Round and Round.

"Did I just hear that?" One of the many students in the queue whispered.

"Yeah I did too, That guy over there has a special grade talent." another student whispered in response.

"Uggh ~ So unlucky! what are the odds of two special–grade talents appearing in our year group…" another voice from the crowd complained. "we can't compete".

The chatter of the crowd became turbulent in response.

"who says!" A voice chimed in, not whispering like the other voices.

He waited till most eyes were on him before going on to state contemptuously "Even though people with special grade talent are talented in every thing they do, time and effort is limited and this fool seems to have picked all the subjects, his schedule will be so packed he'll barely learn anything."

His words roused nods of approval from the crowd.

"Wow! You must be so knowledgeable to know so much about something as rare as a special affinity" A black–haired girl with red eyes said while staring admiringly at the red–haired student—the one who who had spoken earlier.

"Oh please, it's nothing, this knowledge is common sense amongst noble households." He said in a classic humblebrag manner.

"B–But then why did Reih go up to the receptionist and confront her, if he knew that people with special affinities could pick all subjects, he's from the same noble household as you, isn't he?" The black–haired girl stared at him with her big eyes, confused.

Raith replied showing a repulsed tone towards his fellow clansman.

"Don't remind me about him, he's the shame of our pyrrhus

noble family."

The chatter of the students in the registration hall slowly got more quieter in Ace's ears.

Not that Ace was listening to it anyways, he was completely focused on getting to his class as soon as possible.

Ace muttered as he walked towards his class.

"I wonder what they're going to teach us on the first day, I can't wait!"

Ace enthusiasm was doused when heard from the teacher that he had to wait for two hours before the class started because the other students were not yet here.

Sigh ~~

Ace trudged upwards the theatre–like stairs towards his assigned desk at the top of the class.

Ace looked down at the other students that were already here in the class from his desk.

'No way I have to wait two hours,'

Ace grumbled internally.

Ace got to his assigned desk, and got comfortable in it.

'The view from up here is nice, and so is the position, It's just exactly how I like it, far away from the centre of attention, but still able to hear and see the teacher clearly.'

Ace looked around for a while, before deciding it was too boring to wait and do nothing so he closed his eyes and sank into his core.

Ace entered his core his eyes greeted by the vast purple ocean that dwelled within his core.

He wasted no time admiring the beauty of his core, the novelty of his core had disappeared in time, time had worn down it's beauty—from Ace's perspective.

The eerie call of the abyss begged Ace to jump, as he peered over the, ten–meter long hole that he had dug during the past week.

Accepting it's call Ace jumped down the hole using spirit force to hasten his descent down the hole, he had to, otherwise he'd just float in the air–the ghostly form of his translucent body was too light to fall quickly.

'This hole already goes down for a long way, Just how much further do I have to dig?'

Ace wondered as he kept falling in the pitch dark hole he had dug.

As Ace felt the tendrils of spirit mold beside him that he used as his eyes in the dark cave, contact the walls of the cave at a higher speed, he recalibrated the force that pulled him to the ground in response, slowing down his descent slightly.

The tendrils of spirit mold he sent out, kept sending information about the texture of the walls of the cave.

And that made him wonder.

'From the information spirit mold is giving me the walls of the cavern are like crystalline like structure, some parts very brittle, some parts hard as a rock. And their certain spots that you can dig through without destroying the structure of the crystal like stones, so If I dig at the right place, the hole doesn't collapse, but if I don't…'

Ace shivered at the thought.

'What am I worrying about? The chances of me digging through a large structural node are little to none, most structural nodes are small, and their collapses only extend to a small area, a small area of collapse like that only aids my digging,'

'But, if do dig through a large node, I'll just coat myself in a thick layer of spirit mold before it collapses and dig back up, there's no need to panick.'

His self comfort did little to appease his instinctual unease he felt towards suffocation.

He fell in silence for while, till he felt the tendrils of spirit mold he set up in front of him contact the ground.

'It seems it's time to land.'

Ace applied another force to himself one that pulled opposite to the force he applied earlier, both forces canceled each other out, bringing his body to a halt mid air.

Ace slowly fell the remaining way down, gently resting his foot on the crystalline ground of his core.

Feeling the crunch of the miniature crystals rocks beneath him, Ace wandered how illusory this mind–scape of his really was.

'Everything I touch and feel here all seem so real it's almost the the space within my core is a whole other world instead of a construct that my mind made up,'

Ace quickly got rid of that fleeting thought, because if one questioned every mystical phenomenal in Astreal, one would have over a billion unanswered questions.

Ace slowly manifested an invisible cube above the ground of the cave.

'first the basic frame.'

Ace said in his mind, before closing his eyes to concentrate better even though the cavern was more or less in pitch darkness, excluding the faint, almost unnoticeable blue glow of his soul body.

'Now the intricate details.'

Ace starting shaping the cube into the perfect tool for digging.

'A drill.'

Ace had used a shovel in the past but after he became capable of making a bowl that scooped up water with no spillage—out of his spirit mold

He decided to attempt making a more complex tool for digging.

Although with a little difficulty, he was able to conjure up a cone like construct that functioned like a drill.

"Phew ~ finally." Ace wiped off his imaginary sweat as he finished molding the cube into a drill.

Ace pierced the drill construct into the ground, then jumped up a bit, the light nature of his soul allowed him to stay floating mid air.

"Now spin!" Ace yelled at the drill construct as he applied a

centripetal force to the drill–with spirit force, making it drill construct spin round and round.