PoA: Aster's Adventures Chapter 2

PoA: Aster's Adventures Chapter 2

PoA: Aster's Adventures Chapter 2

Waking up on her second day at Red Feather Academy, Aster felt surprisingly good. She missed Matt and Liz something fierce, but she had things to do and new friends to do them with.

Padding out of her room, she noticed that Roody was the only one out in the common room, and nodded to his yawning self, which made her pause.

He shouldnt be tired. She shouldnt have even needed to sleep, but a quick search with her AI on the LocalNet gave her her answer.

The academy put a mild sedative in their rooms the first few nights. While she questioned the ethics of such an action, sleeping had settled her in quite nicely, and she could opt out of the effects at any time when they were active.

When the others came out of their rooms, she mentioned the sedative to them, but they all agreed that it had been nice to actually sleep, and it had helped settle their minds. They all agreed that if they had had nothing to do, they might have worried needlessly.

With a few hours until their first class, they went as a group to go get breakfast, which they noticed wasnt nearly as full as last night's dinner had been. The lack of people also gave them the opportunity to try some new foods that they ordinarily wouldnt order, thanks to the buffet style options.

Aster tried a few dishes she had never seen or tried before. She found most of them ok, but really liked the egg filled dumplings. They were the right mix of doughy, crisp, and savory, and really hit the spot. She even ended up going back for a second helping.

For the first time, a pang of homesickness hit her as Aster realized how much she really missed Matts cooking. It finally sunk in that she wasnt going to be able to eat it for another decade at least and that was a really saddening thought.

With some time to spare before they were to be in their seats in class, Kelly had the idea to explore one of the outside areas of the academy grounds, which occupied a good two hours as they got lost in a hedge maze. They only got out in time thanks to Roodys surprisingly good sense of direction. They could have flown out, but that would have defeated the purpose of the distraction.

As Aster and her roommates sat down in their first class of the day, she sized everything up out of habit. While it was listed as a classroom, it was more accurately described as an auditorium that was spatially expanded to an insane ratio, considering everyone in their year was able to comfortably fit inside. She knew Matt would have loved to inspect the enchantments, but her attention was taken by people watching.

There seemed to be endless variation of beasts and mana types, which gave her endless sources of intrigue.

Not that she just sat quietly and observed.

She chatted with her roommates and their neighbors about everything and anything that came to mind.

The group to their left had explored a sea based area that went out a few miles into the nearby waters, where they had found a few of the older students rehabilitating an ecosystem that was destroyed last year in a fight. While the older students hadnt been able to explain much, the group was fascinated by the display and had learned a few useful tidbits.

The schools various libraries werent similar to one another, and they were encouraged to visit each one if they wanted to take better advantage of all the available knowledge. Besides, the academy rewarded those who explored.

Exactly what was meant by that last piece of advice was a hotly debated topic in their little circle of pods, but all agreed that it was worth using some of their free time to explore the academy. So far, they had only seen a tiny fraction of what the sprawling campus had to offer.

Eddy, a Dunes Lizard, had seen a map of the entire beast side of the academy when he had talked to one of the Prefects, and showed them the recording he had taken, which proved that the buildings they had already walked around in were only a tiny portion of the allocated area for the bond academy.

After all, the entire planet was dedicated to the Red Feather Academy, lending credence to the idea there were places to explore away from the central buildings.

Before they could come to any actual conclusion, the professor walked in through a side door and Aster took note of her cat tail and ears, as they looked quite fetching on her.

Good morning, students. My name is Professor Sa'dan. I want to welcome you all to Red Feather Academy, and to the Bond college in particular. Many of you would have preferred to not come here, but I believe you will all understand why the Beast Kingdom mandates such measures in the coming years. Grinning, Professor Sa'dan shrugged. Or you won't, but most do.

Aster chortled quietly at the small joke, even as Kelly covered her face with a wing, trying to stifle her own twitter.

Moving on, I want to take part of our class time to answer any questions you might have after spending some time in the academy. Things can be confusing. I know when I was in your seats, I had a million questions. Use the LocalNet to register your questions, and Ill ask the top few before we start class.

After thinking for a minute, Aster registered her questions to see that two of the three were already in the top five, and swished her tail in excitement, which caused Juan to toot a chortle as it tickled his side.

Professor Sa'dan laughed when she read the top comment. You all think you are clever. But Ill answer. First question. What do you, Professor Sa'dan, think we need to know? Thats an easy question to answer. Have fun, explore, get into a little trouble, try some electives that don't sound interesting. This is meant to be a place for you to explore and find yourselves and what you enjoy in a safe environment. Try to push yourselves out of your comfort zones. I would never have learned that I really enjoyed magical chess if I didnt join the club in school. Speaking of which, I am the resident Professor who runs the magical chess club, so if any of you are interested, Ill see you after this year ends.

Aster had heard of the game, but never had any inclination to join, but that was probably Professor Sa'dans point. She had ten years, if she didnt try new things, shed get bored in the first two years.

Second question What do I think of the restrictions on bonds? First of all, you need to know that the Professors are all bonds, and have their own stories. Most of you come from loving bonds, but not all of us are so lucky. Some of my fellow Professors were only made a bond so they could be controlled in some way, and chose to break that bond after coming here. My bond is my best friend, but even then, being separated for a little and making our own ways has only solidified our friendship. So, even if you don't have a bad bond, this is a good opportunity for everyone involved. Its important to be your own person outside of just your bond, which is something weve all struggled with.

The next three questions followed the same vein, and Aster took note of not just what Professor Sa'dan said, but how she said it. While most of the answers felt honest, a few had the flavoring of official answers, or at least, that was what Aster sniffed out.

Once that was taken care of, and Professor Sa'dan promised to answer five more questions tomorrow, they moved on to the actual lessons about bloodlines.

There was nothing that Aster didnt already know, as she had been trained by one of the best Pather Managers in the Empire for a large portion of her life. Despite that, the information proved useful to those like Kelly, Juan, and Roody, who had simply lived their lives without ever worrying too much about how their bloodline worked. It was instinctive for all of them after all.

That said, she paid attention and was able to answer her friends' questions most of the time. When they discovered that she knew most of it already, Aster couldnt help but preen a little under their thanks.

Once that class ended, they immediately separated and everyone went to their bloodline specific classes.

Aster's vulpine lineage group was on the smaller end, with only sixteen types of various foxes. She was disappointed to see four variations of fire or heat-aligned foxes, but tried to give them the benefit of the doubt. After all, they hadnt chosen their mana type, even if it was objectively the worst.

Even as she shot her flame based cousins funny faces, a very handsome wind fox walked through the Professors door.

Good morning children. My name is Professor Xila, and I will be the individual who walks you through the process of making your own humanoid form.

As he spoke, Professor Xila quickly changed forms, first to a humanoid fox on two legs, but still distinctly a fox, then just as quickly to a human man with a tail and ears. Finally, he shifted into a completely unremarkable human with sandy-gray hair.

The first thing to realize is that you have a choice. While it has long, long been a tradition in the Empire and beyond to have a firmly bloodline form and a firmly human form, the rise of the Monster Collective has prompted a third path, a simple anthropomorphistic variant of our bloodline forms. After all, many with bloodlines are prone to keeping some level of our heritage present in our human form, so why not extend that even further? Some even go so far as to eschew a humanoid form at all, but I do not advise this.

Aster and everyone else yipped in surprise, but Professor Xila spoke over them. There are many advantages to a human form, let alone a humanoid one. Clothes, weapons, armor, even tools, all of these have been made first and foremost for use by humans, and that will always be the case. There exist adaptations for those without hands to utilize much of our modern technology, but they remain adaptations. It can be quite inconvenient to live your life without hands, or to purchase clothing for a shape unlike that which most tailors work in, or what most stores sell. With that said, I encourage all of you to do what is comfortable. You are all immortals, should you later change your mind, you are free to do so. In fact, some constantly change their shape, trying on different forms as easily as our bonds might purchase a new outfit. It is all acceptable.

A link popped up on her AI and Aster flicked an ear with everyone else who had clearly received the same message.

The lesson for today is to simply retaliate when you are being attacked. Aster, you first. Show us what you can do.

At Coach Magdalenes encouragement, Aster walked over to the indicated location and immediately sidestepped the green sticky liquid the monster shot out, and launched an [Ice Spear] at the construct in retaliation. Her attack was blocked by a mana shield, but a light appeared on the construct. When it attacked for a second time, the attack was faster and more accurate.

Aster still easily dodged and retaliated half a dozen times until all the lights were lit up, and the monster was attacking in a seemingly endless stream of strikes, trying to get her fur dirty.

Once she had dodged the seemingly maxed setting for a full minute, Coach Magdalene coughed and called her out.

Well done, Aster. Can you explain how you did that to the rest of the class?

Aster nodded even as she scampered back to a more central position. Its a fairly straightforward target. It doesnt move much, and doesnt utilize any form of skill to make its projectile harder to dodge. Its like a low-tier spitter monster, and the attack is small enough that its easy to dodge. If you can prepare an attack ahead of time, do that. But otherwise, just go with a fast skill and utilize either your Concept or a Manipulation to nudge it on-track if its off target, or if your opponent moves.

Aster blinked as Coach Magdalene shook her head with a grin.

I don't expect most of you to be able to so accurately lead the constructs attacks and keep the area mostly clean. We simply want you to not get hit by the projectiles and return at least one attack before the next one. As you saw with Aster, the more you successfully do so, the faster and more accurate the projectiles will get. If you can get to the third level in the next year, Ill be ecstatic. The sixth level signifies you are fighting a ranged opponent two Tiers higher than yourself which is beyond what we expect of you currently. The first light signifies a Tier 14, and most of you should be able to get used to that fairly quickly. In our future classes, we will expand the types of training we do with a variety of constructs, but dodging and retaliating will be core skills that keep you alive inside almost any rift.

As Coach Theodore had Gawain go through a similar melee style thing Coach Magdalene looked to Aster and Layla. Can you two go around and help those who are struggling? If you can't help them, ping our [AI], and we will make our way to them, but there are a lot of students, and not a lot of us.

Aster nodded with Layla and was about to turn to leave when Coach Magdalene asked her a question. Judging by your performance your team could have stayed on the Path, couldn't they?

Looking back, Aster nodded as she mostly told the truth. My humans felt going on without me would be wrong, so they stepped off.

Coach Magdalene tsked before waving them away.

Layla whinnied a noise of surprise. You are really strong! I'm not sure I could have done as well...

Trying to not be arrogant, Aster bobbed her head. It's really just a lot of practice. Our trainers had us doing similar things all the time when we werent inside a rift. It's kinda fun after a while.

Layla agreed. Same, but Im not sure we ever got as good as you. The three of us should make a team to delve. I heard the academy has a number of rifts they let the second years and above delve in, and with the Coachs permission, we can delve early. I bet with the three of us teaming up, we can get permission early.

Aster wasnt entirely happy with the idea of having to delve with a real fire mage, but Layla seemed nice, and from Gawains display in the melee fighter test, she could tell he was quite competent as a front liner.

Still, she agreed. That sounds fun, and Id love to be able to delve and make new friends.

With that settled, she walked through the lines and offered help to those poor unfortunates who were hit with the sticky green goop. Though, she stayed far away and kept a barrier made from her Concept around her to keep the gross stuff off her fur while trying to give guidance.

Not that a single suggestion could immediately make someone a master, but most of the people she stopped to help learned something new, and were able to dodge a little more frequently when she left. And that was really all it was about, which she made sure to remind those who seemed dispirited at their failures.

I failed at tasks like this for months before even starting to get the hang of it. Dont worry, and just try and improve a little today and a little tomorrow. By the end of the year, you won't even know how you found it hard.

When she reached the area where Kelly and Roody were in two comically different sized safe areas, they immediately started questioning her on why she hadnt told them she was a Pather.

Shrugging, she tried to brush it off. Delving is only one part of my life, and Id much rather talk about my ice cream tests than delving.

Roody whimpered as he caught a face full of goop and fell to the ground, trying to wipe it out of his eyes. Aster noticed that he had been on the third level before failing, which was a lot better than everyone else was doing.

Yes, but then I wouldnt have bragged about delving two up with my team! Roodys complaint made her chortle.

No, you wouldn't have. And it is impressive. Ive had some of the best training in the Empire to get as good as I am today. You not having that and doing so well is worthy of bragging. See, you even keep getting to the third level. Try smaller fakeouts and see if that helps you.

On Roodys next attempt, he was able to dodge the third-level attack, but his own retaliation missed, which forced him to repeat the level. It was still an improvement as he at least was able to keep any more gross liquid out of his fur.

A task which Kelly was failing miserably at.

The poor bird had a smaller safe area, and was constantly getting hit and knocked to the ground, where she got covered in more of the goop.

Aster, you need to save me! Pleeeeeeease!

Aster backed away, seeing the frantic look in Kellys eyes as she pleaded for help. The poor bird seemed at the end of her ropes.

Activating her AI, she called for one of the Coaches to help her friend and skittered away to help someone who didnt look like they wanted to share their goop. Sharing was great and all, but her fur was hard enough to keep pristine without green sticky liquids getting in it.

No thank you.

They spent a little more than three hours predicting the exercise before the Coaches dismissed all of them, which was when a blur of wings started chasing Aster.

You wont get away from me! You will be goopy too if I have anything to say about it!

Aster immediately activated her buffs and ran back to their room, all the while being chased by Kelly who insisted on trying to land on her.

An hour later, the two of them chatted as the boys came out of their rooms, finally clean. Aster was serving her penance, helping dry Kellys feathers with small gusts of wind, which they both found fun, even if Kelly complained about the air being chilly. Though, Aster tried to explain that hot air was awful for the fur and feathers but Kelly was hearing none of it.

The four of them bickered good-naturedly as they went to dinner, and Aster was grateful that after giving her a little bit of a hard time, they didnt treat her any differently after learning she was a good fighter.

Juan even wanted to try helping with her ice cream experiments, having a bit of a sweet tooth himself.

As the second day of her time at the academy closed out, Aster felt like she had carved out a little bit of home for herself.