Returning to his room, Ryan looked at him strangely.

"Why didn’t you wear the tie?" Ryan asked.

"It bothers me," Kieran replied.

"You don't know how to wear a tie?"

"It bothers me."

"..."

"..."

"Let's go," Ryan gave a long sigh before heading out.

The two left the dormitory and ventured further into the academy.

"So tell me about these training grounds with special formation arrays," said Kieran, eager to learn more.

"All right," Ryan began, "The training grounds with special formation arrays are advanced facilities that the academy has created for students to improve their cultivation. There are several different types with different levels, and each of them costs a certain amount of academic merit points to train inside."

"What kind of different types?"

"For example, one of the most common ones is the training ground with gravity manipulation formation, and it's also one of the least expensive training grounds. Once inside, you can adjust the gravity intensity to exert pressure on your body. The training dummies you like so much can also be used inside," Ryan said, looking at his brother strangely.

"Don’t look at me like that. It’s not like I can find a partner to train with whenever I want. What are the other types of training grounds?"

"There are training grounds created to train and improve elemental affinity. These training grounds have several levels, but the consumption of resources to maintain them is high. Their access is restricted to a certain number of people at the same time. You have to register in advance before you can use them."

"How much does it cost to train inside?"

"The training ground with the gravity manipulation array costs 5 academic merit points for each hour spent inside, and the price increases depending of the gravity amplification. For elemental affinity training grounds, their prices differ based on the level at which one wishes to train. The levels range from 1 to 10, and their prices are the same. Level 1 costs 1000 academic merit points for every hour spent inside."

"You’ve been here for a month. How many academic merit points have you earned since?"

"670 points, and that's including the 490 points I received during the tests at the inscription."

"How did you get the rest of the points?"

"I accepted tasks from the academy. Most of them were simple tasks like creating inscription."

"Did you manage to become a master inscriptionist?"

"Yes, I even reached the Silver rank according to the exams of the Master Inscriptionist Association thanks to the money of an investor."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"It must be someone handsome," Kieran said with a broad smile.

Ryan rolled his eyes and continued, pointing to the tower in the academy's middle.

"If you want to get merit points quickly, one way is to get into the Heaven Reaching Tower and get a good ranking. In addition, according to your ranking, you can get several hours free inside the training grounds of elemental affinity."

"What exactly is this tower?"

"The Heaven Reaching Tower serves two purposes. One of them is to provide a cultivation environment for each student according to their ranking. The tower, connecting heaven and earth, lets the natural crystal essence flow through each of its stones via numerous inscription formations that make it up. The crystal essence inside the tower converges towards the top. There are cultivation rooms on each floor of the tower, and the closer a cultivation room is to the top of the tower, the more crystal essence one can gather for cultivation."

"What is this ranking you talked about?"

"I'm getting there. The second purpose of the tower is a trial. The tower creates an illusion in which it encloses the trial participants, and each floor is a different trial. Each trial can only passed once and is beneficial for the cultivation. According to an academy legend, if someone managed to conquer all the floors of the tower, he would become a god."

"A god? How is that possible?"

"It’s just a legend, but it’s true that the tower is beneficial for cultivation. Once a cultivator passes a trial, a ranking will be assigned by the tower and displayed at its entrance. Several rankings are established, one for each age group and another for general ranking of the Mortal and Transcendent realm. For each floor passed, the academy offers a sum of merit points, and if you reach the first 100 among the students of our age group, you will receive a number of merit points according to your ranking each month."

Kieran listened carefully, absorbing information about the Heaven Reaching Tower. This seemed to be an opportunity to accelerate his cultivation and earn academic merit points at the same time.

"How often can we try these trials in the tower?" asked Kieran.

"The Heaven Reaching Tower trials can be attempted once every month until you give up or are expelled after being defeated. But remember, once you pass a trial on a specific floor, you won’t be able to do it again," Ryan replied.

"Which floor did you reach?"

"I didn't try to climb the tower yet. I waited to break into the Silver rank before trying it."

As they spoke, they came to a spacious square with different paths leading in different directions.

"This square is a hub," Ryan explained, "The main facilities are all around. The training grounds, the associations of the different jobs, the different clubs of the students of the academy, combat arenas for students, the Martial Arts Hall, and the cafeteria."

"There’s a Martial Arts Hall?"

"Yes. The academy possesses thousands of techniques stored inside that are not accessible to common citizens like us, along with numerous books saved during the dark age, some describing forgotten pieces of history. You can search for these techniques on the Starlight Industry website, but you won't find any, even if you're willing to pay a fortune for them. As for the books, it's not guaranteed that you'll find a single one, even in an auction."

"I am not interested in books, but I bet that to access the techniques, you have to pay merit points?"

"Yes. Everything comes down to merit in this academy, but you can always go inside the Martial Arts Hall to see if you’re interested in a technique."

"Let’s do this."

While the two headed towards the Martial Arts Hall, they passed close to an empty area where stood a giant stone resembling an egg with unreadable writings on it.

"What is this?" asked Kieran.

"This is the secret realm of the academy. People call it the stone egg."

"What’s written on it?"

"Nobody knows, the writings are unreadable. Only one word could be deciphered, 'Equal'."

"Were you able to find information about this secret realm?"

"No, only some rumors can be heard about it, and most professors don't know much about it either. Those who know more don't talk about it."

Kieran stared at this stone egg one last time as the two continued on their way.

Soon, they spotted the Martial Arts Hall in the distance. The building was a blend of traditional and modern architectural elements. Sturdy wooden pillars and intricate sculptures framed the entrance, the walls were a mix of earthy tones, while in elegant writing, the words 'Martial Arts Hall' were engraved above the entrance.

Walking towards the Martial Arts Hall and chatting with Ryan, Kieran suddenly stopped as his gaze was drawn to a tree, or more precisely, to the figure beneath it.