Being done with eating breakfast, Caecus left towards the building where the classrooms were.
His first class was soul control, as normal, Caecus would have his main classes along with the people from his class. He was in class B-1, so anyone from Rank 101 to 333.
'I wonder what kind of people they are…'
As Caecus and Titus walked past the ridiculously overgrown nature that was on the way to the first year's building, and reached the building, which resembled more of a gothic fortress if anything.
When they got closer, the huge gates allowed them to step through, and the previously soft floor turned into stone pavement.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
Their steps resounded loudly, but since there were many students around them, who wanted to enter the first year's building as well, the sound was drowned by the surrounding people.
'It's really full here…'
This time Titus' classroom was not close to Caecus' but he walked him there anyway, knowing now that he could not read the signs.
Even though there were so many people around them, the air was still fresh, as if they were in nature.
'Maybe that's the reason for the whole greenery in front of the building? But here I don't sense any…'
Breathing in the fresh air, Caecus continued walking with Titus, the ground now covered by a carpet.
Their steps softened again, and they reached the third floor.
When they got into the next hallway, Caecus could sense windows on his left side that allowed viewing the outside of the academy.
They followed the hallway, and the blind boy made an effort to dodge anyone who walked past him.
'This could honestly be reflex training…'
It was thirty minutes before classes started, and it was still super crowded.
When they reached his classroom, Titus excused himself.
"Alright, our classes should stop at the same time, just call me and I'll come pick you up." the Titanus heir said.
"Okay… thank you for your help Titus, you really don't need– "
A light smack hit Caecus' shoulder, it only stung a little.
"Don't say that! I help you because I wanna, okay?" Titus shook his head. "Okay, I'll need to hurry now, considering my classroom is pretty far from here and I wanna be there at least ten minutes before it starts."
"Okay… bye. See you!" Caecus said, waving towards the boy who was walking away.
"See you!" Titus waved back.
Now that his friend was departing, the blind boy turned around and walked towards the door of his classroom.
When he entered, unlike what happened during the exams, there wasn't any guard, and he could just walk in.
'Best a window seat in the back– no that's for edgy main characters.'
Caecus sat in the front, right before where the teacher would stand, so that he could listen well.
He did have one worry though.
'How am I gonna read it if they are writing on the whiteboard? Best just tell the teacher about my situation, before class starts…'
He opened his bag, and ignored the various people walking past him and sitting down all over the lecture hall. It was very big– well it had to be big to fit over three hundred people.
Taking out one notebook, his pencil case, along with his water bottle, he placed them all on the desk in front of him, and on the cover of the notebook, he entered: "Soul Control" along with "Caecus Caelum" below, so he knew which class this book belonged to, and everyone else knew who it belonged to.
He checked his soul phone, and did some things on it, when he felt a presence sit down right next to him.
It was a boy, around one hundred seventy centimeters, below average in height, just like him, but still taller than him.
He had glasses covering his face, with bangs falling down in his face. The boy's posture revealed a lot of uncertainty about himself, probably nervosity.
'This is a stereotypical nerd.'
Sadly, Caecus couldn't read anyone's pins without touching them, so he didn't know how this boy ranked, but from his physique alone, he guessed that it was probably in the lower bracket of B-1– probably above rank three hundred.
They both stayed silent.
Everyone else around them was clearly introducing themselves, but he didn't and was waiting for the nerdy looking boy to do it first, but he didn't do it either.
Caecus sensed his bracelet, and noticed he was from the Librus corpus.
It wasn't one of the bigger ones, but still a very well known corpus for the work they did.
Specifically, they birthed exceptional scholars, or researchers in general.
Caecus felt someone adult enter.
'That must be the teacher.'
He approached the woman, who was very tall, standing at 190cm. Her bracelet revealed that she was from the Aeternus corpus.
Caecus couldn't sense her soul.
"E-excuse me, Miss, are you the teacher of this class?"
The teacher halted in her steps, and looked down at Caecus.
She had her hair cut short, like it was usual with people who were from the corpora, and her outfit was a blouse, along with a skirt and some boots. Not well suitable for combat.
"Yes I am, what is the matter?" She asked, voice strict, but not in a negative way, it was just the way her personality was… or Caecus thought so.
"I am blind, and wanted to ask, if I could receive assistance whenever you write something on the whiteboard…" Caecus scratched his cheek.
The woman was confused, but remembered that there was a student listed with blindness on the profiles of her class. The sentiment didn't fade, as she wondered how he had such good spatial awareness.
"Of course, where do you sit?" She asked, voice involuntarily gentler now.
"Right there. I best just need it on paper. I can sense the ink, and effectively read material." the blind boy said, pointing at his seat.
The teacher stayed silent for a few seconds in thought, and then called over the student who was sitting next to Caecus.
"Hey you! Rank 333. Come here for a second."
The nerdy looking boy's head lifted rashly, when he heard his name being called. When he saw it was the teacher, he froze for a moment, and then stood up, walking over to her.
"This boy– Rank 300 is blind. You'll be copying whatever I write on the blackboard on a piece of paper, and give it to him, understood?"
Taking a moment to register what was said to him, he stayed quiet, and then nodded. "Yes, I will teach," he said.
His voice was in the middle of changing due to puberty, which made it sound awkward.
She just nodded in response, and the both of them returned to their seats, waiting for class to start.
The teacher waited a few minutes, so that the clock would strike nine-thirty, and when it did, the school bell rang, resounding through the entire lecture hall, and probably through the whole building.
"Welcome everyone. I am your teacher for soul control classes, along with exploration, which makes me your class tutor. You may call me Mrs. Selena. As your tutor, you can come to me if you have any questions, or need help with anything."
She leaned on the teacher's desk in front of her, and brushed strands of hair out of her face.
"Since you're in class B-1, I'd like to assume you are all at the augmentation stage right? Anyone who is only at the assimilation stage, or who is higher than the augmentation stage, please stand up."
No one stood up from their seats, and Caecus could sense various students looking around, to see if anyone did.
'I mean it's clear, if they were only at the Assimilation stage, they'd be in class E, or F, if they were higher, they'd surely be in class A at the very least, probably even Culmen.'
"So I assume you all are at similar levels of soul control." She took out her tablet, looked if she had any notes, and then looked back up.
"Nevermind, all of you are at the augmentation stage, yes but the amount of control you possess at the augmentation stage varies deeply. I'm not gonna say who, but one person here in this class had an augmentation time of zero point two seconds, making it the fourth shortest one this year."
Everyone looked around again, and whispered.
'Do we really have someone like that in our class, my time was– oh… I am meant.'
A blush creeping up Caecus' ears could be seen, but he managed to hide it with the hood of his hoodie.
His seat neighbour noticed him putting up the hood, but just remained silent.
"Alright. You'll all be receiving different balls, each one adjusted to your specific soul control that was tested during the soul exams. So when I mention your name, you have to stand up and grab the ball. We'll go by rankings, so please get ready before I actually call out your name, to shorten the time."
Slowly, rank 101 to Rank 299 were mentioned, until it was finally Caecus' turn.
"Rank 300, Caecus Caelum."
He stood up, and walked towards the teacher, who handed him a metal ball, it seemed like a normal, extremely round, iron ball the size of a football.
Ms. Selena shot him a meaningful look, and then called out the next name. Caecus returned to his seat, feeling the metal ball up and down.
'Technically I'm constantly training augmentation due to my echolocation…'
After everyone had their own balls, the teacher's voice rang out again.
"The task is simple. Augment the iron ball, that's it, and that's all we'll be doing today."
Again, people whispered, but Miss Selena interrupted them.
"Less talking, more doing! Even though it's introductory classes, I'll still be grading them. If you don't perform well you're gonna see that on your scores. Now chop chop. And by the way the balls have sensors in them to see your progress, you'll be able to track it on your Psychéion app."
Everyone fell silent, and Caecus was now focused on his iron ball.
He infused it like a regular metal ball, but the resistance he felt was way bigger.
'This is extreme… like one hundred times harder than infusing my daggers! Oh right… they're adjusted to fit everyone's difficulty.'
Considering the thing she said about being placed fourth when it came to augmentation, he figured it made sense, and focused on his ball again.
The soul essence, which a couple months ago took a while to reach his fingertips, was now there in an instant.
With much effort he pushed the soul essence in, taking much time, his face getting beet red from the effort.
'This took thirty seconds?'
To his left, the Librus boy was straining too, and when he felt his soul essence, he noticed that the time it took for him to augment it fully was even longer— sixty seconds.
After taking a little break, and his echolocation activated once again, Caecus noticed the stares he got.
'Why? I thought you wouldn't notice the time, since it's adjusted— oh… my soul density… wait… the teacher is looking at me as well.'
Uncomfortable from being looked at, Caecus didn't continue with training. When Miss Selena noticed that, she acted.
"Stop looking at others' training and focus on yourself! What did I say about slacking off?"
When her strict voice resounded through the study hall, everyone, or most people who were watching Caecus looked away.
Now that he had his peace, he continued with Augmenting the ball once again.
After an hour passed, the school bell rang once again, signaling the end of the class.
The students here had a lot of free time for self study, so only three periods a day of classes were on the time table.
Today, he had all of his main classes though, and tomorrow it'd be time for his side classes. Of course the time table would look different when the actual classes started.
He looked at the time— it was eleven on the dot.
Caecus took out his soul phone to text Titus.
There was no response; He probably still had ongoing classes.
Before he could text another message, he felt a tall presence approach. It was Miss Selena.
"Caecus, is it okay if you talk to me for a while? I am very interested in your soul essence control, and how you use it to navigate your blindness."
Seeing that Titus was not around, he thought 'Why not? She's a teacher after all.' And followed her to her teacher's desk. Where he noticed a second chair.
There were still a few students wanting to ask her questions, which she swiftly answered but soon they were alone, both sitting down.