Chapter 25 First Constellation [1]

Coming back from the training ground, I entered my dorm room.

The quality of rooms provided depends on one's rank. Since I was a low-rank cadet, my room was obviously of low quality too.

But frankly, I was more than satisfied with my room. It had a bedroom, a living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom.

This was already good enough for me.

"How luxurious will the top 25 cadets' dorm rooms will be if mine is this good?"

I could only shake my head at the thought. Right now I was the weakest cadet in the Ward.

"Sigh…"

I needed to train and get stronger as fast as possible.

I decided to start training again. I had decided to stop trying to level up and only focus on my art.

In this world, there were three ways to gain exp: killing beasts, training, or absorbing cores.

Due to my low potential, my exp would only increase at a pathetic rate from training. So I was going to level up only by killing monsters.

Like talent means the number of stat points one's gets. Potential means the Assimilation rate of a person.

Assimilation rate was the amount of Aether one could absorb and convert into their own energy.

A person absorbs a small portion of the assimilated Aether from a beast he has killed. This was the exp somebody gains after killing the beasts.

Let's say the awakener is an Aura user. After he had killed many beasts, he would have absorbed their Aether. This Aether would go to his Aura core.

After reaching a certain threshold, the Aether gained will start clashing with the Aura. As a result, the said awakener will stop gaining exp, or the Aether.

This was where the assimilation rate came in.

A high assimilation rate meant that a person can convert the Aether gained faster into Aura. As a result, he can continue hunting for a long time.

While a low assimilation rate meant that Aether and Aura will start clashing quickly and he will stop gaining exp.

A high assimilation rate meant that one could kill more beasts before their core destabilizes and thus could level faster. This, in turn, would increase their leveling speed.

Assimilation rate was the speed at which a person can convert Aether into their energy and hence also called potential.

This was why I was stuck in this weird position. I couldn't gain exp from training due to my low assimilation rate.

But Ether had almost all properties of Aether, unlike Aura or other energies that only contain a specific property of Aether.

This meant that my core would take longer to destabilize from reaching the threshold, as Ether was very similar to Aether.

So I could continue killing beasts for a longer duration unlike other awakeners and have a high leveling speed.

But I can't gain exp from training because my assimilation rate is still low and crossing the gap between ranks would still be very hard for me.

It would take a month before I could again start leveling up.

"I should try to get reach Proficient-mastery in 'Art of Eridu' before then."

Mastery of arts was divided into five stages: Novice, Proficient, Intermediate, Advance, and Expert.

"Scan"

I started training again for the rest of the night.

***

"By the year 3500 CE, humanity had reached a high level of technological advancement and started colonizing outer space. But on 3527 CE or about 153 years ago, Aether suddenly arrived on our planet. Aether made plants and animals evolve into being that threatened humanity. Dungeons opened, which spewed monsters."

"Yawn…"

A few days have passed since the demonstration. For this week, everybody was free to try any classes they wanted.

Currently, I was sitting in a history class. Why history class? Because the magic engineering class and alchemy class were above and beyond my understanding.

I mean, how would I know why Q particles and Z particles when projected through quanti tunnel makes holograms? Or that 0.26345 gram of ester sand mixed with qualine zack and hicket grass can make an anti-hair loss potion?

And this was just basic knowledge in this world.

This was why I was out on my journey for easy extra subjects. But alas, the road was filled with pits and quagmires.

"The advent of Aether changed the existing laws. Humanity regressed to primal ages. We had to use vehicles that walked on earth with 'tires' and use 'televisions' for entertainment."

As the professor spoke, several images of cars and bikes from my previous world appeared on the hologram.

'Isn't that a Ferrar-cough.'

Just dodged a copyright issue.

"Loss of technology heavily impacted Earth and humanity couldn't fight back immediately. As a result, humanity suffered great losses. This is what was called the First Great Disaster."

I wasn't paying attention to details because I already knew this. Rather I was thinking about what to do from now on.

At the rate I was progressing, the constellation in my mind was going to be completed by tomorrow.

"Yawn.."

I had been sleeping for only 2-3 hours to train. I needed to work harder now if I wanted to live a good life in the future.

But it was easier said than done.

I could tell that it was taking a toll on my body.

"When the first human awakened, humanity saw a glimmer of hope. After that, many more humans started awakening. It took humanity decades, but we were again able to reach the top of the food chain."

The bald professor spoke while patting his belly. The First Great Disaster was bad, but it was nothing compared to the other two.

"Although we were still far cry from our peak technological advancement with Aether, we could get similar results. Over the years, humanity started flourishing."

I glanced around while listening to the lecture. The numbers of students were scant, but everyone was listening seriously. Leon and Anna were also present in this class.

"Year 100 NC, or 100 years after the Great Disaster in the new calendar, Aether levels suddenly increased explosively. Three city-sized inaccessible portals appeared above the skies of 3 continents. Later down the year, the portals, or Gate as we now call them, opened and..."

"Yawn…"

"You! Get out!"

The professor couldn't ignore the constant yawns anymore and bellowed.

"Si-"

"Shut up! I said get out!"

Cadets snickered as the professor again repeated himself. With no other option, Leon stood.

Of course, I wasn't the one yawing since earlier.

Even if I had been sleeping less, my art didn't need me to do physical training like Leon's. I wasn't as exhausted as him.

He would daily train while sacrificing his sleep. This was why he is always late for the morning classes.

Leon's shoulders dropped as he walked out of the class.

'tch tch, Poor guy. He sure has it bad.'

At this point, Leon hadn't gone through a single awakening, so he had to work hard to keep up with his peers.

Not that I was sympathizing with him. At least he was guaranteed to become strong and stay alive, unlike me.

"And you. Continue from where I left."

I glanced around the find next poor soul. But nobody stood up.

I looked ahead and found the professor staring at me.

"Yes, you! Stop looking around and start paying attention or I'll also throw you out."

Why was he so angry? Did his wife not feed him today?

Withholding my sigh, I stood up.

"Three different races invaded Earth from each Gate. The elves, the demons, and the barbarians attacked without even trying to converse with humans. Humanity engaged in a bitter struggle against the races which were more technologically and magically advanced than us."

The only reason humanity hadn't lost quickly was because of Stigmas, an ability unique to humanity.

Every race had its own special trait.

Elves had their great magical prowess and spirit magic. Barbarians had gigantification and monstrous strength. While demons could use demonic energy and curse energy, Nether. Nether was the only type of energy that was the antithesis of Aether.

Stigma came from the soul of humans. This meant that everyone had a different stigma.

Stigmas could vary from absolute control space to farting without sound. They didn't have a set pattern and nobody could tell what kind of stigma a person would awaken.

Unlike other races which had uniform abilities, humanity had bizarre and uncommon abilities. This was the reason the races couldn't wipe out humanity quickly. But defeat was still only a matter of time.

"It was near this time when pioneers broke through to Sandra-rank. With the prowess of Sandra-ranks, the scales of war were tipped in favor of humanity. Finally, after a bitter struggle of 10 years, humanity managed to push back invaders into the gates."

The professor nodded his head and signaled for me to continue speaking.

"But the war wasn't won without losses. It left 3 out of the total 7 continents unhabitable and 30% of the total population died. The opening of the Gates was termed as Second Great Disaster."

The professor kept nodding his head.

'I need to speak more…'

Maybe I should have chosen this class someday else. It was tiring to be the center of attention.

"At this point, humanity had realized what it needed to do. Various programs to raise awakeners started, and all countries were dissolved into a single nation, Gia."

I took a deep breath and got to the last topic.

"But all of it was for naught. Seven years ago, the Third Great Disaster happened. The combined losses Earth had suffered during the First and Second Great Disaster couldn't even be compared to the losses suffered in the Third Great Disaster."

I was used to being the center of attention. But living peacefully and quietly felt more pleasing to me.

Sadly, I was going to do the opposite in the upcoming days.

"The Third Great Disaster whe-"

TRING-! TRING-!

Cutting me in between my sentence, the bell signaling the end of the class resounded.

I sighed and stopped speaking.

Even though the class had ended, nobody stood up, and they kept quiet.

Of course, it wasn't because I had accidentally spoken something that nobody knew. I never said that Earth survived Second Disaster only because the enemy Sandra-rank couldn't cross through the Gates.

Mistakingly speaking, an unknown fact was too much of a cliché!

The atmosphere in the class was solemn because of the topic I had just spoken. In the current times, it was harder to find a person who had not lost somebody in the Third Disaster.

It wasn't wrong to say that humanity had almost gone extinct during the Third Great Disaster.

The Third Great Disaster was a disgrace and scar on the pride of humanity.

"Okay, this is the end of the class. The topic will be continued in the next session."