The Gobe Orignator Families were becoming weaker and weaker as less and less of their offspring inherited the talent that they had, but at the same time, more and more rising talents and unique Soul Spirits were beginning to be awakened.

With an E:5 talent, one was expected to be able to reach rank 5 within a year, and Damian was on track to shatter that evaluation at the rate that he was progressing.

But he was noticing that his cultivation speed was continuing to slow down, not because he wasn't working hard or he didn't have the method to know how to do so, but because his talent dictated how much energy he could absorb.

He was on track to reaching rank 3 within 2 months, which was an incredible feat, and he may even be able to reach rank 5 within half the time that it was expected of cultivators, but that didn't mean he was the only one capable of doing so and he was yet to enter the capital where the true talents resided.

The Aria branch of Akegria Academy was only a side branch and Damian was incredibly lucky to find the method and skill that he did, which he wouldn't be able to find anywhere else. The criteria that one would expect of different talent grades was subjective as it also depended on the individual's determination, drive, will power and perceptivity.

If one wasn't able to understand the method of their talent grade, then they would find it very difficult to progress at the rate that was expected of their talent grade.

Damian was extremely lucky with the method and skill that he acquired that were the only ones of their kind, but there were more methods and skills of slightly higher ranks within the central academy, that was competing with the royal academy.

The royal academy only allowed nobles to enter and those that were descendants of the Originator Families, and also had one branch within every city in the same way as Akegria Academy.

Akegria Academy currently had more students, however in terms of power and resources, the royal family was still superior and the only thing that was stopping them from waging war was the threat that the principle posed.

The academy principal had unknown talent and strength, and all that was known, was that he was incredibly capable and had managed to form an organisation that was rivalling the royals and nobles within less than a century.

However the principal hadn't been seen for a long while and there had been rumours that he had passed away, and it wouldn't be shocking if he had passed away, because of his old age.

The friction between Akegria Academy and the Royal Academy continued to increase as they both represented the youth and next generation of each side. Both academy students were being nurtured to be able to withstand and battle against each other and represented the next generations and the hopes of their predecessors.

The current known most talented youth of the country was the prince and the son of the king, who had miraculously inherited the E:1 Ranked Soul Spirit of his ancestor along with having E:1 Ranked talent.

He had managed to reach rank 5 within less than 4 months, and was currently at rank 7 after cultivating for a year. At the age of 11, he was already near the peak of the country after only a year of cultivating and in no time he would be able to inherit the throne.

Damian had no knowledge of him, but was on track to be slightly below him in cultivation speed and the gap in age gave the prince an advantage over Damian. 

Despite the large gap in talent, Damian had a large leap in cultivation when he integrated with Utsusu and had also been lucky when it came to coming across opportunities.

The beginning of cultivation was one of the hardest parts as it was where one must build their foundation which was most of the time built upon one's Soul Spirit, but Damian was unique and his foundation was already built when he integrated with his Copy Book.

Every year there was an exchange event for Akegria Academy where all branches would send their strongest students, which included core students, to the central academy.

The Akegria Academy tournament would have many rewards for the winner, but the biggest reward was that the top 20 were all instantly made Core students and everybody was aiming for that position.

Core Students wouldn't take part in the tournament, but had a tournament of their own where they ranked themselves based on the winner of their tournament. It also gave the top 20 of the previous tournament an opportunity to challenge the current core disciples and take their position in the academy leaderboard.

The academy was intentionally made competitive by the principal as he aimed to strengthen the students as quickly as possible, which would be sped up in a competitive environment.

In the current age where the density of energy had increased and there were more resources, skills and methods being passed down over generations, there was a new age of talents and prosperity that would take the country to new heights.

Despite the bloodlines being diluted over time, the new bloodlines that were being formed were surpassing and overshadowing the previous ones, as the new age and Akegria Academy was attempting to swallow the old age and the Royal family.

Along with that was the existence of more opportunities outside of the small country that they were in, and young talents were being scouted by larger organisations and countries to join their forces. 

Damian after replaying what had occurred, through Utsusu's recollection of it, as Utsusu could still see what was occurring despite Damian being unconscious, heard Darren mention a tournament.

He researched the tournaments within the academy, and only one matched what Darren said, which was the yearly exchange event.

With that in mind, he was opened up to a new target and he needed to become an Inner Disciple that was on the rankings in order to join the tournament, and wanted to have enough strength to become a Core Disciple.

Thinking about it, Damian couldn't help but become excited to face Darren's sword skills and see how powerful he was and while also aiming for the top position in the tournament.

Without wasting any time Damian continued to cultivate as he was aiming to continue to cultivate until he was ready to become an Inner Disciple, which had cultivation requirements that he needed to fulfil.