Chapter 12: Elder Caster!
"Huh? Us? Haha, you asked the wrong people." Max, hearing Ken’s question, couldn’t help but laugh.
"Not a single one of us got close to basic mastery; the closest, which is me, is still days to weeks before I even reach it, let alone become a 2nd stage." Max chuckled to himself.
Ken nodded while chuckling to himself; the first stage was as easy as drinking, using a spirit stone to feel energy, then absorbing it... Nobody could reach it.
But to ascend further wasn’t an easy job, and they were much better off than him, the previous Ken, wanting to get stronger fast, didn’t even take a look at the cultivation manual, still having it somewhere, but Ken finally read through it before he went to sleep the day before.
------[Idle Training]------
[Spirit Forging - Mastery: Basic - Time to next Mastery Rank: Less than a day.]
[Spirit Cultivation - Mastery: Basic - Time to next Mastery Rank: 30 Minutes.]
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Indeed, for whatever reason, the time it takes to go up in technique mastery depends on each technique.
But Ken thought it was fair; not all techniques were equal.
"What about you, Ken?" Max asked.
"Ah, me? Well, I should be close, but I started late, so you guys should be ahead." He said.
Of course he wasn’t going to say he reached it, but talking with them allowed him to know that regular people took months to advance in techniques.
While it was a fair duration, it just allowed him to broaden his horizons. Though the first rank might have taken these disciples a month or more, the subsequent mastery realms...
Indeed, it would take years for regular people to advance in power.
What providence allowed him to do in days, others did in years...
Thinking about it, he became even more grateful, and knowing about his advantages made him have better plans and a bigger grasp on how he could hide in the crowd and only stand out by a few inches.
Because, if anyone, anyone knew about what he had... It’ll lead to a rollercoaster of events, events that would never allow for peace and control over his life.
As the group continued talking and Ken kept glancing here and there and listening in on conversations, broadening his knowledge and horizon, a floating majestic white gold lion was seen coming.
As it approached the lecture space, Ken couldn’t help but look at it, its massive size doing nothing to decrease its majesty and only adding to the terrific aura it emitted.
[A white flame Golden King, what a rare sight. If you had been here a thousand years early, maybe you’d have seen it as a baby; still, it would have eaten a hundred of you alive.]
Ignoring the hint, Ken focused on the red one atop it.
[Elder Caster, oh Elder caster, if only you were a little faster, though your might knows no bound; too big of a loss it was you found.]
... Hints indeed, whatever it was, it told Ken nothing, only making him squint at its ugliness.
A moment later, just as the Golden King disappeared like a wisp into the elder’s body, the mighty figure who looked no older than Ken himself sat on his lotus, and the entire lot of disciples rose to their feet, shouting.
"We Greet The Elder!"
"Sit." He immediately replied.
"It has been more than a month since you have been in the sect, and by now, I expect you to have become familiar with the environment." He said.
"Starting from this day forward, the lectures will be longer, specifically targeting your focal points in order to make all of you reach your highest potential in the shortest period of time."
"Additionally, from this day forward, the Ascension Tower and the Spirit Tower have both opened up for you."
"The Ascension tower will show us your worth and also allow you to hone your skills in a safe environment where even if you die... you will be brought back."
"This will be what we use to test you, and as you ascend in floors, the ranking will also update, and the top 1000 will be rewarded accordingly at the end of each week." Without having to say it, everybody understood that this was a competition and the high ranks had better rewards.
Ken, who had access and was able to get more than the sect could ever spend on lowly outer sect disciples, only looked attentively, waiting for the right topic to start.
He also didn’t lose this chance to study the disciple as well as the elder.
Wherever he was, he would benefit, so he made sure to take full advantage of every situation.
"The Spirit Tower, however, is there to enlighten you. Every month, techniques of different ranks will show up, and depending on how many of your batch were able to understand it, as well as how far you could take it, the next month’s technique will be decided." He said.
These words made Ken raise his eyes; this was interesting. Allowing him to have access to a different technique every month was more than he hoped the sect would do.
By following the regular disciple’s comprehension rate, he would only be allowed access to a free technique once every year or more, but with this, he wasn’t worried about having to spend a lot of money for just an hour of checking through the manuals.
Especially when just reading the spirit cultivation manual yesterday took 4 hours!
"Moving on, as you were told in the previous sessions, you are obligated to take a sect mission once every year, and even with the secret realm opening up for you, it won’t be an exclusion, as only a very limited amount will be taken."
"Now now, I’m sure all of you are wondering about the stages of cultivation and the requirements to ascend each one of them." He smiled.
"Worry not! It is now time for you all to start ascending the stairs of the spirit path."