Asteria

Having left Maya temporarily in charge of the housing project, Seth teleported to the place which would serve as the future grounds for the new academy of the kingdom.

‘How many people with affinities do we have in the city now?’

<If we only consider primary affinities, there are 4321 people, from which 613 have dual-affinity and 21 triple-affinity.>

<Adding uncommon affinities, the number reaches a total of 9213 people.>

‘There’s no way we can accommodate 9000 people, and we also have no teachers for uncommon affinities. Those will have to wait.’

‘How many people with primary affinities range between 10 and 30?’

<2865>

‘That’s enough for now. We’ll expand north in the future after taking care of other issues and see what we can do about the rest. Have you worked a design for the academy?’

<Affirmative, but beginning the academy’s construction will delay the housing project.>

‘I know; it’s fine. We need the academy as soon as possible.’ Seth sighed and opened a portal leading to Alexa, who was busy slicing the marble boulders into small bricks.

“I need you for a minute.” He said after poking his head through the portal, and Alexa dropped the work, stepping inside the portal.

Once next to Seth, she looked at the abandoned huts in front and asked curiously: “How can I help, teacher?”

“I still don’t want to use my destruction source, so I need you to clean this place out.”. Seth started guiding Alexa around, having her wipe out all the abandoned huts and a thin layer of the earth beneath, leveling the ground.

Just the demolition project took an entire day. Once he was done, Seth sent Alexa back to her other assignment and looked at the tidied plot of land.

Heaving another sigh, he had the system superimpose the design of the new academy on the empty lot and made some minor modifications here and there.

By the end, he remained with a large assembly of buildings, covering the entire empty land. The floor was completely covered in marble squared blocks, creating a white and clean-looking floor surrounded by a fence made of clean iron sides between marble columns.

There were four grand gates, each on every cardinal point, for easy access. The gates were 60 feet tall, complete with markings representing the eleven primary energies, carved into the white marble and painted in a deep shade of black.

For buildings, due to the absence of teachers, he had one for each energy type, able to accommodate a total of 500 students at all times.

The buildings looked just as exquisite as the rest of the academy, comprised of a large classroom and a small library to hold all the required learning materials.

All the class buildings were distributed around the edges of the academy, having an equal distance from the center.

In the center of the academy, he planned to build a large arena, with multiple small marble fighting platforms surrounding a larger one in the middle.

Surrounding the arena were different combat practice buildings, dormitories for both students and teachers, a large storage building for vials, a canteen, and some more empty buildings he was planning on using later for different recreational facilities.

Walking through the hologram of his soon-to-be-built academy, Seth kept doing alterations here and there, extending the distance between buildings to leave place for some larger pathways, adding small benches here and there, complete with small plots of flowers, and so on.

After reaching the arena in the center, an idea came to Seth, and he created two pillars similar to the one of the Oath Kingdom. One of the pillars would also rank the students by their time of ascension, just as the one in the Oath Kingdom, while the other would rate them by a points system. Points would be earned by participating in fights inside the arena and breaking through toward higher ranks.

He planned on granting rewards for the highest positions, using these rewards as an incentive for the students to work harder.

After moving things around a bit more and making sure nothing was out of order or too cramped, he returned to one of the gates and looked at the empty slot at the top.

He had left it open to give the academy a name. He kept mulling over the name while working on the design and eventually came up with one. With a smile, letters slowly started appearing in a deep-black color and majestic font, filling up the empty space above.

<Asteria>

‘Save the blueprint. Remove everything and leave only the floor, gates, and fence.’

After his vision changed again, Seth took a deep breath and started working on creating the floor. Since the sheer size of the academy was nothing to laugh at, Seth had to spend three days of almost continuous work to make it using his creation energy.

The blueprint made his work relatively easy, only having to fill it with energy before giving it form, but the sheer amount of energy necessary still posed a considerable problem. The fact that the floor was about 20 inches thick also didn’t help.

People would come from time to time to take a peek at Seth, from both his entourage and the locals, but after noticing that he was only building a clean white floor, they stopped paying much attention.

They only returned five days after he started, when a large fence and four massive gates were also created. The unknown symbols and name on top reminded everyone about a recent gossip circulating throughout the city.

Their new king was planning on building a new academy similar to the Oath Kingdom. Some of the more ambitious younglings, already having heard a few things about ascended, were already imagining themselves entering the academy and quickly jumping to the top of the food chain, escaping their miserable lives.

Seth ignored the constantly watching eyes as he continued working on his project. He only gave them any attention when he found out from the system that some kids were taking a dump on his clean marble floor.

It took all the self-restraint he had to not have them obliterated completely, and he gave the task to Sal to make sure that never happened again.

Having finished the fence, gates, and floor, Seth wandered through the empty plateau he had created, a sense of satisfaction filling his heart. A sudden wind’s whistling made him turn back, only to spot Hollie looking around the expansive plateau from high above.

“Hey. Take me up as well.” Seth had already seen a bird’s eye view with the system’s help, but he still felt like seeing it with his own eyes.

Hollie waved her hand, and Seth floated next to her.

“Isn’t it too big?” asked Hollie, taking in the sheer size of the place. She’s been busy helping the others carry marble to build their houses, so she didn’t have the time to check on Seth until now.

“Really? I think it might be a bit too small. Well, I can always reconstruct it with ease later after reaching new ranks in my creation source.” Said Seth, a proud look on his face.

“Hmm. Do you plan on having us teach those brats once you’re done?”

Seth noticed the lack of excitement in her voice as she asked her question and chuckled as he said: “Not really. While it is indeed true that you’ll be the official teachers, I’ll only have you appear in front of the students about once a week, when you’ll answer any questions they might have.”

“Everyone will be given manuals they can use for general studying and theory learning. The problem would be teaching everyone how to read…”

Hollie lowered her head to think before saying: “You can have somebody read in front of the class for everyone to hear. I’m sure you can find some people from Oath willing to do it.”

“Even so, with the sheer size of those buildings, having everyone understand -“Seth’s voice stopped as an idea came to him, and he started speaking to the system.

‘Can I produce electricity? I have no idea how that works. I don’t need much, just enough to create a megaphone or something that would help with sound propagation.’

<Affirmative, but host, having someone read the entire theory required for ascension and successive breakthroughs is too ineffective. In turn, a few simple classes on the alphabet and how to read would work a lot better in the long term.>

Seth calmed down his enthusiasm and said to Hollie: “Maybe I’ll have them give some simple classes on how to read. Ascended who can’t read would really be quite a joke.”

Hollie nodded before saying: “Why not give some classes for the entire city on how to read and write. Is not only ascended who would benefit from that.”

Hollie’s idea made Seth’s face brighten in excitement, and he quickly came up with something better. Giving Hollie a pleading look, he asked: “You’re not that busy, are you?”

With the corner of her lips twitching slightly, Hollie asked: “You don’t mean…”

“Can you do it? It would save us so much time and is the best way.”

“No way. Also, I can propagate my voice to everyone inside the city, but I still need to show them the alphabet and everything else. I can’t just tell them the shape of the letters now, can I?”

“We can distribute some fliers with the alphabet to everyone. This way, anyone interested in it could follow up with your lecture.”

Hollie looked at Seth’s pleading face and sighed, giving up on trying to argue with him. “Fine. Make me some fliers or whatever.”

Seth looked at the academy grounds beneath and smiled wryly: “Have Henrietta and Pearl help you whenever they are free. Also, coordinate with the volunteers to spread the fliers throughout the kingdom. This would work faster.”

Hollie’s eyebrow twitched, and she retracted her air energy, letting Seth free fall as she turned around and started flying towards the south.

“Thank youuuuu.” Yelled Seth before blinking to the ground to cancel his momentum.

Hearing no response, he chuckled and continued his work on the academy, filling up the multiple pathways, benches, and small gardens he planned on having the earth ascended fill up later with various flowers.

Done with the small things and the project’s foundation, he finally began on the buildings, starting with the giant arena in the center.

Since he also made sure to create the furniture for each building, his speed slowed down, taking him almost three days per building, but the classrooms took even more time since he also filled the storage rooms with hundreds of theory books.

The books only contained the theory that would help students feel their energies in the atmosphere and break through to the first shell, but since he had to create materials for hundreds of students on each energy type, it still took a long time.

On the other side of the city, at the housing construction area, everything continued as usual, with Henrietta and Pearl working day and night to cover for Seth’s absence.

The farming area was also doing fine. The speed at which the fields extended had increased by at least five times with the arrival of the new help and the blood race’s departure.

Slowly Seth’s vision for the capital of his new kingdom was taking form, and eventually, the promised three months had passed.