School events

Typical students who chose this track awakened their element a year before high school, so they could cultivate for a year instead of only two months.

Michael then thought, 'This technique works for all the elements, the ones I read about in books where all specific to a certain element.'

He was curious about this, so he tried both techniques at home. He realized that the techniques he had read about that were specific to lightning were faster than the one the school provided by twice the amount, so he decided to stick with the one in his book.

Magic in this world depended on the cultivation level, which would increase the amount of magic a person could use per spell and the spells that a person would use. Learning a spell was usually considered the hard part while increasing the cultivation was considered the long and tedious part.

To enter high school, Michael didn't need to learn a spell yet; he was only asked to get to the first benchmark of the beginner stage. Benchmarks weren't commonly used, but schools used them to measure progress.

Michaels' school had 10 benchmarks for every stage, and the graduation requirement for the first year of high school was the fifth benchmark.

Michael didn't give it much thought and just started cultivating; if they had assigned this to him, it meant that it was possible with the cultivation technique they had provided, which was half the speed.

After 15 days, he reached the first benchmark, and he went to all his family and told them, "I have met the requirements to join the high school."

They were all very excited for him as they were a close family except for Jake, the eldest who was 7 years older than Michael and was only at the beginning of the intermediate stage.

Jake was extremely jealous of him, especially since he had been given a chance to join high school 4 years earlier than normal people.

Jake was also jealous because, at 10, Michael had already been able to buy himself the opportunity to have a skill. Jake did not have 2 gold coins right now, and he made his father pay for his skill, which he failed to awaken.

Michael didn't mind this, though. He always disliked Jake's attitude because he never cared about anything since he would inherit 50% of the family fortune and most likely the title of Earl.

Michael then continued cultivating and, at the same rate, reached benchmarks 2, 3, and 4 used by the school system. He could only do this because he had nothing else to do; he could cultivate for 22 hours a day, and the other 2 hours were spent with his family at breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

He even found cultivating relaxing so he could use it to rest instead of sleeping.

After he reached the 4th benchmark, 3 days later, school started. He was so excited that he got there half an hour early, he saw around, and everyone was 14 years old. They were about a foot taller than him, so he tilted his head upwards to talk to them.

One of the kids told him, "Are you here to support your brother in the entrance test?"

Michael then answered, "No I am here to take it myself, I was able to graduate a little early and chose my track two months ago." Michael didn't want people to know that he actually was able to choose his track 5 years ago because he would probably be bullied for being a nerd.

The kid then introduced himself as Ryan, and their chat continued.

Michael then found out that Ryan had awoken the lightning element just like him, so they would probably be studying together, and he had also been fortunate enough to awaken a skill that let him have two elements in every stage.

His second element was earth. He liked earth less than lightning, but it would be helpful to learn some defensive spells. Earth was also nature's most abundant element.

Half an hour passed flying as they talked about their lives, and soon the test began. They were tested with a magical stone that would shine differently depending on how much elemental power a person could put into it. Most people were already at the third benchmark, with few people at the fourth and only the geniuses at the fifth.

I asked Ryan if everyone cultivated with unique methods they found through books or if they used the school technique.

Ryan then said, "Most people are aware that cultivating with a method specific to their element will be more efficient, so most people have their own cultivation technique."

Then I asked, "Then why are the people at the fifth stage considered geniuses? Shouldn't the only difference be the amount of time they cultivated?"

Ryan then explained that most people can't cultivate efficiently all day because they lose focus after a few hours. Hence, the people who reach the fifth stage are the ones that can focus for the longest time. Michael then realized he had never had this problem; once, he forgot to have breakfast and lunch and cultivated for almost 24 hours straight.

He wondered if this was a skill or something he was born with. Either way, this would give him a considerable advantage in the future, and he would ask the mage association about it later.

After everyone was tested, they were assigned to a classroom based on their element, and everyone who didn't manage to get to the first benchmark was immediately expelled. In the lightning classroom, there were 30 people, including Michael and Ryan. The other classrooms had many more people since the elements were more common.

This school took pride in creating events where different elements were required. They did this because when advancing a stage, a mage might awaken one of the elements they had to work with, and this would help them adapt quicker.

This method also gave the students experience working with different types of elements, which would help them work together or against them in the future.

In the classroom of the lightning element, a teacher came in and started explaining, "Events are hosted in this school every 2 months starting with one at the beginning of every semester. In average the events will end in two weeks and the rewards are access to a device that boosts the cultivation speed by 50%. Depending on the your placement is the amount of time you will get with it."

He then announced the beginning of the first event hosted by the school. "The objective for your first event is to survive for two weeks in a small portion of the magical forest that the school has, you will be wearing a bracelet that you can press in case you need emergency help, but your team will be disqualified."

The teacher did not give any more details about the event or the reason it would be complicated; he only said that team members could be chosen in any way, but it was recommended to have at least one member of each element as they might face different obstacles and the required amount of people in a group was 4.

People who could not find a group would be assigned a random group.