The Ascent [1]

After returning to my dorm room, I go through my old things and see exactly all that I should keep or perhaps give to Johnny.

Looking through everything I realize I don't exactly have a lot of things. All I have is my snug fitting robe that cleans itself whenever I wish.

Along with some materials the academy gave me and the books that some of the Instructors gave me to study.

After seeing how little I own, I decided to give Johnny some of the materials that I have considering some of them I won't need following the ascent to rank three.

I also figure that he will need a lot of these books since he's not a particularly diligent student.

After clearing things out and making the room tidy, I go to the cafeteria, and like usual I find Johnny there skipping classes.

Walking over to him, I shake my head seeing that he's still sitting there, trying

to have me 'Flee the Academy'.

"You're still here?"

"Yeah of course, why wouldn't I be?" Johnny laughs, "Have you tried this fish thing you can get over there?" He points to one of the most expensive foods in the cafeteria with crumbs and oil still on his fingers.

"Yeah, I have several times why?"

"You're lying! It's so expensive, even if you were mister money bags you wouldn't be able to afford it." Johnny looked like he'd finally caught me in the act.

"You forgot that I get all my food for free, didn't you?"

Johnny dropped his food on the plate with his face frozen, "Fuck... I forgot that." He laughed, "and here I was trying to make you Flee the Academy!"

Ever since the start, there has been a tradition were the ones that were graduating would rack up a massive food bill with them and their friends.

Then have the one who was graduating, flee the academy to avoid paying the money, and his or her friends, in turn, get a free meal.

It doesn't happen much anymore since the school has gotten strict with that type of thing. They even made a small force to capture the fleeing graduate and make them pay the bill.

I shake my head again with a smile on my face, "Johnny, since I'm going to be graduating, you can take most of my materials, and I'm giving you my books."

"Aww, why the books... we both know I probably won't graduate." He turns solemn and with melancholy Johnny says, " I've been here for four years, and I still haven't gotten past the core formation high stage. We both know what that means for me Jem."

I only smile, "I suppose I do, but that doesn't mean you should give up. Just give it one last try tonight with the materials that are in my room, and if it doesn't help, then I suppose you could say you tried your best."

"I suppose I did try my best..."

With a heavy heart from johnny's situation, "Come get the materials when you're ready, Johnny, I have to speak with the director about something."

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Knocking on a big dark wood door, I wait for a reply. After a few seconds, I hear what sounds like an exhausted man speak out.

"Please come in."

As I walk in, I see a somewhat good looking man that seems to be in his mid-30s. He looks tired and disheveled as he's been burying himself in paperwork.

"Hello Director, I'd like to speak to you about my ascent to rank three."

"Rank three?" He looks up from what is a tower of paperwork somewhat surprised. "Oh yes, Jem, with the supplies we are getting for your graduation will include some things to help your ascent, why do you want to speak to me about it."

"Director, I've been holding back my ascent through sheer will power alone, and I don't know how long I can hold it back anymore."

The Director looks at me horrified as if he's seen his death, and it was a gruesome one.

"How long have you been holding it back? If it's not too long, I can schedule something with a few of the eld-"

Interrupting him, I quickly say with a solemn expression, "I've been holding it back for about a month and a few days."

I quickly saw the directors eyes go wide as if he was looking at a bomb that could wipe out a whole city in a blink of an eye, choking on his words a little he yells,

"A month and a few days!!"

He smashed his desk in a fit of rage and desperation, turning it into tiny wooden shards destroying everything in the room along with all the paperwork he was working on but wasn't at all concerned with that.

Quickly he ran at the wall as if he was a man that's on the verge of death, grasping at anything that could save him.

He opened a hidden compartment on one of the walls pulling out a tiny stick that was glowing with an aura of gods light.

With an extremely pained expression, he broke the stick, having it send immense waves in the void around the school alerting all the elder level staff and the powerhouses in charge of protecting the school.

Quickly there was a considerable commotion with all the powerhouses making a move and rushing to the director's office.

Within five seconds of the stick being broken, there were over 30 people in the office, although it was quite big, it was still a tight squeeze.

"Director, why did you break the alarm item?" one of the old men yelled out with an alarmed expression.

"Jem has been holding back his rank three ascent for a month and a few days..."

The air in the room froze, every one of the old powerhouses went pale and started sweating.

Suddenly all of them turned to me and grabbed me before flying to the middle of a forest to help mitigate the damage I would soon cause.

The elder that was holding me to fly off to the forest for my trial, he whispered in my ear,

"You have done something very grave Jem when one forcefully stops their ascent to rank three..." He shakes his head with a grave look on his face. "The trial becomes harder and harder to complete the further you hold it back. Although there have been records of people holding their's back for a month..." Again he looked as if seeing a dead man. "They have all died Jem, and since we have no records of a person with the chains holding back their ascent, we expect your trail to be the hardest and most destructive in recorded history."