Preps and Slackers

Though the two days before the start of the Academy's training passed quickly, it was still enough for a clear division to form in the group of new arrivals to the virtual Cultivation world. By the time we were even in our classroom seats, there were clear indications of if you were someone who intended to take cultivation and everything with this world seriously and grind as high as you could, or if you weren't. The latter outnumbered the former about two to one as far as I could tell, but I was glad to be among the former. Heck, I was glad to feel included in a group at all. I'd always had a hard time getting along with people. 

Mostly, that was because I'd always been a very serious person, to the point of being accused of having no sense of humor a few times. Here though, there were too many newcomers who were going to take this Academy seriously for them to be made outcasts. Besides, I had a feeling that the ones who were more inclined to treat this place like a playground for them to do whatever would learn to regret it. 

After swapping tips and general knowledge of cultivation settings with as many people as I could, the morning of the start of classes arrived. The crowd of students heading from the dormitory building to the classrooms was bigger than I expected assuming only the first and second year arrivals were part of it, and that the juniors and seniors took classes in the Inner Court.

There were also fewer empty seats than I'd expected in Class 1B by the time it started. I guess even most of the people who plan to slack recognize it'd be stupid to refuse to play along before we've even been given a cultivation technique.

"Everyone in your seats immediately. If you don't have one, find one."

Our "practice Elder" was quite the looker, I had to admit. He had jet-black hair that reached his shoulders, and a youthful face. His eyes, however, were those of someone who had lived, hundreds or thousands of years I didn't know, but either way far more years than his appearance would suggest. 

Those who weren't seated did so quickly—even the slackers were eager to learn how to cultivate, it seemed. "Very good. I am Elder Hasegawa. From this moment on, we are Class B. We will remain Class B for half of your time at the Academy, after which classes will be restructured. Since this is my first time meeting all of you, we'll start by having each of you introduce yourself to me as well as the rest of the class. When I call upon you, stand, state your name, your occupation in your former world, and your preferred weapon if any."

I grinned, and my pulse quickened, at the words "former world." That really was it, wasn't it? I barely paid attention before it was my turn, and I stood up, playing the dutiful student:

"Hello, Elder and class. My name is Xu Zuhui. I am formerly a semi-pro Dive Gamer gold farmer, and pro team supporter. My preferred weapon is the bow."

It wasn't my real name—well in a way it was now, but it wasn't the one I was born with. The process of joining a PVE is extensive, and often includes assuming a new name. In my case, I was advised by my Virtualization Counselor that while non-asian rooted names existed in the Cultivation PVE, keeping my birth name would make me stand out way too much. Xu Zuhui was what I'd come up with workshopping with her, and she'd assured me my chosen surname Xu had no association with a powerful cultivation family that I'd be accused of impersonating.

As for using the bow and arrow, I was used to standing out that way. Few Dive Gamers picked it up because it was so much more work to learn. Well, that was the perception anyway. To make it in the world of the pros even as a lackey, you had to learn actual combat arts on top of learning how to use in-game skills effectively. Archery was no more work than swordfighting, which I also knew, in that regard. Still, the rarity of good archers had made me more appealing to pro clubs.

In a few more minutes, the class introductions finished, and Elder Hasegawa addressed us all again. "I'm sure you're all eager for this, so let's get right to it shall we?"

With a wave of his hand, a series of scrolls flew from the teacher desk he was seated at, one of which landing on the desk of everyone in the class. "Each of these scrolls is a copy of the most basic technique for absorbing Qi, appropriately named 'Absorb Qi.' Your first task in this world is to use it to reach the first level and become a Cultivator. How quickly you will be able to do that depends on you. You'll have opportunities to try it out during free practice at first, and I also expect you to practice it outside of classwork.

Next, I need to explain the overall layout of courses. Class is held for every four days out of 7, and is divided into five periods: Etiquette, combat practice, history and politics, free practice, and technical studies. Outside of class, you will be expected to practice, study, and research on your own to a degree. Now, let's begin."

At the start, things played out much like one would expect a first day of classes. Etiquette was a very basic overview of who defers to whom, which I could tell would get a lot more complicated once we got into it properly. Then we were led to an outdoor court for combat practice, where everyone gave Hasegawa an idea of what we could already do. The history and politics course was more interesting as classwork went, since, as he'd explained, that class would cover something of a who's who of high-powered cultivation families, sects, and other organizations as well as interesting conflicts from the distant past.

During free practice, we'd later be able to spar or drill as we liked, including with or against people from other classes. This first time though was dedicated to letting us attempt to learn and execute the Absorb Qi technique.

At first, I thought it was something we'd be able to just do, but it turned out to have non-trivial requirements. The scrolls we'd been given magically fitted quite a bit more text than a normal sheet of paper would. The key to cultivating, it said, was to achieve a kind of harmonic resonance of body, mind, and soul. Once that was achieved, Qi was supposed to gravitate to the user slowly and naturally. Every other cultivation technique to exist built off of this one, to quicken the process. Relax the body, let thoughts flow without conscious direction, reach out to the world around you with your senses...

"All right, Class B! There's still five minutes left in the period, but I have some wrap-up. Gather around."

What? Free practice is supposed to last 90 minutes, I could swear I've barely been at this for 15!