All holding their breaths, the nobles all watched in anticipation as Michael slowly, trembling lifted his foot and attempted to cross the staircase. One second, two seconds, three seconds, slowly but surely he was making his way there. But soon those with perceptive eyes like John realized that Michael was slowly nearing his end. His movements were becoming slower by the second and it seemed that his stamina would run out. Sighs rang out throughout the nobles, after all, unlike the other high and mighty Brilliant Core talent level mages, Michael's talent level was only Sharp Core meaning that he was more close to the common nobles than the top ones.
However, against all expectation, Michael just before running out of stamina, managed to cross the threshold. With his foot firmly placed on the surface of the floating cloud, Michael collapsed onto it fainting from exhaustion. Cheers ran out throughout most of the nobles, except for the ones close to the Ignis Kingdom, with celebration.
After observing all that had went down, John grew bored and decided to close his eyes and focus on absorbing the large amount of aether he had gathered beneath his skin. Soon after a few minutes of absorbing the aether, John felt a presence descend again. Unlike the previous presence, this one seemed more strong and overbearing, slowing down John's core once again.
"Congratulations everyone. This year the average ascension level of all of you has far exceeded those of the previous years. In fact, you bunch may be the most promising group of talents I have seen during my years teaching at the Central Academy."
"My name is Headmaster Gwen, and I will be your headmaster for the next 6 years of your learning here at the Central Academy. "
"Now, after I finish speaking, red and blue lights will appear correspondingly on all of you. These lights will guide you to your room. Those in Class A will have private suits, while the others will share their rooms. If you see a red light on top of you, that means you belong to the Novellus branch. If you see a blue light on top of you, that means you belong to the Asper branch."
"Now, I wish all of you a wonderful experience learning at the Central Academy," and with that the presence along with the voice disappeared. Quickly looking up, everybody saw their own corresponding lights. Looking up as well, John saw that he had been assigned a red light, which was to be expected of. Observing the red light, John tried to discern the nature behind how it worked, but sadly other than a stream of aether with strange waves emitting from it, John wasn't able to discern anything else.
Although he did suspect that the congealing and materialization of aether had to do with the strange waves emitting from all aether that had materialized, John knew that he would have to learn from the Central Academy spellcasting in order to find out the true cause.
Excited by all the knowledge he was soon to learn, John didn't even notice that his red light along with the others had started to move, and barely noticed it before it disappeared from his vision. Quickly dashing over to it, John followed it into the citadel.
Looking around, there weren't anny grand halls or any sort of scene to see, but instead just a long labyrinth of corridors and paths. Of course they were in the bottom level of the citadel which served as a way to enter all the different places in the citadel so that was to be expected of.
Soon, the red light led John to a magic array sitting in the middle of a small room. "Hmmm, so this is the magic array," thought John looking quite carefully at it. He seemed to see some geometric properties within, but wasn't able to discern the logic behind it with a simple look.
Stepping into the array, John quickly noticed as aether encased him, and seemed to affect the surrounding space in a way that he couldn't comprehend. "So, this is space technology," thought John excitedly. After all teleportation hadn't been achieved in his home world so this was completely new territory.
Desperately trying to see a trace of what the logic behind the teleportation was, John was extremely disappointed when he was quickly spat out of the teleporting array into another hallway.
However this time, the hallway had a glass ceiling with the surrounding walls also made of glass. Looking up, John saw a clear blue sky, as well as the sun, which should've been impossible due to the weather outside the citadel being stormy and cloudy.
"Looks like the citadel has its own, simulated weather system," thought John. Before JOhn could make any other moves, the red light that he was following suddenly emitted a bright light wave, and John suddenly felt the ground beneath him start gathering aether.
"C'mon, two times?" thought John annoyed,"Couldn't they have just teleported me to my location the first time." Though slightly frustrated by the efficiency of things, John was still happy, since the more time spent teleporting the more time he had familiarizing himself with the foreign technology of teleportation that the world possessed.
Sadly, John was quickly spat out of the array, but this time he was now in front of a grand house. It looked like a mansion, and looked brand new. In fact looking at the back John found that there was even a garden, with a training courtyard.
"A private suit?" thought John, "More like a private property, that old headmaster probably didn't want to make the other class students too jealous. Well, it looks like I'm in Class A of the Novellus branch as expected."
Quickly entering the building, John got settled and looked around the house, to find the aether meditation chamber. The chamber was a small room, with a cushion in the center surrounded by four pillars of stone. This was supposedly another array, which gathered aether much more efficiently. Settling down on the cushion, John assumed a comfortable position. "Alright, it's time to test out the secret technique of the Verrien House."