A few months has gone by since Sorine Sigyn Kohara had left her village began. She reclaimed her mother’s name, as it was one of her roots.

Leo and Shio had parted ways with them, while she did not completely understand them due to the lack of ways to communicate, she felt their intention. They weren’t leaving her or retreating, they were going to do something, what she did not know.

Luna traveled with the girl, and they evaded settlements and people, sticking to forests and mountains.

The fox taught the fox-girl how to hunt. Both for eating and for sneaking up on their prey.

Sorine spent a lot of time reading the manual her mother had left her, and she had become proficient in using the scythe.

She could still not understand everything, as it’s broken down into levels.

Using what was taught in the manual, she had began cultivating and broken through to the third stage of the Mortal realm.

She had learnt of the realms through the manual.

The Mortal realm, where one would temper their body and increase their inner force.

The Ascended realm where one would expand their senses and connect with the world.

The Emperor realm where one would become a force that could equal the greatest empire.

The Immortal realm, not much was known besides that your life span increased to thousands of years, if not more.

The last known realm, elusive and nothing know besides it’s name. The Demi-god realm.

The three first realms were each broken into 9 stages, but how to progress differed for each person. Of course, there were commonalities and paths to follow, but finding your own path would bring greater rewards.

Sorine could not yet use the lightning she manifested when she bonded with her weapon, but she could feel it.

She had a thought that it would be stronger in her “fox” form, but she put the thought away and focused on learning the scythe and consolidating her foundations, as was taught in the manual.

Over the next couple of months Luna would find beasts that Sorine could fight, so she could experience battle and learn how to fight. Reading from a book is one thing, experiencing battle and facing death for yourself is another.

Almost half a year had passed since, and she felt read to re-enter civilisation. She already knew her next step. She was still too weak, and could not make her way across the border to another country, so she thought of one path.

There are three ways to learn as a cultivator. You can roam the continents, uncovering it’s secrets and learning your own way. The second is to enter a sect and be taught by it’s elders and compete with the other sect members.

The third option, the one Sorine was going to follow, was enter an academy. There were many different academies, some specific for royalty, children of strong cultivators and other famous people. There were also academies for the common people, but most required military service afterwards.

Sirone had already picked out the academy, it was the one her father went to when he was younger, the one in Luminous City.

Luminous city was a middle tier city, only a bit smaller than the big cities and the capital. It was still big, but not the greatest.

Luminous Academy had two ways to repay the fee for entering. One was to enlist in the Luminous Guard for 5 years after graduation, and the other was to pay the 100.000 gold by the time you were finished.

Sorine wanted to pay the fee, and she knew she could gain money by killing bandits with bounties, and sell monster parts.

She already had a lot of parts to sell, even though she had no money.

In the back of the manual, there was a ring attached. This ring was a storage ring, and it could hold up to 10 cubic meters of content, no matter the weight.

It was already half full with the cores and different parts of the monsters and magic beasts she had fought. Although they weren’t rare or strong, sometimes quantity does pay.

Together with Luna, they made their way to the next step of their goal.