Chương 4: [LD-1] 3. Fracture

III Fracture'Lotus Central!' an announcer said.

'The current stop is Lotus Central! I took a final glance at the time.

'02: 30.' It was about a twenty-minute walk, so I'd arrive ten minutes before time. Passengers breathed out in relief the moment I left the train. Tons of students, not all wearing the same uniform as my own, exited as well and spoke in hushed whispers amongst themselves. I caught a few exchanges. All of them were about the Initiation Ceremony. What school of magic did you want? Which element would be the worst to receive? Here, a few secret methods to influence your results, with the source being: trust me.

Shaking my head, I hurried towards campus. Morningstar was in the middle of the city. The school had multiple buildings, but most were for college and university students. Us senior high schoolers a single facility. My new high school stretched thirty floors into the sky. It glimmered with so many enchantments that the building would've made for an epic disco ball.

"I heard there's a training facility on each floor," a nearby student whispered to a friend. The Initiation Ceremony was on the top floor. So it was no surprise that the queue for the elevators was long. I managed to get on quicker than most, since the others were glad to have me out of their vicinity. The ones I ascended the elevator with weren't so lucky. Fifteen people were packed inside. I was standing at the very front. To my rear and near the corner was a girl with brown hair fastened into a ponytail.

She wore a barrette shaped like two fangs and was trying her absolute best to appear small… I didn't think I was the cause since she kept glancing here and there as if anyone could raise their fist at any moment and assault her. I spied to my right, where a frizzy, white-haired boy stood leaned against the wall, hands in his pockets and his eyes closed. His hair looked like he'd got out of bed mere moments ago. My brow raised.

'Is he snoring?' I stared him down for a few moments and confirmed what I was hearing.

'How'd he even fall asleep that fast?!' We had yet to pass floor five. He'd practically fallen asleep on the spot!

'That should be considered a superpower.'

"—I can't believe they allow people like this." The end of the sentence drew me out of my admiration. Not because of the contents, but because the person was speaking overly loud like they were trying to get someone's attention. I glanced to the side and met the eyes of another student. Blond. Around my height. Smirking, with his arms crossed. There were no folds in the boy's blazer, and the school emblem on his chest gleamed like it'd just been polished.

'Shota…' I grumbled inside myself—I filtered through the memories that name called up. Two boys stood beside him: one that was the tallest person on this ride, and perhaps the tallest person I'd seen today, and a scrawny boy with glasses on.

"Don't you agree, Evans?" Shota said. From his tone, his question wasn't a question at all. Evans, the bespectacled boy, chuckled awkwardly. He turned away from me to the floor.

"You're right…Shota." The poor boy shivered in place. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. A nerve popped on Shota's forehead. His mouth opened but closed before the derogatory remark came out. He turned to his tall friend instead, who nodded gravely and said: "Having troublemakers amongst our midst will reflect poorly on Morningstar."

"That's exactly right, Douglas." Shota put a hand on the taller boy's shoulder in an exaggerated manner, which he almost needed to tiptoe for.

"I'm surprised you understand me that well." Then he side-eyed me.

"Nothing good can come from allowing weirdos in the school." Shota was still speaking overly loud, so everyone could hear. The others coughed and swallowed, but otherwise turned a blind eye. My hand balled up. Shota. He transferred into my junior high school the year before. He was the heir of a big shot in the magic tech industry, which had begun sponsoring Morningstar.

I'd only had a few interactions with him, the most prominent of which was when he tried to butter me up after seeing that the other people in class mostly alienated me. The previous Joy had been ecstatic after finally having a friendly interaction… until she noticed Shota pushing himself on her. The spoiled rich kid thought her an easy mark. A toy he could play with during his time at the junior academy. After making clear she would not give him what he wanted, he switched his behaviour around. I scoffed.

Luckily, I wasn't the fifteen-year-old me who'd be affected by childish shit like this. I turned back to the front and glanced at the counter. Floor 28. Almost there. Floor 29. Floor 30. I sighed and prepared to exit— Floor 31. Floor 32. I blinked. Huh? Floor 33. Floor 34. Someone scratched their head.

"Did they renovate the building over the summer?"

"It looked to be the same height as before though," another said. Before anyone else could say anything, the floor counter twisted, rippled, and turned into static noise. Then the elevator hurled up and threw us off our feet. The sleeping boy flew at me and we toppled.

"Oy!" I screamed as he landed on top of me.

"Wake the fuck up! Something's wrong." He blinked himself into the waking world, a trail of drool going down the side of his mouth.

"Huh—what?" The vehicle dinged incessantly as if it had reached its destination floor fifty times already. Then our heads slammed back into the ground. A bout of groans travelled through the lift.

"We stopped," someone breathed.

"Would you…mind…" I huffed. This guy was a lot heavier than he looked! He pushed himself off me and inclined his head.

"Sorry—" The door opened. I'm not sure what I expected to find outside. A hidden floor the school, where they held their super secret council meetings, maybe? Anyway, the image that formed in my mind was definitely one of a high school. I supposed I was right in a way. Vines bore through the walls, unearthing the tiles and making the fundament visible. They were three times as thick as my legs and crawled through the entire hallway from side-to-side, leaving almost no room to walk.

The spaces that the roots didn't occupy were instead infested with moss, which gave off a blue luminescence. There was a figure crouched between the roots. It was small and green with a hunched back and held a crude club in one of its arms. It was also munching on something, but its body blocked the view of what it was. My gaze went to the words floating in front of my face… and widened. Welcome to the Shadow Realms, Neophyte. Please wait while the system is being initialised…

"Sh—Shadow Realm?" one of the boys whimpered.

"Oy, did it just say Shadow Realm? That can't be, right?!"

"What… what…" the girl with the fang barrette whispered. The beast turned towards the noise just as it ripped a chunk of meat and swallowed. The shift in position allowed me to see what it was eating. The dead eyes of a student stared back at me. Rising to its feet, it levelled its club and smirked. Blood and chunks of flesh dripped from its maw, which opened wide— System initialised. Realm objective set: Break the Realm Core or annihilate the Red Skull tribe.

Neophyte has found themselves in a mana-dense environment. Forcefully beginning Initiation. Please hold on a moment… —the roar cascading down the hall drowned out the alien voice in my head. … Initiation Started. Warning: system status will be incomplete until you've entered the Initiation Chamber. Name: Joy Grimm Level 1??? [???] Grade: F Magic Domain: T. B. D. Mana Core: Dormant Mana: 80/100 Skills: N. A. STR: 4 DEX: 6 INT: 8 CON: 5 WIS: 10 Free Points: 0 Congratulations on your Initiation!

Would you like to enter the Initiation Chamber? It will aid you in unlocking your first abilities. WARNING: The Initiation Chamber will remove you from your current location until it has concluded. Ensure you're prepared before proceeding. Are you prepared to proceed? [Yes/No] I selected 'yes' before the beast had taken its first step forward. The world paused, then fractured into a thousand pieces of glass.