32 Academy

Once Ben arrived on the first floor he was greeted with an amazing view. A beautifully crafted wooden gate with elvish words carved on the front. stone tiles creating an intricate design leading towards a big open space in the middle of many big wooden buildings.

A lot of elves walking around. It was a color fest with all the different hair colors and eyes. A lot also had weapons on them or light armor.

'Wow, reading about such sight and imagining it pales in comparison to seeing it in real life.' Ben thought.

Alus, Kerym, Arkerym and Ben waited for Luna to reach the top. When she arrived Kerym spoke. "Well done you three. We'll give you a quick tour and then we will get you settled in your residence with us. Tomorrow morning we will start your training."

They started walking towards the center of the first floor. Around the center, the buildings were where the student could buy stuff with merit points.

The alchemy building was a green and yellow-tinted building three stories high, array formation building a gold and white building also three stories high, weaponsmith building a red and blue building only two stories high and the library building which was white and black with five floors.

To earn merit points one had to complete quests that were handed posted in the main hall, the building that one would see when one came from the stairs and walked in a straight line to the next stairs.

In this main hall were also ranking boards. There was a board of duel, alchemy crafting, array formation crafting, weapon crafting and armor crafting. When one had the skill to get onto these bords they would receive merit points annually. This way the most talented were recognized for their talents.

To the west of this central hub, more buildings were stationed around. These buildings resembled the dojo's from Ben's world, only on a much bigger scale.

At every dojo, Ben saw that every instructor with a particular hair color had the same students with the same hair color. For example, an instructor had blue hair, then most of the students also had blue hair.

"I see you have noticed." Kerym said. "Every building represents an element. This one for example is the one of water. Every elf with a high water affinity will get taught here. If one had multiple affinities then one has just more classes. He or she will have to put in much more effort. But this will also grand more benefits in the long run."

Ben just nodded. They continued walking to the north of the central hub, there stood an enormous arena. It resembled the Colosseum in Italy a lot but it had a more elvish style. Intricate patterns and runes all around the outside of the arena.

"This is where all the rankings are being held. The duels, alchemy and formation competitions. Anyone can get on the duel leaderboard, you just need to duel someone officially and then you will get a rank. To rank up you need to challenge a higher ranked person. If you win you will take their spot.

For the alchemy and array formation competition you'll need to join the respective faction. If you join the array formation faction you will be able to rank on the leaderboard of the array formation. Of course, the other way around too, joining the alchemy faction will let you get placed on the alchemy leaderboard.

Even if you join both factions you can get placed on both leaderboards." Kerym explained.

They walked past the Arena and there stood the same structured gate like the one they entered to the first floor. "This is the stairs to the second floor. Right now isn't the time to ascend. You all probably already felt that this floor has increased gravity.

Once you go to the next floor the gravity will increase dramatically. This is all to train the youths that attend the academy. Training in these kinds of circumstances will rapidly increase the speed of cultivation." Kerym explained.

They walked to the east and saw a lot of small buildings neatly arranged like a little neighborhood. This place is where all the first-year students sleep and train individually. To the outskirts of these small abodes there stood bigger houses. These houses had a courtyard and were at least two times larger than the little houses.

"This will be the place that we will all be calling home for the next year or so." Kerym said.

The next morning Ben woke up refreshed and ready to train. This house had six rooms that were refurbished into bedrooms. So, he had one room to himself.

He was currently standing inside the courtyard with Alus Vonalu in front of him. He was looking at Ben with scrutinizing eyes. Scanning him up and down.

Ben also felt a weird sensation throughout his body like even his innards were not spared from being looked upon. Ben squirmed a bit while standing.

This surprised Alus a lot. Alus was using his soul sense to inspect Ben's whole body. His soul was already at the 6th stage, the lower elder soul stage to be exact.

Even though Alus didn't try to hide his soul sense, Ben shouldn't be able to feel or sense his soul which is at the 6th stage while Ben doesn't even have any soul cultivation to speak of.

'It seems he is a soul genius. No wonder King Orion wants to nurture him.' Alus thought to himself.

Alus scanned his whole body and found traces of Ben having trained himself one way or another in a form of martial arts. This interested Alus a lot. A whole other species that didn't know a single thing about cultivation did have martial arts. And he has been handpicked by the King to train this human.

This was the highest honor an elf could get. Being handpicked by the King for a task.

Alus had some idea why he was picked because he was briefed about what happened at the meeting. He knows that Ben can't cultivate his soul at all and only his energy path the first two the peak of the second stage.

Alus has a very high prowess. He is able to fight a single major stage above his own to a standstill. He is able to do this because he has a very high comprehension ability and is very disciplined. Any technique he has he already mastered and that is also one of the reasons for his high prowess.

And now he has been given the task to teach Ben. Alus clapped his hands and said. "Cultivation is not everything!"