5 Ch 4 | Ability Cores
Thia entered her room, though she was sure that the head kept an eye on her, through any means possible.
'Fortunately, he can't see what I am going to do next, not even heaven is exempt from this rule!'
She sat down on her mat and started meditating, the soft warm summer wind blew through her long hair.
And she entered her human core with her consciousness.
--- Thia's core ---
Her rank one core was just a small world barely reaching fifty meters in every direction, in the middle was a very sizeable pond, almost a lake.
To the northern side of that lake was a small cave with a drying spring inside, the spring's water would fuel the pond.
'But at the current rate of replenishment, it would take centuries for this spring to even once fill the pond!'
'As I thought, my greatest bottleneck right now is my aratra spring.'
'I either need to fix it, or find a different more permanent, and sustainable solution, than using aratra cores to fill up the pond again!'
'At least I have some lee-way for now, with the amount of aratra from the awakening ceremony already in my pond I won't have to worry about this for the next few days.'
She then cast her consciousness over the rest of the small world, it was very plain, the only vegetation growing was grass.
'Additionally, I need to cultivate some resources, for my escape, in here!'
After her assessment of her core's situation, she began the cultivation of her core.
As she willed the white-quartz aratra in the pond to move, huge waves formed and not much later crashed against the core's grey crystalline walls and in the process getting rid of impurities.
This would go on for the whole night and continue on into the morning hours.
As she finally wrapped up her cultivation session and opened her eyes, she realized she had a guest.
"Have you just been meditating for the whole night like this? What are you trying to do, cultivate?"
Yuan Fan scoffed with disdain-
"The head wants to see you!"
-and immediately left with that, not sparing her another glance.
Thia frowned, she knew, with her brother always keeping an eye on her it would become more difficult for her to receive the resources she needed.
She had to get rid of him, one way or another!
'But this can wait, for now, I should start thinking about what ability core I am gonna choose!'
---
"Ah, Thia, I heard you tried yourself on cultivation already, but you should maybe wait until your teachers instructed you on the best methods."
The head scolded her, but quickly moved on.
"Anyways, today is your first day in school and you get to choose your first ability core! You shouldn't just choose on a whim, this is very important!"
"Also, here 100 aratra cores, your allowance this month!"
She nodded with an appreciative smile and stepped forward to receive the cores.
As the head handed over the 100 cores, her brother's pupils enlarged, he had just entered the dining room.
"How come that she receives so many?! I only got 10!"
Indignation lingered in his voice,
"Ungrateful brat! Even 10 are a huge sum! Peasants would kill for just a single one!"
"The others in your class only receive around 4, now hush go to school!"
"And Thia you better not talk to the other kids about the amount of aratra cores you have, who knows what they or their parents might do!"
She nodded obediently but could help but think, 'even 100 aratra cores won't be enough, as soon as my pond is empty I won't be able to cultivate efficiently anymore, it wouldn't be that bad if my spring wasn't crippled!'
'I need at least double that every month for cultivation alone, then I also need an additional 100 to get the resources I need!'
"Now then, remember to chose wisely!"
He shoved her through the door, a servant waiting for her outside.
---
As Thia was on her way to school, guided by the mortal servant, the other youths that were at the ceremony kept a great distance from her.
But that didn't keep them from throwing glances at her whenever they thought she wasn't looking.
They finally reached the school, having been stared at for the whole time.
Her servant was about to continue following her into the school, when she abruptly turned on her heels, facing him.
"You don't need to accompany me into the classroom, why don't you wait here?"
She asked with a smile, but thought to herself with disdain, 'I don't need a spy of the head to accompany me all the time, sorry mate-'
---
Inside the classroom, she was one of the first to arrive and therefore chose the seat far in the left corner, her classmates seemed to welcome this decision, as they kept as much distance as possible.
As the classroom filled she looked around, all the kids were from the ceremony, they would usually only attend school for one year, anyone else who didn't make it but showed at least some potential got a second chance.
'Like in my last life, it seems like last year did well, not a single one reattending-'
Deep in her thoughts, she got suddenly interrupted by the sliding door which was slammed open, an old elder entered the room.
"That is teacher Xi."
"I heard his human core got damaged and he can't cultivate anymore, that is why he started teaching!"
"I also heard he is the scariest out of all the teachers, full of hatred for the treatment he received from heavens!"
The kids conversed, not particularly quiet, about the rumors the graduates of last year liked to tell them, some of them true, some false.
"Who said I am crippled and scary?! I will show you scary!"
Teacher Xi barked, with a smile on his scarred face.
He looked like a cold and stoic veteran, but under his skin, he was a warm-hearted person, and almost every student would start loving him later on.
A wave of nostalgia hit Thia, she remembered him always helping her out and in the end, even managed to convince a few of the more adventurous kids to befriend her.
She shook her head, 'I don't have the luxury of time to reminiscence about the past! Neither do I have time to befriend the kids here!'
The whole lesson was rather boring, everyone introduced themselves, and teacher Xi went over some very rudimentary cultivation techniques.
Thia used the time to sleep, for she was very tired after her nightly cultivation.
This was a pattern that would likely repeat itself, she mused.
"Now, Now, I guess you have all been waiting the whole day to obtain your first cores, but we first have to go over some rudimentary knowledge!"
"It is important that you know, every core has a rank, and this rank should ideally correspond to the rank of the cultivator."
"You are currently rank one, therefore the ability core you should use would also be rank one!"
"But what would happen if you use an ability core that doesn't correspond to your rank?"
"Say a higher one? Yes, Fan Yuan."
Fan Yuan stood up and spoke with confidence.
"It would be less efficient!"
"That is true, but in what way and why?"
He wasn't prepared for a counter-question and thought for a bit, "Maybe, it would be weaker, because a lower rank cultivator has lower quality aratra?"
"That is right, but it would also consume a lot more aratra!"
"An interesting point is when you take minor realms into account, we will go more in-depth about them tomorrow so just remember this for now, the higher your minor realm, the less aratra the same rank ability core uses, while its strength will also increase by a small amount!"
"The increase isn't as strong as with ranks, though can make a difference when two cultivators of the same skill level fight."
"Now, what happens if you use a lower rank core?"
Another kid stood up, Thia opened one eye, 'the 11 steps child, mhhm~'
"It is the opposite of the higher rank one, it uses a lot less aratra and also increases in strength by a small amount!"
"Very nice! But don't think too highly of that increase, generally, it is better to use ability cores the same rank as you, but there can be exceptions."
"Now enough theory; Because you now know why you should pick rank one cores, even though a few rank two's are available, we should get on with it and enter the treasure chamber!"
'Finally!', Thia stood up, having waited for this the whole day.
/---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\
Definitions:
'I think therefore I am' < ' ' Are used when characters think something to themselves.
"I really like talking to you!" < " " Are used when characters talk in any way, that includes knowingly telepathically
???What are words??? < ??? ??? Are used when I don't know the word of something on top of my head while writing, so if you see this, then I have screwed up, let me know!
--- < This is kinda a transitionary thing, it is used when either location or time, or both, change in a significant way.
--- great jade-ice mountain : noon --- < place description and time, like the first one, but when the place and time are important. Either place or time can be unspecified.
