The Hidden World

The third day of Yuki’s enrollment at the Academy wasn’t very eventful. In his General Magic class, Mabel had the class begin with using elemental magic in spells rather than just manipulating mana. She had them throw their attacks at a crystal that rested on a golden pedestal. Mabel called this a meter crystal.

 

As the name suggested, the crystal measured the strength of the magic attack launched at it. The more powerful an attack was, the brighter the crystal would glow. But because the crystal didn’t give a numerical value, the strength was an estimate. Yuki launched a normal fireball at the crystal and it seemed to glow at an average brightness when he compared it to the others. Of course, he also saw that the other students seemed to be summoning lightning strikes and hurling shards of magic ice at the ball at full power.

 

His next class was even less eventful than General Magic. Deral seemed to be treating his advanced class as if they were novices as started to teach them basic combat techniques. The other students seemed to believe that they were receiving incredible instruction and hung on Deral’s every word. To Yuki, the techniques being taught looked sloppy and crude; they were nothing like the Dance of Dragons.

 

But one thing that Yuki discovered in that class was that attempting to look like a lousy swordsman while also not being the worst was very difficult. He had to precisely control his strength and micromanage his every movement. By the end of the class, Yuki dripped with sweat and his arms and legs were sore. His efforts to look mediocre, though, were rewarded with a smirk from Deral.

 

Then came lunch were Yuki ate a simple salad again and sat under the same tree as he did the other day. This time, no one came to disturb him and he ate in peace. When it was time for his last class of the day, he tossed his trash and walked into the Magic Hall.

 

Support Magic class was exactly the same as it was the day before. Yuki knelt down and meditated before class started. Then Mabel handed him the scrolls and manuscripts again that were filled with the drawings of various spells. As Yuki sat there reading and memorizing these spells, Mabel would strike up idle chatter about the happenings at the Academy or do magic exercises by herself.

 

Throughout the day, Yuki exchanged a few words with Akira as he was walking to his classes. She told him that her research was nearly complete and that she won’t be paying much attention Yuki and his surroundings.

 

And now Yuki was back in his dorm, looking blankly at his dark pane of glass that was apparently a television. He was trying to plan out what it was that he wanted to do for the day. Then a topic that they had covered that day in his homeroom came up in his mind.

 

Nataru had given a short presentation on the various races that lived in Ethros. Yuki learned that to the north was the country of Faerie located in the Kiera Forest where the various kinds of elves lived. To the south was the country of Keynal whose territory was thin but long as it followed the giant river that is the Madeira River. This was that country of the beastkin. To the east were the Jotun Mountains which housed the dwarves and their country of Montsol. And surrounding these four countries was an area dubbed the Graeto. This was said to be the home of the demons. It encompassed the Derif Ocean to the west, the Veric Desert located past the Jotun Mountains, and the rest which was simply named the Outskirts.

 

One thing that Yuki found interesting was that in Ethros, demons were just seen as another race. There was no prejudice against them and if anything most people seemed indifferent towards them. He also learned that the term demon encompassed a large range of species. This label included beings like devils, succubi, and even dryads.

 

Recalling this, Yuki remembered what Yuna had told him when he said that he wanted to make money. One of the options was to become a hunter by signing up at the Academy.

 

‘I’ll do that when I feel confident that I can defeat monsters,’ Yuki planned. ‘I struggled during the battle on Earth and the monsters here would be even stronger.’

 

Then Yuki tapped open his smartwatch and a screened appeared before him. There were a few things that Yuki wanted to look for. The first thing that he typed on his screen was a simple search on the type of monsters that were located around the campus. He found that most monsters around this area were called relatively weak but had ranks that averaged at about Rank C one star to three star. This was currently above Yuki and so he decided that he would sign up once he reached Rank C. This meant more training.

 

The other thing that Yuki searched was information on magical technology and programming in this world. His results gave him a few manuals on these subjects which Yuki saved for later reading. Later, he would use Ancestral Knowledge to see if it had anything on this topic.

 

The last thing that Yuki looked up was considerably less important. He typed in music into his search bar and browsed the results that appeared. What he heard was music that seemed old and classical to Yuki but was apparently the trendy songs of Libra.

 

‘They have synthesizers but can’t make anything new?’ Yuki thought to himself.

 

He narrowed his searches, trying to find a specific genre of music. At last he managed to locate it but it seemed that the underground here was quite deep. It took Yuki a solid couple minutes to find any music that included the use of synthesizers. Listening to the electronic buzzes and the thumps of drums, Yuki slowly nodded to himself as he melted into the rhythmic sounds.

 

‘That’s more like it,’ he thought. After some time past, he looked at the time and saw that it was 17:00.

 

Yuki got off of the couch that he was sitting on and went to the bathroom to clean himself quickly. Twenty minutes later, he came out and did some light mana exercise on the floor of his dorm room. He would do physical training when he went out later tonight.

 

When his watch told him that is was about 18:00, Yuki stood up and went to his refrigerator. Today, he would be cooking for the first time since he had came to Ethros. As he was taking out ingredients for his meal, he heard knocking on his door.

 

‘Who can that be?’ Yuki thought, tilting his head as he headed to the door.

 

He opened it a crack and peeked out to see the face of Yuna standing awkwardly in front of his entrance.

 

‘That’s right,’ Yuki remembered. ‘I invited her to come by anytime she wanted for dinner. I didn’t expect her to accept it, though.’

 

Yuki had only invited her so that he could say that he tried to repay her for the money that he had spent the day before shopping. He didn’t actually want anyone to really come to his dorm room.

 

‘Well, whatever,’ Yuki thought. ‘I did invite her so might as well let her in.’

 

He slid the door open completely and waved to her to come inside without saying a word. Then he walked back to the kitchen to begin his cooking. As he did that, he heard the door shut quietly and the soft footsteps of a person walking close by him.

 

‘They take their shoes off inside too I see,’ Yuki thought as he put on an apron. He started to wash vegetables, well aware of the pair of curious eyes that looked at him.

 

“What are you making?” Yuna asked.

 

“A simple dish,” Yuki replied, not really answering. “It’ll be done in ten to twenty minutes so you can just do what you want around here until I finish.”

 

Yuki felt Yuna leave and he went back to his cooking.

 

‘At least she doesn’t continually asks questions,’ Yuki remarked. ‘I appreciate that.’

 

About twelve minutes later, Yuki walked to the small table in his room that served as his dining table. In his hands were two plates that had stir fried vegetables with a grilled meat that Yuki thought was quite similar to pork.

 

Soon, Yuna came to the table and sat down in front of Yuki who handed her a plate of food. Then they ate there in silence.

 

“You’re a pretty good cook,” Yuna remarked as she ate her dish.

 

Yuki didn't reply and continued to eat. Yuna didn’t say anything else.

 

When they finished, Yuki picked up the two plates and utensils and went to wash them. Yuna followed him and watched him as he did so.  After he was done with the dishes, Yuna turned to leave. Yuki went to escort her out of his room. She walked outside of the entrance way then she paused.

 

“Would it be fine if I come by at random days to eat?” she asked uncomfortably.

 

‘Well I did say whenever you like,’ Yuki thought to himself as he looked at her. ‘It might become a pain but if it does I’ll just kick her out.’

 

“That would be fine,” Yuki replied out loud.

 

Yuna nodded, a small smile forming on her face and then she turned and left. Yuki slid the door shut and went back to his room to meditate.

 

‘Well,’ Yuki thought. ‘At least dinner was peaceful and quiet.’

 

Then Yuki felt a tug on the bond that connected him an Akira. Turning his attention to it, he saw that Akira was trying to contact him.

 

‘What do you need, Akira?’ he asked her.

 

[I did it!] she exclaimed.

 

‘Did what?’

 

[I can come out to the real world now.]