The conversation with Amelia wound down after that terrific start, and she soon made the excuse that there were other people here she needed to talk to.
She seemed the taciturn type who took a while to open up despite sharing something so close to her heart. It had to have been difficult for her to go that far, and Kevin didn’t begrudge the woman for taking her time.
He only suggested that they meet again soon, perhaps after classes started. That would give her space while also giving them a lighter conversation topic. Eternity was heavy stuff, but they could always work back up to that level.
Amelia nodded in response and gave him a room number to send messages to, so he assumed it was okay with her.
After that, he only hung around for another half-hour before leaving. Gerard took a few moments to chat before he did, but it was all general pleasantries. While the man was still polite, he seemed to be keeping his distance now.
From how he hurried back to Celisse’s side, it wasn’t hard to see why his stance had changed. She might not be showing it anymore, but he could still remember how unimpressed she’d been.
Regardless, the evening had been a massive success in his books, and he was happy to move upstairs and fit a final, light cultivation cycle in before bed.
The next two days passed in a cultivation blur. After sitting down and planning a calendar the first morning, Kevin managed to fit three rounds of Fire Qi cycling in daily.
One Fire session in the morning, followed by two Earth sessions. Then a break for lunch, followed by a second Fire session. A return to the Earth courtyard for three sessions filled the afternoon before transitioning into one last Fire trip.
Or at least, that was the plan. The grueling pace worked wonders, and he had to rush back to his room on the verge of a breakthrough after the first morning session on the second day. With Fire Qi burning away in his sealed land it wasn’t something he could hold off, and he barely made it into the bathroom in time.
Hitting the fourth grade was much like the third, though the effects were further magnified. Another boost to everything, including a rough thirty percent increase in threshold to the next grade.
While amazing, it was still a draining experience, and Kevin took a couple of hours off to rest before returning to his schedule. A different lunchtime even led to a meeting with a cultivator by the name of Brad Harper.
Brad was somewhere in his mid-twenties and nearing the last breakthrough into the Energy Gathering realm. Rather than being from the fall entrance group, he was part of the previous cycle six months ago.
Despite the separation, he’d heard rumors about the crazy cultivator ‘climbing the peak’ — which turned out to be an insult to crazy people like Kevin — and was interested in hearing more.
Happy to meet another potential ally, Kevin gave him much the same speech he’d given Amelia. Brad’s goal didn’t match up as well as hers, but it was still a solid fit.
The man wanted to return to the source of cultivation, the ancient and crumbling Xi’anian empire. There, he aimed to unify his martial and cultivation styles, which had deviated from their source for over two thousand years.
The task sounded far more monumental than simply traveling to another country. Tensions were high between the Xi’an and the Western countries, and it might take centuries to organize.
Even then, Brad would have to gain the respect of some seriously powerful cultivators if he wanted even a peek at their hidden knowledge.
It was a far-reaching goal Kevin could see fitting in well, and he once again organized to continue meeting over the coming weeks.
That afternoon, his cultivation began to push toward the fifth grade. While it was clear it would take longer than the fourth, he had high hopes of accomplishing it within a few weeks.
Without classes, it would be far sooner; with them, he wouldn’t be able to fit in such massive cultivation days very often.
Which might be a good thing given how draining they were. He could easily burn out if he weren’t careful.
Sunday saw his morning plans interrupted once more by the appearance of his promised schedule. Someone had slipped a sealed stack of paper under the door while he slept, where he found it on his way out.
Too eager to put it aside until later, Kevin ripped open the seal and read it at his desk.
“Seven AM?” He spat at seeing the first class on Monday. FORM-101 had been scheduled at the roughest time he’d ever seen a class, and it ran for two hours until nine. He might be dedicated, but that was pretty ridiculous.
Worried, he scanned his eyes over the remainder of the schedule. The rest seemed normal enough, and Kevin relaxed with a sigh. Perhaps this Elder Fischer running the course was just busy?
With ten hours of classes between FORM-101 and FORM-115, she had a decent commitment with just the classes visible here. With her own cultivation and no doubt other duties as an Elder, he could see her jamming the least important class in wherever she could.
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Whatever the case, it wasn’t something he could change. Settling down, he double-checked the coming days. All five classes had an initial two hours booked on Monday or Tuesday, along with a three-hour block spread over the next four days.
This included Saturday, which had the three-hour class for FORM-115: Combat Formations, again with Elder Fischer.
If nothing else, the spread-out nature of the schedule left large blocks of free time for cultivation or practice. Which, when he thought about it, was likely the point.
Beyond the time slot, instructor name, and location, there wasn’t any further information listed for any of the courses. With no prior reading or anything else, there wasn’t anything he could do to prepare in advance.
He’d just have to show up on the day and see what happened in each class.
Along with the letter was the merit information he’d asked Foster for. Six thousand, five hundred, and thirty was the total he needed within six months.
Of that, he currently had ten and was owed another ten for his fresh breakthrough.
If not for the attached list of potential merit, he’d have despaired entirely. He would get another ten points per grade in the first stage, a hundred for the second stage breakthrough, then thirty per grade after that.”
The good news continued with three hundred for the third stage breakthrough and ninety per grade, then after, cumulating in another nine hundred for breaking into the Energy Gathering realm.
Almost two thousand and a half thousand merit in total if he made it that far. If he could do that and then manage a decent showing in some of the pre-cutoff competitions listed, he’d make it.
Add in a few job bonuses if he got proficient enough in formations, and he might even have a bit of a buffer if things went wrong. He just had to put his head down, cultivate hard, and learn as much as he could.
Which would all come down to how classes started the next day.
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Kevin winced as he stared at the Formations building. He’d thought the one in the inner sect was a little sad, but this was on a whole other level.
Sure, it was still a three-story building of decent size. Compared to the ones surrounding it, however, it might as well have been a mud hut. Was it just sized for what he knew was an insufficient number of formation users?
Or was there something else going on here?
Either way, it wasn’t something he’d crack standing out here. Following the address on his schedule, he entered on the second floor and paused outside of the first room on the left.
So far, the place seemed deserted, but he was ten minutes early. After the last few grueling days, a little break sounded perfect, so he settled in to wait. Five minutes later, the first other disciple trickled in, followed by a couple more.
By the time the clock struck seven, a mighty six of them had assembled for the class. He didn’t know the exact number of fresh disciples this six-month cycle, but he figured it was somewhere around a hundred people.
No wonder the department was having trouble if this was how few of them signed up for the basic class. Assuming a certain amount of drop-off before anyone became useful, there’d be barely anyone who made it.
Even the six who’d shown up, Kevin included, started grumbling when there was still no sign of the teacher at the ridiculous start time. It wasn’t until six past that a figure blurred past them and slammed the door open.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” A woman’s voice shouted a moment later.
Caught off guard, Kevin reacted a touch slower than the rest and was left taking up the rear of the little group. Inside was a classroom far too optimistically sized for reality.
There were twenty desks inside, each of which would have room for multiple students if you really wanted to fit people in. As it was, the tiny class had plenty of room to spread out.
Though he’d entered last, there was still plenty of room at the front. Only a single disciple had taken a seat in that row on the far right. Grinning, Kevin hurried forward to take the opposite side.
He’d always found that lecturers paid more attention to students sitting up the front. It was almost impossible not to, even if they tried. He might have been allocated this class, but he still intended to do his best.
It wasn’t until he settled in that he got a good look at their teacher.
Elder Fischer matched none of his expectations for a sect elder. For one, she looked to be in her late forties. For another, her appearance was — for want of a better word — plain. In a sect riddle with people reaching near perfection, she stood out in the other direction entirely.
He would have assumed she was no more powerful than her students if not for a single, unavoidable fact.
An ethereal crown floated above her head, covering brown hair pulled into a messy bun. Very little Qi leaked from it, but the silvery headpiece emitted the same strange weight he’d felt from Elder Ming.
If anything, her crown gave off a far greater pressure. Despite her appearance, Kevin doubted anyone had ever questioned her credentials as a sect elder.
Was this the equivalent of the Golden Core realm for aura cultivators? Dr. Vaughan had been in the Core Formation realm, and his aura was bloated with power. It wasn’t too much of a stretch to imagine all that energy condensing into a core outside the body.
It didn’t feel like the woman had a single speck of Qi in her body, so how had she moved so…
“Right,” Elder Fischer said, pulling his attention toward the board. “I am Melony Fischer, an elder of the inner sect, head of the Formations Department, and someone far too important to be teaching this class.”
“So why am I here?” She continued, glaring around the room as if it were the fault of the assembled disciples. “I’m so glad you asked. My senior disciple who should have been teaching it disappeared into a Mystic Realm two months ago.”
“Either he’s dead or lost, but either way, he's left me with quite the pickle. The other three senior disciples are too busy with critical sect maintenance for me to bother. My inner sect students are also busy or refused to teach.”
“Refused… to my face,” Fischer snorted, shaking her head. “I would have canceled if we didn’t need new blood so badly. As it is, I can’t very well complain to the other elders while canceling the only class that might help.”
“There, does that answer all your questions in advance?” Pausing only for the briefest moment, she barreled on. “Good.”
“Then welcome to FORM-101: Introduction to Formations. Here, I will use my incredible talents to teach you the most basic of the basics, with only the feeble hope that you will one day be useful to drive me on.”
Fischer was writing on the board as she spoke, forming six identical patterns of shapes and symbols. “Given historical trends, I don’t have much hope, so we’ll see. Half of you won’t go further than this class if things go to form, and another half will take your talents elsewhere.”
Her chalk paused mid-motion, hovering over the board as she finished. She stared off into the distance for a long moment before shaking her head with a sigh. “You know what… No, I’ve changed my mind. That’s far too boring to even contemplate.”
Spinning around in a rapid and surprisingly clumsy motion, Fischer stuck her chalk behind one ear and looked around at the little group. Her eyes lit up as she rubbed her hands together.
“Yes, let’s do something else entirely.”