I'm Oscar Williams. My new life begins today. I'm going to be a high schooler. Middle school was, boring, and full of bad memories. But high school going to be amazing. I will make sure of it. Because I really need a change of pace. Make lots of friends, then have amazing adventures with those friends! That is my master plan. The adventure part might be difficult to realize but I will somehow manage.
I got up early and quickly had breakfast. Then I wore my school uniform and after saying goodbye to my mother I left for school. At every step I take, my excitement rose higher. My high school adventure finally begins. I'm going to enjoy my youth to the fullest!
When I arrived at the school, I stop in my tracks. The school building is massive. There is a little anxiety in my heart. New school, new environment and most crucial of all new people. In this school, I will have an amazing school life! With excitement and hope, I walked to the classroom I have placed.
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Right now is after school. Why did I skip the whole first day of high school? Because it is an utter disappointment! I knew that I kept my hopes high but, come on! A boy can have dreams, right? Middle school was stagnant, gloomy, and undesirable for me. Same things every day. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't bullied nor was I the bully. But some of my friends have been bullied. I didn't know this at that time. I had few friends. So they are really precious to me. When I learned that they were being bullied for a long time and even I couldn't notice, I felt bad. I even hated myself for not noticing. Anyway, just like everyone else I have to look and move forward. After all, the world won't wait for me to heal or forgive myself.
When I first step into the classroom, most of my hopes came crushing. Almost all of my classmates were the same as the middle school. And here I am, hoping to meet with new people and have adventures. Hell, I even want to experience falling in love for the first time. Well, there are still some new faces maybe all hope wasn't lost after all. And maybe I can... you know, find redemption.
I don't know. There was a girl that I tried to talk but she just sadly smiled at me. I did gather all of my courage to just talk with her. That hurt a little, ha ha ha... I'm not handsome I know that. But not a bad-looking guy either. I'm average when it comes to looks. With 1.78 cm, I'm the tallest of the class but other than that everything pretty normal. Black hair, brown eyes, little scar on the left eyebrow, that's all. I can't really remember how I get this scar now that I think about it. It just happened when I was with grandpa for a summer trip two years ago but I can't remember the details or anything else. Weird.
Then there is Jason. Jason Murphy. My best friend. He has red hair, blue eyes, and an athletic build. Of course, he has a good face too. It is disturbingly easy for him to talk with girls or any other person. Damn normie! Anyways, after a disappointing first day at school, he had an idea. His ideas are... quite unique most of the time.
"I have an idea! There is an abandoned church in the forest. And there is a rumor that a ghost is haunting it. People are so scared that almost no one goes there. Let's go and see it tonight !"
An adventure full of horror! Sneak into an abandoned church at midnight! And the church is said to be haunted by a ghost. As I said, his ideas are unique, I can hardly judge them with the common sense I have.
I said him that it is kind of risky. And yes horrifying. In horror movies, kids like us die there. It's quite a cliche but it still is terrifying when you face something similar in the real life. After a little thinking, he agreed with me. And here we are, in front of the abandoned church at midnight with flashlights.
Oh, he also brought a girl with him. Her name is Hope. She is also a friend of the girl I tried to talk with. Yeah, it reminds me of that sad smile. I don't know when will I be over this.
"Bro, I thought it was just us. You didn't tell me that you bringing someone else."
"You said that it was risky. Then I called her."
"And that removes every risk ?"
"Yeah, I guess ?"
I facepalmed. This idiot. How can this remove the risks? I mean if she was some kind of a secret agent or something that would do. But as far as I can see, she is NOT. Haah... I can feel a headache coming the longer I think. What's done is done. We are already here. I turned to Hope. She has brown shoulder-length hair, brown eyes, and a doll-like face. Jason is 1.70 cm and she is shorter than him, maybe 1.65 cm? Well, she is a little short but pretty. And right now full of excitement?
"I'm Oscar Williams, nice to meet you."
"My name is Hope Marleen. Nice to meet you !"
"I'm Jason Murphy... But you both already know that. Hehe"
"Hey, Hope. Are you a secret agent?"
"Huh? I'm not. What's with that question?"
"Nothing. I just remembered that Jason was addicted to those movies."
"I can't help it. They are just so good!"
He laughed embarrassed and scratch his cheek. Back to Hope, she is certainly excited about this. And not a secret agent. She was surprised about my question but take it as a joke, I guess. When I saw her the first time I couldn't imagine that she would be this excited about sneaking into an abandoned and possibly haunted church.
"Are you excited about this ?"(Oscar)
"Of course ! It is exciting ! It is the first time I sneak into somewhere."(Hope)
Oh, now I get it. She is excited because it is her first time doing something like this. Wait, this sentence feels wrong. Anyway, onward! Let's go to the creepy-looking abandoned church that is located in the middle of the forest! I hate your ideas, Jason.
The church was, no longer looking like a church. It looks like the remains of an ancient building. We go inside through an opening on the wall. The place where the front door used to be is collapsed. Frankly, the church is bigger than I thought. I don't really know how old is this place. But everything inside is broken down. There are broken pieces of stone statues everywhere. At least I think they were statues, once upon a time.
We looked around but there is almost nothing here. There are only broken pieces of stone statues or thrashes that people who came here before we left. Just as I was getting bored and losing hope, Jason found something. He found a passage to the basement. Basement, ha? Most deadly place in horror movies. Well, we are already here and nothing happened so far. We might as well go and take a look at it.
"Alright who is going first ?"(Jason)
That's a good question, my friend. But after asking that question why are you looking at me like you said "After you". Hope is just looking at us excitedly. Hmm... Well, there is nothing dangerous here, might as well go.
"I'll go. You guys can come after me."
"Alright, we will be right behind you."
The passage he found was under the broken remains of an altar. I have no idea what he was looking for originally. We cleared the way then the stone stairs that go down are visible now. After I took a deep breath I began the walk down the stairs. It was gloomy, cobwebs were everywhere I look. The air was muffled.
At every step, I take there was an eerie sound coming from the stone stairs. My heart was beating so loud that I thought it would come out of my chest. I know that there is nothing dangerous here, possibly.
*Crack*Crack*
When I took my last step there was a loud sound. And suddenly I found myself falling down a hole. I dropped my flashlight, flashlight spun in the air lightning around me. I saw rock walls like a cave. Before I could understand anything else I hit my head somewhere and my vision goes dark.
Now that I'm feeling better I look around again. Things I saw were unnerving. The water I get out of was no water at all. It was blue and incredibly shiny. I could say it was magical. This shiny blue liquid comes from massive blue crystals. They were shining so much that it takes some time for my eyes to adjust themselves. Did I fall into some kind of... eh, I don't know anything to compare with this. It looks fantastic. There is just a little, even tiny thing that worries me. My necklace, it was used to be my grandpa's. It is blue crystal covered with black strings. Blue crystal in it was like glass. You could see through it. But now it is shining. Just like the surrounding blue crystals. I am a little confused right now. Did my grandpa fall here too? I don't know and it is hurtful to imagine. But I can breathe here. Which means there is air. Then there should be a way out of here. First I have to check my phone and flashlight. But my flashlight isn't here an
"A talking rabbit?" "Wait, are you the lake, nibi?" "Hm? Yes, my cocoon was inside of the lake." Somehow I get the feeling that the rabbit's eyes shined with excitement. It jumped at Kairi and hugged her. She was surprised but nonetheless she hugged it back. Magic is already weird enough so I think I can get used to the talking rabbit thing. Still, in one night my whole life changed. It's weird but I think I can get used to it. "Thank you for granting this powers to me Mother, nibi!" "! Wha-what!" After the words of the rabbit she blushed down to her neck. It took some time to calm her down. After she calm down we listened the rabbit. Turns out it fell into the lake two years ago. While it didn't gained the ability to control mana like me thanks to my contract with her, it gained a powerful body. According to her, it turned into half spirit.
Let's research mana! After Kairi manipulated memories of Jason and Hope, I talked with them and we returned our homes. They think we just sat at the upstairs of the church and just chatted. Magic is amazing! Spell Kairi used is so useful that I'm so envious. Don't get me wrong. I have no interest in manipulating people's minds and memories. What I'm envious of is how easy she cast a spell and how useful it is. I'm fully motivated to research mana. Being told that magic is real and seeing it is totally different. It was fantastic. I can't wait to cast my own spells. After the thing with Jason and Hope, I left the cave. Kairi is staying at the cave. She said that lake might help her recover her mana. I don't know the details but turns out spirits can't really generate mana. I'm going to ask for details later. Now it's time for mana research! Why mana but not magic? It's because magic is the man
When I practice with mana after a little time my head starts to hurt. But the worst thing is after I woke up I thought I was the worst. I regretted everything I've ever done. Manipulating mana puts a heavy burden on my mind. I guess it also kind of gives depression. It was bad. I'm going to name it mental depletion. "Oscar, are you okay? You have a fever." "I caught a cold, I guess. I will be fine if I rest a little." "Fine, you can rest home today. But if anything happens you will call me okay? And if you don't get better till night we are going to a hospital." "Yes, mom. Don't worry I will get better." "I going to work, I will call you later." "See you, mom." It's a good thing that mom let me rest for today. If I was to go to school right now, things can go bad. I don't know all of the effects of mental depletion. Depression side effect is gone after an hour. But I don't feel any mana in my body
"I can see an outline of Aether on my chest." "Wow, that's great. Are you able to inspect it?" I focused on my reflection in the mirror. Right now this is the only way for me to observe what is happening in my body. I took off my shirt to observe clearly. I can see the outline of mana and Aether in my body. Still, I can only see the outline of them. I can't inspect or further observe how they move or act. "It's no use. I can't further inspect it. This isn't enough to give me any idea about Aether." "I see. It's unfortunate." I was very hyped about it. I guess I will focus on mana from now on. Kairi taught me a few more basic spells. From their magic circle, I learned a few more magic runes. There's one magic rune that exists in every last one of them. I think it means water. Little by little I will figure out this magic system. I know now five water spells. [Water Ball], [Wate
"Am I going to be get caught?" I muttered to myself. This isn't good. From the voices, I'm hearing there are three people upstairs. They seem to be searching for something. What should I do? Should I inform Kairi? It's better if I do that. I quickly ran to the lake. She just slept but this situation can turn into an emergency very quickly. I don't think I should deal with this alone. Better to be safe than sorry. I arrived at the lake. She is sleeping at the bottom of the lake. I immediately dive into the lake and swam towards her. I grabbed her and immediately swam out of the lake. "Kairi! Wake up! We have an emergency!" "Wha-what!" "Quick, wake up. There are several people upstairs. I don't know what should I do!" "What to do?!" Even she doesn't know?! Are we doomed? We are doomed! How can we solve this? Wait, we have mana! And she had that mem
It was already late at night and the city was buried in silence. Agustin was sitting on the balcony watching the moon that was peeking through clouds. He took a deep breath from his cigarette. "Just what kind of a mess I get myself into?" He kept thinking the same thing for a while now. The job was an odd one. Finding a stone that has mysterious energy? Look for it in an abandoned church full of trash? He would take it as nonsense if not for it coming directly from the big boss of the organization he was part of. He wasn't an innocent person. He was part of an illegal organization that has a pretty bad history with the government. They are criminals who have done very bad things. Murder, theft, and even human trafficking at some point. Obviously, the boss of this kind of organization can't be someone normal. In the country of Utuvis, he was the most wanted criminal. Agustin looked at the two
I focused my mana on the water inside of the plastic bottle. Mana is harder to control when it is outside of my body. I tried to control mana-infused water but nothing happened. After an hour full of failures I finally stopped. I changed the volume of the water but it didn't help. There must be something I overlooked. Mana inside of my body isn't much but it should be just enough to move a glass of water. I started with the bottle half full and lower it to the glass half full. And yet no success. Maybe I should start with drops of water. You know starting from the bottom. Then why I didn't do this from the beginning. I admit that I'm impatient. I hate this. It is working. I spent an entire hour just at a bottle and glass of water. I feel embarrassed. Not just with the useless hour but the number of water droplets I can control too. It is just a five water droplet and takes almost all of my mana.
"Your project?""Yeah. I think with the help of mana, I can complete it."After school, I returned to our base as usual but the moment I stepped inside, Mason came to me and start talking about his project. It was weird to see him this energetic but I think this is a good sign. It's already several days since he woke up and he was kind of depressed all the time. Maybe he is starting to accept what happened to him and trying to move on. That would be the best for him right now.He always had a bit of a nerdy side to him but to think he was working on a project, I never thought it. People are really surprising."What kind of project are you talking about?""It was mostly theoretical but at its core, it was about distributing, collecting, and even connecting energy from long distances. I had trouble finding a decent source of energy to make it work. On paper, every other energy type I tried had failed. They were either too weak or too strong for it.""Distributing... Connecting... Say, M
(Oscar)Jason seemed to be nervous. I don't know what he is exactly thinking but it has to be something to do with Hope. Whenever he seems nervous he often thinks about Hope. Watching him feels both amusing and a bit weird. I guess love really makes people change.We are sitting inside the clubroom right now. It's already after school. Today school was boring as usual. I can't enjoy school as I used to after learning more about the supernatural world but I can't just abandon this life. In the worst case, I can use it as a cover. But still, it's damn boring. Well, the school festival is coming in two weeks' time so I might get the chance to enjoy it. Our club decided to publish a comic book and we have almost finished it."Will you talk already? Watching you this nervous makes me uncomfortable."I said with a bit of irritation in my voice. He keeps fidgeting in his seat for ten minutes already. Anyone would be uncomfortable just sitting near him. I was unfortunately sitting right acros
Elders' balcony"...Luna Edgar cleared the third stage of the trial... It is time for elders to decide..."After Hector's words, everyone turned towards the elders' balcony. There was a deadly silence, both inside of the balcony and outside of it. All of the elders and the leader of the coven had serious and grim expressions on their faces. Before the situation could turn into something else Elijah talked."We will announce our decision... ten minutes later. Meanwhile, everyone should take some break."Everyone visibly relaxed after hearing Elder Elijah's words, other elders included. When the attention was lifted from the balcony all of the elders turned to each other. Elijah was once again the first to talk."This will give us ten minutes. We should make a decision.""...I find it hard to make. All of us saw it. She awakened the curse mark and even deactivate it by herself. This should be investigated before we can make any decision.""You are right, Camila. But, most of them don't
And now it's time for her final opponent. This one will be the most difficult one and also where she will use her true power to show everyone what she really can do. Before Hector was announced at the beginning of the third trial, the leader of the coven stand up from her seat. This immediately attacked everyone's attention.Luna furrowed her brows seeing the expression on her mother's face. Almost everyone could only see her expression as nothing but indifference but Luna could read her expression. Eliana was angry. She was going to do something to satiate that anger of hers. This will be definitely something that will make things harder for Luna. And she was absolutely right."...We will use another monster for the third stage. Hector, bring out the convict number 6 and cease that stupid jokes.""!!! Yes, ma'am."That's bad, thought Luna. She knew what her mother meant as the convict number 6 also known as the cold one. It was one of the only monsters she didn't want to face. It was
"Hahaha. She is a promising young witch. If we want to survive in the future we need every young witch we can. We all know the situation on the Sanraisu. There are already many suspicious movements related to the clans reported. They will eventually set their eyes outside of the Sanraisu. They will notice our existence, if not today, a few years later at most. When the troubling times are getting closer, should we really punish our best witch?"Camila furrowed her brows. She knew that Elijah was right. There were big troubles on the horizon. The number of the witches on the earth can't be compared to the clans of the Sanraisu. Also, some of the clans had much more power than most of the covens. So, this was one of the reasons why witch covens scattered around the world and hid from everyone else. To survive.In a possible war against those clans, witches will certainly perish. This was the bitter truth every elder of every coven on earth had to accept. Elder Avery and Elder Layla look
Luna was waiting in front of the old wooden door. She was inside a room with only a simple chair in it. This was a waiting room. She was in here this room for an hour already. She was waiting for the trial to begin. There was a colosseum-like room behind the old wooden doors.She had to be judged in the trial because of her big failure with her previous spell. She didn't expect her spell to go wrong and cause this. She will have to fight against many opponents and defeat them all to clear this trial. The main purpose of this trial is to prove one's power to defend itself and defeat enemies. All this was that her failure might alert clans and the rest of the supernatural world of their existence. The witches have been in hiding for the last four hundred years and every coven on earth wants to keep it this way.The trial will happen in a reflection dimension. This dimension mirrors the real world and whatever happens inside stays inside. The witches use this dimension to keep their exis
(Oscar's POV)Hah... There are a lot of concerning things for the future. Mason just woke up and decide that he wants to join us. Charlotte also chose to join us with him. I wonder when they are going to confess to each other. It is clear that both of them have feelings for each other. Thanks to this I won't need to erase or alter Charlotte's memories. We are still a small team after all. Keeping everyone safe is my utmost priority.After a little bit talk, I sent Mason to rest in the infirmary. It's best that he rest a bit more. Charlotte also went to look after him. It's really cute seeing them together. After they left the main hall, I chatted with Kairi and Izumi for a while. When it started to get late I went home."I'm home, mom.""Welcome back, sweetheart. Dinner is almost ready.""Oh, I'm coming just after changing my clothes."I went up to my room and changed my clothes. Tomorrow there is school and I also have to plan the future of the team. I'm the leader of our team at th
"Well, you are trying to create a new element. You wouldn't expect it to be easy to achieve. It's something unheard of in the spirit realm. You achieving this much is already an awesome feat.""What can I say, I'm the first mage on earth."I smiled smugly. I am really proud of this nickname. I may have given it to myself but that doesn't matter. The truth is I really am the first mage on this earth. There is no clan that can use mana and does magic. There are bounty hunters who can use mana but they can only use it with the help of magi-tech. And spirits are spirits.After me, Mason would be the second mage. Well, if he doesn't want to be in this world I can't force him. I want him to be with me in this but I can't force this on him. This is something he has to decide of his free will.There are many amazing things on the supernatural side of the world. I don't know everything but I already know the wonderful things this world has to offer. Things you can do with mana or aether are fa
"That's... hard to believe...""I know. I would have a hard time adjusting my mind to these fantastical things if my mind weren't influenced by the mana back then.""What kind of influence you are talking about?""Hmm... It's hard to describe. It's like your body and mind both want to embrace mana and you yourself slowly drifting toward the mana and magic.""That's a little scary.""I know. But mana itself isn't scary. It's just an energy. It's up to you how you use it."I told him everything that happened. How I found him on the verge of death and how he died in my arms. It was embarrassing to talk about it now that he was back to life. But I told him everything anyway. We have known each other for years and I know that I can trust him with anything.He had a difficult time believing everything I told him. I created a small fire in my hand and showed this to him. He was shocked and started to accept things. Seeing supernatural things is always more effective than hearing them from so