A Year Later
The second week went by. It was fast and busy, especially since Heian Ciemnosc started attending 'classes' with Teacher Puru, who had bought off those extra silver coins to have Heian Ciemnosc as an apprentice. On the other hand, Heian Ciemnosc was becoming word of mouth by the achievements he executed 'killing' an Ashes Soul realm cultivator. His battle prowess was rumored before, and it continued to be talked on more now after the news of those facts was sliiiightly leaked.
Heian Ciemnosc was taught by Teacher Puru about spaceships, of the vehicles for land forces and ships. Everything that Heian Ciemnosc once thought knew he had everything changed. He spoke of many names, from weapons to several different ‘codes’ and slangs for all types of armies. Heian Ciemnosc was also showed a few secret battles during the past few millions of years, timeless and kept together during this whole time.
The mornings were spent studying under the Teacher. While his girlfriend, now fiancée, would come late in the morning and join the boys. Though she wasn’t helpful in things Teacher Puru taught him, she was a practical aid whenever Teacher Puru mentioned an abbreviation or slang. And she would remind or explain him to them. Besides, whenever he made Teacher Puru proud after the class, she would buss his forehead as a goodbye and good luck for the rest of the day… Even if Heian Ciemnosc was to admit it, it somehow felt like he was being bid farewell before going to school. Something he only felt during some short few years many years ago.
Teacher Puru no longer narrowed his eyes dangerously whenever she touched him, especially after several months of Heian Ciemnosc coming and going into his apartment-like lodging, and had built a truthful reputation without remarkable or exotic achievements. Before half a year went like this, Heian Ciemnosc had a new home to sleep in if he wanted and if Teacher Puru was merciful towards his fiancée, Sharina. Teacher Puru started looking for an actual residence so that he and his future wife would have a life of their own future. And also give Heian Ciemnosc a more… proper feeling.
Teacher Puru gained a new home in the 7th month, where a mansion was bought somewhere east of the Academy’s territory. It was ⅓ large as any dormitory for Sub Students. It had a gigantic garden plus an artificial lake with a private section where his fiancée would usually dip nip with Heian Ciemnosc and with him from time to time.
It had concealment and protective array formations protecting it from prying eyes and thieving scum. Although it wasn’t as if anyone would dare steal or try to pry into a Teacher’s residence, much less within the Academy’s grounds. It had a few underground garages, where one of Teacher’s Cruisers was parked. He brought Heian Ciemnosc to see it. But Teacher Puru didn’t let him examine it from within until he could build a Frigate alone. Such a thing didn’t happen until the 11th month of the year, which Heian Ciemnosc barely created one capable of fighting in a battle.
It had to be disassembled afterwards, however. Then Sharina taught Heian Ciemnosc the mistakes he made when creating a Frigate, an offensive one, for that matter. She was an engineer and one of many hookups Teacher Puru had during the 10 year war. It was slightly… a slightly silly story.
There she was, fixing Teacher Puru’s Carrier as he became the big bad boss for a few battles in the Wrath Nihility Academy’s name. She wasn’t a pure and innocent maiden back then, nor was she a weakling, only remaining a trooper due to her engineering capabilities and showing no interest in an officer’s position. She was even mightier than Teacher Puru and could have punched him to fly into space for hundreds of thousands of kilometers with just a bit of energy put into it. So she described.
But even as she made Teacher Puru sweat as she told Heian Ciemnosc these, she still let him have her. His moves were smooth, his looks excellent, and his intentions too poorly hidden. But Sharina gave no fucks, except with her body. It was a one-time thing, but none of them thought that the first thing they did after arriving home after the end of the 10 year war was becoming managers. And to add to that, in the same department within the blue building.
One thing led to another. Teacher Puru suddenly became jealous of a handsome man dating her. While she was falling for another Human that wasn’t him. How dare she?! Thus, after Sharina tapped Teacher Puru’s head so that her man’s ego wouldn’t grow… that much. She elaborated how Teacher Puru was almost punished by the Academy… after being beaten up by that male Human. In the end, however, Sharina the compassive forgave him. Yet, before she knew it, she returned to his bed, and this whole thing started.
When Heian Ciemnosc arrived at their lives, they were already giving each other’s sparkling eyes about marriage. His coming into their lives just sped up the inevitable. As for how he was involved, it was simple~. Sharina felt so bad seeing Heian Ciemnosc adore her man and her man being too vigorous with the Academy’s rules that, to convince him, she had to sell her soul to the devil. Though she was a Demon, and her man a Human.
With a new ring appearing on her otherwise ringless left hand since the second week, Heian Ciemnosc began to meddle, drill, and take a seat in their lives. Comfortably and somewhat shamelessly. It happened a couple times. The mofo dared to sleep on top of her, her comfy tatas becoming his pillow. The next day after those events, he would return to class bloodied and tired. But he would still show vigor and appear unbreakable in the eyes of others.
After the 17th time that happened, Heian Ciemnosc was becoming taller, more handsome, mighty handsome, and putting a new height in the handsome -cale as he would often like to think. Heian Ciemnosc stopped sleeping on the bare breasts of his cherished Teacher’s woman. He had grown far too much. He knew his beauty was catastrophic.
In order to protect himself and their marriage and not turn her into the 60% naughty side, Heian Ciemnosc distanced his nights from them. It wasn’t difficult anyway. During the entire night, after class, Heian Ciemnosc would go out and either train his Craftsmaking professions as an allrounder or go out with Elena to some fighting rings, recreational activities for cultivators, or simply… just have not-dates gazing around.
The moon and the stars sometimes accompanied them. But most of the time, the obscurity of the night was always there and bid them farewell at the beginning of the morning.
During the month and a half she was gone, Heian Ciemnosc would crazily repass over the teachers who taught him and the class about the flora and fauna. It was a bit boring at first, because the teacher in charge of that class first spoke of ordinary flora and fauna, especially flora. The Wrath Nihility was adept but didn’t specialize in caretaking Craftsmaking.
They were taught the simple and ordinary methods of all flora, from their natural upbringing to what civilians and cultivators can do to aid them and enhance such procedures. And then, they were taught all flora capable of pure energy was the child of ordinary flora. If every herb and plant was checked by a knowledgeable farmer, they could help a cultivator devise a formula to save, enhance, mutate, or even evolve them!
Heian Ciemnosc was, by now, aware that carnivorous plants could have a Soul grow within them. But he didn’t know they were one of the most ancient plants in all history.
It was similar to caretaking. One wasn’t just giving the Fauna a good life and helping them feel like pets. As a caretaker, one made monsters even more monstrous. Evolving wasn’t in the caretaker’s dictionary because it wasn’t evolution that they sought. Of course, if it could happen, any caretaker would do its utmost to help that happen. Having the achievement of helping a new species of Beast born was barely ever seen, and such a feat was naturally welcoming by any.
As a caretaker, one wants their Fauna to become so powerful they could only be defeated or killed in battle by the most powerful of enemies at their same level or massacred by countless enemies as that could only be the way for such to perish. But that was only their goal and end result, and only one of them. A caretaker helped their Fauna improve their bodies and cultivation as much as possible.
It was similar to taking exams. One could fail to do so at first, but with experience and checking the ever so helpful records of all Fauna that can be found anywhere in the world. A caretaker could right their wrongs and help any Fauna become the best they could… if successful. Nothing’s perfect, nor can everyone be a gem for being in charge of such hefty responsibility.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
With that came the distinction, recognition, and knowledge of the basis and principles to even particles and Elemental reactions of all ingredients for both forging and alchemy. The Assistant Teacher in charge of that class could only reveal to them such information, as only Students or Leading Students could be taught in a class, about the methods, formulae, and improvements in actual alchemy and forging.
And to boot, there wasn’t much talking about array formations, only letting the Sub Students know the difference between the most generic ones, how to counteract them, what to do if ‘many’ ifs, and which were the best tactics when camping outside the Academy’s territory. There were a few tips to inscribe array formations faster without losing efficiency and how to reinforce them in case of need.
After these many classes and practices, Heian Ciemnosc understood and even saw things he didn’t see before, which he had already experienced. Things such as the hidden violet glow beneath the teleportation portals and how only when all black smoke was above the transparent glass and would suddenly glow so magnificently it could actually blind any ordinary pair of eyes.
But they were impossible to see unless one had one hell of an advanced Spirit Sense, which Heian Ciemnosc didn’t have in the mere First Step… or Heian Ciemnosc’s eyes! It only took Heian Ciemnosc to go out and return to the dormitory or to Teacher Puru’s residence to confirm it, and he was damn right. His capability to ‘see’ through facts that have already happened, even days or a few hours ago or longer, hasn’t gone out of nowhere. If anything, they could only grow…
Even then, Heian Ciemnosc still did his own little experiments. He had to use hundreds of silver coins every week to rent a place near the Craftsmaking buildings, which are really damn tall but not as tall as the main 5 buildings within the Academy’s territory center and right in the middle. And surrounding them. But thankfully, he had bought enough ingredients with those almost 90,000 silver coins from his first month.
After spending 3 months with those ingredients, treating them as preciously as his own body, except whenever he tried poisons and put his hands into liquid worse than lava or magma, Heian Ciemnosc had to use his savings from the past few weeks to start buying more ingredients.
Heian Ciemnosc continued doing missions every noon after studying under Teacher Puru, gaining a few thousand silver and making approximately 20,000 to 25,000 silver coins weekly. At around 100,000 each month, Heian Ciemnosc was making good money, like many more Sub Students were, but he wasn’t doing simple odd jobs. Most of the time, he was a Supervisor or Teacher’s attendant, moving ingredients and helping rear some new cubs of Fauna.
He didn’t even care about the boresomeness of some other jobs, like becoming an attendant in one of the 5 main buildings or assistant at random shops, from lavish to old and from small to insanely huge ones. Occasionally, he would become someone’s sparring partner and riddle himself with injuries. Once, he was actually hired by Elena’s master. Only. Her Master wasn’t around, and some Sub Teacher supervised the sparring.
It was a fun day at that time. He got body to body with her, on the ground, several times. Somehow, Heian Ciemnosc felt nice showing his closeness with this Human female as Elena’s master’s confidant watched them spar. He, of course, was paid after bleeding from several places around his body.
Heian Ciemnosc managed to frequent every building, its main base and the first few floors upwards, from cleaning to attending to people in the most meager situations. He went through it all. If anything, Heian Ciemnosc wasn’t the employer of the month, for he worked no more than 2 weeks in each building during the year.
Besides the buildings and the Craftsmaking buildings surrounding them, Heian Ciemnosc witnessed life in the cities where civilians lived their excellent, short lives. Some did get extended lifespans from the Academy, but that was the highest ‘reward’ anyone could get, and it could only be after a thorough inspection of a person who could receive such highest benefit.
He aided the few old cultivators peacefully living their days, mostly forming a family here. While some brought their family to such cities, and others were grumpy or calmly waiting for death to kiss them goodbye and in greetings. He met those sorts of people. He saw their hand on the cities. Heian Ciemnosc had to say that seeing not a twinge of corruption or abuse made his little chest feel funny on occasions. But he was just an assistant. Even if there was corruption, he wouldn’t do anything against it. Besides, all cities of the Academy lived more than well.
Sometimes, he would go out to the Academy and do some really long-taking odd jobs, some even lasting for days as Heian Ciemnosc had to plan his schedule before delivering the goods to sell or buy them from nearby Cities and other settlements. Hell, he even wingmaned a couple fellas and tons of beauties to get laid. Some even had marriage rumors ongoing months after Heian Ciemnosc the Cupid helped them.
It was rumored Heian Ciemnosc knew the ways any person had weaknesses. Nobody wondered about a male’s spots, and the world was too advanced for even young girls not to know that just one of their fingers could make their boyfriends go crazy. So that was fine. But according to rumors, he was engaged and pure, saving himself for the right one. How did he know where to push, scratch, bite, slap, hurt, gently give love, and how to tame the other? It was… magical!
However, as that was some of Heian Ciemnosc’s fame source, his major fame-bringing news was those every week on the night of the first weekly day. While Heian Ciemnosc’s dormitories gained a reputation for either flawlessly defeating their opponents or winning against the toughest ones with thin chances of winning, almost losing in the process of so many competitions. His own strength and able fighting commended his reputation, which was talked about and seen during the year.
Heian Ciemnosc would weekly go out with his fellow Saberbone Diabolical Club members. On his return, he would bring heads of dozens and dozens of Spirit Birth realm cultivators. Most of which weren’t delivered to the Academy. Only those ugly faces he didn’t want to eat, knowing Alyona would be all over his mouth after marrying Heian Ciemnosc and offered them to the Academy to show prestige and their overbearingness to the world.
As the year went by, as a Sub Student, Heian Ciemnosc could never lead a mission group. That was one of the few limitations to one’s status within the Wrath Nihility Academy. It was an efficient, humbling process involving no violence and conflict within, and Heian Ciemnosc couldn’t care less about not being a leader. If anything… he was too tired of it and still hasn’t had enough rest from… that.
In short, Heian Ciemnosc was happy to go out and gain more meals for his cultivation. There was no Spirit Sense class for Sub Students, much less Soul classes. But anyone who asked their Assistant Teacher, even amidst different classes, and asked them about cultivation would respond candidly. Even if someone saw an Assistant Teacher walking on a sidewalk or having a meal, any Sub Student could come to them and ask away. This was further encouraged by the Assistant Teachers themselves. Who the fuck would refuse free merit?!
Slowly, more and more Students witnessed Heian Ciemnosc’s might. As the latter half of the year went by, Heian Ciemnosc was already someone nobody could recognize anymore. They couldn’t tell what his next distinguished achievement could be, nor if Heian Ciemnosc would only last as a Sub Student for a few years before becoming a Student. And how long until becoming a Leading Student? A decade, perhaps? That’ll be too much! But also fitting by someone of his persona.
For the whole year, Heian Ciemnosc gained 1,172,080 silver coins. And though it seemed and was indeed much, his expenditure was just as grand. However, besides the odd jobs, Heian Ciemnosc received more silver coins from his club’s missions. And though he wasn’t exempt from the 8,000 silver coins per ‘ordinary’ mission, he still gained 20,000 to 40,000 silver coins as an extra.
Towards the final month, Heian Ciemnosc had a revenue of 3,432,000 silver coins! Yet! His monthly expenditure was considerable, and every 3 months, which was the time he needed to spend all his money on ingredients, Jing Evan and his new children, still in their eggs but being taken care of by the Fauna-housing services, and his own needs. Heian Ciemnosc spent approximately 609,840 silver coins every 3 months.
More than 2,642,640 silver coins were used just for the sake of all his allrounder Craftsmaking passion, vow, and duty. Leaving him with 789,360 for pleasure or for immediate need. With that money, he bought another 5 Inferior Covert Space bags. Of which 3 were left as his purse and any tradeable items. Another 2 for storing his herbs, plants, tools, ingredients, and meals that Fauna and some flora might enjoy. The remaining Inferior Covert Space bag was left for his personal belongings.
The authentic Inferior Covert Space bags can hold more objects, and only Fauna can enter them as living beings, and not for too long, still. They had more resistance and had self-activating protective array formations. They were as costly as they could get but worthy. They had the same qualities for stacking together.
Up to 7 Inferior Covert Space bags can be hidden within one Inferior Covert Space bag, and good luck trying to store another 7 in one that is already inside another. It wouldn’t work. Only with Supreme Covert Space bags can that happen. But Supreme Covert Space bags cannot stack each other more than possible. Up to 2 other Supreme Covert Space bags can be stacked inside one, and about 13 Inferior Covert Space bags.
Though 13 Inferior Covert Space bags could be placed in those 2 Supreme Covert Space bags within a Supreme Covert Space bag, they couldn’t hold another Supreme Covert Space bag in it.
However, the only good thing about stacking them up like this was that the main Covert Space bag was practically without problem holding all that space off like it’s nothing. It proved that it was safer using a secondary Covert Space bag as the Covert Space bag for personal items, so Heian Ciemnosc ended up using one of his Inferior Covert Space bags for tradeable items as the main Covert Space bag within his stacking few.
…
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Let It Rain: Not over yet, I still have to explain his cultivation progress (it isn't that wow, don't worry) and his time spent with Elena more detailedly. That polearm isn't completed with just one's thought, hmph! Or is it? Ò.Ó .