Chapter 55: Grinding

Damian enthralled in the sensation of learning more of the method and cultivating, continued to cultivate without leaving his room.

He would cultivate for 6 hours then rest and sleep, as cultivation was very physically and mentally draining despite the increase in strength.

The cycle repeated many times and Damian had lost track of time, too focused on continually gaining strength.

He was progressing rapidly and he could continually feel the power of his Soul Spirit increasing along with his Internal Cultivation. While the power of his Pyrokinesis was also increasing as his flame increased in strength along with his control over it.

Damian felt he had reached the ending point of another rank after 3 days, but he felt his body had reached a bottleneck of sorts and after attempting to break past it for 3 hours, he was too tired to continue.

Damian had been left alone by his friends who after seeing how arduously he was cultivating, had also spent most of their time cultivating in the hopes of being able to compete with Damian.

All of Damian's friends were all progressing incredibly quickly and had all broken through to the first rank, and were on track to breaking the records of the academy along with Damian, apart from Milo.

Milo seemed stuck.

He had gained the highest ranked Internal Cultivation method that didn't have an elemental attribute, as he didn't seem to have an elemental affinity.

Yet, he still felt stuck at the cultivation he was at and couldn't store any energy in his body, apart from the small amount he already had, no matter how hard he tried.

While watching all his friends rapidly progressing, Milo felt left behind and very depressed, but he decided to hide his sadness not wanting to hinder his friends and become a burden on them, especially to Damian.

[Utsusu how long left until my Internal Cultivation lesson] asked Damian who had lost track of time and was ignorant to his best friend's struggles.

{I think it started a few minutes ago} informed him Utsusu.

[What, why didn't you tell me earlier] screamed Damian within his mind as he scrambled to get ready.

{I didn't want to halt your cultivation that was progressing very well} stated Utsusu nonchalantly, making Damian even more agitated.

{But now despite the host's talent and drive in cultivation, cultivation also requires the cultivator to break past their limits as cultivation is the improvement of oneself and breaking past the shackles of mortality. So the host will not be able to break past without also going through life experiences and combat, which will push the host past his limits} added Utsusu, analysing Damian's cultivation.

Damian who was rushing out of his residence and towards the Cultivation Hall, hearing Utsusus's words, realised his mistake while attempting to gain as much strength as quickly as possible.

Despite his talent and the great cultivation method he had, he wasn't breaking past his body's limits and improving himself well enough to break through into the second rank.

Damian had heard of pills and medication that could help in breakthroughs from Utsusu, but he decided not to look for any as he also heard they would weaken his foundations and cultivation.

[After finishing my Internal Cultivation Lesson, I will go and do a mission that will push me and try to learn the skill I gained once again, that Utsusu had sensed was also mysterious and may even be more valuable than the scroll if I can understand it] decided Damian as he dragged his tired body towards the Cultivation Hall.

Each main part of the academy had its own place within the academy that was surrounded by walls, similar to how a town would be within a city.

Damian with his enhanced memory and perceptivity, that he gained after awakening Utsusu, had a map of the entire academy memorised within his mind and could navigate through the Outer and Inner Parts of the academy, as the Core Area of the Academy was restricted and not included in any maps available to him.

He was also only allowed into the Inner Parts of the academy when he had a lesson in one of the main parts situated there or had a reason to be there, and would be otherwise told to leave.

It took him 30 minutes of running as quickly as his tired body could go, and after showing his identification to the Inner Academy guards and the Cultivation Hall guards, he was allowed to enter.

Walking into the large lecture-type classroom, Damian could see that there were more students than he expected.

"Looks like he has arrived. But over half an hour late" announced the teacher seeing Damian enter the classroom panting.

All eyes were on Damian, and if it were him from before, he would have become very nervous, but now he didn't feel intimidated by the people in the slightest.

Although the strength of some of them and the teacher was quite intimidating.

He saw those who were youngest and weakest, which included his friends, apart from Cole who was an External Cultivator, sat at the back of the class, with the ones closer to the front increasing in strength and age, which he observed from their appearances, uniforms and auras.

"Damian you have missed the beginning of the lesson that was a brief overview of what Internal Cultivation is and after finishing we will begin to learn the basics around the elements" informed him the teacher.

The teacher was a beautiful woman who wore yellow robes like the rest of the teachers and was beautiful to look at.

Outer Academy Students had white coloured uniforms and clothing, Inner Academy Students had red coloured uniforms and clothing, Core Academy Students had orange coloured uniforms and clothing, teachers had yellow coloured uniforms and clothing and great elders had green coloured uniforms and clothing.

However, there were some exceptions such as the librarian, but from what Damian had heard he was mighty and mysterious and was the substitute principal at times, making him exempt to the academy rules.

His teacher seemed to be nice and matched with her beauty and youth, Damian felt quite comfortable in her class as she reminded him of his mother slightly.

"You may take a seat and seeing the state you are in you must have had some sort of circumstance that delayed you so you shall not be punished this time. But next time you will be punched for missing compulsory cultivation lessons" she stated.

Damian nodded respectfully and joined the rest of his friends who all let out a sigh of relief seeing that Damian hadn't gotten into any trouble.

"At least he knows his place" commented a student at the front seeing Damian sit at the back of the class.