The next five days went by extremely quickly, with Ron holing himself up in the room provided to him, only occasionally coming out of it to eat food brought to him by weird rock-goblin things or to go pick up books at the library. He was far too distracted to even care about them though.

This was because he was completely engrossed in the Ten Sacred Flames meditation technique. The first time he'd used it, he'd felt as though he'd been lit on fire, and yet, that fire somehow had been pleasant.

He could only use the meditation technique four times per day, and that was already pushing the limits, but Ron didn't care. He'd genuinely enjoyed the feeling meditating brought him even more than the breathing technique.

During the pauses between cultivation, he entertained himself by reading or sleeping. It wasn't comparable to his life before coming to this world, but Ron was already quite satisfied with it.

Sitting cross-legged on his bed, Ron followed the technique's instructions perfectly as he began to pull in the energy particles in the air into his body, just as he had done all the previous times. He could barely sense them when he was deep in cultivation, and yet, they always seemed to be rather eager to respond to his commands.

These particles began to enter his body through his nose, ears, mouth, eyes, and every pore on his skin. They trickled in, slowly causing Ron to begin to grow uncomfortable. He ignored the feeling and instead concentrated on pulling in even more particles.

After a moment, there was a sudden snap within him that left Ron gasping as the original trickle of particles turned into a small stream as they rushed into his body. He almost let out a moan but thankfully he was able to stop himself before doing such an embarrassing thing.

After a minute or so, the feeling ended, and Ron was left exhausted in its wake, and yet, he was oh so very satisfied because he knew what he'd achieved.

He could sense the many energy particles floating leisurely all around him, and since he was inside the Fire Mausoleum's building, the fire particles were much more abundant here. They felt even clearer than when he'd been neck-deep in meditation.

Feeling giddier than he'd even been in probably his entire life, he held out his palm face up and called upon his spiritual energy to gather there.

Miraculously, a small yet definitely real flame appeared above his palm. Despite it being completely useless and barely keeping itself alive, Ron still gaped at it, a huge smile forming on his face.

"This is so cool..." He whispered in awe, willing the flame to change shape, size, and even color. It was difficult, and yet, at the same time, it was also exhilarating.

After a while though, he felt his spiritual energy run out, causing the flame to die out and his head to begin throbbing. With a groan, he threw himself on the bed, waiting for over thirty minutes before the headache finally subsided.

Still, during the entire time, he was still grinning like an idiot. Really, who wouldn't be happy at becoming an actual wizard? Sure, he was more akin to a party trickster than anything else, but it still felt as though the world had suddenly become a whole lot brighter for Ron.

He laid on the bed belly up, forcefully suppressing the happiness in order to think more rationally. He knew that tomorrow morning, the various academies, some of which had literally arrived that afternoon, would all depart, including the Flame Mausoleum.

He'd already returned all the books he'd borrowed from the old man, who still hadn't told him his name. Actually, nobody had so far. He smiled bitterly, knowing full well that those people thought that a mere mortal wouldn't even deserve to know their name, genius or not.

Hence, he was free for the rest of his time at this place. Considering that further meditation would probably not be the best way to spend his time, he decided to go take a look at the fellow students of his academy. Make some friends, maybe, although he inwardly knew this was unlikely.

They'd be jealous of him. Hell, even he was sometimes jealous of himself and considering the treatment he received from the higher up, the brats joining alongside him would likely see him as an enemy, or worse, as a target to use as a stepping stone.

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While Ron knew this inwardly, having both already experienced another life as well as having read plenty of books on this kind of thing, the spark of pride, perhaps even arrogance, within him refused to give in to the pressure of his peers.

He was already a knight, and while he'd never held a weapon in his entire previous life, in this one, weapons felt as natural to him as his own hands did. Furthermore, he was even a rank 1 acolyte now, which while by itself wasn't exactly all that grand, it was still an amazing achievement for one his age and taking into account the overall time spent cultivating.

In fact, from what he knew, most people would take up to several months to become rank 1 acolytes, although that was the more extreme cases. It usually took around a month for most semi-talented students to do so.

With his mind set on his next course of action, Ron took a quick shower before getting out of the room. He didn't see the lady in the room there, but then again, other than the time he registered, he never saw her again, so it wasn't too surprising.

Getting out and into the streets was still just as annoying as before, if not more. There were tons of aspiring students in the place now, and wherever Ron passed, they would all turn and look at him, whispering to each other like little children.

Ron's mood instantly plummeted, and he hurried along. Finally, after five minutes of quick walking, he reached the gathering area for the academies.

Unlike the recruitment centers, this place wasn't an actual building. Rather, it was an airstrip of sorts, where a giant dirigible that had arrived a couple of days beforehand rested, many acolytes and magi tending to it, shooting dark glares at anyone that got too close.

Feeling self-conscious, Ron slithered his way across the sea of students and onto the reserved area with the large sign 'Fire Mausoleum' next to it.

In it, there were 7 students, all doing their different things. Five of them were male, and there were two girls, all of them older than Ron's body was.

Trying his best to suppress the nervous excitement he felt, Ron approached them, putting on a small smile. While he hadn't yet come to terms with the fact that he was now a girl, and a rather cute one at that, he wasn't afraid of using what he had to his advantage. Like the fact that he was cute. And a girl.

Rolling his eyes inwardly, Ron observed the group as they all turned towards him. As he expected, the group itself was divided into two groups, the larger and more seemingly dominant one consisting of three boys and one girl, with the rest all huddling together some distance away.

He approached the larger group first to get a feel for the power dynamic there. Immediately, one of the boys came up to her, eyes sparkling while the rest just watched.

"Hello there! Are you a fellow student going to the Fire Mausoleum?" He asked, his voice overly loud and exuberant. Ron felt actual goosebumps run down his spine at the gaze of the brat, somehow instinctively knowing that going into a dark room together with him would be a bad idea.

Well, that probably wasn't true. She could feel that he wasn't an acolyte yet, and he lacked the musculature that knights had, which even Ron had, even if it was subtle.

"Yes, I am." He answered curtly, not wanting to give the boy any more rope than necessary. He tried to slip around him and towards the others, who were all looking on with either apathy or pity.

However, the boy stopped her by blocking her with his body. "Now, now. You still haven't introduced yourself. Do tell us your name, please. Oh, and also your talent... Because I don't allow trash to be associated with me." The boy's eyes gradually darkened, and in the end, he actually growled.

If it had been the previous Ron, the one before coming to this world, he would have been intimidated into submission. However, now...

He looked like a kitten trying to show off its measly claws. Faster than he could react, Ron swept him off his feet and landed a heavy punch on his ribcage, careful not to hit too hard.

The boy went down with a pained huff, and within an instant, Ron was on top of him, holding him down with one hand while a flame appeared in his other hand.

Gasps resounded from the spectators nearby, but Ron ignored them. He did not want to deal with this shit, and he would show the stupid child his place in one fell swoop.

The boy's eyes were wide open as he stared up at the much smaller girl who effortlessly kept him pinned, while at the same time trying to get away from the small but scary flame in her hand.

"You want to know my name? I don't feel like telling you. You want to know my talent? All you need to know is that, compared to you, I am a god, and you are nothing but a dog. Bark away all you want with your idiotic friends, but if you try to pull this shit one more time, I won't be so nice." He whispered, his voice intentionally taking a very dangerous tone.

He let go of the brat, watching as he scuttled backward on his butt, retreating as much as he could while trembling. Ron cast one last heavy look at the group that he'd originally intended to meet and talk to, but now, his mood had been thoroughly ruined, and knowing that the kids wouldn't lift a finger to help him had the boy decided to attack him didn't help their standing in Ron's eyes.

He turned away from them and marched back to his room to pack up his things. He didn't even want to look at those idiots, feeling absolutely disgusted by them.

Suddenly, cultivating alone while hidden deep underground didn't sound so unappealing anymore.