OP— 20

Title: Revelation

"So… is this really necessary?" Sam croaked, a light blue ball of origin floating in front of him. Meanwhile, Dharma stood in front of him as a glowing white origin rotated at a great pace. The fact that his opponent's origin was moving signified that it already had a single rune as signified by the slight golden flashes as the orb rotated. Meanwhile, Sam's origin despite having a rune carved out did not move.

"What a lazy person…" Sam's senior teammate, Shera, groaned out finally.

'To completely awaken, all the disciples will carve their rune skill at the beginning and wait for the rune to kickstart the origin by absorbing the natural qi for the first time. This will also make us origin cultivators go through the process of feeling our element for the first time. This Dharma guy has a light element, Rogue has a dark element, and that stabbed guy has a compound element. Sam, on the other hand has a water element… but to think he would prioritize sleeping over his cultivation and push back the process of starting the origin… unlike the remaining life where we can auto-cultivate, the beginning always needs our own effort.'

Shera glanced towards the duo.

"I can't fight like this… maybe tomorrow. I will focus on starting my origin tonight," Smiling with his cheeks reddened by embarrassment, Sam stepped down off the stage.

"Heh, you got lucky!" Rogue snickered as Dharma walked towards him.

"Could say the same about you. A Drain Rose, once latched, can only be cut-off alongside the affected body part," Dharma smiled.

"I know right… I can't wait for tomorrow's spar. I'll bet a month of dinner payment tomorrow!"

Dharma's gaze shone at Rogue's words. Although the blonde boy was a bit disheartened at not being able to utilize his skill, his day was already made since he would be ordering a particularly lavish set of dinner tonight.

---

"Let's see, high temperature… a gaping shoulder wound, no bones affected… hmm, take this and please rest."

Pushing a pill into Mana's hand, the middle-aged plump nurse left off with an impassive expression while Lilia watched Mana swallow the pill. An amused expression touching her face.

*Ghhk*

'Sure enough…' Bringing the glass of water on the nightstand near the bed of the ward to Mana, she assisted in helping him swallow the pill.

*Cough Cough!*

After a fit of coughing, Mana calmed down and looked at his bandaged shoulder.

"Are you an assassin?" Lilia inquired curiously. She had heard that many assassin families train their young ones to disregard the pain.

"No. I don't even act like one."

"Wouldn't that be the best cover for an assassin?" Lilia continued, making Mana think for a moment as he nodded.

"I guess so… But I'm still not an assassin. If I was one, then Master White Heart would have accepted me."

Nodding her head, Lilia completely swept over the fact that she used one of her skills on Mana but seeing that she was still comfortable enough with him being topless, Mana's mind couldn't help but go down the sewers filled with an infection brought by years of 'visual training.'

'Another young nurse would come by and accidentally fall on Lilia. She will get angry but then to make up for her mistake, the nurse will beg and do anything. Then Lilia will make the nurse lick her and seeing me, she will call me—'

*Click*

Mana's mind snapped, seeing his imagination turn into a reality.

"You can leave, I'm here."

Instead of a naive nurse with a flair of sexual tendencies, a sharply dressed man entered with a pair of rectangular glasses over his emerald pupils.

Snorting, Lilia walked out without even greeting the man while Mana's lips twitched.

"Master… we should just turn this ward into the location for your personal lessons."

Not even indulging the joke with a hollow laugh, Forest sat where Lilia sat a few moments ago and he observed Mana with a hint of coldness.

"I promised Ms. Krien that I won't let you spam runes on your origin," Forest spoke with a chilly tone.

"Unless this new skill of yours is worthy enough, I will be forced to find a skill exorcist and clear out your origin once again."

Recalling the chuckling face of his shriveled grandmother who found him regardless of his actions and then even intimidated Forest after he was accepted as Forest's Disciple… Mana felt the reaction was quite appropriate.

"Master… I'm in no hurry to raise my rank. Of course, I want skills better equipped to my origin."

"Before we begin your lesson right here, recite the alphabet rhyme that I gave you as a homework assignment yesterday."

"Yes!"

With a smile, Mana began.

"A for apple, as red as spanked cheeks.

B for ball, as big as dem tits.

C for cat, who doesn't love a pussy?

D for dog, styling on the bed as doggy.

E for elephant, there's two balls under mine.—"

"If I remember correctly," Forest whispered, a vein on his forehead throbbing.

"The rhymes did not have your addition."

"Ah, you noticed?" Cheekily chuckling, Mana replied with a happy expression, "Granny said that the rhymes she taught me can never be taught to others. If I want to teach some other kid, then I have to make my own rhymes!"

"You're not qualified to make rhymes!" Forest stated with a chilled expression, a little startled by the fact how Mana was raised in the first place.

Unknown to the master-disciple pair, Lilia finally chuckled and left after hearing the first part of the conversation, her expression finally bright enough for her to consider not messing with Mana. The way he is right now, he's already causing plenty of trouble to her half-brother.

"Enough. Here, write down the explanation of your rune. Voices are never secure in this sect."

Saying this, Forest handed out a piece of paper and a pen as Mana looked at the pen and his injured right shoulder.

"Master… I—"

"I gave you one task of learning the correct rhymes and yet you took the incorrect initiative. And, from what I can see, your family trained you well to disregard the pain. Consider this a punishment and write."

Nodding meekly, Mana began writing over on the nightstand.

'An origin cultivator can easily reach their strongest point even within a year. In the beginning, there were plenty of rank 9 origin cultivators whose attacks could shake the very continent and yet, many of them were defeated by middling rank 7 and even some talented rank 6 cultivators who took their time to create chain skills for their best use. Not to mention… our only competition isn't other origin cultivators but also the orthodox cultivators who cannot take easy steps like us. But amongst them, there are just too many talented individuals that can fight way over their cultivation realm.'

Forest already realized that despite reaching Serene Heart Sect, there would be many students who would try to get stronger quickly. After all, the only requirement of ranking up is to complete nine rune skills. Theoretically speaking, if an origin cultivator carves a single rune skill every day, he would be a rank two cultivator within a week. This kind of speed is what makes Origin Cultivation so mesmerizing.

"Here, Master."

Even Mana understood Forest's concerns. To limit one's maximum potential just to increase the pace of cultivation when it is already so broken… even Mana wouldn't be that stupid.

Gazing at the paper, Forest couldn't help but read the name of the rune.

'Uchip… meaning seed. This is… extremely well thought of.' As Forest finally read through the explanation, he couldn't help but exclaim in his heart.

'The essence of this skill lies in Mana's reserve of memory. He would need to study a lot of seeds regarding specialized plant feys and with his qi, he will be able to create seeds that grow into mutated plants that also have metal attribute aside from their usual traits. The drain rose has wood and water affinities but Mana's drain rose will also combine the metal element which makes it harder to cut off… not to mention the fact that these are real seeds that can be controlled by his qi within a time frame of 10 minutes. Any later and these mutated plants will become natural creations…'

"I… cannot fathom just how and why did you comprehend the Uchip rune as such but I'm relieved. Well done. But next time, before carving any rune, you will inform me so that I can test your affinity with the rune."

"Yes!" Mana smiled and agreed instantly.

"When did you carve this rune anyway?" Forest inquired.

"Umm, were you watching the spar?" Mana inquired before replying.

"Yes, I was accompanied by Corrupt Heart."

"Then… Do you recall the time when I shot the vine out of my origin and detached it? That was my strategy. To use a vine as a whip with longer range and another vine coming out of my shoulder. Since I have not comprehended any additive or multiplicative rune, I cannot use the same skill more than once and had to detach one of the vines at the very least. But… I kind of knew that I'd get my ass whooped. Rogue… is too strong. The fact that he can move so quickly despite the limitations of the darkness element and make himself heavier at will without any rune… I finally realized that it was the work of a concept."

"Yes, Rodger understands the concept of Lightness."

Seeing Mana being able to see through most of Rogue's hidden cards, Forest couldn't help but sigh at his inability to learn normal alphabet rhymes.

"Yeah, so, I knew that I needed another trump card. When he began breaking my tactics apart by saying that I don't have any other skills, I realized that I just need to carve more skills and that's when I carved the skill on my origin. The color of my origin made it impossible for others to see that I was carving another rune. However, if I produced a seed in front of Rogue's eyes, he wouldn't have let me plant it on his body."

"And that is what made you easily get punctured by Rogue despite knowing about his spike rune," Forest remarked.

"Yes. Then, I converged the seed onto the spike within my shoulder. But… I thought too much into it. I cannot win while always taking major damage. Last time, my shoulder was dislocated, this time, my shoulder was punctured."

Mana grumbled while a light green flame instantly covered Forest's palm that held the paper on which Mana wrote about his skill. With the piece of paper burnt to ashes, Forest looked at Mana.

"Overall, your performance of the day bordered suicidal but to match the cruelty of orthodox cultivators, we have to temper our mind regardless of our wishes. Now, I am led to believe that you have already utilized the jade slip holding the explanation of basic rank 1 runes, right? The rune of seed is a little special so I'm sure that is something you comprehended within your family. But from today onwards, your day in the university would include learning battle situation and tactics from Junior Vincent, learning as much as you can during spars from Master Klyde, and finally, I will assist you in learning the runes so that you can have more options for your skills later on."

Mana nodded.

"Um… master? Did you just call Professor Klyde… master?"

"Yes. Did Rodger not tell you that Master Klyde is the Sect Master? They both were introduced last year."

"Professor Klyde is that Serene Heart?" Astounded, Mana couldn't help but recall Klyde's depressed expression.

As if understanding Mana's confusion, Forest sighed.

"Master drank a tea brewed by a disheartened bloom. The fact that he's not dead is already great news…"

'Anyway, Vine is a control-type skill while Seed can be categorized under a special skill that can achieve all forms of actions. But I need to nudge Mana into carving at least one, complex, attack-type skill that can later be a part of a chain skill.'

Thinking till here, Forest began introducing various runes to Mana.

The understanding of runes can be divided into many categories but even the Inscription Association dared not to give any official titles to the realm of understanding. The comprehension of a rune is more philosophical and a metaphysical aspect of Origin Cultivation than even the understanding of concepts.

But to even begin the comprehension of runes, Mana first needed to understand the basic intention of the origin of such runes.

For instance, Mana took a little while longer to understand the intention of the rune Caul which meant Smell, unlike the Krighstba which meant Fragrance.