Raven entered the elevator, still carrying the box Sam had given him, and pressed the 5F button on the panel. The doors hissed shut, and the elevator began ascending.
"I wonder what her ability is," he muttered, thinking of the quiet girl he had just met in the office. His gaze drifted to the row of buttons on the wall. The main building contained forty floors above ground and three underground levels.
"It's really big for an academy," Raven thought as the elevator finally stopped its climb and the doors hissed open, revealing a vast, silent corridor.
Stepping out, he began his search for Room 08. He spotted a metal door labeled 01 to his left and started walking in that direction. Just as he expected, the numbers progressed sequentially, and he quickly arrived at Room 08.
Taking out his card key, he slid it into the tiny slot on the door handle. With a ding, he pulled the card out and pushed the door open, revealing the room. To the right, a huge bed covered with pillows and blankets dominated the corner. Beside it was a square window on the wall with curtains drawn, a wooden table with a paper note on it, and a chair positioned in front of the table. To the left corner of the room was a bathroom door and a dresser beside it.
Raven stepped inside, closed the door, and walked toward the table. He placed the heavy box down and sank into the comfy chair.
Looking around, he mused, "This is where I'll be living for the next five weeks. It's certainly better than that haunted house, at least."
His gaze finally focused on the note. It turned out to be a map of the academy. Reaching out, he opened the box. Inside, he found several sets of clothing with the academy emblem on them and a smaller secondary box. Resting on top of this smaller container was a sleek, phone-like communicator.
Picking up the communicator, he thought, "It's just like a phone." He pressed the side button, turning it on. The screen lit up and displayed the words, "Insert the room key," along with an animation showing a slot on the back of the device.
Raven quickly inserted the room key. The display changed immediately, now reading, "Welcome, Stargazer Raven."
"The room key is basically an ID, huh," he mused.
The display then changed again, showing a variety of applications. A red notification badge glowed on the Messages app. He tapped it and read the academy notice:
Academy Notice: Tomorrow at 10 AM, the principal will be giving a speech to the Stargazers in the auditorium.
Raven checked the time on the communicator; it was 11 PM.
"Let's see what I'm working with," he thought, placing the communicator on the table.
He then summoned the runes of his artefact.
Artefact: [Reaping blade]
Artefact Rank: Spectral
Artefact Type: Weapon
Artefact Description: [A noble hero was cursed by the Rose Heretics; the hero was cursed to roam the dream desert all his life. The hero killed the heretics to get rid of the curse. In the end, he was corrupted by the dream desert and became a monster roaming the dream desert.]
"You're telling me that thing was a noble hero once, got corrupted, and became that monster?" Raven thought, now fully aware of the danger the corruption represented.
"Wait," he muttered, finally piecing together a mystery he had been confused about, "was the Dream Desert also corrupting me?"
Stretching his right hand out, he summoned the Reaping blade. Immediately, motes of light gathered in his palm, coalescing into a long-bladed, black Katana.
"An odachi! I've only ever seen this in webtoons and games," he thought as he weighed the blade. It felt neither too heavy nor too light for him.
Raven noticed black smoke drifting off the back of the blade and muttered, "The Reaper also had black smoke coming off its back. I wonder if it erodes things or if it's just a visual effect."
He stood up, then immediately sat back down, realizing he couldn't test his theory here for obvious reasons. He willed the Reaping blade to disappear, and it dissolved from his hand, returning to his Neula core where it was stored.
Picking up the communicator again, he fiddled with it for some time, setting an alarm for 8 AM. With that done, he got up and changed into some comfortable clothing he found in the box.
He lay down on the mattress and pulled up a blanket.
***
Raven woke up hearing the jarring sound going: "Ding deng dong."
"What a shitty sound to wake up to," he thought as he got up from the bed and turned off the alarm.
Walking toward the bathroom, he turned the handle and pushed the door open. Inside, a bathtub was situated at the far end of the room, with a toilet on his left and a sink on his right. Stepping inside, he closed the door, walked straight to the sink, turned it on, and started splashing water on his face.
After some time, he turned off the sink and spotted a towel rack beside the door. Raven stretched out his right hand and changed the position of a towel; instantly, a towel appeared in his hand.
After drying his face, he got out of the bathroom and changed into some formal clothing. Grabbing his communicator, he checked the time: it was 9:30 AM.
"I have some time to get a coffee," he thought as he grabbed the map from the table; both the Auditorium and the cafeteria were located on the first floor.
Putting the communicator and map in his pant pockets, he headed out of his room; surprisingly, he didn't spot anyone in the corridor as he walked toward the elevator.
Arriving, he saw the elevator doors open and a young man with blonde hair and blue eyes, wearing a brown jacket with an academy emblem on it and black pants, ran out of the elevator in a hurry.
"He must have forgotten something very important," Raven thought as he stepped inside the elevator and pressed the 1F button on the panel.
The elevator doors hissed shut and started descending. To pass time, he took out the academy map and studied it.
The classes were located on floor -1 to 3 floor. Private training rooms were on -2 floor and are accessible to students in the academy.
Raven's eyes lit up. He had hoped for such private rooms precisely because he didn't want to reveal his abilities, following Lyra's advice.
The elevator door hissed open. Putting the map back into his pocket, he stepped out.
Walking toward the cafeteria, he spotted some workers in the corridor fixing a digital display on the wall. He moved past them, arriving at an open doorway with "Cafeteria" clearly written on the wall above it.
Stepping inside, he saw that the space was expansive, brightened by recessed lighting and tall windows. Unlike the industrial look he expected, this cafeteria had a comfortable, almost lounge-like feel. Students, wearing a combination of academy-branded casual wear and their own clothes chatted easily at round, dark wooden tables and plush, crescent-shaped booths along the walls.
Raven's gaze drifted toward the source of his immediate goal: the food counter. It was a long, sweeping bar of polished black granite that looked more like a modern coffee shop than a serving line. Steam rose lazily from a few chafing dishes further down the counter, but the dominant aroma was the sharp, comforting scent of fresh coffee and something sweet, like cinnamon rolls, a hint of toasted sugar hanging in the air.
Walking up to the counter, he spotted a lady dressed in a black apron with an academy emblem stitched neatly over her chest. She was standing behind the gleaming counter, a warm, welcoming smile on her face as she met his eyes.
"Can I get a black coffee?" he asked, already anticipating the warmth.
The lady's smile widened slightly. "Sure. Do you want some milk with that?"
"Yes," he replied.
A few moments later, a steaming mug was placed in front of him, the scent of dark roast rising in a comforting cloud. With his coffee in hand, Raven navigated through the scattering of tables, seeking a measure of peace before the impending speech. He found himself settling into a quiet corner of the cafeteria, near one of the tall windows, where the chatter seemed a little more distant, and the early morning light softened the edges of the bustling room.
He took a sip after blowing on the coffee a bit. The hot liquid was immediately rich and slightly bitter, the added milk only just managing to soften the strength of the brew.
"It really has a kick to it," he thought. The caffeine immediately seemed to sharpen his focus, cutting through the residual fog of sleep.
Raven set the mug down on the wooden table and stared out the tall window beside him, looking down into the academy grounds. Below, the manicured green lawn gave way to a section of woods, but it was the park directly outside that drew his attention. It wasn't a recreational space with swings or slides, but a structured, contemplative garden: smooth white walking paths winding through low, decorative shrubs, and a central sculpture that twisted up like polished black smoke.
He leaned back, watching the silence of the park contrast with the low, steady buzz of the cafeteria around him.
"Is this seat taken?" the voice of a stranger jolted him out of his trance.