The academy never truly slept, but dawn had its own kind of hush. A thin mist drifted across the courtyard, catching on the soft lights embedded beneath the tiles. Kaelen stepped into the cool morning air with a small exhale, bracing himself for another day that promised more questions than answers.
He had completed the system's daily mission earlier, sluggish but successfull.
The system's blue holo-interface screen blinked awake the moment he crossed the threshold.
[Quest Timer: 6 Days, 03 Hours, 02 Minutes]
It felt like a quiet accusation.
Kaelen rubbed the back of his neck. "You're very clingy for a system that doesn't talk."
The system, naturally, didn't reply. He tucked his hand into his pocket and kept walking. His body still felt heavy from the previous night's attempts, but his mind was steadier. Something had shifted in him. Not much, barely a tremor, but enough.
Enough to know he could reach something, if he didn't break himself in the process, that is.
He crossed the courtyard toward the central training wing. Students streamed in various directions, some half-awake, others energized and already chattering. A few glanced at him, whispering behind hands. Kaelen tried not to notice, but Sera had been right. Sleep deprivation made him look possessed.
His first class of the morning? Aether-Core Conditioning, overseen by Instructor Varrin. An instructor who have gained the nickname "Firecracker". He was known for being as patient as a malfunctioning drone.
...
The hall was enormous, more like a miniature arena than a classroom. Rows of resonance panels lined the walls, flickering with weak light as students filtered in. In the center stood Varrin; a tall, rigid, and about as friendly as a rusted inhibitor clamp.
His hair was graying in a way that suggested stress, not age, and his gaze swept the room with military precision.
"And you're?" Instructor Varrin said the moment Kaelen stepped inside.
"Kaelen Burn, sir." He replied.
"A student of this class?" Instructor Varrin asked.
"According to my laid out class schedule, yes sir." Kaelen chuckled nervously. He had being off this few days and he hopes he hasn't gotten into the wrong class. This is only the first week and he is already this stressed.
"Do your wristband clock tell the time correctly?" Instructor Varrin asked.
Kaelen glanced at his wristband nervously, "It matches the main clock sir, apparently it does tell the time correctly... not fast, not slow" Kaelen replied nervously adding the last part as a joke. This man was troubling with all the questions.
"Yet you are late by a minute, Kaelen Burn," Varrin replied.
"The bell just—"
"A practitioner measures more than energy," Varrin interrupted. "They measure expectations. Stand. Don't argue."
Kaelen resisted the urge to mutter something unwise and moved into formation. Sera caught his eye from the third row has he settled.
Varrin clasped his hands behind his back and started, not even minding introductions. This instructor reminded him much of Professor Alden Vincent. "Today, we begin core flexion exercises. Aetheric strength begins not with output, but internal circulation. If your core collapses under pressure, your techniques are meaningless."
He snapped his fingers, and the resonance panels brightened.
"The objective; generate a stable loop connection for ten seconds. Many of you won't manage three. That's fine. Failure in training is survival in the field."
Kaelen's pulse quickened. Nyra's lesson from yesterday floated back into his mind...You listen to it first.
But this wasn't about listening. This was raw control.
"Begin!"
The hall erupted with faint hums as students placed their palms against the panels. Kaelen stepped forward, pressing his hands to the cool surface of his station. A diagram bloomed in front of him; a looping line of energy tracing a circle from the chest to the arms and back.
He exhaled slowly and closed his eyes.
The energy inside him was there, but not obedient. It flickered like a heartbeat out of rhythm, shifting with every breath. He tried to reach for it gently, just as Nyra had implied, persuade instead of grabbing.
The energy resisted.
He shifted his focus, imagining the loop forming; a steady flow from his chest, through his shoulders, spiraling down his arms, then folding back into the core. It should have been simple. Many of his classmates were already generating stable glows.
Kaelen breathed in.
The energy brightened.
He breathed out.
It trembled, sharp and uneven.
A spark surged through his fingers... bright but brief and uncontrolled.
The resonance panel flickered red.
Kaelen opened his eyes with a grimace.
"That is what happens," Varrin said from across the hall without looking directly at him, "when you force a pattern you haven't earned."
Kaelen tried again. This time, he didn't imagine a loop. He imagined a pulse.
He listened.
The energy became clearer.
And then… it steadied.
Kaelen exhaled, letting the energy rise in sync with his breath. Light gathered around his body and slowly gathered at his fingertips, faint but visible. A thin glow ran through the resonance panel, tracing the first third of the loop.
Come on. Keep going.
The light reached halfway.
Then his concentration faltered. A flicker of doubt edged into his mind.
And the loop collapsed.
The panel flashed red again.
Kaelen dropped his hands, frustrated.
Varrin finally approached, hands folded behind him. "Your resonance pattern is unstable. You're reaching for too much too quickly."
"I wasn't forcing it," Kaelen said quietly.
Varrin raised an eyebrow. "You think I'm reprimanding you? No. I am noting potential. Unstable patterns often imply a deeper reservoir of energy than the practitioner realizes."
Kaelen blinked. "That's… a good thing?"
"It's a dangerous thing. But dangerous things can be useful if refined."
With that, Varrin moved on, leaving Kaelen standing there feeling slightly stunned.
Sera leaned over from her station. "Hey. You good?"
"Apparently I'm… unstable."
She snorted. "Only took instructor Varrin seconds to figure that out. He is good iwon't deny that."
"He is an instructor after all." Kaelen said.
"Well... I knew you were unstable from day one." She teased.
He nudged her shoulder with a tired glare.
But beneath the teasing, her smile softened a little. "Don't rush it, you'll get it."
He and Sera had become such good friends on a short term.
...
After the session ended, Kaelen's hands tingled from residual aether. He flexed them several times, trying to shake off the numbness. Varrin dismissed the class with a brief quick nod.
Students scattered through the hall's double doors. Sera waited for him at the exit.
"You're heading to Measurements II next?" she asked.
"Yeah."
"You'll live." She patted his shoulder once. "Barely."
Kaelen rolled his eyes, but as he stepped into the corridor, he noticed two students leaning against the railing nearby. They weren't from his class. Their uniforms bore the deep silver patterns of the Advanced Aether Department.
They were upper-classmen judging from that uniforms design.
The taller one watched Kaelen with a strangely intent look. The shorter one whispered something, but Kaelen couldn't hear it. They both assessed him as if trying to measure something he couldn't see.
He quickened his pace.
When he turned down the hall, he heard faint footsteps following for a few seconds… then stopping abruptly.
Weird.
He shook it off, but the unease lingered as he headed deeper into the west wing.
...
Professor Han Derrick's class was... unsurprisingly—the auditory equivalent of being wrapped in a warm blanket and slowly lulled to sleep. Kaelen sat near the back, half-listening to the lecture about "microflux stabilization in high-density cores."
His mind drifted.
The system timer hovered faintly in the corner of his vision, a quiet, continuous countdown. Six days. A little over six days to force a breakthrough most students took weeks or months to approach.
Breaking through Latent meant waking the core fully. But Nyra had made it sound like a conversation, not a battle.
So how exactly was he supposed to negotiate with something he barely understood?
Han Derrick's voice droned on. Somewhere in the front row, someone was already nodding off. Kaelen's eyes unfocused on the floating graph above the podium.
A quiet ping snapped him out of his thoughts.
His system lit up.
[Skill Progress: Resonance Sensitivity +3%]
Kaelen stared. That was… sudden.
Sensitivity increases usually came from meditation or breakthroughs, not sitting through lectures.
A shiver ran down his spine. Something in him really was shifting.
He placed his hand over his forehead, ignoring the way his pulse quickened. If he was being honest, he wasn't sure whether this was encouraging or terrifying.
Probably both.
...
When class ended, Kaelen collected his things—slowly, mostly because he was drained, and stepped into the hallway.
Sera wasn't around; she had a different schedule this period. The hall was quieter than usual. Students trickled out in pairs, some discussing assignments, others heading toward the dining hall for lunch.
Kaelen took a step toward the main wing— when s voice suddenly cut through the corridor.
"You. Burn."
Kaelen stiffened and turned. The two older students from earlier were now blocking the archway behind him.
Has he done something wrong? Great.
The taller one stepped forward, expression unreadable. "You were in Nyra's class yesterday."
Kaelen swallowed. "Yeah. Why?"
"We heard about your reflection."
Fantastic. Gossip traveled faster than light around here. But did they also attend the class, he didn't remember seeing them. And that class was specifically for first years.
Kaelen clenched his jaw. "Is that a problem?"
"No," the shorter one said. "Only curious. First-years don't give answers like that. Well it's not the answer, it mostly is professor Nyra's response that hits. She only glorifies actions when she sees potential."
Kaelen's rubbed his neck nervously. "That wasn't even an acknowledgement, talkless of glorification"
"Okay, a little exaggeration can still help boost confidence but she definitely acknowledged it." Said the short one.
The tall one extended a hand. "I'm Riven Marrec. This is Elai."
Kaelen shook his hand cautiously.
Riven studied him closely. "Your energy... is unusual. But that's not a weakness if you know how to shape it. We're part of an independent study group under the Advanced Department."
Elai crossed her arms. "We monitor students with… distinctive aether signatures."
"Or you're more likely following rumors from Professor Nyra's class." Kaelen replied.
"It's more of the aether signatures." Riven cut in this time.
Kaelen stared. "Is this supposed to reassure me?"
"Not particularly." Riven tilted his head. "Consider it an invitation. When you're ready. If you want guidance beyond Nyra's curriculum, find us on the upper terraces."
They stepped aside.
Kaelen moved past them without another word. When he reached the stairwell, he let out a breath he'd been holding.
How does this even benefit them?
...
By the time classes ended for the day, Kaelen was exhausted. His head ached, his hands throbbed faintly from core training, and he felt the weight of the system timer pressing against the back of his mind.
He returned to his dorm, dropped his bag, and sat at the edge of his bed.
For a long moment, he didn't move.
Then he activated the desk's holo interface and pulled up Nyra's diagrams again. The spirals of aether patterns glowed softly in the dim room.
He closed his eyes and breathed, memorizing that pattern for a better meditation. Professor Nyra also made mention of the fact that these patterns will help them connect their loops better, and each level as a specific pattern for the three points.
The energy within him was clearer tonight. Less slippery.
Kaelen let the silence deepen, listening to the faint heartbeat of his own core. Not forcing, not reaching... just waiting.
Time stretched, over an hour, soft and slow.
A warmth swelled in his chest. Soft light gathered around his body, clearer at his chest region,flowing like a thin stream of water. It didn't flicker. Kaelen was able to clearly see the loop and he was starting to connect them.
He manged to make the first of the three, clearly this time.
Kaelen breathed in.
The light brightened.
Breathed out.
It held steady.
Finally, he had a grasp of the energy, it didn't feel like a stranger or foreign body. It felt like… a memory he'd forgotten to remember. A part of him that had always been there, waiting for him to stop panicking long enough to notice.
He opened his eyes.
A faint shimmer hung around his hands...barely visible, but it was there.
And then—
[Core State: Awakening Threshold Reached]
[You have reached the Bond stage of the Latent Level]
Kaelen's paused his breath.
The message glowed.
[Progress toward Latent Breakthrough: 32%]
Thirty-two percent.
His chest tightened—not with fear or confusion, but with the joy of his progress.
He could do this.
Not easily. But he could.
The shimmer faded slowly. The hum quieted.
Kaelen fell back on his bed, covered in sweat and darined. staring at the ceiling with a shaky laugh. His hands still tingled.
Aether cultivation isn't easy. Matching loops and breaking through was easier said than done. With each level's breakthrough, matching the three points becomes difficult or stagnant for some. The higher you go, the longer it becomes for you to make a breakthrough. From what takes weeks or months for a level, will be years the higher you go. But there are benefits.
Outside, the academy lights shifted toward night mode, casting blue streaks across the windows
...
Just when he thought he could finally relax, a sharp knock sounded.
Kaelen groaned, dragged himself upright, and opened the door.
Sera stood there, arms crossed, eyes squinting at him. "You didn't show up for dinner."
Kaelen blinked. "Did we make plans?"
"Hmm... I thought we did, must have been in my head." She replied.
"Why are you sweating? Watching porn?" She asked with an exagerated disgust expression.
"Wha– No, why would i?" Kaelen stuttered at her unexpected question.
"You tell m—"
"I was practicing." Kaelen replied stiffly.
"Chill, was messing with you." She stepped into the room without waiting for his permission.
"You shouldn't be in the male dorms this late, and how do you have my room number?"
She ignored that. "You made progress, didn't you?"
Kaelen hesitated.
Her expression softened. "You don't have to say it. I can tell."
He sighed. "A bit. I think I reached some kind of threshold."
Sera grinned. "See? Told you, you'd live."
Then she leaned back against the desk, studying him carefully. "Don't burn yourself out. Breakthroughs aren't about force. They're timing."
Kaelen nodded. "I know."
She pushed off the desk. "Good. Because if you collapse in class, I'm not carrying you to the infirmary."
He smirked. "You totally would."
"Absolutely not."
But she was smiling.
When she left, Kaelen closed the door, leaning against it for a moment.
His system countdown glowed softly.
[5 Days, 18 Hours, 22 Minutes]
He didn't feel rushed looking at it this time, he was now seeing it and comparing it to the system's daily quest. He was happy.