NOVEL WEB Chapter 49: Tardy
Jethro continued down the corridor, seeing on the holographic screens that he had missed a class while passed out in the health post. The class was Tamer Economics.
it wasn't a necessarily exciting or important class so Jethro wasn't at all bothered that he had missed it. However, after a moment of thought, he realized that a class on how to manage your credits for taming purchases to get the best out of your mechbeast was exactly what he needed.
Nevertheless, there was nothing he could do now. He'd just have to make sure he wasn't knocked out cold during the next class.
After a while, he turned left, finally arriving at the round doors that led to the class hall for his next lesson: Aether Fundamentals. The panels pulled open silently, revealing an amphitheater that looked like a high-tech alchemist's dream.
The tiers— polished and silver —descended as usual to a central dais. Each tier held rows of sturdy tables, two seats apiece.
Upon each table sat an array of fascinating magical experimental tools and a glyph specially embedded into the table for presenting information on what was being taught. While on each seat were the owners of the hundreds of eyes that had snapped towards him when the door hissed shut.
The voice of the teacher died slowly, his gaze also moving to the highest tier where Jethro was standing. Jethro glanced down at him at the same time.
Since this was Aether Fundamentals, Jethro figured that the teacher was Professor Uriel.
Surprisingly, he wasn't an old man, though it almost appeared like he should have been.
He had pure white hair, styled in a way that seemed both youthful and profoundly wise, contrasting with the neon orange of his robes.
A transparent coat-like cape, glistening with the same color hugged him by the shoulders and flowed to the ground. His eyes were unsettlingly black. Not the pupil, but the eyeball itself, and then the pupils were white, with a tint of orange.
When they fixed on Jethro, he suddenly felt naked. Exposed.
"Young Merrick," Professor Uriel stated. His voice was resounding. Like a heartbeat. "Chronal dissonance on your first day. Did you get lost on your way here? The holograms on the corridor walls are designed to resolve that very issue."
Jethro winced internally, caught off guard by the man's archaic style of speech. "I had to see a Healer," he replied.
Uriel raised a curious brow. "A Healer? Not a nurse? Elaborate on the reason for that?"
Jethro squeezed his lip. A ripple of knowing giggles spread through some students. They all knew why he'd needed a Healer: He had almost died after getting one-punched by a Black-Rank Tamer.
"I had a bad... accident," Jethro managed to say. To his surprise, no one burst out laughing or insulted him. This must have been because of the atmosphere in the class hall— or more specifically, the aura of Professor Uriel.
Were they all that scared of him?
Professor Uriel regarded him for a moment longer before delivering his verdict. "Whatever the case. Tardiness will not be excused next time. You can take a seat. Expediently."
Jethro let out a quiet sigh of relief, already feeling the no-nonsense aura from this intimidating man. He scanned the crowded tier, searching for Kekius.
Almost immediately, he spotted his roommate near the middle, but he was already seated with his other roommate, Oand.
Kekius gave Jethro an apologetic frown and a helpless shrug.
Jethro understood. It was two seat per table and Kekius wasn't going to reject Oand to make space for Jethro.
His eyes continued their search. Not far from him, he saw Princess Jessamine subtly nudge the girl beside her with an elbow and murmured something too low to hear.
The girl immediately gathered her things and moved to another empty spot further down. Jessamine then looked pointedly at Jethro, then at the newly vacated seat beside her, a mischievous smile of invitation spreading on her face.
Jethro's jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. 'What the hell does this noble girl even want with me?'
The last thing Jethro wanted right now was the intense scrutiny of sitting beside the Sector Five princess. In fact, he didn't want anything to do with her at all. Not since someone like Eryn Fenlor was going to get jealous.
Jethro didn't personally care about making the prince jealous, but Kaden was right. He had to stay clear of trouble till he was strong enough to not just face it, but defeat it.
So Jethro ignored Jessamine's offer, pretending not to see her surprised frown as he walked past her.
He'd spotted another empty seat anyway. It was beside Padva, who was looking straight ahead at Professor Uriel, her profile impassive.
Jethro reached her table quickly and slumped down. Padva didn't turn her head, but her shoulders tensed slightly, and the intensity of her focus on Uriel seemed to waver as she adjusted. Shadow, her panther cub, lifted its head as it peered at Jethro and the mechlizard on top of his head.
"You seemed like you needed a seatmate," Jethro remarked as he settled in. Padva lowered her head in response, like she was fighting the urge of looking at him or formulate a reply.
Jethro had long concluded Padva was profoundly socially awkward. This wasn't new to him.
Professor Uriel, who had patiently waited for Jethro to take his seat, finally spoke again. "Very well. Let us return to the lesson. Lucky for you, young Merrick, we were only just starting."
He walked to the podium on the dais and faced the students. "Aether Fundamentals. Or the Fundamentals of magic, of taming, of the Soul Contract and the bond between master and mechbeast."
The holoboard behind him mimicked his words as usual— at least, the important ones.
"The connection between a mechbeast and its master is bound in sacred magic," Uriel continued, his voice filling the hall. "Magic that has existed long before we were born, long before our world was born.
"Aether is what we have called this magical source. Of course the learned minds before our time gave it other names like mana, lifesource, essence and the force. But Aether has become the commonly accepted term."
"Humans like you and I are completely unfit for the unique blend of subatomic particles and aetherical energy within this magic. It is harmful to our soul and bodies. Yet, at the same time, beasts harness it effortlessly, using it to fuel extraordinary powers, powers often unleashed against us."
"For generations, humans debated our right to wield magic, arguing it was never meant for us since we couldn't harness it. But if it wasn't made for us, as Magister Egrimmon countered, then why did aether create the Soul Contract? The magical bond that is activated when a human successfully tames a beast, or as we do now, hatches a mechbeast upon an Ascension Pad."
Professor Uriel looked at the students carefully, his movements slow and enigmatic, his gaze capturing. "The truth is this: Although magic was not made to be harnessed by humans, but only beasts… beasts were made to be tamed by humans. Or to destroy them."
That quote struck the heart of the students in the hall, the stakes settling in.
"Nature is brutal," Professor Uriel continued after gauging their expressions, "but nature is also fair. Even if all nature does is kill, it can not allow for only death, because nature also seeks for its own survival. And so it creates counterbalances for the harsh reality of its own self."
"Magic is nature. Aether empowers beasts, granting them destructive powers which they use to hunt and kill humans. Yet at the same time, it opens the avenue for humans to take control over these beasts, making them their own loyal soldiers and harnessing the same magic which they couldn't before."
"How is this possible? Well the process is quite simple."
He stopped pacing. "Once the Contract is formed, the Soul Cores of beast and master connect in the magical unseen space. The beast's Core becomes the source and the master's Core becomes the recipient.
"When the beast's Core harnesses and refines aether, it sends an amount through the bond channels, allowing for the master to harness it and spread it through their own aether channels, empowering their body and enabling their magic."
He elaborated further on the presence of aether channels in both humans and mechbeasts. Then, he shifted focus to the ranking system, starting with the beasts.
"A Rank and a Grade are two distinct things," Uriel emphasized, his tone sharpening. "Even though some of you know this, you always misplace them.
"Mechbeasts do not grow in Ranks. Their ranks are fixed; either Grey, Silver, Black, any of the egg sheens which were implemented as ranking measurements. However, every mechbeast begins at Grade E within its Rank. As it grows in power— not size —its Grade increases.
"When we say your mechbeast is a Gold Rank, Grade A, it signifies the beast is currently at Grade A of the Gold Rank, or that Grade A is its ultimate potential. It all depends on the context of conversation."
Jethro leaned forward in now. It had happened unexpectedly but this professor was quickly becoming his favorite. Seeing his attention was completely occupied, Padva seized the chance to steal a brief, sideways glance at him before snapping her attention back to Uriel.
"For tamers," Uriel continued, more pointed now, "you are not ranked by your beast's Rank however much you might wish it. Calling yourself Black-Rank tamers is dubious and naive. We only use 'Black-Rank' to identify the rank of the beast you own, not how powerful you are."
"Tamers are ranked by Class!" he declared. "Class E to Class A. In vanishingly rare instances, Class S. This rank reflects your power, skill, feats, and beast-taming abilities. It measures your true mastery, not merely the fortune of hatching a potent beast."
He looked around. "Even tamers with lower-Ranked mechbeasts can attain a high Class."
Returning to the podium, he added, "They can do this through many ways, but one of them is by transforming the form, power and core of their mechbeast into another that ranks ahead of the original."
Jethro's eyes widened as Uriel placed both hands firmly on the podium, his gaze intense.
"Evolution."