Atticus soon found that the people seated on the first row were of a different breed from the rest. Their auras were more refined, their eyes more focused and natural.
They exuded a confidence none of the others could, one that seemed to come from deep within their beings.
Atticus was snapped out of his thoughts by a figure entering the class.
He was a man of imposing stature. His hair was ash, just like his eyes. It looked like his hair might disperse into the air as he walked.
Atticus looked closer. He felt some sort of fog covered the man. It was only after a moment that he realized, it was his will.
’Fog will?’ he thought. ’Or maybe mist.’
If there was one bright side to all of this, it was that he was intrigued to see so many will paths. It was impossible to accurately determine how many existed.
The man reached the platform and faced the class. His face was plain.
"My name is Jansen. I will be in charge of taking the Ways to Ascend class."
There were no formal greetings. None of the gods even so much as nodded. While he was the only new person present, and it wasn’t their first time seeing the man, Atticus was sure that wasn’t the reason. He could feel their disdain.
As gods, they disdained paying respects to another, unless one was considered a superior.
Jansen began the class without preamble. If he cared about the inappropriate posters hanging around the class, he didn’t show it.
He said nothing and just went about the class like normal.
Atticus listened attentively. This was a class about ascension, and that was practically his main goal in the Middle Planes.
He felt like he’d already learned everything there was to know about ascending, but he wanted to make sure.
Surprisingly, Atticus learned something new.
As expected, the fastest way to ascend was by participating in the yearly Verge wide competition. While every world was required to participate each year, who they chose as their champion was entirely up to them. A god could choose not to participate if they wanted.
It meant he could send Ozeorth and Whisker out while he remained. During the competition, every single thing went, alliances, betrayals, anything.
And more importantly, Atticus discovered something new, multiple gods could fight in the Arena of Gods. If the gods willed it, two could face one. Two could face two.
The Middle Planes kept growing larger with every moment he spent here.
Atticus also found out about the ranking of worlds. They were determined by size.
Minor to major worlds were the common ones in the Verge, with grand being rare.
But Atticus didn’t miss the shift in atmosphere when the topic began. Some gods sat up straighter, others radiated pride.
It was easy to determine that a god’s world determined their status in society.
The class soon ended and Jansen walked out without another word.
A weird silence descended right after, and Atticus couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow when he noticed that no one stood to leave.
Next class wasn’t until a few hours later, he was sure of it. So there was no reason for them to remain in class.
Yet, they all sat down, eyes on him.
Atticus rose from his seat and made his way towards the door.
’I see.’
He had activated Omnicognition, and nothing could escape his notice, especially not the trap that had been set a few meters from him.
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