The Elusive Book Keeper

Zane said goodbye to his classmates before checking for his shuttle booking. He still had about ten minutes. He took out a book from his inventory and started reading. 

The book was fascinating. It was written by a herbalist, Steven King a few years back.

Steven King was a cyclic theorist. He believed that all the plants and herbs that were being excavated from the dungeons and ruins had existed millions of years ago and had gone extinct. 

Zane was not a supporter of his thoughts. There was no evidence for that train of thought, for instance, not to mention that if indeed plants cycled back, what about animals, aren't they part of the natural cycle. 

Or was he trying to say animals such as the Stone Poison Stinger or the Ghoul General existed some million years ago as well? Wouldn't humanity ancestors be nothing but chopping blocks to such ferocious animals that even stumped the awakened soldiers of this?

However, this is not to say that the cyclic theory was based on a ball of clouds. Dungeons and ruins; ruins most especially are filled with remnants of supernatural creatures, humans, spirits and gods that could only come from the earth. Even though modern science was several oceans away from the ancients, there was a lot that it could not explain.

He didn't believe in the cyclic theory or other similar theories of a returned civilization. He also did not stand opposite them like the progressives that believed that the path of science is only forward. There was a lot hidden in the canals of history. 

A light smile appeared on Zane's face and he was going to find them.

His Atlas vibrated and Zane looked up from the book. His shuttle was here. He bookmarked the page and returned the book to his inventory. 

He could see a girl standing by the shuttle door looking around.

He smiled warmly at her and gestured that the shuttle was booked by him. If he did not know that it was impossible to steal or hijack a campus shuttle, he would think that that's what she was about to do. 

Or maybe the fact that he was standing around the Rouges training area was making him unnecessarily nervous. He calmed down and looked at the girl again.

The girl was beautiful. She was not dressed in a training suit or uniform but instead wore a light pink top and a white flowing skirt. Her skin was a lovely wheat colour, long and thick black hair tied into a ponytail and warm hazel eyes. 

"Hello! Is this your shuttle? Her voice was very pleasant and had a peculiar accent that Zane could not trace.

"Yes. Can I help you?" He asked.

"My name is Zuri French.  I am a third year student. Sorry to trouble you but could you drop me off at the Department of Health and Psychology."

Zane wanted to roll his eyes, if she did not want to trouble him so much, then why on earth was she standing by the door of the shuttle then. 

Shouldn't she be standing by the side, so he could drive off without feeling anything? It reminded him of someone.

"Zane Black. Please come in."

The shuttle was really spacious and could contain four students. It seemed like the shuttle was designed for multiple students as one could input more than one destination. Not to mention, the way she naturally blocked his way, she had probably done this before.

"Thank you for this really, I was almost late for an orange code class and when I went to the shuttle portal and booked, I was told to wait for thirty minutes."

"It is alright. Orange coded class, are you a healer?"

The girl smiled, "I am a healer, just not of the body."

Seeing that the cute freshman was still staring at her blankly, "It is an inside joke among my classmates. I heal the mind, I am a therapist. Well, I am still in training but by next year, I can start accepting student clients." She passed him a small cad with a code on it, "In exchange for the ride, I will give you a free session."

Zane's face turned dark, Next year? "Don't mind Senior. I just want to know about the coded courses."

Zuri looked at the clock from the corner of her eyes, She still had three minutes. "Green, blue, orange, red. They are the four colour codes. They mostly relate to death and control. Many of the courses are green. Alchemy, Herbology, first aid, courses like that are green, while they can affect your standard of living, they can hardly affect your life and death. If they do, that one is on you. The instructors are pretty chill and they don't have the power to issue demerit or other punishments."

"Other punishments?" Zane asked curiously. He had read all sorts of things on the school blogs.

Zuri smiled, "Surely you did not think that issuing demerits was the only punishment, but you don't think much about it. You even had to reach second year to pick an orange code course. That is still a year from now. Back to what I was saying, the blue code course relates to the life and death of a student, the instructor has more colour. The orange code course relates to the life and death of more than just one student and so on.."

The shuttle came to a stop and the girl opened the door and hopped out, "Just focus on your studies. Thanks." She said and started running.

Zane watched her, it seems like she really has a class she was almost late for. He started going over what Zuri had said and filled in his own gaps. 

He had read that the colour gives the instructor more control and seeing the flash of fear on the girl's face, the scary stories on the blog probably had more truth. Instructors in red code courses can kill students in their classes.

What he hadn't read about was death relativity. If the blue concerns the death of a student, the orange code course concerns the death of a group of students. The red code courses concern the death of how many exactly.

The shuttle came to a stop ad began to descend. Zane came down. He looked at the building before him with a faint smile.

It was different from the scattered buildings on the mountainous range of the Department of Combat. The first building was a ten-story building built entirely with glass and steel. The words Research Hub was floating on top of the building. The entire construction was built to impress.

Zane chuckled.. He had to say, he was truly impressed.