End of Summer

[Wake up! Wake up! If you don't wake up, I'm going to k-kiss you…]

The sound of Issei's alarm clock echoed through his bedroom.

"Uughh…"

Issei let out a groan. He tried to roll to the other side of the bed, but he overestimated and instead, fell to the floor with a resounding thud.

A few seconds later, a zombie slowly rose to his feet. His skin was pale, there were bags in his eyes, and his hair stuck up in the oddest of places.

Suffice to say, Issei was not a morning person.

With his current cultivation, he did not really need to sleep as much. In fact, he could fully operate at maximum efficiency with just two hours of sleep per day. Still, that did not stop him from fully enjoying the recommended eight hours of sleep that a person his age should get.

It was an ingrained habit from his time in the Immortal World.

Sleep was a luxury that he often couldn't afford back then. It was why he had learned to enjoy the activity so much. Even now, he still enjoyed sleep. The only thing he really hated about it was the part where he had to wake up.

Issei needed at least ten more minutes before he snapped out of his early morning fugue. A cup of extra-sweetened coffee would cut that time down to seven minutes.

As he waited for his brain to boot up like an extremely outdated computer CPU, Issei checked his phone. It was another habit of his, one he developed on Earth.

To his surprise, he found a message on his phone. It was from Aika.

Issei frowned.

That reminded him, today was Monday.

It's been a week since he finally advanced to the Foundation Establishment realm. That also meant that school was officially back. Of course, Issei had online classes, so he didn't actually have school, but Aika was different. She had actual classes in an actual classroom.

For Issei, this meant that the time that they could spend together had just been drastically shortened. It was a shame. Being able to hang out with another person (girl) was a big part of what made his summer so enjoyable.

Without a cute girl around, what was he supposed to do now?

"Maybe cultivate?" Ddraig commented, his snide remarks not really welcomed, especially not this early.

"Anything that's not boring." Issei corrected himself.

"Come on, partner. You're a cultivator. What sort of cultivator hates cultivating?"

"More than you realize."

It goes without saying, but the worst part about being a cultivator was the actual cultivation.

The superpowers and immortality were definitely appreciated, but the months-long self-imposed isolation was something that was universally disliked by the people of the Immortal World (or so Issei assumed). What people actually liked were the breakthroughs. The feeling of growing stronger, of extending their lifespans, of becoming something more than they previously were… that's what people liked.

They liked the byproduct of cultivating, not the act itself.

Issei was no different.

That was why he liked to do his cultivation in spurts. He liked increasing his cultivation rapidly, breaking through multiple stages in a single breadth's time. It was fun, it was exhilarating, and not nearly as tedious as the usual method of cultivation.

As a cultivator, Issei was definitely going to live a long and prosperous life. There was no way in hell he was spending the majority of that time stuck in closed-door cultivation. It was also why he liked to savor the more mundane and civilian aspects of his new life.

The message from Aika was short and sweet.

It was a text that read: [I know that you'll probably be pouty all day, so here's a pic to help cheer you up.]

There was an image attached to her text message. When Issei opened it, he was pleasantly surprised.

It was a picture of Aika in her new school uniform.

The Kuoh Academy girls' uniform was surprisingly racy. Little capes, tight corsets, short skirts, and white dress shirts. The dress shirts definitely did not look waterproof. Were they see-through when wet? What about the skirts? All it would take is one slight breeze and…

Issei shook his head. He was seriously regretting not attending school. Maybe it wasn't too late to send his application…

Another thing about Aika's uniform was how tight it looked on her.

Specifically on her butt and chest. She had ordered her uniform back during the start of the summer break, before she had met Issei. After nearly two months of cultivation, Aika had filled out quite nicely. The buttons keeping her breasts concealed were barely holding on. He could not help but admire those buttons. They were the real unsung heroes of this generation…

A part of him wanted her to keep the uniform, but knowing Aika, she'd probably change it to a more appropriate size as soon as possible.

Issei sent a quick text back, wishing her good luck on her first day. He also sent his own picture, although his weren't nearly as good. He sent an image of himself, still dressed in his sleepwear. This mainly consisted of boxers and a white tank-top shirt. Issei did not really think it was all that impressive, but Aika apparently did. She responded back with a series of emojis depicting the universal symbol for sex.

He shook his head and ruefully laughed to himself.

Aika's message had completely reinvigorated him. The sleepiness was gone, replaced by an uncharacteristic desire to tackle his own educational obligations.

Online classes weren't really that hard. If anything, they were pretty easy. At least, for him they were.

Issei skimmed through his required reading at a pace of five pages per second. Thanks to his enhanced mental capacity, he was able to comprehend the stuff pretty easily. Now, Issei did not really consider himself a genius. He was just able to understand things a bit better, that's all.

Next were his quizzes, tests, and worksheets. As expected, those went by pretty quickly too. Issei finished everything in less time it took to cook an omelet. The only thing that really slowed him down was his computer's loading speed.

To a cultivator, online classes were a breeze.

It only took him fifteen minutes to finish all the work for today. After a moment of hesitation, he decided to kill the rest of the hour by going over the rest of his schoolwork. By the time lunch rolled around, Issei had blitzed through five weeks' worth of content.

Suffice to say, he now had plenty of free time on his hands.

After a quick meal, Issei decided to cultivate.

He only cultivated for a few hours before he decided to stop. Unfortunately, with his current level of cultivation, it would take him a while to advance to the next stage, let alone the next realm. He estimated that it would take at least five months, maybe even a year to advance into the Core Formation stage.

Instead of cultivating, Issei decided to make something that he considered to be integral to the Foundation Establishment realm experience.

Flying Swords.

****

Flying Swords were the luxury cars of the Immortal World.

Seriously, cultivators treated their swords with far too much importance. He once saw a pair of clan heirs get into a sword measuring contest during an important city-wide tournament. The guy with the shorter sword was publicly shamed in front of millions. This eventually led to him committing suicide by way of self-decapitation. Shit was pretty brutal.

Some cities even had this weird version of street racing, but instead of cars, they used Flying Swords. It featured cultivators from all walks of life bringing their 'tricked-out' swords to midnight street races. Custom paint jobs, unnecessary hilt accessories, illegal whetstones… the Immortal World got pretty weird sometimes.

Utility-wise, a Flying Sword was probably one of the most useful weapon artifacts out there. Not only was it a great weapon for combat, but it was also a convenient tool for mobility. In the hands of a Foundation Establishment expert, a flying sword was capable of traversing vast distances at speeds well beyond what a cultivator can normally output.

Lastly, there was just something special about flying on a Flying Sword.

It was a man's romance, sort of like giant robots or female-only mud-wrestling contests.

Issei had been putting off creating a flying sword because he wanted to spend the rest of summer with Aika. Now that she was finally back in school, there was no stopping him from finally creating one now.

Issei possessed several weapon blueprints for Flying Swords. The best blueprint that he owned was something for a weapon called the Material-Immaterial Sword.

This blueprint had come bundled together with the Boundless Gluttony Scripture. That's why the Material-Immaterial Sword possessed the unique trait of [devourment].

Devourment allowed the sword to 'consume' other materials in order to strengthen itself. It didn't matter if it was a divine artifact or a chunk of unprocessed ore, much like the Boundless Gluttony Scripture, the Material-Immaterial Sword absorbed everything and anything. If it consumed enough materials, it could even potentially develop an artifact spirit.

In short, it was a growth-type weapon.

Forging a Material-Immaterial sword was actually pretty easy.

The forging process wasn't too complex, and the materials were also pretty easy to procure. In fact, it only needed two ingredients: equal ratios of biological and non-biological matter.

Fortunately, it didn't specify any particular ingredient. Instead, all it really cared about was the quantity and quality of said ingredients. In a way, it was kind of like the Boundless Gluttony Scripture. So long as the materials were good and the amount was decent, making a good sword was pretty much guaranteed.

For the biological component, Issei figured he could just use the dragon scales. They counted as biological, since they originated from a living creature. Other materials that would have also worked include wood, animal bone, and even gall stones.

The nonbiological component was a bit more difficult to procure.

Issei would have liked to use some kind of supernatural metal, or maybe even just high-quality alloys like tungsten or titanium, but unfortunately, he was a bit pressed for resources. Even just regular metal was difficult to come by, especially in large quantities.

Issei needed the ratio of biological components to match with the ratio of non-biological components. Since he planned to use at least five hundred pounds of dragon scales, he needed at least five hundred pounds of metal. For a poor teenager living in the suburbs, five hundred pounds of metal was not exactly something that he could just pick up at the local department store.

At this point, any metal would do.

Unfortunately, even the worst of metals was hard to come by.

He could not just cannibalize items from around the house in order to create his sword. Mainly, he did not want to incur his mother's wrath. Immortal Cultivator or not, his mother was someone that he did not want to mess with. The last time someone pissed her off, his father ended up sleeping on the couch for a month, and he didn't even do anything!

Issei had also looked for local scrap yards within the city. Unfortunately, there were none. Or at least, none that he could find.

Next, he thought about stealing traffic signs. Unfortunately, he couldn't go through with it. The guilt stopped him.

What if his theft of a stop sign resulted in a fatal car accident? Or what if someone mistook a 40-mph speed limit for a 70-mph speed limit, all because he stole the sign that said 40-mph.

He didn't need that kind of bad karma following him around.

That's why he was now at option three: collecting empty aluminum cans throughout the city.

"Oh, how the mighty have fallen." Ddraig bemused through their mental connection. "From an Immortal Cultivator feared by an entire continent, to a poor teenager picking up recyclables from off the street… you really hate to see it happen."

A tick mark formed on his forehead. "Shut up, you overgrown lizard! I'm using my left hand to pick up the cans, so technically, you're doing it too."

"That's not how that works, idiot. The Boosted Gear isn't even activated right now."

"Why you…"

While Issei was arguing with a certain scaly freeloader, several pedestrians had noticed him.

After a few seconds of staring, they all suddenly gave him a wider berth. Some even just outright turned the other direction. They were treating him as if he had contracted the bubonic plague or something.

Their actions were kind of hard to miss. Issei sighed in exasperation.

He knew perfectly well why they were acting like that. They probably mistook him for a juvenile delinquent forced to do community service. The fact that he was currently wearing an orange t-shirt probably didn't help either.

It was a bit specific, but Issei's assumptions were not without reason.

He actually started his can collecting back in the park. A few minutes after he started, a policeman walked up to him and asked where his parole officer was.

Suffice to say, Issei quickly left the park and moved his operations to the streets.

He shook his head and tried his best to ignore the wary stares from his surroundings.

After spending over an hour collecting cans. Issei had somehow ended up in the neighborhood adjacent to his former middle school. On a whim, he decided to visit his old school.

Sanada Junior High was one of the larger schools in the district. It was a completely ordinary school where only ordinary things happened. Despite its bland and unassuming nature, Issei kind of missed the place.

He checked the time. Classes should almost be over. He decided to leave before the middle schoolers start flooding the streets like some bad reenactment of a zombie movie.

Just as he was about to turn around, something stopped him.

The shrubs overlooking a classroom window suddenly shook. Issei narrowed his eyes. Someone was there.