"What are you guys doing here?" Xenon asked as he was surprised to see both Jason and Aoi here.

"We came to check on you and your cousin." Aoi said.

"To make sure at least one of you is alive." Jason added.

"And to remind you that we have Studies of Spirits and Spirituality in about thirty minutes," Aoi added. "Break is almost over."

"And here I was thinking I could use this as an excuse to skip class, but you just had to ruin my plan didn't you, Aoi." Xenon faked a grimace.

"We could still skip the class you know, hel..." Jason was saying.

"No, we're not skipping classes Jason, that was a joke." Xenon cut him off. "Thanks for coming by the way." He nodded at Aoi.

"No problem." Aoi replied.

A lady in a white shirt and black skirt walked in, interrupting their discussion. Upon closer look, Xenon saw that she had a wristband like the rest of them, the only difference being the colour of her wristband which was rainbow coloured.

'She definitely a third year Hwitaite, what's she doing here?' Xenon thought.

"Hey, I think you have the wrong room." Xenon said immediately.

"No I don't, miss Felicity put me temporarily in charge of that patient," she pointed to Jeage. "I'm the reason he isn't jerking or moaning in his sleep anymore.

Xenon looked at Jeage and realised that he indeed was sleeping soundly. "How did you do that?" Xenon asked.

"My ability. Now if you would please excuse me, I have things to do." She replied.

Xenon glanced at Jeage, then at the senior and decided to leave, there was nothing he could do for him anyway.

"So what happened after I left?" Xenon asked as he, Jason and Aoi left the infirmary.

"Sir Herman dismissed the class, he said we will continue the sparring later." Aoi replied.

"Can you guys stop with the small talk and walk fast, the break will son be over let get something to eat quickly and you can continue your talk on the way to spirits class." Jason interjected.

"As you wish." Xenon replied, he was not in the mood to bicker today.

— — —

'Hmmn... what is this... interesting... what a peculiar creature... I can see traces... traces of her... though faintly... lucky boy... truly mag-'

"Would you SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!" Xenon shouted as he couldn't take it anymore.

"Mister Prasedymum, are you okay?" Professor Aevin Mures asked in concern as one of her students had suddenly shouted out of nowhere.

Indeed, they were in the Study of Spirits and Spirituality class. After heeding Jason's word, the trio had gone to grab something to eat before going to class, and they had been in class for almost the whole period.

When they got to class, they continued their meditation as a way to 'get my spirit to familiarise herself with you' in professor Aevin's words. They did start meditating and soon after they started, Xenon began to experience the effects some others had experienced the last class and thought he was making progress.

But as the class went on, the incoherent mumbling he heard graduated steadily to silent whispers which then became louder and clearer until he could hear the words very clearly even though they were still whispers, and through what he heard, he felt like some specimen being exhibited, the feeling Eyeball's gazing gave him came back and he suddenly lashed out when he couldn't take it anymore.

"I am fine. It's just that your 'spirit' is bothering me, could you tell her to shut up?" Xenon answered Aevin's question.

"What do you mean my spirit?" Aevin frowned as she thought Xenon was just deliberately trying to stir up trouble.

"Your spirit, the one we're supposed to get closer to by meditating." Xenon replied.

"You mean to say she spoke to y..." Aevin's eyes suddenly widened as the spirit confirmed Xenon's words. "She actually spoke to you."

"Yeah, could you tell her to shut up!" Xenon couldn't careless about her bewilderment, and before Aevin could reply, the bell for the last class rang and the class emptied swiftly.

"That's a first." Aevin said to herself as she regarded her contracted spirit curiously.

— — —

As soon as the runes class started, Xenon ignored both Jason and Aoi and concentrated fully on chapter one, he was bent on meeting the chained quest requirements. On one hand, he wasn't so keen on finding out what the penalty would be as the system said he wouldn't like it and the system has yet to lie, on the other hand, this was the first chained quest he would encounter and he wanted to see how it would play out, so he decided on completing the quest.

Xenon meticulously studied the runes on chapter one for almost two hours, and as the trio were heading to their dormitory after class, he decided to check his progress.

'System, show chained quest progress.'

_________________

Chained Quest, Stage 1.

Progress, 6.9%

_________________

"Oh, come on! Just 6.9 after almost two hours!?" Xenon exclaimed out in frustration.

"What's that?" Aoi who had been in a conversation with Jason suddenly turned back after Xenon shouted.

"Nothing, nothing." Xenon replied hurriedly.

"Is it just me or does Xenon appear to talk to himself a lot more than normal." Jason said to Aoi in a very audible whisper, Aoi nodded in agreement.

"I think he's going crazy." Jason continued and Aoi nodded again.

Xenon ignored them and focused back onto the system. 'Why just seven percent after two hours of hardwork.'

_________________

Having 6.9% after two hours of study with no significant prior education in the rune language is quite positively outrageous.

This just proves that you do having the intellectual capacity to learn, but you would rather put your high intelligence to waste. Failure to reach 30% will result in an even worse penalty.

_________________

'What the heck? Why praise me if you're just gonna make life fucking harder for me!'

_________________

With great power comes great responsibility.

_________________

'What's that supposed to mean?'

_________________

I have the power to make your life miserable, and so I must do so dutifully.

_________________

'I can't wait for the day you die.'

_________________

I am dead already.

_________________

— — —

Xenon got back to his room, took a bath, ate dinner and then headed to the infirmary with some food for Jeage, not forgetting to go with his runes textbook. When he got there Jeage was awake.

They talked about how Jeage almost died while he ate, he mentioned that he had been fed with numerous creatures and plants with regenerative abilities to try to cure him to no avail, the only way he could be cured was through a lengthy and gruesome procedure.

"Seems like you're gonna miss a lot of classes." Xenon said.

"They were all boring anyway." Jeage replied and they laughed it off.

Xenon paid a visit to miss Felicity before leaving for the night and found out the procedure to heal Jeage consisted of removing the infected parts of his body and then helping him regenerate them as no healing ability was able to reverse the effects of the mannequin's substance.

In other words, they had to chop off Jeage's limbs, skin and even remove his affected organs before new ones could be regenerated for him. He truly was gonna miss some classes.

— — —

The clouds parted to reveal a brilliant blue sky through which the sun's golden radiance permeated the atmosphere. It was the fifth day of the week, Thursday, and Xenon, Aoi and Jason were heading to the first class of the day, which is also the last and only class that is yet to be held.

Just like TSEUCAEE and Combat Class, this one was also not a strictly classroom subject, and for the first class, the students were in a cordoned part of the forest around Askesis.

"Good day to you all and welcome to Ecobiology. My class has been known to be both the most dangerous and most fun class in the history of Askesis, and today, we will be going straight to the practical part, I heard you guys have had an encounter with these baddies." A lady who appeared to be not more than the age of 18 appeared from the bushes and patted a very tall tree as she spoke her last few words.

The lady had flaming, reddish orange hair, emerald green eyes and had a sweater that seemed to be woven from vines over her black blouse and trousers.

"I am Iveiar Cotyled, but you can call me miss, professor, madam, et cetera Ivy, and today we will start this year's Ecobiology class by studying Elmagse Trees." Iveiar spoke enthusiastically.

'System, scan!' Xenon said to the system as he felt a strange energy he had felt somewhere before around their Ecobiology professor.

_________________

CREATURE: DEMIHUMAN

INFO [<]

NAME: Iveiar Cotyled

AGE: 73

GENDER: Female

HP: • • •

STATE: Excited

[Fatigue: • • •% | Vitality: • • •%]

_________________

"Just as I thought." Xenon muttered to himself.

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