《TOWERS OF ASCENSION (HIATUS)》


 Prelude to Towers of Ascension

    Arkadius Ururu looked up the sky and was amazed to discover that the sun was still in the same position it was when he had first been transported to this cursed land. The sun was just a spot of bright light beyond the clouds which covered the whole sky. He could not believe that no time had passed after all the fighting he had gone through. he was sure a lot of time had passed, but the sun was useless when it came to telling the passage of time.


    He was tired and suffering from numerous wounds. When he had been teleported here,he had been wearing very expensive clothes now there were nothing more than charred rags.


    Everywhere he looked he could see dead bodies. Each dead body was unique, the majority were humanoid and some were creatures he had only heard of in myths.The only thing all the bodies had in common was that they were huge, most were more than 10 meters tall.


    In front of him was a shallow crater in which his final opponents body was laid. it was a huge humanoid body about 16 meters tall and its whole body was covered in small grey scales. It did not have any wounds except for the crystalline sword which was embedded in its chest. The sword was gorgeous, it was a Aura forged sword covered in tiny runes.


    Arkadius left the blade in the body for he was not sure his opponent would not come back to life once the sword was removed. His opponents body was the famous "bloodless" body,this type of Primordial body was known for its healing powers.


    Arkadius looked away from his final opponents body to the Tower Of Ascension. The Tower was a huge pyramid with a nonagon base. The distance from one base conner to the other was more than 10 kilometers, from where he was standing only 3 corners were visible. Each conner had stairs which led to the top.The pyramid was so tall that it''s top was covered in clouds.The top was where the Pool of Ascension was.The place where he would become immortal.


    arkadius was glad to have finally reached the base of the pyramid. This pyramid was just one of the nine found in this cursed place. and he shuddered as he remembered all the fights he had been through just to reach this pyramid''s base conner.


    They had all arrived in groups, each group consisted of 81 members and there were 81 groups making a total of 6561 Aspirants.These were the most powerful beings in all the 3 known worlds. Each person had first sought out his own relatives and those they had formed alliances with in the outside world.Afterwards they had searched for the Keys Of Ascension. All 81 keys had been found in the central location arranged one on top of the other to form a nanagon pyramid. The central location was the area which was an equal distance from each of the Towers that surround them.


    The sight of the Keys led to the start of the battle. At first they had fought in groups, then after finishing all the nearby opponents, they had turned on each other, alliances which had taken years to forge had be broken shortly after all the external opponents had been dealt with.Afterwards those of same clan had turned on each other.He could still remember the disbelief on his cousins face as he was dying, arkadius had killed him by stabbing him in the back while he was finishing off his opponent. familial bonds meant nothing when it came to attaining immortality.After killing his cousin he had gotten one key and fought his way through the few remaining stragglers to the pyramid.


    Arkadius looked at the prize in his hands which had caused him so much suffering and led him to betray his clan, it was a small grey pyramid with a nanogon base and its top was cut off so that the top also formed was a nonagon.The pyramid was a small replica the huge Tower in front of of him. The center of the bottom of the small pyramid was the written the number 5 and the center of the top nanogon had the number 3 both were written in language of the First Ones. These numbers showed which huge pyramid and it''s stairway conner the small pyramid was keyed to. No one can ascend the stairs of the Tower Of Ascension without holding the smaller pyramid.


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.Arkedius rounded the crater and when he reached the the start of the stairs,he took a deep breath and started climbing.


    He managed to climb the first step and discovered that his journey had come to an end for the stairs in front had disappeared and he was that top. He knew it was the top because when he looked back he saw stairs leading down and disappearing in the clouds which obscured the field in which the fighting had taken place. In the far distance above the clouds,he could see the other 8 pyramid tops. He was sure if all the 9 tops were connected it would form a nonagon.


    The clouds must have been put in place so that those who reached the top could not see the plan of the land where the wells of ascension where located thought Arkedius. He clearly remembered there being nothing in this land apart from pyramidal towers. Even plants had been absent. The only thing he had seen beyond the towers where the flat sandy land which seemed to gone on forever.


    Arkardius was not surprised when he discovered that the pyramidal key had disappeared.It must have been a one time teleportation artifact.


    The top was also a nonagon and at the center was a pool of clear blue water.it was the thing he had been looking for, the pool was known as The Well of Ascension. Immortality can be attained by entering the pool.The pool was also made of regular nine sides. On each side of pool was a statue about 20 meters tall. The statues were of humanoid beings covered in cloaks so he couldn''t see their faces.


    Arkadius did not rush to enter the pool, he first put up a shield to cover his whole body in case someone was hiding behind any of the statues who could attack him. He was not being paranoid for each pyramid had 9 stairways which led to the top. He cautiously checked each statue. when he discovered that he was truly alone,he dismissed the shield so that he could relax his mind which was already tired from the fighting. He didn''t have to worry that someone from other pyramid tops would fly to where he was for no one was capable of flight in this land.


    Arkedius felt a surge of pride,of all the Aspirants who had come here he was one of the 81 who would leave this place stronger than when he had arrived. He would leave this place an immortal and join the ranks of the strongest and become one of the Rulers in the 9 worlds.


    Feeling secure in the knoledge that he was truly alone. He finally removed his tattered clothes and finally climbed into the deep pool.


    Two of the statues came alive after a few moments later.


    "Finally he is unconcious, he was a tough one.of of the 9 who managed to reach this top, he took the longest time to become unconcious." one of the former statues said to the other.


    "Hurry up, let''s start the extraction process before the aspirants wake up" the other one said and both began pressing the foreheads of the remaing statues. A rune started glowing on each of the statues foreheads which were touched.


    "I am glad the next cycle of ascension will be the last one,the energy required to resurrect our people is almost full".


    "The extraction has started, let''s check on the other worlds" was all the first one said pretending as if he had not heard his partners comment.


    Both former statues went back to their former positions and became statues with glowing runes on their foreheads like the rest

 Prologue

    "I sure hope its true that the ancestral statues can come to our aid if we were facing a disaster that can wipe out our house?" Said kirrien worriedly


    "Calm down, I am sure it won''t come to that. If we don''t tell anyone that your daughter has the celestial body then no body can suspect it. Having a talent of 6 is very rare that in all my years I have not heard of anyone who had such a talent. This talent is equated having a celestial''s body for a reason" said the old man who was standing next him.


    The two people were standing in a huge room facing the 23 life sized statues of men and women which filled the room. Each statue represented a Lord of House Ururu who had managed to leave the land of kiania and each of the statues resembled both men.


    kirrien and looked away from the statues of his ancestors to the old man standing next to him, although he thought of vin as the old man, the man didn''t look very old. Vin appeared to be a man in is early fifties with only a few strands of grey hair on his head but the truth was that he was twice that age."I am just worried that if Royal House Kapulya learns of my daughters talent, they will do everything in their power to kill her before she reaches the Underlord Realm. Her talent ensures that she will reach the Underlord Realm without any bottlenecks. They can not afford to let another house have 3 Underlords like them,that could undermine their influence especially with the War coming. Its what I would do in their place."


    "We will just have to tell everyone that she has a talent of 4, that should cover up her fast advances up through the Realms up to the Realm of Paste Phase. As for ancestral statues, the most powerful people of this house are required to leave behind a stone golem before they pass through the Portal Gates and if any of the ancestors managed to reach the Primordial Realm then it is possible for them to animate their stone golem from the planet and aid us. The only ancestor I know to have reached and gone beyond this realm is Ancestor Arkedius Ururu and that was alone time ago. I don''t even know if he is still alive, during my time as Patriarch of Noble House Ururu none of the ancestors have communicated with me through their statues and that''s including Ancestor Arkedius." Said vin trying and failing to calm his nephew for he too was worried. Noble House Ururu was a powerful house, it was ranked third in the city of Zophia. It had 2 Underlords: Vincent kunda Ururu and Kirrien kunda Ururu but a fight against Royal House Kapulya was not something it can win.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story."Should the elders be told?" kirrien asked.


    "The only thing todo is to place a geas on your daughter so that she doesn''t accidentally tell any of her friends. We have to send her to the academy as well when she turns 16 to avoid suspicion, we can only avoid to delay sending her there for year as not all Noble houses send all their children at 15. Your daughter''s talent must remain between the two of us, the Elders of this house will not be told for I am not sure all of them are loyal to this house." Said vin his voice was hard when he spoke about his House Elder''s loyalty."Your daughter will be our hidden ace when the Gate War begins, we will be able to secure more passage through the Portal Gate with 3 Lords. As for the Elders I will deal with them in time, let them enjoy themselves for now."


    "I hope everything turns out well. Goodnight Patriarch. Am off to celebrate my daughters twelfth birth day" said kirrien and left his uncle in the ancestral room.

 Chapter 1

    We must aspire to become like our creator.


    This was the thought on alerius''s mind as he removed the recharging gloves from his hands and turned off the recharging case. The words on his mind were part of the first Tenet and he had been thinking about them the whole day because today was the day he would finally reach the second step on the Path of Ascension.


    Alerius was born a DUD. Those who lacked the talent to embark on the Path of Ascension and it was only two years ago on his seventeenth birthday that he discovered that he had a unique ability that would allow him to change his destiny and enable him to start the Path of Ascension and become a cultivator. This discovery led him to start working in the recharging factories in order to raise funds for the elixirs needed by cultivators.


    The recharging factories was the place where Crystal Marks were Recharged when the marks run out of Spiritual Energy. This Spiritual Energy contained in Crystal Marks was used to power Artifacts. The Crystal Marks also served as the currency used in Kiania.


    When Alerius had first started working at the factory, he worked in communal rooms where ten people were required to recharge a single case of circular crystal marks. A single case contained ten crystal marks. He was not sure how the whole recharging process worked, all he knew was that ten people usually duds put on recharging gloves on both of their hands. These recharging gloves had cables which were then inserted on ports of the case. The gloves somehow siphoned the spiritual energy from a persons core and the spiritual energy was transferred to the case via the cables where the crystal marks inside were recharged. This processes continued until a red light on the case turned on which meant that the crystal marks were full.


    Alerius had worked in the communal rooms for about a year and was then transferred to the private rooms to work alone when he had reached the first step on the Path of Ascension which was called the Fog Phase. Upon reaching this step he had become capable of recharging the entire case alone.


    Today was his last day working at the factories for with today''s salary he would finally have the funds he needed to buy the spiritual elixir which would make him reach the last stage of the Fog Phase and he can try to advance to the Liquid Phase which was the second step on the Path of Ascension.


    Alerius disconnected the the cables from the case and wrapped them neatly around the gloves. He stood from the chair he was sitting on and then picked the up the case from the table and then left the small room and went to the supervisors room. The factory was made in such a way that it had one entrance the entrance led to a long passage with doors on both sides. The first room belonged to the supervisor. All factory workers had to leave the recharged cases with the supervisor, leaving outside with a case was considered theft and the many guards who patrolled attacked anyone foolish enough who tried to leave with a case.


    "Come in"


    Alerius heard the supervisors voice through the door and went in. The inside of the room looked like pharmacy, it had shelves on the sides lined with bottled elixirs and the supervisor was standing behind the counter. The office served as place for storing recharged cases and a place where elixirs where sold. The factory workers were sold elixirs at a discount so many factory workers who had the talent for cultivation bought from here instead of buying from pharmacies.


    Alerius placed the case on the counter making sure not to look directly in the supervisors and said "sir I have finished recharging my case" in his most deferential voice.


    Alerius behaved this way because According to the third Tenet, one should always show respect to those powerful than him and expect the same from those weaker than him. The supervisor was a cultivator of the second step, this was symbolized by the circular badge on the supervisors shirt. Cultivators from the second step and above were required to have badges which showed their cultivation base. Different shapes showed different Realms: Circular badges were for the Liquid Phase, a triangular badge for the Paste Phase and finally a square badge for the Solid Phase. The shape of the Crystal Marks also followed this convention: a circular crystal mark contained spiritual energy which was equivalent to that found in the spiritual core of a liquid phase cultivator, a triangular shaped crystal mark was equal to a paste phase cultivator and a square shaped crystal mark had energy equal to a solid phase cultivator.


    The supervisor didn''t even bother saying anything, alerius just felt him inject his Aura into the case. The case opened after a few minutes and inside was placed ten luminescing circular crystal marks showing that they had been recharged because empty ones did not give off light. It had taken alerius about eleven hours just to recharge those ten crystal marks he still thought that without the recharging machine which consisted of both gloves and case it would not have been possible for a Fog Phase cultivator like him to recharge those ten crystal marks because each contained spiritual energy equivalent to that found in a Liquid phase cultivator.


    After checking, the supervisor closed the case and put it behind the counter. He then took a note with a picture of a circular crystal mark on the center and gave it to alerius. This money was the paper equivalent of a single circular crystal, those below the Liquid phase were forbidden the use of crystal marks. Factory workers were paid ten percent of the crystal marks they had managed to recharge.


    Alerius accepted the money and added thirty nine more similar notes from his pocket and gave it back to the supervisor and said "sir, I would like to buy a fog spiritual elixir." The elixir used to increase spiritual energy was simply called spiritual elixir for there was only one type, it only differed in it''s concetration.


    "That''s not enough. The Fog spiritual elixir''s price was increased last week." The supervisor said with a smug voice


    Alerius became furious and struggled to maintain his facial expression. The supervisor didn''t even bother to hide the fact that he was cheating him but if alerius showed anything but deference, it would be considered an insult for One did not question his betters, it was part of the third tenet.


    Alerius did not say anything for a few minutes, he had to wait for his anger to cool but when he thought about his special abilityn his anger quickly went away for he knew that soon he would surpass this supervisor. He memorized the supervisors face and checked the colors on the cultivation badge. The badge had the colors yellow and orange. This symbolized that the supervisor was a subordinate of Noble House Kayamba. These two colors were the house colors for that particular house. Too bad he did not know his supervisors name.


    "What''s the new price Sir?" Alerius asked in a calm but still deferential voice.


    "Its now forty five circular crystal marks"


    Alerius did not say anything, he wordlessly gave the supervisor five more marks. He was now only remaining with three circular marks. He was not very worried about his funds because once he reached the the Liquid Phase he could join one of the Noble Houses.


    The supervisor didn''t lose his smug expression, he behaved as if the way alerius had reacted was the way he expected him to behave in the first place.he just gave alerius the bottled elixir.


    Alerius carefully put the bottle in his pocket, bowed to the supervisor and left.


    Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings...........................................................................................


    It was already dark when alerius reached his rented one bed roomed house, the Planet Yezir which Kiania orbited was visible as it was now obstructing kiania from the sun''s rays.


    It was a good thing that alerius was now living in the good part of The Free Quarter. He had moved away from the orphanage he had grown up in when he had started working. Even though the rent for this part of The Free Quarter was pricey its streets had been packed as the migration to the city of Zophia had started, the following year would be the Shrouded Year and people wanted to experience it behind the safety of a walled city.


    Alerius lit the candles in his room once he had closed the door. The room was barely furnished, it contained only a bed. He didn''t use it for anything other than sleeping. He ate all his meals at the factory as he spent most of his time at the factory. He had once spent twenty hours there when he had tried to recharge two cases. He had failed to recharge the second case and he had felt sick for a week afterwards. It was the only time he had tried to recharge two cases and had never repeated it again.


    Alerius sat on the bed and checked his status.


    Spiritual Energy: 18


    Life Energy: 88


    Natural Energy: 0


    Talent: 6


    Main Attributes


    Soul: 25


    Aura: 10


    Mind: 12


    Secondary Attributes


    Spirit: 13


    Will: 11


    Analyse: 12


    Perception: 11


    Knowledge: 10


    The things alerius knew about the status window was very limited. Information about the status window was suppressed by the Noble Houses. The only information available was on the requirements for advancement up to the Liquid Phase.


    Every person is born with Spiritual Energy in there Spiritual Core. The Core is located in the Soul of the Person. At the age of twelve every person is required to be taken to one of the Ascension Halls. In this place the child is given a crystal called an Ability Crystal. The crystal is spherical and when placed in the hands of the a child it will be assimilated in the child''s hands. After this process the child gains the ability to view his status.


    Checking one''s Status does not require to shout any word. If a person wants to check his status he just have to think status in his mind.


    Cultivation Is very easy and everyone can do it, all that is required is to combine Light Energy from the Sun with that persons Aura and this combination is stored in the Spiritual core. The combination of Aura and Light Energy produces spiritual energy. Cultivation over a period of time will cause the spiritual core to increase in size. Each increase in the size of the core will cause the spiritual energy stat to increase.


    When the spiritual core increases in size, Life Energy is produced. Life Energy is used to increase the attributes. One unit of life energy can be used to increase a chosen attribute by one. The amount of life energy produced per increase in the spiritual core is showed by the Talent stat. Talent is divided into twelve levels that is from 0.5 to 6. A person with a talent of 5 will produce 5 units of life energy every time his core increases while a person with a talent of 1.5 will produce 1.5 units of life energy per increase in the spiritual core. Thus an increase in the spiritual energy stat will cause an increase in the life energy stat according to the talent stat.


    When a person starts cultivating, his spiritual core will continuously increase at a very slow pace until the spiritual level stat reaches 9. Every human can reach this level. The spiritual level from 0 to 9 is called the GAS PHASE and is not considered part of the steps on the path of Ascension. To advance a person needs to use 5 units of life energy in order to compress the core so that the spiritual energy inside becomes fog like and this is new realm is called the FOG PHASE. Humans who cannot produce life energy cannot go through this process and are thus stuck in the gas phase. This inability to produce life energy is why there are called DUDS.


    This was the only information alerious knew. He didn''t have any idea what the other stats did or measured and could only make guesses. The Noble Houses did not want that information made public. The only other thing which was public was that In the fog phase the core will stop increasing again when the spiritual energy stat reaches 19 and that to reach the liquid phase; the soul stat should be more than 20 and 10 units of life energy are required to compress the spiritual core again and force the foggy spiritual energy to turn liquid. This new realm is the LIQUID PHASE.


    Alerius took the spiritual elixir and felt his spiritual core heat up for a few minutes and then it went back to know. He was not alarmed by this reaction because it had happened every time he had taken a spiritual elixir. The heat was caused when his core expanded. He checked his status again and found that the spiritual level stat had increased to 19.


    Expanding the core using cultivation is very slow, it can take months just to increase the spiritual energy stat by 1. If a person wants to increase his spiritual energy stat faster that person has to use the spiritual elixir. The elixir can increase the spiritual energy stat by 1 every time it it used. The only downside is that it can only be used once in a month and can not be used to advance from one phase to the next.


    Alerius had been a dud until his seventeenth year, he had seen a fellow dud get beaten very badly by cultivator for looking directly in that cultivators eyes and had wished he had a better talent so that the same could not happen to him. Later that very same day when he was about to go to sleep, he had checked his status and was surprised to discover that his talent stat had changed from 0 and was then showing 0.5. After experimenting and turning his status window on and off a few times he had discovered that he could change his talent stat to any desired talent just by wishing it to be a talent he wanted when his status window was off and it would be that number when he turned his status window on. Alerius had been very excited by this discovery and had later tried to see if he could change any other stat by wishing them to change but he had failed, he discovered that he could only change his talent.


    After making sure that his spiritual energy stat had reached 19 and that the Life Energy stat had increased to 94, he then added 5 units of life energy to his soul stat. Making it now 30. Even though the required soul stat to reach liquid phase was 20, alerius didn''t want to take any chances when it came to his upcoming advancement to the liquid phase.


    Alerius meditated for awhile and when he felt that his body had reached an optimum condition he used 10 units of life energy to start the compression of his core. The compression process took about three hours and when he was done he found that his body was covered in sweat. He didn''t even bother to wipe away the sweat he immediately checked his status


    Status Window


    Spiritual energy: 20


    Life energy: 85


    Natural Energy: 0


    Talent: 6


    Main Attributes


    Soul: 30


    Aura: 10


    Mind: 12


    Secondary Attributes


    Spirit: 13


    Will: 11


    Analyse: 12


    Perception: 11


    Knowledge: 10


    After confirming that he had reached the Liquid Phase, he passed out.

 Chapter 2

    Please creator let today be the day I earn my surname.


    Alerius prayed as he waiting anxiously outside the office which belonged to one of the most powerful men in the City of Zophia; Kirrien Ururu. Rumor had it that he had reached the apex of Cultivation possible in Kiania. Alerius did not know if this was a blessing or a curse but hoped that it was the former. When this day had started he had not thought he would end up here because not even in his wildest dreams had he dreamed of ever meeting such a mythical cultivator; an Under Lord. He hoped his gamble would put through as he remembered how he had gotten here.


    Commoners were not allowed to have more than one name. To get a surname a person had to join one of the Eleven Houses that ruled Zophia. Then that person would then start using that House Name as his surname. For those born in the Noble Houses they had an extra name which served as a distinction between the subordinates and the nobles. Thus a person''s surname was one of the two ways of telling someone''s allegiance. The other was from the colors found on his cultivation badge.


    Alerius was putting on his finest clothes when he had left the Free Quarter and had then proceeded to the Noble Quarter. He had passed through the gate that led to an area in the Noble Quarter under the influence of Noble House Ururu. The City of Zophia was divided in four sections. Each section was separated from the other by huge walls. The city was built in such a manner that if it was to be seen from the sky, the four walls would form four concentric circles. The innermost circle was the Royal Quarter where Royal House Kapulya ruled from. The following circle enclosed the Noble Quarter followed by the Free Quarter and the outermost circle enclosed the Farming Quarter. A few kilometers from the eastern part of the outermost wall was a huge forest called Foggy Forest.


    Alerius was impressed when he entered the area under the influence of House Ururu. The cobbled streets were wide enough to allow three carriages to pass side by side with space left on the sides to allow those foot to move freely. This part of the Noble Quarter was cleaner and the sides were lined with magical street lamps that used crystal marks to turn on. The design of the streets showed that it had all been carefully planned and that the planner had used a lot of money to achieve this. The other parts of the Noble Quarter he had visited in the past week had not been this impressive even though they had all been better than the Free Quarter,


    It had been a week since Alerius had reached the the Liquid Phase. He had spent the past week trying to join one of the Noble Houses but the results had not been to his liking. He had started with Noble House Phiri which was rumored to be the weakest among the eleven houses. The condition they gave was that he had to be soul bound to the house. This was in effect slaverly with no hope of ever gaining your freedom. With his special ability he did not want to be someone''s slave for the rest of his life. In the following days he had tried four other Houses but they gave the same condition. Today he was changing his strategy, the houses he he had already visited were all said to be weak but this day he was going to visit Noble House Ururu. He had heard that it had become very influential in the past years and was now second only to the the Royal House.


    The Noble houses had each an area in the Noble Quarter which they governed. These areas was where they stayed together with there subordinates. The noble quarter was mainly a residential area for cultivators, most type of commerce in Zophia was undertaken in the Free Quarter.


    When he had reached where Noble House Ururu was. Alerius had used the small gate used by servants to enter the walled fence into the official Ururu residence. The buildings inside gave off a palatial feeling and all the roads inside had been lined with magical lamps. he had been impressed by this sheer display of wealth.


    Alerius had introduced himself to the guards at the gate and they had been shown the building where the House conducted it business from was located. When he had entered the building he had thought he would be meeting one of the Elders of the House like what had happened at the other Noble houses he had visited. He later had discovered how wrong this assumption had been when the woman he found inside had told him to wait because Lord Kirrien was busy. He had felt both awe and trepidation when he was told this because the only people in Kiania who are called Lords are those who had reached the Under Lord Realm and to a commoner like him Under Lords were creatures of myth.


    Alerius was worried that the Under lord might discover his special talent and was preparing his excuses in advance. He did not know all the abilities that Under Lords had but some rumors said they can see a persons soul and can tell when a person is lying. If these rumors were true and his soul was different from those of other people because of his special ability then he was fucked. He didn''t know what excuse he could come up with which wasn''t a lie. He didn''t know how the Under Lord would react if discovered his special ability. Alerius did not want to be experimented on but it was to late now.


    Alerius checked his status to make sure his Talent stat still showed 3.5. He had changed it to 3.5 in the morning before coming to the Ururu residence. A talent of 3.5 was considered a very good talent for a commoner but wasn''t that rare. This way he could avoid being under to much scrutiny and at the same time be taken serious and not be dismissed right away for having a poor talent.


    "Walk with me." A powerful voice suddenly startled Alerius.


    Alerius was surprised to discover a man was standing in front of him. He was not sure how long the man had been standing there because Alerius had not been fully aware of his surrounding for he had been thinking deeply on how to present his case and coming up with plausible excuses in case the Under Lord discovered his special ability.


    Alerius didn''t need to be told this man was Lord Kirrien because the air suddenly became thick and Alerius found he could not even breath, he felt a huge pressure start crushing him that he dropped to his knees from where he was sitting. He felt like a huge mountain was pressing him down.


    Oh creator, am I going to die? alerius thought. In that moment, he became sure that he was going to die. He tried to fight the pressure but he failed. It was just too much and he couldn''t do anything to prevent crushing feeling he felt.


    "I am sorry, I forgot to bind my Aura. I don''t usually associate with fledgling cultivators." Lord kirrien said to him and the pressure alerius was feeling suddenly disappeared. Alerius barely heard what the Under Lord was saying. He was busy trying to get as much air as he quickly could in is shaking body.


    Alerius did not respond right away. He was just grateful the crushing pressure had disappeared and in truth he did not know what to say. After a few moments had passed, he managed to compose his shaking body but there was nothing he could do about the sweat. He did not think it would do to wipe away the sweat with his clothes in the Under Lords presence. He managed to stand and manage to bow. His head was blank,he couldn''t think of anything to say so all he managed to say was "My Lord."


    "Walk with me." The Under Lord repeated himself and started walking towards the door which led out. He did not bother to see if alerius was following.


    Alerius was perplexed. He had thought they would go inside the office instead Lord Kirrien was heading towards the door which led outside so he just followed behind the Under Lord his head still bowed and went out.


    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. "So you want to join my House?". Lord kirrien said.


    Alerius and Lord Kirrien were standing in a garden. Alerius had followed the Under Lord from the building until they had reached the garden. There were no other people in sight but alerius was not worried. If Lord kirrien wanted to kill him, he would not need to do it in a secluded area. No one would trouble the Under Lord if he killed Alerius after all Alerius was a nobody.


    Lord Kirrien was a tall man about six feet tall with a powerfully built body, he had brown skin and long black hair which was common to all the people on Kiana but Alerius did not know how Lord Kirrien looked like because of how there first interaction had taken place and he did not dare to look at him now. The Under Lord might consider it an offense, he had seen how all the people they had passed on there way to garden had bowed when they met their Lord.


    "Yes my lord. This humble servant would love to join your House?" Alerius replied.


    "Do you know what Houses fear the most?" Lord Kirrien asked and turned so that he was face to face with Alerius and Lord kirrien looked directly into Alerius''s eyes. Blue eyes of Lord Kirrien met alerius''s blacks. alerius tried to look away but failed. The Under Lord had piercing eyes and Alerius felt like the Under Lord was seeing his soul.


    "Its having your plans known by your rival" Lord kirrien answered his own question. "The simplest way to know what your rival plans is through spies and traitors. This simple fact is why all the Houses will not allow you to join them without being soul bound to their house."


    "but am. am. not a spy" alerius tried to say once he got the full impression of what the Under Lord Meant.


    "It doesn''t matter what you say. The truth is you are too old to be joining a House. Commoners who have such a good talent as yours join up immediately they gain there status. The houses are notified by the Ascension Halls of any commoner with a talent of more than 2 but in your case no one was notified about your talent. Which can only mean that you already work for one of the Houses and they covered up your talent all this years. It screams spy to anyone who thinks about it."


    "The other reason is that at 19, you have already formed an opinion on how you think the world works. Its easier to change a child''s mind so that they can put a House needs above their own but in your case your own needs come first and you have demonstrated this by declining to be soul bound to any House."


    Alerius did not know what to do. From the words the Under Lord said, he gathered that no House would ever allow him to join at his age without being Soul Bound. What he did not understand was why the Under Lord was telling him all this. Does he want me to be soul bound to his house? Alerius thought. He did not think that was the reason Lord Kirrien was doing it. Under Lords would not their waste their valuable time to convince someone like him unless he knew about alerius''s special ability. When he thought of this Alerius suddenly became afraid, if this was true then he would not leave this place alive. The Under Lord would not take no for an answer.


    "You must be wondering why I am telling you all this." Lord kirrien said as if he had read alerius''s mind. "The reason is simple, I can allow you to join my House under one condition and it does not require you to be soul bound either." He then paused for a moment and then went on "the condition is that you must marry my daughter."


    "What!" Shouted alerius. He was confused by the offer. He was expecting that the Under Lord would want his only daughter to marry him. Alerius thought that maybe he was being tested, and how successful this meeting would go depended on how reacted. "But my lord, am a nobody. I can''t possibly marry your lustrious daughter" alerius said. He decided to use a humble approach just in case he was being tested.


    "Don''t pretend to humble with me. You are an ambitious young man, if you weren''t you would have accepted the offer to be soul bound already. Don''t worry its that ambition of yours that made me interested in you in the first place. So listen closely, I am going to give a chance to to change your destiny but it will cost you. Don''t say I didn''t warn you." Lord kirrien stopped talking for a while as if to give alerius a chance to pay attention and then continued "you must know that I love my daughter very much. War is coming after the shrouded year ends and I can''t have my only daughter fighting in it as is expected of her but if she was married then her husband can fight in her place. So the deal is, you get to fight in the War and in exchange you join my House as my son in law. If you agree then you have two years to prepare. I will arrange a place for you at the Academy so you can be trained there in the basics for a year and after that it is up to you to prepare yourself. Of course you will not truly marry her, the marriage will be canceled after the war is over. So what do you think? I expect an answer right now"


    Alerius immediately agreed, it was a nice deal. No one was going to push him around As the son in law of the Under Lord and he gets to be taught at the Academy where only children of nobles trained and in some rare cases commoners that were favored by a particular House.


    "Don''t think this is a sweet deal, the war will be brutal and you might get a challenge or two from some the young men who will not be happy once I announce the engagement. So you should prepare yourself and don''t waste time once you get to the academy, use that time to train as if your life depends on it cause it just might. Report tomorrow at the academy you will find everything as been arranged. That''s all, now leave me and I don''t need to remind you what will happen if people know about our deal now do?"


    Of course alerius knew, It meant his death "I won''t tell anyone." Was all he said and bowed to the Under Lord and left.


    ..........................................................................................


    An old man appeared next to Kirrien after Alerius had left. The man was standing in a spot where previously nothing had been there. "House kapulya will be angered by this, there will see the engagement for what it is and not what you told the young man." The old man said.


    "I had no choice uncle Vin, I have heard from our spies from House Kapulya that the Patriarch of House Kapulya wants my daughter to marry his first born son. When I heard that a young man with a talent of 3.5 was looking for a House to join, I had to make a lot of promises to those Houses he visited so that they don''t allow him to join. If Alerius is engaged to my daughter then House Kapulya can''t pressure us to force my daughter to marry into that House and I couldn''t use anyone affiliated to the Houses already. I will announce my daughters engagement today before the Patriarch of House Kapulya comes with an offer for our children to marry. The patriarch of House Kapulya must suspect something or he wouldn''t want his son who has a talent of 5 to marry my daughter with the talent we have told everyone she has." Kirrien said.


    "If House Kapulya wants to end this engagement, the patriarch''s son has to wait for Alerius to complete his basic training in order to challenge him or the patriarch''s son will lose face for challenging someone with no training. That will give us a year. My daughter just became an Under Lord and in a year''s time she would have consolidated her realm and at that point we don''t have to be afraid of House kapulya anymore."


    Both men didn''t mention alerius''s fate if he was challenged.

 Chapter 3

    Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock!


    Alerius had just finished packing the clothes he intended to take to the academy when he heard someone knocking on his front door.


    "Hold on" he shouted and walked towards the door. When he opened the door, the person who was outside went inside the room without even waiting to be invited in.


    Alerius was surprised to discover that the person who just came inside was a very attractive woman. He had expected such behavior from a male cultivator. He observed his visitor and found that the woman was taller than him and appeared to be in her late twenties. The badge pinned on her shirt was a triangular in shape, one part was colored purple while the other was colored green. He saw that the woman was observing his room and from her facial expression, alerius could tell that she found the room lacking.


    Alerius wanted to asked what she wanted but in his experience, he had found it was never wise to ask such a direct question to someone more powerful than him. He did not think she would hurt him because she was also from Noble House Ururu but just to be on the safe side all he said was "Good morning"


    "This room suits you." She replied ignoring his greeting


    "Thank you" Alerius replied. He knew she was making fun of his appearance but he was not bothered. He had always known that he was not handsome, his looks had always been described as average.


    "You must have impressed one of the higher ranking House members for you to be admitted into the House and get sponsorship to attend the academy on top of that but frankly I don''t know what they saw in you"


    She doesn''t know that it was Lord kirrien himself who gave me permission to join House Ururu. She thinks it''s one of the Elders. Maybe Lord Kirrien doesn''t want people to know it''s him. Alerius thought to himself. He didn''t correct her assumption just in case the Under lord wanted to keep things quiet.


    "Why you? You should know that not many who are not blood line descendants are sponsored to go there. I don''t think it is your talent, you are way too old to just reach the Liquid Phase."


    Alerius was surprised, from the way the Under Lord had casually told him that he will have to attend the academy, he had gotten the impression every cultivator had to attend when they reached Liquid phase.


    "I didn''t know it was that hard to get into the academy" alerius replied. He didn''t know if this was a test set by the Under Lord to see how he would react if probed for answers or if the woman was just sent by another faction within House Ururu to get information from him. so he decided to feign ignorance.


    "Yes its hard". She answered and after a few moments had passed and she saw that alerius was not going to say anything else she changed the subject.


    She removed a small rectangular box from one of her pockets and gave it to alerius. "I was told to deliver this to you"


    Alerius excitedly opened the box and found that inside there was a circular cultivation badge. His excitement died when he discovered that the badge was painted completely in black and it didn''t have the House colors he had been expecting.


    The woman must have seen the change in alerius''s facial expression for she laughed and said "all badges are black in color if they have not been imprinted with the Aura of the owner. To imprint your Aura on the badge, you must place a drop of your blood on the badge."


    Alerius got a knife and cut his thumb. He then pressed the thumb onto the badge. The thumb suddenly became very cold and he felt dizzy for a moment. After he recovered he watched as the badge lit up and its color changed to purple on the left, white in the middle and green on the right. Alerius was about to ask what the white color meant when he a heard his visitor shout


    "Impossible!"


    When alerius saw her shocked expression he knew that the white color signified something important.


    "What does white mean" he asked. He didn''t know how to react because he didn''t know if white on a badge was a good or bad thing.


    "The white color means that you now considered an important member of House Ururu. Only blood line descendants of a Noble House and those marrying into a Noble House can have their cultivation badges with three colors: white plus the two House colors. This is true for all the Noble houses in Zophia City"


    Does this mean that I am now a noble? He didn''t ask this as he didn''t want to seen over eager so instead asked another question which had been bothering him "if badges need an imprint, and if I was not the real alerius would it have worked when my blood touched it?"


    "Yes it would have worked and the badge would have activated but a badge has another function apart from showing cultivation realm; it also acts as an identification card. Close your eyes and focus on my badge you will see what I mean"


    Alerius did as instructed and after a few moments he saw an information window. The information table was divided into two rows and two columns. On the left it showed the woman''s name and on the right was the picture of her head and below the picture was her House status and it showed that she was a common member


    Elisa Ururu </img>icture


    House Status:Common house member


    So that''s her name alerius thought. He then did the same with his badge


    Alerius Manda Ururu</img>icture


    House Status:Core member


    "Your picture and name where put inside when making the badge and cannot be altered once the badge is made. If someone else apart from you activated the badge then unless that person is your identical twin then the picture inside the badge and the face of that person will be different. The badge also has another feature; place the badge on the floor then take five steps backwards"


    Alerius did as instructed and after five steps back wards he saw that his badge had turned back to black.


    "When the badge leaves the range of your aura, it will turn back to black, And a person can only imprint on one badge at a time meaning if you want to get a new badge you must remove your imprint from your old badge. I am sure you can think of importance of such features."


    This means a person cannot have badges from two different Houses at once and stealing a badge is useless since it will turn black once it leaves the owner. Alerius thought to himself.


    "When you reach the academy just show them the badge, they are already expecting you. Do you have any questions?"


    Alerius had a lot questions on his mind, he wanted to ask how they had gotten his picture inside the badge? What it meant to be a core member of a House, and if he will be receiving a stipend now that he had become a member of House Ururu and many more other questions but he did not think his visitor knew all the answers and he could guess that his status as core member was only for show, the Under Lord had said his only responsibility was only to fight in the war, so whatever benefits a core member enjoyed he would not experience them. At least I get to have some training. he comforted himself


    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. "Is there anything else I should be aware of about my situation?" Alerius asked he decided to make is question non specific so that he could get as much information as possible


    "There is a credit house at the academy which belongs to House Ururu. An account has been opened for you there, you can get your allowance from there. I would advice you to go there immediately when you reach the academy. Goodbye" Elisa replied and left the room.


    Well that solves the financial problem Alerius thought and started preparing himself for the journey to the academy.


    xxxxxxxxxxxx


    One benefit of having a core cultivation badge was that for once Alerius didn''t have to be extra careful when walking along the streets. people now gave him a wide berth and he didn''t have to bow when he met a cultivator. All the cultivators he had met along the way had bowed to him instead. Even the guards at the gate that led to the Royal Quarter had let him pass without asking him any questions.


    No wonder cultivators are pompous, if this is the kind of treatment they expect to receive. Alerius thought as he entered the Royal Quarter.


    The streets showed the same type careful planning and money that went into creating them that he had seen in area of the Noble Quarter controlled by House Ururu. The only difference was that Royal House Kapulya owned everything in the Royal Quarter.


    The academy was located in in the Royal Quarter and was the only thing in the Royal Quarter not run by House Kapulya.


    The academy was jointly run by all the Houses.


    The academy was enclosed inside a very high wall fence. Alerius saw a lot guards on patrol along the wall fence though he didn''t find it difficult to gain entrance inside. He had only been required to enter his name in one of the books at the gate. The guards had then asked for his badge and after that they had compared the name he had written and what was found in the badge, they had allowed him to pass.


    The administration building was a three storey building and like all the buildings within the academy it had a flat roof. Inside Alerius found the receptionist who directed him to registrar''s office.


    "Come in"


    Alerius heard a man''s voice shout from the other side of the door which he had knocked on.


    Once he went inside, the registrar rose from his seat and came over to where Alerius was standing. The registrar focused on alerius''s badge for moment then offered his hand for a handshake


    "Good morning Mr Alerius." The registrar said.


    They must be away of viewing information inside the badge without closing your hand. Alerius thought. That''s how he knows my name.


    "Good morning Sir" Alerius replied and shock the other man''s hand.


    The registrar was a middle aged man and from the squire shaped badge on the registrars black suit, Alerius figured that the man had reached the Solid Phase.


    "I have been expecting you. Lord Kirrien payed me a visit himself and told me to expect you." The registrar paused for a while and looked closely at Alerius, as if the reason why the Under Lord came himself was written on Alerius''s face. After a while he continued


    "The Under Lord said your situation was special and that you where lacking information common to Cultivators. So you have been given access to the first three levels of the library."


    Its a good thing I know how to read alerius thought. The only thing Duds and Cultivators had in common in Zophia was that basic Education was free so most people were literate.


    "Here is your library pass and map of the academy grounds." The registrar said and handed them to Alerius.


    "Thank you sir" Alerius said as he placed them in the small bag he was carrying.


    "You are welcome. Your classes begin tomorrow, the venue for the classes and hostels have been marked on the map. I hope you enjoy your time here and If you have any problems you can come and see me any time"


    When Alerius left the office he checked the map for the location of the credit house Elisa had told him about. After locating it he went there.


    The inside of the credit house was a shop. It sold everything needed for cultivation. A middle aged paste phase female cultivator was sitting behind the counter.


    The woman focused on his badge for while and then said "good morning Mr Alerius"


    This act confirmed what Alerius had been suspecting of there being a way to quickly view the information stored in the cultivation badge.


    "Good morning. I was told to come here once I reached the academy" Alerius said.


    "You are the new guy, I had been expecting you. I was told to you didn''t know a lot about how things work here at the academy" The lady said


    Alerius found out that day that a lot of cultivators didn''t like introducing themselves. "Yes, I only joined House Ururu yesterday" he said


    "Well its quite simple. You can get any thing from this shop on credit and The House will foot the bill. You can also request to get money instead of getting items."


    "Is there a limit."


    "Yes for you its 10 squire crystal marks a month."


    Wow that''s equivalent to 1000 circular crystal marks Alerius excitedly thought. It was the first time in his life that he owned such a large amount of money.


    "How much is the liquid and paste spiritual elixirs." He asked. The Under Lord had told him that he will be fighting in the war so he wanted to find out in advance how much the elixirs cost so that he can make a plan.


    "The liquid one is 6 triangular crystal marks while the paste spiritual potion is 10 triangular crystal marks."


    "Then I would like to withdraw 5 squire crystal marks." Alerius said. He decided to leave half of his money here just in case later he decided to get spiritual elixirs.


    The woman gave him 5 squire shaped crystal marks. This day is day for many firsts for me. Alerius thought for it was also the first time he saw and owned actual crystal marks. He had only owned the paper money equivalents before.


    After receiving the money, Alerius was shown a book where he was told to write his name, signature and amount he had received.


    Alerius was surprised by how simple the whole procedure was and when he asked the woman, she laughed and explained that at least twice every year an Under Lord from the House went through the books. It was difficult to lie to an Under Lord so no one was worried about stealing money from the House.


    Alerius bid the woman goodbye and went to where the hostels where located after consulting the map.


    Getting a room was easy, all he had to do was show his badge to the key custodian. The key custodian showed him his room and gave him the keys. The custodian also informed him about the free food in the cafeteria and the times the meals would be ready.


    The boy''s hostel appeared to be two a storey long block. Alerius''s room was on the ground floor. He used the key the custodian had given him to enter the room.


    The room was larger than the place he had been renting. The hostel room was self contained and was lit by the magical lamp mounted to the ceiling.


    Alerius decided to rest first and later go out and explore the academy grounds.

 Chapter 4

    The room where the lessons where supposed to take place was almost full by the time Alerius arrived. The desks lined from the back to the front and he could see a chalkboard in front. He had not expected the room to look like a typical classroom. He had expected it to look different to the classrooms he had gone to as a dud.


    Most of the students were around his age and only a few had core cultivation badges. He had expected there to be more Nobles and the students to be younger because he did not think Nobles could lack spiritual elixirs so they should have reached the Liquid Phase by the age of fourteen or fifteen.


    Maybe they are in a different class he thought. The size of this classroom can only accommodate about sixty students and I saw more than that number in the cafeteria last night.


    The desks in front were all occupied, so he made his way to the back were he found a sit. Along the way non of the students looked directly at him and if he passed in front of a student, the student would look the other way. Alerius was no longer bothered by this behavior for it was the first time it had happened. He had first noticed this in the cafeteria the previous night that the students didn''t try to look directly him and no one had sat at the table he chose to sit on even though he was there alone. He had found it strange at first but when he had heard someone whisper about the Underlord''s son in law he had understood that news about his betrothal was no longer a secret. He had then assumed that the students didn''t want to offend him so they pretended not to notice him.


    A few minutes after Alerius had sat down, a short old woman arrived. The old woman had a squire shaped cultivation badge covered completely in white. This meant that she was an Instructor as those who taught at the academy were called.


    "Good morning class. I will be the instructor responsible for your first part of training you shall undertake here." The woman said.


    "When I am talking I expect everyone to be quiet. Raise your hand if you want to ask a question and if I catch you talking I will chase you from my class. No matter who you are related to, in here I expect my rules to be followed. If you don''t want to be here then you can leave. Don''t worry if you leave you won''t be disqualified from tournament which I am sure is the reason most of you are here for."


    The woman had paused for a while as if to allow some daring student to leave the room. Alerius looked around the room to see if any one would leave but no one left though the noise stopped so her objective must have been reached.


    "Since no one is leaving then we can began." Then she started writing something on the board while she continued talking.


    "We shall begin with the basics. The academy accepts six hundred students each year who are then placed in ten classes of sixty students per class. Everyone in here is someone who is not familiar with cultivation world. Most of you have a low talent or are not Noble born and were not expected to amount to much so your families didn''t tell you much about the cultivation world. Only you know the reason why your situation changed and how you managed to get a place here at the academy but we are not going to talk about that today."


    So that''s why everyone here is my age. Alerius thought. Am not the only one whose luck turned around.


    Alerius looked at his fellow students trying to. Pick out those with low talent. His guess was that they should be Noble born so he tried to count how many students had core cultivation badges. He stopped when he heard the instructor continue talking.


    "Cultivators should always follow the three tenets. I am not going to talk about the three tenets themselves as I am sure you know them. What I have written is what each represent concerning cultivation."


    Alerius saw what she had written:


    -seek strength


    -don''t show weakness


    -know your place/station


    "The first is archived through cultivation. The second is mostly through reputation and the third is shown by the cultivation badges. Most cultivators do not introduce ourselves, our information is stored in the badges so if you meet a fellow cultivator you. His badge will tell you his cultivation phase. If its higher than you then you are expected to show him respect. But if you are in the same phase you must read that fellows information which is stored in his badge and then act according to his station."


    Alerius had noticed that every cultivator he had met had never introduced themselves including the instructor. Now he knew why. It was because of the third tenet.


    "Now I am going to talk about stats. I am sure many of you know this already so I am not going to go into details. If you want a detailed explanation go to the library and read about the attributes. Many books have been written about the subject. I want each one of you to check your status window so I don''t have to write the stats on the board"


    Alerius did as instructed and checked his status window.


    Spiritual Energy: 20


    Life Energy: 85


    Natural Energy: 0


    Talent: 3.5


    Main Attributes


    Soul: 30


    Aura: 10


    Mind: 12


    Secondary Attributes


    Spirit: 13


    Will:11


    Analyze: 12


    Perception: 11


    Knowledge: 10


    "Your status window shows you your overall body condition. Each stat or attribute is not limited to one function. I am not going to list all of them but I will only mention the function each attribute is commonly known for."


    Alerius paid extra attention to listen because this was information he was lacking.


    "The Soul attribute shows how strong your soul is. The stronger your soul is the faster your aura is made. A strong soul is important because all our magical abilities involve the manipulation of aura."


    The students eyes lit up when they heard the instructor mention magical abilities.


    "Hahaha, I can see that I have gotten everyone''s attention but I have to disappoint you. We will talk about magical abilities next time."


    Everyone groaned when they heard this.


    "Let move on. The Mind attribute shows how powerful your mind is. Every action you take is directed by your mind so you can see the importance of a powerful mind."


    The woman then pointed at the chalk. The chalk started levitating. She then pointed at the board and the chalk went to the board and wrote two words; Aura and will.


    That''s telekiness. Alerius thought. He was excited as this was the first he had seen magic performed.


    "What I used to lift that chalk is a combination of my Aura,Will, and Spirit. As I earlier said, every magical ability involves manipulating your Aura in some way. What your Aura attribute shows is how long your Aura can stretch. For example if your Aura stat is 20, then the maximum distance your Aura can stretch is 2 meters and if your Aura stat is 35 then the maximum distance it will stretch is 3.5 meters. How much effect your Aura has on the environment is depended on how strong your Will is. Having a strong Will means stronger magical abilities. Aura is manipulated using your Spirit. Therefore how easy you can control your Aura depends on how strong your Spirit is and this is represented by the Spirit stat."


    A student raise his hand but the Instructor ignored him and continued teaching


    "The attributes I have talked about so farexcept for the Mind stat are called spiritual attributes and the remaining three attributes are called mental attributes. Perception is awareness of your environment and the Analyze stat represents how fast your mind can process information. Some of you have heard some Cultivators say that time slows down for them when they are in fight. This effect they experience is due to having high perception and Analyze stats and not because time really slows down."


    The Instructor looked at the student with the raised hand and said "I hope your question is not about how high the stats need to be in order to move things telekineticaly because that question falls under magical abilities and I said that I will cover that next time."


    The student dropped his hand


    "It appears that some of you have a poor memory, and that brings me to the last stat which is the knowledge attribute. A lot of Knowledge comes from experience and if you can''t remember that experience then its the same as not having it in the first place. Therefore the higher the knowledge attribute the better your memory becomes. This stat is important when it comes to learning magical and martial skills. I would advice some of you to invest in this stat so that you don''t keep forgetting simple instructions"


    The all class laughed. Alerius noticed that the student who had raised up his hand was blushing. The instructor was clearly making fun of that student.


    "That''s all for the attributes and before we look at the different types of energies I would like to remind you that the functions of the attributes are not limited to what I have said. For example the Spirit stat also represents spirituality and at a high level you can scan your environment using your Aura and this is called Aura Sense. Cultivators use Aura sense to scan badges to read information stored inside."


    So that''s how everyone I met yesterday knew who I was without them concentrating too much on my badge. Alerius thought. But wait if that''s true then why did that guard ask for badge at the gate.


    Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Alerius decided to research about it later because he heard the Instructor continue talking


    "Everyone knows that cultivation is just the combination of light energy and Aura to form Spiritual Energy and that Life Energy is the by product of an expanding spiritual core and is measured by the Talent stat. The first four stages of cultivation are known as Phases. Everyone knows how to reach Liquid Phase so I won''t talk about that. To reach Paste Phase All you need is atleast Soul and Aura stat to reach 40 and need 20 units of Life Energy to advance. To reach Solid Phase, all your 3 main attributes need to be atleast 60 plus 40 units of Life Energy. I won''t go into detail about the mechanism of cultivation but will only talk about the functions of the Energies."


    The Instructor stretched out her hand and a ball of blue flames appeared on top of hands.


    "Spiritual Energy is the energy used to drive your Aura so you can perform magic. Life Energy is used to make changes to your body and is used everytime you want to change any aspect of your body. What you see in your status window as attributes are these aspects and every time you increase them, you change your body in some way. When you are about to ascend from one phase to another for example from Fog Phase to Liquid Phase the 10 Life Energy required to advance are used to make permanent changes to your core so that it can then start converting the Foggy Spiritual to Liquid Spiritual Energy every time Spiritual Energy is stored in your Spiritual core."


    The ball of flames started spinning around the Instructors hand.


    "I will allow whoever is going to answer the following question to ask me any question in return and I will answer to the best of my ability even if its about magic."


    The spinning ball of flames then started to change colors; from blue to red and back to blue continuously around the Instructors hand.


    Alerius was sure that the Instructor was doing this just to get their attention but he couldn''t deny that it was not working. He was fascinated by the light show just like the rest of the class.


    "The question is this. If to advance from Gas Phase to Fog Phase, 5 units of Life Energy are required to change the spiritual core. Then how do those with a talent of 0.5 manage to advance when they reach spiritual energy level 9?"


    Alerius saw a thin girl with a core badge from House Kapulya raise her hand, and when Instructor nodded her direction she answered saying "Life Energy does not exist in decimal points so when those with a talent of 0.5 reach spiritual level 9, the amount of Life Energy they have is 4.5 even though it will be displayed as 4. I think this amount of Life Energy is enough for them to advance."


    "That''s not correct but I will allow you to ask me a question at the end of this lesson. What you said about Life Energy not existing in decimal points is correct. For those with a talent ending with a decimal like 0.5, 1.5, 2.5 and so on. When they reach a spiritual level that should give them Life Energy units ending with a decimal point, that decimal will not be shown but they will be an addition of 1 the next time the spiritual core expands. For example someone with a talent of 1.5. When their spiritual energy level rise from 0 to 1, the Life Energy will display 1 instead of 1.5. And when the Spiritual Energy level rises to 2 then the Life Energy will then display 3. This is true for all talents that end in decimal that when the Life energy should end in decimal. The decimal will not be shown but that energy is not lost and will be shown the next time the Life energy rises and become a whole number. The reason am explaining this common knowledge is that it is relevant to the question I have asked."


    The colors of the flames started to change from blue to red to orange.


    The Instructor asked if anyone else could attempt to answer the question and when no one raised their hands she said. "There is a simple method of gaining Life Energy but it has a life altering consequence that it is not told to anyone until that person has exhausted all the Life Energy they can obtain when their core expands and they can no longer advance. For example those with a talent of 1, when they reach spiritual level 19 will only have 14 Life energy units and they need to raise there Soul stat from 10 to 20 plus the additional 10 Life Energy units required to alter their core. The 14 Life Energy units is not Enough for this, so they need additional Life Energy units."


    Another color was added to the ball of flames. It started changing from blue to red to orange to violet and then reversing.


    This must be important if the instructor is going through all this trouble of adding colors to the flames just to get our attention alerius thought.


    "The method involves converting Spiritual Energy to Natural Energy and then converting Natural Energy to Life Energy. To get Natural Energy, you must compress Spiritual Core just like when advancing but this time without adding Life Energy. If you continue to compress your core for an extended period, then the Spiritual Energy will transform to 1 unit of Natural Energy. Please note that your spiritual energy should be full before you try this. This process is painfull and can damage your spiritual core if used continuously without rest. If your Soul attribute is less than 20 then you can use this method once a month, if its between 20 and 39 then you can use this method once a week, if it is between 40 and 59 then you can use this once every two days and lastly if your Soul attribute is above 60 then you can use this method once a day. Another thing you should take note of is that no matter what stage you reach, even if it is the Underlord realm; the total amount of Natural Energy you can make from Spiritual Energy is always 1for each conversion session."


    The Instructor then added green to list of colors the ball of flames was changing into.


    "To change Natural Energy to Life Energy is quiet simple all it takes is opening your status window and then thinking about changing Natural Energy to Life Energy and it will change but the amount of Natural Energy units required to change to 1 unit of Life Energy depends on talent. You multiply your talent with 10 and that is the amount of Natural Energy required to form 1 unit of Life Energy. Earlier I said that Life Energy does not exist as a decimal number so for those with talents with a decimal number. The decimal number is rounded off and then multiplied by 10. For example; for a talent of 0.5, this will be rounded off to 1 and multiplied with 10 therefore for a talent of 1 and 0.5 the number of Natural Energy needed to form 1 unit of Life Energy is 10 units. For talents 2.5 and 3 the amount required will be 30 and 4.5 and 5 the amount will be 50."


    Yellow was then added to colors the ball of flames was changing into.


    "This is reversible but 1 unit of Life Energy always forms 10 units of Natural Energy not matter the talent."


    Indigo was also added. Alerius noticed that the colors the flames were changing into are those found in the rainbow.


    "The consequence of this method is that once you use this method then the spiritual elixir used to speed up core expansion stops working for you ever. This is one of the reasons people who have not exhausted their Life Energy units produced from core expansion are not told this. Cultivation without spiritual elixirs is a long process and grows longer the more you progress for example in the Fog Phase one can go from spiritual level 12 to 13 in about 3 months without elixirs but in the Liquid Phase it might take you about 8 months to progress from 23 to 24 and its longer in the Paste Phase as it might take you a year and some months to move from 31 to 32. The opposite is true when it comes to spiritual elixirs the time reduces from only taking one elixir once a month before Liquid phase to about one once a week as long as your Soul strength is above 60."


    She clapped her hands once and the ball of flames winked out of existence.


    "That concludes this lesson. We will be meeting once a week to give you time to get used to converting Spiritual Energy to Natural Energy. Any questions specifically about today''s lesson?"


    A lot of students raised their hands and the Instructor answered their question but alerius didn''t pay much attention to the answers as the questions were about what she had already explaned this was until the girl from House Kapulya the only one allowed to ask any question for answering the Instructors question earlier asked her question.


    "I have heard that the all attributes need to reach a certain number before you can perform magic is this true?"


    "Yes this is true. We don''t know the reason why but Aura can only be manipulated when all your stats are atleast 20 or above. Even if only one attribute is below 20 then you won''t perform any form of magic. At one point every cultivator faces the decision to either decide to start perfoming magic or to push for an advancement. The Life Energy units needed for all attributes to be atleast 20 is about 80 and this can be used to reach atleast the Paste Phase. Most cultivators choose advancement and many of the cultivators you will meet below the Solid Phase can''t perform magic especially if they are below 20 years."


    Alerius didn''t think he had such an option. To fight in the war he needed to be able to perform magic even if he wanted to advance he had to wait for atleast 6 months because he had just advanced to the Liquid Phase.


    "I won''t force anyone to chose but you know that next time I will be teaching magic so if you decide you want to advance then that''s up to you."


    The Instructor left immediately after that and that signified the end of the class.

 Chapter 5

    Alerius left the class feeling unsettled. After being told about the stats and Life Energy units required to reach Paste and Solid Phases, he had made calculations and realized that he could reach the Solid Phase within a year but he could only do that if he only strengthened the main attributes alone.


    This meant that he wouldn''t be doing any magic this year. But he could learn next year during the shrouded year even if he didn''t learn at the academy.


    He preferred to do it this way but the reasons why he shouldn''t rush to the Solid Phase were more than the reasons he had for trying to reach Solid phase early. One of them was that the Underlord had sent him to the Academy so that he can learn magic and he couldn''t afford to go against the Underlord''s wishes. Secondly, he was pretending to have a talent of 3.5 and if he reached the Solid Phase early then he would be inviting trouble for everyone would know that he had lied since he didn''t know how to hide his Cultivation Realm from Underlords.


    Every cultivator starts with all his attributes being around 10 when they get their status window at the age of 12. From his calculation those with a talent of 3 can not reach the Paste Phase with Life Energy units produced from an expanding core alone and when it came to the Solid phase then only those with with a talent of 6 can reach it with such Life Energy Units. Talents of 5.5 and below had to reach the Solid Phase with help from Life Energy units that are converted from Natural Energy.


    He didn''t want to give up using the spiritual elixir if he could help it. He didn''t want to find out later when it was to late that it could have helped him reach the Underlord Realm faster and he was confident he could reach that realm with is special ability.


    Why is it so important to come to the Academy in the first place? He silently asked himself. I am sure Houses have their own people who can train their children.


    He decided to visit the library to find out more about the Underlord Realm, then about the academy and if there was another way of producing Life Energy that he didn''t know about.


    *****


    The library was located in a huge building which was about five storeys tall.


    When alerius went inside he was surprised to discover that the librarian was a fat middle aged man who was only in the Liquid Phase as the man had a white circular badge on his shirt.


    The white badge signified that the man was part of the academy faculty. It was the first time Alerius had seen a member of the academy who was not in the Solid Phase. He was starting to doubt if the library had any valuable information when the librarian was only in such a realm plus he hadn''t seen any guards anywhere since he arrived.


    Maybe the librarian is in disguise. He thought. I will just have to be respectful just in case


    As Alerius approached the librarian, he was disappointed to note that the ground floor contained only a few books lined along the walls in book shelves. For such a large building he had expected the place to be packed with books.


    "Anything useful is found in level 3 and above. If you don''t have access to those areas then you will just waste time here." The librarian told him before he had even said anything.


    "Thank you. How can I get to level 3?" Alerius asked. He decided to be direct since the librarian had been direct as well.


    "Each floor represents a level so level 3 is on the second floor. The whole building is warded so if you don''t have access to a certain level then the door leading to that level will not open."


    Alerius thanked the librarian and used the stairs that he was told led to the floors above.


    He reached the second floor and tried to open the door. When he touched the handle of the door, He felt the library pass in his pocket become warm and the door opened easily.


    The second floor contained only a few books just like the previous floors.


    Alerius searched the books but was disappointed to discover that most books were about House Histories.


    He continued searching and later found a book simply titled; The Path of Ascension. He knew it was The formal name for cultivation.


    He opened the book and skipped the pages until he found one titled Underlord Realm he then read what was written there:


    The Underlord Realm is the highest a person can reach on Kiania as the Blood Energy required to reach the Overlord Realm is not stable on Kiania. The Blood Energy appears once every 11 years and manifests as a Blackish Red Fog which covers all of Kiania for about 10 months.


    So Blood Energy causes the shrouded year alerius thought.


    Every 11 years the land is covered in a fog which lasts for about a year and is called the shrouded year. The fog is poisonous and can cause death or mutation in anyone not found in one the 11 Major Cities found on the continent. So when the shrouded year approaches people living outside migrate to any of the Cities until the fog ends.


    Alerius continued reading.


    This has made it impossible for Aspirants to go beyond the Underlord Realm. To progress further Aspirants must leave the moon and go to the Planet Yezir through the Space Gate.


    Alerius was not surprised when he read this. He had known that he lived on the the continent called Kiania which was located on the moon with the same name. He could see the Planet Yezir every night and had heard rumors that powerful cultivators could travel the planet. Now he knew that the rumors were true and they used what is called the Space Gate.


    I have to search about the Space Gate later. He thought and continued reading.


    Once an Aspirant reaches the Solid Phase; His Core can continue expanding until the Spiritual Energy level reaches 100 from the level of 40 the Aspirant has at the start of the Solid phase without the use of Life Energy at any point between level 40 and 100. When the Spiritual Energy level reaches 100 the Core stops expanding. To progress further the Aspirant must ignite his Soul Fire from the Solid Spiritual Energy in his core. Successful ignition of Soul Fire Means that the Aspirant has reached the Underlord Realm.


    To successfully ignite Soul Fire, all the main attributes should have reached 90 and all the secondary attributes should be at least 50. The amount of Life Energy units required to ignite Soul Fire is 80.


    Alerius had observed that the number of Life Energy units required at every advancement in realms was double the amount required in the previous advancement. At first it had been 5 then 10 followed by 20 and then 40 and lastly 80.


    When alerius turned the page he discovered that the information about advancement to the Underlord Realm had finished. The information on next page said that the Underlord realm cannot be reached after one goes beyond the age of 40 and it went on to list the names of the youngest cultivators to reach this realm.


    Let''s see what this book says about other sources of Life Energy. He thought.


    He found a page about Life Energy and from what was written on it, he discovered that spiritual energy generated from an expanding core is called Spiritual Life Energy. He also found two other new methods of producing Life Energy.


    One method involved cracking one''s spiritual core. When the core was cracked it released about 320 Life Energy units at once. The downsides were that a cracked core cannot convert Spiritual Energy to Natural Energy and once the core was cracked then it would never expand again. Therefore the cultivator would be stuck in the realm their in at the time they crack their core with no way of getting additional Life Energy


    Alerius could see why some people cracked their cores. Someone with a talent of 0.5 can produce about 36 units of Life Energy if they converted energy everyday so it would take them close to 9 years just to produce 320. This is a huge amount of Life Energy to get at once for someone with no hope of advancement.


    The second method he discovered involved taking a elixir called HOPE POTION. Once taken this potion partially cracks the spiritual core and produces about 160 Life Energy at once. The advantage of taking this potion was that the core would later heal and Spiritual Energy conversion to Natural Energy can continue after the core has healed. The disadvantage is that advancement is impossible before the damage heals and this elixir can only be taken once In a cultivators lifetime and that healing the core takes along time and may take about 7 to 10 years just to heal though you can no longer use the spiritual elixir after it heals


    Alerius didn''t find anything useful about why the academy was special or about the Portal Gate in the library so he decided to go and consult the Registrar.


    *****


    "Come in"


    Alerius entered the registrars office after heard the voice tell him to enter.


    "Please have a seat" the registrar said. Alerius accepted the invite to seat down. He observed that this time the man remained seated behind his desk.


    "I didn''t expect to see you so soon Mr Alerius. So how can I help you?"


    Alerius knew that people usually got annoyed when asked to many question so he quickly summarized what he wanted and what he had found in the library and decided to put all his questions into one and simply said "Sir, I don''t understand what the information I have gathered and so far means. And I don''t know where to get additional information, so I was wondering if you could help me."


    "Every cultivators dream is to one day reach the Underlord Realm but sadly there is a time limit for this. A persons average life span is about 75 years old so between the range of 35 to 40 years old, a person his at his most prime so after 40 years the body starts to grow old and weak. Igniting the Soul Fire is very dangerous and failure usually leads to death so the Underlord Realm must be reached before your body becomes weak."


    The registrar then wrote something on a piece of paper and passed it to Alerius. On the paper was written:


    1).SE(9)-Fog: LE(5) = 5


    2.)SE(19)-Liquid: S(10) + LE(10) + PLE(5) = 25


    3.)SE(29)-Paste: S(30) + A(30) + LE(20) + PLE(15) = 95


    4.)SE(39)-Solid: S(50) + A(50) + M(50) + LE(40) + PLE(35) = 225


    5.)SE(100)-Underlord: Main attr 240(80x3) + sec attr 250(50x5 + LE(80) + PLE(75) = 645


    From the list, Alerius could see that the that PLE was the Life Energy spent on the core alone in previous advancements and not on attributes, SE was Spiritual Energy level required to reach that ream, LE was Life Energy spent on the core, S was Soul, A was Aura and M was Mind.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. "The list I have given you shows most minimal requirements for reaching each realm. Since every cultivator starts with each attribute around 10, the numbers in brackets are the number of units of Life Energy needed to be added to the required attribute for it to reach the number needed to qualify for advancement to that realm. So if you multiply your talent to the spiritual energy level, you get the total number of Spiritual Life energy you would have generated at that level. From the list you can see that those with a talent of 0.5 cannot reach the Fog realm with Spiritual Life Energy alone, so they have to start converting Energy and that means giving up the use of the spiritual elixir. When it comes to reaching the Liquid Phase; those with a talent of 1and 0.5 cannot reach it without Life Energy from converted Energy. The same happens to those with a talent of 3 and below when it comes to reaching the Paste Phase. When it comes to the Solid Phase; its only those with a talent of 6 who can reach this phase with Spiritual Life Energy."


    Alerius saw that no one could reach the Underlord Realm without Converting Energy but those with a talent of 6 came close as they could generate 600 Life Energy by the time their core stopped expanding and only needed to Convert about 45 life Energy to reach the Underlord realm.


    "Without the spiritual elixir it would take months or sometimes years to expand the core by 1 especially in the Solid Phase and you have to expand it about 60 times in the Solid Phase alone. So the earlier you stop using the spiritual elixir the longer it would take you to cultivate. This is one of the main reason there so few Underlords as you have to reach it before forty years."


    "Does that mean that those with a talent of 6 are the only ones who can reach the Underlord Realm?" Alerius asked, he was sure there were other ways of accelerating core expansion because if it took about one year to expand it by one then it would take about 60 years in the Solid Phase alone.


    "There are other elixirs which can accelerate core expansion but there are not as effective as the spiritual elixir. The best among these that I know of can help expand the core once per month but its very expensive as the ingredients for making it only appear during the shrouded year."


    "Why can''t the spiritual elixir work once you start converting Energy when other elixirs can work."


    "The advantage of the spiritual elixir is that as long as your soul is above 60 then you can take it every week but it stops working when you start converting Energy because when Converting Spiritual Energy to Natural Energy the core is slightly damaged. This damage is not as extensive as when you crack your core or drink the Hope Portion but the spiritual elixir is not strong enough to expand a damaged core no matter how slight the damage is. This damage does not heal on its own but you can heal this damage and continue using the spiritual elixir again but it takes about 80 Life Energy units to heal it."


    No wonder our Instructor said that once you start Converting Energy you can never take the spiritual elixir again Alerius thought.


    "You might think 80 Life Energy units is a small number but if you think about it that''s not the case. In the best case scenario: with your Soul attribute above 60, you can Convert Energy once a day so in a year you would have 360 Natural Energy Units. Those with a talent of 0.5 and 1 can convert this into 36 units of Life Energy but in your case, with a Talent of 3.5 you can only make 9 units of Life Energy a year so it could take you about 9 years just to get 80 units."


    Alerius was not worried about this point with his ability to change his Talent he got the best of both worlds. He could get 6 Spiritual Life Energy units every time his core expanded with a Talent of 6 then when it came to converting Energy he can change his Talent to 0.5 and use only 10 units of Natural Energy to produce 1 unit of Life Energy so in a year he can make 36 units of Life Energy from energy conversions alone.


    "This brings about the next point I wanted to point out. You have seen the number of advantages that come with having a Soul with strength above 60 but what I hope you have noticed is that you can only make your soul reach 60 in the Solid Phase or you will run out of Spiritual Life energy earlier and fail to advance to the Paste Phase. In your case by the time your spiritual energy level reaches 29 with a talent of 3.5 the total amount of Life Energy you would have generated at that time is 101. If you deduct the 95 required to advance to paste phase you will remain with only 6 units of life energy, which are not enough to raise your Soul strength from 40 you would have at the time to 60. So if you raise your soul to 60 before Solid Phase it means you will start energy conversions earlier. This is the same problem which arises when it comes to being able to perform magic. If you increase your secondary attributes before Solid Phase, you will run out spiritual Life Energy earlier. That list I showed you is important as it shows which attribute to increase and how much to increase it to, in any given realm if you want to progress faster because any deviation means you have to start energy conversions earlier. Many cultivators you will meet follow the rules on that list and can''t do magic until they reach the Solid Phase"


    "Then why do people come here at the academy." Alerius asked. He was sure Houses could teach their own people how to to do magic. All the students he had met where in the Liquid phase and Paste Phase.


    "There is only one reason and that is to reach the Underlord Realm. The City of Zophia was built on top of the ruins of a training facility used by the first people."


    Alerius had heard about the first people. It was what people who lived in the first empire to cover all the 9 known worlds where called.


    "There are a lot of such ruins in Kiania but only two still work. One is here in Zophia while the other is in on the cities that make up the Agashi Kingdom. Every year about only 300 people under the age of 20 no matter their cultivation realm can enter this ruin and if they pass the trials inside, they get an Ability Crystal which can grant a cultivator the ability to Crystallize their Aura into Crystallized Amour. This Amour boosts all your attributes by an addition of 10. This includes attributes which are not shown in your status window such as Strength, Agility, Body and Blood. Just like you read in the library igniting Soul Fire is Hard even if you have reached the attributes required to advance to the Underlord Realm because cultivators bodies are weak. So having this amour means having twice the normal body strength. This is amour is very useful when ascending to the Underlord Realm that all the Underlords use it when ascending. And before you ask Agility, Strength, Body and Blood attributes are not included in status windows because Increasing them requires Blood Energy which we do not have in stable supply of here on Kiania as it is only present during the Shrouded year."


    No wonder everyone wants to come here. Alerius thought.


    "The entrance to the ancient ruin are located here at the academy. Each of the six Cities which are part of the Northern Alliance sends 100 cultivators which are accepted here at the academy as students. Because only 300 can enter the ruin, a tournament is held and the top 300 among the students gets a chance to enter the ancient ruin."


    Alerius was faced with a dilemma. if he wanted to get the amour then he would need to learn magic in order to participate in the tournament. On the other hand he could also reach the Solid Phase the following year with the help of spiritual elixir.


    That''s why some of the students from other classes are older, they waited until the last possible moment to enter the academy in order to raise their realm and stock up on Life Energy.


    "I think I have answered everything apart from what a portal gate is. A portal gate is used to teleport you from one place to another. The Portal Gate used to Teleport to the planet from here is called the Ascension Gate. The portal activates every 70 years, usually after every seventh shrouded year ends. It is expected to activate after next years shrouded year ends. The number of people who can be teleported before it closes is different every time but it does not exceed 2000. This limited number of people who can be teleported leads to the breakout of war between the Agashi Kingdom and our Northern alliance."


    Alerius could understand why the war broke out every time the gate activated. Every cultivators dream is to become stronger but the lack of blood energy on Kiania makes this dream impossible. The Gate offers a chance to allow some cultivators to archive their dream so the fighting would be intense as each cultivator would like to get a chance to teleport to the planet and because the next time the gate activated the cultivators who missed their chance would dead from old age.


    "The Underlord sent you here so that you can become stronger by learning magic. What I can advice you to do is to reach the Paste Phase quickly while using the spiritual elixir and then use the Hope Portion in order to get enough Life Energy to increase all your attributes so that you can be prepared for the coming war by arming yourself with magic. Crystallized armor is another layer of protection that can be available to you if you manage to do well in the tournament. I would also advice you to take the spiritual elixir weekly though taking it weekly before your soul reaches 60 makes your soul unstable and makes it hard for you to control your aura but this problem would be fixed once your soul reaches 60 so you don''t have to worry. If you follow my advice, you would be able to reach the peek of Paste Phase in 20 weeks time and fix your Soul problem with enough Life Energy left over to get all your attributes increased so that you can start practicing magic."


    Alerius would have followed the advice he had been given if he truly had a talent of 3.5 but since he didn''t, he would have to come up with a new plan that was suitable for him but at the same time able to fool those around him to think he had followed the registrars advice because that''s what every one would expect. The registrars plan involved him starting to practice magic after 20 weeks so he would have to keep a low profile until then.


    Alerius thanked the registrar for his advice and left

 Chapter 6

    Week 2


    Alerius was again sited in the back of the classroom during the second lesson which took place a week after the first one. He had spent his first week in the library reading any book he could find that talked about cultivation. He had been trying to come up with a plan that would maximize his ability to change his talent at will but at the same time would allow him to deceive others into thinking that he was following advice he was given by the registrar just in case he was being monitored by someone who could see his stats. His time in the library had not been spent in vain, he had discovered that using the spiritual elixir weekly when your soul has not reached 60 will destabilize the core and if advanced to paste phase when it has not stabilized then the minimum required stats to reach Solid Phase would increase from 60 in all the main stats to 80 in all his main attributes before reaching the Solid Phase. This meant that following the registrars advice would make it hard for him to reach the Solid Phase.


    I will just have to think about it later. He thought when Instructor arrived. He had to pay attention because the Instructor had promised to start teaching magic that day.


    "Today I will be talking about magic but before I start, are there any questions about what was covered last week?" The Instructor asked.


    she continued talking when no one raised his hand "I will start with explaining what magic is. What you call magic is simply the manipulation of aura. Scholars call magic as Aura manipulation or Aura Shaping so in most books, magic will be written as Aura shaping or Aura manipulation. The two words can be interchanged but usually Aura manipulation is used when Energy based magic is used and The term Aura shaping came about because Aura needs to be shaped in a specific shape before it can be crystallized."


    She held out her hand and A ball of white light appeared on top of it "this is Aura manipulation." She closed her hand and the ball of light winked out and a silver crystalline sword materialized in her hand. "This is Aura shaping. The sword is made from crystallized Aura."


    Wow!


    Alerius was awestruck. He had heard about cultivators creating weapons and armor through Aura crystalization before but this was the first time he saw it.


    "Whether its energy based magic or Aura crystalization, magic is powered by spiritual energy. The quality of spiritual energy of every one from Gas to Solid Phase is the same. So its theoretically possible for someone in the Gas Phase to Perform the same type of Magic as someone in the Solid Phase as long as that Gas Phase person has the suitable stats. This means that if a dud could some how manage to raise his stats so that they are the same with mine but still stay be in the Gas Phase then its possible for him/her to perform any type of magic that I can do. The only difference would be that he/her would run out of spiritual energy faster."


    Really!


    Alerius closed his open mouth. he looked around and discovered that he was not the only one who had been shocked by this revelation.


    "It isn''t all that surprising if you think about it. You all know that duds can recharge circular crystal coins and those contain energy equivalent to that of a Liquid phase cultivator. The only thing stopping duds from performing magic is that they have no way of producing life energy so they can''t increase their attributes. the point I am trying to make is that before the Underlord realm, the level of your attributes determine what type of magic you can perform and not spiritual energy. If two people in different phases have the same attributes then the only advantage someone in a higher phase has is that his spiritual energy would last longer if they performed the same magic, so if there in a fight then the one in higher phase would outlast the one in a lower phase."


    She turned to the board and wrote:


    -aura


    -light


    -fire


    -lightning


    -telekinesis


    -force field


    -aura crystalization


    -runes


    "At your level, these are the type of aura manipulations you can achieve. Controlling Aura is the foundation of all magic so for the next 6 months I shall teach you about ways of detecting and controlling your aura. Then in the last 6 months of the year that''s when I shall go into details about the other abilities."


    The Instructor briefly spoke about the other abilities and then talked about types of meditation and visualization techniques used to detect and control one''s own aura. At the end of the lesson, Alerius had finally come up with a plan.


    *****


    Week 22


    Spiritual Energy: 39


    Life Energy: 139


    Natural Energy: 0


    Talent: 3.5


    Main Attributes


    Soul: 40


    Aura: 40


    Mind: 12


    Secondary Attributes


    Spirit: 13


    Will: 11


    Analyze: 12


    Perception: 11


    Knowledge: 10


    Alerius''s mouth tilted upward when he saw the progress he had made. He had been taking a spiritual elixir every week for the past 5 months and the spiritual elixir he had taken the previous night had expanded his core to the highest level it could reach in the Paste Phase.


    With the help of spiritual elixirs, he had reached the paste phase in the eleventh week of his stay at the academy. He had then continued taking the spiritual until he had reached the apex of the Paste Phase.


    Now that he had reached the apex, Alerius decided to increase his attributes by adding 10 for the ones which where below 20. The Instructor had told them in one the lessons that checking the status of other people was a very common ability among cultivators so he had waited until now to increase his other attributes in case he was being secretly monitored. The good news was that the amount of energies one has cannot be seen by other people. Only talent and the attributes could be seen, so increasing his stats earlier would have been found suspicious because someone with talent of 3.5 would not have extra spiritual life energy to spend on other attributes not connected to advancement. Alerius had even bought the Hope Portion last week so that when he increased his attributes, people will think it is because of the portion.


    Alerius didn''t feel any different as he increased his stats one by one but when the last attribute had reached 20: the world suddenly became open to Alerius, his vision became sharper and the colors in his room became more vivid. When he looked at his body, he could see very faint grey smoke coming from his body and extending to about a meter from his body.


    That''s my Aura, he thought, it looks just like the Instructor said.


    Alerius tried to move the smoke around his hands but the Aura did not move. He went through all the techniques he had been shown on how to control Aura but he still couldn''t control it.


    I have just increased my stats he thought maybe it will become easier to control once time has passed.


    Alerius decided to do the other thing he had been waiting to reach the apex of paste phase for; converting energy.


    Alerius hesitated for a while. He knew that to proceed meant giving up use of the spiritual elixir. He first checked his status:


    Spiritual Energy: 39


    Life Energy: 79


    Natural Energy: 0


    Talent: 3.5


    Main Attributes


    Soul: 40


    Aura: 40


    Mind: 22


    Secondary Attributes


    Spirit: 23


    Will: 21


    Analyze: 22


    Perception: 21


    Knowledge: 20


    "I don''t have a choice," Alerius said out loud, "the life energy is not enough for me to reach the Solid Phase even if I hadn''t increased the attributes."


    Alerius now needed all his main attributes to reach 80 for him to advance to the Solid Phase. He knew that this would be the result of taking the spiritual elixir weekly with a soul attribute of less than 60. He was pretending to have a talent of 3.5 so he couldn''t have increased it to 60 without it being suspicious.


    "This is the price of being weak."


    He unclenched his clenched hands and took in deep breaths to calm himself.


    Once he was calm, he visualized his core as a transparent sphere containing glowing liquid which represented his spiritual energy. He then visualized the sphere growing smaller until it became as small as a dot.


    At first nothing happened but after a few minutes Alerius felt his body start getting hot. At first it was bearable but as the heat kept increasing, it started getting painful. This continued until his body felt like it was on fire. He heard someone shouting only to realize that he was hearing his voice shouting. The pain kept increasing until Alerius passed out.


    When he came to, Alerius discovered his body was drenched in sweat. He had been told the first time converting energy was painful because the first time he converted energy his core would slightly crack but he didn''t think it would be that painful.


    He could feel his hands shake when he remembered the pain. He was glad that he just had to go through that kind of pain once, he didn''t think he would be strong enough to endure that kind of pain every time he converted energy.


    The pain is behind me now, he thought, I hope it would be worth it.


    He then checked his status


    Spiritual Energy: 39


    Life Energy: 79


    Natural Energy: 1


    Talent: 3.5


    Main Attributes


    Soul: 40


    Aura: 40


    Mind: 22


    Secondary AttributesThis content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Spirit: 23


    Will: 21


    Analyze: 22


    Perception: 21


    Knowledge: 20


    He let out a weary sigh, "at least it worked and my natural energy has increased.


    The conversion of energy had tired him, he now understood why cultivators where advised to convert energy right before going to sleep.


    He knew that the weakness he felt would not stop until his soul had recovered even if he slept, so he decide to increase his soul to 60 in order for his soul to be recovering faster so that he can be converting energy daily.


    *****


    Week 25


    It had been three weeks since Alerius had been able to see his own Aura but he still could control it. The only good thing that had happened in the past 3 weeks was that he had discovered that his soul recovered faster than normal so he was able to convert energy twice in a day. The special ability that let him change his talent at will might have also been responsible for his faster soul recovery.


    In the past three weeks he had managed to convert 42 natural energy units, he had then changed his talent to 1 and converted the natural energy to 4 units of life energy.


    Spiritual Energy: 39


    Life Energy: 63 (59 + 4)


    Natural Energy: 0


    Talent: 3.5


    Main Attributes


    Soul: 60


    Aura: 40


    Mind: 22


    Secondary Attributes


    Spirit: 23


    Will: 21


    Analyze: 22


    Perception: 21


    Knowledge: 20


    Alerius was starting to suspect that his inability to control his Aura might be related to the instability caused to his soul which might have been caused due to taking the spiritual elixir weekly when his soul was below 60.


    Alerius decided to add 10 to his attributes which where in the twenties to see if his control problem would be fixed.


    Spiritual Energy: 39


    Life Energy: 3 (0+3)


    Natural Energy: 0


    Talent: 3.5


    Main Attributes


    Soul: 60


    Aura: 40


    Mind: 32


    Secondary Attributes


    Spirit: 33


    Will: 31


    Analyze: 32


    Perception: 31


    Knowledge: 30


    He saw that the smoke which represented his Aura had thickened and become more clear after the addition of life energy to his attributes.


    He tried to move the smoke which covered his arms and this time it moved slightly.


    Yes, he thought, I was right


    His body brimmed with excitement. Moving Aura, even if slightly was the first step when it came to controlling Aura. Now that he could make his Aura move, all that was left was training.


    *****


    Week 26


    Alerius wiped sweat from his fore head. He had been training hard in Aura control for the past week. He had made a lot of progress in the past week that with a lot of effort he could now make the aura around his hands stretch to about 4 meters away from his body. The maximum distance aura can stretch is determined by dividing the Aura attribute by 10.


    In its natural state, aura will cover the body up to about a meter from the body, in this form it is called a Shroud.


    Alerius was trying and failing to form a Domain made of aura around him with a radius was 4 meters. A Domain is when Aura from all parts of the body is stretched to the maximum distance possible so that it forms a dome of aura around the body. If he focused on a single body part, he was able to stretch the aura around that part up to four meters but he was having a hard time of stretching the aura which surrounded all his body parts outwards at the same time.


    Being able to form a Domain signified that one had a rudimentary control over his aura. The Instructor would start looking at magic the following so he had to at least be able to form a domain by then.


    *****


    Week 40


    "I think by now, we have covered everything apart from runes and aura crystalization." The Instructor said pointing at the board


    From his usual spot, alerius could see that on the board the instructor had written:


    -aura


    -telekinesis


    -force fields


    -light


    -lightning


    -fire


    -aura crystalization


    -runes


    Alerius had by now managed to master aura control but it had taken him until week 30 to do so. When it came to magic, he could perform all the abilities they had covered so far though he had to expend a lot of spiritual energy to do so.


    "The first 6 months had been spent on teaching you aura control."


    Alerius could now appreciate why so much time was spent on teaching aura control as every magical ability demanded different ways of manipulating aura.


    "The following month after that, I had shown you how to move objects with your aura and how to create force fields."


    The Instructor pointed at the chair that was in front and it started floating. "Telekinesis involves wrapping your aura around the object you want to move and then willing it to move. It is impossible to manipulate foreign Aura, so you can''t move any living thing this way. This this is why a Domain and a Shroud are very important to a cultivator."


    Aura from different cultivators would repel each other, so it required a lot of spiritual energy to cast magic in an opponents Domain. A Shroud acts as a permanent barrier and lessens the power of enemy magical attacks. The stronger the shroud the weaker the opponents magic would reach the body. Alerius knew that it was because of these two reasons that cultivators liked to use Aura crystallized weapons instead of energy based magic as the former would not be affected by either a Domain or Shroud.


    The Instructor pointed on the floor and the chair floated back to the ground. Alerius knew that the hand gestures were not necessary when it came to casting magic. the Instructor was only using them so that the students can see what was happening.


    The Instructor made another gesture and the air around her body started shimmering. "Force fields require Aura hardening and are primary used as shields and barriers. This is different from telekinesis because in this case the aura is shaped in a specific shape and hardened while telekinesis requires wrapping gaseous Aura around the object to be moved."


    She made another gesture and the chair was cut into two. "It is impossible to directly cut through a living thing''s skin with force fields so you cannot directly cut an opponent''s head this way. Force fields can only be used to attack bluntly but they are very effective when it comes to defense and will stop most magics."


    Alerius knew that the reason why it was impossible to cut through living skin was because Aura was very dense inside the body so it easily repelled foreign Aura.


    "The past few weeks, we have covered how light, fire and lightning is produced. Light is very easy to manipulate because our spiritual energy is made from light energy from the sun. It is used mostly in creation of illusions." This time without making any gesture a transparent copy of the Instructor appeared beside her. "At lower levels; illusions lack substance but at advanced levels they can interact with the environment." The copy became more solid and managed to pick up chalk before it dispersed.


    She held out her hand and a ball of fire appeared in her hand. "Fire involves vibrating Aura at a very fast frequency," she said, "different frequencies produce different flames." The flame''s color started alternating in all the colors of the rainbow.


    It appeared simple but it was very complicated; it required constantly changing the vibration of the affected aura between seven different frequencies. Alerius could produce the seven different flames independently but he couldn''t replicate what the Instructor was doing, he couldn''t even alternate between two different flames.


    "Lastly, we went through the techniques used to create lightning: production of lightning requires bringing your positively charged aura and mixing it with your negatively charged aura." The flames disappeared from above her hand and sparks of electricity started dancing on her fingers.


    "Today, I shall talk about runes and Aura crystalization." She said and then drew a symbol in midair with her finger. The symbol made of silver light remained drawn in midair. "Runes are symbols which when drawn will produce an effect. This effect can vary from production of heat to control of gravity. I won''t go into details just know that Runes must be drawn using Natural Energy and are powered by Spiritual Energy. A rune won''t work if drawn without Natural Energy. This is the other use of Natural Energy."


    A crystalline sword materialized inside the Instructors hand. Alerius could see about three runes on the blade.


    "These runes you can see help to hold the shape of the sword. It is possible to form this sword by shaping Aura into the sword''s shape and then crystallizing it but it takes a lot of effort and the sword produced would be different every time. The stability and sharpness is not always guaranteed so Aura crystallized weapons are formed by engraving Runes on your soul. These runes engraved on my soul are the ones you see reflected on this sword. Some soul runes will also temporarily increase some of your attributes when you power them and crystallize a weapon and this is very common in crystallized armor. The amount of space available on your soul for rune engraving is limited so the number of crystallized weapons a cultivator can have is finite."


    She then produced two clear crystals shaped like tear drops. One had runes on it while the other one was clear. "These are called Aura Blue Prints. One is a Skill Crystal while the other is an Ability Crystal."


    She lifted the one with runes up and said, "this is an ability crystal. Runes for a specific weapon are stored inside and once assimilated in your body, the runes stored inside the crystal will be engraved on your soul. It is activated with both Natural Energy and Life Energy at the same time"


    She held up the other crystal and said, "this is a skill crystal, it holds a detailed memory of when a particular energy based magical skill was performed. Once this is assimilated inside your body, you will experience the memory has if it were your own. You will feel everything the owner of the memory was feeling at the time the skill was performed. This crystal helps learn energy based magical skills faster because it would feel like you were the one who performed the skill in the stored memory. This only requires Life Energy to be activated but be warned. Use of too many skill crystals will distort your own personality if your knowledge attribute is low. Skill crystals can only be produced by Underlords so the memory contained in skill crystals belongs to them."


    She put the crystals away and said "The main difference between the Aura blue prints is that one helps in crystallizing Aura while the other crystal helps with energy based magics. So if you are still having trouble with the magical abilities we have covered so far, I would urge you to buy a skill crystal from the research department of the academy."


    Alerius decided to visit the research department after the lesson to see how much the skill crystals cost. He could use all the help he could get because the tournament would be held the following month.

 Chapter 7

    The inside walls of the building which housed the research department was covered in runes. This was the first building Alerius had seen which had visible runes.


    Its like they want everyone to know that this place is warded, he thought, is this a way of discouraging theft or are they announcing that they have something very valuable guarded here?


    He approached the receptionist and when he got near her, he stretched his aura into the white squire badge pinned on her shirt. After a few moments had passed an information window popped inside his head:


    Name: Irene


    Status: Academy staff


    He was surprised that his aura was able to easily pass through her shroud, when he had tried to do the same with their instructor, his aura had been repelled by the Instructors shroud.


    He could feel Irene''s aura as it entered his shroud and then enter his triangular badge. The badge had changed its shape automatically the time he had reached Paste Phase.


    "How can I help you mr Alerius"


    "I wanted to check out the skill crystals that you have available."


    "You can buy and see the available aura blue prints in the illustration room. Sit on the chair you will find in there and the list of available aura blue prints will appear. The whole process is automated in order to guarantee that the aura blue prints that a cultivator buys remain private. You will understand what I mean when you get there."


    Alerius could understand the need for such privacy, with the tournament coming at the end of the following month, abilities which could serve as trump cards would be useless if everyone knew about them before the fighting took place.


    He thanked Irene and went to the illustration room.


    The inside of the illustration room was painted completely in white. The only thing he could see in the room was a table and a chair which was right beside the door.


    He closed the door and went to the chair. When he sat down, the table lit up and a list of 50 abilities and their prices appeared on the table.


    "Shout the number beside the ability to see an illusion of the skill performed," was written at the conner of the table.


    On number 1 was listed basic fire control. Alerius decided to see how this whole setup worked so he shouted, "number 1."


    The room darkened and when the light returned, Alerius found himself still sited in the same chair and table but everything else had changed. The white room had disappeared and replaced with what appeared to be a desert. The sandy land appeared to be endless and he could even see the sun shining in the sky but what got his attention was the person standing in what was previously the center of the white room.


    The person had long black hair and was about 2 meters tall. Fog covered his face so Alerius couldn''t tell his features or gender. Alerius reasoned that the illusion showed an ancient cultivator because the person was putting on a cultivators robe and those where no longer used.


    The cultivator raised his hand and a green ball of flames appeared on top of it, the flames then started changing colors just like the way the Instructor had showed them.


    After the colors of the flames had cycled through the colors of the rainbow for the fourth time, the room darkened again and the white room returned.


    If the creators of the illustration room where aiming to impress the buyers then they had succeeded in Alerius''s case. He then checked all the abilities which they had covered in class and every time he shouted the number beside the ability. the room changed and showed the same cultivator, who then performed the said ability.


    After he had seen what they had covered in class, he decided to watch the rest of abilities listed.


    After going through the list, he decided to buy 5 abilities which he thought would help him the most during the tournament.


    The first was called basic aura manipulation: the skill crystal contained a memory of all the the 6 abilities they had covered in class from Aura manipulation to lightening except for aura crystalization and it only required 5 L.E to be activated. He had chosen this because skill crystals which only contained one basic ability only, required 2 L.E each in order to activate.


    The second was the ability to turn invisible when standing still and it required 2 L.E to activate.


    The third was called Doppelganger, and it would allow him to create an illusionary copy of himself. The only disadvantage of this was the illusion could not be moved once created. It required 3 L.E to activate.


    The fourth was a mixture of skill crystal and ability crystal and the ability it granted was called Elemental Lance. It would allow Alerius to create an aura crystallized lance which can the be filled with either light, lightning or fire. When thrown, the lance would detonate upon impact and release the element contained inside. In the illusion demonstration; the ancient cultivator had managed to leave about a 10 meters deep crater on the place the lance had landed on when he had thrown it. It required 4 L.E and 10 N.E to activate.


    The last ability was called Lighting Shroud. This ability would shrink his shroud from the 1 meter radius to 10 cm radius and when he channeled electricity through the Shroud; it would increase his speed and electrocute anything he touched. Alerius found it a good ability for close combat fighting. This required 8 L.E and 20 N.E to activate.


    Buying the aura blue prints required shouting the word buy followed the number beside the ability of interest then a panel would appear on the wall. The aura blue print would appear after the required amount has been put inside the panel.


    The total amount of crystal marks for these abilities was 49 squared crystal marks. He had to go and get this amount from the credit shop where he had saved about 60 square shaped crystal marks from his allowances.


    Alerius was sitting in a testing room. These were rooms used to train magic in because these rooms were warded to absorb magic. This would prevent accidents from occurring.


    He took the basic manipulations crystal skill and held it in his hand. He check his stats to see if he had enough L.E


    Spiritual Energy: 39


    Life Energy: 24 (0+24)


    Natural Energy: 0


    Talent: 3.5


    Main Attributes


    Soul: 60


    Aura: 40


    Mind: 32


    Secondary Attributes


    Spirit: 33


    Will: 31


    Analyze: 32


    Perception: 31


    Knowledge: 30


    The five aura blue prints he had bought required 25 L.E to be activated but he wasn''t going to activate them at the same time so it wasn''t a problem. He remembered that taking too many might distort his personality so he had decided to activate one once a week.


    He wrapped the crystal with his aura and willed it to enter his skin. Alerius blackout when the crystal entered his skin.


    When he came to, he was standing in a white room. He immediately knew that it was not his body because the body was taller and he couldn''t control it even though he felt everything the body was feeling at that moment.


    Alerius could see and feel the Aura that formed the Shroud, it appeared denser and more vivid than his own. He could feel the body lift its hand and he could also feel how the body manipulated the aura so that it could start vibrating until a ball of flame formed.


    So that''s how it done, Alerius thought to himself.


    He had felt how the body changed the frequency of vibration without disrupting the flames until the color changed.


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. The body had then manipulated light, followed by force fields, telekinesis, lightning and lastly it had formed a domain and then contracted the shroud so that it was not more than 1 cm above the skin.


    At the end, alerius had blackout again and when he had come to, he was back in his own body again.


    *****


    Week 49


    A man in golden armor was blocking our path to the portal gate.


    "Take this, I will catch up with you after I stop him and get his key" I shivered as I spoke though the sun was shining brightly in the sky.


    I gave my portal key to the woman I held in my hands. This was the last time I was going to hold her and we both knew it. I ran my fingers through her hair and kissed her for the last time.


    "Take care of our child." I said and touched her stomach.


    I could feel the life force of my unborn child.


    I didn''t want my child to be born in a place where people fought every generation for passage to Yezir; the mythical cultivating paradise.


    Even though I was fighting for the same passage, I was doing it so that my child would be born on Yezir and I would do anything to make sure it happened.


    My wife broke free from my embrace and when our eyes met, I could see the tears in her eyes.


    She looked so sad that it broke my heart.


    I couldn''t bear to see her this sad so I looked away from her, turning to my gaze to my foe.


    My wife was right to to despair, the person blocking our path was a scion of the Agashi kingdom. Scions of that kingdom underwent secret rituals that enabled them to control blood energy and reach the Overlord Realm.


    "Go," I said, I could see that she wanted to remain but doing so would not change the result.


    She gripped my hand, squeezing it tightly, "I love you. I will always wait for you on Yezir." She said and backtracked the way we had come so that she can use an alternative route to the gate.


    "Are you ready." My foe asked me.


    "Thank you." I said. I was grateful that he had showed mercy by allowing her to go back.


    I contracted my aura, I felt it stretch across my skin, crystallizing into armor. An Underlord''s armor was almost unbreakable but that was if your opponent was not an Overlord.


    I held out my hand and my favorite weapon materialized: the lance appeared and I started pouring electrical aura into it.


    I prepared to throw it and that''s when my opponent made his move.


    The light around us suddenly started pouring into him until the whole world went dark and he became the only source of light.


    "Son of Dawn" I thought, it was the ability that scions from the agashi kingdom were known for. I had to make my move before my opponent became an incarnation of the sun''s wrath.


    I threw my lance at the being made of golden light but before the lance could reach it, the being exploded and my whole world became a white colored world filled with pain.


    *****


    Alerius woke up with a shout.


    "I am fine, it was just a dream" he continued repeating this same phrase to himself while rocking on the bed.


    He could still remember the feeling of his skin burn and peel off from his body. It had felt very real even though he knew it was just a dream.


    He had been having this same dream every night ever since he had assimilated the Aura blue print for the Elemental Lance.


    He had read in the library that at the time of making a skill crystal, additional memories sometimes also got attached in the process of engraving the skill memory in the skill crystal. Especially if the memory was very important to Underlord.


    The person in the dream must have survived his fight and later worked at the academy. Sadly Alerius didn''t have enough influence to ask who produced the memory crystal he had used.


    He had read that the nightmare will stop as his knowledge attribute increased. He knew this was true because after he had increased his knowledge attribute to 40, he no longer woke up not knowing who he was.


    Once he had calmed down, he started preparing himself. The tournament was going to be held in the morning of that very day so he had to be ready.


    The good thing that came with the nightmare was that he was now very proficient when it came to forming the Elemental Lance because he made it every night. Experiencing pouring electrical aura in the lance every night had also helped with lightning control. This had helped him master the Electrical Shroud faster. He had also mastered the the other three abilities he got from research department so he was as ready as he was likely to be for the tournament.


    *****


    The tournament was going to be held in the stadium.


    The seats were packed with people the time Alerius arrived. The audience and the students were separated by a barrier which enclosed the participants in a dome.


    He could see the 30 raised circular platforms where the fighting was going to take place. Each platform was raised about 1 meter above the ground and had a radius of 10 meters.


    He joined his fellow students who were congregated near the platform which was in the center of the stadium.


    Some students couldn''t stand still and kept fidgeting, Alerius felt better knowing he wasn''t the only one nervous. Students having badges with the same house colors formed cliques. He recognized some, mostly those representing the Noble Houses of Zophia but he couldn''t recognize the majority of the foreign House colors.


    He saw the students from House Ururu but he didn''t go there because they had also ignored him just like the other students ever since he had arrived at the academy so he decided to stand alone.


    He recognized the instructors from their white badges as they started arriving. Shortly afterwards, an old man walking with the aid of cane appeared and the noise suddenly stopped and the place became quiet. The old man had a face covered in wrinkles and a head covered completely with grey hair. The old man appeared very frail as he climbed the stairs on the middle platform very slowly but Alerius knew that the man was anything but weak. The old man was an Underlord and was called Elias Kapulya; the Patriarch of House Kapulya and the man in charge of the academy.


    Lord Elias started addressing the crowd after reaching the center of platform.


    "The tournament about to begin is not about determining the strongest student but a fair way of simply picking 300 students who can enter the ancient ruin." He smiled briefly and continued, "if it were possible, I would allow all the students to enter the ruin and not have the tournament take place but sadly that''s not up to me."


    Alerius could hear the audience''s murmurs after that comment was made. Lord Elias raised his hand and the crowd became quiet again. " there will only be three rounds. Those who will win all three will automatically qualify and those who will lose all three rounds will automatically be disqualified to enter the ruin. For those winning two or one; depending on their actual number, another round can be fought to determine those who will qualify."


    Lord Elias then pointed at the 3 boxes on the platform "each box contains 600 small mables and each one of you will get a red mable from the red box then the green one from the green box and lastly a blue mable from blue box. When you channel your aura into the mables a number will appear inside it. The set up is such that two mables will have the same number in each box so the numbers will go upto three hundred. For example in round one; those having red mables with the the number one inside will fight each other, those with the red mables with the numbers forty inside will fight each other just like that. Your opponent for round two is determined by the green color and for round three its the blue color.


    I hope I get weak opponents, Alerius thought.


    "The rules are simple; if you leave the platform then you have lost."


    The Underlord went on talking about how he expected the students to conduct thelmselves during the fights and after he allowed the students to climb on the platform and pick the mables that will determine their fate.

 Chapter 8

    Chapter 8


    Moira watched as Alerius slowly climbed the platform as his turn to pick marbles from the boxes had arrived. The guy had brought more problems for her House than he had solved. Her father had wanted to hide the fact that she had reached the Underlord Realm especially from House Kapulya so when he had learned that The Patriarch for House Kapulya wanted Moira to marry his son, her father had come up with a plan to fake her betrothal to this nobody.


    Their betrothal had made it possible for her to avoid marring Marcus Kapulya but it had also led to House Ururu to being in a passive position as her House now had to wait for a reaction from House Kapulya. It was closer to a year now since that incident but House Kapulya had remained silent.


    Neither House would benefit if they fought this close to the Ascensions Gates appearance. That was why her father had chosen to fake the betrothal instead of just saying no. Saying no would have brought the two Houses into open conflict and the betrothal was supposed to stop that from occurring because Alerius was supposed to serve as a focus for House Kapulya''s wrath. That way House Kapulya would have publicly saved face but their silence had disrupted her fathers plan to avoid conflict.


    She thought Alerius was very lucky. Because of House kapulya''s silence, other Houses had forbidden their people from interacting or harassing Alerius during his stay at the Academy thus the guy had spent his year at the academy in peace.


    Moira stopped looking at Alerius, she searched the students until she located the 3 students who were members of her House and her mouth curled down with contempt.


    Each House in Zophia could send 9 members of their House to attend the academy every year except for House Kapulya which could send 10 but earlier this year, her father had given five spots to other Houses in exchange for refusing to accept Alerius into their Houses. This had angered the Elders and the Elders those 3 were related to were the most vocal about it.


    Fools! she thought, the Elders shall be put in there place soon enough.


    She tore her gaze away from the 3 students and focused back on Alerius when she heard the sound of the bell that signified that the tournament was about to start.


    She had come to the stadium to observe how Alerius would perform. She had veiled her Power and woven a powerful illusion on her face that even an Underlord would have a hard time seeing through it from a distance. People only saw Paste Phase cultivator in her thirties when they looked at her and since those were not rare, no one paid her much attention.


    Alerius''s number must have been called for she saw him climb a platform which was near the end.


    She identified Alerius''s opponent as a core member of House Mati from the City Soln from the colors on his badge. House Mati was not a very powerful House so she was hopeful that Alerius''s defeat would not be humiliating fast. Moira didn''t think someone with Alerius''s background and Talent could win a House Core Member because Core members were exposed to cultivational elements from a young age while Alerius joined a house in less than Year.


    Unless he is hiding something.


    Alerius had appeared exactly at a time when her House needed someone not connected to other houses, coupled with House Kapulya''s silence. Moira suspected that he might be connected to that house in some way.


    When the fight began, Alerius''s opponent conjured 3 balls of fire which started circulating around his body. One circulated his legs, the second his torso and the last one his face.


    The fire balls would discourage Alerius from getting closer while leaving him free to attack Alerius from a distance. This type of defense was favored by many cultivators who liked attacking from a distance instead of an Aura Shield because an Aura Shield stopped both an opponents attack as well as your own.


    The guy from House Mati then conjured another fireball which then flew towards Alerius. Alerius appeared dazed and only dodged at the last minute. Another fired went Alerius''s way as Alerius tried to get closer to his opponent and he managed to dodge again. This continued for a while and from Alerius''s actions it looked like he didn''t have any long ranged magical skills.


    Alerius got as close as he could without getting burned by the rotating fire balls and then started going around his opponent while dodging fire balls. Moira could see that Alerius was tired and his speed started reducing and from the smirk on his opponents face, it was evident that the guy also came to the same conclusion and he increased the rate at which he was throwing the fire balls.


    This continued until one fire ball went directly at Alerius chest and it appeared that he would not be able to dodge it and in desperation alerius dived to the ground where he lied flat on the floor while the fire ball passed over him.


    Moira was puzzled by Alerius''s behavior, the guy had not displayed any magical skills from the beginning. From the report she got, Moira knew that Alerius had bought the Hope portion when he had reached the Paste Phase and shortly after that all his attributes had increased.


    Had he used up all the Life Energy he got from the Hope Portion on attributes alone without leaving some for skills?


    If that was true then Alerius would lose all his matches because it was impossible to win against a cultivator without magic of your own. It was also very difficult to be skilled at Aura manipulations without using Aura Blue prints and very few people could get very skilled at it in less than a year without memory crystals.


    Moira knew that Alerius would find it difficult to continue dodging from the ground. His opponent made a gesture and all the fireballs circulating flew towards Alerius at the same time.


    Alerius made no effort of moving and remained flat on the ground. Seeing this odd reaction, Moira activated her innate ability; True Sight, which allowed her to see all forms of energy.


    She had to restrain her self from laughing out loud after what she saw.


    Alerius''s opponent''s face lit up with glee when fire balls hit Alerius. His eyes then widened with confusion when the fire balls passed harmlessly through Alerius leaving him intact. He must have realized that the Alerius on the ground was an illusion and when he tried to conjure an Aura Shield, Alerius with his body clothed in lightening suddenly appeared in front of him and then punched him in the stomach. The lightening must have paralyzed him because he didn''t get up after that.


    Alerius picked up his opponent and then walked to the edge of the platform and dropped him outside.


    Moira smiled when she remembered how Alerius had tricked his opponent in order to win. Alerius had been pretending that he wasn''t skilled from the beginning. Her innate ability had allowed her to see when he had created the illusion of himself at the time he had fallen. He had turned invisible and moved to the side of the illusion afterwards. And once the fireballs had passed, he had used the Lightning Shroud to move very fast towards his opponent who he then punched and electrocuted at the same time.


    I hope you have more tricks prepared, she thought and smiled, your previous trick will not work a second time.


    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. *****


    The first sixty students finished their fights and another set of sixty followed. This continued until all the students had fought and the second round began shortly afterward.


    Alerius''s turn came and this time his opponent was a female from House Ileya which was located in the City of Zhora.


    The female must have known how Alerius defeated his previous opponent because immediately the starting bell rang, she stretched out her left hand and created an Aura Shied a meter from her body, then using her right hand as a focus, conjured fire bolts and aimed them at Alerius.


    Fire bolts were more advanced than fire balls and had more speed. Moira approved of the Ileya female''s strategy; the Ileya female would make a gesture with her left hand and the shield would move to the side while using her right hand, she aimed fire bolts at Alerius. Due to the speed of the fire bolts Alerius was forced to activate his lightning shroud in order to dodge them. Forcing Alerius to activate his lightning Shroud would drain his Spiritual Energy faster and every time Alerius wanted to get close to the female, he was stopped by the shield. This continued until Alerius stopped running and stood still.


    Moira wandered what Alerius was thinking when she saw him stand still and close his eyes, she thought he was trying to create another illusion like he had done earlier but she dismissed this idea when she saw an Aura Shield form around Alerius in the form of a dome with a radius of two meters. Alerius with his eyes still closed and lightning shroud still active, stretched his hands to his sides and a few moments later, lances made of crystallized Aura started materializing on top of his head and on both of his sides one after the other until they reached seven, each one pointing at the Ileya female while forming a semi circle over Alerius''s body at the same time.


    Alerius''s opponent was not idle during when all this was happening, she dismissed her shield and started firing fire bolts at Alerius using both her hands as focuses.


    Moira could see that the shield around Alerius was starting to weaken as it became fainter.


    Alerius''s only response to this assault was expanding his lightning shroud until it covered all the lances. The lances became brighter and started crackling with lightning Just when the shield was about to be destroyed.


    Alerius started sweating at this point, the strain of powering a lot of abilities at once was finally getting to him. Moira was impressed that he could this much after less than a year of study.


    Alerius waved his left hand and the shield disappeared. He then quickly pointed at his opponent with his right and one of lances fired directly at her. Lightning was known for its speed so the lance''s speed was very fast that it left after images behind.


    The Ileya female managed to dodge the lance but another quickly arrived.


    Left with no option she quickly created a shield in front of her.


    The lance hit the shield and exploded into a shower of sparks and lightning and the shield became very faint afterwards. Before she could relax three more lances hit her shield at once causing the shield to disintegrate in the explosion that followed. The lightning from the explosion managed to hit her and she fell to the ground and started convulsing.


    Another lance was about to hit her when a bright light suddenly appeared and covered both the Ileya female and the lance. when it disappeared, one of the Instructors was standing over the woman holding the lance in her hand. The lance had stopped crackling with electricity and after a few moments it disintegrated.


    "Alerius has won this round," the Instructor said and left the platform whilst carrying the unconscious Ileya female.


    Alerius dismissed the remaining lance and also left the platform slowly.


    *****


    The second round was carried out in sets of sixty just like the first round.


    Among students from House Ururu, apart from Alerius, only one managed to win all both rounds while the rest had only won one round.


    Alerius''s opponent in the third round was a core member of House Arias from the city of Khathe. House Arias was famed for it''s lightning abilities and it was the most powerful House in the all the six Cities that formed the Northern Alliance.


    The bell rang and the final round began.


    "I was impressed with your control over lightning and as a show of respect, I am going to show you the true might of lightning" the Arias descendant said. A very tall square shield formed around him, the shield covered all his sides but the top remained open. He then pointed to the sky with his right hand and released a bolt of lightning to the heavens. He continued releasing the lightning, not letting it disperse until a dark cloud started forming on top of the fighting platform.


    Alerius''s only response was to form a shield around himself in form of a dome.


    The cloud became darker and then started raining down lightning bolts down onto the platform. One bolt of lightning managed to hit Alerius shield and the shield was destroyed. Before Alerius could react another bolt managed to hit him and he was thrown out of the platform.


    Smoke was rising from Alerius''s unconscious body as all his clothes were burnt.


    The Arias descendant then stopped channeling the lightning into the cloud. This caused the cloud to disperse and the lightning storm stopped.


    The Lightning storm ability was the reason House Arias was the strongest House. The lightning which came down from the clouds was made of pure elemental lightning and not from Aura; this made it very powerful and was why Alerius shield got destroyed on first hit.


    Activation of the Lightning storm appeared simple, Cultivators had been trying to figure out how it is done for a long time but only blood descendants of Arias House could do it. Even Moira with her innate ability couldn''t figure it out.


    This ability was what kept the scions of Agashi Kingdom in check and for this reason, House Arias was allowed to lead the Northern Alliance.


    *****


    When the final round finished, Lord Elias came back onto the central platform and announced the results: 73 students won all 3 rounds. 179 won 2 rounds, 200 won 1 and lastly 150 lost all 3 rounds.


    Those who qualified where those who won 2 or 3 rounds and these added up to 250. 50 spots were left inorder to fill the 300 spots required. Therefore, Lord Elias annouced that those who won one round whould undergo two elimination matches. The 200 students would again pick an opponent from marbles; the 100 who won the first match would then pick another opponent from amongest the themselves in form of marbles and the 50 who won would then be qualified to enter the ruin.


    He also announced that the students would enter the ruin immediately after the remaining 50 students were decided.


    Moira knew that this was to avoid assasinations. The armor from the ruins was the only known way for safely reaching the Underlord realm. In the past some students who had qualified had been found murdered so this rule was then put in place.


    Moira left the stadium after that. She didn''t wait to see the out come of the elimination matches as she had already seen what she had come to observe.