Born In Ashes: The Enigma

"I didn't expect I would be able to enter Slayers Academy without even needing to take the entrance assessment…" A young man with golden hair, green eyes, and a sunny face muttered under his breath as he looked at the holographic screen before him, which displayed the map of the academy.

As he was studying the map, wondering where he should go first.

"Hello," A voice interrupted his study of the map.

He turned around and saw a black haired youth standing a meter away from him.

"Mind if I take a look at your map? The map token they gave me is not working." Azrael asked in a polite voice.

Number Five smiled when he heard Azrael's words and nodded.

"Sure, but if you are planning to look around the academy, you should ask them for a new map token. Otherwise, it will be inconvenient for you to navigate such a large place."

"Thanks, but my memory is quite good. I just need to look at the map for a few seconds to remember it.

Number Five didn't say anything else and stepped aside slightly, allowing Azrael to also see the map floating before him.

Azrael examined the map for around thirty seconds before stopping. He then turned his head toward Number Five.

"Thanks for your help."

"It's nothing…" Number Five waved his hand dismissively before asking in a curious voice, "Are you also a new student here?"

Azrael nodded and extended his hand.

"I am Azrael, it's nice to meet you."

Number Five shook his hand and replied, "I am Felix. Nice to meet you as well."

'So, his name is the same, huh…' Azrael noted inwardly before pulling back his hand.

"Where are you planning to go? If you don't mind, we can go together— it's boring to look around alone," He suggested after withdrawing his hand.

Felix's eyes lit up upon hearing Azrael's words, and he immediately nodded.

"Sure." He pointed to one of the locations on the map and asked,

"I am thinking about going here. What do you think?"

Azrael looked at the place Felix had indicated and was pleasantly surprised to see it was the same location he had planned to visit.

"Sure, I was also planning to go there."

Felix smiled at Azrael's words and closed the map.

As they began walking, Azrael sighed and spoke in a slightly downcast tone.

"I actually wanted to visit the wind training area, but alas, I can't use the academy's teleportation formations yet."

Hearing this, Felix glanced at him curiously.

"You are a wind power user?"

Azrael's eyes gleamed slightly, as if he had been waiting for Felix to ask that question.

He gave a small nod before following up with a question of his own.

"What about you?"

Felix scratched the back of his head and spoke in a slightly awkward voice.

"Well, I actually have the power of Blessing."

Azrael was surprised upon hearing Felix's words.

Just like the power of Aura that Alex had during his Eonrift Trial, Blessing was also a special category power.

Users with the power of Blessing could provide buffs to others— such as temporarily increasing their stat points, granting temporary resistance to certain effects, enhancing the effectiveness of healing skills, dispel curses and much more.

There were many applications for the Blessing power, and its effectiveness depended greatly on how the user utilized it.

Blessing power users were considered part of the support class, and they were often highly valued due to the support they could provide.

In battle, if your team had someone with the Blessing power while the opposing side did not, it gave your team a significant advantage, as Blessing could substantially enhance your team's combat and defensive capabilities.

"Since you have the power of Blessing, then you only had to prove that you have over 85 points of cosmic energy to enter Slayers Academy, right?" Azrael asked.

Felix nodded at his question.

"The combat abilities of Blessing power holders are quite limited. And since we are mostly expected to work from behind to provide support rather than fighting head-on, people with Blessing don't have to go through the Tower of Trials to enter the academy."

Azrael nodded at his explanation, and as they continued chatting, he confirmed that Felix was very much like the Felix he had known on Earth.

From time to time, he would ask questions in a way that did not alert Felix, allowing him to gradually understand his personality

About twenty minutes of walking, they reached their destination, looking at a tall building with roughly a hundred floors.

There were a few people like them entering the building, but not many— indicating that this location didn't attract too many visitors among the academy's newcomers.

A young man dressed in black— similar to the attire of the people stationed at the academy's main entrance was sitting behind a side counter near the entrance of the building.

When he saw Azrael and Felix, he spoke lazily.

"You guys can only look at the first three floors. Don't try to go to the floors above that."

Azrael and Felix nodded at the man's words and stepped inside.

The man gave them a brief glance before leaning back in his chair and yawning, clearly bored.

As Azrael and Felix entered, a faint smell of old wood, paper and ink assaulted their nostrils and they were greeted by endless rows of bookshelves stretched into the distance, each stacked high with volumes that gleamed under soft golden light.

Both of them stared at the sight with slightly shocked expressions.

'There are a hundred floors in this building…' Azrael thought, his eyes gleaming as he took in the shelves before him. 'The number of books on just the ground floor is already far beyond what I had imagined.'

'Maybe I can finally find the knowledge I need to proceed with that idea of mine…' His thoughts drifted to the blood essence and the dragon core of the Ancient Light Dragon he had obtained as a reward after his Eonrift Trial, and his heart began to beat wildly.

He took a deep breath to suppress his excitement and looked at Felix.

"What do you plan to look for here?"