NOVEL NEXT Chapter 37: The inner castle
Xane walked out of the white building with a few bandages wrapped around him.
The good thing was that most of these bandages were hidden beneath his grey robe.
Not wasting any time, he placed his hand on his ID and started moving toward the black castle.
Along the way, he saw a few others, but surprisingly, their numbers didn't add up to the number of red crosses he had seen yesterday.
He asked Zayn,
<What's going on? I thought a lot of students had applied yesterday.>
[Well, that's a given. I mean, each Hex Master has their requirements, so obviously, most of them would go on to reject applications until they get the ideal student they're willing to work with.]
Xane nodded as he walked into the hall. He had to wait for his turn, as today everyone was clustered around the sixth elevator.
Soon, he managed to squeeze in as the stairs started moving up. It took nearly double the time, as this staircase led directly to the second floor.
As he walked out, he found himself in a massive hall with a wooden board in the center.
He saw about ten open corridors, each marked with a wooden number plate.
As he walked up to the wooden board, he realized it had details about each corridor.
Zayn read a few of them and said,
<Bro, it's like a written guide for the entire floor.>
Xane nodded. For now, the guide didn't matter, as he could see on the map that they had to head to the sixth corridor.
He glanced around and noticed that most of the students were moving toward the first three corridors.
He didn't think much of it and made his way to the sixth corridor.
Unlike what he had imagined, the corridor was pretty big. Although it differed from the one before the classroom, light gemstones filled this corridor, illuminating the whole path with white light.
He saw a couple of students walking ahead of him.
Not long after, they all reached the end of the corridor and entered a brightly lit room.
He saw a big reception desk on the other side, but this time, the middle-aged man sitting behind it wore a green robe, similar to the instructors who had guided them earlier.
The man looked bored and asked, "First years?"
All of them nodded.
"Okay, I want you to place your IDs out."
Most of the students already had their IDs in hand, like Xane, but the few who didn't rushed to take them out.
Once everyone had their IDs ready, Xane saw the middle-aged man's eyes glow as he looked at each of them one by one.
Xane found all of this very odd. He felt that the whole time he was undergoing some sort of inspection.
He was about to ask Zayn, but then the man rubbed his eyes and said, "Okay, you're all good."
With that, he tapped on the table, and the next moment, a mysterious portal popped up beside him. He said,
"I've given you access to the inner castle. From next time, you can access it directly from the first hall."
With that, he leaned back and closed his eyes like he had nothing else to say.
All the students looked at each other, then back at him. After a few seconds, they started walking through the portal one by one.
As Xane walked through the portal, he was surprised to find bright sunlight hitting his face.
It made him flinch for a moment before he noticed he was standing in a plaza full of people walking around in different clothes.
As he looked around, it looked more like some kind of market.
Everyone around him was equally confused when they saw a guy in a red robe walking up to them.
He looked at each of them and said with surprise, "Oh, quite a few got selected this time."
He shook his head. "Well, whatever. So, I am Kion, a second year. Currently in charge of guiding the newcomers. You can call me Senior Kion."
As Kion said that, everyone's IDs started flashing in blue.
Kion waved to them. "Go on, check your IDs. It will be easier that way."
Xane asked Zayn in confusion, <Man, what's going on? Did that portal send us out of the castle?>
Zayn mentally shook his head. [Dude, it's an artificial world present inside the castle. Look up at the sky.]
Xane raised his head and looked up, only to find three suns shining brightly above.
He controlled his astonishment and focused back on his ID and saw that the map engraving had started flashing on it.
As he placed his finger on top of it, he saw an entirely new map appear before his eyes.
Most of the map was sort of blurred, but he could see that their current position was in a small village next to massive facilities.
Kion clapped his hands. "I don't want to waste much time, so listen up. Right now, we are in a special world inside the castle. You can say the entire world is the academy itself."
Kion pointed to a metal door. "Within the academy, we are just outside one of the academy facilities."
Kion turned around and waved to them. "Follow me and keep the ID in your hand."
With that, he started walking to the iron metal door. While they were walking, everyone noticed that none of the surrounding people seemed to notice them.
Kion explained, "All these people you see here were born inside this artificial world."
One boy asked, "Senior Kion, why are they ignoring us?"
"Oh, don't worry. It's only because they can't see us right now due to the IDs in your hand. In the future, you can come here without an ID to interact with them."
"These people know about the Hex Masters and will treat you as royalty. But keep in mind that every life here has value. So if you want to have some fun, just purchase them using your points."
This left many stunned in their tracks, but Kion didn't give them any time to recover as he just walked past the iron gate like it was some sort of illusion.
The moment they walked past the gate, everything sort of changed. The world suddenly lost its color as the ground became black.
It was still a bright morning, but the sunlight dimmed a bit. It felt like they had walked back into a cursed world.
Some of the teens even started shaking.
Kion smiled at them and said, "Don't worry, all of this was due to the rapid use of the hex energy during experiments."
He pointed to the cemetery, which had around 100 caskets.
Kion said, "Each casket leads to the lab of a Hex Master. Check your ID once again, and you will see which casket your Hex Master is in."
He pointed to what looked like an almost abandoned city, around 1000 meters left of the cemetery. "Well, most of the senior years are out of the academy on their missions, so the cities are a kind of blank. They'll start coming back in a week or two. Then you can go there. Before that, I'd advise you to avoid that place."
Saying all that, Kion walked away, leaving all the teens alone before the cemetery.