"Welcome to Earth," the driver said, landing in a place that seemed to be the dock for such ships on the planet.
Silas stepped out of the car, assessing the surroundings.
Asher walked out almost immediately, but stood calmly behind Silas.
They were in a hangar for ships.
"This way," the driver signalled for them to follow him.
"We are going to the academy's registration office, a few minutes away," he said.
Silas nodded, following the driver from behind.
Soon, they were out of the hangar and…
"Wait, you built something like this next to the roadside?" Silas asked, furrowing his brows.
The driver shook his head.
"Things on Earth are really different from other planets."
As he spoke, he looked at a bunch of kids riding a bike recklessly until they almost crashed into a moving truck.
"Really… different."
He dragged the words, making sure they stuck.
Silas nodded, then frowned.
Tall, beautiful buildings that shot into the sky.
Clouds and a sky so beautiful that it felt like they were in heaven.
Those were the things Silas had thought he would see on the Imperial Capital, Earth.
But reality proved otherwise.
Before him was a place he could only call ordinary by any standard.
Even the buildings on Veritas seemed more advanced compared to the ones here.
The only difference was probably the material used to build most of the structures.
It was either stone, wood, or the occasional glass ones.
"Why is this place so underdeveloped?" Silas did not know when he blurted those words out.
He felt like a child expecting a toy in a box, but being given candy instead.
His expectations for the planet had been high.
"Please, don't say that out loud, or you would be killed for treason," the driver quickly said, shushing Silas.
Silas blinked.
"So, I can't express myself?"
The driver sighed.
"That was a joke, but most of the people on this planet, especially in this nation, are really patriotic, and sometimes that can lead to conflict, so I was warning you so we could stay out of fights."
Silas blinked, his head jerking backward in confusion.
"Woah! Woah! I am a student here. They would be willing to consider that it is only my first time," Silas replied.
The driver shook his head.
"You are either in, or not. That's the rule."
Silas exhaled loudly through his mouth and said nothing else.
Soon, they reached the building they were going to.
The driver stopped in front of a large compound.
The buildings in the compound were among the tallest Silas had seen on Earth.
"You would be registering at that counter. The clerk there will handle the rest."
The driver said with a smile, then a nod.
Then he began to walk towards another building.
Silas watched him from behind.
'And I don't know his name. How do I call him?' He wondered.
"Well, good luck out there," Silas yelled at his back.
Asher also waved at the driver's retreating figure.
"It's back to just us," Silas said, turning towards the office.
While they walked, Silas could not help but wonder.
"But seriously, why are the registration processes so long?" He asked.
"I would have preferred one of those entrance exams like the ones the driver told us used to happen in the novels he reads."
Asher did not reply to any of Silas's words.
A soft click echoed through the glass entrance as Silas pushed the door open.
The clerk looked up from her desk, then stood up.
Silas walked towards her table.
"Good day," he said.
The clerk nodded with a smile.
"Please, your name."
"Silas Lancaster."
Her fingers danced across the keyboard.
After a few clicks and some typing, she finally looked towards Silas.
"You have been registered," she said, her smile widening.
"This is your student ID," she said, handing him a lanyard card.
Silas collected it calmly.
"Since your house is in Nigeria, you would be taking a flight there."
"Please, give me a few minutes," she said, dialing a number on her intercom.
The call connected and she murmured some words into the phone before setting it back down.
"Please wait a few minutes while the pilot gets things ready," she said, gesturing towards the chairs arranged in the room.
As Silas sat, something finally felt different about him.
"Why do I feel hungry?" Silas asked Asher.
He had expected Asher to say something like it was his nervousness, but Asher's response surprised him too.
"Me too."
Silas's brows twitched.
"But we are at the Ascendant Realm. How can we feel something like hunger?" He asked.
Asher stood up from the chair and walked towards the clerk.
"Is there anything on this planet causing us to feel hunger?" He asked.
The clerk nodded with a smile.
"I didn't realize you hadn't been given lectures on this already, but on this planet, all cultivators are reduced to the Mortal realm."
As she spoke, a bomb seemed to go off in Asher's mind.
"Students and their companions can choose to reject the effect, so if you want…"
The clerk said, pointing towards her stomach.
"No, don't worry," Asher said.
He ran back towards Silas like a child.
"This feeling, how long has it been?" He wondered aloud.
Silas waited for Asher to compose himself before asking what had happened.
Asher explained everything to him quickly.
"This place seems too difficult to live in," Silas sighed as Asher finished the story. "Maybe she should just deactivate it for me."
"It does not seem that hard to me though," Asher whispered back.
"If anything, it is wonderful. Silas, it might be because you only just reached this realm, but everything above the Mortal realm is simply an empty pursuit of power."
"So, you are telling me not to deactivate it?" Silas asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
Asher looked at Silas, straight in the eyes.
"It's your choice."
The words came from his mouth as cold and direct as any words could be.
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