Once Professor Cadmar had left, Talin went back to the dorm entrance. To either side of the arched entranceway was a wolf-like creature carved in stone. Golems. The two of them guarded the entrance to Wolf Dorm 4 where Talin stayed along with about thirty-five other students. They nodded silently after identifying him, letting him know that he was allowed inside. Other golems like these guarded different areas of the academy, including the student dorms.
The academy grounds were split into 6 districts, most of them with 10 dorms. Each district was equipped with golems shaped to match their name. The names came from mystical creatures found in or near Ilios Kingdom. They were Zephyr Wolf, Drake, Feerkin, Dracneir, Cubra, and Abaddon Bear. Each one had a fearsome visage. The Zephyr wolves in Talin's district were large and slick looking with well defined muscles, swirly patterns on their fur, and a long mane that stretched from the neck all the way to the creature’s four tails.
After getting acknowledgement from the statues, Talin entered the courtyard. The courtyard was, as always, a spectacular sight, seeming almost otherworldly. It was about 65 strides across. On one end, there was a rock feature with a small waterfall, the water from which formed a little stream that meandered through the green courtyard. The water was constantly recycled through a simple magic array. The aquanine orchids bloomed along the stream giving off a blue glow that was visible even in the daytime. Anyone near them would feel cool and refreshed even in the heat of Summer.
Seven large mist willows dotted the courtyard sparsely. They produced a cool mist that lowered the temperature in the Summer greatly. Dotted in between them were seven large round and flat white rocks. These sun stones gathered light that broke through the gentle mist of the trees. The light did not have any heat now due to the arrays that kept the courtyard in order, but when the winter came roles would be reversed. The willows would be suppressed and the sun stones would be in full swing, warming the courtyard as needed. The aquanine orchids would hibernate and the firebloom dahlia would awaken from its underground slumber and start keeping the courtyard warm even on the coldest days.
All of this just to ensure that the students were given the best environment. Not only was the temperature maintained but the atmosphere stayed gorgeous and peaceful. It was very beneficial to the state of mind. Normally the courtyard was dotted with people cultivating silently under the trees or around the stream, but now as Talin came through the few people left were gathering in groups to go to the Sun Day Festival. They excitedly discussed what stalls and games they were looking forward to most. Talin shook his head and made his way across the courtyard, crossing the bridge in the middle, then turning aside and heading to his room.
While everyone else was out having a good time tonight at the festival he would be cultivating. It was almost time for finals, and if he wasted time, it would be his own fault if he failed.
He sat down cross-legged on the foot of his bed and closed his eyes. Breathing slowly and deeply and drew his focus towards the center of his chest, where the soul lake resided. It took several minutes before he was able to sense it clearly but that was normal in this stage. All he could make out was something vaguely sphere shaped floating near his heart about the size of a fist it seemed. Talin knew this was an illusion. The soul lake did not exist physically, but it existed in between the layers of physical and spiritual. It could hold much more than a mere fist sized amount of spiritual energy.
After sensing it in his chest, Talin continued to focus on it, breathing in and out slowly, each new breath drawing in the essence that stirred the air around him, feeding it into his soul lake to be refined by his soul. He could faintly feel that essence was being sucked into his soul at the center of his soul lake. He knew that the soul was taking in the essence and converting it into spiritual energy which would gravitate around the soul, feeding and protecting it. He could not sense all that in his current stage, of course, but had learned it in his Basic Shamanic Knowledge class.
To surpass his current stage, Soul Forming, he had to continue gathering essence and feeding it to his soul. As his soul continued to absorb and convert the essence into spiritual energy, the soul lake would eventually fill up until it could not hold anymore. At this point, Talin would be at the threshold of his breakthrough. By pulling in more essence and converting it to spiritual energy at this point the pressure on his soul would start to increase until it reached a critical point where the soul could not stand it anymore. Rather than being crushed though, the soul would have a chance to transform! His soul would change from a featureless blob to a reflection of himself.
Once his soul transformed it would be strong enough that he could start to cultivate with a soul art and begin pursuing the path of a Shaman. Secondary to this though was what happened during the process of his soul’s transformation, resonance with the Source. As far as Talin knew only Shamans had such an opportunity. The Source was said to be the origin of all essence, maybe even the universe itself depending on who you asked. All Talin knew for sure was that during the transformation he would be able to sense it and how it was experienced was different for everybody. The experience would be a branding on the soul, something they would never forget and help forge their path forward. Perhaps it might even help him overcome his poor talent.
It was with this hope and expectation that he kept pushing himself forward. He did not give up just because his talent was low, he just pushed harder.
He passed his time like this until late in the night, long after the fireworks exploded in the night and the festival had ended. Until he could continue no longer or he would not have enough rest to focus in class tomorrow. Only then did he give in to sleep regretting he could not cultivate longer.
He awoke some time later to the abrupt clanging of a bell in the distance.
"Gah! Overslept."
He quickly got washed up and dressed before rushing to the district food hall for breakfast. He had meant to go to his cousin's before the first bell to get the pill, but now his cousin would be heading to breakfast, same as him.
He lightly jogged along the paved path to the food hall, joining the bustling throng feeding in the line from the other dorms. Over three hundred students shuffled into the large food hall from the five different entrances, a pair of wolf statues at every one to ensure that only students were able to get in.
As soon as he entered the hubbub of the busy food hall washed over him. It wasn't quite as loud as usual, apparently many of them had stayed out too late last night. The clanging of pots and pans and the sizzle of the fire arrays in the kitchen could faintly be heard amongst the din.
Talin made his way over to one of the lines and waited his turn before picking up a plate of sausage and porridge. There weren't any other choices, they were not allowed to be picky. Each meal they were served here was specially made to strengthen their minds and bodies. He did not recognize the sausage meat but the porridge was made from a special grain called fivessence oat. It could only be grown in places with thick essence and it was known to not only give plenty of energy but also increase one's sensitivity to essence.
Talin sat down and started eating and it wasn't long before Rodric showed up and sat beside him, looking a bit groggy still. The two of them chatted a bit before heading off to Basic Fitness they had with Professor Cadmar.
