Soulless Players

Flip. Flip. Flip.

Philip's disturbing action continued for an hour before a librarian came and put a stop to his behavior. The students around rejoiced and thanked the librarian with their shimmering gazes.

Philip humbly apologized and closed all the books. Stopping was no issue for him as he was done with memorizing them.

Shortly after, he closed his eyes for a moment to organize his thoughts and eliminate any redundant information. He condensed the plethora of books into a concise and comprehensive hundred-page document in his mind, highlighting the most relevant and pertinent information.

After doing this, Philip stopped, opened his eyes, and decided what to do after.

'I have to read and understand them later,' He had only memorized the books and had yet to read them. To ensure a thorough understanding, he made a mental note to allocate ample time to read through the document.

It was then Philip noticed the professor seated across from him had left, leaving a poster on the table.

'What's this?' Philip took the paper and read it.

[ Mental Study Society ]

Looking to expand your knowledge on the study of the mind? Join the club session every Wednesday, at 6 pm!

Although Philip was initially confused about why it was on his table, he still kept the poster in his bag.

'Maybe I can find something interesting here…' Philip thought. He decided to take a look and see what they were studying tomorrow.

Philip then glanced at the clock hanging on the wall to check the time.

'I have an hour left.'

He picked up the last untouched book and looked at the table of contents.

'Blue Moon… Blue Moon…' he murmured, searching for the information. After finding what he was looking for, he quickly turned to the page.

Chapter 14. Colors of the Moon

1. Blood Moon

The phenomenon whereby the moon in total eclipse appears reddish in color as it is illuminated by sunlight filtered and refracted by the earth's atmosphere.

2. Yellow Moon

This is also called a Harvest Moon. The yellow color of the moon is caused by the atmosphere and an optical illusion that made it also appear larger. This phenomenon usually happens in autumn.

…

5. Rainbow Moon

Also known as the lunar moon or moonbow. This is an optical phenomenon caused when the light from the moon is refracted through water droplets in the air.

Moonbows were very faint and rarely seen due to the limited amount of light available even during the brightest full moon.

6. Blue moon

Among all the colors of the moon, only the blue moon isn't caused by optical illusion but by misinterpretation. Although there is a blue-colored moon, the term "blue moon" is more commonly used to refer to the second full moon in a month.

The misunderstanding started when James Hug misinterpreted the concept of the fourth full moon in a season being a blue moon.

This usually happens once every 2 to 3 years.

…

'So this is the case…'

Philip finally understood something about Blue Moon and quickly looked for a calendar.

'When will the second full moon in a month arrive?' He murmured while flipping the calendar.

As Philip reached the final page of his calendar, he discovered that there were two full moons in December. The first one would occur on December 1 at 10:57, while the second one was on December 30 at 21:34.

'So is this related to the Blue Moon Event that the magician Emile talked about yesterday? I can't answer this yet as I lack information. But still, it's a good thing that I finally know something about it.'

Philip heaved a sigh of relief. Only time would know whether there is something on these two full moons.

After making short-term goals in his mind, he proceeded to the classroom where his first class of the day would occur.

***

15 blocks away from Bryxton University, a man walked towards the steam locomotive station. He wore a long milky white cloak with a hood that covered his entire face. His steps were steady yet slow and hesitant.

When the man caught sight of a red brick wall ahead, he stopped for a while before murmuring something under his breath. Shortly, he walked straight to the wall.

Once his body touched the wall, he vanished from the station. A child saw this happen and told his mother about it. But when he was about to open his mouth and speak, he stopped as if he had forgotten what he was about to say.

The child could only scratch his head in confusion as he gazed around the station. But after not finding anything irregular, he paused and followed his mother, totally forgetting about the man earlier.

On the other hand, the man who passed the wall arrived in another dimension. The streets were bustling with vendors shouting and promoting their wares to people passing by. But, unlike a typical market, none of the vendors were selling ordinary items.

A bottle with fermented snakes and lizards within, dried hanging insects, books written in an uncommon language, and shiny stones and herbs were some of the items displayed on their stalls.

Similar to the man's clothing, most passersby wore a cloak, however, they were in different colors. Also, most of them wore a striking ring with a large captivating purple stone adorned on top.

The man took no notice of the vendors and the other people around as he focused his all on walking towards a tall castle at the other end of the street.

When the man was a footstep away from the castle gate, two winged stone creatures stopped him by crossing their spears. They appeared like tall bats, but their head had two spiral goat horns with them.

"Identification card," The creatures said in unison, their eyes glowed red as they gazed at the small man beneath them.

The man froze for a while before grabbing a ring in his pocket with a purple stone relatively smaller than others. He raised his hand with a ring on his finger and immediately, a golden card floated mid-air. Written on it was his name and rank: Emile Sanders, 1st class wind magician.

After seeing the card, the two creatures took their spears away and let him pass through the tall gate.

Emile observed the castle ahead of him and bowed respectfully. The dark structure shimmered in response and opened its 20-foot hard black wood door.

Upon stepping inside, he was greeted by a majestic and venerable interior. Unlike the external appearance, which was enshrouded in ivy and adorned with foreboding black walls, the interior was a pleasant surprise, spotlessly clean and adorned with walls of subdued earthy colors that evoked a sense of antiquity.

The walls were adorned with enormous paintings of elderly but scholarly individuals, each accompanied by a description and the name of the person depicted.

[Alessia Serpenti, 7th class creation magician, Founder and Originator of Alchemy and Herbal Magic]

[Harold Pletornia, 6th class defense magician, Dean of School of Defensive Magic]

[Griffin Alkansi, 8th class death magician and 5-star spiritualist, Prophet and Creator of Alkansi Schools of Magic and Witchcraft]

Upon seeing the last photo of an elderly man with a lengthy white beard, Emile leaned his upper body forward in reverence.

Shortly after, he exit the hallway and approach a chamber with a door painted in acrylic bright red.

He opened the door and greeted the middle-aged man seated behind the wooden table across. The middle-aged man's eyes pierced through Emile. His gaze was fierce and filled with admonishment as he questioned Emile,

"What happened to you? Why did you use such strong magic in the capital city of Northon?"

Emile dropped to the floor, his body trembling in fear as he recalled everything that had transpired yesterday evening.

The man listened attentively to Emile's story, but his expression turned to one of displeasure when Emile finished.

"Firstly, I highly doubt that he is a warrior from the East. They may be well-built, but they aren't foolish enough to ask such questions," he said.

"Secondly, there is no clan named after the swords or moon. All the clans in the East are based on the 12 mythical beasts. Even if there were a Twin Sword Moon Clan, they should have been eradicated by now as those 12 major clans were fiercely territorial. They wouldn't allow a new clan to arise out of nowhere..."

The middle-aged man named Salvador took a tobacco from his drawer, flicked his finger to light it, and said, "So in other words, he was just fooling you."

Upon hearing this, Emile's cheeks become red from shame. His forehead wrinkled as his eyes flashed in anger.

But when Emile was about to say something, Salvador raised his cigar and blew smoke.

"But maybe he might have a connection in the East, with his abnormal strength...."

He paused and waved his hands,

"Stop investigating Raven as he is dangerous for you first-class magicians."

Salvador then ordered, "But you must still look for the child named Philip. Perhaps he can lead us to something interesting..."