation with her as she was the imperial princess of the Xeton Empire but thought that it would be tough, seeing how unfriendly she was.
He knew that so far, the only person who had some connection to the rumored god residing in the Xeton Empire was her. If he wanted answers, she was his best bet.
But thinking how she didn't have an armband, he doubted whether she was here as a student but thought that maybe she didn't need one with her status.
However, he wondered if he would be in the same batch as her and how someone as powerful as her would fit into the current Elite batch of students.
He decided to think about those things later and made his way towards the hall where the induction ceremony was going to be held.
Comments