Sol failed to arrive early again—because he almost overslept.
"Hey, Sol. Which one are you? A survivor or a..." Rolf trailed off with a smile, his eyes glancing at the golden-haired boy from time to time.
This boy was still at his throat.
He had been warned, which was why he didn't get physical with him again.
According to what Zavien had told Sol, this boy denied sending delinquents to eat Sol up.
"Come on, tell me, don't be shy."
Sol felt irritated, but then another thought came to him. "Both!" he said.
Some students turned to him in surprise. "You were born handicapped and also survived the demons? Damn, that's awful!"
Rolf said, his face almost genuine before he smiled.
"But how did you—" He didn't finish asking when the teacher came in.
Rabey Salvador didn't even allow them to greet him—he simply commenced with the lesson.
"Our topic for..." he trailed off and looked at Sol. He smiled and announced, "30 Ei for Sol!"
'Why?' Sol was as confused as the others. He didn't know what he had done.
A girl moved, like a hungry wolf, and sat beside his stone seat.
"What did you do?" she asked. "Show me!" Her eyes were fixed on Sol's book.
Sol looked at his book as realization dawned on him. He looked at her, his hand still holding the device. "You... are too...close"
She pushed some coins in a pouch toward him. With a smile, he flipped his book for her.
The first page was a list of contents, the second page was blank except for a complex, strange character at the very top that she couldn't read.
The third page also contained an extremely complex character that made her head dizzy.
Sol returned to the second page.
Meanwhile, the teacher had become silent before saying, "Touch him, and you will be able to read it!"
Sol recoiled, glaring at her with red eyes, but relaxed slightly as her finger slowly touched left hand.
The meaning of the complex character reached her mind—everything Sol had written in class, including his ideas and thoughts.
She lost her strength and fell down, dizzy. Her stamina had drained just from that brief contact, and hunger and thirst overwhelmed her.
"10 Ei for Sophie!"
Sophie's body re-energized and she stood up, though still dizzy.
The sheer amount of information her mind had absorbed was overwhelming.
"Haha!" The teacher chuckled as he saw the confused looks on the students' faces.
"With permission from the owner, information can be transferred, but at that moment, both can access each other's unique words. However, each unique word has weight, and the writer's potential can influence that weight."
He proceeded to explain: "Sophie wrote the same lesson as Sol, but the difference was his insights and ideas. Those add more weight to his words, making everything overwhelming."
The class understood before he continued the lesson about certain artifacts the school recommended acquiring.
***
Sol was in the library, having already taken all the major anatomy books regarding general body organs. Over twenty pages had been filled.
Thankfully, the librarian could refill his molding ink. He sat still with his 5 Ei—he needed to make use of them.
But staring at the Eiros Class page, today's notes were too long and had filled up the entire page.
'I need to compress them into complex word.'
He read the notes many times before touching some key words in a particular sentence and dragging a line toward the bold word... it spilled out.
The whole complex word dismantled and spread, covering 15 pages.
Sol slammed the pen on the table and leaned back. Truth be told, it had been trial and error before he'd created it, and now it was undone.
He slammed the book shut and left the library. To his surprise, the book had become lighter.
'The more we merge sentences, the more complex the unique alphabet becomes, the heavier the book becomes.'
After some thought, on his way back home, he thought of something and tried it.
'Now I understand. At this moment, I won't even be able to make the iron shield.' Sol's hand caressed the book inside his bag.
The power the book consumed was knowledge, which allowed it to fuel his Iron Dome control.
Now that there were no complex words—just simple alphabets—that power had been reduced.
He would have to fix that tonight.
He ate four times the amount his master ate, and Zavien was all smiles.
The man could see his development. He knew the boy would consume more—wielding power was never easy, and not on empty stomachs.
Inside his room, Sol read through the whole lesson multiple times and decided to approach making the complex word differently.
He first circled the "Eiros Class" subject as the core of everything. Whatever the class taught them was about Eiros.
Then he circled "History of the kingdom and relationships with Eiros Moulders (Mages)."
This was the first topic. He went ahead and circled all the subsequent topics over the last seven days of class, then pulled them together, forming the first merged word.
It looked simple and easy, and Sol tweaked it, knowing more topics would be added later in subsequent lessons.
Sol then read through the notes, and things became complicated.
The idea was to link all sentences to their respective topics, but there were some sentences that belonged to certain topics but were discussed during other lessons.
For example, the history of the kingdom—in almost all classes, there would be talk about some king or noble in power who had done something that influenced the growth of the power system.
Nevertheless, Sol went ahead and dragged sentences to their respective topics regardless of whether they had been discussed at that moment.
The whole 15 pages of notes compressed into a complex word, but Sol wasn't satisfied.
It was almost similar to the one he'd made before, and now that he was good at it, he could see its fragile nature.
His book also didn't seem to get much heavier than last time when he'd made the word.
Just a touch and it got dismantled.
He leaned back and thought deeply before saying, "Every lesson is powerful, but those sentences belong to different topics discussed in different lessons!"
Then an idea came to him. A smile bloomed on his face as he went ahead with it.
He rearranged the whole set of notes according to the lessons that had been taught, then began with First Day, Second Day, Third Day... until the Seventh Day.
Now, each topic and the lessons under them were marked with the day they were taught. He proceeded to repeat what he had done before.
This time, a sentence would be linked to a topic as well as the date it was taught, allowing him to know exactly when the information had been said by the teacher or asked by students.
The book on his lap began to grow heavy as he reached the sixth day, and he grew tired the moment he finished.
He stared at it—his heart told him it was stable. He didn't believe it until he pulled a sentence from the complex word, and it spread on the page without breaking the complex word.
The moment his pen lifted from the sentence, it seeped back into the word. Sol smiled. He tried again, and it didn't break.
"It's firm!" Sol with a smile.
He flipped to the next page. The sheer amount of information and sketches on it made him feel more tired. He closed the book and went to sleep.
***
Sol was almost late, but as he reached the class, he found Sophie surrounded by some girls, talking to her about how she had done it.
He sat down, and immediately the golden-haired boy stretched out his hand and said, "Hey, I'm Zephyr."
Sol's heart skipped a beat. 'Why is he talking to me?'
Sol forced a smile and nodded. "S-Sol!" he stammered.
"What type of Moulder do you want to be?" Zephyr asked again, by now all eyes had turned to them.
Sol's thoughts were in disarray.
He didn't even understand what the boy had said, and the moment the teacher entered, he breathed a sigh of relief.
'Why is he talking to me?' he asked himself again. He knew these noble kids could be playful and also cruel in what they did.
'He'll just insult me later for being disfigured!'
"Today's lesson will be very special. It will be practical. I came with..." The teacher became silent and looked toward Sol.
Sol had written "Eighth Day" and "practical" before circling them on the page.
"Sol!"
He was startled and looked at the teacher as he quickly put the pen down.
The teacher hated it when students weren't concentrating during his lessons, especially at the beginning.
"50 Ei for Sol!" the man said, and Sol was taken aback. 'Why?' he thought, before his eyes widened as he looked at the stable complex character on his page.
"Thank you!" Sol bowed his head repeatedly. Sophie moved quickly toward Sol, but the teacher glared at her.
The class went silent. Sabey Salvador was upset, and even Sol's smile vanished.
The teacher sighed. "At this rate, only Sol will become a proper Moulder—a proper mage." He began, his eyes stern as he watched every student.
"I'm not here to teach you—I'm here to guide you. You should practice on your own and try something new. Test your Eiros Glass, use your books, write things inside, and try merging. Or must I take your hand every step of the way?"
His gaze stopped at Rolf. "Your father is a high-level Eiros Master. Why can't you be like him? Why can't you test things out and ask him questions?"
Rolf quickly said, "Father said everyone's journey is different. He won't show me anything!"
"Wrong. You must have asked him to do everything for you. If you had questioned him about things you are working on, he would have aided you."
He turned to another student and questioned their lack of effort, then another.
Sol learned that half the class came from high-ranking families. He was right to be careful.
"Sol, you too are focused on one thing . You need to venture out. Only then will you truly know what you're good at."
He took a deep breath, his excited mood having long evaporated. He gazed at the class with intensity.
"Minus 20 Ei for all of you." The class gasped. "Except Sol." His gaze became stern. "Class dismissed. Tomorrow I want to see developments!"
Sol and everyone else were taken aback—no lessons today.
The teacher walked out, and Sol followed quickly, knowing he would be blamed.
Having minus Eiros didn't mean they got weaker, but rather that any Ei they earned would be deducted first.
***
Sol was back early. Zavien Ashkarion was in the field running—or rather, walking while slightly using his mystic bone ability to keep up.
"What happened?" he shouted, afraid that something had occurred that caused Sol to be expelled.
Sol smiled and explained.
"Haha, I agree with him," Zavien said as his fat hand touched Sol's shoulder. "It's very wrong to be the only performing student in a class. You might be ahead of others, but you don't learn from them. Great competition is the perfect condition for effective learning!"
He too wanted others to participate so that he wouldn't be the only one attracting attention.
Attention was dangerous.
He went to his room, removed his uniform, and went to get something.
Ashkarion House was large, with different sections that housed slaves, servants, relatives, and friends.
Zavien market was also attached to his house at one end. Sol went to the opposite side, where Zavien's chambers were.
In his parlor, there were numerous designer full-body mirrors.
They were old stock—pieces that hadn't been sold.
He picked one up.
"Hey, slave!" a huge man called out—a servant who handled old merchandise. "When did you start stealing—"
"Let him be!" an old woman passing by said.
Sol nodded as a form of gratitude, and she shooed him away with her hand.
Back in his room, he stood naked before the mirror.
"My right hand is becoming bigger!" Sol was confused. But the rest of his body hadn't changed much.
What had changed was his complexion. He was calmer, his eyes firmer—even he didn't recognize them.
There was an air of serenity about him. But with the recognition of his hand's expansion, the dullness in his eyes was returning.
"Be optimistic!" Sol commented as he observed himself carefully.
He wasn't very tall—just 1.60 meters—but upon close inspection, he was now 1.62. That was an improvement.
The rest of his body, apart from his right hand, was normal.
The right hand was the only alien feature that made him appear disfigured.
He sighed and made his Eiros Glass appear and raised his left hand and willed the glass to possess the hand.
It vanished, and some additional control over his hand came to him.
It was strange to feel that he could command the hand from different angles.
"I need to read the hand!" Sol said to himself.