In the Grand Expanse existed humans who broke through all limits mortality imposed on them. Forging their bodies with training, potions, medicine, elixirs, manuals, and gods knew what else, these “cultivators” defied Heaven’s intentions on the state of man and became everything from incredibly powerful martial artists to impossibly devious thieves, orators whose powerful words made statues weep, strongmen who literally moved cities brick by brick, craftsmen whose works literally enlightened their viewer, and so much more. There were western cultivators in thick plate armor forged of steel mixed with ground dragon scales and eastern ones whose flowing kimonos and qipaos were artistic works all to themselves—to say nothing of the northern cultivators whose thick frost-rimmed helmets were adorned with jagged horns or the southern cultivators whose dark skin was kept hidden from the searing heat with robes and headwear, for their kukris and scimitars did the talking.
They were so powerful, in fact, that they had come to an agreement with nearly every nation of the Grand Expanse—they were to be treated as a nation into themselves, one with no true homeland, simply a collective known as the Eight Directions Cultivator Collective, bound to never interfere with other nations unless asked or if situations were absolutely dire. In return, the Collective received quite the handsome income from all the nations aligned with it, and ensured that the schools training newfound Cultivators would be up the proper standard.
That was for people who had the talent for Cultivation, though. Nashara Zaras didn’t have the talent. It wasn’t his fault—cultivation talent was a borderline luck of the draw. Anyone from a street urchin to a royal scion had pretty much equal chance to become a cultivator, which meant it was super rare across all families. Less than 5% of people were even D-rank, the lowest possible rank, and by the time you got to SSS-rank, it was incredible anyone occupied that tier.
Nashara—or “Nash” to people about to be punched in the face—wasn’t even D-rank. He had never gotten his talent tested, because why even waste the money? He had focused his efforts on doing well in school, but things got in the way of that…
Nashara buried his face in the comic book he was reading. Comics started to become a thing just a little over a decade before, and before he knew it he was blowing all his damn money on these ridiculous tales of adventure, almost all involving cultivators. Some may have even been written by them! Hah, as if. Point was, he had once spent time going to a Visual Narrative Fantatics club and nearly flunked secondary school.
Nashara was an average height man with short black hair, but as his family hailed from the southern nations, his skin was a tan caramel color, taking on a slightly golden hue when it shone on him. More notable was the geometric black tattoos adoring parts of his body, but the thick western-style coat and pants he was wearing obscured those.
He put down his comic and looked outside to the scenery passing by. There was a massive snowstorm assaulting the endless valleys and mountains in his vision. “Man, trains are convenient...” He sighed and leaned back. This was the first time in his life where his mom hadn’t immediately lectured him about how she didn’t have them when she was a kid until he groaned and fell asleep.
His eyes felt heavy. He might as well sleep on the train…
//////////
“Um, excuse me, sir?”
Nashara opened his eyes with a groan. Sheesh, what had happened? The train was stationary, that was for sure… “Huh...what time is it?”
“It’s late, sir. I assume you’re here for the Higher Education Entrance Test, so you might wanna book it--”
Nashara’s eyes immediately flew open. “SHIT! It’s that late already?” He immediately lept from his chair and scrambled to make sure everything was in his pockets. Wallet, check. Train pass, check. Assorted snacks, check! He threw his comic in his backpack and rushed past the female attendant down the empty aisle. “How the hell did I sleep this long?!”
He checked the windows as he ran. He was at his stop, 8th station of Lavonia, capital of the Halma Empire. Here he’d be able to apply for any of the colleges in the empire! He could also apply to a Cultivator school, but it would be literally pointless. He had no pretensions of ever being one—he could not be one. That was final. He had made his peace with that a long time ago!
After rushing to the front and opening the door, he lept out with a borderline cringy vault, as if he were a cultivator himself. Hey, he was still a chuuni--
WHONK
Nashara’s leg smashed into something, immediately making him corkscrew through the air wildly, his backpack flying from his body. He bounced off the brick station platform and slid at least 5 feet on his face, coming to an unceremonious stop as his flying backpack smashed into the back of his head and slumped next to him. Unfortunately, some quite heavy textbooks had been in that backpack.
Nashara’s head swam as he picked his crumpled self off the ground. Thankfully, the station was such a busy and bustling place that no one paid attention to him. The one girl who did was quickly told off by her friend with “look, spend enough time riding these trains and you see all sorts of crazy bullshit, now get moving!” Fumbling around, his hand clumsily grabbed the backpack. Finally, he stood, a bleeding scar on his face and blood running from his nose as he turned to see what he had collided with.
A girl was lying on the ground near the door. “Oh gods dammit, are you okay!?” He rushed over to her. She was surrounded by luggage—maybe she planned to stay longer than the few days he needed? One of the boxes was open and bleeding clothes—he quickly shoved them back in before rolling her over. “Hey now, I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to—oh. It’s you.” His face immediately hardened.
The girl had been none other than Jiayun Xue, an immigrant girl from the eastern lands of the Great Expanse who had moved in next to his family when he was a kid. Obviously, that meant that the two of them were inseparable childhood friends.
Absolutely, 100% wrong.
Jiayun and Nashara were ultimate rivals. This wasn’t a tsundere relationship—they were just pure tsun for each other, no matter what anyone else said. They didn’t hate each other, but instead each viewed the other as the rival they must surpass in life. Jiayun, the moment she had moved to his town, had declared him and him alone as the person she would surpass. Why? Who the hell knew, Nashara sure didn’t. Still, he looked up from his comic to look at her and say “you’re on.” He had done it out of pure boredom, and a need for competition. Suddenly he began to care about scholarly pursuits...enough to not fail. If this were a xianxia novel, he clearly would have been the hidden master with SSS-rank talent who just needed a push.
Jiayun opened her eyes and immediately hardened them too. She was a quite beautiful girl, with long scarlet hair that, unusually enough, faded into frosty light blue at the tips. Her eyes however, were a bright verdant green. This girl had a lot of colors going on! She was dressed in a thick dress with an eastern-style tabard, looking like some kind of lolita with an eastern flair. “I can’t believe you actually came here, Nash.”
Nashara stared coldly back at her. “Of course I did. You thought I wasn’t going to go to college?”
Jiayun said nothing before twitching slightly. Nashara immediately lept back, executing a slightly awkward combat roll as she did a near-perfect backflip kick and landed on her feet. Her boots had barely grazed his chin. “Sorry. I needed to get up.”
“Don’t even give me that silliness, Yuyun. You wanted to kick me.”
“Well, that was an added benefit, I suppose.” Jiayun acted dumb as she tied her bags to her larger wheeled luggage. “I have to go now—I’m already late enough for the application process.”
“Woah there!” Nashara slipped his backpack on finally and followed after her. They had to stick close as they entered the crowd to still hear each other. The low din of the station was certainly something neither of them were used to. “Who are you, thinkin’ you can walk ahead of me?” With a smirk he increased his stride to outpace her.
A tiny grin escaped Jiayun’s stoic face as she sped up as well, despite hauling a big bag of luggage. Soon she was outpacing Nashara. Then he outpaced her. This game repeated until the two were in a full-blown run, dodging the crowds around them with surprising ease as they nimbly ducked and weaved in response to every obstacle the people around them presented, both of them unable to hide the grin on their faces as they raced to a wall at the end of the station.
Jiayun effortlessly lept over it, throwing her luggage into her hands while Nashara ran up the wall and did an incredibly flashy pivot around the top, looking like a pro skater without his board.
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Even mortal humans in the Grand Expanse were capable of surprisingly superhuman feats with effort!
Unfortunately for those two, Nashara’s outstretched foot hooked onto Jiayun’s and they both slammed into the ground, slid for several feet, and flopped down the stairs ahead till they were bloody messes on the floor.
//////////
Lavonia was built in and around a mountain, so in addition to being a freezing hellhole year-round (and this was the winter to make it worse), there was little space to build elaborate roads for motorcycles and automobiles, though admittedly those were extremely recent inventions. Instead, Jiayun and Nashara had to run down slick snow-caked streets hemmed in by buildings seemingly groaning under the thick white snowfall that covered their every surface. Since horizontal space was at a premium, these streets rarely carried on straight for long.
Why oh why did university admissions have to take place here? In any case, they had to hurry—the sun was already falling. Early admissions meant one got the stressful lines out of the way and could spend the next few weeks goofing off!
Nashara distracted himself from the cold nipping at his exposed face by admiring all the various restaurants they passed. Lavonia was a big metropolis, so places hawking everything from stir fried rice dishes to pita stuffed with beef to thick hearty stew passed them by. “So much damn good food...hey, I’m stopping by that place when I come back. If you’re nice I might treat you.”
“Even now, you’re thinking of food...”
“Oh come on, you were in my parents’ restaurant damn near every day stuffing your mouth full of gyro beef!”
“Oh come on!” Jiayun looked back at him as they rounded a corner and shot off down towards a rather foreboding cathedral-esque place in the distance ahead, unsullied by snow. “It was cheap and your parents liked me!”
“Yeah, you definitely brought business with lookin’ so fine.”
“If you think my heart is as easy to captivate with such silly words, you really are hopeless.”
“Talking like that doesn’t make you sound smart!” Nashara had no intention on stressing that word, he just found a new wind and surged on forward. He was going to surpass her even to the admissions building!
Not that Jiayun would make it easy, of course. She slowed down slightly. This wasn’t conceding to him. She needed to focus to use both hands to grip her luggage, throwing it in the air and catching it in her arms so she could charge on ahead. She was keeping up with him despite the extra weight! The two of them came up to the rare road where cars could travel, a white convertible ahead of them. No matter. They didn’t slow down for it at all. Nashara quickly vaulted over it, sliding on his hand across the hood in front of the stunned driver. His hand certainly enjoyed the warmth. Jiayun had no hands free to slide on, so she simply jumped right over the driver and landed on the other side, dashing away.
Finally at the front of this imposing cathedral, a massive clock built into its front fascia, they were neck and neck, the wind whipping across their faces. Nashara divebombed forward at the last minute, smashing the doors wide open--and skidding on his shoulder across the far warmer floor in a manner that was somehow cool and ridiculous at the same time…
...at least until he collided with a table and sent valuable college documentation flying everywhere.
//////////
The Lavonia Cathedral had been temporarily re-purposed as the place for the College Admissions Fair. Anyone in the Halma Empire who wanted to do a university worth a damn had to attend this fair, a ritual both Nashara and Jiayun were honestly mystified by. Still, one had to work within the rules.
Unfortunately Nashara’s DYNAMIC ENTRY had delayed the process quite a bit as the entrance desk had to be rearranged. He could feel the glaring stares at the back of his head from other applicants—most horrible of all being Jiayun's. “Hey, I still won, though—OW!”
Jiayun slapped his face. Not very hard. She huffed. “Look at where we are now, dumbass.” They were at the back of the line. They very back. In fact, they had been so engrossed with their mad dash to the cathedral they had not noticed the line went ALL the way back past the door, so they were stuck in the freezing cold again. She checked her watch. 7PM already. They only had an hour before the fair ended. “We have an hour. Great. There’s no way we’re getting in today...”
“Oh have faith. There’s people behind us, and they wouldn’t be there unless they thought they could get in too!”
“That just means they’re fools...and I guess we’re fools too.” Jiayun stuck her hands in her pockets and sighed. “Sheesh. Let’s try your silly plan for once.”
“I’ll treat you for this kindness!”
“I can’t be bought!”
After a bit, Nashara was getting the feeling that maybe she had been right. At the current rate, they wouldn’t get to the front in time. People already in could stay till 9PM, so they just had to get in, but…
Thankfully, luck was on their side as the people behind and several in front left, complaining all the while. They were the only two left! Nashara shot a cheeky smirk at Jiayun, who remained stone-faced as the two of them walked up inside. The cathedral was heated with various fire magics, so it was nice and toasty inside. The front desk had a sweet-looking lady not much older than them. A huge pile of papers was to her right, and to her left was a small crystal orb and a large pot filled with what looked like coal briquettes—but they had softly glowing blue veins etched into them. They both presented their documentation to the lady.
“Alright, let’s see...Nashara Zaras and Jiayun Xue...mhmm...mhmm...oh.” The lady’s voice changed. “Ah, you two don’t have a cultivation talent level on your paperwork...”
“Well...” Nashara scratched the back of his head awkwardly. “Hah hah...we don’t have any talent, see. That world’s just a dream for us.”
“Yes, sir, I understand, but the thing is, your paperwork says nothing in there, not ‘no talent’. It should say that. You have tested your talent before, right?”
The two of them looked at each other awkwardly. They had simply never thought about getting tested. Most people in the Expanse did, but testing cost money and their families had never had any cultivators to begin with, so what was the point? Jiayun answered her. “We never tested, ever. It’s not like testing is legally required, anyway, ma’am, so can we please go on ahead?” Cultivation talent made itself obviously manifest in various ways early on in life, so very few countries actually legally mandated testing.
“Yes, I understand, miss, but we would like you to test, regardless. Your talent level is up in the air anyway.”
“What on earth...” Nashara sighed. “We don’t have time for this. Our talent level isn’t up in the air. We know we’re not talented. This isn’t some novel where it turns out we have secret SSS-rank talent, you know.” He sounded slightly wistful.
“Still...” The lady produced another crystal ball and laid it next to the first. “Please place your hands on this. It will only take five seconds or so.”
The two of them looked at each other and shrugged with sighs. This felt utterly pointless. They had already made peace with their inability to cultivate. Given that cultivators willingly distanced themselves from interfering with normal society without express permission of the mundane world, they could still make an appreciable impact in the world somehow.
They stepped forward and each placed a hand on the orbs.
They expected nothing to happen.
Instead, however, fate had another idea. The balls faintly glowed—Nashara’s a faint silver mixed with tints of green, and Jiayun's. an equal faint blue and red.
“What the...”
“Wait...”
“Ah, I see. You two have F-rank cultivation talent!”
They...they had cultivation talent!
Actual cultivation talent!
...god-awful cultivation talent, granted. In fact, the first response the lady got wasn’t “My dreams have expanded!” or “With this newfound power, I shall reach the apex and seal the heavens!” or “I’m gonna be so badass, hell yeah!” but “What the fuck is an F-rank?!” from both of them.