Arthur felt a refreshing breeze when he opened his eyes next. Now in a well lit chamber overlooking an emerald sea with multiple paneless windows, he awoke in a change of clothes: first, a white robe that touched his ankles and a simple belt made of rope clung to his waist. Looking down, he saw a pair of well made straw sandals. A voice came from nearby when he seemed to have risen.
“^&#@*’s humble self greets the last arrival.”
Arthur didn’t see the origin of the voice, but nodded in its general direction.
“Where are the others?”
“Just ahead, one of the great master’s disciples shall begin orientation when all of you arrive. Great luck upon you all.”
#
Arthur dragged his feet in slow paces through the stone hallways lit by this new world’s midday sun. Engravings of giants without faces decorated the walls, each giant a distinct flavor from the last. Some were tree-men, others bearded and one-eyed. Passing through, Arthur found himself behind some familiar faces gathered in front of a steaming pool, about 100 square feet in imperial terms.
“The last has arrived. We will purify you all before we continue on. Enter the pool,” said a man who looked no younger than eighty.
“What exactly are we being purified of?” said Mikoto, standing firmly in the middle of another clique who she’s never once spoken to.
The man lifted his left sleeve, revealing purple gashes resembling chemical burns coiled in tight swirls from his nails to his shoulder. On closer inspection, his collarbone had the same complexion.
“This is the price you pay for bringing the old world with you. The mana of this world attacks foreigners like antibodies. Does anyone have more questions?”
A boy Arthur recognized as Collin spoke up first. “We’ll leave the questions for after we’re purified. I’m assuming none of us wants to be cooked alive before we even know what’s going on here.”
He had an unusually deep voice that carried itself well in open spaces. Most people in the class would recognize him in an instant if he called out to them across the street. Not to mention, he could easily be picked out from a crowd at the same distance, standing eye to eye with Gustav.
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The man waited a beat before continuing. “Then once again, enter the pool.”
He gestured towards submerged stone stairs covered in the murky turquoise liquid filling the entire pool. A smell that seemed like something between damp herbs and smelling salts wafted towards the group, blasting their nostrils in conjunction with copious amounts of steam.
One by one, the group submerged themselves, sinking up to their necks with their robes weighing them down. When Arthur joined them, he felt a tingle shake through his spine. Shivers overtook him as he started attritting liquids from every pore on his body. While the fluids were vaporizing, the liquid wasn’t anywhere close to a temperature to put his body on heat alert. Many of the students were in the same predicament, losing liquids at a rapid rate.
“Don’t linger for long. Cross before you empty yourselves!”
A little late for that!
Arthur kicked up splashes of the turquoise fluid all around him, scrambling to push forward a second faster. The pool was turbulent, with the rush of his classmates obscuring his vision forward. Even with his adrenaline in full swing, he felt a strange lethargy over him. Each step became a chore and his bones ached. He struggled to even keep his eyes open.
First out of the pool was Deidre, flopping onto the floor a short distance from the stair emerging from the liquid. The robes clung to her as she lay sprawled, accentuating a trained physique with an upper back caked in muscle. As her breathing steadied, she let out a gagged gurgle. Black bile flowed from every orifice on her face, splattering onto the floor. Forced into a coughing fit, she curled into a ball on her side, gasping for air when the last sputter left her.
All who followed had their body exorcised similarly, each left gasping on the ground, clenching themselves for a fragment of support. Arthur walked out of the pool, refreshed. Something missing from him had returned, something he never knew was absent.
“Oh? It seems you take to mana well,” said the Man guiding them as he finished his detour around the pool.
“I can’t wait on you all for long. Take a brief rest, then we’ll begin your orientation.”
The man walked past those on the floor into the next room, past the short hallway connecting to the pool.
“Glad to see you’re doing alright,” said Gustav, face first on the ground next to Arthur’s ankles. He wiped a black smudge off his lips as he tried to regain his footing. Arthur naturally pulled him up as he got off the floor. Many still laid flat, decorating the stone floor with a new splattered checker pattern. The short respite consumed them for a moment as they found their bearings.
“Lets go see what that Lion’s quest really entails.”
#
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