The next morning, Razin was washing his face.
Razin said, "Today school starts... I wonder if it will be fun? Will they teach us anything important?"
He continued getting ready.
Razin said, "The first meeting starts in half an hour... I've never been to the meeting building before. I wonder if I'll find the hall quickly... I'll leave early to look for the room."
Razin finished preparing and left his room.
Many students were walking around, preparing themselves in the area.
Razin walked out of his room, down the floors, reached the first floor, and exited the dorm building.
Razin said, "I'm still amazed by how beautiful this place is... Is it really that beautiful? Or have I just never seen anything beautiful before?"
Suddenly, Razin heard someone calling his name.
Colin said, "Hey, Razin!"
Razin looked at him, smiled, and waved.
Someone asked, "Who's that? Do you know him?"
Colin replied, "Sort of... He's the boy who registered yesterday. I found him when he was lost... He's dumb and doesn't know how to talk, but he's not a bad person. I don't think he considers me a friend, but at least now he recognizes me. I bet he'll get lost looking for his classroom."
The boy with Colin laughed.
Razin walked toward the building — 25 minutes remained before the meeting started.
Razin thought nervously, "I'm in classroom 7... I expect it to be on the top floor."
He entered the mini-building nervously; many people were inside. All eyes briefly turned to him.
Razin thought, "Why does everyone stare at me whenever I enter? And why are there looks of contempt? Did I do something wrong?"
He kept walking and went up to the top floor. He looked down the corridors...
Razin smiled and said, "I found it!"
Suddenly, Razin felt hungry.
Razin, nervous and shocked, said, "Damn, I forgot to eat."
He checked the time.
Razin said, "15 minutes left before the meeting starts. I'll eat quickly and come back."
Razin started running down the stairs and out of the main building.
Everyone looked at the idiot running.
Razin said, "Everyone's looking at me for sure... no problem... I don't have time to be nervous now."
He ran toward the dining hall.
Razin said, "I want number 2."
The worker replied, "Of course. Name... Razin?"
Razin said, "Yes, please, hurry."
The worker handed Razin the dish.
Razin started eating in the same place.
Razin said, "I have to hurry or I'll be late for my first meeting!... What an embarrassment, what will I do if I'm late?"
Razin finished eating.
Razin sighed, "I'm full!"
He looked at the clock on the wall.
Razin said, "The meeting started five minutes ago!!" He was shocked and scared.
Razin ran quickly toward the main building.
No one was in the building yet.
He rushed to the third floor, toward his classroom.
Razin, scared and nervous, said, "What should I do? Can I just enter? Or will I be punished? I'm nervous about everyone's looks."
Razin said, "It's okay... I'll try to enter."
Razin opened the door and showed his head in the hall. Everyone stared at him.
He got a bit nervous but entered.
Razin said, "H-Hello... sorry for being l-late."
The teacher said, "No problem this time... take an empty seat and sit."
Razin didn't answer but went directly to find an empty seat. He found one and sat.
The teacher said, "Okay, students... I will start by explaining the school rules."
...
The teacher said, "As long as you are in this school, you are under our care."
The teacher said, "If you skip class 10 times in one year, you will be expelled."
The teacher said, "Anyone caught causing trouble will be punished."
The teacher said, "You are all young here... no need for problems. You are here to learn techniques."
The teacher said, "Talking in the hall is not allowed unless I permit it."
While the teacher was talking, Razin looked around.
He realized the girl beside him was the blonde-haired girl he saw yesterday.
Razin thought, "Is her name Verina? I don't know if I should try to be friends with her... or if friends will come to me? I don't know... and I don't want to... I'm scared... maybe she'll just ignore me. I don't want to try... but she didn't seem like a bad person."
The teacher said, "Red-haired one! What are you staring at?"
Razin was looking toward Verina without noticing his expression or that it was a problem.
Razin blushed and felt shy.
Razin said, "I-I'm not staring anywhere! I was just thinking."
The teacher said, "If you do it again, you'll be punished. What's your name?"
Razin, nervous, said, "I-I'm... Razin."
The teacher, shocked, said, "...You... Razin?!"
Razin thought, "Even this person was shocked when he knew me... What is going on?"
Razin, surprised, said, "Yes..."
The teacher said, "Okay, students... since we mentioned that... let's begin the lesson."
Razin was very nervous and embarrassed that he was looking at Verina. He thought she'd see him as strange now.
The teacher said, "On the first day, I will teach you about the world we live in and its relation to techniques in general."
Everyone got excited.
The teacher said, "First... every living being has something called an Energy Core."
Razin thought, "Should I write this down... or is it enough to listen?"
The teacher said, "The Energy Core is a temporary reservoir inside the body for energy."
The teacher said, "The core fills and empties energy based on the person's current state."
A student asked, "Where does the energy come from?"
The teacher said, "Don't rush."
The teacher said, "Energy has a large source... we don't know much about it, but we are certain it exists... something called the Energy Pool... located high in the sky... but we cannot see it."
Razin thought, "How... did we know it exists if we don't see it?"
Another student asked, "How can we be sure it exists if we don't see it?"
The teacher said, "We will cover these details later... on the first day, I want you to know the basics only."
The teacher said, "Techniques have four forms... all interconnected in function: 1) Summoning, 2) Release, 3) Harnessing, and 4) Enhancement."
The teacher continued, "In other words... the Energy Core is a temporary energy reservoir inside the body. This energy descends from the Pool when a technique is used, gets stored in the core temporarily, and when you try to use it, the energy travels from the core through the arteries to the required body part."
"Example: Watch."
Suddenly, a rock appeared, floating on the teacher's hand from nowhere.
The students were amazed.
The teacher said, "What happened here... I used a technique... energy came down from the large Pool to my Energy Core... then when I decided to show this rock, energy traveled through the arteries from the core to my hand and formed on my palm."
The teacher said, "The energy only moved to my hand because I wanted it to come here... you control where the energy goes after summoning it."
The teacher said, "Now, having talked about types of techniques... I will explain them a bit more."
The teacher said, "Summoning: Like what I did now... I brought a rock from nowhere... here the process is what I explained — from the Pool to the core to a body part. But summoning alone is not enough if you fight. Just summoning something won't help you; you have to release it."
The teacher continued, "Here comes..."
The teacher said, "Release: A technique specialized in creating a very strong air wave... you release things as you wish. This technique is not mainly related to the Pool... this energy depends only on the air you breathe since birth... so everyone's level is close here, no big difference. This aerial energy is stored in the Energy Core as well and used at will."
The teacher said, "Harnessing: Something between summoning and release... its energy comes from the Pool, and after reaching the core, goes directly to the required area. But it doesn't need a release technique to unleash it... it's just harnessed. Its most prominent use is healing. We still don't fully understand how it works exactly."
The teacher said, "Enhancement: Similar to harnessing but it doesn't exit the body. The default state of enhancement is... energy summoned from the Pool but it does not stay in the core; instead, it flows directly into all parts of the body via arteries and enhances the entire body through energy. But if you don't want it in its default state, you just direct it to a specific part."
The teacher said, "I know this is a big information dump... but don't worry... you'll memorize everything through practice."
Razin said, "Are we done? My brain is overloaded!"
The teacher said, "Now, the two most important topics in this lesson."
The teacher said, "Mind and intelligence are the foundation of this energy system. If you're not smart... and not diligent... success is impossible. The reason is everything you do is directly connected to your awareness and mind. In other words, if you want to summon a rock, you have to understand inside you what a rock is made of... and also how energy flows in your arteries: if you want to control it, you have to learn about the arteries."
The teacher said, "In this school, we will teach you the basics... we will teach you about the arteries... about the main summoning materials — like rock, water, air, fire... these are the four basic summoning techniques everyone must learn. Expanding summoning beyond them depends on you."
Verina said, "So... we students can't use techniques if we don't understand them?"
The teacher replied, "Yes, exactly. But there's more."
The teacher said, "Before working on anything... you must learn how the Energy Core works first. Not everyone here can use techniques because they lack control over their core. That's the first thing you'll learn here... but we'll talk more about it next meeting... lots of info now."
Razin said, "Are we done? I'm tired."
The teacher said, "I hope you learn to speak politely, Razin. Your style is bad. Why are you rude?"
Razin thought, shocked inside, "What? What is this person talking about? What mistake did I make now? Why is everyone shocked by how I talk? Is my way of talking bad? Do they want me to change how I speak?"
Verina looked at Razin's shocked face... she seemed to realize something from her past experience.
Verina thought, "This person... doesn't know how to talk!"
Verina spoke to the teacher and asked, "Sir... by the way... what shocked you about Razin earlier?"
The teacher said, "Ah yes, good you mentioned it. There's one last thing we'll touch on today... while I was explaining the previous things... did anyone wonder... how someone becomes stronger than another if we all get our energy from the Pool?"
Razin thought, "Damn, another topic."
The teacher said, "It's related to the Energy Core... between every person, the capacity of their Energy Core differs. The bigger it is, the more energy you can use in a single attack, making your attack stronger. The core's capacity mainly depends on training... but there's another essential factor — based on talent from birth — called the First Beat!"
The teacher asked, "Students, do you know your First Beat levels?"
The students started answering without hesitation.
Students said, "10, 22, 15, 11, 24, 17, 11, 19, 10..."
Razin, surprised and thinking, said, "What's this? Why does everyone know this? My parents never told me about this... why didn't they?"
Razin was upset that his parents hid this number from him.
Verina looked at Razin's upset and strange face.
Verina asked, "Is something wrong?"
Razin was shocked and a little shy because he didn't expect her to talk to him.
Razin said, "No... no, nothing."
The teacher asked, "And you, Razin... do you know your First Beat?"
Razin said, "E-erm..."
He suddenly remembered.
Someone shouted, "Seventy!! That's impossible..."
Razin hesitated and said, "I-I think it's... seventy?"
Everyone laughed at the number Razin said — everyone knew it was an illogical number... except two people. Verina was one of them. She didn't laugh but was curious.
The teacher said, "Yes... it's seventy... and that shocked me."
The laughter stopped. Everyone was shocked. All eyes turned to Razin.
Voices from students asked, "How is it seventy? My father told me this number doesn't exist... How? What does seventy mean?"
Razin realized everyone in the hall was looking at him now.
He glanced and saw Verina looking at him too.
Razin said, "Listen... why is everyone staring at me?"
Verina said, "Because everyone thinks you're amazing... and I'm one of them."
Razin asked, "Is it all because of the number?"
The teacher said, "Razin has an incredible number... but none of you know what it means."
The teacher explained, "This number is very important in the Energy Core's capacity."
The teacher continued, "The First Beat is a phenomenon that happens when every person is born. At their first heartbeat, the person's Energy Core is at its expected maximum size. Of course, this is not exact and doesn't mean this size is the limit, but it's an estimate. Until now, we don't know how or why it happens, but it's a real recognized thing. Razin's First Beat is 70, and that's insane. The highest number this year in the entire school, except Razin, who is from your class, is Verina."
The teacher said, "But 70 is a crazy number... it's the highest I've ever seen. I don't know, it might be the highest number in history."
Razin said, "So you're amazing too, Verina."
Verina replied, "No, my number is normal."
The teacher warned, "But everyone who gets a high number must not be arrogant, because the number itself means nothing if you don't train your body and mind. To reach your potential and make use of it, you must train hard and study a lot."
Razin thought, "Of course... I will work hard."
The teacher said, "So far, we don't know much about the techniques field. Our knowledge is very shallow. It's something new that appeared in the last 200 years... and we don't know much about the Pool, only that it exists for obvious reasons. In other words, we use forces we aren't experts in."
Razin thought, "That's really suspicious... how can they say the Pool exists when they don't see it? How did we learn these things in the first place? I don't understand... This bothers me a lot... Why do we learn something whose history we don't know? And why do I feel upset for not knowing everything? This is really frustrating... Will there come a day we discover the truth? My curiosity is killing me now."
Verina looked at Razin's upset face with surprise.
The teacher said, "I forgot something... I mentioned every living being has an Energy Core... but 200 years ago, with our exploration of energy cores, other creatures appeared... we call them Energy Beasts now... until now, we don't know much about them, but they're made of energy. Our analysis says they are beasts made of the leftover energy from creatures when they die and do not have an Energy Core inside. That's the limit of our knowledge for now... I want to tell you..."
The teacher said, "Nothing we know about techniques is certain... these are just theories based on other facts."
The teacher said, "Now... today's meeting is over. I know there was a lot of information at once, but this first day you had to learn the basics."
Razin and everyone left the hall.
Razin thought as he walked, "There's a part inside me that's not satisfied with what I learned... The teacher's knowledge is limited, and so is humanity's. That really bothers me!"
On the other side...
Verina said, "I'm excited to learn more... I want to activate my Energy Core now!!"
Verina said, "I want to see… how big the difference will be between us… and someone whose First Beat is 70."
Verina thought, "That guy… he's starting to catch my interest. But he's weird… and kinda naive."
---
Razin thought, "I'll sit on this bench for a bit."
He sat down. The whole view of the school was open before him.
Razin said, "There's no time to dwell on everything that's missing from the explanation… I'm genuinely excited now!"
Razin said, eyes lighting up, "I've already chosen my goal! I want to uncover the truth behind techniques… and understand where they truly come from!"