Careful Not To Break Reality

Rydel literally couldn't remember how many times he had been knocked out cold since getting his artifact. He was never a party person to begin with, so he has never had the chance to get black out drunk to begin with. But somehow, he always found himself lying somewhere unfamiliar with a unrelenting sense of disorientation.

At least nothing hurts in his body, which is a first. Artifact overuse always leads to stiffness and pains around the body akin to when one wakes up the day after a hard training session. He is still out, but remains in a lucid dreaming state where he maintains some level of clear conscious thought. As he lied there, he can't help but think about the prior fight.

There are a few things that jumped out to him, Gold is moving a lot faster and sharper in his normal (base) form compared to before, and it had become really hard to stay with him in a fight. His fighting style is also different compared to the Steady of the Unyielding ice wielding Aquarian before, since he is now moving a lot more like Dolon, with more sporadic and aggressive movements. And add on top of that, he now has an artifact, for sure.

There isn't any technology that can freeze things in mid air.

Is it a sort of time manipulation artifact? Rydel thought, something that's rather similar to Torelamri's Crystal Clock? Even though Rydel haven't seen what exactly Torelamri does with his artifact due to him never being around outside of eating hours. But he thought the artifact's powers are non-repeating, as each of the bearers possesses sometimes drastically different powers. One artifact typically to not tremble on another's territory, and Zel and his artifacts are probably the closest ones, both manipulating local space to a degree.

But combining what he saw Gold does and the progression materials provided by the administration office when he started, it would only make sense that Gold has already gone through the whole process to get to where he is at.

If Rydel is being honest, this is kind of awesome. Even though he is only here to figure out what this organization is up to, as well as getting Dolon out of here, he might as well take advantage of the training provided here as much as he can, provided he doesn't lose himself in the process.

He needs to remain cautious, and skeptical, but that doesn't mean he can't enjoy himself.

He does love school.

Rydel opened his eyes finally when he felt ready to move, and the only difference this time is he wasn't alone. In fact, all of the recruits are lying on different treatment beds in the same room. There are light bruises from getting their assess handed to them by Gold, but he has exercised control in his actions and made sure the injuries are not something that will prevent further training. Rydel took a deep breath, and slowly sat up.

Most other people in the room are still sleeping peacefully, and there is a monitor right above their pillow showing their current mental state. It seems like the monitors also control the length of time the recruits are resting based on their level of injury. Some of them are still in the middle stages of healing, while Rydel is already cleared for normal activity. He looked at the monitor behind him, and saw an instruction shown on it.

'Proceed to the main building office.' And attached with the message is a map of the whole academy. Rydel snatched it off the monitor and input it in his personal interface. Then he jumped off the bed and started putting on his shoes.

'Sun's shining on your b.u.t.t now.' Roloni's voice came crackling from behind him, and interrupted Rydel's lace tying.

'What?' Rydel looked up and saw Roloni sitting on the bed with all his limbs dangling off the edge, 'how long have you been up?'

'A few standard hours.' Roloni answered as he also got off the bed and started tightening up his exoskeleton suit, 'and I am getting quite bored waiting for others. I was kind of hoping for that Aquarian beauty to wake up, but I guess you have to do.'

'Yeah sorry to disappoint.' Rydel finished tying the laces and stood up. He followed Roloni's vision, and saw another tall slim Aquarian with an even more athletic build than Dolon also lying on a bed two isles away. She had just begun her true healing process, and seemed like she will be out for another day or so. Rydel is not very well-versed in Aquarian physiology, and he could have very easily mistaken her to be a male.

'Oh well, plenty of Aquarians in the water.' Roloni yawned as he walked towards Rydel, 'let's go the main building office?'

The medical centre the recruits are in is its own building to the edge of the Absolute Academy campus. It is located in between the teaching buildings and the various training grounds. The so-called main building is unsurprisingly located in the dead center of the whole Academy site, with accommodation to the other end of the area up the hill. At this moment, Roloni and Rydel are the handful of recruits that's walking through the campus, with other people occasionally dashing across the open area from one place to another.

That's when someone suddenly swooped pass them two, swerving aggressively around and gesturing something towards them. He is wearing a tank top with some sort of a marking on his arm. He rode on a modified motorbike that quietly zips around shorter distances, which is great for the environment, though extremely dangerous when ridden by irresponsible riders like the person before.

'What the hell was that?' Roloni asked, 'I don't recall reading about idiots in the academy?'

Rydel shrugged as he looked down to check the map once again. If there is anything he has learnt from going to so many different academies and institutes and schools, is that there are idiots everywhere.

They are not that far off from the main building, and hologram maps dotted around the campus confirmed their current location. The main building is painted white with occasional green stripes going horizontally across each level. There about seven levels to this building, and each one has an isles that look out towards where the pair are standing.

Rydel's navigation function in his personal interface automatically synced up with the building's guidance systems, and it showed Rydel towards the main office, which is just on the ground floor towards the left.

There is nobody in the room, though the lighting gradually brightens up as the two entered. Then, a light blue hologram of a lady shows up. Rydel and Roloni looked at each other, confused.

Artificial intelligence?

'Welcome to the Absolute Academy main building, Rold, and Roloni.' A gentle soothing voice came through the hologram, and the sound system is as if the hologram is a real being and the voice came through the mouth. That's some very intricate holographic technology.

'I am One, the primary artificial intelligence within this building. I will be giving you an induction of the academy. Please sync up your personal interfaces with my network.'

'Rold, you humans are messed up.' Roloni tilted over and whispered under his breath, 'she even speaks Aquarian.'

'Yeah well we do love our softwares.' Rydel raised his fist and turned on the syncing function of his personal interface. Roloni did the same.

'Done. Now, could you follow me, as I will give you a tour.' She said as she began to walk towards the exit, and they quickly jogged behind her. She went towards the elevator, and took them all the way up to the top floor.

'The main building is used for all the theory and knowledge teaching. You will learn scientific, social, political, economics and business skills within the confines of the building. The teaching process with be a self paced process with regular assessments that you can take to progress onwards. It is all fairly basic, and will only take about at most a month for most recruits to complete. Then you will move on to more specific and difficult topics that will contribute towards you becoming a more complete and perfect being.' One continued walking without looking back, and Rydel and Roloni followed. All of the corridors are dimly lit with LED lights that automatically turns on the brightness when someone is walking through it, and darkens when the person left. All of the rooms are open, with a sort of noise screening by the door.

Quite a handful of the classrooms are in the process of being used as teaching are going on, and the rooms are mostly empty given the small number of students around.

'Is this the usual numbers for a class?' Rydel asked as he looked through the windows to see a couple slightly older a.d.u.l.ts sitting in the room.

'No. We offer various ways to teach and learn. You can choose to learn via Aquarian cerebral syncing, traditional teaching or self taught.' One explained. Rydel scratches his head as he took in the answer, was what he did with Dolon back then a sort of cerebral syncing?

Then, they actually went past a lively economics classroom that's mostly filled. Rydel looked at them skeptically, yet all of the people genuinely seemed like they are here to learn.

'One, what exactly is the purpose of this academy?' Rydel couldn't hold back the question.

'It depends on what your purpose here is.' One replied in her usual soothing voice, 'those people are just here to learn.'

'But you do offer some rather intense extra-curriculars?' Roloni followed up.

'That's what you have signed up for, yes.' One answered, 'and as a result you also start from a much higher point, and will be expected to progress faster than the normal students around here.'

The lower floors are much of the same, but now half the floor consists of the workshop area where the students are able to making and experiment with anything that want, there is an electrical specific area, mechanical speific area, chemical and biological and materials lab. All of this isn't too different from what Rydel has had back on Vulcan 5, the planet the Galactic IST is based on.

Soon, they have left the main building and started heading towards the training sites towards the edge.

'Where your ship landed was one of the training sites based in the forest area. These training site's main purpose is to train you to be well-versed in various environments, both for survival and combat training. This will form a major part of the physical side of your training, though the most intense components will not come until you have undergone the more basic enhancement treatments.' One pointed towards multiple buildings in the distance, 'there is a volcanic environment simulation, high wind and high pressure simulation, oceanic and wet surface simulation....Anything you could encounter further in life, you will get trained in, and you will become masters of those environments by the end of the process.'

'And there is the medical centre, where you are just in. We will be using the best medical technologies around to ensure you can recover quickly after your training and are ready to go again. There will also be similar recovery technology equipped in your rooms that you can use any time.'

Before Rydel and Roloni knew it, they are sitting on a shuttle that took them away from the main campus towards a base roughly a kilometer away. This is where the recruits learn all sort of piloting and driving skills. There are already a few airplanes and sh.i.p.s flying through the air at this moment, and an artificial ocean is located just towards the far end of the base for any aquatic based training. Rydel can feel Roloni's excitement just from the way he shivers as he listens to One's explanation.

'You will get a general course structure as well as a personalized time table soon, but I will just outline some of the big events planned for all of you. Every year, there is a battle simulation between the recruits like yourself, and selected forces from the Grey Wolf. This is highly competitive, and this year, the theme would be flag hunt. The winner will be well rewarded and become a celebrity in the area. The main event will happen in three months. Some more events are also the various vehicle combat tournaments in different environments and bounty hunting within the whole of wild space once you have undergone nanotechnology enhancements, but this is a long way down the line.'

'And what rewards are you exactly talking about?' Rydel asked, 'cause I don't think normal credits are what you use around here?'

'No, you use Wolf credits around here. You can take on various tasks offered by either the Academy or the Grey Wolf's organization offers to earn it. Also, the rewards to the tournaments also include holidays around the area and free communication into the settled regions etc.'

Free communication? Rydel noted that down, as he knew the communication relays from Grey Wolf's region to Cellica would be extremely risky, especially when dealing with s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e information. So maybe the winning bonus is something to look forward to.

Also you earn holidays by winning? The academy sure knows how to motivate.

After showing the base, they once again headed back towards the main area, and that's when One took them towards the accommodation area.

There are various low buildings that dotted across the entire mountain range, and the new recruits are all placed in the same few area surrounded by an encirclement of black painted buildings. All of the luggage are allocated to each person's room, and that's where One leaves the two to their own devices and disappears.

'That was quite a lot, wasn't it?' Rydel lets out a sigh of relief as the induction finishes, and Roloni simply collapsed onto the sofa in the living room. The whole building belonged to the recruits, and fifteen rooms spread across three floors with a big communal kitchen and a living room on the bottom floor. Things are very different in the wild regions, and its amazing what you can do with so much space and material.

'Yeah.' Roloni finally replied, 'well, I am going to bed now.'

'Right.' Rydel nodded, and he also headed back to his room.

The room is roughly about the same size as his bedrooms back in the institute with an en suite bathroom, a small balcony overloading the entirety of the Academy and a rather spacious working space located right by the balcony window. His luggage is already placed in the corner of the room.

Damn, this is a lot nicer than Athena 3. Rydel thought to himself. The

The desk top hologram projects a sample schedule up in the air, and Rydel went ahead to check it out. Up there, the first thing he has in the coming week is a general knowledge assessment on Monday morning, a general piloting skills assessment in the late afternoons, followed by a general physical ability assessment on Tuesday morning. Then there are lots of blank spaces for which the training slots are allocated, but there is a sample schedule which shows the frequencies of each of the classes in the deeper and more advanced syllabus like advanced espionage, coorperate management strategies etc..

And this is how Rydel begins the very next stage of his training.