Athar was about to enter the main hall of Block A, where the Exchange counter was located, when a sudden voice interrupted him.
"Athar," the voice called.
Athar turned around to see a young man waving at him. The man was less than 6 feet tall. He had long black hair that covered half of his forehead. He had a lean appearance, something for which a lot of credit went to Sankul's training.
The man was Ryler. In the past four days, a sense of companionship had developed between Ryler and Athar.
Athar wouldn't call it friendship, as friendship was a strange concept for him. Ryler would accompany him during the dining hall and like Athar he also seemed to be a loner.
All his life, he had learned to guard himself against people. Most of the time people had approached him, it had been because of ulterior motive. And though Athar could not feel an ill intent from Ryler, that characteristic was not going to change so easily.
But in all probability, Ryler considered Athar his friend. Ryler was one of those people with an easy-going personality. And since Athar did not want to get too close to someone or sound too intrusive, he had not inquired much about Ryler. But overall, Ryler seemed to come from a well-off family.
"Athar," he jogged towards Athar and covered the distance in a few steps. "Where have you been?"
"Library," Athar replied.
"Oh!" Ryler remarked curiously. "Have you finalized your battle techniques?"
"Yes," Athar answered.
Ryler would have obviously asked which technique Athar had selected, but he knew that his new friend wasn't keen on opening up and telling personal information or secrets.
"Going to get the technique issued?" he asked.
Athar simply nodded.
"Hmm," Ryler said. "Athar, would you be interested in a spar?"
Athar curiously raised his eyebrows at this as Ryler continued, "We are training and learning under teacher Sankul, but we do not know how much improvement we are actually making."
"We have only been imitating our moves, and without placing ourselves against real opponents, we will not be able to develop the natural flow and instinct required for our battle."
"You know," he leaned in as if he was going to reveal some secret. "Most of the students have already formed their groups and are practicing in real-life simulations what they learn."
"What do you think?" he asked with expectant eyes.
All his words made complete sense to Athar, and he couldn't deny that he too required real-life simulations if he wanted to hone his combat skills.
He nodded, "This is a good idea."
Ryler's eyes lit up, "Great!!"
"I do not know anyone beside you. If you had denied, I would have had to knock on some of those groups," he added with excitement.
A small smile broke on Athar's face.
"Then, let us meet in an hour?" Ryler asked. "In the Training ground."
"OK," Athar agreed.
Ryler then quickly set off, while Athar resumed his journey towards the Exchange counter.
.
.
.
When Athar arrived in the main hall, almost all the counters were empty. He walked to the Exchange counter, and he was slightly surprised to find the same old man whom he had encountered twice at the New Registration Counter. And like the previous two times, the old man was again in a half-sleepy state.
With a sigh, Athar knocked on the glass of the counter, jolting the old man awake from his sleep.
"Ah!" the old man fumbled. "Yes."
"I want to get two Yellow Grade techniques issued," Athar cut straight to the point. "I also want a Yellow Grade weapon issued to me. A sword."
Like the two Yellow Grade techniques, every student was eligible for a free Yellow Grade weapon. The academy had swords, spears, bows, axes, hammers, gauntlets, and various other types of weapons in their inventory.
"Hmm," the old man muttered as he pulled out a register from below the counter. "ID."
Athar placed his ID on the counter, which the man picked up and scribbled something in two different registers. One for the weapon record. The other for the technique record.
"Name of the techniques you want to get issued," the old man asked.
"Sword Slash," Athar said. "And Phase of Illusion."
The old man raised his head as he gazed into Athar's eyes.
"Phase of Illusion, you say?" he asked in confirmation.
Athar nodded in response.
"Ok," the old man said as he scribbled down the same information in his register.
"Wait here. I will be back in a few minutes," he said as he left the counter and walked inside.
It was around ten minutes later that the man emerged back.
In his hand, he was carrying a sword and two booklets in the other hand.
He placed the sword on the counter on the table while he started to write something from the booklet into his register.
Athar meanwhile, picked up the sword and unsheathed it. It was silver in colour and was a double-edged blade that was around 4 feet long and almost 5 inches wide. He gave the sword a few twirls as he tried to imprint the feeling of the sword in his mind.
Although he did not get a choice to choose his weapon, he felt pretty satisfied with the sword. Not that, it was like as if he had used a lot of swords and was very familiar with them.
This was the first proper sword he would be owning.
Previously, he had been using an old and blunt sword for his practice, which he had acquired from a second-hand shop.
The old man was done with whatever he had been writing in the register and slid the booklets towards him.
"Listen, kid," the old man said. "You are not allowed to share these techniques with any other person. Neither with an outsider nor with any other academy student."
"If you do so, you will be punished heavily," he warned. "And this is a crime in our eyes, and we take it really seriously."
"So, keep this thing in mind," he added.
Athar gave a nod as he picked up the two booklets and walked back towards his room.
"Phase of illusion, huh?" The old man muttered to himself. "What skill have you received from your beast to try and learn this technique?"
Athar, on the other hand, remained completely oblivious that he had stirred a thread of curiosity in the mind of the lazy old man.
.
.
.
[Thankyou for reading. Rate, Review and Comment on my novel. Also send the power stones]