Ezekiel Shray

After their admittedly weak battle the pair sat down to catch their breath. The teacher took a moment to check that they had no serious injuries before he used a spell to help their recovery speed.

James was suprised that an earth mage had healing magic but it didnt look the same as Zeke's healing light, it looked more natural like a treatment instead of a spell. After healing their wounds he gave each of them a ration bar and a bottle of water, "eat and drink so your recovery won't drain you. I will leave the two of you here to go help with the rest of the cave."

After the teacher left james turned his attention to zeke. "So uh... we fought. Mind helping me complete my quest next?"

Zeke was looking at his status screen for some time until now and turned to james, "oh yeah thank you so much i actually got a good reward for that quest! What did you need from me again?"

"I needed to find out about you and your abilities to get a reward of information. It says that i would be getting information about the primordials and about one of my abilities." He left out that he would be learning about a specific primordial since he suspected the source of Zeke's power was not to freindly towards the void mother.

"Well uh, my name is Ezekiel Shray. I joined the academy a week ago and with time dilation i have been in this gate for two weeks but then something weird happened to it..."

He stops speaking for a moment and frowns deep in thought.

"I was adventuring with my guide as every student does and I would sometimes help other students if I found any in trouble but mostly my goal was to try to level up as quickly as i could since i only had four weeks to try to catch up to my peers."

He stops again and in his hand a ball of light appears.

"Just like you im an elemental child, a child of the light elemental but i have other affinities apparently. I do have one skill you probably noticed though; the more often I cast a spell in succession, the faster i can channel the spell!"

He seems quite proud of himself at that statement and from what james experienced he should be because that skill made him fight as fast as james himself.

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Congratulations! You have completed a quest!

Rewards: detailed information on the primordial elemental of void.

Optional quest rewards: basic information on the primordial elementals.

Double completion reward: information on the void flame.

Beginning information transfer.

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Suddenly james felt a throb begin in his head as information flooded his mind. He ignored a lot of it so that he could try to unpack it later but then as if the system anticipated his ndxt concerns a book floated before his eyes.

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Void Almanac.

A book created by the system to contain information that the host recieved through quest rewards to later learn without mental strain.

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With a smile james quickly tried yo open the book and when his fingers touched the cover... they went through it.

He was worried at first but then he realized it was another system interface so he used it in the same way.

Reading through the pages james began to learn a lot of important information but soon zeke interrupted his focus.

"Hey uh... how are we going to level up with the gate being so difficult? Im only level four..." Zeke had his spell book in his hand but it was closed like he was just looking at it.

James didnt know how to answer since he knew that this situation was actually his own fault...

A god choosing to test him? The gate changing danger level? Even the danger the group apparently faced because of his accidental forest fire.

When thinking about the fact that he had endangered not only his future classmates but also the teachers and upperclassman? He felt guilty for ever coming to this gate.

"Well your magic is bound to cause attention to be drawn to you but I bet it would also make hunting easier if these beasts cant handle the light element well."

It was a reasonable thought and zeke seemed to take it very seriously as he began studying his spells with a determined expression.

After the words of encouragement james stood to leave and return to where he set his bag for camp. Inside of the cave he saw that many rooms had been finished and the original cave now looked more like a miniature dungeon.

He was checking each room to see if any were empty and once he found one he slipped inside to prepare his sleeping bag as well as read the rest of the Almanac he received.

Taking a seat in the small, stone room he unfurled his sleeping bag and pulled a pillow from his pack as well.

He frowned at the flat ground before using his shadows to create claws since he wanted to make the ground more comfortable for himself... it was also an excellent way to train his control over the shadows as he began to dig out a simple pit like he was an animal making a nest.

That is how the other student found him when they entered, bent over and digging like a wild animal.