The Astral soul system-Chapter 163: First time... technically

*Beep Be-*

A shot of black energy suddenly slammed into the alarm clock, blasting it to pieces.

"You know you could have just turned it off, right?"

Maximilian said, waking up mostly from the sound of the blast than the alarm.

The bathroom door burst open as Xavier walked out fully dressed, his jet black spiky hair still wet. His eyes were full of fire and he looked like he’d stayed up all night out of excitement. He seemed to have completely forgotten about his injuries from the previous night as he cupped his fists.

"What are you guys still doing in bed? We’ve got a hunt to get ready for"

Neo looked up from his bed, his eyes still groggy.

"Did you even sleep last night you musclehead? You know it’s five in the morning right?"

"Ha! How could I sleep? I’ve got to make up for that embarrassing loss last night. Don’t you agree... Zen?"

Zen once again opened his eyes, mechanically getting out of bed and heading straight for the bathroom.

They all watched as he left without saying anything and once he left they suddenly chuckled.

"At least we know it’s him"

As soon as the door closed, his left eye turned a bright gold the contract was terminated and Zyro took over again.

"Good morning to you too Zen?"

Zyro chuckled, quickly taking off his clothes and turning on the shower.

"Man,last night was a ride,huh?"

Theia suddenly appeared again, stretching like she’d just woken up as well.

"Yep. Now if only we knew what to do with this"

She said as a key larger than her suddenly appeared in her tiny hands.

"Honestly I’m a bit disappointed. When i heard ’Mysterious key’ i thought it’d be like a skeleton key or like some weird dungeon key. This looks like it opens some office or something "

Theia said, looking at the painfully average key before putting it back in the system.

"So,it seems you boys managed to reach an understanding. Good for you "

"Yeah, but now I’m going to need to explain why only we could kill those things"

"Oh, yeah. Why is that anyway "

Zyro seemed a bit conflicted.

"It’s a bit hard to explain honestly, but it has something to do with this "

He said, showing her his mark.

"Hmm, alright then."

"You’re not curious?"

"I am, but there are dozens of dozens of explanations for pseudo immortality or defeat prevention skills and abilities, and I know all of them "

Finishing their talk, he quickly finished up his bath, dressing in his academy uniform before getting out of the bath.

Neo jumped in immediately after he left and the sound of running water could be heard a few seconds later.

"You ready?"

Zyro nodded.

"Gear. Food, emergency supplies in case something bad happens, and some other junk"

First year students were required to take their own food and deal with their own feeding and accomodations for the duration of the expedition

"Good. Hopefully this doesn’t go the same way as last time"

Xavier scoffed.

"Says you. I’d pick that over getting watched by teachers 24/7 and dealing with their dumb rules and tariffs "

A sly smile played on Xavier’s lips as he suddenly leaned closer to Zyro.

"Hey buddy. Do you think you could -"

"Even if i wanted to,i couldn’t. Last time was just a malfunction."

"Really? Damn! "

Xavier seemed disappointed but he didn’t push it.

A few seconds later, Neo walked out fully dressed, drying off his hair with Maximilian’s towel.

"That was fast"

Maximilian commented but didn’t add, just going to take his bath.

A few minutes later, he walked out ,clothed but still wet and staring vengefully at Neo.

"Mine was dirty"

Neo tried explaining but Maximilian didn’t want to hear it, jumping after the guy who was currently already running away.

Zyro watched the two running out of the room and sighed, asking

"Why do i feel we’re going to be last again?"

"Come on. Let’s go after them before Max kills him"

************

Diane groaned, checking the time.

6:50

"I knew those morons would be late. What part of "We leave at seven" wasn’t clear. Literally everyone but them is here"

Zaria sighed.

"They’ll make it. We already said we’d team up so there shouldn’t be any issues... hopefully "

"Hopefully? Hopefully?! There’s a guy with ocd,a battle maniac,a literal hoodlum, and a guy who doesn’t even know who he is"

"Don’t say it like that. Besides,we don’t know what really happened to them "

"Yeah, because they won’t tell us. They never tells us anything "

Just then, the door to the portal room opened and to no ones suprise, the last four students squeezed in, panting like they’d just ran a marathon.

Sable suddenly made a dash towards them, looking like she’d been thinking all night.

"You’re all okay"

She turned to Zyro.

"I called some officials last night but when they got there, they said although there’d been signs of the fight, there was no beast and no student"

’Oh, yeah. I forgot that "fated" do that when they are slain ’

"We’ll...talk about that later"

After that they went to meet with the others, waiting for a few minutes until it eventually struck seven.

The teacher of the weapons class,Virgil stepped up, looking as messy and bored as ever.

"Alright runts. We’ve done this once before so you know the drill. You can team up with whoever you want to hunt beasts, and, although there isn’t a competition, everything you gain from that planet, aether crystal’s included, will be recorded and scored,so on the school website, and if you want to be registered as a team on the website and have your results calculated together you need to be in a team of five,max, but you can still team up with others as you wish,so... do with that information whatever you want. Anyway, once you get there, what you decide to do is honestly your own choice to make, as long as you don’t break school rules, and come back alive. Oh, one more thing. A few second years will be accompanying you on this trip to help keep an eye on you"

Once he said that,a team of ten second year boys, stepped up, with none other than Keith at the center of it all.

Zyro and Keith locked eyes and a smirk suddenly appeared on Keith’s face.

"I wonder how long that smile will last"

Theia asked, resting on her usual spot on his head.

The portal generator started up and the swirling green portal opened up.

Looking to his side, Zyro noticed Jade rubbing her knuckles,a habit he noticed she did when nervous.

"You alright?"

She looked at him and nodded gently

"Yeah,i guess it’s just. This is technically the first time we’ve done this. Last time the only thing we had to worry about was staying alive. I have no idea what to expect now"

"Well you’re right about that. But that should just make it more fun, right? Into the unknown and all that. Just wait, it’ll be exciting. Besides, you’ll be with your friends"

Jade smiled

"Is this your first time too?"

Zyro smiled but didn’t answer, suddenly giving her his hand

"Here, take it. Just like the first time, remember?"

The faint memory of the first time she met him as Zen flashed in her mind and she smiled, taking his hand in hers.

"Thanks"

The line of students got shorter and shorter as time passed and they got closer to the front"

"You’ll stick with me, right? Every step of the way?"

"..."

"Z?"

"I’ll be here if you need me"

The reply brought a smile to her face and before she knew it,they were at the front of the line.

"Ready?"

"Yep"

Hand in hand they both jumped into the swirling green portal, and although they were hit with the same dizzying sensation, they were both more tolerant to it than most.

After a few seconds, their feet landed on the ground as their vision cleared up and they found themselves in a huge base about the size of a small city.

All the walls were painted mostly white and hundreds of people were going about their daily lives in the base, ignoring the students as if this was a common experience

"Hey! Come on, don’t waste time"

A teacher called out to them when he noticed how they were staring at the place.

Diane,Xavier and Zaria were already here, waving at them from the group.

They quickly joined the rest of the group still holding hands.

A student suddenly scoffed and laughed as he saw them, muttering.

"Fucking babies"

Zyro smiled

"What was that?"

He asked with a gentle expression.

The student scoffed, rolling his eyes before turning to face him.

"What did you hear? If you can’t make it through a portal without having to hold someone’s hand,then you should probably just quit now, losers like you guys will only ruin things"

Zyro’s facial expression didn’t change

"Oh really? You think so?"

The student took Zyro’s smile as mockery, getting closer.

"Yeah. You can try to act like you’re hot stuff but an unregistered and unranked ability doesn’t make you anything special, you’re just a rarer kind of loser. If anything i bet you’re only comparable to a level three at most. And what’s this bitch’s level anyway"

He said, trying to look at her watch but she suddenly covered it with her hand, looking away with an uncomfortable expression.

"Hmm? Move it bitch,let me see your level"

Jade didn’t respond but kept avoiding eye contact,her grip on Zyro’s hand tightening.

"Maybe you should leave"

"What? You’re trying to tell me what to do now?"

"No, not trying. I’m telling you what to do"

Hearing that seemed to have set him off as he stepped closer and moved to grab Zyro.

"Or wha-"

Before his hand could touch Zyro,it suddenly stopped in place.

"Back off"

Someone said from behind Zyro, tightly holding the student’s wrist.

"Eh? Who the -"

"What are you gonna do about it? Back off,if you know what’s good for you"

The student looked at the face of who was holding him and suddenly went silent before snarling and pulling his hand away.

"Watch yourself"

He said before walking back to the front of the group.

"You okay?"

Zyro asked her to which she nodded with a reply.

"You can’t keep your head low for guys like that. It’ll only encourage them when they realize you’re scared"

"...I can’t help it though"

Zyro sighed. There was no helping it. She’d grown up without a mother, and a father who loved her and although was present,was too busy and overwhelmed to be emotionally present. Eventually she’d probably just developed severe anxiety from her personal issues,causing her to instinctively freeze,fidget and lower her head when faced with difficult situations like these.

He sighed and decided to not bother her anymore, looking at their savior

"Thanks Gary"

Gary chuckled, scratching his cheek, his expression switching from menacing to dainty in a matter of seconds.

"No problem. I just came through when I noticed that jackass. He may be in the same year as us, but he’s definitely in a different class or he wouldn’t have pulled that nonsense "

Zyro was confused by that response and asked

"Why? It’s not like I’m high level or anything "

"Are you kidding?"

Gary asked like he couldn’t believe Zyro was pretending he didn’t know.

"You’re basically Ms Aurora’s purse dog,no offense. It’s practically common knowledge that you’re the only guy in our class that can go into her office. Plus, she clearly treats you different"

Zyro didn’t deny it, although he didn’t see it like that, he was still curious as to how this became common knowledge, however what he was really curious about was...

"Is Teach famous or something?"

Once again,Gary looked shocked by the question.

"You’re joking right?"