Ever since I'd reincarnated, I'd seen the importance this world placed on fighting, and duels. They were customs that were considered barbaric on Earth, but I'd gotten used to them. William’s birthday had been celebrated with a fight. And I'd been prepared to show my worth to Koshima academy’s headmaster with that fight. Fighting was a common story among my friends as well. Amanda had grown up dueling her brother. Ouros had battled against his cousin Unice countless times since they were young.

Koshima academy was a bastion of talent, and the students were honed with incentives. Many stuck to only studying. Others were encouraged to tear each other limb from limb in official duels. They'd benefit by ranking up and gaining preferential treatment.

My own feelings on the matter weren't that complicated. Fighting was necessary. I’d seen first-hand the challenges this world faced. Most students on Earth avoided deadly fights, and with good reason. They didn't have magic that could protect their bodies from being cut when a knife was plunged into it.

And Earth didn't have monsters threatening humanity’s existence.

It was a different culture. One that had its foundation rooted in the ability of humans to fight against overwhelming odds with magic and sword. At the edge of human civilization lay the frontier cities, each one besieged by horrors that required entire armies to combat. Those armies needed soldiers to fight for them.

Not everyone wanted to risk their life. Ever since mankind had started expanding their empire throughout the continents of the world, there had been places of peace for them to rest and recuperate.

The most prominent were dimensional rifts, areas where magic ran wild. They were disconnected from our reality, and each one was a miniature universe. One could be the size of a house, and the next would be a gargantuan mass that spanned a continent.

A select few were considered sanctuaries. These sanctuaries held riches and were filled with mana so dense that it manifested physically. More uniquely, these dimensional rifts held a singular advantage over the others.

They never spawned monsters.

For that reason, these areas were given the label of 'holy land’.

“You’ll look like a coward if you don't accept a few challenges.”

William's words bit into me, and I sighed, breaking off my train of thought and opening my eyes to face my friend.

A shadow flew over my vision as Gold hopped off my shoulder, breaking his meditation and accompanying my staring. His feathers fluttered in annoyance, and I held back a smile. Meditation used to be his least favourite activity, but he'd grown to love the calm and quiet of the silent moments.

I took in a deep breath, the scent of dirt filling my nostrils. We were in a simple room cut from a single stone and plated with metal. It wasn't a cultivation room, not yet, but it held earth and metal mana within its walls. I’d supplied materials, including a spattering of dirt on the ground. Others had been added to the room by William’s dad.

We were inside a storage room deep within the floating island that William’s father owned. A hovering land mass surrounded by an ocean of flying water that cascaded across the sky.

This barren storage room was crass and untainted by glitter. The opposite of what I'd come to expect from my friend, but perfect for what we were testing today.

“You're a battle junkie. Of course you think I should fight.” I joked.

My words were true. But there was more to it than that. Even if I made a joke or two, I'd always taken Williams' words seriously.

“Careful, I hear it’s contagious.” William rebutted. “Reputation is important and so is practical battle experience.”

“I know that. Why else do you think I keep fighting Amanda and Berlia?” I said. “I'm not lacking in battles.”

Using my skills in different ways would unlock them and level them more than my typical exercises. Every day I meditated, trying to attune to the other elements around me. Water, fire, and air. But it was during the fights that I truly started to understand the skills I’d already unlocked.

“Yeah, but you need more than skill levels. The materials you can find in a holy land are way better than the ones you have now. No offense, but your selection of regents you can create is limited by your complete lack of materials.”

“You have a point.” I conceded.

As I was right now, my resources were plentiful compared to what I’d once had, but they were a drop in the ocean compared to what I would need in the future.

I wasn't planning on stopping after making a few regents. Or even after learning a single element of magic. And to make sure that I could accomplish my goals, my resources had to be equally vast.

"I don't know the first thing about the system or rankings in our school.” I frowned.

Between learning about the church, trying to attune to different elements, and constantly training my skills, there was rarely time to think, let alone add new duties to my roster. A lot of minor things slipped through the cracks when I needed them the most.

“How it works is simple enough to explain.” William raised his hands and sheets of paper rained down onto the floor. “I just happen to have the data of all the ranked students in our year level here with me.”

“What a coincidence.” I said dryly, a smile breaking out over my lips. "I'm happy to learn, but I'm assuming you’ve already got a plan outlined. Who am I beating?”

"Me. Eventually.” William said. “Look, right here. I'm at the top. And I'm extremely sad that you're not here with me. Amanda too.”

He tapped the piece of paper and I saw his name scribbled at the top of the rankings. He'd added a golden star next to his name and a smiley face.

"But for now, you’ll have to kick some other butts. As for the way it works, it's simple." William’s smile turned sinister.

I knew that expression. Whatever he was going to explain to me wasn't going to be simple. Or easy.

The explanation itself took half an hour.

Everyone in Koshima academy school had a set number of points assigned to them. To help them catch up, the lower ranked students would always take more points from the higher ranked students for wins. That meant that if I won a fight I would steal a set portion of my opponent's points, determined by my rank against theirs.

Even an unranked person could challenge the number one student of a year level. And if they won then they'd take fifty percent of their points.

However, if the rank two student challenged the rank one and won, they'd only take as many points as is required for the rank two to reach rank one.

This was both good, and bad.

“Nobody would want to fight me, right? Not after they see me beat a bunch of people senseless.” I said the words more for myself than William. “I understand accepting a fight if it's personal, but if the reputation of having a high rank is so important then can't somebody just get into a higher rank and stay there forever without accepting challenges or making them?”

“That's a lot of confidence you have in yourself. I approve.” William chuckled. “You're right. Normally, the smart play is to go up the rankings and run away from every other challenge for the year. But we're all part of Koshima academy.

“Not accepting a fight from a lower ranked student is shameful. More importantly, there’s a degradation system in place to make sure people don't get lazy.” William pursed his lips. “I have to fight at least two people per week unless I have extenuating circumstances, or I lose points. And at least one of those people has to be in the top twenty students. For anyone else in the top ten they have to fight a student of a lower or similar rank at least once every week. Surely you've noticed the main arena being used all the time.”

I had. It wasn't a secret to anyone that the main arena was constantly in use for fights and club activities. Even most of the sub arenas were booked out a lot of the time. I’d been practising in them with Amanda and had even fought alongside her in the main arena.

"Okay, okay.” I raised my hand. “Let’s say I was interested. I need to get into what? The top ten?”

“The top ten, yeah.” William nodded.

“What are the rewards? Every book I've read says a holy land is great. But they don't give specifics." I said.

“That's because every book you read on the holy lands is a second-hand account. Getting into the real thing is hard.” William shook his head. “People want access to find three things. Regent materials, cultivation materials, and element-attuned plants. A day or two to explore alone could yield treasures beyond your wildest dreams. After all, it's easier to find something when there aren't over two hundred other students searching alongside you.”

That got my attention.

"Some people come out of those places with enough materials to make a cultivation room for their family and kickstart their own noble household.” William grinned. “Heh, that got your attention. Don’t think you're the only one. With the excursion to a holy land coming up students are crawling out of the woodwork to fight each other and gain spots.”

There was a shuffling in front of me as Gold leaned forward to listen to William’s words, the temptation of treasure drawing his full attention. I could hear his talons digging into the ground in anticipation.

A holy land was a concept I'd only started paying attention to recently, but in reality, it had always been something I was familiar with. I’d been in similar places before.

The Observatory that my dad used for work, or the place William and I had been held in when we'd been kidnapped were two examples.

Both were occupied, and I knew for a fact that the Observatory was kept under strict supervision.

"Aren't the holy lands completely conquered?” I asked. “A treasure hunt is only fun if there's still treasure left.”

Koshima Academy had standards. It wouldn't take its students on a vacation into a dangerous area. The holy land was sure to be under strict supervision.

“There are no monsters, obviously.” William responded. “But if you're thinking that people have taken all the resources they can, then you'd be wrong. You haven't been to a holy land yet, but the mana concentration is so high that it naturally forms new treasures all the time. You can blink and a new material could appear in front of you.”

His words struck a chord in me. To form mana charged materials naturally, each holy land had to be denser than a cultivation room. That meant they were deadly to non-humans, but safe to magicians.

“It's not completely safe.” William warned. “Wild magic and mana warp the environment and weather all the time. Beasts still appear, and I've heard of magical animals showing up too. Even if you go in early, you might find yourself stuck.”

"It's too late to deter me now.” I said. William just chuckled.

His words gripped my attention by the neck. If I found a metal-element plant, I could even create my own metal cultivation room.

Ouros’s main family household only barely had one of those. And it wasn't complete.

“If you find any element-attuned plant you could use it to help attune to its element.” William tilted his head pensively. “You said you've been on the verge of attuning to water for months. Maybe a small boost is all you need to succeed.”

“I might be on the verge.” I corrected him. “At least, it feels like it.”

Meditating while surrounded by cups of water had become my nightly routine before bed. Though it rarely yielded results except for when Roxxy helped me train.

“That's not all.” William leaned forward and his voice dropped to a whisper. "This is only hearsay, but my dad confirmed it from his time in the academy.” His hand covered the sheet with the rankings. “The top three students all get scholarships, and their own choice of a low-tier material. The top student gets his choice of a mid-tier material. Even if you find nothing in the holy land, you'll still come out with something.”

"I could use one of those." My lips curled into a smile.

There were two types of materials that I needed. Element-attuned materials or plants were used to help children or even adults gain access to an elemental attunement. It was the equivalent of being in the presence of a magician that didn’t mind being examined constantly. With enough meditation a person could gain insights and attune to the element itself.

Obtaining one of those would help me attune to the various elements.

Water, air, fire, and earth. I had an affinity for these four elements, and I intended to unlock them all.

The other type of material was mana-infused materials. These were the ones I used for inscribing. These materials exuded constant streams of mana without depleting and could be used to form cultivation rooms for the element they belonged to, but they were extremely rare. Others held dense magic and experienced changes in their properties due to it.

Hardening, softening, emitting light, or bouncing against anything they touched. The changes to the original materials were as varied as the stars in the sky.

My cousin’s battle dress was made from one of those materials. Otherwise, the dress wouldn't be able to handle the mana going into the symbols more than once or twice. The symbols would either explode or do nothing. At best they'd activate but have a reduced effect.

I'd bet my silver that Koshima Academy would be giving this type of reward away to the students.

"It's not public knowledge." William put a finger to his lips in a gesture of silence. “Everyone knows the top students get rewards, but they almost always keep the nature of the reward hidden. Mostly so that nobody tries to rob them later.”

I nodded. People could be savages, and theft wasn't uncommon. Especially if the student that received the reward wasn't from a prominent household or was from a common family.

"Okay, that's enough of that for now. We took longer than I thought we would." William took the piece of paper back. "We can always go through potential opponents later. Right now, we have a job to do.”

"That should be my line." I chuckled.

We'd been distracted, but our time was supposed to be dedicated to testing one of the most important abilities in my repertoire.

“[Mana Sanctuary].”

Waves of golden mana fluttered over us as I activated my skill. It clung to the air and hovered playfully across my clothes.

The moment it appeared I saw William resisting the urge to bow. Submission was a natural sensation that people felt in the presence of my mana. After a few moments he steadied himself. He'd had enough contact to start dealing with the impact the mana had on him.

Gold preened as he stood unaffected.

"I think I can finally get it to work the way I want it to.” I said. I focused on keeping my breathing steady.

A bead of sweat ran down my forehead as I saw my skill in action. Gold mana clung to every corner of the room as I focused on expelling it from my manapool.

This was the culmination of months of work.

[Mana Sanctuary] had been a mystery to me the first time I’d tried it. On a surface level it allowed me to control and exude my mana so that it would protect me from external attacks. It did this by slowing the momentum of any incoming objects.

Two weeks later I realised that I was mistaken on a fundamental level. The important part of the ability wasn't preventing attacks against me.

It was controlling the mana so that it didn't dissipate naturally.

As we were swept up in a tide of golden mana the elemental mana inside the room brightened and merged with the divine light. Orange bathed my vision as the earth and metal mana within the objects of the room sung in harmony with my golden mana.

Within seconds the sources had merged together, gold shifting into orange at my will. This was one of the benefits my mana provided.

Divine mana could transform into mana of other elements.

It was an incomplete process, especially because only the golden mana that directly touched the earth and metal mana changed into them. However, it was a sign of what could potentially be.

What was left behind was a room of shimmering gold and orange that felt like a mixture of three mana types and none of them at the same time. It bathed the air and swept through me, allowing me to become one with the world around me and feel completely at ease with my surroundings.

The previously ordinary room had transformed into a haven of magic that caressed the air and illuminated my senses. There were only a few other places that could claim to have a mana density the same as this one, each belonging to noble households or companies that had more funds than I could dream of.

It was a man-made earth and divine mana cultivation room.