Three days later, alone in his room, Oren attempted to sense the world's energy through meditation.
According to the elders, Enlightenment was not a single state, but a progression. Those who attained it could continue ascending to higher stages.
Yet, despite understanding the theory, and it feeling strangely familiar to when he was an Antherion, Oren could not even take the first step.
He could see the trees of a forest, the surface of a lake, and feel the fleeting breeze of spring, but not this.
No matter how long he concentrated, nothing answered him.
This was something else entirely.
There was no presence, no current to grasp.
His attempts were futile, but he did not give up.
As the next two days slipped past in a blur, night and day were slowly becoming indistinguishable.
Unlike some, Oren found a way to continue advancing by relying on the academy's open lectures for outsiders.
In the morning, the lectures covered mathematics, English, and science, deepening his understanding of the world's language and history.
Occasionally, they touched on medicine, combat, and survival, encompassing a small range of weapons and techniques.
Since Oren knew nothing of the world, and was only starting to understand their language, he was considered to be a failing student.
To them, he looked lazy, stupid, disoriented a fool. Which did not help after being late to the assembly.l
Naturally, none of the lectures addressed Enlightenment or other uncanny matters, as those attending weren't enlightened.
They were mundane people.
And the more Oren began to understand and learn, the more he noticed about the humans surrounding him.
Observing them for so long and yet failing to understand what made humans... human.
Even if one became enlightened.
What separated one from another?
Gender, age, experience.
Height, skin, hair.
The way they talked and expressed themselves. The way they thought, the results of their actions as a whole.
Individually, they differed in countless ways.
Yet, when he looked at them as a whole, those differences felt meaningless.
In the end, they were all the same.
No different from those back home.
After an arduous week of preparation, only two days and one lesson remained before the Trial of Longing.
...
The class held one of the final lessons before the trial.
The subject was said to be one rarely taught within the Academy, as most considered it common knowledge.
It was called Resource Theory, but it delved far beyond what he expected.
The lesson existed less to educate and more to prepare, to remind the candidates what reality felt like beyond polished stone floors and structured schedules.
Maybe it was to give a twisted sense of hope, that there was something after, and that it was guaranteed.
'Maybe that was how they swindled everyone into joining this place.'
In the outskirts, education was a luxury few could afford.
Mundane schools were small and barely qualified as institutions of learning. Knowledge was most often inconsistent and outdated.
The academy, by contrast, was something else entirely.
During the lesson, Oren finally learned what Yie truly was. It was the currency of the Unison Region, forged directly from materials harvested from the Unison Mountains.
There were three recognised grades.
Mineral Yie was the lowest form, shaped from the most common yields of the mountains.
Mountain Yie was what the candidates had been given, the standard currency, forged from stronger and more stable materials.
Iron and Golden Yie were the rarest and most prestigious grades, extracted from scarce deposits found deep within the range.
Yet the Unison Mountains no longer sustained civilisation. Whatever settlements once stood within that vast range had fallen generations ago in the history books.
No markets, no caravans. There was nothing to barter with. No population left to sustain commerce.
But from afar, one could still glimpse the remnants of villages and fractured cities. Still, there were no trade routes threading through the peaks.
Because of this, Yie was not earned through trade with outsiders. It was extracted. And it remained specific to Unison City, as the mountains were only accessible to the Enlightened.
The volatile zones within the range were apparently unstable and lethal to ordinary citizens, a place that had not been touched in centuries.
But it only intrigued Oren more.
...
Later that day, after attending another lesson, Oren stood in the reception hall of the academy.
He looked toward the exit doors, then back at the receptionist's desk with a pensive smile.
'So this is what school life is like...'
He had enjoyed his first week of school very much.
He had just finished one of the Elders' lessons. It was one of Elder Sloan's lectures on medicine and healing.
It made him wonder.
'How did C04 heal me?'
Oren shook his head after giving it a second thought.
Some things were better off not knowing. That madman had mentioned pieces when referring to healing him.
That was more than enough information.
Oren exhaled, rubbing his eye with his palm as he groaned.
'Sleep...' He wanted sleep.
For some reason, it felt as if he desperately needed it, but that was only because he was a mortal now, a mundane human among the Unison people.
He dismissed the thought with a hesitant frown.
'Whatever I once was, none of it should matter now.'
After another yawn, he took a deep breath. Bearing through the drowsiness, he persuaded himself inwardly.
'Sleep is for the weak... Who needs it?'
'Certainly not me.'
Anyways, now that he had left the lecture, he would be leaving the academy for a while.
Oren had recently learned about money and its value in the outskirts, so he would make sure not to use his own.
He had spent the last few days searching for a gambling den.
But with the Trial of Longing set for tomorrow, he could not afford to indulge today.
Oren had explored the Second District for nearly a week and barely made a dent in its vastness.
The sheer scale of the expansive sprawl made him want to buy a map of Unison, perhaps even the mountain range if they still had them.
It was unusual for locals to buy a map of their home, let alone a map that reached the mountains.
So it would probably cost him nearly all of his Yie. But he did not mind, because half of what he had been given was already in the hands of the academy.
Candidates who had yet to be accepted were not trusted to return to the academy freely, and since there was one day until the trial, most left the academy to see their families one last time.
Oren had heard that some students had lost hope, believing it pointless to remain until the trial arrived.
Though they were few, their actions led to immediate expulsion, and a warning was issued to every remaining candidate.
His grip tightened around the item in his hand.
The receptionist had given him what the people of this world called a fortune cookie.
It was a small, crescent-shaped biscuit, golden and smooth along its curved surface. The centre was pinched inward, the shell folding around a hollow space within.
It was a prophecy, a prediction that could tell the future.
That was what the lady had said, at least.
Oren almost scoffed.
What nonsense... A piece of paper cannot tell the future, and neither can the human who had written it.
It was worthless.
...Yet he cradled it tightly.
He reached the doors in an instant.
Two tall, imposing slabs of metal and refined old wood, far too grand for the worn-down outskirts.
Oren barely spared them a glance.
His golden eyes dropped to the cookie in his hand.
Without thinking, he brought his other hand up, gripping both ends of the pale crescent.
Then snapped it.
The sound made him pause for a moment...
'Can I really eat this?'
But before Oren could inspect the fortune cookie closer, a slip of paper fell into his palm.
He raised the note and read the words written in jet black.
"Every step counts."
He stared at it, lost in confusion, and for a moment, Oren didn't move...
A sharp breath escaped him.
"What is that supposed to mean..."
'No!'
Oren slammed the half-broken cookie on the ground, then froze as the silence hung in the air.
A few people nearby turned their heads, watching him with faint confusion.
After a few seconds, Oren let out a resigned sigh.
'Getting agitated like this is not like me.'
He glared at the shattered shell on the ground, then looked away...
Perhaps this fortune was meant for a different person.
He nodded to himself.
'Yes.'
Giving the puzzled receptionist an apologetic smile, he tucked the paper into his pocket and opened the door.
Stepping outside the academy, Oren beheld the sight of the outskirts.
But for some reason, today the world seemed darker, as though something had changed.
Something he could not determine.
A bad premonition pulled at his mind as his gaze lifted to the looming sky.
The sun still hung above, yet its crimson flames had dulled, its light fading, leaving everything below less vivid forcing the world itself to seem inexplicably darker, ghastly, and terrifying.
The trees, once radiant, were the first to fade, their colour slowly draining away.
Beneath them, the grass followed, slowly dimming into a muted green.
The azure sky was fading into nothing, almost stripped of light.
It was as though the colour of the world was slowly being leeched away...
Or perhaps it was the looming sense of death drawing closer.