The next day of class arrived and Gust found a spot on the grassy green that would be closest to his father’s old home. Cultivating anywhere outside that cloud of sword mana was almost useless, so he wanted to be as close to it as possible.

This wasn’t because pure mana was useless, but because his cultivation method was slower when sword mana wasn’t present. Demon Blades in the Void worked anywhere, as did any cultivation method Gust assumed, but it sought a specific type of mana. When that mana was missing, the method functioned at half speed, or near enough.

But Master Ephraim insisted that he continue attending class each week, so Gust sat there cultivating like any other student. Pure mana entered his soul and spread to fill the empty space. After little more than a week at the first level of Pathway Establishment, the silver cloud near Gust’s core had barely changed. It was thin and surrounded the maroon aura around Gust’s core, just barely visible to other mages on the edge of what they perceived as pure darkness.

Any progress he made cultivating sword mana soon disappeared as he used it during his fights with Locke, or practicing Mage Sword on his own. The dispersed pure mana in his soul was slowly growing denser by the day but until his soul was saturated with it, the mana wouldn’t put enough pressure on his meridians to force them open. Sword mana was naturally more destructive and would help the process happen sooner, but at the rate he was currently progressing, pure mana dominated the sword variety by far.

An hour into the day, Ephraim sat in front of Gust and the Demon felt the Master’s mana sense lightly probing into his soul. “Very good. The silver mana in your soul is profoundly valuable, Augustus. If you were to search your fellow students, you would find aspected mana to be quite the rarity. Access to our more remote, and not to mention potent, cultivation areas is restricted. Even if you had the merits, we would not allow you the opportunity.” He observed Gust’s posture and noted, “This is a potent method, indeed.”

“Sorry Master, but if its really so powerful, is it a good idea to be cultivating so openly? Wouldn’t anyone be able to copy me and my method by simply watching for a while?”

“Ahh, you don’t trust your fellow students, Augustus?” Before the young man could disagree, Ephraim leaned in a smiled, “That is very wise. You are all competing for a portion of the same pool of resources, after all. There are many who would take any advantage they could find, and they are not wrong to do so,” he noted. “However, you don’t need to worry about that. After what happened to poor Ansel, even the boldest students will take a detour to avoid going near your master’s home. Even if they did copy your method, young meridians are weak and underprepared to deal with aspected mana. I suspect the coin in your pocket helps to protect you from such damage, and we know what happens to the fools who have tried to take it from you, don’t we?”

Ephraim grinned and patted Gust on the shoulder, then rose to his feet. “You are making good progress, keep on as you were.”

Gust bowed his head and thanked the Master for his time. He’d been wondering why people like Locke, and even Alice who was a few levels higher, didn’t seem to hold anything but pure mana. It seemed aspects were extremely scarce.

As Gust thought about the remote locations Ephraim referred to, he grew eager to leave behind the safety of the school’s walls and explore the wilds. If the most potent version of his Mage Sword could cut through trees as thick as his own chest, Gust was certain a few low-level beasts would be no issue. Instead of heading home when class ended, he made for the chore house.

Gust stared at the long list of missions displayed on the wall, and restricted his attention to those marked with only one star. Messenger work didn’t interest him, so Gust found a request for Goldenseal herb posted by Master Ephraim and found Theo in his office.

The young man happily led Gust into another room upon hearing his friend planned to take on his very first mission. A large map of the entire region hung upon the wall.

He walked over to a cabinet and returned with a map of the immediate area, as well as a drawn image of the herb in question, and a bag of holding to fill with as much of it as possible. He handed them to Gust, saying, “You’ll need these. For every ounce of Goldenseal you return with, you’ll earn 50 merits,” he raised his eyebrows as Gust grinned. “Don’t think it will be too easy, though!” He pointed to a few areas highlighted in gold on the map he handed Gust. “You can find the herb here, but Master Ephraim’s posting isn’t new. Most of the easy pickings have already been scoured clean. Oh, and take the entire plant if you can! Root, stem, and all. I’m no alchemist, but I’ve seen too many first-timers make the mistake of only picking the flower head, and losing a lot of merits in the process. How long will you be gone?”

Gust shrugged, as the large map distracted him.

“Just don’t stay out any longer than a day or the Masters will start asking questions. Oh, and let Locke know if you won’t be back the next day.”

Gust agreed to do so, though he was going to invite the blonde mage along with him. He planned to leave after his work was finished tomorrow.

Theo showed him how to roll the map open and closed without tearing it or crumpling the paper. Gust committed everything his friend said to memory as quickly as possible but struggled to focus on anything but the large map on the wall.

As Gust had expected, he was in the same position in this world as his last. Instead of North Carolina, or the United States of America, the words that ran across the top read, ‘Lands of the Lachlan Union’. It depicted the eastern American shoreline to the Mississippi river, but with entirely different borders and unrecognizable names.

Their school was the premier sect in the Kingdom of Charlo, but not the only one. Above the kingdom, there was a ‘T2C’ written.

“What’s this part?” Gust asked, pointing to the code.

Theo explained. “The countries are ranked in tiers based on the highest level a cultivator in their land has achieved. The lowest is T1. That means the nation has no cultivators beyond Mages.

“Sorcerers and Stellar Mages come next for cultivators at the Source Creation stage, like the sect matriarch, and the Mana Star formation stage, which the matriarch was trying to break into. In case you haven’t heard, she failed. We green belts weren’t allowed to listen in,” he sneered, “but Oba told me eventually. She formed a core of wood mana in her soul, but that’s only the first part.

“Anyway, each cultivation stage is different. Mana Absorption has two distinct levels and Pathway Establishment has eight, but things get more complicated after that. Source Creation is broken into three parts that are just early, middle, and late. They aren’t true levels, really. Sorcerers focus on improving the quality of their source, but there are several ways to do that, so it isn’t as linear as the earlier stages. The ‘C’ shows that our matriarch is in the late stage.”

Gust nodded along, trying to absorb the information. Next, he pointed to a large nation that took up the majority of the western edge of the map. This one held the unique label of ‘T4?’.

“The Reborn Empire.” Theo laughed. “Now I know you’re from another world, if you haven’t heard of them. Ajax the Undying is the only cultivator on the continent to form a Starsoul in thousands of years! He was a king long ago and disappeared during secluded cultivation. Hundreds of years later, he returned to his crumbling nation with a level of power no one had seen since ancient times! He quickly crushed the neighboring countries who took advantage during his absence and set himself up as an emperor. There’s a question mark next to that one because no one really understands how the Starsoul stage is broken up.”

“The Reborn Empire,” Gust repeated with a sense of awe. He could only imagine the power Ajax the Undying wielded. Not for the first time, Gust wondered what stage his father reached. The Saith in the sword was a Starsoul, but that didn’t mean the original body hadn’t progressed even further.

As he left the chore house and headed home to get a good night’s rest, Gust imagine himself stuffing pounds of plant matter into the pouch Theo provided. He’d only gone to a few parties back home, and rarely drank as a result, but found himself craving the simple, comfortable buzz that a jug of spirit wine might provide. There were few chances for fun in this school, and fewer students willing to take such time away from their studies.

Gust couldn’t help but think that, if they could relax and spend more time simply enjoying their lives, then their time spent working would be all the better for it.

But mostly, he wanted to feel normal again. He wanted a night where he could laugh at stupid jokes with a small group of friends. He wanted everything his old world had to offer, which this one lacked.

But if all he could do was get drunk and forget once in a while, he would take that too.