"Attention, go to the lecture hall immediately." blazed through the speaker loud enough to startle me awake.
Looking at the glass pane on my bedside table which functioned as a clock, at least at the moment I recognised that I had gotten about three and a half hours sleep.
'Could be worse.'
Standing up and preparing to leave my room I realised I didn't actually hear what he said.
'Was it the lecture hall or training hall A?'
Walking out of my room and turning right into the heavy direction I looked at training hall A to see if anyone was going there but after seeing no one was. I walked over and looked inside the window of training hall A just in case but no one was in there.
Walking through the light direction over to the lecture hall with doors opening to each room with the others walking out of them towards the lecture hall which only confirmed my suspicion of where we needed to go.
Before I walked too far I heard the 7's door open behind me then after a second heard "Wait up, I'm almost out."
I considered waiting right there but I walked along slightly and noticed 13 leave his room and called over to him "Hey wait come here, the others are just coming out"
arriving just at 9's door just as it opened I gave a small wave and just said "Hey."
She noticed me and responded with a nod and said "Oh hey, didn't expect to see you right as I left the room."
"Yeah, 7 said to wait up a second and-"
"There you are, I thought you would wait just outside but you went along." I heard 7 say behind me
While turning around I shot back. "Of course I did. did you expect 13 to just know to wait up?"
13 looked past the both of us before saying "Oh hey, there is 49."
I turned around to see 49 running over to us and nearly floating in the air because of how fast she was going in the light direction. luckily she was small enough to be able to sneak by everyone else that if she was any other person she would undoubtably have bashed into.
"Alright, now that the gang is all here how about we head over to the lecture hall then."
"Sounds good." 13 replied from a small distance away, seemly unwilling to walk in the heavy direction.
9 elbowed me slightly as we started walking and then said "You weren't kidding about how tired you felt after that. after I barely got to my room. I'm honestly surprised you had a conversation after that."
"I second that, the moment I arrived back at my room I just dropped." 7 added
49 giggled. "It was pretty funny, after that we pretty much just one by one got called for and then did the exact same thing as you 4. I only got 1 hours sleep though but hey, what can you do."
Arriving at the lecture hall I looked around to find good seats here unlike the seat I sat in at the entrance ceremony thing, whatever you would call it. Unfortunately all the good ones were already taken.
'What did I really expect, our rooms are on the opposite side of the ring so of course we wouldn't be the first ones here.'
walking up the steps we sat near the middle of the room, since there were no other places with enough chairs in a row for all five of us.
Not three seconds later Axmon walked into the room and stood at the podium and spoke.
"This will be your preparatory theory class. I don't expect to say anything again so if you don't hear me the first time, tough luck. We will start with a basic schedule which consists of learning the initials of roh, understanding the atlas system, and physical training which includes combat training. This schedule will last a week, you already know the consequences of falling behind."
Almost everyone in the room paled slightly, knowing what this entails.
Axmon continued after a slight pause. "All of you have an increased talent for roh, thanks to the fact you all have awakened your abilities, also known as your 'blessing' as the atlas calls it." Axmon gave a knowing look at me for a fraction of a second, short enough no one noticed but me.
'If I wasn't sure before, I'm sure he knows my lack of an ability now.'
"Learning roh will also be made easier for the recent test you all have done, that test should give you a reference point to how roh feels along with how to activate your blessing. You will first learn how to form your roh, then how to use that roh to enhance your body. Do remember however with every blessing, comes a curse. In return for using this enhancement your body burns massive amounts of sustenance"
'If what he said about that reference point is true then...' As I thought this I tried to mimic the feeling of absorbing roh, and it worked. Slightly that is. I felt a slither of that rushing water feeling in my finger tips but nothing else. I tried to imagine that feeling all across my body but it felt like I couldn't concentrate hard enough to do that, like my mind was simply too slow and weak to comprehend doing it.
"-Which causes you to have problems eating for the next few days as all food will taste and smell absolutely horrible."
'Shit I didn't hear that. I'll have to ask the others later.'
--- Two Hours Later ---
'God fucking damnit Axmon. How long will you speak for?'
Everything he said could be summarised by saying roh can be used in many ways to do different abilities but at some cost. Your personal abilities are the same but much more powerful.
The atlas system gives information about many things and is a massive aid and doing certain tasks it gives you can hand out some rewards however these rewards don't give any personal power, just help in other ways
'He really likes going into detail about every single, well detail'
"Training hall A has everything you need for any physical training along with showers while training hall B is made for training roh. Both can be used at your own pace, but you are to keep up with standards in both aspects. Your personal cellular device located in a holder on your desks can give you all the information you need for all training methods and more. That is all, Dismissed."
'Fucking finally.'
"Finally." I heard 9 say in exhaustion beside me as we were all getting up to leave the room.
I immediately responded with "That's what I'm saying."
9 looked at me questioningly. "You didn't say anything though."
I took a moment to consider saying something smart but it just ended up as. "Well I thought it." To which 9 then just looked at me weirdly.
'There was something I missed. What was it again?'
9 shoved me. "Move dammit, what are you waiting for?"
While catching my balance again and starting to walk to the door I said "Right my bad."
7 turned around and said "Say what, we take a short break for all of us to actually sleep and then we meet in my room at 2pm. Unless we are called for of course"
We all nodded in agreement before returning to our rooms without so much as a conversation.
And so I found myself laying on my bed trapped in my own thoughts. I wasn't really that tired, that was probably the most sleep I had gotten in one session in weeks.
Sitting up I searched for that same feeling of roh in my fingers, after a few seconds I found it.
Instead of how I did before I just left it sit, I was absorbing more and more roh and while it was not even close to how quick the pedestal had given me roh I felt something akin to pins and needles the tips of my fingers.
The feeling was faint but definitely was still there. I struggled to even imagine how hard this would be if I hadn't experienced roh already.
This tingling sensation was slowly spreading throughout my body, by the time I looked at my clock I realised it had already been an hour.
'This is definitely taking a while, but this is progress I think.'
This was a first step in actual growth, and by god would I need it.