Chapter 4 – Natural Born Genius

While Calron was still absorbing the essence, the Voice suddenly sent out a thought towards him.

Curl both your first and fifth fingers against each other, and then spread all your fingers as wide as you can, with the tips still touching.

Calron immediately complied, and within a few seconds, he felt a sudden rush of essence being absorbed into his body at an alarming rate, as the lightning around his body became much more active.

The Elder stared in shock at the pace of essence being absorbed by Calron.

The astonishing fact was not the amount of essence Calron was cultivating, as any other cultivator could gather this amount of essence, but that was only for the other four elements.

The amount of the lightning essence was naturally scarce in the environment, and this was one of the main reasons why Lightning cultivators were considered to be the weakest, as they would always be unable to gather the immense amount of essence needed to make a breakthrough from the Spiritual stage.

However, this rule did not seem to apply to the boy.

A genius. A true genius had appeared!

Meanwhile, Calron continued to cultivate, while completely being unaware of the Elder’s excited thoughts. The Voice remained silent after having given the advice, as it did not want to distract Calron during his cultivation process.

This was an important moment for the boy, as this would be the start of his journey into the cultivation world.

His body would slowly start to become familiar with absorbing essence and the feeling of it circulating around his spiritual veins. Any mistake at this point would greatly affect his future cultivation advancement.

After a full fifteen minutes, Calron finally opened his eyes and just for a fraction of a second, a surge of blue lightning flickered across his dark black eyes.

Fortunately, the Elder did not notice the change in the boy’s eyes, as he was intently staring at Calron’s current hand formation.

“Why did you suddenly change the position of your hands in the middle of cultivation, Calron?”

The Elder inquired with a tinge of surprise and excitement in his voice.

Calron did not want to mention the existence of the Voice in his head, so he innocently replied back.

“I don’t know, Elder, it felt easier to put my hands in that position. I’m sorry if I did something wrong.”

Pretending to be meek and clueless as to not arouse any suspicion, Calron’s eight-year-old mind was already on the verge of entering the path of cunningness.

“No, my boy, you did not do anything wrong. I was just surprised.”

The Elder responded in a gentle tone as he sensed the nervousness of the boy.

Looking at Calron’s current innocent and chubby face, who would suspect him of being capable of deceiving others?

“You have a natural talent, Calron. With the aid of cultivation pills, I’m sure that you would definitely reach the peak of the Spiritual stage.”

The Elder knew that no matter how shocking Calron’s talent was, in order to break through to the Vajra stage, a cultivator would require an immense amount of essence, and as a Lightning cultivator, Calron would never have that opportunity.

A water elementalist at the Spiritual stage had to immerse himself inside a lake or a river, and continuously let his body absorb the Water essence during the point of breakthrough to successfully advance to the Vajra stage.

A lightning cultivator on the other hand, could never achieve this no matter how talented they were, as a mortal’s body was incapable of enduring the vicious and violent power of lightning.

“I’ll ask Lord Regis to sponsor an extra cultivation pill for you every week, as it will increase your pace of cultivation by leaps and bounds, allowing you to at least be able to compete with the other outer disciples at the Spiritual stage. Even if the Lord does not sponsor you, I personally will do so.”

The Elder sincerely conveyed to Calron.

Calron was utterly astonished!

He knew exactly how expensive a single cultivation pill was, as it could easily sell for ten gold squares a piece. Only the wealthy could afford to use these pills for cultivation, as which commoner would even have five gold squares to spare?

Seeing the expression on Calron’s face, the Elder guessed what was going through the boy’s mind.

“I’m sure that Regis would accept when I tell him that you will be able to reach at least the third rank of the Spiritual stage in the two years you’ll be studying here. Now, wait for a moment, and I’ll call one of the outer disciples to take you to your lodgings.”

The Elder gently stated as he exited the room.

Calron was sure that Lord Regis would not hesitate to sponsor another cultivation pill for him, especially if it meant that Calron would be able to advance much faster, and soon work for him.

Although a single cultivation pill was expensive to a commoner, an amount of ten gold squares was not even worth mentioning compared to the wealth of the city Lord.

The Elder soon returned after a while and introduced an older boy in a grey robe to Calron.

“Calron, this is Tal, and he will take you to your lodgings now. He will also show you the buildings you need to familiarize yourself with and important rules of the school. You are free to train however you want, but I suggest finding a Martial Master. There will be a tournament at the end of every six months, and all disciples are required to participate in it.”

The Elder finished his speech and gestured for Tal to take Calron.

Tal signaled Calron to follow him and started walking towards the end of the building.

“So, your name is Calron, right? The guards at the entrance gate said you were a Lightning elementalist, is that true?”

Tal curiously inquired while walking towards a series of small huts, while a few grey-robed youths were chatting near them.

“Yes, my name is Calron, and I am also a lightning elementalist.”

Calron calmly replied as took a quick glance at Tal.

The older boy appeared to be thirteen years old and had short blonde hair with dark green eyes. From the way the older boy carried himself, Calron guessed that Tal came from either a wealthy or a noble family.

Hearing Calron’s response, Tal had a shocked expression on his face.

The reason for Tal’s shock was because lightning elementalists were almost never accepted into any influential schools. Only the lower-tier schools would bother to accept them, and sometimes not even they would accept Lightning elementalists.

The Red Boar School was a middle-tier school in the city of Vernia, so it was extremely surprising that they would have taken in a lightning cultivator.

All schools and sects in the continent were at a constant struggle to be the most powerful force in Agatha and to reach the peak, they needed the elite of the elites and this was only possible through nurturing talented disciples in their schools. So, which top-tier school would even take a single glance at a Lightning elementalist?

Tal had just assumed that Calron being a lightning cultivator was simply a rumor, but when the very person in question confirmed it, how could he himself doubt it?

After a few minutes, they finally reached an empty corridor with shabby looking huts on the side. Tal gestured towards one of the small huts and said.

“This is your room, Calron. Your disciple robe should be inside as well, so wear it soon, as all disciples must wear them. You are free to do what you want but I suggest getting a meal in the gathering hall before all food is finished.”

However, just as Tal was about to leave, the older boy suddenly turned around and quietly stated.

“Not that it’s any of my business but stay clear of the other disciples, Calron. They have a lot of pride and many of them come from influential families, so they won’t take well to a Lightning elementalist in their midst.”

With that abrupt warning, Tal left Calron to his thoughts.

Calron slowly entered his hut and closed the door behind him.

The hut was completely bare with only a single bed and a shoddy mat on the rough floor. Although it appeared shabby and small, for Calron, it was perfect, as he did not have to share it with anyone.

Calron immediately jumped onto the bed and let out a content sigh as he reveled in the soft feeling of the mattress.

“Hey Voice, how did you know about the hand positions you told me about earlier?”

Calron curiously asked the Voice once they were finally alone.

Although Calron did not understand the reason as to why the Elder was so astonished, he instinctively guessed that it was because of those specific hand positions that the Voice had taught him.

Kid, you really need to stop calling me ‘Voice’, call me ‘Teacher’ instead. I like ‘Teacher’. It makes me sound sophisticated…

The Voice irritatedly interjected.

Seeing that the Voice obviously knew a lot more about cultivation than the Elder, Calron decided it was alright to call the Voice his “Teacher”. Furthermore, the Voice was hardly anything like that fat Ronny who had taught him numbers and counting in the village.

“Alright, I’ll call you Teacher from now on. So, teach me more about cultivation!”

Calron pleaded, as he excitedly yelled at his new Teacher.