And Time Passes By

"Master, I broke through," Heian Ciemnosc stood up, wearing his clothes from his Covert Space bags without needing him to tap his pale body around. Lady Calisneia crossed her arms and nodded. Her voice was gentle as she berated him lightly, "Of course you have. What were you doing before? Playing with your cultivation base like that, don't you know how others have difficult times and lives because of failing to at least accomplish what you did? You should think more about these things in the future before playing around!"

"..." Heian Ciemnosc's darkest eyes casually blinked. He looked at his Master somewhat strangely as she silently smacked her buttocks through imaginary notions. After a short silence, Lady Calisneia cooled down and pointed to the emptiness with her left index finger upwards. "Now go to your room and stabilize your cultivation base. You aren't coming out until you've solidified your foundation to usual. Understood?"

"Heard!" Heian Ciemnosc shouted. Saluting his Master, he turned and flew into the distant, empty blackness. His speed was insanely faster, more than any Neutrality realm cultivator could reach, and even possible in the Neutral Encephalon realm's scope. His Master watched with enthusiasm as Heian Ciemnosc's growth didn't overly boost his battle prowess but also didn't lessen. If anything, it remained the same as before, and he should be able to directly fight those in the middle stages of the Neutral Encephalon realm.

‘This kid… he’s really something unseen.’ Lady Calisneia praised and commented silently in her mind after Heian Ciemnosc left the area. She stared at where his back disappeared for a while before turning around and walking towards her room. She was getting tired already. These last few days, she simply felt too exhausted to even come out for several days. How long could she keep going before she could no longer even move?

… The world didn’t stop moving while Heian Ciemnosc was breaking into the Neutrality realm. This realm allowed him to build his crystallized armor and were he to do it, it would be an amazing feat that boosts his defense like no other usual crystallized armor ever could. However, Heian Ciemnosc wouldn’t be him if he used any protection. He had never used any armor. Perhaps some shields, barriers, living beings as meat walls, and so on, but never protection for him only.

A few days later, when Elena finally stabilized her cultivation base and started solidifying to her heart’s content, Heian Ciemnosc came to her and started some dual cultivation rounds besides love-making. Her room wasn’t inadequate, and her cultivation and meditation rooms were on par with his back in his Master’s abode. This demonstrated to Heian Ciemnosc again how much her Master wanted him to improve until not even the skies could catch up to him.

After helping Elena achieve enough solidification to his standards for his wives, which is above his people, Heian Ciemnosc brought an exhausted Elena out. A few days later, he met with the Concealed Ornament Team in the Saberbone Diabolical Club. Heian Ciemnosc would no longer be able to go on missions whenever a big one became available. He couldn’t accompany Frank, Arla, and even his COs, but they could go together with Elena’s Crystal Fist Team.

Thus, Heian Ciemnosc took the chance to instruct his Team to join any possible activity, and if they paid, he would give them each a bunch of pills for cultivation and keep attending more missions. Heian Ciemnosc could no longer farm merit points as he used to and would have to focus on his other clubs’ activities and learning periods while using Evans to rapidly complete the personnel missions his Master gave him.

As club leaders, Arla helped Heian Ciemnosc by taking the COs under her protection. Frank immediately followed. And although Elena couldn’t become a club leader yet, she was seen as one. Her Crystal Fist Team would be cooperating with his COs but also invited other such elite teams. Every Saberbone Diabolical Club’s team was elite. Frank’s team joined in, and while Arla didn’t belong to one, she was slowly being incorporated into the CO Team.

First, Arla would have to go through some tough training before letting her become a leading figure under the COs, struggling with the other new recruits. Elena’s Crystal Fist Team was now expanding, and it was gaining huge and great members from all over the Academy. Everyone was a veteran of the couple of wars and were aware Elena’s training had merged with the Concealed Ornament Team. However brutal it might be, the new recruits were more than willing to push their limits and see if they could join these monsters. If not, they could just go to Biston or Sahnyr with a recommendation letter if they were not interested in the Saberbone Diabolical Club.

Even the Saberbone Diabolical Club had to expand after the Wrath Nihility Academy started transitioning into a Third Step organization. At least the regular combatant clubs would surpass them with sheer numbers alone. Thus, while the Academy and its students were busy adapting to the future, so were the top-notch clubs working hard to assimilate. But they weren’t the only ones finally expanding.

Heian Ciemnosc finally decided to start expanding his Concealed Ornament Team as intended after breaking into the Second Step. Now, he had the time, and in a few weeks, he would have enough gold coins to start making Mortal equipment and weapons for every CO team member. It was like a long time had passed since the team’s initiation. The COs could still remember their first strange, bombastic mission. The nostalgia hit them. Thus, they were ready to brutally bully the new recruits with Heian Ciemnosc’s training perfectly synchronized in their minds.

Thus, after several meetings with his COs, he kept training under his Master’s guidance and on his own with the Soul-exalting Old World parchment whenever his Master told him to go out and do whatever he wanted to decide on these matters. Heian Ciemnosc was far too diligent, and with his free days running low, Heian Ciemnosc couldn’t keep his promise to keep Elena with him for months without letting her go. At the same time, he didn’t want to achieve that by installment.

Thus, Heian Ciemnosc delayed the time for intense, secluded cultivation for another time when it was more needed than now. Currently, Heian Ciemnosc is brand new in the Second Step, and as he was learning some recipes from his Master, he would have to study most others and experiment on his own in the clubs. His Master wasn’t going to give him recipes he could get on his own, and while Heian Ciemnosc didn’t know which he was teaching them at the moment and how they were ranked in the Second Step, he at least knew they were fucking complex.

After another week, Heian Ciemnosc prepared everything and finished another mission. When he arrived with Evans back at the Academy, he took his first class after so long and went to some clubs from the afternoon to late night. Like this, Heian Ciemnosc started slowly incorporating into the clubs as one more student. Of course, he was in every club existent up until now.

Heian Ciemnosc knew the ‘tests’ to join any top-notch club would be delayed to see how he would do in those clubs. They might have simply let Heian Ciemnosc join in after a week, but after everyone in the Existence knew about it, they felt it was Heian Ciemnosc’s challenge. Thus, unless they felt an urge, they planned to see what results the little black monster would show before everyone.

Weeks went by. Heian Ciemnosc studied harshly in every class and was the smartass whenever asked. Assistant Teachers and Sub Teachers got quickly bored with him, asking him only every few days some things before passing to teach the rest of the class. On the other hand, whenever there was a ‘master class’ with a Teacher, this one would take Heian Ciemnosc, Elena, and many more prodigies and bombard them with quick questions, demanding quick answers, and the latter couldn’t be 1% less perfect.

Every week, a Supervisor would give a class to any Student. Although they had to pay with some coins, the Leading Students had to pay more. Thus, Heian Ciemnosc went to every weekly class with a Supervisor. However, ever since the Academy started transitioning to the Third Step, more than a dozen Supervisors started giving a class each week. Things were changing, and they weren’t small changes. They were hella big ones.

Heian Ciemnosc started comprehending more, and the more he did, the more he saw the world before his darkest eyes, before his mind… and in his inner being. Elena was the same. Even as she had her adoptive father/master, whose experience was also growing as they studied, these classes offered her most of what any cultivator needed and had no idea of. This was the Academy’s modus operandi. A Sect might have more open methods to teach at once, but in the Wrath Nihility Academy, each student was learning at the same pace as any other organization.

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Heian Ciemnosc would go out in the early morning and return before the evening on the last day of the week without losing time for a Supervisor’s class and completing all the missions his Master left him to do each week. But soon, he started growing in the clubs he went to. The alchemy-based clubs started rapidly appreciating him, almost taking him for the god of alchemy in the lower realms of the Second Step.

At times, Heian Ciemnosc received little visits from his senior who wanted to test him in alchemy. Afterwards, they would give some little advice to Heian Ciemnosc. Most of those words were necessary and general knowledge among them, but it opened tiny doors for Heian Ciemnosc to peek before finding the large ones where he could go through. For now, that information was kept inside his head, and he even used some of their advice to improve his alchemy. It was a whole experience, nothing as he had ever imagined when he first came out of the Blackotia Kingdom. Only some faces from that place remained eternally imprinted in his self.

Rapidly, Heian Ciemnosc became a top club member in every alchemy-based club. Very soon, he received the invitation to come up the ladder and take the test to form part of the top-notch alchemy club. Responding in kind, Heian Ciemnosc accepted it but requested a date much later this year. After getting through everything the alchemy clubs could grant him, knowledge, practice, and experience, Heian Ciemnosc left for another section.

In the following couple of months and a few weeks, Heian Ciemnosc spent his free time out of cultivating, meditating, and under his Master’s guidance, delving into array formations-based clubs. It took him more time since array formations were the prettiest beauty of the group of Craftsmaking professions, the hardest to conquer and keep around, so to speak. In that time, and when he focused mainly on alchemy, Heian Ciemnosc reached the 5th stage of the Neutrality realm.

Heian Ciemnosc broke into the middle stages soon, but his cultivation pace immensely slowed down in those stages compared to the early stages. Elena was shortly reaching the 7th stage while he was still stuck in the 4th stage, and only achieved the 5th stage 2 weeks later. When those 2 months and a few weeks passed, he was close to the 6th stage’s middle levels and received the invitation to form part of the top-notch array formation club.

As if it had become a rule or tradition, they didn’t become baffled when Heian Ciemnosc delayed the date of his ‘arrival’ at the club several months later and even agreed with him. The top-notch alchemy club couldn’t be blamed. They suddenly went hungry after hours of seeing Heian Ciemnosc prepare dishes like no other chef before. However, they suddenly starved under his direction and had to wait before receiving him.

The top-notch array formation club wasn’t shy of this news and even helped them spread the news that the little black monster had officially been invited to their club, and all array formation clubs rejoiced. Not wanting to be left behind and understanding what the situation was turning into, the top-notch alchemy club followed suit, declaring they were first… Nevertheless, this pleased the other alchemy clubs to the brim.

After all, they had seen the little black monster jump around their clubs first after he took some vacations after visiting every existent club. Now that this news was relayed everywhere, the other top-notch clubs could only patiently wait while looking from afar. But they weren’t the only ones. Teachers and Supervisors started looking at Heian Ciemnosc’s actions, and in him, they felt inspired and saw what they needed to possible breakthrough.

It sounded silly and exaggerated. But sometimes, what an old person needed to breakthrough weren’t exotic, rare, and unique resources… but their mentality and heart at their best. Furthermore, if the oldies were getting inspired, what else about the younger generations? With Heian Ciemnosc’s example, they started vying to become a Craftsmaker who knew everything about their profession… faster and better!

Students would have to go through each club of the profession they select as their principal, even if they were to become interested in 1 or 2 more. Either way, they would slowly take their pace as they attended classes and missions, cultivated, meditated, and bought necessary materials or resources. In 2 decades, more or less, every student will be finishing such learning. But now, with Heian Ciemnosc’s sensational ways, such pace was more than halved, as thousands of students started flooding over their respective profession’s clubs.

When Heian Ciemnosc no longer went to array formation clubs mainly and targeted the forging-based clubs, he saw many more students than he thought he would. Nevertheless, quickly acting and swiftly, the top-notch forging club rented more terrain from the Academy so there would be no issues. Thus, he didn’t waste any precious time and started getting to know the Second Step’s forging.

Heian Ciemnosc spent a few extra days a month after in the forging-based clubs before receiving the invitation letter. A couple days later, he left for the caretaking-based cubs. By now, he had already comprehended the typical nature of those in each profession, although not entirely, since he still needed to finish his time in these clubs.

The alchemy Craftspeople were very focused on their work. Whenever they felt near a breakthrough in their Craftsmaking, they would burn their time and late night incense stick to go full-motors on it. If there was someone who could share the sentiment and even accompany them in the course, they would be more than glad to accept it. However, they were still pretty egotistical, even if it was harmless. It could be seen more clearly by the silent response Heian Ciemnosc saw after he ‘delayed’ his initiation into their top-notch club.

On the other hand, the array formation Craftspeople had the harshest profession, the most complex to start learning, and the most sophisticated to understand. Those at the top of each club were well-known in the Wrath Nihility Academy’s Universe, let alone the Academy itself. They were even somewhat known throughout the entire Existence. Anyone in the top-notch array formation club was a little famous in the adjacent Existences. The Academy was known well before Heian Ciemnosc even existed. That’s how things were.

Since they had it the hardest, they knew their people, and they knew how to treat them. Like with the alchemy clubs, Heian Ciemnosc received many little visits from ‘pros’ and incredibly young, talented people. Of course, for someone in the Second Step to be young, even 10,000 years old, was someone before their prime and getting to a master’s level, so to speak. However, the big shots Heian Ciemnosc was visited by were some hundreds of years old, a rare thing in the world. This was the core, beacon, and center of all knowledge, even with the low Step-level.

Lastly, the forging Craftspeople were more rude and blunt, but somehow, they were warmer in their actions. They could be silent and give anyone a glare, then continue on their way, but on a celebratory activity, one could chat and dine like nothing ever happened. And in under a few days, Heian Ciemnosc was like everyone’s younger brother despite his tall figure, pale skin, and damnably handsome appearance. His slightly muscular body was well known after he started going all-out to forge Mortal items, gaining all kinds of hungry eyes.

Heian Ciemnosc’s body, which became slightly warmer after breaking into the Neutrality realm months ago, seemed to flawlessly and seamlessly incorporate further into forging. He even started taking hot baths in magma with his seniors, which only those with great Fire or Earth affinity could resist getting hurt and created connections with them. Although there was body friction with some beauties here and there, everything always ended with their smiles, bright eyes, and a challenge to create more top-notch Mortal weapons or trading materials.

After stopping attending this unofficial family as his principal club section, Heian Ciemnosc spent 3 months in the caretaking-based clubs. At first, everyone received him without knowing if he would be as good as he did in other club sections. It was known his Spirit Sense was already outside their comprehension, and it didn’t matter if they wanted to know or not, even to those several realms above theirs.

However, to become a caretaker good enough to enter the top-notch club, one had to work their assess off no matter who they were. It is known that even the Headmaster struggled a lot with this Craftsmaking profession before deicing on alchemy in forging as his principal professions. Thus, after Heian Ciemnosc spent 15 days getting used to the installations and with people treating him like a foolish apprentice, walking around each ‘basic’ area with Fauna encircled by a fence.

Heian Ciemnosc demonstrated ample connection and expertise in dealing with them, as if he had an unlimited affinity with Fauna, independently of their Elemental affinity, mutation, attitude, and nature. Each little Fauna was like a meek little lamb getting picked up, roughly caressed in a playful demeanor, and put down gently in Heian Ciemnosc’s pale hands. And whenever he and the other ‘apprentices’ were brought to meet big fellas, like buffaloes the size of an ordinary house, they were unusually silent and vulnerable to his touch.

Other than that, it was like his brain was every old book in the world. Even when he was being secretly tested by every caretaking-based club, he treated the quirky and strange Fauna from the rest of their species exactly how they required to be treated, and some were even given attention they hadn’t thought of before and worked!

Heian Ciemnosc had a great time, enjoying every day with these clubs, meeting the same little fellas every few days and keeping them docile before him. He even made other apprentices have an easier time knowing the ‘basic’ Fauna that could be found everywhere. But, at last, the test to form part of each club like a true caretaker came to their hands.

Caretakers were very proud, but they were really gentle, too. Even the toughest girl or boy would turn into a broken record to discuss about the Fauna they were working on. And after the test, the apprentices were in for getting all intimate and familiarized with the rest of the Caretakers.

The test consisted of putting down a misbehaving, really cute, and actually harmless Creature, the ‘weakest’ of all Faunas.

…