Chapter 30: Peer Pressure

The old man Cien took his index finger and started drawing 2 arrays in the air in front of Teo's eyes. Both arrays were identical to each other and was drawn to the size of an eyeball. Although it was a small array, the number of symbols were countless and the lines and patterns connecting it was very complex.

Teo who saw the arrays recognized that this was no basic array. He could not understand it at all. It was not a normal 2 dimensional array shown in the books, but rather a spherical array; an array with 3 dimensions. The array was so complex that Teo forgot his initial worries and was immersed into trying to understand such array. Although he recognized some of the symbols, it was totally different from his own understanding of arrays.

The old man's fingers were so fast that Teo could not even see the old man's arms. It was as if his arms disappeared not even a shadow of the arms were seen.

After a long while, old man Cien's fingers finally slowed down. The old man's two arms finally revealed themselves. The two arrays were completed, and a look of exhaustion was seen on the old man's face. He then pushed the arrays forward and each array slowly entered Teo's eyes.

As the arrays touch his eye, pain surged out from his eye. The pain was more painful than what he experience back in the well when the turtle tattoo became engraved into his chest.  Although the pain was similar to that time, this time he couldn't pass out. His eyes were kept open, he could not blink at all.

Both arrays slowly inched into his eyes and for 2 hours he felt this indescribable pain as if his eyes were being roasted in flames. It was torture, and he had no way of fighting back. His eyes were dried and his breathe had already stopped, but for some reason he was still alive.

After both arrays completely entered his eyes, and the pain quickly receded

The restriction that bound Teo vanished but he was still in a state of shock. He was like a lifeless doll without thought or emotions. Even after he was tortured he could not pass out.

The exhausted old man flicked his hand and Teo was thrown out from the inner world.

The old man's face looked haggard, he slowly walked to his hammock and collapsed.

Outside the inner world, Teo collapsed and finally was able to pass out

.....

When Teo woke up, his memory of last night disappeared

After the contract entering his body, he could not remember anything after. But he noticed something strange.

When he concentrated his vision even by a little bit, he could see tiny specks floating in the air.

It was like him seeing aura of elemental energies, but it was slightly different

He took out an elemental stone and that it was no longer an aura but rather tiny specks of elemental energy. His vision improved, he could even see up close to the tiny particles with his naked eye

'What happened?' he thought

"Good morning disciple" old man Cien's voice resounded in his mind

"Mr Cien, what happened last night?"

"'Mr Cien'? This is how you call your master?"

"Master" Teo quickly corrected himself. 'That's right, he is my master now'

"Last night, I gave your consciousness' eyes a little upgrade, its so that you can read the other half of the book"

"An upgrade?"

"Yes. You see the second half of the book is written in world Qi, you won't be able to read it if you can't see world Qi. So I implanted the 'Revealing heavens' array into your consciousness' eyes. This is one of the benefits I talked about"

Teo was surprised. Although this "upgrade's" only purpose was to let him continue reading the array book, he can actually see world Qi!

'Who else could see world Qi in the world? Besides Master Cien, probably no one else can' He thought

With these eyes, he didn't need to master his Sensing stage at all. It was as if he was given a free pass. Except when he thought about it he was slightly dissatisfied

'What happened to all my effort!? Was it all meaningless?!' but such thoughts quickly passed

"Thank you master" Teo sincerely said

He grew excited and started looking at all the different elemental stones he had, but before he could start the old man Cien's voice sounded once more.

"Disciple, I will be going into the pagoda for a while"

Although the old man Cien sounded as if he was the same as before. He was greatly exhausted but he did not show his weakness to Teo

The array book suddenly appeared in front of Teo.

"I'll be away for a while. You're gonna be late if you don't hurry" the old man said

Within the inner world, the old man pressed open the doors to the pagoda and slowly entered. The heavy looking doors closed shut.

Teo didn't think much of it and quickly got ready for class.

It took a short time for him to control his vision. If he did not control it properly, his vision would be clouded by mist of world Qi, but luckily it was fairly simple to use.

He hid the array book under his bed and ran to meet Windle and Lia and his whole perspective changed.

....

Teo pace was initially very fast but seeing the whole world differently, his paced slowed into a walk.

He could see the world Qi everywhere. Teo could even see aura of a person with thick Qi inside his body.

When he arrived at the meeting place, he saw both Windle and Lia.

Lia had an enormous amount of Qi compared to Windle. Windle's Qi was fiery red. Teo could see the tiny flame elemental energy that was floating around Windle.

It was different from his vision before. He can see a great detail of the elemental energy's movements, size and shape.

The tiny fire elemental energy was like a small flame that glowed bright red then dimmed repeatedly. It was the oscillation of the energy.

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He could see the elemental energy slowly moving upwards but was sucked into Windle's body. 

Even while just standing there, Windle was gathering these energies. It was as if Windle was never idle.

"Hey guys" Teo greeted

"Yo Teo"

Teo saw both of them were talking about something so he decided to ask

"What were you guys talking about"

"We were talking about next year's classes. The school year is almost ending and when we reach second year we'll need to attend an extra elective class"

"Teo, do you want to pick classes with me and Lia?"

"What classes were you thinking of?"

During the first year of study, every student had a mandatory class, which taught them several different subjects. Students who were elementalists had to attend an elementalist class in addition to the mandatory class, while non-elementalists were free to choose an elective class that they wanted.

When their second year begins, the mandatory classes were not as long as before, so elementalists were free to pick an elective class they want, while non-elementalists can pick 2.

Although they were deciding on which elective to take during their second year, after the fourth year, they could take any classes they wanted so it didn't matter which choice they picked.

"I was thinking of a crafting class" Lia responded

Both Windle and Teo knew that Lia had been taking a class in smithing as her elective this year.

A few months ago, Lia showed both of them the sword she had crafted. Although Teo did not have much knowledge in weapons, he found it amazing that Lia could make such a weapon.

"I don't think crafting is a bad idea either" Windle proposed as he handed a list of crafting classes available for next year to Teo

Teo took the list and browsed through it

'Smithing'

'Carpentry'

'Alchemy'

'Apothecary'

'Tailoring'

'Cooking'

'Woodworking'

'Inscriptions'

'Artisan'

'Pottery'

Teo's eyes flashed, he when he saw 'Inscriptions' in the list. He was curious about it but wasn't sure if Lia and Windle was interested in inscriptions.

When Teo looked towards Lia and Windle, he had the feeling that both of them have already agreed upon which class to take.

It didn't really matter which class Teo was going to take. Although he was slightly curious of the inscription class, he wanted to attend the same classes that Windle and Lia took.

Hanging out with his friends was more important to him right now, but he knew he could take the inscription class after his 4th year.

"So which one have you guys decided on?"

Teo didn't play dumb, he knew the two of them well enough.

Lia must've strong armed Windle into making the decision, but for some reason they were hesitant to reveal it to Teo.

"Well..." Lia hesitated as Windle interrupted

"We were thinking of inscriptions but Teo.. you don't need to come if you don't want to"

Unknown to Teo, Lia really wanted to learn inscriptions to enchant her swords. It was most common for people who had learned smithing to learn inscriptions as well.

As for Windle, he was lured by Lia's promise of a fire enchanted sword by the end of the second year if he attends the class as well.

Lia wanted Windle to come as well was because it would help her produce a better sword if she had help from a fire elementalists. The flames of a fire elementalists were pure fire elemental energy. Compared to a regular furnace's fire, it produced a better result.

But the main reason was because learning inscriptions was very complex. Even now, she was only managing to stay afloat within Dina's class because of the help of both Windle and Teo. Besides, with a fire elementalist's help, she would understand fire based inscriptions easier.

As for Teo, although she knew that Teo had very low growth rate from his elemental attributes, she also knew that Teo had entered Sensing stage for some of his elements. Lia wasn't sure which elements Teo mastered but it would still be helpful in inscriptions. But most importantly, she knew that among the 3 of them, Teo was the smartest in terms of book smarts.

Lia carefully planned this all out. First lure Windle with a weapon. Since third year was the start of their combat training, having a weapon would be very useful. Once Windle was lured, Teo would automatically come with them.

But when Lia heard Windle say that she immediately stopped Windle

"Teo want to come with us? It'll be more fun together"

Lia didn't have much to bribe Teo with. Teo was only moved by books, family and friends.

Books were free from the library, and the books sold from the Free Market was expensive as they were all rare books. Teo had a job and was not very extravagant at spending any it. If Lia had to estimate how much money Teo had, he was probably richer than her. So bribing him with money was not an option either, and she didn't want to spend any money.

The only option she has was to use peer pressure!

If she knew that Teo was also interested in inscriptions her face would fall. She had spent so much effort thinking about this plan and if she found out that it was all for nothing, how frustrated would she be? But fortunately neither she nor Windle did

She didn't want to beg, but if worst comes to worst, she was going to.

"Okay" Teo agreed

Lia felt as if she was the smartest villain of all.

She gave a sweet smile but underneath she was laughing

'HA HA HA, I got the best help for my inscription class!'