OP— 23

Title: Vacation

30/01/19048

With the four months of the year divided into 6 weeks of 15 days each, the disciples finally had some time to take rest. The sect education began on 21 of the first month and now, a total of nine days of cultivation had been completed for Mana.

*Snore*

"Kehm…"

*Snore*

"Ah… too harsh… my love…"

*Snore*

"Yea… you like that…"

*Snore*

"Go ahead… daddy doesn't mind…"

*Snore*

Hugging his blanket as a long-lost lover, Rogue mumbled under his breath. His beard had grown slightly and grew unkempt but the clear mark of the scar remained a dividing line on Rogue's chin. Meanwhile, Dharma's beautiful blue eyes no longer looked dazzling.

He felt dead inside.

Their room now already had two separate beds. It wasn't that hard to achieve this state since the original bed was divided into two sections with inner compartments to store unused blankets and such.

The two just had to move their beds to the opposite walls.

"Sigh… it's only 7…" Dharma scowled and sat up. Removing his blanket, he revealed silk shorts and a silk shirt that helped him sleep.

Comfortably slipping his feet into the toasty slippers, the slightly disheveled blonde walked out while carrying away his cellphone.

"Huh?"

The hallway of the apartment was dark but the living room was lit up by flashing lights. Gulping, Dharma slowly walked towards the living room. His steps placed with care to not resound in the hallway too loudly.

With his chest against the wall, Dharma slowly slid his torso along the wall and finally peeked his head out.

Sitting on the floor with a blanket wrapped around him… the soft, almost silent click clacks of the console's remote while the screen showed the silent images of a beautiful woman beating the shit out of a massive demon under his command…

As if sensing Dharma's gaze, the figure instantly turned back. Wide eyes with shrunken emerald pupils raised with puffy and dark eye bags. Dry lips and his ears covered by a wireless headphone.

Seeing such a nightmarish image right after waking up, Dharma couldn't help but falter.

"Don't you dare tell on me…"

Although Mana had another console of a competing brand… there was a reason why cultivators would fight against each other to play on PX-8. And out of 90 days of exclusive rights to the console belonging to Rogue, this was merely the ninth day.

"I… need to borrow your toilet. Rogue never uses Briana (Crumble) to clear the stink out and his… fragrance settles…"

Seeing Dharma's lips moving but only able to hear the music of the game once he paused it, Mana removed his headphones and inquired once again.

Finally, he nodded and stated seriously, "Only this once, and… you will use Briana to clean it after use."

To origin cultivators, the rune— Briana— was simply one of the most comforting runes. It would allow them to clean many things save for some truly stubborn spot on utensils. It was fortunate that the trio lived an unhealthy lifestyle of eating take-outs since their origins reinforced their bodies passively.

Thinking for a moment, Dharma shook his head, "And… I want to be able to order seafood!"

"... aye," Mana sounded exhausted.

"What time is it?" He inquired again.

"Hmm… it's 7:03."

"I'll stop playing at 7:30," Mana said with a plain expression.

Of course, while Mana played, Dharma got ready in the meantime and ordered breakfast.

"It's 7:38," Dharma called out.

Without looking back, Mana replied faintly.

"Well then, I'll stop at 8:00…"

---

"You both look like disasters," Rogue commented while he chugged down a glass of milk, the tips of his trimmed mustache now white as he chuckled, "Cultivating too hard is going to obstruct your progress. When you work hard, you also play hard. Today is supposed to be our vacation!"

Mana agreed with Rogue's words. He truly played hard till this morning. Meanwhile, Dharma narrowed his gaze and didn't reply, a little nervous that he might end up blurting Mana's secret.

*Drr*

Mana's cellphone on the table vibrated as he picked it up and checked the content of the notification.

"Hmm? Senior Chrome just sent me a text. The date of the Freshmen Party is set on 44/01. Oh, there's an unofficial freshmen party three days before the official one… so, we'll have to buy two sets of suits."

Rogue frowned deeply before shaking his head.

"Nah, I'm not going to the unofficial party. It's just more noise and booze. I don't even like to drink and most of the meat courses are emptied out quickly without any refill."

"For real?" Dharma lamented, particularly looking forward to the unofficial ceremonies.

"Of course, the worst part is that nobody really can take the initiative to spar since most of the disciples are already drunk. Speaking of drunk… I almost forgot about that Sorya."

"You mean the one from 2-B?" Mana inquired as he recalled the particular senior who was trying to bait Mina with a girl already around him.

"You've met him?" Rogue raised his brows in surprise, "Anyway, I didn't know it until Drake told me a few days back. But Sorya's a sexual offender. So, if you both go to the unofficial party, make sure to not accept any drink from him… who knows what he'll do to you both."

A scowl appeared on Mana's and Dharma's faces.

"Do you really think we will do that?" Dharma inquired, slight tremors now appearing in his voice.

"If it was me, I'd be careful. We only get one V-card for our asses, after all…" Rogue enlightened the two freshmen with a somber expression.

"Maybe…"

*Drr*

Mana's phone vibrated once again as he read the text.

"Yeah, I'll be going to both parties. It's not like I have to pay for any of them."

Mana remarked after a moment's thought, his decision, of course, affirmed by the newer text but seeing that he was unwilling to divulge the information, Dharma and Rogue could only feel more curious.

Suddenly, Dharma's hands shot forward but by this point, Mana had already jumped up and with a slight tap of his toes against Dharma's fist, Mana flipped back, standing up elegantly and pocketing his phone.

'Damn, Hina… if you send me a selfie in that dress… of course, I'll come… but since when did we get so close?'

Mana couldn't help but feel that at this moment, all his actions of treating Hina warmly were being repaid. He didn't even want anything more, the picture was enough. But… if he did get more, Mana could only accept it with a grateful heart.

"Let's go shopping boys! I'm hitting the Wukong Stores!"

"Oh, I need to replace my shirt. I'll tag along," Dharma stood up casually as if he hadn't just sneakily launched an attack in an effort to read the contents of the text message. However, he wasn't surprised by Mana's flexibility. By now, it was an established fact that Mana came from some sort of dark family who begins training the younger generation through extreme measures.

"I'll be sticking here. I have a ranking tournament on CIFA," Rogue replied idly, unaware that he was being cucked by Mana as he played with dem joystick till morning.

Once the group separated, Rogue cackled.

"Hah! Like hell I'll waste my morning on games…" retreating into his room, Rogue switched on his laptop while closing off the lights.

"Naughty Cultivators! Nobody. Nobody, Nobody does it better~ Muaaahh!"

"Yeah, nobody really does!" Rogue grinned with a wolfish expression as his morning of enlightenment had just begun.

---

"Are. You. Done?" Mina growled the moment Hina walked out.

"Hey," pouting, Hina retorted, "I was just trying the dress for the unofficial party. Don't hate!"

Snorting, Mina hurriedly entered the bathroom before Hina could even retreat, making her hear a few more reasons why the twins should petition for separate bathrooms to their mother.

As Hina walked up the narrow stairs of her house, her phone vibrated for a minute, and from the notification pop-up, she could see a thumbs-up emote from Mana.

"Hehe," giggling, Hina settled in her room quickly before sitting on her bed. The twin's room was divided into two colors. Red and Blue. Even Hina's bedsheets were a mix of red and white while Mina's bed, the one closer to the door, was a mix of blue and white.

Taking off her glasses to keep herself from drooling on the many posters on her side of the wall, Hina conjured her origin. Unlike Mana with extreme visual training and mental fortitude to last in his origin space for as long as he did, continuously resisting the extreme flow of qi that saturated the metaphysical space, Hina, clearly, did not have such mental faculties.

So, she has to carve her runes in the real world.

Knowing that Mina loves to eat dairy products even after the chemical nukes that develop in her body that would leave their bathroom in utter despair, Hina found this to be the perfect moment to carve her second rune.

The progress of carving runes is easier at the beginning. One's weakness can easily be spotted and slightly complex runes that can affiliate each other are developed and carved quickly. But as the number of runes increases, the glaring weaknesses decrease, too, and allows the cultivator to carve runes based on their future ambition.

Of course, Hina wasn't clueless on this matter.

Not after Drake paved a path for them which now led their Master— Love/Pink Heart to guide them correctly so that they can realize their ambitions without risking the impatient carving of the rune.

'Senior Chrome said to me that Mana might already be on his third rune… but the question is, why would he tell me this? Senior Von made it clear that the Investigation Committee is an annoyance to the Disciplinary Committee. So… is he planning something?'

Even when such thoughts littered her mind, once she began carving her rune, Hina grew calmers and more stable.

Right below the twin's room is their elder brother's room completely filtered with various shades of green.

Feeling the change in qi surrounding him, Drake looked up for a moment before adjusting his glasses and returning to his book.

'Hmm… mental tortures might be effective for the long term but Daoist Hell never really delved deeply in the art of physical torture. His main path was to slaughter, which conformed with the olden society. But why would he so casually author a journal about torture if he cannot even emphasize the importance of healing the target in a set interval of time before changing the intervals in a random order?'

Drake finally realized why this journal cost so cheap on the web. Alas, he hadn't read the reviews before making the purchase, an act of extreme naivety.

***

A/N: Hina/Mina pic in attachments.