In the middle of a lightly bustling camp, the ground surrounding an imposing large terminal suddenly lit up in a golden glow, illuminating the surroundings and attracting the gazes of the students walking in the area.
As soon as the golden light dimmed, the form of a white-haired boy with his left hand stretched outward as though gripping something appeared in view.
"Hmm, that felt different," Atticus muttered. He could recall the weird and surreal feeling he always got anytime he got transported. The same thing had happened now, but he was able to properly identify the cause of the feeling.
It was because the space element forcefully acted on him in order to teleport him.
Atticus gazed at his stretched hand, which was supposed to be holding a particular orange-haired boy, with narrowed eyes.
The unfolding events had taken too much of his attention that Atticus hadn't paid close attention to the time he had left.
'It wouldn't have been enough to break him,' Atticus clearly remembered the intense gaze of Seraphin even when he was getting beaten up. It was plenty obvious that that wasn't his first time feeling that amount of pain.
Atticus would have needed more time in order to break him than he had.
Atticus sighed. He wasn't exactly worried that they got away; they were all in the academy, and he was sure to see them again.
Seraphin's name had just shot up the list of the people he suspected sent those third years to him. His whole behavior had been very questionable.
The worst enemy one could have was an unknown one. And now that he knew exactly who they were, all Atticus had to do was have a 'talk' with them tomorrow.
"That suit," Atticus's attention suddenly shifted towards the suit Gerald had used during the last parts of the altercation.
"Exo suit?" He muttered, recalling the name the AI had used to refer to it. Atticus knew for a fact that the academy didn't ban the use of artifacts to battle; hell, Seraphin had used one against him.
But it was different in Gerald's case. The AI had actually warned him not to use it. What did this imply? It simply meant that the Exo suit was an academy property.
"Probably something given to the students of a particular year?"
Instead of wasting time pondering about it, Atticus decided to ask the oracle in his artifact.
"What are Exo suits?" Atticus asked the oracle after navigating to the oracle section on his artifact.
"Exosuits are battle suits tailor-made for each individual, aimed at enhancing the unique strengths of their users. They are given to each student at the end of their first year."
Hearing the AI's explanation, a huge smile appeared on Atticus's face. 'At the end of the first year, huh,' Atticus thought with giddy anticipation.
He was completely elated about the possibility of obtaining his Exo suit at the end of the year. It would be a huge boost to his strength!
Seeing as it could increase Gerald's power by two sublevels, Atticus was very curious to see how powerful he would get if he should combine all of his strengths together with the exosuit.
Atticus turned his gaze around the campgrounds, noticing that many of the division youths were looking his way.
Ignoring the stares, Atticus made his way to the mansion.
Just as Atticus was about to step through the door to his room, "Hey, bitch," he suddenly heard the voice of a particular red-eyed girl behind him. And with her presence, the inviting smell of something he knew well followed.
Atticus smiled and turned to see Aurora standing with a small smile and food.
He chuckled, opened the door, and stepped through followed by Aurora.
"Such foul language. How do you expect to get married if you keep speaking like this?" Atticus teased while removing his trench coat and hanging it on the cloth rack by the door.
Aurora dropped the tray of food on the table and instantly scoffed, flicking her hair to the side. "Have you seen how gorgeous I am? Guys would kill to get a chance to speak to me."
Atticus's face instantly scrunched up. "Ugh, poor Aurora. Your delusions have gotten out of hand, huh?"
Aurora clicked her tongue irritably. "I'm just stating proven facts and you know it!"
Atticus's chuckle rang out as he started walking towards the bathroom by the side. "Yes, yes, you're the most pretty girl on the planet," Atticus said, his tone laced in sarcasm.
"That's a fact, you bitch," Aurora fumed, clearly angry that Atticus was being sarcastic.
"Sure, sure, now if you'll excuse me, I would like to have my bath," Atticus said as he got to the bathroom door.
"Thanks for the food!" He turned back and added.
But instead of the expected response, "Hmph, dumbass," Aurora said as she turned and left the room.
Atticus shook his head with a smile and went to have his bath.
After a few minutes, Atticus came out of the bathroom and ate his food, after which he immediately headed to bed and slept.
The next day, Atticus woke up and his routine continued as he battled Jared's copy at the master rank.
But this time around, Atticus used his newly awakened space element during the fight and it was nothing short of mind-blowing.
It was as though it was another person fighting. The pace of the battle completely changed drastically.
And even though because of the robot's practically endless energy, Atticus eventually lost the fight, he was able to inflict an incredible amount of damage on the robot.
After training, he freshened up at the mansion and grabbed a meal with Aurora after. Then they headed to the terminal at the middle of the camp in order to get teleported to class.
After a few minutes, Atticus found himself inside a familiar pristine white room.
Without wasting time, he headed out of the door, his gaze instantly landing on the form of Zoey with a slight blush on her face, walking incredibly fast past his door with her gaze turned away from him.
Before Atticus could say something, Zoey was already long gone.
Atticus sighed as he stared in the direction she had just left. 'I knew this would happen,' he thought.
The Zoey he had come to know during this past month was a very misunderstood girl.
People who saw her for the first time would automatically assume she had a cold personality, and to be completely honest, she did. But this was just the exterior part of her.
Once Atticus had gotten close enough, he was able to see that she was basically just like any other 15-year-old teenage girl. And the fact that she could get incredibly shy.
She was very curious about a lot of things but was too shy to try them out.
Atticus suddenly felt a stare on him and turned his gaze to see Kael staring at him.
"We'll be late for class," Kael suddenly spoke up.
Atticus smiled and chuckled. At least he always had Kael.
"Yeah, let's go," Atticus said as he moved towards him, "So how's everything been? What did I miss?" Atticus asked.
Because he had been spending his time training and being with Zoey, they hadn't had the chance to hang out together. Atticus decided to use this opportunity to catch up.
But Kael had always been one who didn't speak much. After many answers that frustrated Atticus to his core, the duo finally reached the classroom.
As the door parted open, Atticus's gaze instantly turned icy as he walked in. His gaze shot towards where a particular orange-haired boy was supposed to be seated only to find it completely empty for the first time.
'He didn't come, of course,' he had already anticipated the possibility of Seraphin not coming to class.
Seraphin would have to be truly stupid to show up again after taking that brutal beating.
Atticus took his gaze away from there and turned it towards Zoey, seated with a slight blush on her face, his cold gaze instantly turning soft.
After a few seconds, Atticus took his seat beside Zoey, who had her gaze facing the other side away from him.
"Hey," Atticus greeted but got no response.
"Hmm, if you ignore me again, I'll kiss you," Atticus threatened, causing Zoey to flinch.
She slowly and reluctantly turned her gaze to face Atticus, causing him to smile.
The whole class was surprisingly quiet as each of their gazes was focused on the duo. Many of the guys felt their hearts clench as they watched the scene.
Why, just why were they doing it here!?
It was as if both of them didn't even care about what they all thought about them.
Many of them had been happy to see that they didn't enter the class together today, thinking Zoey had been pissed about what Atticus did yesterday. But unfortunately, they had been completely wrong.
Just as Atticus was about to speak, the classroom door suddenly opened, and Isabella walked in.