It was unusual, but the Grey Imperial Academy never put together a welcome dinner for any new students and the reason was, because during the year at different times the academy would see new students and to prevent a large budget to go towards an over the top welcome dinner every month or two, the academy instead just gave every student additional resources for their first three months attending the academy since it would be much better spent.
Timothy knew about this already and was glad that he received two hundred gold coins. This lump sum was not considered very high at all, but it was now equivalent to all that Timothy had to his name and therefore he was pleasantly surprised. On top of receiving free resources from the academy moving forward, especially meals and lodging, he slowly realized that he really had no need to spend this gold anywhere for the time being unless he were to head into the city with his roommates for whatever reason.
During dinner, Timothy was able to meet a handful of other students who recognized Andrew and Ian, and the majority were extremely friendly towards the group. There were several students whose families were directly competing with Andrew or Ian in some way who remained distanced from them, but Timothy was very pleased with the amount of people who seemed to have valued him as an acquaintance simply due to the fact that he was friends with his two roommates. However, when each person learned that Timothy had reached rank one as a warrior, some of the students present made a point to act even friendlier towards him.
By the time dinner had ended, Timothy was now friendly with over fifteen other students and although the majority were commoners like him who were using their status as first year students to network with those with more well established backgrounds, there were three from well-rounded organizations like Andrew's which excited him. This was equivalent of the first time in this world that he had to do some politicking with others but since everyone he had met was under the age of fifteen, it was much easier for him to talk to them.
The main reason in his home world that he was a highly decorated hero, was due to not only his strength at the time, but because of his efforts in commanding large forces on the battlefield. But when it came to simply interacting with others on a human to human level, Timothy never truly had the opportunity to and it used to make him feel uncomfortable at times. This is why he would rack up even more achievements hunting down high leveled enemies himself, because that was when he was the most comfortable.
After arriving back to their room, the three boys talked to one another about a handful of topics that were brought up during dinner but eventually fell asleep in their own beds. They knew that orientation was unlike other organizations and academies and they would be thrown into classes that already started several weeks prior to their arrival. If they did not want to fall behind their new peers, they would have to be fully energized for at least the first week or two during their classes before they could adjust accordingly.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The next morning the group of three woke up around the same time and together collectively went to eat breakfast with their classmates and before you know it, Timothy was sitting in his first class specifically for fire attribute mages. The teacher's name was Miss Jones and she wanted to spend the beginning of the class welcoming the new students which included Timothy and two others whom he met the night before.
"As you all may know from the introductory booklet you were given when you had first arrived, the fire element is known to be an element that specializes in group battle type settings. You can assist by using mid-range attacks like throwing fireballs, you could summon a flaming creature that could tank hits from opponents and even deal their own damage, and you could even do things like using your flames in hand to hand combat or with your weapons if you are forced to deal with warriors directly."
"This is also a weakness that us fire element users have, because we do not have the strongest offensive techniques, we do not have the best defensive techniques, and we do not do very well without others around us to support and protect us from our enemies. That being said, you may all feel that spending time pursuing other paths like that of a warrior could fill in these holes, but that is not the answer that you should be focused on!"
"Fire element users due to having such a large arsenal of techniques and methods to deal with our opponents, are able to use our brains to come up with multiple ways to react in different situations so that we are always able to keep our opponents on their guard. Nothing is scarier than an expert in a life or death battle that even without the use of special artifacts or weapons, can have a wide range of ways to deal with you if you get too close or are far away enough to still be in their range."
"So I would highly suggest for all of you to learn every type of technique that you can concerning the fire element and just making your best judgement when it comes to what you should focus on moving forward once your foundation is properly set into motion. I have friends who are fire element users that use their sword techniques to power up their close combat abilities, while I have friends in the military who focus on using their flames to make defensive walls against demon beasts so that their allies could fix any formations that are lacking."
The teacher continued for an entire hour breaking down how the students should decide when it's time to move forward but was stressing very much so that even if they were to just concentrate on intaking more mana in order to rank up it was still acceptable. After a point, it either takes better understanding of one's techniques or it takes enough mana within the body in order to rank up. So the teacher suggested if one struggled with understanding their techniques and being unable to breakthrough that way, there were other options available concerning getting stronger.
"I like this woman and want to let you know that I will hand over all mage related studies to her and any other teachers that you will have in this academy. The path towards immortality is filled with allies, enemies, and teachers but do not worry this master of yours will still be teaching you daily as well! As you study becoming a stronger mage during the day, after dinner every night until you fall asleep we will be working on the warrior path. Only by doing this, will you be able to stand above the rest even if it takes you longer to rank up!"
Timothy wanted to pour a nice bucket of ice cold water onto the artifact, but it was correct. He may have been able to grow his strength as a warrior himself to a certain extent, but he was no longer just a simple human hero, he was now a true cultivator and so he needed to shift his focus because only by reaching the level of an immortal could he exact revenge in some way on that demon who took everything from him.
"I am ready for whatever you have to throw at me but if you do not give me a ridiculously high powered training method to make my life easier as a cultivator, do not blame me for not showing you some face in the future. Actually master, what is the plan for that? I know that there are training manuals for warriors but each one has a different level of difficulty and level of quality."
Hearing Timothy's response clearly angered the artifact but it had no choice but to explain itself to Timothy since it only received a scolding because it struck first. "You will be learning a secret body refinement art that is fit for humans to learn. In the future with this body refinement art, if you are able to find a way to catch and kill high level demon beasts, this secret art will make it possible for you to absorb some of their characteristics to make them your own. A stern warning, until you are an immortal, you are not allowed to do this without my permission because if you are too weak, your body will explode and I would have lost a good disciple."
After the artifact explained the first chapter of the secret art to Timothy, his eyes started to widen up. The secret art was called "Exalted Golden Body" which took in nature energy and turned it into golden drops of blood. Once one achieved enough golden drops of blood, they would continue to rank up but each drop of blood took a long time to produce. But the artifact assured him that even by building up his battle qi which also comes from nature energy, it was still possible for him to advance possibly even faster than his peers at his age since his starting point was as low as it currently was.
Secret techniques were techniques that were equivalent to priceless treasures and each one would be equivalent to obtaining a heaven defying treasure. Those who were lucky enough to come across such techniques that were considered lost since ancient times, were always already immortal. There was no telling how fast Timothy would be able to grow with the technique in his hands, but one thing for sure was compared to anything else in his current world, he would never be outmatched simply from a training standpoint!
