Chaos Cycle: The Eye of Genesis

Shin waited with Lara and Ileana in the private training hall for Elior. The announcement of the tournament was made today, and Shin told them that Elior had agreed to train him to prepare for the tournament. The other two had the tournament in their mind as well, so both of them asked Elior if he could help them.

Elior was more than happy to help them, and it even appeared like he was waiting for them to ask him.

"What's taking him so long?" Ileana asked, knitting her brows. Elior was one of the people who uses time the best as far as she knew, and even after he was admitted to the academy, he seemed always busy with all sorts of things going on, but he was barely late for anything once or twice.

"Brother said, he was preparing something for us," Shin asked.

"I thought I would ask Aanya to help me, but she already left, leaving a message to me," Ileana said, sighing. "I didn't get to see how she's doing."

"Brother said, Senior Aanya will be fine," Shin added and remembered the scene when he saw Aanya leaving from Elior's quarter. "I think something is going on between Elior and her."

Ileana raised her eyebrows instantly, as it was hot news to her. "Tell me everything about it."

"Well, I know nothing much," Shin said. "I saw Senior Aanya leaving with emotional eyes. She might have cried before that."

"That's not much?" Ileana glared at him, but her anger soon transferred towards Elior. "I will not let him off if he had done something indecent to Aanya."

"Have you thought of it the other way around?" Shin asked, touching his chin. "What if there is more to it than what both of them let us know?"

"You mean they are dating?" Lara asked for the first time.

Shin did not answer while Ileana's brow knitted together tightly. Other than Shin, who was closest to Elior, she was the person who was closest to Ileana, though both of them didn't have the slightest idea what monsters they were hiding.

"That might be possible," Ileana said. "Now that you mentioned it, Aanya asked me more about Elior than any other person. I thought she was only looking out for a promising student, it seemed something else.

"I know Elior seemed hot stuff from outside, and a lot of the girls had their head over heels for him, but I never knew Aanya . . ."

"Why do you seem more angry than happy for them?" Shin asked.

"Of course, I would be angry. They did not even say a word about it to me," Ileana said. one was her best friend since childhood, while the other was her idol and became so good friend that she still could not believe it. 

"At least let the people know, or girls like Lara will keep on hoping." 

"What are you talking about?" the tallest girl in the group asked instantly.

"Don't lie to yourself, girl. I have seen how you look at him," Ileana said, shaking her head. "I have seen many others like you in high school. Don't get me wrong, from outside Elior appears perfect in almost every portion, but it's really not and definitely not dating material."

"You seemed to know a lot about him?" Lara asked. Honestly, she herself did not know how she looked at him, and what another saw, though she could not deny she was never interested in anyone like that.

"Well, we lived next door," Ileana said. "I never mentioned this before, but we actually dated for a couple of months."

Lara's eyes widened instantly and Shin looked interested as well. They wanted to know how the perfect boy was as a boyfriend.

"Don't look at me like that," Ileana said, laughing. "It's really was not something serious. I just asked him and all he said was a simple 'okay', and there was nothing much. It took me a few dates to know, I learned I did not see him in the eyes. And do you know what the funny thing is, when I told him it was not working, he said the same thing again, 'okay.'

"But because it was him, we still remained best friends till now."

Lara could not grasp the whole thing and Shin was laughing, thinking it just sounded like Elior when the door of the chamber opened and Elior came in holding a big bag on his back.

"Sorry, it took me more time than I thought," he said and saw the others were looking at him peculiarly. "What's going on?"

"Ileana was saying you two used to date," Shin said it without considering.

"Oh, that," Elior said, acting as if he was reminiscing. "Such blissful days those were until Ileana broke my heart."

"Yes, I got the sarcasm, but I'm seriously angry with you," Ileana said and came before him. "Why didn't either of you two told me a thing about it?"

"Me and who?" Elior asked, arching his eyebrows.

"Of course, you and Aanya," Ileana could not help but shout at Elior, who was playing it dumb from her perspective.

"Oh, I thought Aanya mentioned it to you before leaving," Elior answered, thinking Ileana was talking about why he or Aanya did not mention her leaving. He did not have the slightest idea what type of misunderstanding the three of them would be left with.

"Seriously, I can't believe you. I thought we are besties."

"I get it's a big deal to you, but you have to consider Aanya was going through a lot," Elior said, dropping the bag from his back. "Let's not waste any more moment. I was already late."

"Brother, what's inside the bag?"

"Special training gears for the three of you," Elior said, opening the zip of the bag. "Especially made by yours truly."

The three of them came closer and found there were two heavy looking training vests as well as an inner thick robe. All the credits he got for killing the corpse flies in that dungeon break all wasted making these, and he was poor again, though he did not mind it.

Money was barely a number to him. If he wanted money, all he had to do was create a couple of artifacts and sell them, and there were other ways to do it as well. The only reason he was not after money now was simple, because he did not need a lot portion of it, and his investment might cause some suspicions from the look of outsides.

Even now, all the money he spent was with extreme consciousness. Certainly, no normal apprentice would have that many credits.

But all of it would change after the second trial. He would need billions of credits then for preparing the third trial, which would be a thousand times more important than the other two. 

He had to make a journey to the mother world to steal a few things as well as collect a few things as well, though he did not know how to do it. As for time, he certainly could not wait for more after the second trial. One-month time all he had, before he had to start preparing for the third trial.

His eyes drifted off towards the three before him. Certainly, he has to prepare them as well because on the third trial he would need everyone's strength. The second trial or trial-one was barely the preparation for the third where all the shits would go crazy.

A lot of things depend on his success there.

"Brother." "Elior." "What are you thinking so deeply?"     

Elior came back from his trance and stood up. "Before I distribute your training vest, I want to tell you a few things," Elior started. "The trial-one won't be like Trial-zero, but there are a few things certain. If you fail there, you will lose the opportunity to participate in the other trials."

The three of them exchanged with one another and then looked at Elior.

"You all seemed to have second thoughts, but it's only natural," Elior said again. "Actually, from what I knew, Trial-one was not that difficult. It's a trial more about training and growth. So, if you cross a certain threshold there, you will pass."

"I am expecting a big but here," Shin said.

"But," Elior agreed. "I don't want any of you to just barely pass or get to the threshold. I want you to get to the very end and see more of the monsters you would compete against. I don't know if you guys know, but the people of the Mother world are certainly not humble.

"Almost all of them looked down upon people of the lower world and thought of them as lesser humans. And humans were barely any lower species than them." 

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AUTHOR NOTES:

The bonus chapters that I owed would come slowly and please throw golden tickets for this book to get more promotion from the site. It would be a lot easier for me to continue the story if a lot of people like it. 

I can't give a certain number about the bonus chapters, but I'll try 1 bonus chapter for every 10 golden tickets.