Welcome to the Sea of Knowledge Part 1
VeritasSchool District V Dormitory September1 2028, 21:35 HAST
I have decided to write this journal as an attempt torecall the events that has happened while I am currently here in the Sea of Knowledge, as being a Magic Aether, gives me a remarkable memory it would be waste if I didn’t put it down somewhere. And to whoever ends up reading this I hope that my life isn’t as dull as it seems to be.
First I feel like to start this journal off, introductions are in order. My name is Muhammad Alfrid Tadjurius, and this my first day here in the Sea of Knowledge in my dormitory. How I came here was on a ferry, it held about a 100 other people who were other students coming to attend the Sea of Knowledge like I was. We departed on August 28 along with about 100 other ferries, in the port of Kuningan City where my family lived, or rather ran, considering it’s what they did to the city. On the day of departure, I felt sad about leaving the city, but also glad to be free of family. To understand why I felt such a way would be tale reserved for another time.
The ferry that I was on was called the One Journey 305, meaning that were other “One Journey’s” despite its name, and I found pretty hilarious. These ferries travel very fast which explain why we were able to reach the middle of the Pacific Ocean in a number of days from Indonesia. The ferry was run by a man named Rupert Cliff, along with his two assistants Elia Nakamichi and Dan Duvlaski, who claimed to be teachers of the Sea of Knowledge. In the ferry I have this small room that barely fit my luggage and me. Upon coming to the room, I realize that it was bigger in the inside; luckily I got the closest one near the stairs.
On the morning of the arrival to the Sea of Knowledge Mr. Duvlaski rang the hallway bell and shouted with a clear Russian accent, “Wake up you tiny people, we’re about to arrive at Sea! Hurry up or else you might not be able to get in!”
After bathing and getting dressed with a white shirt, jeans and a black jacket with the emblem of Kuningan City and putting on my two family heirlooms, a blue medallion and a golden ring, I quickly got luggage and hurried upstairs from the cabin hallway, with about a dozen others doing the same thing.
I was stopped short by Mr. Duvlaski himself when I was almost up the stairs.
“You don’t need to bring you luggage upstairs, just put the tag of the school that you’re going to on the handle of the luggage and leave it in your room.”
Quickly the dozen of us came back to our rooms, and I wrapped around the Veritas School for the Mystics, which is a sky blue shield, and dark blue and bold V in the middle of it surrounded by small multi-coloured stars.
After doing that I headed upstairs with the other people, with Mr. Duvlaski telling the other students what he just told be, in a various other languages like Chinese or Indonesian, all with the Russian accent.
After every one of us was settled on the deck, we ate our breakfast boxes on the floor. I then saw Ms Nakamichi staring out the sea on the railing, and I took the opportunity to ask her something.
“Excuse me, Miss,” she turned. “What time is it?”
“It’s five in the morning, Alfrid,” she answered. All of us were told to tell our names to the teachers.
“Why are we up so early.”
“Because the Superintendent, would like to say something to all of you together, and it’ll take some time, and we’re about 30 minutes to the Sea.”
I was slightly confused, with the concept of what a Superintendent is and why he would like to see us new kids.
“You mean all of us from Kuningan City?”
She smiled. “Not just Kuningan City, the rest of the world, with a total of about 2,530,000 new students this year.”
I was shocked by the fact at the time, with so many people entering this prestigious location. Ms Nakamichi noticed my shocked expression, and smiled again.
“You’re going the Veritas School for the Mystics, am I correct?”
“Well I’ll see you there then.” She smiled at me again. Just then I met someone from the Sea I could trust, and never that I would think that she would be the Dorm Supervisor.
As a stared across the waters with Ms. Nakamichi, I soon saw something that resembled round metal hut on a circle, it had one huge door in the centre, and eight windows at the dome on top in the middle of open waters.
“Hey all!” said a voice coming from behind me.
I turned to find that Rupert Cliff, has taken the centre of the deck, and has drawn the attention of everyone on board.
“Well,” Ms. Nakamichi said while walking away towards Mr. Cliff smiling. “I’ll see you soon Alfrid.”
“Alright!” shouted Mr. Cliff who somehow managed to raise his voice like a megaphone, with magic I suspect.
“We are nearing the border to the Sea of Knowledge!” When we reach the border – which is represented by that outpost over there,” he pointed to the round metal hut, “I want you all to do whatever the border patrol tells you to do, and make sure you show your admission papers to them. Should everything go smoothly we’ll get to the main Sea on time. Is everyone clear on that?”
“Yes, sir!” shouted every student on board.
I quickly went downstairs to get my admission papers, and went back to see the One Journey 305 coming closer to the border outpost.
Upon arrival to the outpost a large wall made of water suddenly erupted from the water going out from the outpost and spanning through the entire horizon.
"Who goes there?" called a voice from the outpost.
"We're here to take these new students to the see the Superintendent at the Hall of Knowledge," replied Mr. Cliff from the deck of the boat.
"Do we have the permission to board your ship for inspection," called the voice.
Then from the outpost, 10 multicultural men and women wearing navy blue uniforms and with the Sea of Knowledge emblem on their breast pockets, came out of the huge door and being led by an Arabic man, and climbing on the ramp that Mr. Cliff had some of students places on the starboard railing to the platform of the outpost.
On the deck the Arabic man came to greet Mr. Cliff. I managed to barely hear their conversation.
"Ah Rupert, it's good to see you again my friend," said the Arabic man, as he shook hands with Mr; Cliff. "And it's nice to see you to Elia.” He nodded to Ms. Nakamichi. “And I’m presuming that’s Dan at the bridge.”
“Yes it is and it's good to see you too, Darius."
"Are these the new fresh recruits?"
"Yes, we just departed Kuningan City a couple of days ago."
“Now do you mind letting me do my work?”
“Of course not,” Mr. Cliff said stepping aside.
The man named Darius cleared his throat. “Alright people,” he exclaimed.
“My name is Captain Darius Abdulillah, and I am the leader of Outpost 307. You are about to enter the Sea of Knowledge, a very important place in the Aether community, and we all must check you and your belongings. My associates,” he gestured to the other men and women in the same uniform “will help me do that. “Now please present your admission papers.”
Five of the uniformed officers went downstairs to where our cabins were, while the other 5 and Captain Abdulillah went to each of us students and asked us to hand out our admission papers.
Captain Abdulillah himself asked me for my admission paper. I handed it to him without hesitation.
“So you’re going the Veritas School for the Mystics?” he asked me with curiosity, while reading my admission paper.
“You’re going to have a good time there, and everything here seems to be in order.” He handed back my admission paper. “Carry on.”
Eventually all of the students had their papers checked, and the uniformed officers come back on the deck, and made their way out of the boat and back into the outpost.
Captain Abdulillah came onto the middle of the deck. “You are all now permitted to enter the Sea of Knowledge,” he exclaimed. “Please enjoy your stay and maintain your grades.” He then left the boat, following his team.
As soon as he left, the boat was then enclosed in vortex of swirling water. All the students, even I, were awed by the event.
“Let’s go Dan,” shouted Mr. Cliff. The boat then started to move forward, the vortex of water that was around us kept its position around the boat. I turned and saw most of the students still amazed by the water around us, I was one of them. The vortex of water soon dispersed and we found ourselves in open waters, the boat kept moving forward.
“Welcome to the Sea of Knowledge, kids!” exclaimed Mr. Cliff, opening his arms wide. “Where you are now is the literal Sea of Knowledge, and underneath us, at about 200 kilometres, is the country known as the Sea of Knowledge where you will be staying at.”
The boat kept moving at top speed, I was still at a railing and then managed to glance back, and see the waters forming a vortex dome of water, it then dispersed like ours and out came a boat that resembled a cruise ship and it went to the general direction that we’re going, I then shifted my focus back on the horizon in front of us. The ferry then came to slow down as there were boats appearing in front of us with all different sizes, most were larger than this ferry only some were smaller, and we were all separated to what seems to be about more or less a kilometre apart.
Soon afterwards our ferry was surrounded by other boats as well, from behind and the side and they well all going to a general direction. I made a guess that all of the boats were named One Journey.
I occupied myself with my phone which was issued by my family, and looking through photos of Kuningan City and reminiscing myself of the city that I left behind, then looking through picture of the Kuningan Forest and remembering the very good times I had. I spent a couple hours doing that while reading a book I was reading in between, then without realizing it a building came into view.
Our ferry was about a kilometre away from the building, it was a white circular in nature with many doors and its roof was mostly flat except for a four-edged pyramid glass roof in the middle. The building looked like it was made of a fusion of both steel and marble, and it was spectacular of how it was made.
‘That, Alfrid is the Hall of Knowledge,” said a voice behind. I turned and it was Ms. Nakamichi. I looked back toward the Hall and saw all around me other ships, and I was right, they were all named the One Journey. As I turned my attention back the Hall, I managed to see the different ships arriving, then suddenly the ships were enveloped in water and sunk.
“Miss, what’s happening to those ships?” I asked curiously.
“They’re going to your belongings to your dorm corresponding to your district,” she replied.
I was still slightly confused but I let it slide. I stared constantly at the hall, and admiring the magnificence of it and seeing how truly big it is, and without me even realizing it, our ferry was getting very close to.
“All right kids!” shouted Mr. Cliff, I turned to face him, and saw that the rest of the students were doing the same. “We are very near the Hall of Knowledge, once we arrive at Dock 13, you kids will go off the ferry and head directly to the centre of the Hall. No detours, no stops, are we clear on that?” he seemed very strong on that last point.
“Yes sir!” all of us shouted.
“And don’t worry about your belongings they will be perfectly safe.”
The ferry soon approached an entrance, which was a stone dock with the Roman numeral XII on the top of the entrance, which was impressively huge and about the size of this ferry alone. The entrance itself was incredible huge as well allowing us to go through the entrance no problem considering the number of students here about 25 metres wide. All of us students soon departed from the boat and made our way to the entrance. I stayed behind a bit than the rest of the people on the ferry and from the corner of my eye saw the ferry engulfed in water and sinking, just like the others.
I continued walking slightly behind the rest of the group, while they talk among themselves. I never really did fit in with the Kuningan City kids, I only really had one friend anyway. Though that is a story for next time, I looked around the walls of this huge hallway and see images, of well, to put it lightly hell, I saw images of demons, tendrils, fire and darkness. People told me later that I was walking through the hallway leading to the portal room of District XIII: The Dark Arts and the Afterlife.
Speaking of the portal room, the group and I eventually arrived there. The room itself was huge with normal sized doorways going around the room with about a half a metre of wall between them. In the centre of the room there was a large pillar with the doorways on its wall as well. Like the hallway behind me the images on the wall appear to be regarding hell, but as I cross the room the images began to change into something more heavenly, with clouds and angels, but still with some tendrils. This new set of images eventually led to the following hallway. I then slightly heard another group of students just arriving.
I decided to converge with the group of students, while still busy with myself. After walking for what seems about half an hour, we then approached another door way leading to another.
The room we entered was enormous, and I mean enormous. The walls were the same height as the rest, but the sheer length of the walls was not something to be reckoned with, and to put it into perspective on how huge it is, I couldn’t even see the other doorways on the corners of the room. The entire room was filled with chairs facing the centre with small spaces between groups of them for people walking from the doorways and from what it looks like two fifths of the chairs were filled all from the centre. In the centre though it seemed a bit far, was what looked like an elevated platform, and like the rest of the room was pretty huge as well. But what really caught my eye was the ceiling. Between each hallway were a set of torches burning different colours of flame, from each door way, the doorway I went through has the flame burning a pale white colour, with occasional black tendrils. It was the glass pyramid I saw on the ferry, and what made it amazing that the glass art was moving, and colours on the glass made it all the more amazing, the pictures of the images were mainly people doing amazing abilities such as making fire, controlling water and using magic. The only light from the room
“Ow!” someone shouted. I looked down and saw a short girl that wasn’t from my ferry, with black hair, she looked Chinese, and her accent was slightly British by the sound of. As it turns out I was so entranced by the ceiling I accidentally bumped into her.
“Watch where you’re going!” she exclaimed at me scowling, and continued walking left. I shrugged it off and decided to converge with the group I came with, and they all sitting in the group of chairs left to the pathway behind an already filled area of chairs. Because I was the last of my group to join I sat on the edge of the set of chairs at the pathway. Afterwards I turned my attention back to my phone to take pictures of the room, for a number of times, and then decided to go back looking pictures of Kuningan City. Eventually the whole room was filled with students, and I had to make way to a number of people, as the I noticed the volume of noise was getting louder and louder, I looked up from my phone, and looked around and I was surprised by the sheer number of people within this room.
Then after a time a male and strong voice boomed around the room. “Students, please settle down, your initiation presentation will be starting soon.”
Eventually everyone in the room settled, and even I was compelled to. The torches behind me began to dim, and for some reason the sunlight from the glass ceiling was dimming as well. Then we were soon covered in near darkness. At the centre podium there was a dim white light, everyone in the room seemed to notice it as well. Then suddenly the light exploded into a huge puff of smoke, I felt as everyone in the room including me was shocked from that. Appearing from the puff of smoke was 33 people wearing long cloaks, 32 was arranged in a circle, and were wearing different colours, each person in a circle was facing a pathway to an entrance way, and then I realized the colours of the cloaks of the person facing the pathway. I realized this as the person facing in my general direction was wearing a pale white cloak with black tendrils on them. Each person wearing a cloak was holding a staff between their hands. The one remaining person appeared in the centre of the platform. The person was also wearing a cloak but I couldn’t really tell what colour was it.
The centre person moved, and as he did the same voice that boomed across the room before appeared again. “Welcome, Sea of Knowledge students of 2028!” he exclaimed, and as he did a giant screen of 48 by 27 meters appeared floating five metres above a couple of meters in front of me, then I noticed further in front another screen appeared, and two more appear a way behind me as well. Around me the same number of screens appeared as well, a set for each doorway I realized. The screen showed the person in the centre, who was a man wearing a blue cloak, which looked like to be actual water as it was flowing like water itself, he was facing towards the opposite direction and he a had an emblem which appeared to be three circles – one had the Greek letter Omega on it, another a spiral, and the last one had a five pointed star – arranged equally from each other in a triangle a shape, and they were rotating clockwise, with their respective insides were in a fixed position in the circle. He also had a sceptre, that looked like it was made of wood had a black colour to it, and the ornament on the top was two cross guards and an orb which showed what looked like a miniature versions of the three academic islands.
“Yes welcome, welcome,” the man said as he turned. “To another great year at the Sea of Knowledge.” He turned to my general direction, and he is an old white Spanish man – judging from the accent – with a long beard as well, he had the hood of the cloak down, and from the front he didn’t really seal the cloak up, as underneath I could see a three piece suit under. So a three piece suit under a cloak, I thought. Being an Aether is weird.
The man continued to speak. “I would like to introduce myself. My name is Superintendent Professor Hamiel Wilbert Maximus Eulalia Padilla.” Well that’s a mouthful, at least he’s slightly related to me. “Or simply Professor Superintendent Padilla, as Superintendent it is my duty to run this and oversee the overall well-being of the Sea of Knowledge and to introduce new students such as yourselves to the Sea and its history. These men and women around me are the District leaders some of which I will introduce you to and also regarding the district.
Superintendent Professor Padilla, which I still think is a mouthful, then, proceeded to talk about the history of how this school came to be. So it all started with a man named Arthur Goodridge McLevin, he was known as the first Aether. He lived during a time where there was a secret invasion of demons lead by the Royal Demons of Lust and Greed, and there was also tension between the Mutant humans of Meta – those of nature and life, Magic – those of the mystic arts and Divine – those of the gods. Arthur McLevin was one of all three, and through his tragic and eventful journey, such as the losing of his first wife and meeting the different natural gods from all over the world, he managed to transform the different lineages within him and made the focus of his power through his soul and his different spiritual energies, such as the Aura, Mana, Life-Force and Chi, and became the first Aether. He was also known as the Godslight due to his ability to utilize the different abilities of the natural gods simultaneously to one another, and thus became the first Transcendos in the process. He and his friends, Thomas Dethlen Korose – a Nether wielder and Zachary Rear Malicer – a Great Reaper, lead the first foundation of Aethers known as the Vindication, and waged war against the Royal Demons, and winning the war, and Arthur himself killing the Royal Demon of Lust in the year 1515. In celebration of the victory the Sea of Knowledge was made, in hopes that Aethers from all over the world would come and learn and connect with each other regardless of what type they are, and the three of them became the joined founders of the Sea. The Sea was eventually opened in the year 1525 with Arthur becoming the first Superintendent or High Vindicator during the time, and lead the Sea for 20 years until his death in 1546 subsequently with the deaths of Thomas and Zachary, during which he is survived by his son and daughter, the latter which was named the successor as Superintendent of the Sea of Knowledge. The story that Superintendent Professor Padilla was telling was being shown through images on the huge floating screens, as he narrated the events.
“And that was the heroic and tragic story of Arthur McLevin, Thomas Korose and Zachary Malicer,” the Superintendent continued saying. “Now students it is time for you to be sorted into your respective Districts. So what are Districts, you may ask. Districts are the areas, in where your dormitories will be located, and where you will stay. You will form friendships within the Districts and even of other schools of that District, but you will still go to school at your respective schools on the three islands.”
“Now,” the Superintendent raised his staff. “Before we get you all to your Districts, let me first give you all your own Communicators.” He slammed his staff to the ground, and a white smoky shockwave erupted from the bottom of it, I looked away from the screens as see the same shockwave pass through me. I flinched. I opened my eyes and looked around and see nothing has happened but felt a buzzing in my jean pocket, I took out my phone and on the screen it said:
I was confused at this, and then the Superintendent spoke up again. “You may looked into your own digital devices and see the phrase ‘Integration Eminent’, that is because if you look under your chairs you will find your very own Communicator.”
I put my phone back in my pocket and looked under my chair and notice everyone else doing the same, and saw under it was a gauntlet. I took it and returned to normal seating position. The gauntlet was a cylinder about the exact size of my arm, as it was the same length as my arm. The gauntlet was black in colour had two parts, a screen and the harness. The harness looked like it was made of an infusion of metal, plastic and rubber. The screen was almost the length of the entire gauntlet other than buttons on the top, bottom and right of the screen, on the top there was a hole for earpieces, and buttons for volume; on the bottom there was the on/off switch, and on the right there were four buttons, from top to bottom: an open book, a house, a round doorway and an empty speech bubble. Then instinctively I moved my left arm through the gauntlet, and then it tightened itself around my arm passing through the jacket and it then secured itself. The gauntlet felt like it wasn’t even there, and my arm felt no weight on it. When I tried to touch the screen it appeared through my jacket despite no pressure being placed on it. I moved and flexed my arm around to see how it looked.
“As some of you can see,” the Superintendent continued to speak. “The Communicator or Com will secure itself onto your arm, and now if were to place your mobile devices onto the screen of the come to complete the integration.” I did as he says and my phone was digitized as pixels into the Com. The Com itself then changed its exterior features to look like phone, with the whole Kuningan City emblem on the harness but still remaining a black colour unlike my white phone. I could hear exclaims of shock around me.
“Do not worry,” said the Superintendent. “Your mobile devices have simply grafted themselves and its memory contents into the Com, so any form of media will be stored in the Com as well. Your Com will not activate until your Districts have been announced which I will do so now, by naming each of District Supervisor.” I turned my attention to the floating screen again.
“Of District I: Business, I introduce you Stephen Wall,” the Superintendent exclaimed. The screen image cut to a man wearing a gold cloak as he raised his staff. Then the boy beside me had his Com on his arm turn on and turning into gold, and the Roman numeral I appeared on the screen, rotating clockwise.
I watched as the Superintendent shouted the other names of the District Supervisors from II to IV. Eventually the Superintendent shouted: “Of District V: Biology, I introduce you Ethan Nakamichi!” The screen cut to a Japanese man wearing a deep pink cloak with red patterns on it, and my Com turned into the same pink shade and the screen turned on with a rotating Roman numeral V on it. My thoughts were: So I’m gonna be in a District with Ms. Nakamichi and it’s the Biology District, I’ll take it.
The Superintendent proceeded to name every single other District Supervisor until District XXXII: Math. “Now since now all of you know your Districts, you will all proceed to go to your respective Districts, but we will do so in sections, in order to avoid an excess of students moving.” The Superintendent raised his sceptre and his ornament glowed. On your armrest there will be a number.” I saw that my armrest number was 3. “If you are number 1 please rise and proceed to your Districts, via the pathways corresponding to each District, please do so in an orderly fashion.”
“In addition,” he continued to speak while raising his sceptre. “If you are Muslim please stay as Friday Prayer will be occurring soon, and to that I would like to ask the District Supervisors to help me get them.” I saw from my seat that on the elevated stand there was huge glow and from the screen that the Superintendent’s raised staff was glowing and then there was a white flash appeared in my eyes.
I saw myself on a prayer mat, with an image of a mosque on it with the same three circle icon like the one on the Superintendent had on his cloak. Around me were other students – all of which were male – and we were all standing. In front of each of us was a stream of water, and until then I just also noticed that my shoes – and socks – were missing from my feet. In addition my Com was on the ground in front of me.
Then like in the assembly hall holographic screens appeared floating in mid-air. It showed the District X Supervisor Carter Husain, who was an Arabic man.
“Do not be alarmed,” he said. “You have all been teleported to a different part of the Hall of Knowledge, the water stream in front of you is to help you wash up for today’s prayer, then afterwards we will proceed with the khutbah and then the prayer.
I washed myself and saw the others did the same as well, and then we proceeded to sit down. After a series of Qur’an prayers the khutbah began. The khutbah was similar to what the Superintendent had said, which was basically just an introduction to the Sea. But because this is a khutbah for Friday Prayer there was a religion incorporated to it. What it was, was the District Supervisor show maps of each of the Districts and showed us where the huge mosques were in each Dsitrict. Being District V there are 3 mosques one at one quadrant of the District. After telling us that, the District Supervisor told us to still believe in Islam and Allah despite all the natural gods existing and magic, and that faith will allow us to properly wield our spiritual energies. Then, we prayed the Friday Prayer, and when it was finished the District Supervisor raised his staff and there was another flash of white in my eyes.
I found myself back in the previous hall with my shoes, socks and Com back on my body and see that most of the people in front of me were gone except for those beside and behind me.
“Very well,” the Superintendent said. It seemed that the Friday Prayer has done, and,” he looked at his staff’s orb, “that it is time for the next set of students to go to their Districts. Please if your seat has a number, and those Muslims of that have on their seats numbers 1 and 2, you may leave.
I began leave my seat, and everyone began moving all around me as well. I tapped on my Com, it passed through my jacket. I touched its screen and it there showed a compass arrow, it turned slightly downward-left. I turned to the direction the arrow was facing and barely saw in the distance from the many heads of the people going to hallways was the Roman numeral V.
After manoeuvring my way through thousands of students I managed to get to the District V Doorway which was had two torches glowing pink and red flames on either side of the doorway. There was already thousands of people in the doorway, so I did the natural thing and followed the through. The walls in the District V hallway was different than the ones in District XIII, where here showed images of humans, and as I walked further the humans turned into their basic parts, such as the muscles and bones.
I ended up in the circular with the doorways like the one from before, but now the doorways was filled with blue light, and I realized they were portal gates. Students were lining up to go into the portals which I assumed would go to the District.
I manoeuvred myself around the students to the portals on the other end of the room for the sake of shorter line. I found myself fortunate that I was right with one ten students lining to go into the portal. One by one they entered the portal to District V. And when it was my turn I thought about the most important thing in my life, and entered the portal.
