Chapter 4: journey of a thousand miles begin with a single step

After entering the hall Duncan headed towards the old woman sitting behind the counter with a glass-casing.

Taking a look at the hall, Duncan discovered a lot of books, manuscripts and others organized in an orderly trend on the walls.

But strangely there was no bookshelf holding it rather they seem to be held in the air by magic, Duncan was intrigued and wanted to take another look but was interrupted by the old woman.

"What do you want?" With a deadpan expression, the woman asked with a gloomy voice.

"Am here on the order of sir Alberta" with that said Duncan took a slip which was given to him by the instructor and gave the woman who without waste of time collect it.

After opening it and taking a glaze she squeeze the paper and flicked it into the dustbin which was close to her, as soon as the paper landed inside it was magically incinerated.

The old man then went towards a football size Crystal and place her palm on it, suddenly a book from the wall flew down toward her who reach out and grab it.

{Looks like the wall and books are linked to that Crystal, meaning to take a book one has to just browse through the Crystal if am not wrong} Duncan thought as he saw the woman bringing the heavy book covered in dust, with a bang she drops it on the counter making the counter vibrate. After which she open a drawer and pick a bird feather and a bottle filled with dark bluish ink.

"Your name?"

"Duncan walker"

"Age?"

"15"

"Next of kin?"

"Non"

"Rule?"

"Non"

After a few questions the woman brought out a flat metallic object in the shape of a rectangle, on it were some strange words written.

The woman then tore the page to which she write Duncan's information and put the paper on top of the metal. After some seconds she asked Duncan to drip his blood on the metal to which Duncan did, the metal glowed for a second before dimming.

"Congratulations you're now an inner core student, course start within 1 week so take your time, also you can take this school curriculum and study it. It might come in handy to you kiddo" The woman said as she pass a slip of paper to Duncan who gratefully accept it and gave her a light bow before walking out of the hall.

After coming out, the first thing Duncan did was to find the nearest teleportation portal and teleport back to his dorm, he went and packed everything that belongs to him into a bag.

After that, he sat down and decide to take a look at the information on the slip.

{Hmm?, That's interesting. Reminds me of when I was a disciple in sect back in fanxue mountain the rules are slightly different but not that much} He thought as he look at the information.

The school activities were reasonable, each day is spent on lessons. Either combat class, Rules enlightenment class and lectures on beasts and how to identify them.

After taking a glance at it, Duncan threw the paper into his bag as he suddenly thought of something {Should I return home or go straight to school?}

From the 'previous' Duncan's memories, He realizes that Duncan hasn't been on good terms with his family. His mother treats him like a servant, his blood brother and sister do the same and the worse part is his step-siblings.

After some thought, he decides to go and hunt creatures, {I can train and temper my body from there, and also I wanna see if some of my body tempering arts are usable here. If it is, then I can cultivate it)

With such thought, he lifted his bag and slump it over his shoulder then walked out of the room. After walking out of the dorm, Duncan headed for the academy gate. The school held a western medieval vibe as it was built with some rare stones, the paths made for walking were also made with stones and some rare trees and plants could be seen on both the left and right sides of the pathway.

If only Duncan was a rule bender, he could have discovered the usefulness of those plants as they absorb energies from the air and purify it before releasing it back into the atmosphere thereby making them hygienic.

Those plants are known as Airgel, it was said that the school head has one venture deep into the samsara forest and returned with these plants. It a prove of how rare it is.

Duncan passed by and head north, towards the school gate. After reaching it he discovered two guards standing at both sides of the gate.

With a stoic and harsh voice one of them demanded.

"Where is your pass?"

"Here" luckily Duncan has the pass and was able to produce it, the guard pull out his sword and stab it into a slit-like hole located where the keyhole of the massive gate was supposed to be.

Click

With a twist which produces a clicking sound, the massive gate opens enough for Duncan to pass through.

Without further ado, Duncan swagger out of the gate and walked straight towards the main road.

"From my memory, Broken skull guard city is located behind the main city. Although it's gonna take 16 hours on the horse to reach there it's better than heading towards the main city. Am afraid I will be caught and when that happens am definitely gonna be sent back home" Duncan muttered to himself as he walked down, the school was located on top of a hill-like landscape making anyone going up feeling like he is climbing a mountain.

After coming down, Duncan saw a carriage Parked beside the road. From its look, he was able to determine that it was a transport-type carriage.

So he walked over and saw a skinny middle-aged uncle.

"Broken skull guard city, how much?"

The middle-aged uncle found Duncan's voice to be intimidating and didn't dare to increase Duncan's transport fair.

"It... it's 1 silver coin 5 bronze young sir".

"Then take me there," Duncan said as he head into the carriage and sat down. The carriage man went and sat in his own position and with a whip, in his hand, he wipe the horse urging it to move.

And so Duncan's journey begins.