As Dyon and Ri walked along the path through the field, they were the subject of a few glances, but, nothing too substantial happened.
Soon, they reached the opening of the large square structure. There wasn’t an actual door, the opening led straight into the largest atrium Dyon had ever seen. On top of this, the entire first floor of the massive square shaped structure was nothing but pillars holding up the above 4 floors. Within the inner space, many oddly shaped stairs connected the ground floor to the above ones.
“Oh, there’s one last thing I forgot to tell you. The preferred form of currency at Acacia, and the city in general, are intent fruits, so profound stones won’t do you much good. Especially since most students who attend this academy are from very well-off families.”
Dyon nodded. He didn’t mind too much since he had left all the profound stones he hadn’t used in training with the orphans anyway.
“doesn’t matter too much, anyway, how do I regis –“
“RI!”
A shout reverberated through the atrium. The few students who were walking around were shaken out of their thoughts. Before Dyon could even react, a gust of wind had appeared by his side and Ri was no longer on her two feet.
“headmaster?” the students in the surroundings shook their head when the recognized the one who had called out.
Dyon was stunned. He had no idea how to react…
“I’ve missed you! Where’ve you been young lady! You shouldn’t let your father worry so much!”
Ri was struggling to respond, but she was being hugged too tightly.
A laugh escaped Dyon, “to witness the fiery Ri as a doted daughter might be the best thing I’ve ever seen.”
Ri struggled to turn her head just so she could give him a scornful look, but Dyon wasn’t paying attention to her anymore. His eyes were trained on the tall and lean man beside him. His hair was a deep and dark blue that rivaled even Ri’s in length. He was taller than Dyon by an entire head, and his presence was suffocating despite his now childish appearance. His features were sharp, and his eyes matched his hair, but all that paled in comparison to the bright smile his face had when hugging Ri.
“dad… let go,” Ri finally coughed out.
Ri finally sighed in relief once her father set her down. Having done so, Ri’s father finally looked over to Dyon, “this is?…”
“Ah, yes, I met him while I was with mom. He’s hoping to join the academy, I was hoping you’d help him out.”
Dyon didn’t let his confusion show on his face. He just assumed that this was a story Ri came up with so that those who were listening in wouldn’t inquire as to who he was so much. The details of how they met, especially the high level spatial ring Dyon had, might lead to his danger. It wasn’t that Dyon liked playing it lowkey at all, but he decided to just let Ri give whatever explanation she wanted.
Ri’s father raised an eyebrow, but nodded, “as long as he meets the requirements, no one would complain if he has my recommendation,” he aimed a light smile towards Dyon.
‘this is what a true expert is… I’ve never felt this sort of pressure from the other elders.’
“Don’t worry dad, there shouldn’t be an issue. He has an innate aurora, there’s no way he wouldn’t meet the mark.”
A look of surprise flashed across the headmaster’s features, “an innate aurora? I’ve never seen such a thing before, would you mind showing me?”
Dyon smiled, the curiosity of the headmaster gave him a feeling akin to a kid of Christmas morning. Of course, Dyon had no problems demonstrating.
His eyes flashed in gold as a simple array began to be formed in from of him. Unbeknownst to Dyon, when those around heard Ri say he had an innate aurora, they had already focused their attention onto him. Whispers of astonishment filled the atrium.
The headmaster clapped happily, “the split minds technique! Never would I think that a child as young as you could master it to such a level! The old fogies at the formations guild would bend over backwards to have you as a disciple!”
Dyon smiled lightly. He already had a master, he wasn’t in the market for another. But, he didn’t ruin the mood by saying something like that.
“Headmaster, do you not have an array alchemy guild?”
A complicated look flashed across the features of Ri’s father, “this… It’s been a long time since anyone has accepted array alchemy as the true form of those two practices…”
Dyon frowned. He had heard Uncle Ail complain about this on multiple occasions, but, he didn’t think it would be such a big problem.
Ri’s father, having seemingly read Dyon’s mind, continued, “truth is, many are going with the flow of things. Someone from a long time ago decided that the two crafts were better kept separate, and they taught their disciples who then taught their disciples. From your question, I assume you already have a master and that this master appreciates array alchemy in its truest form. Maybe only someone with an innate aurora like you could turn that around,” he smiled warmly.
Dyon nodded, appreciating his encouragement, “ah, I’m sorry senior, I haven’t learned your name.”
Ri’s father laughed, “no, no, that’s due to my own rudeness. You can call me Uncle Acacia; a friend of my daughter shouldn’t be so formal with me.”
Dyon smiled, he appreciated seniors who didn’t put on airs. And for Uncle Acacia to be so powerful, it spoke to his character.
Ri smiled off to the side, “ALRIGHT! Come on, let’s choose a place for you to stay. You can’t be following me all the time. Although you’d make an adorable puppy, I’ll get tired of you.”
Uncle Acacia and Dyon smiled bitterly, fully understanding Ri’s personality. Uncle Acacia gave Dyon an apologetic look before tossing him a school badge. It was made of a simple oak and had an acacia carved into it with sprinkled colors of red and yellow, but despite its simplicity, it exuded a strange profoundness.
Dyon waved the headmaster goodbye as he was dragged away by Ri.
Uncle Acacia chuckled, walking away.
**
Dyon soon found himself alone in a room, it seemed like Ri was intent on leaving him so he could only let it be. What he found interesting though was the fact that his room was much more aligned towards cultivating than it had been at Focus Academy. Dyon was able to sense defensive formations in the wall, and also a few instant repair formations in case you were strong enough to damage the walls.
‘it’ll be good to practice here. Maybe I should also actually go to class… the standards of a school in a society that has Celestial experts should be top notch… maybe one of my teachers might even be at the saint level!’
Dyon’s main goal, though, was to improve his body cultivation. Before he began tempering his own blood line, he wanted to first boost it with the essence blood he had now, that was the only way to gain the best effects.
‘I guess I’ll have to go to the formation guild eventually to deal with this money issue… although intent fruits are helpful, according to the memories of master, they also hinder later progression. I should avoid using them to learn.’
Although Dyon knew money was important, his curiosity was getting the better of him. He wanted to know what his soul would manifest as.
As per usual, Dyon ignored the set of school robes, opting for his usual sweat pants and walked out of the door.
Almost immediately, he heard the lively chatter of students, “did you hear? Elder Flyleaf is holding a lecture soon. If we don’t hurry, we won’t make it in time!”
Dyon raised an eyebrow, partially intrigued, ‘do people usually get so excited about learning?’
The enthusiasm swayed Dyon, so he changed his thoughts on finding the cultivation library, and instead followed the flow of students towards a lecture hall on the 3rd floor. Much to his disappointment, the area was already filled with a ridiculous number of students.
‘I might as well sit in the air then…’ thinking this much, a formation flashed below Dyon’s feet and he slowly raised himself above the crowd.
Dyon noticed a few raised eyebrows and snickers, but he ignored them. Was he supposed to just wade in with the masses when he could avoid it?
“who is this kid?”
“doesn’t he understand that only seniors of high stature have the right to be in the air?”
“hmph, he dares use a formation plate to try and circumvent the rules…”
Dyon held his chin in his hand, sitting cross legged. He was much too bored to entertain idiots who wanted to jump on whatever trend they could.
‘*sigh*, people need to really stop assuming that I use array plates all the time.’
“hey, kid. Get the fuck down from here, or I’ll get you down.”
Dyon didn’t even bother looking over. He hadn’t slept last night, so his eyelids were heavy. Wasted movements annoyed him. With a thought, his eyes flashed with gold, a silencing formation appeared around him.
Being ignored, the senior student who had spoken clenched his jaw in anger.
“it seems he doesn’t respect you too much, senior brother Benes,” a cute girl stood beside the fuming Benes, giggling.
“Would you like me to teach you a lesson senior brother? Wait… he’s human!”
Just as Benes was about to respond to a subordinate of his, the atmosphere quietened significantly as the majestic aura of a senior stifled the students.
Dyon looked up in excitement, ‘this is a saint?’
Although Dyon noticed Elder Flyleaf frown in his direction, he didn’t mind too much. In an island filled with elves, it wasn’t everyday you saw a human. In fact, it was practically never. The part of the forest Focus Academy used for its trials was just a very small portion of the island and wasn’t a place visited often by elves. Those that ever stepped out, were killed by higher level beasts they couldn’t handle. Making it to the Elvin city, much less one of its academies, happened rarely. In fact, if it wasn’t for Ri’s knowledge, it would have been very likely that Dyon would have fallen victim as well.
Turning his attention away from Dyon so quickly that it was almost as though he never looked in his direction, Elder Flyleaf began his lecture.
“Today, we’ll be speaking about wills. It is well known that in our Elvin Kingdom, the understanding of wills reaches unprecedented levels, however, this isn’t because of some innate superiority of birth, but more so a superiority in philosophy.”
Dyon was intrigued. He had long since shattered his silencing array, intent on listening to Elder Flyleaf’s lecture.
“Although many understand that the comprehension of wills and beyond is inextricably connected to cultivation, most ignore the importance of the methods to such a comprehension, instead choosing to focus on tempering their blood line or meridians. The worst part is that they’ve all neglected the one thing most important to the comprehension of wills: your soul.”
Dyon raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Unfortunately, this didn’t escape Elder Flyleaf, whose eyebrows furrowed as he continued.
“The soul is the most intriguing concept in all of creation. It’s something that isn’t tangible and can’t be found by any means other than cultivation.”
This Dyon agreed with. Even with his forward-thinking personality, many of the concepts of the martial world were hard for him to accept until he came to test them for himself. The soul was something that the human world had long since banished as a myth, only to be found in religious circles, but, Dyon was beginning to learn that maybe some of those so-called myths had truths to them.
“However, despite its enigmatic conceptualisation, the soul also happens to be our strongest connection with the world around us.”
Dyon’s eyes shone. Although he hadn’t agreed with Elder Flyleaf’s thoughts on the soul being the most important to understanding wills, he had to admit that much of everything else he said was profound.
“This is why we have a superiority of philosophy. If everything hinges on wills, and we hinge everything on our best chance to understand them, what could be more superior that this?!” Elder Flyleaf’s voice boomed through the hall, causing many students to shiver in reverence.
‘what is this?… is he trying to affect my mood by forcing his will upon my soul?… fuck off!’ Dyon’s Devour skill sapped the will Elder Flyleaf had aimed at him.
Elder Flyleaf immediately noticed this, sending a piercing gaze towards Dyon. However, having expected this, Dyon pretended as though nothing had happened. Choosing to continue as an eager student.
‘no wonder everyone is in such reverence of him… he’s literally effecting their abilities to reason for themselves, instead choosing to enforce his lectures as though they were the only truth… is this how Acacia Academy works?…’
Elder Flyleaf, noticing Dyon’s reaction and the fact he had no plans on exposing him, dropped the matter and continued with his lecture.
However, Dyon was completely turned off by this now. He had no idea why a teacher would have to use such means, but he didn’t like it. As such, once Elder Flyleaf turned his attention away from him, Dyon moved to discreetly leave the hall, intent on manifesting his soul.
“WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING!”
A booming voice interrupted the lecture, causing the entire lecture hall to focus one of the seniors who had tried to kick Dyon from the sky earlier.
Dyon gave him a sideways glance, before continuing towards the backdoor, ‘I can’t fight an essence gathering expert right now… at best I could defend, even with the improvements in my will paths. I refuse to use my last cultivation erasing pill on this bitch.’
Benes’ subordinate grit his teeth, completely angered by Dyon’s lack of respect.
“I don’t know when we started letting lesser species into our academy, but it’s clear whoever authorized this is an idiot.”
Elder Flyleaf was content to sit back and watch this unfold, happy that he didn’t have to deal with this and lower his status.
Dyon chuckled, “idiot? That might be the funniest thing I’ve heard in a while…”
“Is that so?” Benes’ subordinate continued, ignorant of the hole he was digging himself, “you have a complete disregard for etiquette. Not only did you have the audacity to raise an eyebrow at Elder Flyleaf’s teachings, you also plan to leave in the middle of his lecture? If the person who let you in isn’t an idiot, then what is he?”
Although Benes’ subordinate said these things fully aware that only someone at the level of an elder could let Dyon in, by the way Dyon had been disrespecting Elder Flyleaf, there was no way it had been him that recommended Dyon. Understanding to here and knowing that the elders above Elder Flyleaf could be counted on one’s hand, it was an easy assessment to make that it was better to offend a low ranking elder to gain the favor of a high ranking elder such as Flyleaf.
However, Dyon continued to chuckle, “it’s audacious to have reflective thoughts on a lecture so profound, is it? Do you know how many reasons one could have for raising an eyebrow? Depending on mood it could be surprise, disgust, curiosity… need I really go on? Considering your intelligence, am I supposed to believe you have an understanding of what emotion I was showing?”
Thinking it through, Dyon decided on this approach. He had no animosity toward elder Flyleaf, so there was no reason to be clear on what he meant by raising his eyebrow. If the elder was smart and open minded, he’d take this as an olive branch. If he didn’t, Dyon didn’t mind embarrassing him because Uncle Acacia was his ultimate trump card. However, what didn’t escape Dyon’s notice was the fact Elder Flyleaf had said nothing, as though he were tacitly agreeing to this interruption. But, to Dyon, this didn’t cross the line. If someone raised an eyebrow at his lecture, he’d feel a little peeved too.
“You! – it was clear disdain! Anyone could see that. For a lowly human to have such thoughts on a lecture by such a great elder, did you think that I wouldn’t be able to tell?! With my level of soul prowess compared to yours, did you think you could hide anything from me?!”
Whispers started sweeping through the hall, “human? When did we get a human here? Even the headmaster’s daughter is at least half elf…”
The truth of the matter was that, to elves, most humans had exaggeratedly normal appearances, as backwards as that may sound. However, Dyon’s devilish level of handsomeness had made even the hearts of Elvin girls flutter, how could they assume someone who rivaled even their most attractive people was just a human? What they had failed to notice were his obviously un-pointed ears.
Dyon didn’t seem to mind the scrutiny though, his smile never fading, “your soul is stronger than mine? Really? You’ve been trying to read through my defenses this whole time and have been failing, did you think that by just saying you were stronger, it would manifest into the truth?”
Dyon’s soul had reached the lower 5th stage just a few days ago, whereas he had to be weary of this group of senior’s essence gathering strength, due to the difficulty of cultivating the soul, it always lagged behind energy cultivation. The only reason soul strength increased with cultivation is often by it being dragged along as opposed to it keeping up. Although their energy cultivation was comparable to the 5th stage, Dyon could clearly see that their souls were stuck at the 4th stage. In fact, Bene’s subordinate was at a measly lower 4th stage level.
Benes’ subordinate gritted his teeth. He had no idea how a boy clearly much younger than him could keep his defenses up in this situation, “do you expect anyone to believe that a 15yo boy would have a greater soul strength than me?!”
The surrounding crowd nodded in agreement, sneering in disdain.
“Senior brother Ryba is right, how could such a thing be possible.”
Seeing the crowds support, Ryba smirked, “you must think that just because you can float in the air using some formation plates that you’re superior, huh? Maybe formation plates are rare in your little human clans, but everyone has access to them here! And yet all juniors have the common courtesy to understand seniority. If you don’t have the power to be in the air, you shouldn’t be up here!”
Ryba domineeringly released his soul pressure onto Dyon.
“Look at him, nearly cracking under the pressure of Senior Brother Ryba’s soul,” someone in the crowd sneered.
“hmph, and he dared to claim that his soul was stronger?”
During this whole exchange, Benes had a pensive look on his face as he seriously watched Dyon’s every reaction, ignoring the cute girl clinging to his arm.
“is something wrong? Did he rile you up?” The girl giggled, holding onto Benes.
Benes didn’t respond, but his eyebrows furrowed as he watched Dyon be completely unperturbed by Ryba’s pressure.
Dyon smiled, “oh, if it’s just about being able to be up here on my own power, then that’s simple.”
“don’t be ridi – “ Ryba couldn’t even finish his sentence before his words were caught in his throat.
Dyon had lifted his hand, allowing lights of gold to flicker around, forming a new defensive array under the eyes of everyone. Then, he lightly hopped to it, sitting cross legged and continuing towards the back door.
“oh… since I’m sure you’re too stupid to understand what just happened, that was a practitioner 6th level defensive array. To draw it, your soul has to be at the peak of the lower 4th stage. So, I’m sure you understand what that means,” Dyon’s voice rang out faintly, slowly closing the door behind him as he floated away, leaving the hall in silence.
Ryba could only grit his teeth in silence, feeling the stinging of a resounding slap on his face.