8 months have passed since i started school. Everyday, 4 hours of class, 2-4 hours of “combat” and the rest divided between sleep and cultivation.

I must say i have made some progress. Each cycle now takes 2 minutes or so to complete now. I still wonder about how plants die. However, according to what everyone says, most plants do not die. Or at least not on their own. They simply stop growing taller, from being able to transport the water and nutrients up. They die if they run out of nutrients. Or they die if the environment does not suit them. Some simply hibernate when the environment does not suit them. I plan to add to my future mental training menu “environments” to temper my vine. No point seeing my vine vanish the moment it touches fire or get frozen.

Other than that, i have progressed from 1 still vine of ½ hand tall and 1 still vine of ⅛ hand tall to 4 vines of ½ hand tall and 1 still vine of ⅛ hand tall. If it was the moving vine, i could only manage 2 ½ hand tall vines that sway in the same direction i get way too distracted when i make the 3rd vine sway. I still can’t make them move individually but i will get to that someday.

For now it is the bi annual evaluation. I still have yet to summon my vine ever since that first time where i fainted. Everyone has to go through this evaluation to mark the progress that we all are in. It is something like exams or so to speak. Pass and you get to learn the more advanced stuff. According to the “irregular” seniors, it is only in these evaluation where we get cleared to use the core fragments to improve our cultivation. I am told this because i am known as an irregular to everyone but the need to know. Not even the teachers know about it though. Stupid politics.

According to the irregular seniors, what we are missing is control. We can’t control our output and so the results can be explosive and literally too. One irregular senior who controlled a flame type tree burned and scarred himself when summoned his tree.(A healer took care of the scar though) everyone’s tree is supposed to not hurt the person that uses it unless it has gained the ability from a branch or fruit that requires some form of special price to use it. The senior had not gained a branch and yet it has already hurt him. Due to that, everyone that was tagged “irregular” are not allowed to summon their tree unless they have to and that a healer would be called upon incase there is any accidents. As the saying goes, tread not the pink panther lair, it is only luck that which saved your life.

Sometimes it is best not to try too hard to succeed. Enough of the personal mumbling though. I am nervous and i am next in line for the trial.

*Knock-knock*

“Enter”

Entering the room, i stood before a panel of 3. Am eric and another lady which i presume is the healer.

“Ah. Marcus good to see you again. Has your cultivation been going well? Joyce, this is the boy i talked about during our last trip.”

Joyce looked at me closer and asked “ how long do you take to complete one basic cultivation cycle now and how long did you take when you 1st started?”

I looked at amy and she nodded. Given consent, i stated. “I started at 20 minutes a cycle now i am at 2 minutes a cycle. I manage about 3 hour a day at least when not in class.”

“Did i not say he would be impressive?” Amy beamed at me.

“I must say that is impressive. 75 cycles a day at least. You goal would be to achieve 250 cycles a hour by the next examination.” Eric chipped in.

“Now back to the main topic, marcus, remember that feeling when you first summoned your tree? Now do the same again while visualizing your tree at the pace you normally do during one cycle of cultivation and hold that last visualization for us to see. We do not have all day sadly.”

Thinking back to that first time, the strange yet comforting feeling slowly drifted out of my palm. First came the seed then came the vine. From the vine came the buds and from the buds came the flower. Lastly from the flowers came the fruits and from the fruits came the seeds again. Once the seeds were formed, i held that image in my head and opened my eye to look at it. True enough a ½ hand tall vine was floating above my palm just like i visualized.

“That… that is just so small! Marcus what happened to your vine? When you first summoned your vine it thicker and much longer than this.”

Looking at how it is, i simply said. “ When it was big and thick i fainted after a brief moment so i thought if i made it smaller i would not faint that soon. The last i check the mental image broke when i made one grow to 15 hands tall and 1 hand wide. Would you like to see a 10 hand tall and 1 hand wide version?”

Joyce looks at amy and asked. “ Is he really only five and going six?”

“Yes”

Not knowing if she was answering joyce or me, i closed my eyes and began focussing on my vine once again, willing it to grow to 10 hh x 1 hh.

Holding that image in my head i opened my eyes i looked at the small tower with pride for a brief moment then i saw the world spin and i was out once again…

Joyce: “Looks like more work for me today. How shall we promote him? Advance classes? Can we permit him to use the core fragments? Hunting trip?”

Amy” i permit the use of core for him. He already has a small collection of it.”

Eric “ i permit the advance nature class for him and not the other classes.”

Joyce “cores?”

Amy “he has some wren core fragments. I did not think he will use them so soon though. But not so big a surprise there. He did faint on the first try.”

Eric “ no hunting trip for him yet. If he faints on a trip to protect others, they will have to carry a dead weight around for a while.”

Amy “ there is no denying that. We will see how it goes in the next evaluation for that. He is still too young anyway. He has the power of a 8 but the mind of a fiver. He will need more guidance.”

Eric “should we assign him a instructor? He is not like the others. I can't see his mental limit from what he can do. There is no doubt that he is talented but if he keeps fainting from over exertion without knowing where his current limit is we can’t put him in the exhibition tournament.”

Joyce “ can’t deny that. Anyone who has been labeled irregular usually are sought after once their powers are better contained. The current ice clan head is an irregular too. No one messes with her unless they want to go home frosted over. And thanks to her leaking power, she still looks so young even though she is now over 40.”

Amy “ i vote for daniel as instructor. His tree is a viper vine. He knows a thing or two about vines and he is able to control the size of his tree as well. He is the best fit from our faction.”

Eric “ what about fraven from the eagle faction? He was another fainter. He might be able to help him with regulating power.”

Joyce “i will go with daniel. It is better to keep things to our own circle. Amy, do you think you can get your family to adopt him? He will be needing a strong backer in the future and it is best we take him early. If he gets discovered, the other families will be all over him and it will be much harder to have him for ourselves.”

Amy “ i can try the best i can do is get them to pay attention to him for the exhibition tournament. And since he won’t be in it for this year. I can only make a suggestion and nothing else. Not every fainter gains a branch. The family does not want to waste time and resources. Less than half the students will gain a branch in the first place and much lesser for fainters.”

Joyce “ guess there is that. So let's summarize, advance nature class and daniel for instructor. Core usage permitted. Hunting trip for gathering core not permitted. Still no summoning allowed unless 2 adults are present with permission.”

Amy “ pretty much that is it for him for now, wake him up joyce. Only your tree can to that among the 3 of us”

Joyce proceeds to waking marcus up.

Joyce summons her tree and used it to channel power to help wake marcus up. After channeling for over 30 seconds she could only exclaim “ guys! We have a monster here! I have channelled more than a quarter of my power into him and he is still not showing any signs of waking up. Most fainters around his age only need one tenth of this!”

After pouring in about half her power, i finally started to wake up.

“Urggg….”

Looking up at joyce and the others, i dreaded the outcome.

“I guess i failed.”

“Yes. You still have a long way to go since you do not know your limit. You will now be punished with extra classes with daniel for 2 hours a day until the next evaluation. You will go for advance nature class in addition to the basic nature class. You are permitted to use the cores you already have but you are not allowed to go on hunting trips to get more. Other than that there is nothing else to add for now. Go back and rest. You are not allowed to practice cultivation for the rest of the day.”

With nothing better available for me, i headed back to the dorm.

Joyce “his reserve is twenty times larger than those his age and yet he still faints so easily within seconds, just what kind of imagination does he have? To have such a foundation and that is when he still have no branches. Just how far will he go. I feel so jealous of his gift. By the way amy. What is the core type that was given to him ?”

Amy “ chao nature hybrid wern. He is of nature, earth and water. If he now gains chaos, his road to success will really be rough. But i have a good feeling about it.”

Joyce “good feeling?”

“Remember what is the properties of wern? Speed and numbers. If he gains either of that for his first branch it will be jackpot. Maybe i should get him some royal wern core fragments. He was there anyways when we obtained those eggs”

Eric “we will see about that but for now let us proceed with the evaluation. We still have many kids to go”

“Right”

“Right”