Dios really had quite a love hate relationship with Shrek Academy the first few months he was there. Shrek Academy had only three students other than Dios. So the four students were the target of all of the teachers sadistic training regimes. 

Dios in particular was the target of his aunt's training. She pushed him extremely hard in his physical training. She also pushed him to train with weapons. Not only his axe, but she made him learn to fight swords, hammers, staves, hand to hand, and even bows & arrows. Even though regular weapons weren't necessarily common on the Combat Continent, it never hurt to learn how to combat them. 

Dios schedule went like this. 

• Wake up at 4 a.m.
• Eat a large nutritional breakfast
• Martial Arts training
• Eat
• Scholarly learning
• Brutal physical training
• Eat
• Weapons training ( practice a different weapon in rotation each day )
• Shower
• Cultivation
• Soul World
• Sleep ( for around four hours )

He did of course have a bit of down time each day along with 1 day to himself each week. Usually that day would be spent with either Cynthia or one of the other students. Which was what he was doing that particular day. 

" So when are you going hook up Claymore? Everybody and their mother knows you two are into each other. "

" When are you going to make some moves on Cynthia? "

" That's my aunt! "

" A, not by blood. B, you've already told me that one of your favorite fetishes is incest. "

The boy that Dios was bantering around with was one of his fellow students. His name was Augustus King. He was 8 years old, shiny black hair that he kept slicked black. He was pale like a vampire and was tall for his age, he was also a bit on the lanky side, though he had tense muscles that would stay hidden under his usually baggy clothes. Augustus shared a martial spirit with his twin sister Alexandra King. Their spirit is the Emperor's Crown. 

What the Emperor's Crown does is it makes a domain around the user, the domains can buff allies who are inside of it while nerfing enemies. In return for the large coverage it takes quite a bit of Spirit Power. For every Soul Ring the user gains another domain that can be stacked with the one before it. Augustus focused on buffing attacks and physical strength and nerfing the same. Alexandra focused on buffing speed and healing while nerfing speed. 

The two had become good friends only a week or two after Dios joined the school. 

" Anyway, I don't think aunty would actually go for me. She was great friends with my mom and I imagine it would be really awkward if I actually tried anything on her. "

" Yeah I guess. Anyway you wanna get dinner then get back? "

" Sure. "

The two then sped up their steps. While they were walking down the streets the two boys saw two laughing girls. Both of them were around 8-9 years old and were laughing loudly. The girls were the other two students from Shrek Academy. One of the girls was Alexandra King and the other was Camilla Claymore. 

Alexandra had bluish black hair similar to her brothers, but she kept hers a lot longer. Her hair was actually modeled after Cynthia's, except instead of having her hair hang she had it in a pony tail. She kept her bangs the same though. She was also pale, but she was a bit shorter than her brother, still tall her age. Since she was still young she wasn't developing much as a woman yet, but give it a few years. 

Camilla was nine years old and she had bright red hair that she kept in a short ponytail. She had quite a few freckles that added quite a bit to her cuteness. She looked like she always had a big ol' grin on her face that showed off one of her missing teeth. She was also underdeveloped in her feminine areas as well. 

" Hey girls! What are you two doing? "

" Huh, oh hey guys. Alex and I were just shopping for some clothes and were just about to get some dinner. "

" Same, you want to join us? "

"" Sure/ Yeah sure. ""

The four went off in search of dinner. Eventually after a bunch of back and forth the four settled on one of the more popular street stalls. 

" So what were you guys doing out today? "

" We were just using our break day today. Figured we would just walk around today. What about you two? "

" Same thing as you guys, and as we said earlier buying clothes. "

The four talked for an hour or so while eating. Dios ate six sandwiches while the other three ate one or two at most. 

" Anyway we're heading back, you girls want to walk with us. "

" I'm good, I'm going to be doing more clothes shopping. "

" I'm with her. "

" Alright, see ya, be careful . "

" You too. "

" Bye sis love you. "

" See ya bro, love you too. "

The pair of pairs then walked their separate ways, Dios and Augustus in the direction of the academy. Camilla and Alexandra in the direction of more clothes deals. 

---

" Aunty I'm home! "

Dios shared a house with Cynthia that was situated on the outer area of the Shrek Academy property. It was fairly nice especially when compared to the rest of the academy buildings. Obviously the two had separate rooms, they also had separate bathrooms. 

" I'm in the living room. "

Dios took off his shoes and then walked into the living room. The room had actually been set up by Dios who had created not only the furniture, but the layout as well. 

He had a long crescent couch in the middle of the room. In the middle of the couch was a large half circle table that was a solid dark wood. Along the edge of the the wall closest to the window was a table the went the entire length of the wall. On the opposite wall in front of the couch were three bookshelves that covered the entire wall. The bookshelves were packed with books with a few laying on the ground in front of them. 

Cynthia was half laying half sitting on the couch reading a book. She was wearing loose dress clothes without any socks on letting her pale, larger than average feet be free. Her radiant golden hair hung down over the side of the couch. Dios could very much appreciate the pure beauty that was that scene. 

" How was your day Dios? "

" Same as any other day off. Woke up, ate a little food, went to the town with Augy ( Augustus ), played around for a few hours, had dinner with him and the girls, then came here. It's always so boring. "

When he finished saying that he plopped right down onto the couch next to Cynthia. 

" I forgot that you are still in that depressed, everything's boring phase. We need to get you a girlfriend, one of the girls maybe. "

" Only a few problems with that. 1, they're eight and I'm nearly thirty. 2, it'll be quite a few years before we are able to do anything more than kiss and cuddle. And 3, I'm into older women, as in at least ten years older. "

" Oh you poor baby, come cry on aunties shoulder. "

Dios cried crocodiles onto her shoulder. At that point both Dios and Cynthia fell into a fit of giggles. 

" Alright, alright, I'm still hungry you want anything? I'll cook. "

Cynthia instantly perked up at mention of Dios cooking food. 

" I always want food when you're cooking. "

" Hehe, any requests? "

" Umm. OOO! I want chicken fried rice and stir fry. "

" Coming right up. "

Dios then waved his hand and out came a living chicken and multiple vegetables. Dios had discovered a couple things about his wish granted powers during his few months at Shrek Academy.

He could store living creatures in his infinite space ring and they would be frozen in time. Meaning he could store ingredients and even certain animals in the ring. Though nothing that could cultivate meaning no spirit plants or animals could stay in the ring. 

He could also pull any plants or animals that he had put in his soul space out of it. The best thing about that was that any plants or animals he had put in the space were basically injected with soul power. So anything he put in there was forced to cultivate making whatever he put in the soul space better. The plants and animals he put in there were made to be healthier and a lot better tasting. 

And so, Dios started cutting up all of the ingredients. He first started with the vegetables, putting all the individual ingredients into tiny bowls. He then moved onto the chicken, defeathering it, cutting it open, taking out all of the guts, and then cutting the individual pieces he wanted. 

After that he got to actually cooking everything. Dios had also designed the kitchen inside of Cynthia's house. He made it look similar to a modern kitchen, though for the most part it functioned in a way similar to extremely basic electric ovens. 

Dios used an extremely large skillet to cook all the food all at once. Thirty minutes or so later ( I have no idea how long it takes to cook fried rice and stir fry ) Dios walked back into the living room carrying to large bowls as large as an average human head. In size, length, and depth. 

" Here you are smuk dame, please enjoy. "

" What'd you call me‽ "

" Smuk Dame, means beautiful lady. "

" Oh, I could get used to that. " 

" I have a few different ways of saying that. I memorized the term beautiful lady in a few different languages. I wanted to use it to pick up girls, but look at what that got me. "

" Aww, poor wittle Dios. Couldn't get a widdle girlfriend? "

" Exactly, I mean you should of seen me, I might not have been the tallest nor could I grow a beard, but I was a total package. Buff, rich, and not to toot my own horn I was quite the handsome fellow. "

" Let it all out, aunty Cynthia is here, just release it all. "

" You know it's kind of mean to tease and poke fun at someone who is forever alone. "

" Oh stop being so dramatic, you'll always have me and all your other aunts and uncles. Anyway, thanks for the food, I think I'm going to be hitting the hay. "

" Night aunty. "

" Night, love you. "

" Love you. "

After that Cynthia walked into her bedroom, yawning and scratching her tummy. Dios despite not being tired went to his room as well. Once in there Dios stripped to his skivvies and then lied down onto his bed. 

A few minutes after laying down Dios who had his eye's closed felt a sudden wave dizziness and then all of a sudden he was in a forest. That was how he entered his Soul Space. 

Dios's Soul Space when looked at from above looked quite unnatural. It was a perfect square with four tinier squares inside of it. The squares were biomes, the biomes were, a forest, an ocean, a mountainous region, and a volcanic region. There was also a sky city where a bunch of birds and some other flying creatures lived, it was above the four biomes, but it was situated right in the middle of the regions.

Dios had his territory situated in the forest since that was the area he enjoyed spending his time most. It was also the best place for his plants and the animals he had brought into the soul space. 

Dios's territory didn't look like anything special. Matter of fact it looked like a wild garden with a bunch of plants growing. Underground however, Dios had quite the operation going on. 

He had a dozen different areas sectioned off where he kept his different animals. He also had some extra large areas for animals that were rare or talented. 

But all of that didn't matter instead Dios sat criss cross apple sauce on the ground and started cultivating. His cultivation technique basically made him absorb energy into his soul veins, which is where Soul Energy is stored. He then controls that energy into waves which makes it condense together. Before it disperses inside of his veins Dios has to absorb more energy. If he does it well enough he could condense the energy well enough that his cultivation doesn't technically increase. Though he could make it to where it does increase, quite quickly to be honest. Condensing energy basically allows Dios to have as much energy as someone multiple cultivation levels above him despite not being at that level. It also allows any special moves, like his mother's teleport, to be more effective having more power or longer range. 

It was like that, that Dios would usually spend his days inside of the Soul Space. He would also go around searching for a decent Soul Beast to kill. Even if he didn't kill the creatures he would battle them to get battle experience. 

After he cultivated for a few hours, which would have been an entire day in the real world; Dios went out of the forest. Specifically he went to the mountainous region since that was the area he had explored the least. 

He traveled while holding his axe, sometimes he would hop into a tree and watch animals walk under him. He also took care to avoid certain areas where particularly strong beasts, or beast clans lived. Eventually after a day or so Dios arrived at the mountainous region. 

Dios basically had the entire border regions and quite a few miles inwards mapped out. So he took a quick peek at his map and then followed a rough trail towards a specific mountain. 

According to some of the flying beasts that he had tamed and brought into his soul space; there was a humanoid titan like monster on that specific mountain. The monster despite not being particularly tall like most titans was very bulky and quite muscular. It also carried around a spear. ( By tamed I don't mean he used his pokeball's on them by the way, I mean tamed in a traditional sense of the word. )

Eventually after another day or so of travel Dios reached the mountain, but he didn't immediately start searching for the monster. He instead tied up a hammock to two trees and went to sleep. 

---

Dios woke up silently inside of his hammock. He opened his eyes a fraction and looked around. Once he saw nothing that could potentially threaten his life he hopped down and untied his hammock. 

After that he started exploring the mountain. The mountain that Dios was exploring was quite the tropical paradise considering it didn't seem to be in a tropical region. It had palm trees, springs that came from the top of the mountain all the way to the very base, it was even quite humid. Enough to make Dios's hair frizzle. 

Dios ran through the trees like a tiger chasing it's sibling . . . To rip out it's throat and eat it's fur and flesh. Even though he running fairly quickly Dios kept an eye open for anything that looked slightly humanoid. 

And eventually that pulled through because he saw what looked like a body builder tan, almost black skin. It was a bald dude with his only clothing being fur wrapped around his waist. The man was carrying a large spear. 

Dios instantly ran up to the 8' tall man who stood at least a foot taller than himself. His spear shaft was about 7.5' tall while the spear head was .5' in length. ( The ' means feet by the way. )

Dios ran up behind the man and with a heavy axe swing aimed right for his head. The swing was the traditional type of swing that one would use to split a log. 

Last second though the tan man took a step forward which meant that Dios's axe only left a long cut along the length of his back. 

The man spun around while stabbing at Dios with the head of his spear. Before it could stab into Dios's throat our young hero used the butt of his axe to deflect the spear. The tan man fell through on his momentum which left Dios get a quick punch on the mans esophagus. Before the man could even start wheezing Dios used the butt of his axe to hit the back of the mans neck. The tan monster fell onto the ground while gripping it's throat. Dios obviously wouldn't let such an opportunity go and instantly did another traditional wood cutting swing, this time on the monsters head. The monster's head split open revealing it's brain goop and all the nastiness. Not even a second later a light yellow ring popped up above the tan monsters body.  ( I know this fight scene was a tad lack luster, but keep in mind that Dios is still fairly weak, able to fight a thousand year beast at most. While the humanoid monster was only a few hundred years old. The fight scenes should eventually get more and more wild, also I felt like this way was more realistic. )

Dios naturally knew how to absorb the Soul Ring so he sat down Indian Style and started to absorb it. Considering how young the ring was it took only a few minutes for Dios to summon the soul ring. The instant he absorbed the ring he instinctively knew his ability. His soul ring ability is called Bulk Up. ( I didn't know whether to go for past or present tense when introducing his ability. Past seems like it would have been better grammar, but it didn't sound as right as present tense. I don't know. )

Bulk Up when used would make Dios's muscles increase in power by 10%, when at 100 years. At 1,000 years it would increase his power by 20%. 10,000 would increase his power by 40%. 100,000 would increase his power by 70%. And then at 1,000,000 years Dios's power would increase by 110%. 

After that Dios spent his remaining month adding time to his newest soul ring and cultivating. 

 

 

 

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If ya'll have any ideas on Dios's or Camilla's future soul ring abilities feel free to leave a comment.