Chapter 180: The Strange Luna
The early morning came quickly, the night gone in a blink, and slowly, a pair of blue-red eyes opened up.
The first thing he saw was the wide structure tops through the glass frame, and raising his hand to his eyes, he tried to block the golden rays of sunlight that threatened to blind him.
Not long after, his eyes finally regulated themselves to the new light, and Nolan sat up from his bed.
"It's morning..." he thought, cracking his bones before jumping up to his feet.
[Happy someone didn't give you a proper wake-up?]
The system notification panel appeared, teasing Nolan, who rolled his eyes.
"Your early morning greetings are anything but a proper wake-up," he replied.
GRUUUUUUUM
Immediately, the sound of something rumbling loudly echoed, and Nolan touched his stomach, soothing it as he tried to calm his hungry stomach worms.
"I'll try getting something to eat first..." he mused, rising and heading out of the bedroom.
On his arrival, Nolan felt the intensely cold temperature once more. Sitting on the sofa with a plate in hand was none other than his roommate. Her eyes were locked onto her runic device, which she was tapping on, and she didn't raise her head when he entered the room. She seemed so engrossed in whatever she was doing that Nolan didn't want to bother her, so he simply walked forward and went into the kitchen.
An hour passed before he exited, a large tray in his hands, filled with various assortments of dishes. Calmly, he settled them on the table before sitting down at the side of the sofa, a few meters away from the lady.
Without saying anything, he dove in, every bite into his mouth causing his stomach to growl in satisfaction.
[Won't you invite her to breakfast?]
The system spoke to Nolan, who turned to look at the girl.
She was still scrolling through her runic device, and her plate, now empty, had been placed to the side.
Almost as if she could sense his gaze, she raised her head. Her six eyes stared at Nolan, who stared back dazedly before regaining himself.
"Do you mind joining me?" Nolan asked curtly, with the best smile he could put on.
All he got was her staring at him for a while before she rose to her feet and took her plate into the kitchen.
[I guess that's a no?]
The system said as Nolan rolled his eyes at it before continuing his meal. He wasn't the slightest bit offended, but he was starting to notice something abnormal about the Hexgalive.
Firstly, her six eyes. They were different from the normal eyes. Unlike Norgomdoev eyes, which were a normal pitch-black color, her eyes weren't black. They were white, freezing white, that chilled Nolan's bones anytime he stared into them. Her eyes radiated a great amount of cold, almost like her element had something to do with ice.
And what was even more abnormal was the fact that strange white steam oozed out from her body whenever she walked. Even right now, as Nolan looked at the sofa she previously sat on, he could see a cold white air emanating from the chair. The misty trail seemed to follow straight into the kitchen.
"Her body is releasing a large amount of cold, and it's so powerful that the entire air around her turns into cold, steamy air anytime she passes by?" Nolan thought.
"Just what is wrong with her? Is this too much elemental power, or a sickness?"
Nolan wondered to himself as he heard the sound of the door opening. Turning to look, he saw no one, and behind him, the sound of the door opening rang out once more. Nolan barely saw her disappear into the bedroom.
He ought to have been surprised by the insane speed, but he wasn't, and that could be attributed to the fact that he had seen how the Ascendants moved before now. They all flashed around like dragonflies.
"Soon," he thought in his head before diving back into his meal.
There was no class for the day as it was the weekend. Class would resume in the new week, and today was Saturday. One could say he had two days all alone for himself. He wasn't planning on squandering that time, so Nolan quickly finished his meal and then headed into the bath, freshening up quickly.
Once he did that, he got back into the bedroom. Luna sat on the bed, cross-legged, her eyes closed in a strange pose. Nolan recognized the stance; it was that of someone cultivating. According to what he had learned from the Newcomer Class, there was an energy called the Divine Essence in the air, and the Celestial Heirs absorb that energy to power their abilities. One of the ways to absorb such power was through meditation, and the pose Luna was in was precisely for that.
He didn't pay too much attention to it and simply walked to the wardrobe. He had thrown everything he obtained yesterday into the wardrobe without bothering to check any of it, but now he had the time.
On opening the wardrobe, his eyes first saw the books, and Nolan quickly began arranging them, placing them in the wide, open wooden space. There were a total of five textbooks and a few notebooks. A few cubic artifacts were also there, which Nolan had no idea how they worked or even what they did. After minutes of tinkering with them, he could only place them down in the end.
He opened the pages of the books and scrolled through them, but he didn't understand the majority of the topics. They dealt with powers far beyond his comprehension, with strange runic symbols all over the pages, which made them even harder to understand. In the end, Nolan simply shut them close and placed them carefully on the bookshelves.
Hours passed, and soon Nolan was done with the arrangement. All of the books were properly placed on the shelf, and his school uniform had been neatly hung on the hangers, along with his other clothes.
He had also tinkered around with his runic device, given to him by the academy, but it was unlike anything Nolan had imagined. Apart from the map, which showed him as a green dot along with a few thousand meters around him and various building names, the other features on the runic device were simply application categories, most of which were empty. There was a message tab, a call tab, and some other strange tabs that he didn't quite understand, like "Ascendant's Mission Task" and "Ascendant's Rules."
Other than that, there wasn't much to see, but Nolan guessed it would only be this way for now. Soon, he'd be able to put his runic device to good use—he just needed more time to familiarize himself with things here.
Speaking of familiarization, it occurred to Nolan that he should go out and explore a bit. Through the window panes, he could already see various students moving around. The newcomers were distinguishable because, unlike the Ascendants, who wore their academy uniforms, the newcomers were still dressed in their regular clothes. They moved in twos and threes, while the Ascendants ignored them, simply going about their own business.
Everything radiated a peaceful aura, and Nolan felt the itch to go outside, too.
"Let me check things out a bit," Nolan mused to himself as he rose from his seat by the window, preparing to head outside. But suddenly...
WHEEZE...
WHEEZE...
The sound of heavy wheezing filled the air, and Nolan turned to look at the figure lying on the bed. His expression quickly changed. Your next chapter is on m v|l-e'm,p| y- r
The Luna who had calmly sat on the bed just a few hours ago was now lying there, her chest heaving up and down rapidly, and her hands, placed on her stomach, were covered in icy blue scales. The air around her had turned into an intensely cold atmosphere, and even her bedsheet was coated with frost.
"What the...?"
"Hey, are you okay?" Nolan said, hurrying to her side.
Luna's six eyes were tightly closed, and even though she tried to hide it, Nolan could tell she was in severe pain. He could see the frost covering her usually red lips and her rapidly heaving chest.
Nolan wasn't a doctor, and he didn't know what to do, but he knew something was seriously wrong. Unable to think of anything else, he called out to the system in his head.
'What's really wrong with her?'
He had been suspicious for a while that the cold aura surrounding Luna everywhere she went wasn't normal. He'd figured it might be some sort of abnormal illness, and now his suspicion was confirmed.
But an even more important question remained:
'What should I do?'
"Call the Instructors or take her to the hospital!?" Nolan mused to himself finding the two best solutions but a splash of cold water was slammed into his face as the system notification blinked in front of him....