Leo stepped out of the changing rooms in regular clothes, covered in sweat. Leo would definitely be moving the Melee Combat class to the end, if possible. Luckily, Leo had three hours till Affinity Testing classes, and Leo had only one goal in mind as he quickly walked through Cernery: to get back to his dorm and take a shower.
Taking a shower was annoying for an eight year old that had only ever taken baths before. He couldn’t reach the showerhead, and he couldn’t stand water getting in his eyes.
Once he was done with that, though, Leo got out and flopped down on his bed. Now that some time had passed, his body was pretty sore from how hard he’d worked.
He didn’t have much that he needed to do for the next two hours and forty-five minutes, but Leo had plenty that he wanted to do.
Videos of Leo’s training on the ship had been recorded prior to now, and he set them up side-by-side using his two watches.
On his birthday watch was his old training, and on his awatch were his most eventful fights throughout the Melee Combat class.
He skipped his first and second fights, as they didn’t really have any educational value, but his third one with Reya, which lasted for seven full minutes apparently, was something he carefully examined.
Comparing it to his old self wasn’t particularly helpful, but it made Leo happy to see his improvements. They weren’t very large at the start of his fight with Reya, but by the end of it, Leo was visibly better in every way.
Leo skipped to his second fight with Reya. It was shorter and he had been exhausted beyond belief in it, and so it wasn’t nearly as impressive or interesting as his first fight with her, but Leo could still see large improvements in certain areas, like footwork, positioning and overall efficiency.
Leo didn’t bother with his final match. It had been against Zachary Warden, who had been at the top spot in the rankings, and Leo had lost within only twenty seconds. Leo knew it was a bad habit to blame it on things outside his control, but the boy was seventeen, fighting an eight year old. That Leo had even lasted twenty seconds was because the other boy hadn’t been taking it seriously.
‘What kind of class is this? I get that awakened learn differently from regular people, but I don’t think eight year olds should be fighting seventeen year olds. It’s just a good thing that Cernery doesn’t accept people eighteen or older.’
The entire class had been weird beyond belief. He hadn’t received any personal guidance throughout the entire thing, and had instead just been tossed into the fray. His soul had absorbed the rules of combat several times faster than before because of the pressure, but Leo still didn’t know anything aside from the four basic cuts that Erich had taught him.
In fact… the classes he had were weird in general. Leo decided to search for answers, and half an hour later, Leo let out a heavy sigh.
It was because of Leo’s age. Many classes didn’t accept him- ironically, the ‘Basic Melee Combat’ class didn’t, but the ‘Melee Combat’ class that he attended, did. The Basic version was what he had been expecting, it looked like.
His schedule also seemed very empty for the same reason- he hadn’t been allowed to do too much. All of his classes combined only amounted to seven hours of work, and aside from five that were meant for tutoring, Leo was completely free.
The lack of a pressing need for sleep meant that Leo would have lots of free time, and he wasn’t happy about that. Being alone with nothing to do was horrible- he knew, because Leo had to endure a few days of it on the ship, at the start and at the end.
The many, many conflicting emotions made it impossible for Leo to enjoy having nothing to do.
His saving grace was the clubs that Cernery ran; all of them allowed him. Not only would they save him from having nothing to do, but also be a good opportunity for him to make friends.
Leo felt conflicted, but he knew that it would be for the best. He’d go insane if he remained all alone here. Leo decided that he’d keep his current schedule until the end of the day, and then change it all around. Each class only had a few time spans that he could choose from, meaning that it would never be perfectly convenient, but Leo would do his best.
To begin with, Leo kept Soul Basics where it was- 8:00 to 8:55 -, but had Affinity Testing come right afterwards, lasting from nine to one P.M. After that would come Melee Combat, lasting from one to two. Finally, Leo decided that he wanted to take a pair of classes that he was shocked hadn’t been in his schedule to begin with; Basic Survival skills, which would last from two thirty to three thirty and Basic Making, which lasted from three thirty to five. ‘Basic Making’ sounded weird, but it was a class dedicated to, well, making things.
Ultimately, including tutoring, which would last from seven to one, that meant that there would still be seven hours of free time, from one to eight.
For a normal person, that would be spent sleeping. Fortunately, but unfortunately in this instance, awakened only slept, like, twice a week, and even then only for a few hours.
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At first, Leo grimaced. Seven hours of free time was a lot for somebody that didn’t want any free time. Gradually, though, Leo realized that seven hours almost felt like too little, especially when Leo intended for a chunk of it to be allocated to school clubs.
He had lots of things he needed to do outside of classes; namely, cultivating his soul- which he had still not touched at all so far-, training with his sword outside of Melee Combat, and other miscellaneous things, like the short presentation that Professor Stein expected on their understanding of the soul. No matter what, Leo decided to allocate five of his hours of ‘free’ time to those, and cram a club or two into his schedule afterwards.
There were a few dozen clubs that Leo found mildly interesting, but it wasn’t difficult to narrow it down to two; Melee Combat and the Crafter Club. Both lasted for two hours, from four to six. Since they encompassed the same time, Leo would only be able to attend each one every other day. That left him with one to four, and then seven to eight, which gave him the five hours he wanted to use for general studying.
The only true ‘free’ time he’d have would be the hour between Basic Making’s end and his tutoring’s start, and such a small amount of truly free time was small enough that Leo was confident he’d be able to fill it with other things.
Leo was starting to wonder if he had packed his schedule too much, but then shook his head. Saturday was a no-school day, meaning that he’d have a large chunk of that day to do anything unplanned for, and it wasn’t like skipping classes and such was particularly frowned upon, it seemed.
The sigh of relief he let out upon knowing that he’d be almost perpetually busy was very strange.
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Leo stood off to the side awkwardly, still unsure of where to start. Affinity testing was an important class that almost everyone took, which meant that there were multiple different professors in the room, trying to help what had to have been half a thousand children. Leo had received a bit of help from Professor Stein, who was one of the rare professors that taught multiple classes, but still didn’t know how to start.
His affinity was one that would only show its value later; trying to use his soul to create anything at all would drain him enormously, and possibly even to the point of death.
Lots of affinities were like that, but unlike the other kids in the class, Leo was at minimum two months late in entering Cernery- meaning that he was two months behind everyone else here.
Basically, there was nothing he really could do here for the next four hours. Leo had decided to wait around for a while, trying to figure something out, but eventually just decided to skip the class. He might be able to actually do something there in, like, a week.
Instead, Leo returned to his dorm room. His tutor wouldn’t arrive for a few hours, so Leo worked on his presentation of his understanding of the soul to Professor Stein.
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Presentation and tutoring finished, Leo headed over to the campus director’s office, where he set up his schedule. Leo had received a bit of advice from his tutor, but had ignored it. She wanted him to leave himself some time to just have fun, but Leo didn’t find playing games, watching movies or becoming immersed in his miseries any more fun than training to be a superhero of sorts.
The schedule change meant that he’d have the rest of today and tomorrow- aside from the tutoring- entirely free. Leo was excited to begin finally cultivating his soul, but there were a few things he needed to do first, unfortunately.
Namely, Leo needed to decide what direction he wanted to take his affinity cultivation. Leo had already technically engaged in it by changing his understanding of creation, but it wasn’t really affinity cultivation; it was something everyone, even those who didn’t engage in true affinity cultivation, had to do, since their understanding of their powers shaped how they would work.
True affinity cultivation was making permanent, impactful alterations or enhancements to an affinity.
Luckily, now that Leo was one of the most valued people in the Ander Empire, it wasn’t hard for him to get into contact with someone to advise him. After all, this would change his path significantly.
Leo had a bunch of contacts with government officials and other such powerful people, but he called Erich before any of them. Unfortunately, the man didn’t accept the call. ‘Must be busy,’ Leo thought sadly, before calling Tul, a woman that Maxwell had told him to call whenever he needed advice in relation to his cultivation. Supposedly, she was meant to be his secretary of sorts, and had made his schedule at Cernery, for example, but Leo had never even seen her.
She accepted the call after only a second, and after explaining to the woman what he was trying to do, she very quickly tried to shut it down.
“It’s too early for you to be making such an impactful decision. Keep your affinity as it is, and only engage in it once you’re absolutely sure.” Tul told him quickly, sounding weirdly desperate.
“But I am absolutely sure.” Leo told her, and she shook her head.
“You’re too young. Trust me; you’ll want to change your mind after only a couple months. You’re in a state of rapid growth; your likes, dislikes and plans will constantly be changing.”
Leo disagreed. His visions of Verin and his awakening had made him advance incredibly quickly in regards to his maturity.
…But was it enough for him to be making such a large decision? Leo wanted to make it now so that he could more easily proceed with his planned method of combat, but was it so important when Leo had no need of pushing it forward yet? His life wasn’t in any danger.
“You’re right.” Leo admitted after a few seconds, and Tul let out a huge sigh of relief. He supposed that the Ander Empire really didn’t want him to ruin his potential.
Leo snorted. If they really didn’t want him to, they would pay him more attention. Leo was relatively certain that he was incredibly valuable due to his potential, but the way that he was being treated didn’t seem that great.
The call ended soon after, and Leo fell into thought.
Pretty much the only thing he had wanted to do was begin affinity cultivation, but that was off the table for now. So, he supposed that the only thing he could do was begin boring old soul cultivation for the first time. It was supposedly a bit dangerous, which was why he hadn’t been allowed to do it on the ship, but, going with the theme of them not seeming to really care all that much about him anymore, he was allowed to do it now, when he was all alone.
Leo sat down on his bed and crossed his legs, but was suddenly hesitant. He’d never heard of anybody even being seriously injured engaging in regular cultivation, so this should be fine… but at the same time, he’d never heard of an eight year old awakened, either.
Leo couldn’t push it off any longer, though. Leo was well aware that he’d done worse in the Melee Combat class due to not having engaged in it yet; strengthening his soul should also strengthen his body.
With a heavy sigh, Leo began. Rather than draw his soul out of the spirit realm and into the physical, Leo drew his mind out of the physical realm and into the spiritual.