Mammoth Grove

The CloudHaven Sect.

Every day was a sunny day with barely, if not any clouds in the sky. The only shade on offer was by the tall towering buildings in the city centre or the ancient trees in the parks. This place was a cultivator's dream, they lived long lives and it was easy to succumb to boredom or depression. It was for this reason that the higher-ups of the Cloud Haven Sect decided to build multiple recreational areas such as sports stadiums, parks, zoos and battle arenas and many more.

With so much to do in their free time, cultivators did not have time to be depressed or bored. When they were not cultivating, they were completing missions and when they were not completing missions they were trying to rise in the rankings or having fun with friends and family.

That was the key to building a successful sect. It had to make cultivators feel at home and risk their lives to protect it.

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"WHAT!"

"Calm down, everything is fine."

"Calm Down!! Some wannabe gangsters dared to attack you and you expect me to calm down! Tell me what they look like, and I'll end them."

"I already took care of them so don't worry."

Vasari, Witney and Talia were walking to school together when Vasari told them what happened in the CloudBar the previous day. It was safe to say that Witney was far from happy and although Talia did not say anything, her furrowed eyebrows showed that she too was far from happy.

"Hmph I leave you for one day and you go and get yourself into all this trouble. Honestly! What would have happened if they could use their techniques freely huh? Or If they had weapons?" Witney asked but before Vasari could answer she continued, "I'll tell you what, you could have been badly injured or even crippled!"

Witney reached her arms up and pinched Vasari's cheeks while tugging them playfully, "No more fighting unless we are with you, got it?" Seeing Vasari not answering immediately, Witney pinched him slightly harder, "GOT IT?"

Truthfully Vasari felt barely any pain but to satisfy this overprotective girl he succumbed, "Yeah, yeah I got it."

"Anyway, how did your cultivation in the Summer Light field go?"

"It went surprisingly well. The Summer Light field really lives up to its name, it was bright and hot, almost unbearably so, but we manage to learn how to control our innate yang in the 24 hours we were given.", Talia explained her experience in the Summer Light field. The environment was something that Vasari expected but he was surprised at how quickly the girls managed to break through. They could not enter the same state of mind as him when he is able to view the entirety of his body so this feat was a testament to their insane talent.

"Yep, we are a lot stronger now. Here feel my arms." Witney flexes her bicep with one arm and guides Vasari's hand with the other.

"Woah that's impressive." Hearing his praise, Witney smiles contently while not letting go of his hand.

"Yep it's almost as big as yours" Witney teased while shamelessly feeling up his arm.

"Hahaha yeah almost."

Seeing Witney shamelessly clinging to Vasari like a koala, Talia decided she did not want to be left out and decided to claim the remaining free arm for herself. "How is Timo? Is he ok?" She asked once she made herself comfortable.

Vasari was left speechless by their actions, 'Sigh it's hard being handsome.'

"He is still recovering from a few broken bones but he will be fine in another day or two. Apparently, the healing pill that Jett gave him was pretty good." Vasari knew next to nothing about alchemy and the value of alchemic products so he could only go off what he heard from others.

"Well, it makes sense considering his parents are both Inner Haven elders." Although her father is the king of one of the strongest kingdoms, his status was actually beneath an Inner Haven Elder even though their cultivation was similar.

"How are Gia and Jiang Xia doing in their cultivation?" Vasari asked since normally the girls would walk to school together but today they came directly to his house and asked him to join them, which he had no quarrels about.

"They entered the Summer Light field a few hours after us so they should be coming out during the day," Talia answered before squeezing his arm tighter than before.

The trio remained in a comfortable silence, enjoying each other's company for the rest of the way until arriving at their classroom.

Miss Covington walked into the class as soon as the clock ticked over to 08.00 am. She noticed that there was an empty seat in the front row but soon ignored it. It was her job to teach, if her students did not bother to show up to her classes then she wouldn't beat herself over it. She was a teacher, not a babysitter.

She started her lessons with the usual theory part, explaining the weakness of different beasts and the history of the Westernord Continent. When it was time for lunch she dismissed the class before leaving the classroom.

During lunch, Jiang Xia and Gia arrived with their new and improved cultivation. It was not just the girls with an improvement in their cultivation, Alex also managed to break through into the Yin-Yang control stage. When he heard that Talia was going to the Summer Light field to break through he decided to join them.

After lunch, Miss Covington told her students to meet in the school gym. Once all the students were in the gym and changed into the gym uniform Miss Covington started the afternoon lesson.

"Today we will be doing our first practical exercise." The students felt the excitement rise and waited for Miss Covington to continue, "We will be heading to Mammoth Grove which is a low-level training area that we use to train students to identify different plants and gain field experience. However just because it is a low-level area does not mean there are no dangers present. There are plenty of Adolescent stage beasts in the forest who are not afraid of a fight."

Adolescent stage beasts are equivalent to Mortal Ascension stage cultivators between the first and the fourth stage. Adult stage beasts were equivalent to those cultivators at the peak of the Mortal Ascension stage.

Many students frowned when they heard they might be fighting adolescent stage beasts. majority of them have never fought any kind of beast before and it was a well-known fact that beasts were naturally physically stronger than humans. It also did not help that besides those from powerful and influential families, they had no cultivation techniques.

Cultivation techniques were split into three categories: Cultivation Methods; Martial Techniques and Movement Techniques.

Cultivation methods were only useful to cultivators in the Nebula Realm and above since they involved mana.

Different martial techniques would utilize the Qi or mana and strength of the human body in various ways to defend or attack an enemy.

Movement techniques would similarly use the Qi or mana and strength of the human body to enhance their speed.

There was also a ranking system for cultivation techniques. It started from the lowest being common grade then rare, Earth, Heaven, Divine, Celestial, Ancient and Immortal being the highest grade techniques.

They were further divided into low, mid, high and peak levels.

The rankings were based on a variety of different things such as comprehension difficulty, versatility and strength.

Having martial and movement techniques boosts a cultivator's strength by a considerable degree, an example being how easily Vasari beat cultivators 3 to 4 stages higher than him because they could not use their techniques in that environment.

"There is no need to be so tense, I will be watching over every single one of you but I will only step in if you are on death's door. So don't expect me to help if you get a few scratches here and there." Miss Covington noticed their worried expressions and tried to alleviate their worries.

"Oh, before I forget." Miss Covington pulled out a large weapons rack from her spatial ring. Various kinds of weapons from swords to bows were displayed on the rack. "If you do not have a weapon then feel free to choose one before we leave. They are all spirit-rank weapons so don't be picky."

Similar to techniques, weapons and equipment, collectively known as artefacts, also had grades to identify them. Starting from common grade, then Spirit, Earth, Heaven, Divine, Saint, Ancient and Immortal grade which were all further divided into low, mid, high and peak levels.

The majority of the students went to the weapon rack to pick a weapon. The most popular weapon chosen was the sword followed by the spear and sabre.

Vasari was the last one at the weapon rack with his hand to his chin and furrowed brows. He seemed to be deep in thought. Miss Covington noticed this and walked up to him.

"Having trouble deciding what weapon to take?" She asked as she glanced at his side profile.

"Hmm I've never used a weapon before so I don't know what to choose." Vasari lived in the jungle for most of his life so he did basically everything with his hands. From hunting to skinning beasts, it was all done with his hands but he wanted to get a weapon since he knew it would be many times better than fighting with bare hands.

Miss Covington pulled a sword out of the rack, swinging it a couple of times, "How about the sword? It's the most versatile weapon and the easiest to use for first-timers." She explained the advantages of the sword and Vasari had to admit that she was right.

Swords can give cutting damage, piercing damage and blunt force trauma all in one. It was objectively the perfect close-combat weapon.

Vasari took a sword out of the rack and swung it a few times to get a hang of it but frowned soon after.

Miss Covington once again noticed his change in expression and asked, "Something wrong?"

Vasari nodded while holding the sword up, "I would prefer if the sword was a bit shorter but oh well."

"Shorter? Why?"

"When I fight I like being close to the enemy. You know what they say: Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

"I don't think they meant it in that way but I guess it makes sense."

Vasari shrugs and walks back to where the rest of the students were waiting with a sword in his right hand. Seeing that everyone was ready, Miss Covington clapped her hands to get their attention before explaining the next course of action.

"Listen up everyone, the door to my left is a spatial portal that leads to Mammoth Grove. I want everyone to line up in a single file. One by one you will enter the portal where you will be teleported to a random location in the Mammoth Grove. Here is the list of plants that are found in Mammoth Grove. Your goal for this exercise is to identify and extract as many plants as you can find that are on the list. Remember that you only need one of each plant."

Miss Covington handed everyone a piece of paper with the list as well as common-grade spatial rings to store the plants.

Vasari held the paper in his hand and sighed in disappointment. He hoped that the school would make it easier for him at least a little bit but it did not seem likely at this point.

Witney, who was still pissed about Vasari getting ganged up on, felt her temper reach new heights. How was her Vasari supposed to do well when he doesn't even know what to look for? She wanted to complain but was stopped by Vasari who said that it was fine and he would work something out. Seeing that charming smile directed at her, Witney calmed down but she was still upset for Vasari.

Miss Covington looked apologetically at Vasari but there was not a lot she could do. The map that Elder Equus had that could project the image into one's mind was rare and expensive to create. To go through all the effort for a mere school exercise was just not worth it to them.

"Also those who manage to identify and extract more than 15 plants will receive 20 cloud points as a reward."

The students felt their competitive spirit ignite and their previous unease about potentially fighting beasts was drowned out by the potential to gain free cloud points.

"Alright is everyone ready?" Receiving nods from everyone Miss Covington guided them to the spatial portal, which was one of the 3 forbidden doors in the gym, before they all headed in one by one.