( Leo’s POV, C Wing Infirmary)
Leo stirred, his senses slowly dragging themselves back into focus.
Everything hurt.
His limbs felt like dead weights, his muscles screamed in protest with even the slightest shift, and his head throbbed with a dull, pounding ache.
It was like waking up from the worst beating of his life—except he couldn’t remember when he’d even taken a hit.
*Gasp*
A deep breath sent a sharp, uncomfortable pressure through his chest. Not pain, but tightness, like his lungs were still adjusting to working properly again.
’What the hell happened…?’ he wondered, as his last memory was one of running on the track—his legs burning, his breath coming shorter, and the world slowly darkening with each lap.
Darkness. That was all he remembered. It had crept in at the edges of his vision, spreading with every step until—
Until what?
His brows furrowed slightly as he stared at the white ceiling above him. He didn’t remember collapsing. Didn’t remember stopping.
All he knew was that one moment he was running, and the next… he was here.
"You’re awake."
A calm, authoritative voice cut through his thoughts, and Leo turned his head slightly to see a mature woman standing at his bedside.
Her dark hair was streaked with silver, tied into a neat bun, and her sharp, assessing eyes swept over him with clinical precision.
"You gave us quite the trouble, young man," she said, setting a small vial down on the bedside table. "Not many students manage to land themselves in the infirmary on the first day—at least, not from running."
Leo blinked, his throat dry as he finally registered his surroundings.
This was the C-Wing Infirmary, he had seen it during the orientation from the outside.
"How long was I out?" He asked, his voice coming out rough, probably because he hadn’t spoken in hours.
"A little over two hours." The healer responded, looking at the clock, as Leo exhaled sharply to her response.
This wasn’t ideal, being out for two hours meant that he missed most of what else happened in the morning training class, and missed his chance to grab breakfast.
"You need to get moving if you don’t want to miss your next class." The healer warned, as reaching for the vial she had placed on the table beside him earlier, she pressed the glass into his hand.
"Drink this throughout the day. Small sips, not all at once. It’ll help your body recover."
Leo frowned slightly, staring at the potion.
It looked turbid and yellow, like pee, and once the thought entered his brain, he couldn’t imagine himself drinking it at all.
Nonetheless, giving the healer a firm nod, Leo swung his legs over the bedside, his feet hitting the cold floor, exhaling slowly before pushing himself upright.
’It feels… painful–’ he realized, as every inch of his body hurt, however, while the pain was ever present, it was strangely manageable.
He could move despite the pain, and that was all that mattered.
"Your body is not fully healed, so don’t be reckless. Your mana reserves are still running low, so expect some fatigue. However, sip on that drink and eat well and you should be fine by tomorrow" She said, as she checked off some points on her patient sheet.
Leo rolled his shoulders, stretching out the stiffness in his limbs before giving her a curt nod.
"Thanks." he said, however, the chief healer did not respond.
She just gave him a knowing look before turning away, already moving to tend to the next patient.
"Alright, the next class is the Basics Of Perception, I have to go to block D–" Leo muttered to himself, as he did not linger around either.
Walking swiftly, he began making his way to sector D, while also thinking about how he must have become the biggest joke in class.
"Passing out on day one… people must think I’m a fraud…. *Sigh*. I’m going to become the center of jokes and bullying.
People will pick on me, just because I’m number one and not worthy," Leo mused, as he almost dreaded moving to the next class.
He was never one to be really affected by peer pressure, however, it did not feel good to be the butt of the jokes.
Nonetheless, with no other options, he did make his way to the next class, where the atmosphere at his arrival was entirely different to what he had expected.
*********
As Leo stepped into Training Ground D-4, a heavy silence settled over the students already gathered there.
He had expected whispers, sneers, maybe even a few mocking grins.
He had expected people to call him out for passing out. For collapsing on day one.
But what he got…
Was something completely different.
The moment his presence registered, heads turned—slowly, almost cautiously.
Eyes flickered toward him with an unreadable, wary.
Some widened, others narrowed, and a few students even took half a step back, as if his very presence unsettled them.
It was subtle. But Leo felt it.
The eyes looking at him feared him, as if they saw him like a monster instead of a colleague, and Leo could not understand why?
’What’s going on?’ he wondered, as he straightened his shoulders.
He didn’t slow his steps. Didn’t let his expression shift and walked as if he was completely unbothered by the glances coming his way.
But internally, he was confused.
’What the hell is this reaction?’
His gaze flicked across the students, scanning their faces, their body language.
He caught bits and pieces of hushed conversations—not whispers of mockery, but of caution. Of disbelief.
"He’s up already…?"
"Two hours. That’s all it took for him to recover from that?"
"I… I thought he’d be out for the rest of the day, at least…"
"He passed out but kept running… his body didn’t stop…"
Leo’s steps faltered slightly.
What?
Kept running?
The words didn’t make sense. He had collapsed, right? That’s why he was in the infirmary. That’s why he woke up there.
But the murmurs continued.
"He was smiling the whole time like a freak."
"Why does he look so calm? He knows he’s fooling no-one with this fake calmness anymore yeah?"
Leo’s brow twitched.
’What the hell are they talking about?’
A shadow flickered in his peripheral vision, and Leo turned just as Mu Shen stepped into view, arms crossed, his usually laid-back expression nowhere to be found.
"You really are a freak, Skyshard" Mu Shen muttered, not in an insulting way, but as if he was still trying to process what he had seen.
Leo frowned. "What the hell happened?"
Mu Shen’s lips parted slightly, as if about to answer—
Then—
"Alright, settle down."
A sharp, commanding voice cut through the murmur of students, instantly snapping the air into focus.
Leo turned his head toward the source, his attention locking onto the instructor standing at the front of the training field.
A tall, wiry man with a piercing gaze and a predator’s smile. His posture was relaxed, almost lazy, but something about him screamed danger.
It was Professor Powell.
Instructor of Basics of Perception.
Leo could tell just by looking at him—this was not a man to take lightly.
"Time to see if you can actually see," he said, as with a snap of his fingers he summoned a thin gray fog, to cover the entire training grounds.