by Nikostar A
After pouring three weeks' worth of water in his Space, Alexander followed Aila to the restaurant for dinner. Alexander was already familiar with this place. Every time, Aila would bring him to the private room, away from the guests' eyes.
"I heard that you are going to participate in the duel with the Exil, are you ready?" asked Aila with a sweet voice.
Alexander stopped looking at his plate and answered, "Oh? Yeah. How did you know about it?"
"You did not tell me anything. I had to ask one of my friends. He is a recruit from Nuevo Mundo. He told me that the duels will be taking place on Loha." Aila pouted as if Alexander had wronged her by not telling her about the duels.
'Is that a nicer way to say that you slept with a guy and extorted information out of him?' thought Alexander. Naturally, he did not voice this out, he simply answered, "I was busy meditating in preparation for the duels. Do you know more about the situation?"
Aila smiled, "Yes, my friend has quite an important position in Nuevo Mundo. He told me a few things. There will be a total of fifteen duels. Five of them would be team battles. Nuevo Mundo, the Flemming Organization and the Watchers are in charge of the team battles while the other three organizations will take care of the solo duels. You are the only one who is not affiliated with anyone. The academy was not allowed to dispatch any Lohan native for this battle."
"You are well informed," commented Alexander. He took a sip of the red wine and smiled.
"There's more. Tomorrow, you will be escorted by the higher-ups of the different organizations. They will escort you through the rift to Loha where the duels will take place. The people of the Exil are scared of being trapped if they came to Earth and this resulted in you having to go through the rift. You are quite lucky; it has been so long since I've seen my homeland."
"I have only been away from home for three months and I already miss it. Can you tell me more about Loha?"
Although Alexander was already familiar with Loha, he directed the conversation toward it. Aila was happy to share her thoughts and experience of her world. The two chatted for a while longer until Aila asked:
"Alexander. You have already received quite a few gallons' worths of water already. Is it not time for you to make a small payment too?" Her tone was playful. and her cheeks were already red from the wine. She looked like she did not intend to ask this question but inadvertently did so under the influence of alcohol.
However, Alexander already knew she was pretending. Aila was able to drink two entire bottles of wine without being affected; how could she be drunk from just a few glasses? Alexander looked at Aila smacking her alluring cherry lips.
'After all, she is still looking for ways to get more power... What should I do?' thought Alexander. He did not answer immediately and neither did Aila pressure him.
"Alright. I'll show you something tonight then," said Alexander.
'Maybe I have been too passive with Aila. I should show her more to gain her trust.'
***
After the usual passionate act with Aila, Alexander sat on the bed holding the pretty girl in his arms. He could smell Aila's faint fragrance from her hair. The two waited in silence as they slowly caught their breath.
Aila leaned in Alexander's embrace, wondering about how she should ask Alexander to share his secrets. In the end, she did not even need to ask.
She saw Alexander make a quick hand seal and suddenly, a flame lit up in Alexander's right hand.
"This is my secret," said Alexander while smiling.
Confused, Aila looked at the tiny flame and asked, "I don't understand, isn't it just a flame."
"Yes, but check this." As he spoke, Alexander grabbed Aila's soft hand with his free hand and placed it against his abdomen. He adjusted her hand a little bit, positioning it exactly where the spirit circuit dedicated to fire spells were located.
Aila instantly understood and tried to feel the flow of mana in Alexander's spirit circuits. A few seconds later, she spoke with an astonished expression, "How did you do that? I don't feel any mana flowing!"
"Precisely. I don't use any mana to do this," answered Alexander.
Aila paused for a moment as she stared at the tiny flame in Alexander's hand. "Can you show me how to do it?"
"Yes, but not right now. After I return from the duels, I'll teach you how to do it," answered Alexander. He did not hesitate when Aila asked about it. He had always wanted Aila to become a stargazer like him. He wanted to finally use Dew, the Whisperer. Who else could be a better candidate than Aila?
When she heard Alexander's agreement, Aila smiled brightly. She laughed and pecked Alexander's neck. "Thank you. I will wait for you to return but for now, will you be interested in round two?"
Chapter 31: Going to Loha
Alexander woke up early the next day. He left the room quietly and went to a restaurant for a short breakfast.
Thirty minutes before the appointed time, Alexander showed up at the magic department but to his surprise, all the other representatives of the academy were already there. When he entered the meeting room, nineteen pairs of eyes turned toward him. He was the only one not affiliated with any organization; he easily stood out of the crowd.
Alexander wordlessly sat in a corner of the room and waited for the meeting to start. All the other students were seated in groups; it was easy to tell that each group represented an organization.
Alexander sat down under the stare of the other students. He could hear their murmurs but paid them no mind. He had no intention of befriending any of them.
Soon, the door of the meeting room opened once again and Carmen Ashmore, the headmistress entered followed by a small group of people. She scanned the room, counting the number of students present. When she saw that all twenty students were there, the headmistress nodded to the director of studies.
The latter closed the door behind him and spoke, "Since all the students are here early, we can start. Many of you already know these people but let me introduce them." He then proceeded to present the people they brought in.
They were the representatives sent by the different organizations to escort the students to Loha. There were a total of six people, four men and two women representing the six official organizations: Flemming, Nuevo Mundo, NXT, Arthemis, The Watchers and Arcana.
Alexander listened as the director of studies presented the six individuals. They all had different roles of varying importance in their organizations, some were captains of exploration teams while others held management roles.
Among the six, there was one particular person that attracted Alexander's attention. That person was a tall muscular man. He looked fairly young with a neatly trimmed beard and a flashy hairstyle. However, what attracted Alexander's attention was the man's aura.
It turned out that the man was a team captain from the Flemming organization: Sebastien Lafouche.
It was rare for mages to have a natural aura. It was possible for mages to release their mana out of their body and to display a powerful presence but this was a complete waste of mana. Nobody in their right mind would let their mana go to waste like that but this man was definitely emitting his mana.
Everyone could feel it. Compared to the others, Sebastien Lafouche had a much stronger presence. Just by standing here, he felt like a powerful war god who was about to unleash his power.
"He should not be doing this on purpose... That can only mean one thing... He hurt himself during his meditation. He probably forced it and now, his mana source is leaking out. It naturally results in an overall increase in power but that also means that he does not have long too live... Judging by the flow of mana, he can probably survive for another year," said Alexander to himself.
While still deep in thoughts, Alexander's eyes met Sebastien's. The two wordlessly stared at each other before Alexander shifted his gaze to the headmistress.
"I don't know how much the Earthlings know about magic. According to what I know, the Lohan did their best to keep them in the dark.
Since that guy comes from the Flemming Organization, I don't need to help or warn him," said Alexander to himself.
In front of the meeting room, Carmen waited for the director of studies to do the introduction and spoke, "You will all be representing the academy at this small exchange with some rogue mages. I am well aware you all come from different organizations and some of you have conflicts with each other. However, for the sake of the academy, I hope that you put aside your differences for a while."
"You have been given clearance to go to Loha for the exchange. You will spend the night there and come back the next day. Remember to keep your X-Driver on you for the entire duration of the trip. The academy will also be sending ten special staff members to escort you and ensure your safety."
"The battle plan for the exchange has already been decided. Mr. Andrea will share this information in a bit. He will also accompany you on Loha to make sure that everything goes as planned."
Carmen spoke with a harsh tone, reminding the organizations that for this exchange, they were all on the same team. She spoke for a while before signaling the director of studies to take her place.
The director of studies pressed on his X-Driver, causing the screen behind him to lit up. He put on a slide, showing the information about the matches and their future opponents.
As both sides agreed to make duels between first-year students, they had to disclose who they would send to participate so that the other side could check that they were all indeed eighteen-years old.
The profile of each rogue mage was revealed. Next to their general information were small notes detailing the possible strength and weaknesses of the rogue mages. Alexander had to admit that the information was quite detailed but if the academy was able to obtain that much information, so could the rogue mages.
The director of studies then changed the slides to show the team composition. They did not know in what order the rogue mages would arrange themselves but they already had a plan. Nuevo Mundo and the Flemming organizations both sent four students who would fight in the team duels. The Watchers had sent three students; two of them would take care of the team duel while Sonya Kress would join the solo battles. NXT and Arthemis had both selected three students to represent themselves while Arcana only sent two female students to fight.
All the organizations were confident in their own strength and acknowledged each other. The only outsider in the composition was Alexander. As nobody trusted him, he was allocated to the last solo battle. It was clear that the organizations were not planning on relying on him to win the exchange. As long as they won enough matches by themselves, then Alexander would simply become an irrelevant participant.
Alexander did not know that his presence in this exchange had been subject to a lot of debate between the organizations and the governments. By now, everybody knew that he might belong to an unknown force and were keeping an eye on him. They wanted to bring him outside the UNEA and see whether he tried to contact other people.
***
After a brief discussion about the team arrangement to which Alexander did not participate, the group went through the same long security checks before boarding a cruiser. Even the representatives of the organizations were not spared of the security checks.
The journey on the cruiser did not even last for twenty minutes before the coast came into view.
'They must have moved the island close to Mozambique for this exchange,' thought Alexander. He stood alone while enjoying the light sea breeze. He could feel the excitement of the students; it has been a while since they have left the island and for most of them, it would be the first time going through the rift.
The rest of the trip did not take very long. When they arrived at the location of the rift, their shuttle was stopped several times along the way. A tight security perimeter had been built around the rift both to prevent any undesirable people from approaching the rift and at the same time, to defend in case of an invasion by the Lohans.
The security checks were tighter than ever. He had to go through various checks: face recognition, fingerprint test, and a retina test. All their belonging were checked, including the ancient relics carried by the representatives of the organizations. Fortunately, all the documents had already been processed by the academy or else, the procedure would have taken even longer.
"It is just like I remember. The rift..." Alexander followed the group through the various checks before being led to a giant hall.
The hall was as large as a stadium and in the middle of it was the precious rift. The rift looked like a circular whitish spiral covered with cracks. It was completely flat like a 2-D object and floated in the middle of the room. A small platform connected to a ramp had to be built for people to access the rift. The rest of the hall was filled with scientists and experimental equipment. To this day, they were still studying the rift to try to understand its origin.
"Alright. Everyone, please follow me carefully. The atmosphere and gravity of Loha are slightly different from Earth. Once we arrive on the other side, if you feel sick, please do not hesitate to tell us. This is very normal for people who go to Loha for the first time." The director of studies explained to the group. Naturally, everyone was already informed of this.
"Form a line, please." Seeing that everyone was ready, one of the soldiers asked the group to enter the rift one by one. Alexander stood in the middle of the queue as he watched the students go in one by one.
Soon, it was his turn. Alexander stood in front of the giant white spiral. The light was dazzling; it was recommended to close one's eyes when going through a rift. When he was just one meter from the rift, Alexander closed his eyes and continued walking forward at the same pace.
He did not need to see to know that he had arrived on Loha. As soon as he did, he felt a faint force pressing on his shoulders and immediately, he opened his eyes. The gravity on Loha was slightly stronger than on Earth, resulting in people feeling a slight pressure difference when they went through the rift.
Alexander saw the director of studies signaling him to come forward. Without hesitation, he quickly joined the group to make space for the other students. All the students looked fairly healthy, to the exception of one nerdy looking guy who had a sudden urge to go to the bathroom. The air composition of Loha also differed from Earth but its effects were not apparent yet.
It is due to these differences that the students were brought to Loha one day before the actual exchange. One day was more than enough to adapt to the new environment.
They were brought to a hotel to rest and to prepare for tomorrow's matches. They were not allowed to leave the hotel to roam around. Fortunately, Alexander was not interested in visiting the city.
On Loha, a city was built around the rift. It was called Kalesha, in honor of a general that led the army to expel the Xals from Loha.
As one would expect, Kalesha looked mostly like any modern city on Earth. It was clear that Earth's influence was very strong in this city. Most of the facilities were modern, automated and most of them did not use any magic. It was unfortunate but if Alexander was looking to purchase magic resources, it could not be done at Kalesha.
Naturally, Loha as a whole was slowly transitioning into the modern era. Cities were being built everywhere and most of the labor was now being done by robots. However, magic still existed. It still had a strong presence in Loha except for Kalesha.
As Earthlings were very reluctant to allow the Lohan to come to Earth, Kalesha was mostly devoid of any Lohan natives. The magic culture there was almost nonexistent.
Therefore, if he wanted to acquire any useful resources, Alexander would have to wait for a bit. But the good news was that he could send all the water he wanted into his pocket dimension. The water here was fresh and clean; it was different from the recycled water of the academy. Furthermore, there was an almost infinite amount of water he could absorb here while if he did it at the academy, the water level of the island would instantly plummet.
Cha
pter 32: Rogue mages
"Strange, I did not think it would go that smoothly. Looks like the Flemming Organization is not doing anything against me either. That's good to know. As long as they don't do anything, then we can just let this matter slide."
Alexander was sitting next to a sink. The tap was widely opened, his two hands were collecting the water, sending it to his pocket dimension. It had already been two hours since Alexander had been continuously transferring water to his Space.
The task was boring but if he obtained enough water here, then his Space would be set for a while. Naturally, water was not the only thing he needed. He also needed to bring in some nutrients for the soil. Fertilizers would be ideal but that would have to wait. He already had a few plants growing in his Space but it was not enough.
Alexander went to the jungle several times and send a large amount of soil and plants in his Space. Although the content of his space increased, the space itself was still a 150mx150mx150m giant cube. It could only contain a limited amount of resources. However, Alexander was not worried about it.
