As Garen waited for the best moment to leap out of the surface, his body, which was in the form of a black blob, shrunk slowly and became much smaller than before.
Finally, when he was a small distance from the hole.
Splash!!
Within the crisp clear sound of the water splashing, a black shadow emerged out from the river and flew directly towards the hole.
With a thud, the shadow was absorbed into the hole. The green river of the Mother River below reached out a whip of water which danced about for a few moments. Once it realized the target had escaped, it collapsed and everything was calm once more.
***************
Garen jumped into the hole and he felt that he had jumped into a layer of black, sticky and oily substance.
There was no light or anything around him at all.
Garen could sense that his surrounding area spanned hundreds of meters apart, but there was nothing in here at all. There was only him moving forward at high speed.
It seemed like an area where there was no light nor gravity. Garen could only feel that he was moving at a very high speed.
“Luckily the Mother Stream’s corrosion doesn’t exist here, so I should be able to last for a while,” Garen looked around carefully but he didn’t notice anything but himself. The sticky sensation previously had disappeared. Perhaps he had gotten used to it.
He felt that he was transmigrating in a mysterious tunnel.
Perhaps ten days have passed, maybe twenty days, it was so long to the point that Garen had lost track, and he had been traveling forward this whole time.
Debris started to appear in the surroundings. He seemed to be inside a very long black passage and cracks started to appear around him. What made it strange was that he could see the light of the stars through these cracks.
Thud!
Suddenly everything in front of him was empty and Garen seemed to have been ejected out of some sort of a tunnel. His surrounding lit up instantly and he was ejected into a beautiful nebula.
Garen felt that there was a fiery hot giant fireball behind him as the light radiated in all directions.
“That’s a Guidance Star…” he recognized the name of the fiery golden star.
The Guidance Star behind him had covered almost his entire field of vision. Magma was moving about lazily on the surface. Dark red magma was crawling on the surface like a worm and there were blinding golden geysers gushing at other parts of the surface as well.
Garen, who was in the shape of a black ball, looked around to see densely packed stars blinking everywhere. Some of the light blue stars glowed faintly while some old and mysterious looking ones were stationary as he moved about.
Garen noticed that the black tunnel that he was ejected out from had disintegrated after maintaining its shape for a short while.
He didn’t know what that was but it was most likely the warp gates extended by the Mother River. It connected all the universe’s worlds together. It was something Black Sethe had casually mentioned before as if it was common knowledge.
If it was the Mother River’s warp gate, then it would most likely be impossible for him to return. This was because these warp gates usually lasted for a very short amount of time. It was short-lived and would pierce through many parts of the spacetime continuum, but would be automatically disintegrated by the universe’s force. It was a once in a lifetime occurrence.
When he had reached this space, he had no idea how long he would have to wait for the Mother River’s warp gate to open once more. According to the Warlocks’ knowledge, there were theoretically an infinite amount of worlds in this universe as the universe would die and being reborn endlessly. It could extend to countless worlds and even a minute difference would mean that it was another world as well.
Garen floated among the stars quietly and soon could no longer sense the Mother River’s warp gate behind him. The radiation from the Guidance Star pushed him forward towards the center of his field of vision but the direction slightly deviated.
According to the Warlocks’ research, the Mother River only existed outside the living realm. This was because the Mother River’s water was made out of liquid aura and aura was made from the living being’s spiritual essence. This meant that new beings could be born there.
It was very much confirmed that living beings would exist near the Mother River.
Unsurprisingly, he immediately sensed a huge blue planet in the direction where he was heading to. It was as if the planet suddenly decided to appear in his senses.
Garen passed through a white barrier-like protective net and landed directly on the planet. What accompanied him by his sides were large amounts of debris. He seemed to have caught up to a large scale meteor shower…
***************
“…Mother Planet’s invisible defensive net has detected an abnormally huge meteor shower today. According to the researcher, the largest meteor has a radius of 2.1cm and the smallest one is just a few mm wide. They will be burnt up by the atmosphere and there would be no debris from the meteor shower…”
“You should eat more because you’ll need to go to school again tomorrow.”
Inside a rather simple white room, a family was having their lunch on a round table. There was a variety of tasty looking fried vegetables placed on the table. Steam subtly dissipated from the stew, giving off a mouthwatering fragrance.
At the table, there was a middle-aged woman who kept dropping vegetables into the bowl of a teenager.
There were two adults, one elder, and three children eating quietly on the table. All the plates were made from white porcelain and some part of them had already chipped off. It seemed that this family wasn’t that well off.
The white light in the room was slightly dimmed and there was very little furniture inside as well. There were only tables, chairs, television, sofa and a picture of an old man framed onto the wall. Other than that everything was white and clean.
The two adults’ faces were covered with wrinkles and both of them looked very tired. They were wearing their bleached working attires. They had golden hair, blue eyes, and sharp noses. However, their faces gave off an easterner’s vibe.
The television by the side was broadcasting the evening news repeatedly.
In the family, two of the younger siblings were looking at the big bowl of vegetable stew placed in the middle of the table. However, they didn’t reach out their hand to take it but to stare at the eldest one eating at one side.
“You should eat more. Remember to study well in school. Your dad and I have suffered so much because we didn’t do well back then,” the middle-aged woman kept passing more vegetables to the youngster.
“I know I know. How many times do you have to say it! You’re so annoying!” The black haired, blue eyed boy grumbled. Similar to the only elder in the table, he didn’t inherit his parent’s hair color. He had a long fringe which covered at least half of his face while a look of annoyance twisted his face as he casually replied to his mother’s nagging.
The teenager was in a clean uniform, and its collar and cuffs had a vertical blade emblem that was glowing faintly on it.
“Alright, I’m full,” the youngster placed down his bowl and hurried into his room. He immediately slammed his door after entering the room.
“Let’s eat,” it was only then the only elder voiced up while the remaining two children started reaching out their hand towards the food.
“Take it easy…” both middle-aged parents smiled as they gave half of the remaining stew to their children and the meats to the elderly.
“That’s enough. I’m an old grandma who can’t eat much. You guys can have it as both of you need to wake up early in the morning to work,” the elder sighed as she pushed away the offered meat.
Inside the room.
The black haired youngster ran to the only computer inside and switched it on.
His name was displayed at the corner of the computer: Nonosiva Lin.
Nonosiva was different from his peers of the same age. He was the only hope of his family as he had been admitted into the nation’s best mech academy, Lakyusaier, with his outstanding results during his middle school days. The academy was also known as the Blackboard Academy.
It was a very well known academy among the nearby states. It had a long history and had produced a lot of state-level senior generals. With the alliance segregated during the chaos, the districts were basically represented by the academy’s strength. This was because the academy had gathered all the powerful individuals into one and they possessed their own uniquely inherited mech sects. Out of all the academy, Blackboard Academy possessed the oldest combat strategies known in multiple states.
With Nonosiva admitted into such a prestigious academy, it was only natural that his family had placed all of their hopes on him.
In this society with its order on the verge of collapse, the academy had the most authority as it led the government’s military and acted as its guardian. It was every man’s dream to be able to become an official Mech Pilot.
Nonosiva switched on his computer and quickly entered into the homepage called the new Blackboard Academy. As he was requested to enter his password, he used a scanner to scan the blue blade shaped emblem on his collar.
The black website then revealed that the password was correct. After validating his access, he immediately went to the database.
The Combat Techniques for all sorts of mechs appeared on the menu.
Level one Curved Steps, Level one Lightsaber, Level one Cannon Fire Control, Level one Magnetic Cannon Technique, Level one Life Cycle Maintenance…
Knowledge was categorized in detail and was displayed on the menu.
Nonosiva ignored the purchasing catalog and went to the very bottom to key in his personal information.
‘Nonosiva. Lin — Possessing Level one Curved Step, Possessing Level one Cannon Fire Control, Basic Awareness Module…’
To be able to receive an official rating meant that Nonosiva’s strength was considered very good among his peers. Most of his friends of the same age were still at the Basic level and were hence unqualified for a level rating.
One should know that it was extremely difficult to even achieve the lowest level. One would only be qualified for graduation after achieving level one in every subject within eight years of study inside the academy. Nonosiva had managed to obtain two level one qualifications before the start of his second year semester, which meant that his results were indeed very impressive. He had always been among the top three in his class.
He looked at his results and couldn’t help but to smile ecstatically. He unconsciously started touching the small crescent-shaped device inside his shirt.
Compared to those formidable students who had good family backgrounds and outstanding personal trainers who trained them daily, he who had obtained such an amazing achievement with his poor background was only able to do so with assistance.
He had a secret which would allow a normal student to improve rapidly and stand out from among tens of thousands of students and become one of the hundreds of elites admitted into the Blackboard Academy.