OP— 15

Title: Masterful Tongue

"First of all, allow me to congratulate all of you," Vincent smiled warmly.

Seeing that most of the disciples were calm enough, he continued, "Before we continue your lessons, I am obliged to inform that you can reveal your abilities, aptitude, and element to your acquaintances and partners at your discretion. No information of such kind will be revealed to any disciple of the sect ,even if they are from the council, by the sect.

Now that all of you have awakened, you must realize the ability to master your tongue and speech. To understand what to convey and what not to utter. Of course, the professors of the sect directly counseling you will have a general information about your abilities and all of you may contact us most of the times."

As Vincent finished, one of the disciples raised his hand.

"Yes, Ree?"

"Sir, what about Xues?"

Speaking of Xues, the only disciple to face Origin Infection in the last 50 years, Vincent revealed a troubled expression.

"Everytime the sect faces the situation of this form of disability, we let the guardians of the said disciple decide. Xues' parents strongly disagreed on changing the path now and alongside the sect's assistance, managed to invite Daoist Eternal Ginseng. Anyway, Xues should return to the class in at most, 60 days."

Saying his piece, Vincent turned towards the board and wrote the date in the middle in extremely large font.

21/01/19048

"Mark this date as the beginning of your first semester. This semester would last for half-a-year, which means, around the first half of the third month."

Disciples nodded.

"Psst, look at this. I've already mastered my tongue and speech," Rogue leaned towards the desk and lowered his shoulder to hide behind Sam and popped a cherry in his mouth.

*Rero rero rero rero rero rero*

Instantly, his tongue began to juggle the cherry with his tongue!

"How did you find the cherry?!"

"Where the heck did you pull it out from?!"

Needless to say, Dharma and Mana had very different concerns.

Mana's apartment did not have any fruits. The trio's lifestyle was dwindling to the epitome of laziness and snacks!

*Rero rero rero rero rero*

Yet, Rogue did not stop to address these concerns.

He juggled the cherry away.

Seeing that determined expression, the intensity of his stare as he expressed the mastery of his tongue, Mana also felt a little stifled by the surrounding gazes, and noting a few blushing maidens, his eyes widened.

Mastery of Tongue!

He had attained another objective.

With a determined gaze, Mana tore a page from his rough notebook, crumbled it into a ball, and stuck his tongue out.

Rogue stopped, Dharma looked even more incredulous.

*Rero— gahkk! Khhkkk*

Accidentally swallowing the paper ball, Mana started coughing loudly.

"Fool! Start from level one!" Rogue shouted, disrupting Vincent's explanation as he stood up and instantly heimliched Mana.

*Ghuaa*

Coughing out the ball of paper, Mana breathed with cold sweat matting his forehead.

"Thanks a lot," Mana sighed.

'I have a long way to go.'

"Is there something interesting going up here?"

Vincent walked over to the centermost end desk, Dharma's gaze instantly focused on the board.

"I was… training my tongue," Mana replied truthfully as Rogue added, "See, like this."

*Rero rero rero rero rero*

Vincent pursed his lips with an irritated smile.

"Stop your disturbance," glaring at the two until they settled back on their seats, Vincent began the lecture from that location itself.

"The first year of the sect is focused on practical training. As you all might have achieved, this includes the inscription of runes on your origin, however, the sect will not direct you in this matter. Runes will develop based on your personal beliefs, objectives, and determination. So, out of 37 jade slips necessary to learn, only the first one was filled with the basic theory of runes and a number of runes you may study yourself.

The remaining 36 jade slips all contain journals of spars, battles, traps, and various other situations that can endanger your life and we will discuss it daily.

Meanwhile, all of you disciples will undergo sparring matches and personalized training set by Professor Klyde.

Is that understood?"

Vincent lectured while adjusting his glasses.

"Yes!"

A few disciples nodded but seeing the overall lack of response, Vincent only smiled.

"Now then, I will hand you the second jade slip of your syllabus. The fees of this and the next 35 jade slips will be added to your closing semester fee."

"Sir," Dharma spoke up, "Then why did we have to purchase the jade slip from the library?"

"The battle journals contained within the 36 jade slips are updated regularly and are authored by many of the professors and the alumni of the sect itself. We remove the information that is already present in other lessons and combine a few smaller entries into a theoretical, complex one."

Pointing out, Vincent continued.

"But the Jade slip containing the revised definition and rank 1 runes are purchased by the sect yearly from the Inscription Association. In fact, the cost of purchase— 15 petis— is what the jade slips are sold at to the disciples."

Once the doubt was cleared, Vincent began distributing the jade slips individually and began the lecture.

The first entry in the jade slip was a spar between two origin cultivators with the same element but different methods of battle which led to complex decision-making in a short duration of the battle.

Thinking till here, Mana unconsciously glanced towards the yawning Rogue before focusing on the lesson.

'This is good. I wasn't taught in such a manner back home. Now that I carefully think about it, Rogue's spikes emerged from anything marked with his blood… no, element. So, he must have carefully decided to leave one spot of qi skill for sudden attacks like I committed and pushed the remaining spots to actively enhance his physique…

But… Darkness Element is one of the rare singular elements that represents heaviness. Weight. Just how did he interpret his runes to allow him to become a close-quarter combatant? Arms, legs, skin, blood, strength, endurance, spikes, eye, and flexibility. These are the nine qi skills embedded in his origin.

His blood is obviously pertaining to the heavy factor of the element. A person whose battles occur in close proximity is bound to get injured and bleed over his enemies’ body or weapon. The blood once activated will slow the opponent down.

Spike is out of the question, too. Rogue should be able to create spikes out of his element from any location. He must have used the element coursing in the splatter of his blood to strike my chin yesterday. I can also reasonably remove the rune for eye enhancement from consideration. It must be to enhance his eyesight or even be a part of a chain rune with the ability to investigate things clearer.

This leaves me with six other runes.'

"Mana, what should be done to achieve victory if two fighters of opposing gender spar against each other considering that they both have the same elements and the same number or qi skills? Since you are the first Disciple of this section to spar against your senior, I might as well begin with you."

"It depends on what gender we are talking about," Mana replied seriously, his thoughts focusing on the question.

"Genders? Not qi skills?" Vincent narrowed his gaze.

"Yes. Females and males have inherent weaknesses. Although, males wouldn't strike other males in their weakest point, out of respect and fear of retribution, of course, these considerations shouldn't haunt a female individual."

Tracing his chin with an apathetic glow in his eyes that even made Vincent feel a little cold down there, Mana smiled.

"If I was the female, I would continuously strike the male's crotch and instill psychological fear in him to give up on the spar. Of course, the risk of sending him over the edge and making him strike hard akin to a desperate beast is to be considered.

However, if I fought a female opponent, I would consider more things… well," An awkward expression appeared on Mana's face as he coughed.

'Should I say it?'

Seeing Dharma and Rogue look towards him with a fearful expression, Mana finally denied the thought.

'I can make the guys fear me but not the girls… I want a harem, after all!'

"Well, if I am to ever fight a woman, I would respect them by going all out. If one of them does take my advice and strikes my crotch, I will respond not by giving up but using the chance to play my opponent and turn my crotch into bait…

To fish in this vast sea."

Mana lied fluently but he has a dream.

'That's right. I, Mana Krien, have a dream. Whenever I pull my dick out, it instantly attracts a beautiful woman. In this sea of life, I want to be the greatest fisherman.'

"Sigh," deeply regretting not considering Mana's answer despite knowing his tolerance and traits similar to Rogue, Vincent nodded quietly and gave the correct answer.

However, it wasn't as interesting as Mana's thoughts.

After three hours, the lecture ended and the disciples slowly scattered towards the canteen.