Talia found herself in the same room that Elder Krakatoa had used for his weaponry class during the last year. She laid her hand on the statue that led to Leviathan Hall. She suddenly found herself in the octagonal space, looked around at the different walls, and soon found one with a silver star upon it.

  Talia walked up to it and drew a simple series of runes that Professor Iakopo had taught her. One moment, she was in the hall where she had first arrived by chance. The next, she was under a huge starry sky on a grassy hilltop.

  Talia gasped as she took in the breathtaking sight before her. The grassy hilltop stretched out in every direction. Above, an impossibly vast night sky glittered with countless stars.

  Talia found herself in the same room that Elder Krakatoa had used for his weaponry class during the last year. She laid her hand on the statue that led to Leviathan Hall. She suddenly found herself in the octagonal space, looked around at the different walls, and soon found one with a silver star upon it.

  Talia walked up to it and drew a simple series of runes that Professor Iakopo had taught her. One moment, she was in the hall where she had first arrived by chance. The next, she was under a huge starry sky on a grassy hilltop.

  Talia gasped as she took in the breathtaking sight before her. The grassy hilltop stretched out in every direction. Above, an impossibly vast night sky glittered with countless stars.

  The soft grass beneath her feet swayed gently in a cool breeze. The place was impossibly big, so big that you couldn’t even see its boundaries. It didn’t feel like a Siren’s Passage but like she had just entered a world of its own. As soon as she had stopped marveling at the vast expanse, she turned her eyes above. There were constellations all around, larger and smaller ones, with some stars shining blindingly and others barely twinkling. Ribbons of cosmic dust were painted across the dark blue canvas of the sky. Red, orange, and white. As she stared upward, a shooting star streaked before her eyes, leaving a blazing trail in its wake.

  Did Mom find something here? Talia wondered. But where?

  As soon as she had awakened from her stupor, she started wondering what purpose this place served other than looking extremely pretty. She turned on Eyes of the Abyss, and she saw that the air here was indeed charged with Mana. So then she was sure that if she activated her Cursed Form, she would have wielded more power than usual in the Star Field. But when she tried turning her eyes to the sky, she shouted in pain, falling to her knees blinded. The Mana she had seen had shone so bright that Talia immediately deactivated the Eyes of the Abyss and waited for her normal regeneration to heal the damage in her eyes.

  She gazed at the canvas of stars above when she recovered and bit her lower lip. There actually might be something there, she thought. All that Mana was extremely suspicious, but Eyes of the Abyss wasn’t able to discern what was there exactly.

  However, she now knew why the place was called the Star Field, and she thought with some embarrassment, not shame, that she could also understand why lovers would come here. It was perhaps the most romantic place she had ever witnessed with her own eyes.

  She imagined her mother and Professor Iakopo exploring this place together, and she wondered how many times they must have gone there. She sort of blushed when she thought of that and shook her head, trying to dispel the images that had suddenly appeared in her mind. In such an intimate place, it was easy to picture what two young lovers might have been doing.

  She sat on the grass, using the calm of the Star Field to think. Is this connected to whatever Mom did to me? she wondered. How am I gonna level up Eyes of the Abyss? Indeed, it was perhaps one of the harder Skills to level up. I have to ask Professor Iakopo about this. He might get an idea. And is it possible that he can do anything with his Space Water in here? He probably already tried, didn’t he?

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  As Talia wondered about all these things, she suddenly heard boots crunch on the soft grass and turned to see a figure cloaked in black wearing a head cover that obscured everything but the eyes.

  “Pretty,” a male’s voice came.

  Talia looked at him weirdly and didn’t answer.

  “No? You don’t like it?” The guy asked, sounding amused.

  “Do I know you?” Talia asked. Professor Iakopo had told her that there might have been students in here, but she hadn’t actually expected anyone to come.

  “No.” You could hear a smile in the guy’s voice. “You don’t know me. In fact, I just came to the academy.”

  Talia, who had placed her glaive right beside her, immediately grabbed it with one hand and rose to her feet. “Are you a Cultist?” She asked, alarmed.

  “A Cultist?” The guy snorted. “You know, they actually wear black,” the guy said, pointing at his own outfit. “But, no, I am not a Cultist.”

  Talia didn’t lower her glaive.

  “Anyway, you didn’t answer my question,” he said while staring deep into Talia’s eyes. Talia noted that the guy’s eyes were an icy blue. Extremely intense and penetrating.

  “What question?” Talia quipped.

  “The place, isn’t it pretty?”

  Talia licked her lips, wondering whether she should just cut this guy down.

  “No? Well, not everyone can appreciate beauty,” he said. “It’s fine, though.”

  Talia just stared, but the cloaked figure simply sat on the grass. Then, propping his torso up with his palms, he craned his neck to look at the stars. “Not many stars where I come from,” he lamented. “The weather is always very foggy because of the Mana dust, not the coal.”

  “Who are you?” Talia asked once again.

  “None of your business,” the guy replied.

  “You do understand I have a glaive in my hands, and I can cut you down,” Talia said, not joking at all. She had met enough threats the past year that she wasn’t willing to take any risks.

  “Tell me who you are right now or—”

  “Or what?” He interrupted her. “You’re gonna kill someone just sitting on a hill looking at the stars?”

  “I might,” Talia said, frustrated.

  “Okay, milady. Not very nice of you, but knock yourself out.” The guy resumed looking at the stars, ignoring her.

  “Excuse me?” Talia said again.

  “Go ahead,” he said. “Cut my head off or whatever.”

  “Are you serious?” Talia was flabbergasted. She was completely thrown off by this guy’s attitude.

  “Yeah. I’ve lived enough. Not too long, mind you, but it was fine. If you wanna kill me, I can imagine worse ways to go.”

  Talia was about to retort when a strong distortion in the Mana of the place alerted them both. This time, the cloaked figure reacted faster than she could have expected. The guy pounced on her and placed a hand over her mouth, bringing a finger over his mask, signaling to her to stay silent.

  Talia, with her extremely high Strength, could have probably snapped this guy in two. But seeing that he hadn’t actually attacked her, she just stood still. She felt the Mana of the guy, a very familiar Mana, envelop them both and cancel their presence.

  Moments later, they both turned to the right, Talia still feeling the warm hand of the man over her lips. They saw a red-headed man walk across the Star Field, having appeared seemingly from nowhere but not from where the Leviathan Hall entrance was. However, he was now walking toward them.

  That’s Elder Krakatoa, Talia thought, alarmed. Where was he coming from?

  They both observed Elder Krakatoa walk until he was almost upon them. The man turned around frowning, looking at the grass, raising an eyebrow, and then saying, “Kids these days,” and disappearing into the entrance of the Leviathan Hall by vanishing mid-air, where Talia knew the exit of the Star Field was.

  They stayed in this position for two more minutes before Talia grabbed the guy’s chest, put a foot on his abdomen, and catapulted the rude stranger two dozen feet from her. She slowly rose to her feet, feeling his lingering touch on her lips, getting extremely flustered and going for her glaive.

  However, when she raised her eyes to where she’d thrown him, she didn’t see him.

  “See you around, Milady."

  She heard the voice and spun, but the guy was nowhere to be seen.