Lost Into The Future

After Aviana landed on the ground, she looked around with satisfaction before her eyes landed on Geo. Outwardly, she showed no expression but deep inside she had found interest in Geo, however in the end she still had doubts and looked down on the boy.

'So he's the one I should look out for... with only a single mana core, he seems way too ordinary, but somehow my senses keep telling me otherwise.' Aviana thought.

"As an introduction I'll send you all to somewhere exciting! All you have to do is find a blue portal... And don't worry, you'll be teleported back here once your life is in danger."

The students all looked at each other with either excited or worried expressions. However, they had no time to express and share their opinions. With a single snap of her hand, Aviana conjured a powerful skill with the help of an instrument. This skill teleported all of the students seperately.

"The first one to enter the portal will be rewarded generously!"

This was the last thing they heard before they were gone.

Everyone was teleported in an island that was covered in thick black smoke. The whole place that they were in was a floating volcanic island. The land was made out of igneous rock, from the crevaces and cracks were streams of lava that flowed towards the sea.

Loud roars echoed loudly across the island as horrific creatures bathed beneath pools of lava as if it was a hot tub. Cries of terror were present as many monsters indulged in combat activities.

The temperature of the athmosphere could burn a normal person in seconds but these students were an exception. As one of the basics of weaving mana, since they were young the students had learned to control mana in a way to protect themselves. They have learned to control mana and create certain objects from it.

Including Geo, everyone released their mana and coated their whole body in it, similar to an aura protecting them from the immense heat.

"A volcanic island as an introduction, not bad teach, not bad..."

A boy with burning red hair named Zeno stood with both his hands on his waist. Looking up into the sky as he inhaled the air around him.

"Smoke, I love smoke! It's like the sweet smell of chaos."

He clenched his fists. In the distance, a large volcano was spewing ash and debri into the air. Along with the smoke, a blue pilar of light shot into the sky. Zeno suspected that the goal that they had to achieve was to reach the top of the volcano. Without wasting any time, his feet started dashing towards the blue pilar of light.

***

"It's so hard to breath in all this smoke!"

A white haired girl with long hair named Khana pinched her nose in frustration.

"Couldn't miss Aviana just sent us to a forest or something?! Somewhere much more peaceful, then again that bastard Zeno would burn it all down."

She expressed her annoyance about the situation. A second later, she waved her sword and unleashed a gust of wind that formed a tornado around her dispersing the smoke around her.

"I wonder if we have to get to the center."

She looked at a towering volcano at the center of the island spewing thick smoke and ash into the air.

***

Geo had similar thoughts with the others. The tip of the volcano could be where the portal is located.

As the boy took his first step, a giant made out of lava and obsidian emerged from a pool of lava not far away from where he stood.

The giant was ten meters in height, it looked similar to an ordinary rock golem, in contrast, it had multiple fiery red spikes on its back, its eyes glowed a deep red color while few cracks on its body oozed lava.

The burning golem glared menacingly towards Geo. Wild and fiesty as it was, it charged towards Geo with both its hands raised in the air. Each one of the steps it took violently shook the ground.

As the golem approached Geo, the boy pointed his hand towards the golem with his open palm facing it. After a brief thought Geo used one of his skills [Barrier]. This skill is considered a normal skill that created a transparent barrier of varying shapes with the use of mana as a source.

Being precautious, Geo raised his other hand in a similar manner ready to cast another barrier incase the first one could not hold the golem's attack. 

Standing in front of Geo was the golem with its arms raised. Upon getting in range, it landed its fists onto Geo's barrier.

Fortunately, Geo's barrier was easily able to hold the golem's punch. After all with the [Partial Void Crown] in his arsenal, his overall strength was doubled.

'Let's see how strong this void crown is.'

Geo pointed his finger towards the golem. At the tip of his index finger, mana from all around his body started to accumulate.

The ferocious golem continued its barrage of attacks, but to no avail.

A second later a ball of mana accumulated at the tip of Geo's hand. Once fully accumulated, he shot the sphere towards the golem's face at great speed. 

The impact caused an explosion which instantly killed the golem, the large being's body slowly started to fall apart as its head was now gone.

After the dust had settled Geo approached the body of the dead golem before pointing his hand towards it. A tiny ball that emanated a dim white light escaped from the rubble of the dead golem, slowly floating towards Geo's hand. 

Geo had absorbed the ball of light which was labeled as the energy of the dead. It was a tiny remnant of their soul that could be absorbed by anyone. They can be used for someone to enhance the quality of their core or a creation of another one.

Normally people would use these tiny remnants in order to create even more cores, after all, cores were considered the basis of strength, where the number of someone's cores determined how strong they are. 

Though someone with a lesser number of cores could beat those with more cores if they had higher quality cores, overall people still consider the number of cores a basis of someone's overall strength. 

'For now increasing the number of cores I have is more cost effective, but once I accumulated thousands more, the priority shifts to quality more than quantity.'

Geo directed the remnant of the golem's soul towards his soul, however it was still insufficient to create a new one. 

*** 

All of Geo's classmates also encountered ferocious monsters as they make their way towards the center of the island. All of them were similarly able to kill the monsters with relative ease. 

The place was only a labeled as a weak danger zone that housed low level monsters. 

"The monsters here are weak, too weak!"

Zeno shouted as he slashed his sword killing a monster in one attack, he looked at the path in front of him with a confident grin. 

He was nearly at the peak of the volcano after only ten minutes. Zeno took the time and glanced around him, realizing that everyone was still below him. 

But all of a sudden a loud sound grazed his ear. A white haired girl flew past him towards the peak of the volcano.

Khana looked at Zeno with a satisfied smirk as if mocking him. 

An annoyed expression appeared on Zeno's face as he stared at Khana looking down on him.