“Why are you trying to sense prana around you?” Elysian asked, testing the knowledge of the older boy.

“Because it’s easier to sense prana outside than inside me,” Osric answered without hesitation.

“Good,” Elysian nodded. “After you feel prana around you, what will you do then?”

“Then, I will try to sense prana inside me.”

“Okay. After that, what will you do?”

“After I sense the ball of prana inside of me, I need to be very careful, because this is the stage where many people fail at becoming a cultivator,” Osric replied with a tinge of concern evident in his voice.

“Don’t be anxious, my friend,” Elysian said, trying to ease the concern of the older boy. “People often fail at this because they don’t know what they are facing. With your knowledge of this obstacle, you’ve already won half the battle. Also, you’re one of the people with the toughest mental strength I know. This will be a breeze for you.”

Osric just looked into the noble’s eyes and nodded.

“Now that you have resisted the temptation of the Orb of Life, what then?” Elysian asked as he continued grilling the soldier about the entire process.

“After I resist it, something will trigger within the orb that will make it expand,” Osric answered, pausing for a moment as he considered how to expand on it. “I will just let it expand, and I will never try to interfere with it. The bigger the expansion, the better it is for me.”

“Good. This is because the size of the orb will represent your potential as a cultivator,” Elysian nodded, smiling at the boy’s understanding of the process so far. “Now that it has stopped expanding, what will you do next?”

“Then I will compress the orb.”

“By how much?”

“As much as possible.”

“Why is that?”

“Because this will determine the quality of my core. This will dictate my energy reserve, whether it is big or small, and my power as a cultivator will also be determined in this step,” Osric stated with resolve in his eyes. “Don’t worry, master. I will not fail to meet your expectations. No matter what happens, I will compress it to its very limit, even if I die.”

“Tsk, don’t be so dramatic,” Elysian said, shaking his head. “However, you’re right. This is only one of the very few opportunities to change your fate as a cultivator. This chance is within your hands, so grab it. Don't let it go. Do you understand?”

“Yes, master.”

“After that, you will then put the compressed orb in your chosen core,” Elysian remarked, finishing with a grin. “Then, you’ll enter the realm of cultivators.”

“Yes,” Osric responded, his face brimming with a wide smile. “I hope the gods will smile at me today.”

“Don’t expect too much, though. This is just the first day,” Elysian warned him, trying to manage his expectations so that he wouldn’t be disappointed. “Before I forget, don’t tell anyone what I told you, and that I can help a person in their cultivation.”

“Why not, young master?” Bran asked, confused by the sudden order of the noble. “Isn’t it better if you tell everyone, so that you can help them become cultivators too?”

‘Helping someone become a cultivator isn’t really a secret. On this continent, there are methods employed by the elites to help their young become cultivators. Not only that, but to get the maximum result. This method usually involves alchemical concoctions—well, drugs, really.

They have clear side effects, but I’ve heard the result is quite good. They are very effective, though, also very expensive. And a lowly baron house like ours can’t afford such stuff.

Then there’s the method I’m teaching them. Well, this isn’t really some great secret. True, nearly every renowned family in the east has their own secret methods, but the method I’m teaching them is just some generic stuff. But here in the north, such methods haven’t reached yet, maybe due to distance or cultural differences, but I suspect elites in this land would rather just spend some money than practice some foreign methods.

Whatever the case, this is an opportunity I can’t squander. I won’t just spread this method to everyone. I’m not stupid. If I do that, I’ll just give my enemies some knowledge to gain more power. I can only teach this to my own men, so that me and my people will gain something from it.’

“I will do that in the future, big fella, but not now,” Elysian explained. “If I teach them this method and it spreads to our enemies, it will just make them more powerful. For now, I can’t just teach this to others until I put in place some strict processes, so that the ones who benefit from it are our own people. Do you understand?”

“Yes, young master,” Bran replied.

“So, for now, don’t tell anyone about this,” Elysian said again, emphasizing that important point.

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When both of the noble’s companions nodded, he continued, “Now, that’s done. Osric, let's start.”

“Okay.”

Elysian placed his two palms on the back of the older boy as he released his aura while imitating the flow of prana around them. “Can you feel my energy?”

“No.”

“Okay, tell me if you feel it,” the noble instructed as he slowly increased the intensity of his aura.

“I can feel it, master.”

“Good,” Elysian said, impressed by his speed and incredible sense when compared to his own. Earlier in the process, his own master had also done the same. This was to greatly improve his senses by detecting prana around him. However, because of his low talent, it took him quite some time to detect anything, even with an outrageous amount of energy released by his master.

‘I’m jealous. Talented people are really different.’

“I will now try to slowly lower my aura. Tell me immediately if you can’t detect it anymore,” Elysian further instructed as he slowly lowered the intensity of his aura.

Just as Elysian instructed, when Osric couldn’t detect anything, he immediately told the younger boy. Elysian, for his part, increased his aura again until the boy could feel it again before slowly lowering it. This continued for a while until the noble felt this was enough for Osric to feel the prana around him.

When Osric couldn’t feel prana, they started the process again. Each time, the older boy kept improving his senses until, finally, he succeeded.

“Master, I can feel it,” Osric cheerfully said, grinning as he looked at the noble.

‘Sh*t, does this even make sense? He’s able to detect prana already in just an hour or two, while it took me… F*ck, I don’t even want to say it.

Tsk, I understand now why my ever-patient master was so frustrated that it came to the point of insulting me. I would do that if I were that slow. Even the room we were imprisoned in is filled with his sighs. That’s where I got my bad habit of sighing from him.

Damn it, reality really sucks.’

“Hey, why the hell are you celebrating?! You’re not done yet,” Elysian chastised him. His reaction might be a little extreme. Well, who could blame him. It took him another extra life to be somewhat on par with them. “Focus!”

“Ah, sorry,” Osric immediately turned serious. Closing his eyes, he breathed in and out and quickly followed the instructions that the young noble had hammered on him repeatedly.

‘Well, sensing prana outside the body doesn’t mean that he’ll be able to sense prana inside. This is the part of the process that took me so long to become a cultivator. This isn’t surprising since my master could only guide me in sensing prana outside my body. After that, I was on my own with no one to guide me. Aside from that, sensing what they call the Orb of Life is a totally different beast. This is because everyone is different, which means finding prana inside their very being will be different for each person. It becomes even more complicated since the flow of prana inside the body is different from the outside.

No matter how difficult it is, I’m sure Osric will succeed since I also succeeded with my meager talent. But my calculation of when he’ll succeed doesn’t change. Well, maybe it’s a little faster than expected, but not much.’

Turning to his servant, Elysian asked, “Are you ready, big fella?”

“Yes,” Bran nodded, but his eyes remained on Osric. “But won’t we wait for him to finish, young master?”

“I’ve done all I can for him, big fella. It’s in his hands now,” Elysian responded, moving closer to the older boy. “Let’s start.”

“Okay.”

‘Though Bran is more talented than Osric and me, I’m a little worried for him. It can’t be denied that he appears slow if you talk to him, but I don’t know if it’s really his intelligence or his personality that makes him appear like that. It’s really difficult to assess since there are instances where he surprises me and Osric with his unique perspective.’

Even though Elysian was concerned, he didn’t have a choice but to move on and start the process. The only thing he could do now was grill the older boy more than Osric to make sure he really understood the process. As he repeated what he had done earlier, Bran impressively answered it all with ease.

“Good, good. You’ve done better than I expected, big fella,” Elysian said, earning him a wide grin from his servant. However, this didn’t alleviate his worry one bit. Knowledge and implementation are totally different. One might have perfect knowledge of one thing but fail in its actual execution. “I will now guide you in sensing prana.”

“Okay,” Bran replied, noticing the worried look on the noble’s face. “Don’t worry, young master. I already know what to do. I’ve seen Osric earlier, so you don’t need to worry.”

“Okay,” Elysian sighed as he guided the servant just like he did with the other boy earlier. Surprisingly, Bran did better than he expected. Well, way better than even Osric. It just took him around thirty minutes to sense prana.

‘Damn, both of these children are really talented. Sigh. Well, at least they’re working under me. The more blessed and powerful they are, the better for me.’

Looking at his servant, Elysian’s worry increased. “Big fella, don’t forget what I’ve told you,” he warned, his tone anxious as everything was now out of his hands. “Beware of the Orb of Life. Don’t listen to it. No matter what.”

Bran didn’t respond, immediately closing his eyes and focused on his cultivation process.

With nothing to do, Elysian could only walk around the room. Though not small, it wasn’t big either, as he just meandered around the room without aim or purpose. Well, it would’ve been more logical if he had just sat near them, but who could blame him? He was too worried to think straight.

‘I’m not even nervous like this when I first took this process. Is this how it feels to have children? Tsk, what nonsense am I thinking? Am I going crazy? They are a few years older than me.’

Elysian did not know how long he was walking around when he noticed some movements in the servant’s direction. He froze at first, surprised by the boy’s sudden actions, before it turned into worry when he saw Bran’s body shaking.

‘Did he fail? F*ck, this is bad! This is what I’m afraid of.’

Just as Elysian ran to the older boy, Osric also started to move. This made him immediately stop when he saw the pained expression on his face.

‘What the hell! Why did they fail at the same time?! Wait, that can’t be! The only time they could fail is when the Orb of Life has succeeded in enthralling them. It’s impossible that they could sense prana this quickly.’

Amidst Elysian’s confusion, his nose twitched when he smelled something rotten coming from his two companions. When he glanced at them, he noticed that their pained expression had turned into a wide grin.

“Yes, we’ve done it!”

“Young master, I’m now a cultivator.”

Elysian froze as his mouth dropped in shock.

‘Monster. Both of these kids are really monsters.’