Chapter 7: The Academy

A few days later, in the bustling city of the Northern Omni Kingdom. Matthew, Rose and Yuki stood before a massive structure that was…

“The Omni Hunter Academy.”

Matthew read aloud the name of the place that was in front of them.

The academy ground was huge. There was a vast field to the left and another one to the right. There were also quite a few buildings with signs of different facilities. People of all races can be seen present walking, chatting, playing and training.

Both Matthew and Rose were astonished by this scene and almost stopped breathing.

“Hello there.” A soft female voice came from behind them.

They all turned around to meet who the voice belonged to.

“Are you perhaps new here? I’ve never seen you before.” The woman glanced between Matthew and Rose.

“Eh ah no, we’re not new, nor are we old. We just came to register here.” Matthew was being straightforward.

“Ah~ new students, you made the right choice to be here. My name is Riea by the way. I am a teacher in this academy. I specialise in Divine and Arcane Magic. ” The woman bowed slightly whilst introducing herself.

“I am Matthew, and this Rose.”

“Nice to meet you.”

Matthew and Rose briefly introduced themselves.

“I see. So, with whom did you come here?” Riea asked.

“Ah with her.” Matthew gestured towards Yuki.

Riea’s eyes widened in surprise. “Y-Y-Yuki Nakamura?!”

“Shh! Keep it down please.” Yuki put a finger on her lips.

“Oh! Sorry.” Riea covered her mouth with her hand. “It’s quite a surprise to see you here again.”

“Yes, it has been a while. How have you been teach?”

“I’m fine as you can see. So are you really looking over these two?”

“Sort of. Well, they both want to become Hunters. They already have their pre-license cards. And we already had a certain elf friend to take care of everything else.”

“I see, so all that’s left is to register properly. Well, you can leave that to me if that’s okay with you.”

“Yeah, I’ve got some errands to run. You two take care, okay?” Yuki said to them.

“Eh, you’re leaving already?” Rose said.

“I’ve already passed my school years. You two go ahead.” Yuki turned around and was already about to leave.

“Yuki!” Matthew’s shout stopped her.

Yuki turned around again to look at him.

“After we passed the exam and became Hunters. I want you to join us!”

Yuki was left without words. She only stared at Matthew for a few seconds before answering, “looking forward to it!”

And then, Yuki left without any more words.

“Well then, shall head in?” Riea asked.

…..

The interior of the building was impressive as well. The hallway was wide enough to drive two cars side by side through while the ceiling led all the way to the roof with several floors showing off at the side.

The students wore all kinds of clothing, the only thing that indicated they were from the academy was their badges on their left chest.

Matthew was amazed just by the sheer number of students here especially with all the different races.

Riea kept leading them until they reached a certain room that said, ADMINISTRATION OFFICE.

Riea opened the door and they all entered the office. The office was just like how any office looked like. There were two receptionists behind the counter that greeted their entry.

"Oh, Riea!" Said one of them, a male voiced lizard beastman with a pair of glasses.

"Hello Gom, Frisk." Riea greeted them back.

"What brings you here?" Frisk, the female dog beastman, asked.

"These two are here for registration. Could you help?" Riea gestured at Matthew and Rose.

"Ah, I see. So these are ones that we were told of." Gom lowered his glasses and said. "Leave it to us." Then his sight was placed on Matthew and Rose. "You two, step forth. Riea, you may wait outside, this may take a while. Frisk, bring forth the documents."

"Right away." Frisk stood up and went about her order.

Matthew and Rose stepped closer to the counter while Riea exited the office.

"So, can both of you read?" The lizardman asked.

Both of them stayed quiet and looked at each other.

"Do you even know what I am saying?" 

Both of them nodded.

"I see… So you only can't read. No worries, we will fill the papers for you. Show me your pre-license cards." The lizardman extended a hand out.

Matthew and Rose handed him their cards. Gom took them and placed one of them under a similar orb from before.

Frisk returned with two files in her arm. "Here you go Gom."

Gom retrieved the files. "Thank you, now… Matthew Dragunov, is it?"

"That's me." Matthew replied with a hand raised.

“Okay, after you answer a few questions, the registration process is settled. Now, first is…”

…..

“That is all. Here, you may have your cards back. Welcome to the Omni Hunter Academy.” The lizardman handed their cards back.

“Thank you sir.” Both of them said and bowed a bit before heading out.

“Fuhh… Now that’s settled.” Gom laid back in his chair.

“You seem tired Gom.”

“Well, that was probably the 200th registration this week alone. I can’t believe the number of people wanting to become Hunters suddenly increased drastically.”

“Indeed. Summing up all Hunter academies around the world, there are over 80 000 applicants in the span of this month alone.”

“It’s a good thing that there are more people willing to ward off vile creatures but this amount is crazy. I feel like… Something’s amiss.” Gom looked at the office’s ceiling.

Frisk patted his shoulder as if to comfort him. “ You should get some rest Gom.”

“Yeah, by the way, will the Association inform the governments about this event?” Gom asked.

“I don’t know. However, I think it’s possible that they won’t or they will but they would be discrete until they have something figured out.”

“Is that so. I hope they can find it quickly.”

…..

Matthew and Rose exited the office and met with Riea who was waiting patiently outside. Riea immediately jogged towards them.

“How did it go?” Riea asked.

“We’re in.” Matthew said with a smile.

“Congrats! So, what courses did you pick?”

“Matt chose astra, I chose magic.” Rose replied.

“Oh? I thought you two would pick the same course.”

“Matt thought learning magic would need a lot of brain power so he went with astra.” Rose stared at Matthew from the corners of her eyes.

“What? It’s a personal opinion!” Matthew said.

“Oh, why did you choose magic, Rose?”

“It doesn’t require a lot of movements, so it’s optimal for me.”

“See, you have the same mindset as well Rose!” Matthew retorted at Rose.

“Fine, we’ll see who’ll pass the exam first!”

“You’re on!”

Riea, who only watched the two’s quarrel, smiled in satisfaction of their behaviour. ‘One who specialises in astra and one who specialises in magic. They would make a great combo.’ She thought.

…..

Meanwhile, somewhere else in the world of Magiheim.

A castle was built atop a mountain. The area surrounding it was shrouded in a giant fog. Creatures of many appearances loitered around, some in the sky and some were on the ground. Some of them had quarrels over small things and some were just minding their business. Goblins playing around with rocks. Skeletons and zombies standing idly. Lizard-like creatures fighting over food. The scene was the definition of an evil castle.

Within the huge castle, in the oversized throne room, were 8 figures standing in a semicircle around one.

“Is the process done, Xero?” The figure in the middle asked.

“Yes. With their amount, we only have to play the waiting game.” Said the cyborg.

“Good. While we wait, we shall strengthen our forces. We may have lost before, however, this time will be different.” The figure smirked.

Something big was about to happen that would flip the entire world. Matthew and Rose had just started their basic training to becoming a Hunter, along with several thousand others that was an abnormal amount. What is about to happen in the future?