In a large lecture hall, many students were sitting. This was the largest lecture hall available for use in the Academy but even then, many students could not get a seat and were left standing. Needless to say, it was time for Michael's first class. Michael had never tried teaching. Education in Aterna was based on martial lineages and even in Royal colleges, one would have a personal master. But in Jupyter, it was extremely rare for someone to be taken as a personal disciple of a mentor. One of the reasons for this was that the thinking of cultivators was not as conservative as in Aterna. Of course, extremely precious techniques were kept a secret of sects and clans. But most of the common techniques were available to the masses freely and anyone could cultivate to a certain extent without requiring a master. Michael was only considered a young cultivator with potential. He was not a senior cultivator and currently, his huge class-strength was a result of giving a unique content along with his overwhelming presence.
As the clock showed 10'o clock, Michael entered the class. Immediately, the eyes of all girls in the class shone with unprecedented brightness. Even the guys found it hard to bear his aura. Michael smiled, inwardly lamenting this problem.
> Michael : Welcome everyone! I am Michael Rageberg, your mentor for this course. As I have outlined in course description, this is not a course about cultivation or combat. It will be solely focussed on making you develop a mindset of survival. Remaining calm in danger and thinking optimally is the cornerstone for this skill. Now, I will answer any specific questions that you have.
A girl stood up from her seat and said:
> Instructor, we will be needing your guidance quite a lot in this course as we have no experience in the field. How about you share your contact talisman code? This will help us get in touch with you in case we have some serious doubts.
Michael was not prepared for such an aggressive welcome. Before he could reply, all the girls in the class started chiming in about how important it would be to maintain interaction during the course and how it would make the course a success. Michael exasperatedly said
> Michael : Very well, I will post my office contact talisman code on the information sheet of this course in the academy database. Anyone who wants help can use that code to contact me during office hours. Now we will move on to other questions.
The girls were obviously not happy with the result but before they could make a fuss, a guy got up and asked
> Instructor, what all hostile environments will you be focussing on in this course?
>
> Michael : Good question. I will focus mostly on environments which might be relevant to you in real-life. This will include getting lost in unknown territories, getting stuck in forests or mountains amidst vicious beasts or perhaps being assassinated. All these dangerous situations are faced by students when they go out to adventure and complete missions for the federation or other corporations. While you do get special training separately before dangerous missions, it will be helpful if you have some general idea on how to react in dangerous situations. Any other questions?
Another student asked
> Instructor, we already know that the situations that we will be facing will be hand-crafted and engineered. Why would we gain any experience when facing such made up situations?
>
> Michael : You are mistaken. All the situations that you will be tested on will be very real. You can definitely die or get permanently disabled. This course carries a certain amount danger that we have consent from your guardians to put you in. Till now, you have been brought up in greenhouses without being aware of the real dangers of the real-world. But can you say the same for your senior generation? They have all passed through countless dangerous situation and walked on the edge of life and death to get to where they are today. And they have many years worth of lifespan remaining. Thus, if you live under their protection, you don't need this class. But if you one day want to reach the same heights or perhaps surpass them, you must start seeing the brutal side of the world as well. If you are scared, you are free to drop this course.
The entire class became completely quiet after listening to Michael's words. Lots of emotions could be seen in their eyes - fear, apprehension, nervousness, excitement, awe, determination and dreams. Michael was quite happy that no one decided to quit due to his words. While it was true that these children were going to be in danger, it was not as high as Michael was making it out to be. The Academy had assigned many protectors to these students along with many hidden experts that were hired by their respective families. In such heavy protection, Michael did not believe any casualties would happen. But of course, he would not tell this to the students or it would defeat the whole purpose.
> Michael : Very well, now I will take you all to your first practical test. You will all be scattered in a huge forest which is outside the Federation territory. You will not be given too much information. Your job would be to stay alive for 36 hours. If you fail, it will be game over. But before leaving you out there, I will give you all a book of general knowledge about different vegetation and beast groups found around the area. As this is the first time you guys are taking on a dangerous mission, it will be too cruel to leave you in a completely unknown forest. Before you step through the teleportation formation, remember this tip - only the following decide your survival
>
> Information
>
> Planning and Calmness
>
> Strength
After saying this much, Michael left the lecture stage and injected a space stone in the corner of the lecture hall. The formation glowed and a huge gate opened in the class.
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> He was telling the truth! This is a large-scale teleportation formation. It might truly be leading us beyond federation territory.
>
> What if it leads us to someplace in the other races' territory? I have heard that demons like to eat human cultivators!
>
> What?! Are you crazy? You think that our parents would let him send us to the demon's territory? It must be a forest in the nearby human territories.
Such whispers could be heard among the students before many academy staff came and marked all the students with a unique tracking spell. It was time for them to step into the formation. All students were hesitating when someone came out of the batch of students and said:
> Humph! Useless cowards! One should have the courage to face the unknown. Or else, how would one lead? I will be the first to enter.
Saying so, he entered the gate. Before the students could respond, another student came up
> Haah! This guy just knows how to act and attract attention! Why couldn't he simply step into the formation?
After him, more and more people entered the formation. One beautiful girl looked at Michael with determination in her eyes before going through the gate. She was followed by a gloomy kid whose eyes seemed to be spewing fierceness and another girl who looked at him with a sceptical gaze.
What did I do to them? - thought Michael.
In the Federation territory, the capital - city of liberty contained a mansion that was restricted from all the general public. There was no way for mortals to even see the lavish mansion and state surrounding it, the powerful formations surrounding it made sure of this. While ascendants could feel the barrier around the mansion, they would still not dare to truly break in, even if they were capable enough. That was because this mansion belonged to one of the three hegemons of the Federation - Gordon Marx. But only people in powerful social circles knew that Gordon Marx, the powerful patriarch of the Marx family with a cultivation base of four transformations was only the front face of this family. The Marx family had ancestors who were in the Upper Transformation realm as well. However, they were all running important missions for the Black Lotus Sect. But, their shadow was enough to make sure that the Marx family would continue thriving for millions of years.
In the mansion, Gordon Marx was reading through information about a teacher in the Federation academy - Michael Rageberg. He could see the entire history of the kid. But, there was not much to see. He was a resident of Glandor and had joined three years ago as an apprentice. Now, he was an intellectual and was offering a survival technique course. Gordon actually supported the idea behind this course. It was already time for the kids of the new generation to understand the hardships of the real world. But his only daughter was enrolled, so how could he not investigate properly?
This kid is very secretive and there is almost no information about his past. He has said that he was training with his master from a young age - a perfectly unverifiable story. But while there is no information about his past, I know all about his present. He is in the late-law-conception realm and has been cultivating the body, soul and spirit path. From his research direction, he is trying to become a celestial. This already proves that he has great talent. He is pretty young to have attained his cultivation. But most importantly, he has a very powerful psychic force and is not able to control it yet. This means that his power has not been gained from cultivation but is natural to him. It could be that his master was not powerful enough to understand this. If his past can be verified, it will mean that he is a rarely seen talent, worthy to be cultivated by the family! If he manages to succeed in cultivating the celestial path, he would gain the qualification to marry my daughter. Let's see, kid. Are you really a gem or are you a deadly thorn?
Meanwhile, in a forest in the Federation territory, a number of students were setting up different camps. The environment was very soothing and relaxed. The formation had not randomly teleported the students into the forest but had teleported them all to the same location. Thus, they decided to camp together for the next 36 hours. This was the most sensible strategy to pass the test. But, how could the test be as simple as that? This forest was a part of Blazing forest zone. The heat waves ceaselessly emerged from the ground - a feature that made the entire forest range famous. Soon, while the students had set up defence perimeters, they came to realize that there were hardly any beasts left in the region. The entire forest seemed to be still. The trees were sparse and all of them were dried out. This place was an example of desolation.
The students soon realized the importance of the information pamphlets given to them. It was not for their safety but for them to truly get acclaimed to surviving in a situation like this. They would have to hunt these beasts to sate their hunger and drink from the trunks of these trees to sate their thirst. While there were many purification-realm cultivators present who could grit their teeth through 36 hours of pain, none of them was idling. Because all of them knew that the upcoming tests in this course would be more and more difficult and this was only a trailer to the real deal. Gaining experience right now was very important. Adding the fact that there were many students in the consolidation realm, the test was already quite difficult for them.
All students did their best to endure through the tests, hunt and collect food and water. This was a completely new experience for these students and they understood that survival was not a glorified battle. It was more about using information and knowledge with all the means that you have to adapt to challenging circumstances. The entire episode gave them a feeling of what was to come in the future in this course. Michael had thought that many of the students would drop out, given the difficulty and his harsh method of instruction. But contrary to his expectations, almost all students were even more motivated to continue when they came back from the test.
The class dynamics were quickly established with the students from big families forming their own groups and taking tests together. These students became the defacto leaders of the different groups. When Michael saw this, he remembered in nostalgia how in the past, Azeer Zenid, Samuel Joss and Mark Gregory had led similar groups of students. Now, after many years, Azeer was in the saint realm handling affairs of the Zenid family in Aterna. Mark was a perfect-realm warrior, a powerful expert and one of the nobles of the human kingdom. And Samuel Joss was dead. He had died fighting the devils - a glorified death on the battlefield.
As time passed, a few months went by. The number of students in the class decreased but not by a drastic amount. But, all those who stayed could be seen progressing by leaps and bounds. Their auras were more reserved, they were more confident and had a mature outlook of things. The more they struggled in dangerous environments, the more they understood the immensity of heaven and earth. This gave the outlook of adults. The change was visible to their guardians and the other instructors of the Academy. This made a pretty good impression of Michael on these people and solidified his connections. Many wealthy people also gave him expensive gifts of appreciation which helped alleviate his financial crunch. And as Michael kept on searching and reading the different research scrolls in the academy, he came across a legacy that would change not just his present and future, but would drastically affect the entire balance of power across the 3000 worlds, the heavenly realm and the void.