31 Stairs

"This is Sword of Nature was my late mother's personal sword." Luna said melancholy. "I'm sorry to hear that." Ben tried comforting her. "Thanks. But enough about me. Change clothes and take your stuff and let's go to the academy!" Luna grabbed Ben's wrist and pulled him out of the bed and practically dumped him into his closet.

Ben took everything inside his spatial ring. Then he walked outside his room and joined Luna to the front of the palace, an open space surrounded by fences. In the middle of this open space, an intricate circle was imprinted on the ground. It had a lot of intricate-looking runes and lines surrounding this circle.

Seeing Ben's questioning gaze, king Orion who was here to see his daughter off, explained to him. "This is a teleportation array inscribed into the pavement of my palace. I can adjust the exit point because the teleportation array is connected to me by blood."

Next to the king were standing a couple of people. Two middle-aged-looking Dusk family members. Ben recognized one as the clan leader of the Dusk family. Another youth had the looks of the Dusk family, blond hair and purple eyes. A man with deep blue hair and blue eyes.

The king introduced the people standing next to him. The little bit older-looking man from the Dusk family was actually the great grandfather of King Orion himself. He was called Kerym Dusk Zanaibael.

The clan leader of the Dusk family was introduced as Shal Dusk Zanaibael. The youth beside them was called Arkerym Dusk Zanaibael. While introducing him the king explained that since young Arkeryms' weapon affinity test was blurry, but since Ben's test Arkerym did a retest.

Arkerym then got the same weapon as Ben so this resulted in the decision that Arkerym and Ben would train together. Kerym would be training them both in the way of the sword. Kerym already started comprehending the new sword.

The king then introduced the blue-haired elf standing a bit to the side. Alus Vonalu is his name and he will be training Ben in the ways of water and ice. Ben because of Primal Water he also has an affinity to ice but because his law seed is primal water, ice is already included.

Ben was a bit confused. He couldn't learn any laws any time soon. So why would he be trained by Alus Vonalu in the ways of water and ice?

"Erm..." Ben got the attention of the people present. "Why will I be trained in the ways of water and ice if I cannot even comprehend laws?"

King Orion answered like it was obvious. "Even though you cannot comprehend higher forms of your laws doesn't mean you cannot learn. Your foundation will be so firm and solid that you will have no problem battling higher stages while being weaker technically. And you will be able to quickly advance in stages because of your foundation."

Ben nods. "Yeah, that makes sense." King Orion also informed Ben that where he is going another teacher is already waiting on him. An elite dark elf.

Luna said her goodbyes to her father. With that Ben, Luna, Kerym, Alus and Arkerym stood inside the teleportation circle. "Train well and become powerful." King Orion said just before the teleportation circle activated and transported them away.

When Ben regained his eyesight his eyes widened in astonishment. In front of him were the first few steps of massive stairs that went up the side of a humongous mountain.

This mountain is the location of the royal academy. This mountain is separated into five parts. The mountain was big enough and structured that at the front the stairs would go up around 200 meters and then a flat surface was the first class academy ground. Spanning about five square kilometers.

At the back of this flat surface, the stairs would continue upwards towards the next flat surface holding the second class of the royal academy. And so on and so forth until the fifth floor where the end for the students would be. There was a sixth floor at the top of the mountain but it was only for the teachers and the people working at the academy.

At the utmost highest point of the mountain was the home of the royal academy headmaster. This person would always be the Ancestor-elder of the current royal family that is the same as the king. So right now the current headmaster is Ancestor-elder Dusk.

"Let's go up. You guys are first years right now. So we will only show you around the first floor." Kerym says to them. They start to ascend the stairs. When Ben steps on the first step he feels that something is off.

He just shrugs it off and takes the next step.

The more steps he takes the deeper his frown becomes. At the tenth step, he decides to ask about it. "Something is weird about these steps, what is it?"

Kerym turns around and just smiles at him. "Take it as your first training. We'll see you on the first floor." With that Kerym continues to ascend the stair.

Ben continues to climb the steps but at the fiftieth step, he is certain that something is wrong. It feels like his weight is increasing with each step. "A gravitational pull increase with every step!?" 'I've read about this in many fantasy novels. It is a great way to increase body cultivation and solidify the foundation.'

Ben's facial expression morphs into a determined expression. He continues to climb the stairs. Ben looks up and sees Arkerym already almost at the top. 'He is from the Dusk family. Even if he doesn't have a high standing, maybe, he would have been cultivating for a long time already. So, this is probably nothing for him.'

He looks back and sees Luna struggling to climb the steps.

"Hey, you okay?" Luna looks up and smiles. "Yes, I'm fine. I haven't had the time to start my body cultivation." Ben just nods and continues climbing.

Halfway he felt the gravity almost double. His knees almost buckled on the impact. Then something clicked inside him and he felt his body cultivation solidify and become extremely sturdy. The rest of the way Ben hadn't had any struggle climbing the stairs.