Chronicle of the Eternal: Volume 1 (4 page)

Mr. River announces the
results of the target practice and presents the ‘M5 Ordinary Revolver’ to Piora
with a pleased congratulation. Piora scored the highest in both classes, which
resulted in the currently despondent beauty teaching class 3 to become several
silver poorer.

The lunch bell rings and
the teachers dismiss the students from the gymnasium. As they leave the
classroom, the female teacher, Miss Yatta, makes a move on Mr River with her
wily feminine charms in hopes that he will give the money back. Julius River,
however, is an expert at ignoring people and merely turns away.

An hour later, all the
students return to the gymnasium with nervous expressions. They will be
duelling each other next, which involves shooting at each other. The dilemma of
the students is that being shot hurts… a lot.

“Welcome back,” Miss Yatta
approaches the students cheerfully while Mr. River rests off to the side with a
red palm print on his left cheek and a bleeding bullet wound in right leg.

“I will be looking after
you all for the duels while Mr. River over there recovers from accidentally
hurting himself. Everyone, please separate into your classes. I will match
everyone up by position in your class roster. We will only be using what we
have learned today, so no using alchemy. Support skills are fine though.”

The students of class 4
look at Mr. River with sympathy while class 3 has the same seemingly cheerful
smile as Miss Yatta. She has only been their teacher for a day and a half and
already has converted all her students into her followers.

The first duel is between
Piora and a male student named Serph Logan. A circular light barrier extends
from the floor to the ceiling around the two students. The barrier is ninety
feet in diameter and will stop any attacks from leaving the ring. Of course, it
will not stop either of the contestants from exiting or being knocked out.

“You will fight until
either one of you gives up. The match will also end if one of you only has ten
percent health remaining; as this is only a duel it will be impossible to do
any more damage. Serph, you can have the honour of requesting the duel.” Miss
Yatta gives a loud cheer for the student from her class.

Serph follows his
teacher’s instructions without hesitating, bringing up a list of world commands
in front of him with the swipe of a hand and selecting duel. In Serph’s view, a
red light emanates around Piora as the world anticipates her to be his
opponent. Accepting the duel by extending her index finger back at him, the red
light vanishes and a ten second countdown appears between the two of them
visible to everyone.

Piora immediately strafes
to the left the moment the countdown finishes, narrowly avoiding Serph’s shots
from his gun. Her flaming red hair flicks from side to side as she draws her
gun and returns fire while still moving. Piora’s precision falls sharply as she
fires while moving, but it is still more accurate than Serph’s who is having
difficulty hitting her.

Blood splatters out on the
ground as Serph’s hip is shot through first. Piora’s ‘M5 Ordinary Revolver’ is
much stronger than the training weapons. There is only a slight increase in
bullet range, but it does 50 percent more damage. Coupled with her current
skills, a single bullet of hers will do ten points of damage while her opponent
only does around 5 on average.

The advantage is clear
from the beginning. Serph grits his teeth through the pain and moves around
faster to avoid being shot again, but he has to come to a stop whenever he
wants to fire in order to have even a chance of hitting Piora. Upon receiving a
couple more bullets through his body, Serph visibly staggers from the pain
coursing through him.

Incapable of hitting her
with his gun, Serph pulls out his combat knife and charges toward Piora with
his combat knife raised as Piora’s revolver runs out of ammunition. Calmly,
Piora pulls out six more bullets from one of the remaining two bullet cases on
her hip and reloads her gun. By now, Serph is only eighteen feet away from her.
At the cost of being shot once or twice, he should be able to reach her with
the knife.

Piora’s gun suddenly glows
white and Serph’s eyes go wide in shock. This is the tier 2 Divine Art from the
‘Revolver Proficiency’ north branch, ‘Rapid Fire’. At the cost of 10 stamina
per bullet, the gun can be fired 50 percent faster than normal.

Serph doesn’t get a chance
to retreat as he is still charging forward. Four successive bullets are fired
at high speed and he only feels a great pain in his chest before falling to the
ground with no strength in his body. Serph originally didn’t think he would win
but also thought he could put up a decent duel. Yet he didn’t even manage to
hit Piora once, and was instead utterly annihilated.

Mr River and Miss Yatta
look at a translucent window in front of them which shows the results that the
‘Reading Crystals’ took from the student’s skills. Both of their faces are
filled with joyous expressions that are brimming with praise for the girl.
Recalling Piora’s declaration of wanting to become a great flame alchemist, Mr.
River seriously considers if he should take her on as an apprentice.

The next several battles
are relatively disappointing in comparison. Some people ended up breaking down
in tears and crying from the pain, begging to give up. The teachers force these
people to continue, saying that they must become more resilient to the pain if
they want to survive in this world.

An hour of duels gone by,
and Regal is finally called up into the ring of light for his duel. His
opponent is a burly boy from Class 3 named Holt Grater.

“I hear ya are Soulless,”
Holt says to Regal in the arena nonchalantly. “Well, no’ that it matters to me.
But yer gonna lose because of it.”

Holt isn’t opinionated
about the soulless. He simply treats them as anyone would a stranger. Even
without feeling any enmity with Regal, deep within his brawny looking body is,
in fact, a cunning mind that works constantly to achieve victory.

“Begin!” Miss Yatta calls
out, a little less enthusiastic and more bored than earlier.

Holt doesn’t attack
immediately, but instead steps forward diagonally before hastily jumping to the
side. Regal’s gun smokes from the barrel as the bullet fired hits the ground
behind where Holt was previously standing.

Holt goes to take another
step forward but instead moves in a different direction than he appeared to be.
This is a feint, misleading the enemy to predict your actions but instead doing
something different. This is also the Soulless’s greatest weakness.

“Ya won’t be able to hit
me. Ya Soulless are all tha same, incapable of producing or understandin’
misleading tactics like feints. This is why ya will lose.”

Regal is in fact
completely incapable of comprehending or pulling off tactics to mislead the
opponent. This is because as a Soulless, his mind is far too decisive. He never
considers or reflects on an action, he simply does it.

Holt repeats his feints,
avoiding all the bullets and slowly closing in on Regal. He also draws his gun,
the first bullet grazing Regal’s shoulder as he strafes to avoid it. A second
bullet unpredictably follows immediately after, hitting Regal in the center of
the chest. Pain courses through his chest which feels like it is burning up but
he suppresses it with willpower alone.

With no other option available
to him, Regal activates the Divine Art ‘Foresight’. ‘Foresight will use 10 mana
per second, every second he looks into the future. Restraining the skill down
to 2 seconds in the future he can use the skill 5 times before running out of
mana. Using the Divine Art ‘Foresight’ allows him to see the next bullet coming
and even Holt’s next feint.

Having seen through his
actions with ‘Foresight’, Holt’s feint suddenly becomes useless. Regal casually
turns to the side and narrowly avoids the bullet he already saw coming and
returns a shot. The bullet travels the fifteen feet in between the two and is a
fortunate critical hit to the center of Holt’s head, expending blood and other
matter from the back of his skull. Holt grabs his forehead and crouches down with
tears in the corner of his eyes as his mind encounters a pain he has never
before experienced. The visible injury vanishes quickly, but the pain remains.

Being a critical hit, the
shot deals three times the standard damage.  Many of the students quiet
down and stare wide-eyed at the sudden change. The teachers who are viewing the
skill readings from the reading crystals, stare at the information in utter
shock with their mouths agape.

As Regal had suppressed
the ‘Future Sight’ skill to see only two seconds into the future, the ‘Reading
Crystals’ throughout the gymnasium record the skill used to be level 20 and
transmit this to the translucent screens in front of the teachers. Regardless,
in the eyes of both teachers, a student who is only fourteen and has reached,
or is very near, the third tier in the ‘Future Sight’ skill, which is renowned
as being an impossibly difficult skill to level, is an incredible
accomplishment.

If they knew that this
skill was in fact at the maximum, level 100, they would both fight tooth and
nail with each other to teach him privately, regardless as to whether he was
Soulless or not.

Regal’s duel with Holt
continues to favour Regal. Regal uses ‘Foresight’ four more times, doing three
critical hits and avoiding all of Holt’s advances and attacks. But this ends
once he is out of mana and unable to use ‘Foresight’ any longer. As if by a
stroke of good fortune, Holt doesn’t notice the change and is still completely
discouraged.

“I-I give up!” Holt shouts
out, immediately darting for the edge of the ring.

Regal doesn’t shoot him
before he leaves the ring, but peacefully turns to leave himself. He is also
somewhat relieved by his opponent’s forfeiture. Any longer and he would have
been at a disadvantage and would probably lose.

The students look at Regal
with different eyes once he leaves the circular ring of light. He is no longer
just a Soulless to them, but someone who has proven himself to be strong and
they will think twice about picking on.

When Regal awakens on the
morning of his third day at Bluemist Academy, the sky in Grand City Theore is
much dimmer than usual as water showers down from above. The rain outside the
city follows various pipe networks and other crevices, creating a light shower
on all the floors of the city.

Outside the city the winds
howl, carrying a biting cold rain as lighting snakes down from the sky. The
storm is so violent that no one would willingly endure the elements. But,
despite knowing when the storm is coming, there are still people every month
who inevitably get caught in the tempests and return to Grand Theore with colds
and other status afflicting illnesses.

Regal leaves his house,
umbrella in hand and a thick coat over his academy uniform that hangs all the
way down to his knees. Several saturated young kids are playing in shallow
puddles of water that have pooled on the side of the cobblestone road outside
of his house. Adjusting the brass buckles on his coat sleeves to pull the
fabric tighter and ward off the cold, Regal quietly leaves the street.

The streets are much less
busy than usual due to the weather, but several street stands selling hot food
are set up under large umbrellas. The steaming snacks are extremely popular
this time of the month as they warm the body from the inside. Regal passes by
several of these food stands nonchalantly, not feeling any desire to eat, as he
ate prior to leaving his house.

At one point he witnesses
a man being hauled off by guards for using ice alchemy to turn the rain into
hail and harass a group of people, and an angry couple chasing down a thief. Neither
of these impacts his journey so Regal’s walk to the academy is without
incident.

The classroom interior is
conditioned by ducted heating to maintain the optimal temperature, so all the students
who wore coats today fold them over the back of their chairs. The only students
who didn’t bring coats are those who don’t mind the chilly air.

Julius River is late to
class, arriving ten minutes after the bell. Despite this, he acts as if he is arriving
just on time.

“Okay, students,” Mr.
River drones with a lazy voice, “Today is the day we cover all the basics of
alchemy.”

The teacher raises a hand
and a crimson ring of light materializes in the air. Within this ring,
countless intricate patterns, symbols and equations form from the glowing
luminescence.

Mr. River doesn’t even
bother quieting the class, who excitedly chatter among themselves. He silently
waits for everyone to fall silent before continuing to speak.

“Alchemy is the use of
using archaic formulae to create change in the world. When compared to martial
skills it is completely different in every way.”

“To break through a
bottleneck or speed up the levelling progress in a martial skill, you must
focus on the skill itself, the movements, the passive bonuses, and understand
how your body is changed by the skill. This not only allows you to advance to
the next tier, but makes you more proficient in using the skill.”

“Alchemy skills are
different. These require you to focus on your mana flowing through the formulae
to decipher and comprehend how it causes the phenomena in the world known as
alchemy. Most of you will find yourself more talented in either martial or
alchemical skills as your skills grow. Although there are sometimes exceptions
with people good at either both or none.”

One of the male students
in class, Quaz Rimuris, sticks his hand into the air and asks, “Excuse me, Mr.
River, but is there a way to test what type of skills you are more proficient
in?”

“No, you will only be able
to find out once you try and learn different skills. You may also be better at
using a particular type of gun, or element of alchemy,” Mr. River promptly
ignores the student after replying to avoid any followup questions.

“Alchemy can be used for
attack and defence. It can also summon spirits and creatures from other worlds,
create supplementary effects for your weapons, and be used for support
abilities. You will be learning two different alchemy skills today: ‘Ice Heart
Alchemy’ and ‘Vigorous Earth Alchemy’. They are both ranked as ordinary alchemy
skills so are relatively easy to level up and will help you all form a good
foundation.”

“I have both the skill
books here for you,” Mr. River withdraws two stacks of thin skill books, one
ice blue while the other an earthen brown, from his personal inventory and
stacks them on his desk.

“I can’t be bothered
handing them out so come up one at a time, starting from Piora sitting in the
front. The student on the right of the previous student, going from the front
row to the rear, will then come up. Same deal as yesterday, if you already have
the skill, no need to come up.”

Following the teacher’s
directions, Piora Flameheart stands up from her seat and collects one of both
skill books before returning to her spot. The student on her right then repeats
this process, followed by the subsequent person.

This continues until
everyone has approached the teachers table to pick up the skill books. Out of
the entire class, three students had one of the skills already and only one had
both.

Regal places his hand on
one of the skill books and a translucent window appears in front of him.

Immediately selecting yes,
Regal repeats this process with the skill book for ‘Vigorous Earth Alchemy’.
Once the skills are learned, he opens the skills to select his first Divine
Art. Both skills have four branches and four Divine Arts for him to select
from.

From ‘Ice Heart Alchemy’,
Regal chooses the Divine Art ‘Ice Bullet’ as that will allow whatever gun he
has to have unlimited ammo as long as he has mana. It also deals additional
damage on top of his weapon damage. This Divine Art is just a popular with the
rest of the class for the same reason and nearly half of the students choose
it.

He also chooses the most
popular Divine Art from ‘Vigorous Earth Alchemy’, ‘Stone Skin’. More than half
the class choose this skill which will actively increase their body’s defence
even if they are wearing armour.

“Good,” Mr. River slaps
the teacher’s desk noisily to reclaim the students’ attention. “Now that you
have all chosen your first divine art, we will be going to the gym to practice
them. Class 1 will be joining us today.”

Unlike the usual
excitement, the class is full of depressed expressions as the students remember
the pain of the yesterday’s duels. Regardless, they follow the teacher to the
gym where class 1 is already waiting.

The teacher for class 1 is
an intimidating looking man standing six and a half feet tall and wearing tight
clothes that cling to his every muscle. Many students shrink back in fear upon
seeing him.

“Students, this is the
teacher for class 1, Mr. Razor. He is kind enough to guide you all in practice
for today. I will be attending to other matters.” Mr. River lazily nods his
head toward Mr. Razor before turning around and wandering off with a weary
step.

Mr. Razor looks down on
class 4 and nods his head sternly, “Welcome, Class 4. Unfortunately, you’re
teacher is a disgraceful slacker and has gone off to sleep in some dark corner.
I will properly guide you for today and help you get to know your new alchemy.
I don’t know who is who, so I will go over your roll call. Let me know who you
are when your name is called.”

Despite his intimidating
appearance, many of the students find the teacher from class 1 to be quite
friendly. Mr. Razor’s expression covers the fact that he is actually feeling
incredibly nervous due to this being only his third day of directing and
teaching others.

Once Mr. Razor has
finished learning the names of all the students of class 4, he
combines the classes together and separates them into groups depending on
what Divine Art they chose from ‘Ice Heart Alchemy’.

The largest group are
those that selected ‘Ice Bullet’ with a total of 31 students. The other three
groups are significantly less, especially the group who chose ‘Chilling Wind’
which only has four people.

“Students, now that you
are in your respective groups, you will each practice your Divine Arts. Those
who chose ‘Ice Bullet’ will shoot the targets against the wall from
ninety feet. The ‘Frozen Spear’ group will attack the targets on the other
wall from forty feet away. ‘Chilling Wind’ and ‘Ice Gauntlets’ will
do some friendly sparing amongst your group to get used to the Divine Arts.”

“Remember to focus and
study how your mana forms and flows through the alchemy formulae. Comprehending
these profundities will help you level it up faster and grow stronger.”