Nico spent the entire night meditating. More manalines continued to wrap around the head node, but nothing happened.

The next morning, Jack was assigned to Professor Teru and Nico was assigned to Professor Quin.

In the Cultivation Hall, there were several small courtyards for one-on-one training purposes. Nico sat down and faced his new professor for the semester, Quin.

Professor Quin had chiseled facial features, but he couldn't be considered handsome. If anything, some people viewed them as boxy and ugly. He wasn't old, but he had a demeanor that made him seemed older than he really was.

Is old-fashioned a good way to describe him? Nico thought.

"Are you paying attention?" asked Professor Quin as he finished his introduction to the boy.

In truth, Nico was caught up by his own analysis of Professor Quin that he had completely ignored the professor's introduction. It couldn't be helped since Professor Quin introduction was very dry.

"Yes Professor!" Nico lied.

Professor Quin was skeptical, but he didn't dwell on it.

"I have reviewed your test results and we'll review your cultivation path today," said Professor Quin. "You have really good combat amplitude, were you trained in the military?"

"No, but I was trained by a retired military instructor," Nico replied honestly.

Professor Quin nodded. "For how long?"

"Since I was a little kid." A few months.

Professor Quin continued to nod. "You have failed most of the paper exam."

Thanks for the soft take-down, Nico thought sarcastically.

"It's not unusual for commoners, it's sort of expected," Professor Quin added. "It is a surprise that you did well in botany. Did you study a bit of it?"

"A little, while I was learning how to read."

Professor Quin's eyebrow rose. "How well can you read?"

"Not too well."

"I see..."

Professor Quin scrolled through other reports. "The cultivation branch recommends that you train using either the Chaotic Devil or Raging Bull Cultivation Method."

"What's the differences?"

"Chaotic Devil focus on boosting strength type meridians while sacrificing defense. Raging Bull focus on boosting a large amount of strength and speed type meridians while sacrificing defense and accuracy."

Professor Quin walked Nico over to the center of the small courtyard.

"Before you select, we'll spar first," said Professor Quin. "Pick a weapon."

"You're going to be bare-handed?" Nico asked.

"Yes," Professor Quin nodded.

"Okay then, I'll take the quarterstaff," said Nico brandishing a staff a head longer than him from the rack.

Nico started off with a low guard with his left foot forward.

Professor Quin watched Nico carefully, but before he could finish blinking, Nico attacked deliberately.

Nico jumped and thrust the staff toward Professor Quin's stomach.

Professor dodged left to prevent a follow-up attack from the right, typical of a staff thrust stance from Nico positioning guard. Nico carried through with a follow-up, swinging the staff from right to left.

Since Professor Quin had already dodged away, Nico could only follow through to maintain balance. However, it allowed Professor Quin to easily grabbed onto the staff and slid the staff under his arm to lock it in place.

Nico quickly released his staff and bent down to sweep kick Professor Quin's right foot from the back. Professor spun his body to the left to avoid. Nico used the opportunity to grab the staff from behind to slip it back out. Unfortunately, Professor Quin's grip was strong despite being in a weird position after the low sweep kick.

Since it was hard to pull, it was better to get rid of the staff. Nico released the gale force with a left jab to knock the staff away.

He locked his arms around Professor Quin's head from the back and clamped the head onto his knees.

"A headlock!" Professor Quin was caught off guard. He released a body burst of spirit force and blasted Nico several feet away.

"Damn kid! Didn't mean to do that," Professor Quin hurriedly rushed to Nico's side. "Are you okay?"

"Oowwwwwwwww!!!" Nico exaggerated.

Nico didn't have much trouble with manabeasts, but being beat up by people like Rooster and Quin reminded Nico how evil and sadistic humans were!

"Luckily, the robe took the blunt of the force." Professor Quin watched as Nico got up. "I didn't expect you to abandon your weapon so easily. When you lose a weapon against an armed opponent, it is extremely difficult to fight back unless you specialize in fist. Even then, a strong fist expert can still lose to a strong sword expert. Were you planning to throw your weapon away or was it the spur of the moment?"

"Both? If you had released and allowed me to pull back the staff, I would have whacked you from behind. Since you didn't and were already tightly pulling it forward, I added to that momentum, easily knocking the staff out of reach. The moment you took my staff and let me sneaked behind you was when it was decided."

Professor Quin nodded. "I wanted to disarm you when I countered, but you have used that to your advantage. With me holding onto the staff, I was turned into the weapon holder. Weapon greatest weakness against a fist or grappling expert is extremely close combat."

Professor Quin had decided. "I think Chaotic Devil will serve you better."

"I thought so too." Nico accuracy was average, and he was hate to sacrifice it for speed.

"You have a pretty strong kick, that's unusual for military training," Professor Quin commented. "Is it self taught?"

Nico thought for a moment. "A kick is just a kick, I don't really think much about it."

"In any case, here are the books you should be studying over the course of this semester." Professor Quin gave Nico the Chaotic Devil Cultivation Method and another book. "There are also several basic techniques you will need to learn, like force barrier. I'll see you next week on the 5th day. Set up an appointment with me in the Administration Hall if you're stuck on anything."

Nico took the books. "Thank you professor!"

Later that day, Nico studied through the materials.

The Chaotic Devil Cultivation Method was a good beginner cultivation method. It explained the steps to absorb the mana into the body and to open meridians.

The meditation guideline described the positioning, rhythm of the breathing, and the state of mind. The correct positions create balance and help the practitioner find the center, often the location for the spiritual root.

Breathing was the simplest way to breathe in the nature's mana into the body and spiritual root. Advanced breathing techniques allow a practitioner to breathe in from their skin. Only when the mind is connected to nature was it possible to create a true meditative state, allowing the spiritual root to absorb the mana.

Although it was a simple process, it was difficult for many beginner students to achieve true meditation. Nico way of meditation wasn't much different, but he was meditating by what felt natural. The guideline had pictorial drawings that Nico found useful and readjusted his meditation form to match it.

The next step in the cultivation method was to open meridians. The method focused on nine strength based meridians. The middle chest meridian was the first. According to the method, during the meditative state, push the spiritual energy from the spiritual root up into the chest meridian using the diaphragm. As more spiritual energy reach the meridian, it would eventually open.

Nico wondered how it differed from opening auras.

The best source of information about meridians and auras came from his roommates. Nico didn't have much opportunity to observe other people with Minko's vision, but it was possible to analyze his roommates.

Jack sat on his bed meditating at night.

As Minko, Nico swam toward Jack. He saw the two nodes with wind related symbols in addition to his manaroot, which spun wildly around. Unfortunately, Minko's vision was limited to clusters that dimmed and reappeared from the human body. Nico could not see where the nodes originated from within the body.

Nico swan to the right and scanned Vincent, who was also meditating.

Vincent had two glowing nodes that was glowing brightly in his body and two spirals floating around the spirit root. Nico swam closer, but another energy prevented him was examining closer. Nico saw a beastly stare from Vincent's spirit root protecting the host and backed away.

From what Nico had heard, Vincent had a Heavenly White Tiger root level 7 with 3 meridians and 3 auras.

Nico swam to the other side toward Ashe.

Ashe had two glowing nodes and 7 spirals around the spirit root. The arraignment of the spirals reminded Nico of the orbits of planets around the sun, with the distances increasing between each ring. All the spirals originated from a node that spiral around the root. Ashe spirit root was also hidden.

The glowing nodes were considered meridians and the spirals were considered auras.

From the observation, Nico assumed that the system counted both meridians and auras as mananodes. How a person used the mananodes determines whether it was classified as a meridian or aura.

It was interesting to see the differences in the formation of meridian and aura.

When Ashe was meditating to create the aura, he was focused on forming a manaring around his spiritual root. As he swirled the mana symbols around, he would try to keep the symbols in orbit. Sometimes the mana symbols would drift out and he had to circulate it around again until it entered the orbit correctly and stabilize. The circulating orbit naturally attract a manaline from the node. Ashe had seven manalines from seven different nodes forming the spirals. It sounded simple, but it took him three days to add one layer of mana symbols around the orbit.

This was very different from opening meridians. Opening meridians involved a lot less control. The main objective was to shoot symbols from the spirit root directly into the nodes. It was like an arrow penetrating a paper target. As more mana penetrate the node, there would be more holes and opening in the target. Once the opening was wide enough, a manaline of connection was formed between the spirit root and the meridian. The meridian manaline was not as complex as the aura, but it was thicker and sturdier. Although the method seems simpler than forming aura, it was also more painful. Every shot of mana into the nodes were like sharp stabs from rusted needles.

Nico was already in the process of forming a manaball in his head node, and had no idea what to expect. He was hoping for another manaroot.

Nice completed, he could attempt the Chaotic Devil Cultivation Method.

On the night before class officially commenced, Nico continued to meditate and focus on the ball in his head.

Vincent and Jack were already starting their cultivation and were in deep meditation while Ashe was reading by his bed. They weren't different from the other students in the Academy. All students must achieve a certain stage by a certain amount of time, or risked expulsion. There were too much on the line to slack off.

Nico used magic to absorb as much mana as possible. Once the mana entered his body, he used a bit of manaforce to break down the mana into manalines. He wrapped the manalines tightly onto the yarnball shaped mana in his head node.

As the manaline wrapped around, the manaball reacted. The manaball collapsed and fused together tightly forming a singular object half its original size. The manaball spun around and pulled apart the node into its orbit.

A drilling headache pounded into Nico's head, he screamed and collapsed onto the pillow.

All his roommates stopped their studies and looked at him. Before they could react, Nico was already waving to signal that he was fine.

"Nico, did you just open a meridian?" Jack inquired.

"I think so," Nico wasn't sure himself.

They quickly congratulated him.

"Is this your first time opening a meridian?" asked Ashe, he was curious because he had never seen a person opening their meridian so close by to him before.

"Yep! Now I could see why people say it's painful," responded Nico. "How did you guys manage to open your first meridian or aura?"

"My first meridian opened probably when I was five," Jack said. "I was running around in the fields when suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my right leg. I collapsed at that time because it was so sudden and sprained my ankle. My parents took me to the doctor. He didn't notice anything, but he recommended I practice the Kelseran Cultivation Method. The book was a bit expensive, but an uncle of mine had a copy and loaned it to me. I didn't think much of it until it happened again on my left leg and then my right arm. The pain was less sharp.

One day, Professor Tobias passed by our village. He noticed that my body had unlocked 3 meridians and recommended me to the academy."

"Your body unlocked three meridians? That takes talent!" Nico sounded both impressed and curious.

"That's how most students from common background gain entry into this school," said Ashe. "If you don't have talent for cultivation or magic, it's difficult to grow. You have to be from a clan or nobility to earn a head start."

"If you have the backing from the clan, why do clan members go to the Academy?"

"It's all about resources," Ashe explained. "The Hartlet Clan for example have thirty other members my age. They can't distribute their resources to everyone, so that is why clans use the Academy as a way to allocate resources. If you're accepted into an academy, you will naturally gain resources from the Academy and the clan will match what the Academy hands out. This way, only the most talented gets the resources."

"Ah, that makes sense," said Nico. "So when did you two open your meridians?"

Vincent thought about it. "The first one? I'm not sure," said Vincent. "When I was really young?"

This was the typical situation for commoners who had unexpectedly open their meridian at a young age. Who can truly remember everything that had happened to them before the age of five?

Ashe's clan probably kept a record of when each meridian was unlocked.

"Not telling," Ashe stated flatly.

"What an ass," Jack jeered. "I told you mine."

"You didn't have to."

"Ashe is right in that respect. We shouldn't disclose some information to others." Nico assumed it was a clan secret. "It's getting late, I'm going to sleep."

Nico laid down in bed to check his status.

Status:

Manaroot: Chaos 7

Mananode: 2

Manaspirit: Midnight Koi 29

Strength: 44

FP: 25/26

Defense: 32

Speed: 32

Magic: 38

MP: 73/74

Resistance: 34

Casting: 26

The new mananode was slightly different from the Chaos manaroot. If the Chaos manaroot was like a star, the mananode was like Saturn. Nico decided to name the mananode Saturn for that reason.

From a zoomed out perspective, the node resembled a meridian. However, a closer view would reveal a spiral from the manaroot forming a ring around Saturn. It was the opposite of an aura, which spiraled out from the mananode and into the manaroot.

He could feel both his manaforce and magic was growing stronger.

He was a bit reluctant to change his own way of forming the mananodes. He looked at the Devil Cultivation Method...

I'll just form nine manaballs in the nine meridians explained in the book, Nico decided.