A Ride to the Academies

Beep. Beep. Beep.

An acid tone resonated through the room, light piercing the dark, thin window blinds. Shay moved his hand with no ease towards the alarm clock. Although he was on the right track, the pain that rose in his head disallowed him from striking the button, hitting a corner of the night table. His body shook from the impact, making a swift circular movement of his upper part.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The clock continued screaming. Shay had enough of it. His face changed along with dwelling furious flames as he smashed the timer into small pieces.

"Jeez, I forgot about my skill."

At 8:00, he had an hour to prepare before departure. However, his lower limbs wouldn't listen to him. As he moved to sit and then get up, his legs trembled. He felt a churning in his gut and his vision blurred.

"Why did I have to drink so excessively?" He said.

The night they went to the pub, playing shot for shot, which was Kelly's idea. Even though she just turned 18 two months ago, she drank like a seasoned drinker.

Since he was hungover, the preparation—and cleaning the debris of the clock—took almost a full hour before he left his room. On his way down to the doorway, he spotted Kelly leaning by a pillar holding up the exit roof.

"You spent a while getting up. The bus is going to leave soon." Kelly smiled, composure surrounding her stance.

"I'm impressed you feel well after drinking a dozen shots... because I don't."

Shay staggered as he threw steps from side to side, looking like a drunkard. His vision stabilizing, the pain still burned the top of his head.

Kelly looked at Shay's glassy eyes, blinking fast, bright sunlight hitting his pupil. "You were the one who agreed with the challenge."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Shay said, rolling his eyeballs, stumbling because of the spinning world.

They headed towards the parked bus beside the tall dorms, waiting for the last batch of students while seated.

The drive was quite extensive. Even though Soubord was closer to Nardem, it required some time to reach the connecting highway, which led to important cities. The uneven asphalt road was 15 kilometers long and took 30 minutes to navigate through.

Kelly and Shay found the environment uninteresting, resembling Soubord. However, reaching the expressway, they were left speechless. The continual construction, high above the ground, was flying with the help of polished, radiating, green magic stones.

They learned how magic stones function, originating from elemental beasts, yet smaller than those beneath the highway. Researchers studied unique beast magic stones, finding their combination possible, if they were of the same element. Other specializations focused on military use, and 'glyphs' engraving.

Glyphs are a special technique that involves forming magic stones with your spells and making rules for them. However, only powerful mages can manage such glyphs; some require the energy of dozens, even hundreds, of magicians.

After a moment, the bus drove through a merging lane, supported by huge, reinforced concrete pillars. The elevation wasn't steep, taking them up bit by bit.

Her eyes, staring at the magnificent structure, were focused on every detail. While looking from the window, her lips moved, as if she wanted to get something off her chest. "I wonder what the city looks like." She said after much consideration.

Shay looked at her and noticed how touched she was. Their leave was a big step in life. He hesitated, then remained silent. Curiosity locked her up, switching her gaze swiftly. Her mouth slipped slightly open, drool leaving from the bottom of her lip. Shay just smiled and leaned back.

As the highway curved, the sight of the capital, Nardem, reached the view of the horizon. Multiple high-rises towered above the enormous city walls, sunlight shimmering from their widespread windows. A purple sensible field surrounded the metropolis on all three dimensions, making it impossible to be breached from the outside.

A mixture of voices sounded through the whole bus, as fellow students were astonished by the view. Only Shay wasn't exaggerating. Although he was stunned when he saw the highway, he knew the city would be built with protection and tall buildings.

They reached a divided intersection filled with security personnel and booths with toll-bar, right in front of the city wall, after a few minutes. Rather, they ignored them all. Alternatively, the driver took a route around the section where some guards checked the guy's identification, saluting and letting him drive off through the descending tunnel.

This was Nardem, a growing city of technology and magical learning. Many hunters lived in the capital, being able to afford quick transport through the layers of hunting zones. Not only that, but the city provided everything necessary for work, studies, gearing up, etc.

"Attention, students. We are reaching the first destination, The Cross Academy."

This academy's name would be impressive if it didn't implicate the shape of the academy. When he was studying in Soubord, he would pick up ink-printed newspapers with Nardem in the title. That's where he firstly saw the exterior of the infamous academy.

'Such a lazy name,' he thought.

A robed person appeared on their bus. Respectively, he sat in the first seat this whole time, with no one noticing his presence. He rose from his place, revealing a bit of his looks.

The guy hid his body in a gray piece of tough looking cloth. Its edges were torn here and there, while his pants matched the robe's style. Some may think he is a hobo. But, if you observed him throughout, you'd see an expression of a lifetime hunter. His face showed no emotions at all.

"Alright… students. Since we are reaching our first point, it's time to give out these."

When his speech ended, sounds of multiple items rumbling could be heard through the silent bus.

"This is a mobile phone. Is anyone unfamiliar with this item? Well, toodaloo. The only thing I'll say is that you can recharge this with an electric element magic stone, which is cheap and easily obtainable here in Nardem."

"Wow, our town didn't have these," Kelly said.

Shay nodded and waited for the phone to be handed out to him.

"Hey… you there… You seem to expect a turkey to manifest on your plate. Take the box and hand out the phones."

Shay thought he meant him, yet, before he got up, someone else dashed right next to him.

A guy, higher than Shay, had blue, spiky hair. His posture was impressive, as he remained his back straight at all times. He revealed more features when turning with the box full of phones. He held them with one hand through his muscular physique. While larger than the average person, his strength couldn't compare with the Martial Academy's representative. A white iris encircled his small pupil in both his eyes.

When the guy handed Shay a single phone, he stopped for a second to observe the sitting individual.

White eyes were unusual. Some say they can see more than the world itself. Was it mana, presence, or heat? Only guesses circulated; truth remained a secret. This was why he paused. He may have noticed his strength didn't quite match his looks. But, after that, he returned to finishing the handouts.

Shay played with his received phone, and so did Kelly. The screen size was mid, a fitting size to put it inside a pocket. The apparatus featured volume and power buttons and when turned on, only a few icons were displayed—a browser, a marketplace, and other utilities for the phone—.

[Possible device synchronization. Do you wish to proceed?]

'???' His eyes locked on the system's notification, thoughts overwhelming his head.

'What does it even mean?'

Even if he was unfamiliar with this occurrence, it sounded too interesting to pass it.

[Linking Device - Phone1…]

[Device linked]

During the process, Shay was biting his nails crazily, thoughts racing through his mind.

'What will it be? What will it be??'

[Contacts - 0]

[Messages - 0]

[Call history / Missed calls - 0]

[If Phone1 is further than 30m from the Player, or is out of the database's signal range, the linking functions stop working.]

'This function is interesting, but who is a player? What does it mean by that?'

Shay looked up, being deep in thoughts. His other body parts stiffened from the intense focus.

Suddenly, a gentle tap on his arm brought him back to reality. "Are you okay, Shay?" She asked, her eyes gazing at his own ones, her lips wide.

"Em, yes… Why wouldn't I be?"

"You kinda look… out of it, I guess. I just wanted to make sure everything was fine with you."

"Thanks for the concern. Don't worry, I am as healthy as an early bird." He joked, making Kelly laugh at his silliness.

"Glad to hear that. Oh, and… I figured how to exchange contacts with this thing. We could write to each other every day!"

Such a device seemed godly, causing her body to shake, tapping something on her mobile. She couldn't wait to share her details with him. Before she could do so, a message appeared on her phone. Her eyes switched from the phone in her hands to Shay's one and back to her phone.

"How did you do that?" she asked, unable to comprehend what she saw.

"A magician never reveals his secrets."

Shay blinked at her, his smile widening, until he burst with laugh. It sometimes felt funny to mess with Kelly, even at the cost of a day long ignorance. But he couldn't resist his evil thoughts.

Sigh.

"You piss me off. chm!"

At this point, he foresaw her reaction, but knew their bond wasn't that fragile.

The bus dropped off about 1/2 of students, which was about 20, at The Cross Academy. Then, after an hour of driving around the city center, they reached Trinity Academy.

They had to part ways. So Shay got up to let Kelly pass through him.

Hug.

"Did you just…."

Before he could finish his sentence, she stepped away. After that, she made a gesture with two fingers over one of her eyes, lifted a leg backward and stuck out her tongue, running through the bus doors. It was a cute interaction, but not for him.

'She totally did that on purpose.'

He looked around him, seeing his classmates piercing a hole through him with jealousy. At least, the male students did. One girl of the ten remaining hid her face, shaking her head.

'I'm so fucking cooked!'