Chapter 676: Solstice Festival

“You are required to run every new training idea through Elder Sarei or me, is that clear?” Elder Malric said with a heavy sigh.“It wasn’t that bad,” he said with a roll of his eyes.

The older elder didn’t respond, simply choosing to point at the pile of unmoving bodies.

“Okay, but the exercise wasn’t entirely bad. The idea was good, but I accidentally miscalculated how much of it they could take and what it would do to their bodies,” he admitted with a guilty expression.

“Through Elder Sarei or me, understood?” he asked, not so much as blinking.

He sighed and nodded. “Yeah, I got it,” he mumbled unhappily.

“Good, now get them healed. I assume that Drasil will be able to handle it?”

Drasil, who was sitting on his shoulder, cooed in confirmation.

“Good, you know he’s very lucky to have you,” Elder Malric said to Drasil, reaching over to scratch his head.

Drasil preened, showing off his wings to him.

“Now I don’t want to hear another report about this, I’m really busy right at the moment,” he said with a sigh and turned around to leave straight away.

When he was gone, he finally stared at the pile of bodies. “Stop pretending to be unconscious, get your asses up before I turn it on again,” he said softly, but loud enough that he knew everyone would be able to hear him.

It was like someone electrocuted them. They all shot up to their feet, even the ones who were in really sorry conditions staggered to their feet with the help of their fellow disciples. The threat of having them go through it again seemed enough to scare them awake.

Julius groaned. It was just his luck that Elder Malric decided to come by and check on his lesson while he was testing a new exercise. To be fair, it did look pretty bad.

The new exercise planted small pieces of his ruinous aura into their bodies, and they were required to remove them before the timer went off. Of course, everyone had different parameters. He had gotten a good enough analysis of each member of the class that he was able to tailor things for them.

However, he hadn’t predicted the way his aura would affect their bodies after prolonged exposure. It was like someone cut their motor functions, and they collapsed on their faces while they struggled to get rid of the aura inside their bodies. Their bodies were relatively fine, but it certainly looked bad when someone walked in to see most of the class face down and ass up, unable to move.

He immediately stretched his senses and determined which ones had received some damage to their auras or souls. The damage itself wasn’t bad, but it was uncomfortable and would be harder to heal the longer it went untreated.

He pointed these people out to Drasil and sent the little guy to treat his new patients. The life spirit was enjoying this, though. He seemed to really enjoy healing other people.

Julius handed over a carefully created sphere of life mana to the working Drasil before glancing at the rest of the disciples, who weren’t in any need of healing.

“Okay, who wants to go again?” he asked.

To his shock, he counted a large number of people who were volunteering willingly. He even spotted Harold raising his hand. He realized that ever since he returned, disciples had been becoming more and more… eager to improve their aura.

He didn’t know the exact reason, but he was glad for it. They’d improved a lot over this period, which also meant he pushed them harder.

“Those of you who didn’t raise their hands, you can go over with Elder Sarei; she will lead you through some other exercises. As for the others, since you all seem to enjoy this new aura training so much, let’s go another round,” he said with a grin, already extending his aura to activate the enchantments.

Elder Malric might have warned him against going too far, but if they were asking him to continue, who was he to stop them? A good teacher would never hesitate to help their students.

Maya POV

She wiped the remnants of puke from her lips and stumbled back to her feet stubbornly. She noticed that many of the other disciples were doing the same. But none of them were giving up.

Harold wasn’t making any moves to stand up, but that was because he was unconscious, not because he gave up, so it didn’t count.

She looked over at Julius, who had already walked away, mumbling to himself about ways he could change or modify the enchantments so that he could place a heavier aura load on them without hurting their soul space or auras themselves.

She also looked over at her new fellow core disciples. Kora and Zev were both officially core disciples, but that didn’t come off as much of a surprise. They’d been close to getting promoted for a long time, and that expedition to the Scorched Wastelands pushed them over the edge.

They deserved it, too. They were really strong for their tiers, and from what she could gather, they were both good people. She couldn’t say that about all the sect's core disciples. Some of them were real pieces of work, and she actively avoided them whenever possible.

Speaking of the wastelands, she suspected that was the reason why so many of the disciples were taking this class more seriously. Ever since Julius returned, it was like someone had flicked a switch. There was a hunger and drive that hadn’t been there before.

Although this wasn't the case at first. Many went about their day as usual, but when news and rumors spread about what happened over there, people started to change.

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There hadn’t been this many inner disciple deaths at once in a long time. And people were starting to realize they could be next, and perhaps that fear pushed them to be better. To take these aura lessons more seriously and to push themselves.

It was working too, today, with the arrival of Kora, Zev, and the other inner disciples, proving that the rest of the sect thought these lessons were too valuable not to participate in. Julius’s aura was very special, and his methods, while crude and savage, worked extremely well together.

Just the other day, she had gone delving in one of the sect’s Tier 4 rifts for some training. If it were her just a few months ago, she would have died within the first couple of hours. But now, she felt confident in fighting a Tier 4 monster. She might not always win, but she was strong enough to hold her own and get away if necessary.

It was amazing how much a little improvement in her willpower strengthened all her techniques across the board. Everything was stronger, everything had a weight behind it now. Their authorities, despite her lack of one, weren't able to push her around. That in itself was one of the most valuable things she’d gotten out of it.

She could tell that Cassandra was impressed too. She might not outwardly say it, but she caught Cassandra nodding with approval more times than she had ever seen.

Yet, it still didn’t seem enough. She was pushing herself to the very limit. Each day was a struggle, and she fell asleep before her head hit her pillow, yet it wasn’t enough. Julius was still outpacing her. He was already advancing through Tier 4, while she was stuck in Tier 3, consolidating her other skills that were lagging behind her main ones.

She’d heard rumors that he’d taken out a Tier 5 on his own. Of course, it was said he used a suicide technique to do so, but that was still impressive.

But she didn’t need to know that to understand that he’d come back from the wastelands a different person. She could feel it. The weight of his existence was tangible and almost uncomfortable to be around if he didn’t control his aura perfectly.

What was he doing that she wasn’t? Why did she still feel like she was falling behind despite her talent and her hard work? From what she heard, he hadn’t even trained during these past couple of months. So what was she doing wrong?

She was deep in thought when she noticed Thera, Rhys, and Mavis approaching. The three of them were always together, and they’d gotten a lot stronger, too. Even Mavis, with her docile personality, was putting in a lot of work.

The fact that she remained in the last group until the end of the lesson demonstrated that the girl had more grit than people thought. Even more than what Mavis thought of herself.

She suspected they would all reach core disciples soon enough, given an opportunity or mission to prove themselves.

It wasn’t just them either. She spotted Kora talking to Thera about something. She heard something about Kora being friends with Thera, but it wasn’t until now that she actually believed it. Friendships between inner and outer disciples didn’t happen all that often.

“Hey, Maya,” Rhys called out to her. After attending the same lesson for a couple of months, they became friends quite easily. Rhys was an easy person to befriend. “Kora was about to tell us all about her time in the wastelands.”

“No, I was not,” Kora said with a roll of her eyes. “But I did want to ask you how all of you are able to withstand my aura so easily. Last time I saw you, you could barely formulate a sentence in front of me. Even the rest of the class didn’t seem to be affected all that much.”

“You can thank our teacher for that. The brute has been even harder on us since he returned,” Rhys muttered.

Mavis slammed her elbow into him and glared at him darkly. “Stop it. That sort of talk is the reason why canceling this class was an option in the first place. Too many rumors and bad jokes. You don’t want it to get shut down, do you?”

“No, of course not,” Rhys grumbled.

“So these exercises help all of you to handle the effects of other auras?”

“More like the frequent exposure to his aura helps us deal with other problematic ones, like your aura, but essentially, yeah,” Mavis said with a nod.

“And you haven’t felt any side effects so far?”

“Not yet. I mean, one person got hurt pretty badly, but that was their fault. They pushed themselves too far and had to get taken care of. Haven’t you already asked Thera this?”

“I did, but I wanted to check with you guys. Are all sessions like that?” Kora asked with a slight wince, as if the memory of the exercises were painful.

Rhys shrugged. “Not all the time. He was trying something new, so this was a bit more painful than most.”

“And you still feel like going through it all?”

“Sure, because of these lessons, I have quickly become one of the strongest Tier 3s in the sect. On my last mission, I took out a Tier 4 on my own. Their authority wasn’t able to affect me as much, and I was able to finish it off before it could do anything else,” Rhys said proudly.

“It was a weak Tier 4 at best,” Thera pointed out quietly, but loud enough for everyone to hear.

“It was still a Tier 4,” Rhys argued.

“So is Aldan from the Alchemy Hall. And you wouldn't be bragging about beating him in a fight.”

“That’s totally different. Aldan is a non-combatant; he wouldn’t hurt a fly. He’s been using treasures and cores to advance, so it doesn’t count. This monster was actually trying to eat me.”

“Alright, enough. I’ve been hearing you two bicker about this for the past week,” Mavis groaned.

“Only because she keeps on raining on my parade.”

“Because you keep on bragging about it, like it is something amazing.”

“I beat a Tier 4 on my own. That is something amazing,” Rhys said, offendedly.

Maya sighed and just ignored the two. Once they were at it, there was no stopping them. That was something she learned after the last time this happened.

Instead, she looked over at Kora. “So, are you going to participate in the Solstice Festival?”

“I’m not sure. Now that I’m a core disciple, I might be required to do something or to help the sect prepare something at least. But I am still thinking about it. What about you?”

Maya smiled. “I offered to help with the pyrotechnics this year.”

“Oh, that sounds like a lot of fun!” Kora said with an excited smile.

“Yeah, I think so too.”

What she didn’t mention was her reasoning for this. The older woman who was in charge of the pyrotechnics was Elder Samara. She was one of the scariest elders in the sect because of her sheer firepower. She didn’t have skill in close combat, was almost dead weight in that regard, and she was essentially an artillery mage. She could destroy an entire horde of monsters on her own if given time to prepare and was well-protected.

Maya hoped to learn something that would inspire her to evolve another one of her rare skills to epic rank. The fact that it would be really fun to do was just a cherry on top. Everyone loved the Solstice Festival; the sect was always lively during this period.

It was an annual event that the sect put on. It was originally created to celebrate the solstice anniversary and unify the sect during this period, but over time, it became a competition.

It was just a time when people could go wild. Some people liked to enjoy the festivities, going down in the Burning Sun City and partying. Some people fought and sparred during this period under the pretense of “sharing notes”. Others liked to watch the violence.

Sometimes there were even exhibitions or special events put on by the elders of the sect. And there were some really good ones. Last year, Grand Elder Rhynus gave a demonstration to the entire sect, showing off his fire-related skills. Elder Malric also gave a sermon on Concepts, and it was so enlightening that several disciples immediately broke through and gained a new Concept.

She didn’t know what to expect, but she had a feeling that something would be different this year.