“You were inside for ten days,” Melissa said, her eyes still curious and filled with surprise. “But really, nothing happened?”
“Many things happened,” Almond faintly smiled. “I lived unknown years in hell, after all. I can’t count the time, but I remember the experience, and the sum of that time alone is over twenty years.”
The students burst into uproar as Almond looked well and kicking, totally different from what everyone expected.
“He is fine!”
“Fine as hell.”
“Calm down, girl.”
“Crap, he went in on doom difficulty and he is fine? I don’t believe it.”
“He may have transcended his mind to a new perspective. There’s no telling what changes happened to his mindset, which means he could have turned extremely empathic or psycho but not mental.”
“Geez, stop your crap.”
The students became noisy, so Professor Melissa sent everyone away unless they wanted to enter Devil’s Playground.
Everyone soon scurried away, while spreading news about Almond.
Melissa also left, leaving Zek and several others who were Almond’s Prana Batteries at the place.
“Man, you had us worried,” Zek wryly smiled as he punched Almond’s shoulder. “Well, surviving doom difficulty and coming out fine…I don’t know about anything else, but I am sure following you will be worth it.”
“That’s right, boss. Are we making a faction now? Let’s go make it,” Malin excitedly said. “I can’t wait to see you get more powerful, hahaha.”
“For real, boss. And you already hit the peak in the Mental Constitution, right? Crazy.”
Almond raised his hand, making everyone silent before he said, “How long will it take to finish the faction registration process?”
“Just a matter of minutes,” Zek said with a smile. “I know you are busy for some reason and want to get strong quickly, so just come register and make me and Malin vice-leaders, so we can handle membership of the faction and other stuff.” Read the latest on My Virtual Library Empire
“Yeah, that would be great.” Almond nodded and took a step forward before teleporting in front of one of the exit doors while his words rang near the group. “Let’s go.”
…
After much yet fast discussion among the members, the faction’s name settled on [Mad Nuts] with a majority vote.
Almond was the leader, while Zek and Malin became temporary vice-leaders.
Some of the better newbies were given the position of [officers] to handle the reviewing applying members and kicking members, though they had to report to vice-leaders before making the decisions.
“Now, I want to sleep, and I need to find a place for that.”
Almond said as he left the Academy Administrative Center with Zek and several others after finishing the procedures of establishing the faction.
“Find a place? It seems you haven’t checked out your residence. You’re the champion of the newbie event, so you got the best one,” Zek grinned.
“Oh yeah, I forgot about that.” Almond wryly smiled and said, “Lead me there, fast. I want to hit the bed as soon as possible.”
After returning to Central Lobby, the duo went to the doors leading to the Dorm Region of the academy, a world where students lived.
There were several big zones of residency depending on the student’s lifeform rank and the time they managed to stay as a student of the academy.
Almond was in the Newbie Residency Zone, a land of green pasture with houses constructed with different tiers of facilities.
For Almond, he had the best house in this zone, a small mansion with a garden, pond, and training ground.
He went to sleep immediately in the bedroom and woke up after ten hours before looking at his status and compiling the stuff he had to do and goals to reach because he only had 20 days at best, but he wanted to learn the clone ability earlier than that if possible.
[Almond]
-Lifeform Rank: Mortal
-Ability Power: SSS
-Prana Sea: 168
-Soul Sea: 142
-Stats:
— Body Constitution: 200
— Mental Constitution: 1000
— Soul Constitution: 142
— Arcane Constitution: 228
‘I focus on Arcane Constitution at the end. For now, I need to increase Body and Soul to 1000.’
Almond got off the bed and freshened up before arriving outside and contacting Zek using the Academy’s wristband.
[Almond: We can practice Soul Art in the Temporal Chambers, right?]
[Zek: Yeah. Best to practice Prana Art and Soul Art in the Temporal Chamber if you have Academy Points.]
[Almond: Got it.]
[Zek: Will you be free to join in for a mission later?]
[Almond: Most likely no, but let me know when you all start and the mission’s details.]
[Zek: Gotcha.]
…
Almond went to the Temporal Chamber and directly spent 5000 Academy points for 1 day = 15 days in the temporal chamber option.
After entering, he began Soul Surge Art and lit up in flames as he involuntarily screamed and rolled around again because of the pain of dipping his entire Soul Avatar in the Soul Refinement Well.
He had to train crazily like this instead of normal means if he wanted to progress faster. Instead of affecting the soul avatar slightly in the Well, he drowned it entirely again for fast progression at the cost of more insane pain.
But he adapted faster this time and calmed.
However, the training session didn’t last long because once his Soul Constitution hit 200, his soul avatar stopped getting any benefits and the pain also reduced drastically.
It was time to upgrade the Soul Refinement Well to level 2.
Almond quickly learned the sequences and upgraded the well.
The flames changed from blue-golden to red-golden, becoming more powerful and the size of the well also got bigger to accommodate his bigger Soul Avatar now that its constitution reached 200.
Almond trained for ten hours straight in the hellish refinement of his soul in the same crazy method, making his Soul Constitution reach 400.
He couldn’t stay awake any longer and fell asleep.
Waking up after five hours and feeling recovered to his prime, he learned the sequence of level 3 Soul Refinement Well in two hours and began training again.
This session lasted for twelve hours before he hit the limit of level 3 Soul Refinement Well at 600 Soul Constitution.
If it was him before the Devil’s Playground, he would have stopped here and started doing something else instead of continuing with this self-torture, but Almond’s mind had reached a new height, and so did his will.
He wasn’t stopping until he hit 1000 Soul Constitution, so he finished learning level 4 Soul Refinement Well within two hours and began refinement of his soul again.