Dante's Immortality: Beginnings

by Antonio Terzini

  * * *

  “Get up, I’m not going to sit with these commoners.” Kayla kicked him in the shin, which he was grateful for. His enchantment class was the one he looked forward to the most.

  After a few hours of practicing mana manipulation, he had sprinted to his next class. He was quite pleased with how quickly he had made it with his jarring headache, and was pretty sure it was a new best time.

  Happy to have almost a full 40 minutes of sleep, he sat down at his tiny desk and took his nap. But it felt like he had just closed his eyes when Kayla woke him up.

  Dante shot up and looked around. The room that had just been empty when he first rested his eyes, which felt like only a moment ago, was now fully filled with other students.

  It was nice to see all of the ordinary people in his class. All of them were commoners, talking about what they were going to do after class got out or the latest gossip. He couldn’t help but look at them with longing.

  On the first day of class he had tried to talk with them, but his pristine Housing District 1 uniform stood far apart from their tattered and refurbished uniforms. Needless to say, it was difficult.

  And that was before throwing Kayla into the mix. He wasn’t sure if she was purposefully rude, but the ring of empty seats that surrounded the two of them was the direct result of her offhanded remarks.

  It was strange that their instructor hadn’t arrived yet, Kayla usually only woke him up immediately before the start of a class, which he was grateful for. “Where is instructor Linty?”

  Kayla just shrugged, she was always in a foul mood during their enchantment class. She thought the entire thing was an embarrassment. “How should I know?”

  It was interesting that she always woke him up before the enchantment class, but also did her best not to talk to him.

  Letting out a yawn, Dante propped himself up on his desk, doing his best to stay awake until the instructor finally arrived.

  “I’m not going to ask, you do it.”

  “He won’t say yes to me. You do it, you’re a girl.”

  The voices caught his attention. He wouldn’t have noticed them if they weren’t trying to whisper, but their attempt only caused their voices to pierce the air.

  Dante looked over to see a flustered girl with a bright red face admonishing the boy next to her. “That’s not fair. You do it.” Both of them had plain faces with brown hair and eyes. He couldn’t help but find their look refreshing after all of the ‘beautiful’ or ‘handsome’ nobles he had dealt with.

  The boy briefly glanced over toward Dante. “It would-” He froze, as if just realizing that Dante was watching them. The boy stood up and hurriedly bowed toward him. “I’m sorry, my lord. I didn’t mean to offend you.”

  He wasn’t sure what the boy was talking about, and was about to say so, when the boy picked pulled up the girl next to him and got her to bow as well. “Don’t blame my brother, my lord. It was my fault, we didn’t mean to talk about you behind your back.”

  What is going on?

  Dante looked at Kayla, checking to see if she knew what was going on.

  Kayla had a look of amusement on her face, and her hand was covering her mouth like she was trying to hold in laughter.

  “Um… Its fine, don’t worry about it.” This situation was awkward, and everyone in the class was now looking at the three of them wide-eyed. “Did you want to ask me something?”

  His question made the girl break out into a broad smile, but she seemed to think it was inappropriate because it disappeared shortly after. She cleared her throat. “My lord, Haden and I are fighting in the platinum ranked tournament, but our third team member is… unable to continue in the tournament…”

  She looked like she was about to tear up, leaving almost no question about what had happened to their team member.

  The boy cleared his throat. “What Jaseni was trying to say, is that we need a third member of our team to continue in the tournament, and we were wondering if your lordship,” He glanced at Kayla “or your ladyship, would be willing to grace our team with your presence.”

  He was interested in fighting in the tournament, if only for the combat experience, but he didn’t have time for it. “I would be willing to help you out, but I’m afraid my schedule is full.”

  The girl, Jaseni, quickly spoke up. “There are only two fights left in the tournament, and they are both tomorrow. It wouldn’t take more than a few hours of your time.”

  “And If we win, you can have the dungeon boss to yourself.” Haden was also speaking quickly, he seemed overly flustered and desperate.

  Those words actually got his attention though, if the tournament’s reward was access to one of the academy’s dungeons, acquiring the monster crystal could be an invaluable once in a lifetime opportunity.

  He was about to accept their offer when Kayla, who was sitting next to him, snorted. “As if we would join your suicide run.” Both of their expressions instantly turned downcast. She turned to Dante. “These two morons forgot to mention that to register for the three versus three tournament they needed a full five team members, if they are looking for a new member before the semifinals it means that three of them died, not one. It’s what happens to all commoners who are stupid enough to compete.”

  Jaseni wasn’t done trying. “If one of you joined our team, no one would try to hurt us.”

  Kayla was having none of it. “Get lost, we’re not interested.”

  Dante glared at her, that attitude was the reason everyone avoided him in the class.

  He was interested in the tournament though. After all, he was quite confident in his ability to survive in a fight, at least long enough to surrender.

  “There are only two fights left in the tournament?” At his words, Kayla rolled her eyes.

  Jaseni nodded enthusiastically, giving him a pleading look. “Yes, the fights are both tomorrow, and we don’t know anyone who is willing to fight in a platinum rank team battle on such short notice…”

  He thought it over for a moment. Fighting in the tournament would be risky for several reasons, but the reward would be massive if they won. Besides, he already had a solid grasp on mana manipulation, so he wasn’t sure how much longer he was going to be staying at the academy. Dante nodded. “I’ll fight in the tournament.”

  Both of them had a stunned look on their faces. Apparently, they had not expecting him to join their team. Then at the same time, they both lit up with a smile. “Thank you, my lord.”

  Haden puffed up his chest. “You won’t regret this. With your help, we will win for sure.”

  Jaseni nodded along to his words. “The first fight is in the platinum team arena at 8:00 am, and if we win, the second fight will be at noon.”

  Skipping mana manipulation class to fight in the arena sounded terrific, and that was without mentioning the extra hour of sleep he would be able to get since the fight started an hour later than his class usually did. “That sounds good, we can meet there before the fight.”

  To his dismay, as soon as they confirmed their meeting location, the two of them returned to their seats across the room. Leaving him alone with Kayla. “You do realize that you’ll regret that, right?”

  Dante rolled his eyes. “I’m sure I’ll be fine.” He actually wasn’t, and was somewhat worried about the outcome of the tournament, but Kayla’s attitude wasn’t helping in any way.

  Kayla didn’t respond, but Dante was still curious about something. “Why were they so afraid of me at the beginning.”

  Kayla shrugged. “The academy is a place to gain strength, naturally that comes with a few inherent risks. Commoners generally aren’t treated well.” She winked at him. “Not everyone is as nice as I am.”

  If that was the case, they were treated far worse than he thought…

  The door to the classroom burst open, and Instructor Linty’s bulky form crossed through the doorway carrying a massive sack over her shoulder. The woman didn’t look the part of the instructor, more li
ke a burly nursemaid, or possibly even an ordinary cook. Instructor Linty was actually his favorite instructor, she seemed the most excited to share knowledge with her students… Well, besides instructor Misa.

  She walked toward the middle of the room and dropped the sack on the floor with an audible thunk. He thought that the floor actually shook slightly when it hit the ground, but wasn’t sure if it was his imagination. “You should have seen the tiny stone those stingy bastards wanted me to bring to class.” She began grinning in satisfaction. “But they couldn’t stop me. Take a gander at this pretty thing.” Instructor Linty opened up the sack, revealing a massive rock that resembled slightly translucent obsidian.

  Holy shit, is that…?

  Everyone in the room recoiled from the stone, even Kayla.

  “By the looks of it, more than a few of you actually know what this is. This Chaos stone, although low grade, is from the Chaos region.”

  No shit. But why is it here?

  “But I’m sure what most of you don’t know, is that it is actually used to produce the most important ingredient for enchantments.” Instructor Linty patted the stone proudly. “Over the last week we have gone over different types of enchantments and traps, along with their uses. But today I will show you where the most important ingredient to create enchantments comes from.”

  “First I will allow you all to experiment with it. Go ahead and try anything you would like. World essence manipulation, mana manipulation, or even just opening your Status.”

  Even though they all knew about the Chaos region, and what a Chaos stone was, none of them had actually been near one.

  This was a surprisingly good opportunity. He had been planning on crossing the Chaos region eventually, and the more information he had the better his chances would be.

  Dante began by trying to manipulate world essence into his Status to open it.

  As expected, there was no world essence to manipulate. He couldn’t find any in the area around him. Next, he closed his eyes, trying Mia’s technique to spread his awareness. He had slightly more luck that way. There was a small amount of world essence in the air, but as he tried to grab control of it, it seemed to be sucked out of his grasp as it shot towards the stone.

  After that, he tried mana manipulation. He was able to make a small shield, startling the class, but for some reason, it was far weaker than it should have been.

  “As you now know, all the world essence in the room is being sucked into this Chaos stone.” Instructor Linty pointed to the rock. “The lack of world essence also makes mana manipulation twice as difficult.” She pointed toward Dante’s weak shield. “If you ever are ensnared in a Chaos stone trap, keep in mind that you can still use your skills, but your mana will regenerate at half the normal rate.”

  He had no intention of testing that. Both of his mana costing skills weren’t something that could be used in front of others inside of the academy.

  “You see, Enchanters grind Chaos stones into a fine powder. The powder is the power source for all enchantments. The higher the Chaos stone’s grade, the more world essence the created powder can absorb, and therefore the larger or more complex the enchantment that can be created.”

  Instructor Linty patted the stone. “As a general rule, enchantments that can be activated by a single person feeding world essence into them are made using low-grade powder. Higher grades of powder will generally require multiple people feeding in world essence, or the use of essence crystals to power them.”

  That meant that the battle simulation enchantments were made with some form of higher grade powder.

  Instructor Linty was getting far more excited, talking faster and becoming more enthusiastic. “There is also other types of stones in the Chaos region. For instance, one is called Superior Chaos stone, and is similar to regular Chaos stones, but is slightly red in color. Its powder can make enchantments that sustain themselves, and don’t need to be fed with world essence. But superior Chaos stone is exceedingly rare, even in its lowest grade is worth more than the entirety of most noble houses in the Outer region.” All of the commoner students in the class gasped at her last remark.

  The rest of the class wasn’t that fascinating, instructor Linty just went over different methods and processes for grinding the stones down into powder, then went over the pros and cons of each approach. Needless to say, he listened with rapt attention

  When the class was finally over, hours later, Dante shot out of his desk. Running past Haden and Jaseni without a word, intent on making it to the next class in time for a longer nap.

  It usually took him 30 minutes to run there, but he was confident that if he didn’t pause to eat like he usually did, he could get there in 20.

  * * *

  “Get up.” He received his usual kick to the shin, thoroughly waking him up. “Here.” Kayla put a cloth-wrapped bundle on his desk.

  He began to carefully unwrap the bundle, slightly fearful of what may be inside. “What is it?”

  Kayla sat down, head resting on her hand, this was another class that put her in a foul mood from the boredom. “Food.”

  Inside of the bundle was a small loaf of bread. To his delight, it was still warm, and Dante tore into it like a ravenous animal. He hadn’t eaten since the day before. “Thanks.”

  Kayla looked disgusted. “You can thank me by eating like a human and not some beast.”

  Dante gave her a lopsided grin, and then the two waited for their instructor.

  Basics of Acting and Lying didn’t seem like a very popular class. On the first day there were four other nobles, but after a few classes they stopped showing up, and now it was just him and Kayla.

  Instructor Misa walked through the door with a strut to her step. “Ah, my darling Dante, so good to see you.” Instructor Misa walked right up to Dante, then held his face between her hands. “Today, I will fill you with greatness.”

  Dante smiled back at her, doing his best to keep a straight face. Instructor Misa was a borderline elderly woman who padded herself with a mask of makeup to make herself look younger, but if anything, she just looked like some of the cheaper whores he had seen in Alazel.

  Despite her looks, she was a fantastic instructor and spent absolutely all of the class time solely on him.

  “We have been teaching you how to lie, now it is time to learn how to detect lies by reading someone’s facial expressions.”

  That was a nice change of pace. ‘Teaching him how to lie’ was sitting in front of a mirror while instructor Misa pointed out any changes in his facial expression, body language, or eye movement for four hours.

  From what he learned in her class so far, Charisma was based mostly on reading people, and your ability to stop other people from reading you, and not likability or looks like he had thought… even though those still played a role.

  “I will show you how it works, Kayla tell me either a truth or a lie.” Instructor Misa turned to Kayla excitedly, ready to show her ability.

  Kayla’s expression was still one of boredom. “This class is so boring that I’m considering suicide.”

  Instructor Misa looked slightly put down from Kayla’s words. “Uh… that was true. Try again, maybe something that isn’t so morbid?”

  Kayla smirked at her. “Dante has black hair and blue eyes.”

  “Also true…” Instructor Misa looked at Dante for a moment, then felt his hair as if looking for some type of dye. She then cleared her throat. “I think you should use me for practice.”

  Instructor Misa looked at him with a broad smile. “Alright Dante, it’s your turn.” She paused as if thinking about what she would say. “I am still a virgin, is that the truth or a lie?”

  Is she serious…?

  Dante stared into her mask of makeup, instructor Misa had to be into her 50’s, even by his lowest estimate.

  Dante hid his wince, then cleared his throat. “That was the truth.”

  Kayla burst out laughing, and instructor Misa smiled broadly at him. “Un
fortunately, that was a lie.” Her expression turned smug. “I’m sorry, I should have started off with an easier question. That was my fault.”

  He had to stop himself from sighing in relief, he had almost been honest and told her it was a lie.

  “And your lying has improved tremendously, I’m so proud of you!”

  Of course…

  * * *

  Dante grunted as he received a jab to the ribs. That was his usual indication that his last class had started. His final class, Guide to Magic Relics and Artifacts, was located in the platinum solo arena.

  Because there were only four ‘lecture’ classes each quarter, and because they only cost 25 credits, each lecture was filled to the brim with students and held within an arena. Apparently, the lectures changed each quarter and covered a wide variety of subjects.

  Kayla woke him up just as instructor Kane began to step up to the makeshift stage in the center of the fighting pit.

  Dante mentally prepared himself, Guide to Magic Relics and Artifacts was his hardest class by far.

  Professor Kane was having a hard time getting onto his stage, not only was he incredibly short, but he was also incredibly old. The combination was truly detrimental to the weathered old man’s mobility.

  It took instructor Kane almost a full minute to finally make it to the top of the stage. The old man opened his notes and then raked a hand through his surprisingly full head of white hair. “Let’s begin.”

  Instructor Kane’s voice sounded far too old and tired, just those few words threatened to lapse his concentration. He sat up straighter, keeping his back off of the chair to stop himself from dozing off.

  “In the past week we have finished our introductory information on magical artifacts. Today we will begin to learn about magical relics and their significance.”

  Thank the Goddess.

  After an entire week of learning about magical artifacts, he had learned nothing that furthered his knowledge of the glove.

  “Unlike magical artifacts, magical relics aren’t created by humans, ancient or otherwise. Who or what may have created them is a hotly debated topic, some say the Goddess… which is false, some say otherwise, but that isn’t important for this course. We are not learning about possibilities that are unimportant to the matter at hand, but rather what has been proven as fact, or theories that are backed by numerous thorough studies.”