Chapter 436 - Alexis

The first class of the day was over. It was spent doing nothing but teaching the fundamentals of Aether.

Ning was really happy to learn a lot about it. He knew quite a lot about Aether already, but still learning the creativity with how people used it, or the socio-political aspects of Enchanters and Invokers, that was invaluable.

Ning was sure that if left alone, it would've taken him a really long time before he figured out there was something like that.

After the first class ended, Ning was really surprised to see Sherry leave, and another teacher walked in. 

He wondered what that teacher was going to teach when he started writing numbers on the blackboard.

"Eh?" Ning and the rest of the 4 adults were surprised. They were being taught math. 

It wasn't even difficult math either. They were being taught some basic addition and subtraction. 

This was a class for children, yes, but Ning still didn't expect maths to be taught to them as well. 

That was when the teacher turned towards them with a weird face and told them that they could leave if they wanted to. 

The next relevant subject for them would be taught after the break. Until then, they could go hang out in the tower.

The 5 of them awkwardly stood up and walked out of the class. After lunch… that was at around 17 o'clock. Until then they were free to do whatever they wanted as long as they were on the premises of the tower.

Ning wasn't sure where he could go, so he asked the others. Thomas, a short-haired, square-faced man, told them where they could go.

He gave them 3 options exactly. First, they could go to the playing grounds on the 2nd floor of the tower where they could spend their time leisurely. 

Second, they could go to the training grounds on the 4th floor and practice their Aether. 

Finally, they could go to the 3rd floor, where the admission office was, and go to the library to read some books. 

Ning didn't even hesitate when he chose to go to the library. There were a lot of things about this world that he wanted to know, that he wouldn't even begin to ask the system to tell him since he wouldn't know what to ask.

He walked down the staircase and went to the 3rd floor. The library was easy to locate with many people coming in and out of it. 

As soon as he walked through the door, Ning could see a vast collection of books on the many shelves that were kept in the massive rooms. 

He was like a child in a candy store and didn't know where to start. He randomly picked out a book from a shelf and read the title. 

'Necessary precautions against Dysentry and Measles'

Ning put the book back. Maybe he shouldn't be picking out books randomly. He went around looking at the titles on the spine until he came across something interesting. 

'The Religion of Aether'

"Religion?" Ning found a book that piqued his interest. He didn't know what it meant when it said religion, and he wanted to find out.

He picked out the book from the shelf. The outer cover of the book was made up of leather and was black in color, while the text on it was golden.

There was nothing else on the cover itself. No logo, no author name, nothing. Ning walked to an empty table just beside the shelf and sat down.

He opened the book and the very first thing he saw was a beautiful, tall female with slightly curly hair, holding a tall, walking stick.

Ning felt he had seen this somewhere before when he remembered what it was. "Ah, the statue from the ground floor," he thought.

The image and the statue were the same, with very minor differences. The hair wasn't really the same, and the figure was a bit different too. But somehow, based on the clothes and especially the staff in her hand, he could tell it was the same woman.

"How is this woman important?" Ning wondered and was about to flip the page when he saw some words at the bottom of the picture that wasn't very clear. 

He got closer a little bit and was finally able to read it. An imaginary depiction of Goddess Alexis, it read.

"A-Alexis?" Ning's eyes narrowed because he felt like he had heard of this name before. "Where did I hear— Ah," he finally remembered. He quickly held his mouth and looked around, hoping no one heard him shout.

Fortunately, there weren't many people in the library, so he was fine. 

"That's the god Alexis that Reever prays to sometimes right?" he thought. He hadn't heard of anyone but Reever prays to her, so he didn't know she had a religion behind her big enough to warrant a book on it.

Ning turned the page and read it. 

Alexis, Goddess of Aether, is a figure known amongst the Aether users as the creator of Aether itself. 

Based on that, there is a religion created with her as the face of it. The Religion of Aether. 

Alexis was said to be a god that descended from the sky with a flurry of birds that are now extinct. It is said that with a wave of her hands, she created Aether onto the land, starting the Age of men.

Because of this, many men came to her to pray for her to bless them. The religion continued since then and has been one of the longer-lasting religions for a long time. 

It has since then been proved that Aether is a natural phenomenon that no one created, but people still put their faith in the goddess they had never seen. This is especially common on the outskirts of the continent where education and development don't necessarily reach very fast.

Ning continued reading it.. He had expected the book to be a holy scripture for the religion, but it was simply an unbiased opinion of the author on the religion of Aether that held a figurehead Alexis as their god.