Born In Ashes: The Enigma

The next day, after breakfast, Azrael left the mansion and headed towards the academy.

Since Ashara wasn't with him to give him a free ride to the academy, the servants had prepared a hover car to take him there.

Maelir's mansion was about twenty miles away from the academy, and as the hover car moved forward, Azrael sat quietly at the back, a thoughtful expression on his face as he reviewed his current task.

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---) Current Task: Successfully enter the elite class of the Slayers Academy as the first-rank student.

Reward: A random class-level Artifact.

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'I have passed eight levels inside the Tower of Trials, so I can easily enter the elite class. As for first rank… as long as no one else passes the eighth level in a shorter time than I did, I should be able to complete the task.'

There were still two days left before the assessment for the new students ended. Azrael believed that once the assessment was over, the task would be completed.

About fifteen minutes later, the hover car came to a stop, and the driver informed Azrael that they had arrived at the academy.

Looking out through the window, he saw a luxurious entrance with two wide-open gates standing before him.

Azrael thanked the driver and stepped out of the vehicle. As he emerged, he noticed that, much like himself, there were many young people— presumably new students entering through the gates with curious expressions on their faces.

At the entrance stood several people in black uniforms, each uniform bearing the design of a skull with a sword piercing vertically through its center.

These people were maintaining order among the arrivals and from their attire and youthful appearance, Azrael recognized them as students of the Slayers Academy.

'They must have been assigned to guide the new students arriving here…' Azrael thought as he approached a young man who appeared to be around eighteen years old.

When the man noticed Azrael walking toward him, he smiled. "Are you here to take a look at the academy as well?"

Azrael nodded in response to the man's question and asked, "Do I need to register or something before going in?"

The young man nodded and handed him a square-shaped card. "Just infuse a small amount of your cosmic energy into it to leave your energy mark, and you will be all set."

Azrael accepted the token from the man and a quick inspection through his status window confirmed that it was just a standard registration token used for recording energy marks.

Once he was certain it was safe, he infused a small amount of his cosmic energy into it.

"Here," The young man said, handing Azrael another token with a smile. "This is the academy map. However, since you are not yet an official student, you won't be able to use the teleportation formations within the academy to reach facilities that are far from here. For now, you can only visit a limited number of places."

Azrael wasn't surprised by the man's explanation. The facilities of the Slayers Academy covered more than seventy percent of the planet Arkanis.

Considering Arkanis was far larger than Earth, moving between locations within the academy often required teleportation formations.

After receiving the map, Azrael thanked the young man and entered the academy. As he walked, he activated the map token, and a small holographic projection of the academy appeared before him.

He first determined his current location, and after confirming it, he began browsing the different areas marked on the map.

There were hundreds of different kinds of places within the academy and his gaze soon paused on one particular training facility.

"An area specially created for wind power users…" He murmured softly, studying the display.

Not only for wind power users, there were actually areas for various power users such as— water, earth, lightning, poison, and many more. However, the one Azrael was most interested in was naturally the wind training area.

'It's a pity that it's on the far side of the academy, and I can't get there without the teleportation formations…' He sighed inwardly.

In addition to the facility names, the map also displayed the price for training access.

'Thirty academic credits for a single day if you want to train in the wind training area…' Azrael raised an eyebrow.

Since he had not yet officially entered the academy, he wasn't sure how difficult it would be to earn thirty credits. However, knowing that entering Eonrift required five hundred points, he speculated that acquiring thirty credits would not be easy.

'Oh, right…' Azrael suddenly remembered the training ground card he had received as a reward in the Tower of Trials.

'I wonder if that card will let me into the wind training area for free. If it does, I need to find out how long I can train there using it.'

He set those thoughts aside for the moment and searched for facilities close to his current location— places he could visit without the help of the teleportation formation. Soon, he found a few intriguing options.

'Let's check this place out first…' Azrael decided, beginning to walk in that direction.

However, after only a few steps, he stopped on his tracks and turned around.

As he looked back, his eyes landed on a young man with golden hair who was speaking with one of the academy students at the entrance. After registering and receiving his map, the young man also walked inside the academy.

'No. 5…' Azrael murmured inwardly, recognizing the familiar face he had last seen just before entering Eonrift.

'If he is here, does that mean he is also planning to join the Slayers Academy?' Azrael wondered.

Extending his senses, he gauged the young man's level and it turned out to be level eight.

Azrael studied him closely, memories of Earth surfacing in his mind and after a brief pause, he closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again, a faint glint in his gaze.

'Let's see if he is any different from the person in my memories…' He thought, before striding toward No. 5.