NOVGO.NET Chapter 49: Saturday
Chapter 49: Saturday
The harsh morning sun cascaded through the glass windowpanes, casting brilliant beams of light straight across the bedroom floor and signaling the undeniable arrival of early morning.
The glare was so intense that it pierced right through Atlas’s closed eyelids, forcing him awake despite his body’s desperate, screaming demand for more sleep.
His joints throbbed with a dull, persistent ache — a parting gift from the brutal, late-night sparring session he had endured in Mr. Crosswell’s hidden training hall beneath the academic block.
"Awwwn come on, man... I feel so tired from yesterday," Atlas complained, his voice raspy and thick with sleep.
He dragged his heavy legs over the edge of the mattress, his feet dangling as he stared blankly at the floor.
"I can barely move my feet. If I’m late to class again, Mr. Crosswell will actually skin me alive."
Across the room, Eric was already standing fully upright in front of the wall mirror.
He was meticulously combing his dark hair, his academy uniform perfectly pressed, free of a single wrinkle, and neatly arranged on the edge of his neatly made bed.
’Even Eric is up already,’ Atlas thought, shaking his head in mild disbelief as he rubbed his aching neck.
’Why am I even surprised? The guy is an absolute freak when it comes to these things. Always so tidy and ridiculously punctual. It almost makes me feel bad about my own life choices.’
Looking around the rest of the room, however, Atlas noticed something odd. Derrick and Claus were still completely buried under their thick cotton blankets, snoring softly in total unison.
Atlas blinked, his brow furrowing as he stared at the two motionless lumps on their separate beds.
He knew neither of them possessed Eric’s insane discipline, but at the very least, they should have been scrambling in a panic to dress themselves and avoid detention.
’Is there something I’m completely forgetting here?’ Atlas wondered.
Shrugging off the suspicion, Atlas slid down from his bed, letting out a massive yawn while stretching his arms high overhead. His back popped in three places, eliciting a satisfied sigh.
"Morning, Eric..." he whispered, trying not to disturb the two sleeping logs nearby.
Eric shifted his gaze away from his reflection, turning his sharp, analytical eyes toward Atlas.
"Morning, Atlas. What on earth are you doing up so early on a Saturday?"
Atlas stopped mid-stretch, raising an eyebrow in complete confusion. "A Saturday? Today is Saturday?"
"Yes," Eric replied smoothly, his tone cool and matter of fact as he carefully buttoned his crisp white cuffs.
"Yesterday was Friday, which means today is Saturday. It’s the general dormitory cleanup and maintenance day whenever there aren’t official arena duels or public events scheduled on campus."
Atlas stared at him, his mouth slightly agape. "Then where are you going dressed like that?"
"I’m going to the lecture hall," Eric explained, picking up his freshly ironed uniform jacket from the bed.
"Our section is slightly behind the standard curriculum pacing, so the instructor scheduled an extra catch-up class for this morning. Attendance is mandatory for those enrolled in the advanced stream."
"Ohhh... that makes sense," Atlas murmured.
In an instant, his weary face brightened up completely.
A wave of sheer, unadulterated relief washed over his exhausted frame, instantly lifting the heavy tension from his shoulders.
’So there’s really no need for me to rush out of bed today!’ Atlas celebrated inwardly.
’I can rest all day to save my energy. Then we can figure out how to handle Lady Aurelia’s stolen bangle situation later tonight. Plus... I need to train more with Skull. It’s been way too long since we properly trained together.’
He looked back up at Eric, who was just finishing fastening his coat. "Well, good luck on your studies, man."
Eric gave a formal nod of appreciation. "Thank you. Try not to let Derrick and Claus sleep past noon."
Once Eric grabbed his leather satchel and stepped out of the room, closing the door with a quiet click, Atlas let out a long, luxurious sigh.
He walked over to the window, staring out at the sun-drenched courtyard for a brief moment before turning back around and throwing himself back onto his plush, newly replaced mattress.
"Ahhh, that’s much better," Atlas groaned in pure comfort, burying his face in the fresh pillow. "Now... I just need to enter the Soul Forge and train with Skull."
Closing his eyes, Atlas cleared his mind of the academy, the mysterious frame-up, and the upcoming tournament.
He focused his deep internal concentration onto his core, where his Soul Forge hummed with dark, mysterious potential.
Slowly, his consciousness felt a familiar, weightless pulling sensation, dragging his mind down through the currents of his own spiritual energy.
He plunged deeper and deeper until the physical world dissolved entirely.
Atlas landed on the dark, polished stone grounds of his soul space with a soft, effortless footstep.
He raised his head, taking a deep breath of the thick, essence-saturated air while gazing around at the towering metallic structures and glowing runic fires that defined his inner realm.
"Been a while..." he mused quietly.
Before he could even finish his thought, a sudden blur of dark bone and surging blue light rushed him from the darkness.
"Whoa—!"
A heavy, skeletal force tackled Atlas straight in the lower body, knocking him off balance and sending him tumbling backward onto the hard ground with a dull thud.
"Hey, boy! Missed me that much, huh?" Atlas laughed, sitting up and roughing up the smooth, bone-plated skull of his custom summon.
Skull, his dark skeletal hound, clicked his jaw continuously, letting out a series of happy, crackling soul-barks while his blue eye-flames flared with intense joy.
"Alright, alright, come on," Atlas said affectionately, pushing himself back to his feet and giving Skull a firm pat on his head.
"Let’s head to the training center. We need to work on our coordination and sharpen our bond so we’re a lot stronger than we already are."
Skull trotted eagerly beside him, his clawed paws clicking against the metallic floor as they approached the central forge structure.
The specialized training center had been unlocked immediately after Atlas successfully forged Skull, but due to one crisis after another — from dorm room sabotage to late-night instructor beatdowns — he had rarely found the time to utilize its features properly.
Atlas walked up to the massive, rune-carved archway of the training domain and tapped the central ignition crystal.
Instantly, the entire structure began to glow with a brilliant, blinding light.
The sudden radiance flared so intensely that Atlas was forced to raise his forearm, shielding his eyes with his palm while the spatial magic of the forge surged around them.
A heavy pulse of spatial displacement swept over his body, shifting his reality in a single heartbeat.
When the blinding glare finally faded, Atlas lowered his arm and blinked against a fresh, natural breeze.
He found himself standing at the peak of a lush, rolling green hill that sloped down toward a dark, ancient forest stretching as far as the eye could see.
The sky above was a vibrant violet, and the scent of damp earth, and wild magic filled his nostrils.
"Wow... so this is today’s training section," Atlas mused, taking in the magnificent, simulated scenery.
Before he could explore further, a bright, translucent system notification materialized directly in front of his vision, shimmering with sharp golden text:
[Domain Trial Initiated: Forest of the Ancients]
[Objective: Slay the five forest kings in order to proceed to the next stage.]
Atlas rolled his shoulders, feeling his physical fatigue vanish inside the virtual realm of his soul.
A confident smirk spread across his face as his black practice blade materialized smoothly into his right hand.
Beside him, Skull dropped into a low, aggressive hunting stance, blue soul-fire surging along his spine.
"Alright," Atlas stretched his neck, his eyes locking onto the dense treeline below. "It’s been a while. Let me see what this forge can really do."