The Ascender's Legacy [A CHAOTIC STORM LITRPG]

Aodhán groaned as he buried his face in a pillow that smelled like citrus and lavender. Warm sheets tangled around his legs, and a dull ache buzzed at the base of his skull—a headache from too much fruit wine and not enough water.

He blinked slowly, then turned his head to where Meredith lay beside him, one arm flung across his back, the other buried under the covers. She snored softly, her blue-black hair spilled across the pillow like ink. She looked peaceful. Innocent, even—but Aodhán was not deceived. Not after last night, not after how she had…

His gaze landed on the small clock by her head, and he jerked awake immediately. "Shit. We're late."

He rushed to stand, but Meredith tightened her arms around him. "Mmm… five more minutes."

"That's literally all we have," Aodhán said, his voice rumbling out like distant thunder as he pushed himself to his feet. "I haven't been late to the gym in a long time, and I'd hate to experience whatever brand of torture Coach Harvey has planned this time. Get up, Meredith."

She cracked one eye open and glared at him. "But I'm so tired."

Aodhán grinned. "You weren't tired last… oh no. Get up. Get up. Time's running out."

Meredith groaned and covered her face with a pillow.

Aodhán ripped it away. "I swear I'm going to leave you behind if you don't get up right this minute."

She scowled at him, then launched a ball of cold water at him, drenching him to the bone before getting up herself. Aodhán didn't mind the attack at all. He simply skipped bathroom time and proceeded to put on his uniform, tightening both belt and boot laces simultaneously.

Done with that, he grabbed his storm scarf, downed a jug of water, and jumped out of the window—a platform materializing beneath him before he could fall more than a few inches.

"Won't you wait for me?" Meredith called out, but he was already gone, zipping through the sky with all the speed he could summon. While he flew, he texted Andrew, Yurin, and Daruk, sighing in relief when he found out that they had also overslept and were only now rushing down to the gym. It was a weird occurrence for all four of them to be late like this, but Aodhán couldn't dwell on that at the moment. He had only two minutes left and a long distance to cover.

He arrived at the gymnasium with only ten seconds to spare, landing just behind Daruk and Yurin, who had shared a platform, while Andrew brought up the rear, gasping and rasping as if he was about to collapse at any moment.

Without even greeting each other, they raced up the steps to where Coach Harvey stood by the entrance, mouth downturned in a grimace of disappointment. "I was hoping to catch you boys this time, but there's always next time."

"There will be no next time," Andrew panted, and Aodhán seconded his words with a firm nod.

Coach Harvey grinned and handed them the attendance register to sign.

They walked into the gymnasium proper a minute later, and Aodhán finally turned to address his friends. "Okay, what the hell is going on? I feel hungover, and we only had fruit wine. Did any of you spike our drinks?"

Daruk frowned. "There's no reason to believe our drinks were spiked. It's entirely possible to get hungover from fruit wine. Though" his frown deepened, "This one does seem a bit suspicious."

"Is it possible that…" he trailed off, but they already understood his meaning. As one, they turned their gazes to Andrew, who glared at them.

"If I wanted to spike your drinks, would I spike mine too?"

"If you wanted to be subtle," Yurin muttered, but Aodhán believed Andrew. Andrew could create sedatives, toxins, and poisons, but not alcohol. Of course, it didn't have to be alcohol, but Aodhán seriously doubted Andrew was the culprit of this particular crime.

He thought back to the previous night, trying to remember everything that had happened. After exiting the nature laboratory, the four of them spent the next two hours in the cafeteria, ordering the best academy food and drinks.

Of course, some of their other friends had come to join them: Ayisha, Scarlett, Ankaz and Ursaz Urdania, Gwendolyn, Alesh, and Lupin. He remembered them singing a song he couldn't recall, Yurin and Ankaz making fools of themselves dancing on the table, Gwendolyn and Lupin whispering like witches, Alesh and Daruk discussing something advancement-related, and then… a voice. "This wine needs an extra kick, don't you guys think?"

He followed the memory of the voice and grimaced when he saw Scarlett place a hand against the wine bottle, causing its contents to bubble and darken subtly. She had refilled all their cups next, smiling widely as the four of them had asked for more of the enhanced wine.

"Dear God," he muttered, not quite realizing the slip as he palmed his temples. "It was Scarlett, and she didn't drug us. She simply enhanced the wine with our consent."

His words seemed to jog the memories of the others, and Daruk sighed. "I can't believe I drank so much of that wine. But it was so good, though."

"It was," Andrew acknowledged with a nod. "The question, however, is why aren't the others as affected as we are?"

Aodhán sighed. "They didn't drink as much as we did, for starters. Besides, Gwendolyn and Lupin live in the same apartment as Scarlett. She must have woken them up. Also, the Calodans are notorious for their insane ability to shrug off strong wine."

"That still doesn't explain—"

Yurin's words were cut short as the gymnasium's door opened and Coach Harvey walked in with a huge smile, half a dozen students trailing behind him. Among them were Alesh, Meredith, Eren, who had only had about three drinks—Harnoth Darkwater, and Azul Fetherson, whose lateness seemed entirely unrelated to the issue at hand. The last person was, surprisingly, Ayisha. The mistress of time herself, arriving late.

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She shot them a scathing glare as Coach Harvey led them to the front of the gymnasium and announced, "Welcome once more to my chamber of improvement. Like I explained earlier, this exercise wasn't just built to train and improve your speed but to sharpen your reflexes too. There's a limit to how fast you can run or dodge, but perception and instincts are things that can be sharpened far beyond what your tier allows."

"With that said, I would like to remind you all that beating this exercise isn't the only end goal. If there's a way you can keep increasing your speed, then good for you, but the real way to beat this exercise is to sharpen your reflexes and perception despite utilizing the same speed. That way, your movements will become more controlled, sharper, cleaner, smoother, and better. You must learn to train your instincts, your body, and to anticipate the unseen."

"Honestly, this is the best exercise plan I've come up with in years, and I've decided it's the only thing we'll be doing for the rest of the term. So, if you don't want to be bruised and in pain every morning, you'll take this training very seriously. Now take up your positions."

Everyone snapped to attention, and Aodhán picked the cell closest to him. He stepped into the small space a moment later, eyes scanning the numerous holes in the walls and ceiling. They seemed to have grown even more numerous than before, but he hadn't counted last time and couldn't tell for certain.

Sighing, he took up position at the center of the cell and closed his eyes, waiting for Coach Harvey's signal.

His speed had improved greatly since the first day of exercises last Tuesday, but with the rage in his mind now completely gone, his reflexes had nearly doubled. His perception had also increased, alongside the soothing calm that infused every part of his being.

Despite the soothing calm he was feeling, Aodhán knew he needed more for what was to come. He sank his mind deeply into the effect of {Eye of the Storm} and sighed as his mind sharpened to crystal-clear clarity. His thoughts quieted down to a dull hum at the back of his mind, his eyes snapped open, narrowing with pinpoint focus, and his ears twitched, sharpening to catch even the quietest of sounds.

The walls were lined with silence runes to muffle the activation and release of arrows, but it wasn't completely soundproof. Sound still leaked through—however minute—and that was what Aodhán was listening for.

Coach Harvey's signal came a moment later in the form of a sharp, piercing whistle, and without hesitation, Aodhán moved—not at maximum speed, but very close to it. He saw no need to dawdle around in the lower stages of the exercise when he could simply skip to the challenging part.

The array hummed loudly as it recalibrated to his new speed, and an instant later, sixteen arrows shot out from every angle, their blunted tips gleaming with pain runes.

Forcing himself to maintain his speed, Aodhán focused more on shortening his movements—trying to do more with less. {Eye of the Storm} helped greatly. With his mind as calm as the skies after a turbulent storm, Aodhán moved with deft precision, completely evading all the arrows.

Still retaining his speed, he did it again and again, forcing himself to cut down on his movements with each trial. His gaze darted across the cell walls, anticipating. Searching for a pattern. He found none, but he didn't stop trying.

He retained the same speed for the next five minutes before taking things up a notch. The array hummed again, and this time, eighteen arrows shot out. Aodhán moved as soon as the arrows launched, twisting his body swiftly to avoid the largest cluster, but he didn't escape completely.

Pain lanced through him as three arrows hit, but rather than groan in agony, Aodhán grinned. Shifting his balance, he strained his ears to listen for the next volley. His eyes scanned the walls, wondering from which holes the next arrows would emerge.

It was impossible to discern, but Aodhán followed his instincts. He shifted to the side, only to get pelted by half a dozen arrows.

"Okay, I need to work on that," he groaned as he prepared himself for the next volley. If he couldn't consistently evade the arrows from this level, there was no need to increase his speed yet. And so, he continued, trying again and again to improve his reaction time and sharpen his instincts.

Time passed in this manner. Every time he was struck, he picked himself back up. Every time pain flared and his muscles spasmed, he pushed on with a grin. Every time he successfully dodged the arrows, he patted himself on the back and tried to repeat the feat.

This continued until Coach Harvey whistled again, announcing the end of the exercise.

Blowing out an exhausted breath and massaging his shoulders, Aodhán stepped out of the cell and joined Miss Greene on the other end of the gym to stretch out his muscles for the next few minutes.

He may not have pushed himself to the absolute maximum, but Aodhán felt like he had gained valuable experience. After the stretching exercise, Aodhán and his friends proceeded to the bath stalls to shower and dress up. They walked leisurely to the cafeteria after that, and after a filling breakfast, they made their way to the classroom for UAE 102.

As usual, Valerie Potts was already inside the hall when they arrived, an array of elemental symbols drawn on the board. The class was a continuation of triadic and quadric elemental convergence, and although it touched upon a few advanced matters, it was mostly basic material.

Valerie also asked far fewer questions this time, only throwing them out occasionally to buttress an explanation she was making.

Aodhán half-listened to the lecture, but his mind was on something else.

The term had begun in earnest, and unless Commander Lunarshard summoned him to help the war effort, Aodhán didn't see himself leaving the academy for the next five weeks. He was finally settled, which meant this was the perfect time to draw up a timetable for the million and one things he had to accomplish before the tournament began.

Looking through his status screen, he penned them down.

The first and foremost task was his icon phrase. It was far from perfect, and although it hadn't really begun affecting him too seriously, Aodhán would rather not wait until it regressed to that point before correcting it. To do so, he needed hours upon hours of meditation, which was great because he also needed to tame his willpower, meditate on his understanding, and try to evolve his opening into a channel just like Aldric had done.

All of that would require long hours of meditation, which left very little time for his essence thread expansion, combat training, library visits, and rune scripting—a task he hadn't been able to devote time to in a while.

Aside from everything he had listed, there was still so much to do. His item creation, for instance, although that would fall on the weekend after the Eternal Emporium delivered his orders. There was also the tower ascension, his weekend training with Eldrith and whoever Principal Zatya was introducing next to replace Helzarvauth, and lastly, the forge matches, which he couldn't skip lest he fall back down the power ladder and lose whatever status he had managed to scrape together so far.

Even with all these tasks and activities listed out, Aodhán was certain there was still so much he wasn't accounting for.

For the rest of the class, Aodhán worked on his timetable, tweaking and adjusting to make sure he devoted at least an hour to each task every day. It cut severely into his sleep time, but he didn't really need six hours of sleep anymore, if he was being honest.

He drafted the final timetable a few minutes before Valerie concluded her lecture and looked down at it proudly, feeling like he had accomplished a great feat by organizing everything into neat little boxes.

The timetable made the tasks seem easier to manage and complete, and looking down at it, Aodhán truly felt like he could accomplish everything.

Valerie's class ended a few minutes later, and Aodhán stood up with a grin, ready to begin with his first task. However, as he confidently walked out of the hall, prepared to turn down any activity not on his timetable for today, an alarm echoed throughout the building. Through the speakers placed strategically on the walls, a voice rang out:

"Make your way to the Arena, students! It is time for the selection trials to begin."