AThousandCurses

Iris Ascendis

A handshake?

"Oh, my apologises," Chunji said without an ounce of embarrassement. The redness of his ears, however, betrayed his true feelings over his misinterpretation. Receiving the vitamin bottle back from Professor Lumyr, Chunji glance at Ms.Steeler. To be more accurate, it looked like a glare that, but it wasn't. "I am relatively inept with social skills. In future cases where small mistakes like these happen, I'd be grateful if you were to be patient." Hopefully that would not be the case.

Though aside from that little debacle, there wasn't much more to say. The workshop wouldn't be open for a while longer, which meant there wasn't a point in staying around. Chunji's intentions was to locate if there was workshop, but now that he had located it, he'd visit it at a later time.

Though it seemed that his expressions seemed to have disturbed Ms. Steeler, not that he could blame her.

"While, I do have questions, they'll most likely be answered in the future," Chunji finally said. If anything, Chunji would have like to ask advice on where to start with alchemy. After all textbooks were supplementary, the true knowledge came from the person who experienced them. "In any case, I will have to depart canteen. I have yet to eat today." Giving another bow to the Professor Lumyr, he turned to leave. "Have a good day Professor Lumyr, Ms. Steeler."

With that he left the area.

It didn't take long for him to arrive at the cafeteria. In the corner of his eye, Chunji could make out a few figures. The owlboy, knight, and the shadow were talking amongst themselves. Gulliver, in his pompous ways, was sitting by himself as Chunji didn't count the mannequin surrounding him as people.

None of it matter much to him as he went to get breakfast. Walking up to one of the lines, Chunji ordered food from one them.

Iris Ascendis

The 'Doctor' watched as another disaster called 'Ms. Steeler,' was coming through. The look on her face made her intentions to obliterate the door move evident as she stomped over. Thankfully, Ms. Steeler didn't blow down the door. There was hint of approval from Chunji as she watched the elf calm herself down, but made no comment. Ms. Steeler disappeared into the lab, leaving Chunji to his own devices.

School was truly an enigma. His parents taught him everything he had to know and didn't allow him go to the lectures at the town they resided in. More often than not, Chunji often heard complaints from his peers about the subject. It was along the lines of 'troublesome,' and 'completely boring.' From his point of view, Chunji was considering their words to be utterly wrong with his experience. Between fighting to death to attend school, having a ticking time bomb as a classmate, a potential possessed librarian, and a lot more to it.

"I should write a letter home soon," Chunji mumbled to himself. Mother and father would have been elated to hear that he was able to pass through the academy's initiation.

Chunji straightened his posture once he heard the arrival of two steps. One, he presumed, belong to Chloe and the other the Alchemical Professor. Needless to say, medical terms could perfectly describe what Chunji was looking at. The Alchemical Professor in front of him was gaunt, almost like a skeleton. Signs of exhaustion were evident and Chunji wouldn't be surprise if the Professor had developed some sort of stomach problem judging by how thin he was.

"My name is Chunji Yi, I'm new student as of yesterday. It is a pleasure to meet you Professor Lumyr," Chunji gave a bow to the Professor. Professor Lumyr, like the other faculty, seemed to be percuilar character as well. It would be in Chunji's best interest to get along with Mr. Lumyr in the upcoming future. As his Alchemical Professor, Chunji expected to see him a lot in the future.

Though for now, Chunji just stared at the hand extended in front of him. Why was the Professor Lumyr giving out his hand? Was Chunji suppose to give him something? Deciding that's what the hand gesture meant, Chunji dug into his pocket. Procuring a bottle full of vitamins, Chunji gave it to the Professor. "I'll be in your care in the future."

Expedition to Isekai

"Urk," Awakening to insects trying to burrow inside her skin was gross. Hopping out of her temporary shelter, Shun made a huge effort to ensure none of the insects were on her body, or worse inside her cavities. Once she groomed herself from any pests, Shun took in a deep breath.

The only thing she heard though was the growl of her stomach.

"I should find something to eat," Shun mumbled to herself. Taking a swig of water from her bottle, she took in the air once more. For once, she felt refreshed. All the troubles had cleared itself from the moment her eyes opened and now she was free to do whatever she wanted. For now, she needed to take care of her needs.

If she conserved her water bottle correctly, she'd be able to last through the day before finding another place to refill it. For now hunting was Shun's concern. Now that she was all by herself, the middle school girl would need to each individual task by herself. From cooking, to cleaning time to time, to refilling her bottle, she was now entirely responsible for herself.

With that said, Shun went out to hunt or forage. She'd at least recognize some of the native berries since she consume some before. Though nothing can be safer than a good cooked chunk of meat. Afterwards, she'd plan to explore the world. If she found a place where the earth stood above the trees, that'd be good.

Iris Ascendis

I'm too smart y'know. I even looked at it but I didn't open all the tabs.

Iris Ascendis

@Nanaya

Would Chunji know anything about The Decay? It sounds rather ominous if anything. If it's some sort of disease, I think he'd heard of it.

Iris Ascendis

I guess we're skipping Sifr again?

Iris Ascendis

An answer? Ms. Steeler's response was vague but held a complexity that Chunji didn't know whether he should involve himself with. There was too little to go off of, but was Ms. Steeler talking about Rio? Rio fulfilled the criteria of being male and being a bodyguard to Chloe. Though with her calling him a hamster seemed to contradict this hypothesis. Whatever the case, Chunji decided to shelf it for later. It wasn't his business.

"I see." Principal Raja's favoritism seemed to be more apparent than ever. Chunji felt bad when comparing the differential treatment between Chloe and every other student that received Raja's grace. If Raja was clearly interested in Chloe's research, then wouldn't she at least have the Alchemy Professor oversee it? It seemed that perhaps Raja saw this as more of a pet project than any other.

Chunji's eyes narrowed at the ground by the time Chloe had moved herself into his frame of vision. Chloe was right, the Professor was still sound asleep. "Yes," Chunji gave a short response. His transfixed eyes faded away as he turned to look at Chloe. "My Ethos allows me to see what I want to see." It was a simple explaination even though Ethos were fundamentally complicated by nature. "With it, I've located the nearest faculty in the area."

Walking up to the door, Chunji tried to 'neaten' the door as much as he could before continuing. "The Alchemy Professor is currently underground and in a state of unconscious. Judging by his appearance he's seemed to have exhausted himself with his last night's activities." Already the Alchemy Professor surpassed his respect for Principal Raja. It was an incredibly low bar to begin with, but nonethenless, Chunji respect hard working individuals. "If you want you can go find him. Since I lack any permission of the sort, I'll have to remain outside."

Expedition to Isekai

"...Maybe it would be better if I was gone." For both them and her. Whatever good will she had with the students had disappeared when she struck Ayana. Would the situation back at the meeting worsen if she hadn't hit used her fascimile against Ayana? Thinking made her stressed her out and getting stressed out meant that she wasn't happy. If she wasn't happy then that meant she was living the carefree life that she had desired.

Slowly confidence grew inside her. "Yes, yes, I have to do this." Strength gathered inside her as Shun stood right back up. With a swipe of her sleeve the moisture was swept away. "Maybe I can find a way out. I'm fast, I bet I can discover more of this strange world if I look around." The fuel in her exhaust was still full, though there was a question to be made. Where would she rest? The night had dawned in and the relatively safe place was the lake. Though that mainly was because the group was there.

This would most likely be her only opportunity to leave the group. After that she'd would need to discover food, water, and shelter all by herself. She had a full bottle of water, and she'd recently eaten. That was about it. Refinding food and shelter would prove to be an ardous task for the middle school student, if she wanted to survive in these lands. However, a sudden thought crept into her head.

"Do I really need to do all that?"

In this hopeless, foreign world, Shun had an epiphany. Did she really need to survive to be happy? There was no escape in this land, her classmates were bound to kill each other eventually, and the flag of death loomed over her head. Wouldn't it be better to be herself till the very end? To feel the wind brush against her hair. A cry of joy and a sense of euphoria. A sudden calmness washed over Shun.

Seemingly a trance, Shun departed into the forest. Any thoughts of long-term survival had vanished as she disappeared into the woods. What did the world have to offer for her compromised life? It was a question Shun would have to find for herself.

Iris Ascendis

So, Clover name wasn't Clover. For a brief moment Chunji felt embarrassed, but soon began to rationalize it. Everyone made mistakes and mistakes are what build people from the ground up, there was simply no shame in making them. However, Chunji swore to never make the same mistake again. "I see, Ms... Steeler. I too will apologize, for getting your name wrong and making assumptions." Chunji didn't call the elf by her first name, because he had spaced out due to his embarrassement.

Putting aside Ms. Steeler's grand delusions of narcissism, Chunji listened closely to her woes. So, Chloe was also one of the ones that the Principal has paid attention too. Granted, it seemed Chloe less favored than the ones previously met and she did receive permission in comparison to Emelie's situation. Though that begged a question. "Ms. Steeler, if I may ask, what are you researching?" To have the Principal give permission meant that Chloe's research had some invested interest in it.

There was a lot more questions, but none of them pertained to their topic of alchemy at the moment. For now, Chunji wanted to focus on the alchemical arts before anything else. "In any case are you aware of the person in charge of the workshop? I'd assume that the faculty would have unlocked the doors for you if the Principal Raja gave you permission to do so." Whether it be the Alchemical Professor or a janitor, they'd have the key to unlock the door.

Speaking of which, Chunji scanned the nearby surroundings. "透过现象看本质." The new world had opened to Chunji's eyes once more. He wanted to see if there was anybody nearby, preferably any of the faculty. He'd prefer not to commit breaking and entering within academy grounds. Well, the breaking might have already been done, thanks to Ms. Steeler, but they hadn't entered yet. Chunji assumed it didn't matter whether or not if the workshop was opened or not, as long as they had someone to watch over the experiments it would be fine.

Iris Ascendis

I'll post tomorrow!