“L-like this, great spirit?”
A confused Beatrice asked while juggling two balls. These balls were created by her own mana after a short explanation from her summoned spirit.
“Yes like that, concentrate and visualize. The more of them you can juggle the more your spirit will increase… also don’t just stand there in one spot…”
Zhang Dong snapped his fingers and a wolf appeared out of nowhere. The creature howled before running towards Beatrice. It looked quite ferocious with its teeth bared at her. The way it was charging also looked very menacing which caused the poor girl to ask for help.
“G-great spirit?”
The girl tumbled forward and the balls that she was somehow managing to juggle hit the ground. The wolf jumped to bite her but before connecting with her it turned into cold water that splashed in her face.
“Concentrate Beatrice, mana is just the expression of your mind and your soul. If you can’t manage such an easy task how can you think about advancing as a summoner. Now do five laps around the island with at least two balls.”
The girl was drenched in water but she stood up. The moment Zhang Dong mentioned her advancing as a summoner her eyes showed fire in them. He watched as the girl took off running while trying to balance the items that she produced from her own mana. This whole thing might have looked silly from the outside but the better she got at it, the more mana she would have in her when she woke up in the morning.
‘This might take a while… but even without this training her soul is expanding.’
He noticed that the girl’s soul was slowly adapting to his own. It was slowly absorbing his high grade energies and getting stronger. Even without the training, her mana pool would keep increasing. This could be increased even further by some training though. By pulling the sleeping girl’s soul shard into his own soul world he could hasten the process.
This was already the second night that she was going through this drill. First, he needed her to visualize her soul into items. Only after being able to create one ball would the training continue. When this item was created it had to be maintained by concentrating. Thus by forcing her to move around the difficulty was increased, if she managed to get through this training her mana reserves would increase exponentially.
‘Think it’s time to go back to that school… this whole thing feels like one of those games for girls… there might be an otherworlder like me somewhere here…’
After thinking it through Zhang Dong came to the conclusion that this world was the same from which he came from. It was very possible for people from his original world to be here or them having been there. If such a person existed here he would need to ask them about the place they were summoned to. There he would probably find one of the cubes that was used as a teleportation beacon.
‘I should probably go through some of the myths… maybe there were some old summoned heroes or powerful kings. Any of them could have come from another world like me…’
There wasn’t much for him to do here. During the day he cultivated in his soul realm while during the night he helped his summoner progress. He also thought about certain ways of prolonging his stay in the outer world. For this, he told Beatrice to go to the yard and summon him when she woke up in the morning.
“I guess this is a tad better…”
Zhang Dong rubbed his chin while floating around, his upper body was fully visible but his legs didn’t make it through to the outside world. He had dropped his cultivation level as much as he could which lowered the requirements for him to be summoned dramatically. The most he could lower himself to was the early stage of foundation establishment, even his body refining had to deteriorate for this.
“Continue with your training, remember to perform the breathing exercises that I taught you!”
Beatrice nodded while Zhang Dong’s figure turned into many tiny blue particles. She was surprised by the progress she made. Even after only two days, she had already doubled her mana reserves and this wasn’t the end. The strange tasks that her summoned spirit was making her perform seemed odd at first but they were working. She had already caught up to some of the summoners that were miles ahead of her not too long ago.
Soon the academy sent a message for her to return. The date of the next tests had been decided on and every young student that passed the ritual was to participate. She was now standing at the gate to the estate with everything already in the carriage. Her parents were here and she was just getting a big hug from her overprotective mother.
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“Take care dear.”
“Yes and remember Beatrice, try not to stand out…”
She looked to her father who had a stern expression on his face. Beatrice knew that things could get troublesome if that main house realized that her summon was special. They had already done something to her grandfather, it was possible that they would see her as a threat. If she could keep a low profile still remained to be seen.
The doors closed behind the carriage and she was off. The next stop would be the teleportation gate through which she would be transported back into the academy.
“Your father is right, it would be best for you not to stand out before your abilities advance further.”
Zhang Dong spoke out while taking a small break from his own cultivation.
“When your mana advances I’ll be able to teach you some spells…”
He commented as there was a certain special feature that summoners had with their spirits. Depending on the elemental affinity of that spirit the summoner would be able to learn spells from that school faster. This didn’t stop with only elemental spells, if a spirit was good at illusion magic then the caster would also progress fast in that school of magic.
The two chatted for a bit before each one resumed their own training. Beatrice was taught a breathing method that was akin to cultivation but especially transformed to fit this magical world. With it, her mana reserves could be boosted even further.
Soon Zhang Dong and his summoner were greeted by a wide-open room. This was the teleportation chamber of the magical academy and she wasn’t the only person that was nowhere. The students were required to go through the teleportation circle at the same time to save up on mana. Thus all of them ended up in this chamber, this meant that she would be bumping into the old bully trio again.
‘Better not to start any fights, keep a low profile, and bring me to your library.’
Zhang Dong spoke to Beatrice who was eyeballing Adabelle and her three friends. He could see the three bullies flinching a bit when they saw the blonde girl. It was clear that his previous appearance and him choking up that ‘danger noodle’ was still on their minds.
For now, he needed more information. The books back at Beatrice’s estate were good to show him the basics but the good stuff was probably hidden away in this school's library.
‘There shouldn’t be much trouble for the time being…’
Zhang Dong relaxed in his own soul dimension while sometimes glancing through Beatrice’s eyes. She was still a kid and was around other kids so he didn’t think that it should go out of hand. The small bullying incident was there but it was quickly resolved. In the future, he could just show himself as a floating hand to save on mana. The other summons didn’t seem to be too powerful, the snake he faced was at the qi condensation level.
It did seem that way as everyone got out of this large chamber without getting into fights. The further aptitude tests would be taking place on the next day so Beatrice was tasked with going into the library. She was still only seen as the lowest of low students so the books that she had access to weren’t that great.
She had to forget about her pride as she started going around and poking each book in the vicinity.
‘Great spirit, you never told me… but why do you wish me to touch these books?’
Finally, the question was raised. He expected the girl to get curious, he probably would too. For once he decided to tell her a bit of the truth as revealing this would probably show that he trusted her.
‘By touching the books I am able to absorb their knowledge.’
She stopped in her tracks and the revelation.
‘Just by touching them? How is that possible.’
This was an ability gained through the system so it did seem quite astonishing. Being able to absorb knowledge just by touching a book was probably every bookworm’s wet dream.
‘We spirits have our ways… I could even share the knowledge with you if you wish…’
Beatrice perked up at the offer.
‘Just go to a book that you wish to learn and touch it but you might want to choose a thin one at first.’
The girl went over to one bookshelf and picked out a book about another country's history. It was something that she was interested in but never had time for it due to all the magical theory classes that needed to be taken.
‘It’s a bit on the thicker side but it will do… this is going to sting a little bit…’
He performed his usual technique to share knowledge. The moment he did Beatrice felt a stinging sensation in her brain. It was painful enough for her to drop the book she was holding to the ground. This was a similar experience to the time he infused her with the previously made mana cultivation technique.
‘Even shortcuts have a price, Beatrice.’
Zhang Dong chuckled while the young summoner got over her headache. It didn’t take long but he could feel the girl’s bewilderment at receiving the information.
‘It worked?...’
‘Of course, it worked but this isn’t something you should abuse.’
People in this world were different, their bodies didn’t evolve as much as cultivators. A regular person like her wouldn’t be able to absorb thousands or million of books like he was able to. An attempt at something like that could cause long-lasting damage, memory loss or brain damage.
‘You can pick five books, for now, I’ll help you absorb the knowledge but only after we are done with this library.’
Beatrice looked at the building with many shelves with all sorts of books. One tiny spell could have a giant tome written about it and there were many theories as well. Even touching them with her fingertip could take a while.
‘Don’t ignore history books and others, even those could have some hidden knowledge left behind by an author.’
Zhang Dong knew that sometimes masters of the craft left parts of their knowledge hidden in riddles. With the help of his system, he would probably be able to find hidden treasures like that.
‘Now get to work, we need to finish this before your aptitude test!’
‘Yes, great spirit…’
Beatrice replied in a weak voice before moving forward, it was time to touch some books...