This was the first proper attack magic he would learn, it was far more complex than any technique he had used, one couldn't just release elemental Qi to form a fireball, there was some requirement for making elemental Qi form into different attacks.
Reading the fireball manual Frank understood the finer details, proficiency, and skull needed in the control of Qi to activate a technique. To activate a magic technique one had to make a rune from Qi as precisely as detailed in the manual. The rune was like the coding part of the magic, it set how big the fireball would be, how much Qi it would absorb, how hot it would be, whether would it explode or not, and how big the explosion would be.
Frank had no problem memorizing the rune required for the fireball, his memory had also improved with his rank. The harder part was imagining a replica of it in his brain, he had tried many possible ideas, would the rune need to be 2D or 3D, what kind of material would it be made of iron, or made of fire?
They had enough time to figure out the nuances of the rune, everyone was practicing in the training ground so they could discuss it between themselves.
Thankfully after some disciples tried the technique and failed the fireball didn't explode as they had expected instead burning out like a blown-out candle.
Rank 3 disciples only had enough Qi to launch 10 or so fireballs before exhausting their dantian Qi, Frank tried activating a fireball failing on the first 3 tries, on the fourth, he summoned a fireball but before it could complete it fizzled out.
He was too cautious with supplying it too much Qi, so he restricted the supply, on the fifth try he did the opposite giving it too much Qi which made the fireball not be able to keep its shape. Frank would sit down in between each try to recover his Qi, it had been hours since they had started some of the disciples could already activate the fireball. They still didn't know the explosive force of the fireball cause no one was allowed to explode it inside the training ground while all the disciples were there.
Frank had succeeded a couple does times by then, once he had succeeded it had become muscle memory to do the same the second time. The fireball was as he had expected it, a ball of fire, it had some weight to it and was dense enough that it couldn't be compressed even if he tried, emitted heat but not enough to burn Frank it was floating inches above his palm. He wasn't sure if he could active fireball in a stressful situation but he had to stop for today he was already spent.
Gathering around with some of the other disciples who went toward his residence black went back home. He was too tired from everything that happened today, the breakthrough and learning the fireball.
The next day he didn't go out to train the fireball, he still had the sharpening stone that he had crafted, it would produce a pseudo aura on the weapon which were sharpened using it. Frank had other weapons except for the earth elementals spear, he had three weapons he had carried back from the trial which were extremely durable. He had learned how to sharpen weapons and was quite efficient at it.
For the next 9 days, he would sharpen weapons, spar with other disciples to adjust to his new strength, and train in the fireball. The elemental octopus hadn't hatched from its cocoon.
Everyone had gathered at the entrance of the minor sect, the sect would send a flying ship for them to be transported to the hidden realm. The rest of the minor sects didn't have as many disciples participating in the exploration of the hidden realms.
Waiting there, a humongous flying ship landed in front of their minor sect, some senior disciples escorted them inside, where some elders of the sect were waiting for them, the distance to the hidden realms wasn't that long so they had to be briefed immediately. Even after the elder's briefing, the disciples were clueless about what was inside the hidden realm.
The elders didn't know much about the hidden realms since they weren't allowed to enter, there seemed to be a certain restriction on someone too powerful from entering. The only thing they knew was the person responsible for the creation of the hidden realm wasn't from the elemental Qi users, they were probably users of some other Qi, and the hidden realm would have trials to test the disciples on whether to award them or not.
After finishing the lecture the elders allowed the disciples to wander around in the flying ship, this was their first time seeing something like this, and even Frank's mind had been blown, the ship was made entirely of some kind of wood, white with some black grains running through it.
Frank and some of the other disciples looked for someone to explain to them how the ship worked, the only people they could find were disciples of other minor sects, and on top of this, they were all disciples who didn't have a noble lineage.
"Seems like we peasants were put together," said Frank loud enough for the rest of the disciples to hear.
"Hope they don't blow us up, Lex's speech and all that" replied some other disciple.
All the disciples stared daggers at him, how could one say something like this in such a situation? Thinking for a while some of the strategists asked the synchronous minor sects' disciples to summon all the other minor sects' disciples to the lecture hall, they needed to stick together.
Frank understood where the strategists were coming from, if the sect had only sent them, the cannon fodder of the sect, they probably wanted to check how dangerous the hidden realm would be and if they could send their more prized disciples the nobles inside.
It was quite a while before all the disciples on board the ship gather at the hall, some were dismissive and some cooperated but all were brought in even if that meant by force.
Lex was the one who went up on stage, he had taken the role to be the bearer of bad news for the disciples, all the disciples on board were the same age as them.
First Lex introduced himself and some of the members of the strategic team and what they had come up with.
"So you are saying we are gonna die in there?" asked one of the disciples.
Not all the disciples had taken the news as calmly as the one asking had, some were shouting and some openly threatening to kill Lex and the others.
"Can you see any person important to the sect here, all of us here are cannon fodder to the sect, they could kill us all and nothing will happen to the sect, can you tell me why the sect sent us all peasants here instead of the nobles, don't the nobles want the inheritance" replied Lex
It took a while the settle down the buzzing of all the disciples, they were asked to settle down so they could come up with a way to survive.
