POV: Zhang Xiaohou
I watched Mo Fan walk back to his seat, a smug, deeply satisfied grin plastered across his face.
As he passed me, I made sure my eyes were slightly widened, and my jaw was perfectly tensed.
I engaged my Acting skill to its absolute limit, painting a mask of sheer disbelief on my face.
I had to look exactly like a kid who had just witnessed the miracle of a double awakening.
When he whispered that we would talk later, I gave a stiff, mechanical nod, flawlessly playing the part of the overwhelmed best friend.
Once the uproar finally died down and every student had completed their awakening, Xue Mingsheng stood at the front of the classroom.
His face was still flushed with excitement from seeing a top-tier Lightning awakening, two Fire awakenings, and one Ice element awakening in his own homeroom.
“Settle down, everyone.
Settle down!” Mr.
Xue clapped his hands, his voice echoing off the chalkboard.
“Today, you have all taken your first step.
But awakening an element is merely unlocking the door.
If you want to walk the path of a Mage, you must learn to walk all over again.”
The room fell dead silent.
Even Mu Bai, who was still glaring daggers at us, turned his attention to the teacher.
“There are three fundamental steps to primary magic,” Mr.
Xue explained, raising three fingers.
“The first step is Meditation.
You must close your eyes, enter your spiritual world, and simply observe your stardust.
You must become completely familiar with the energy dwelling within you.”
He lowered one finger.
“The second step is Control.
Inside your stardust, there are seven stars.
They are wild, erratic, and disobedient.
Your job is to use your spiritual strength to catch them and force them into a specific alignment.
This is called a Star Path.”
He lowered his second finger, leaving only one.
“The third and final step is Casting.
Once the seven stars are aligned into a Star Path, the magical energy will flow through them, allowing you to release your spell into the physical world.
For the next semester, your only goal is Meditation and Control.
Do not rush.
Cultivation requires absolute patience.”
Mr.
Xue also explained that spending too much time meditating to control the stars would lead to spiritual fatigue.
Everyone meditates for different durations; some can cultivate for 73 minutes, while others can only manage 54 minutes, depending on their spiritual level.
But commonly, the Magic Association states in its textbooks that an Apprentice-tier mage can cultivate for roughly 60 minutes a day.
That number is only for people who don’t aim very high.
If a person wants, they can cultivate for 60 minutes and then rest for three to five hours, depending on their spiritual level.
Once it is replenished, they can cultivate again.
But no one shares this method openly, because the top families don’t want commoners cultivating efficiently, they fear a talented mage might be born among the masses and replace their families.
However, anyone who experiments with their cultivation times can figure this method out easily.
When the final bell rang, the school transitioned into a frenzy of students moving into the on campus dorms.
Tianlan Magic High required all students to live in the dormitories to foster a strict cultivation environment and keep them away from civilian distractions.
Luckily, Mo Fan and I had requested a room together weeks ago.
The dorm room was modest: two simple beds, two desks, and a small window overlooking the training grounds.
The moment we finished dropping our luggage on the floor, Mo Fan walked over to the door and locked it with a sharp click.
He turned to me, his usual arrogant swagger entirely gone, replaced by a serious, guarded expression.
“Monkey,” Mo Fan said, lowering his voice.
“About what happened at the pedestal.”
I sat on the edge of my bed, letting the mask of shock slip back onto my face.
“Fan-ge…
you awakened Lightning.
And then you awakened Fire.
At the exact same time.
But you don’t need to worry too much, there are other incredible talents in this world.”
“I’ve read about talents that defy the conventional rules of magic before.
So you don’t need to panic, it’s rare, but not impossible.
It’s like you just won the magical lottery.
But don’t you want the school to find out?
Isn’t being famous what you wanted?” I continued.
“No,” Mo Fan interrupted, his eyes hardening.
“If the school finds out, the Mu family finds out.
You saw what Mu Zhuoyun did to my dad over nothing.
If he realizes I have a dual awakening, he won’t just humiliate me.
He’ll either force me to sign a slave contract to his clan, or he’ll have me crippled.”
“If you’re worried about that, you don’t need to be.
The Magic Association protects mages under 18, so you wouldn’t have to worry about the great families until you come of age.
Still, it is definitely better to hide your second element as a trump card,” I reasoned.
“Exactly,” Mo Fan sighed in relief, glad I understood.
“I’m going to cultivate both, but I’m only going to show the Fire element to the school.
I need to keep the Lightning hidden as a trump card.
When the time is right, when I’m strong enough that nobody can touch me or my family, I’ll reveal it.
But until then…
can you keep this a secret?”
“I’d take it to my grave, Fan-ge,” I said firmly, holding his gaze.
“Your secret is safe with me.
Besides, they’re already going to be dealing with one Lightning mage in this room.
If they knew there were two, Mr.
Xue might actually have a heart attack.”
Mo Fan let out a loud, barking laugh, the tension finally leaving his shoulders.
“Man, when your purple light went off, I thought I was going to go deaf from the girls screaming outside.
We’re going to dominate this school, Xiaohou.
The Fire and Lightning brothers.”
“Don’t get cocky yet,” I warned, kicking my duffel bag under the desk.
“We still have to connect those seven stars.
And since we’re sharing a room, we have a perfect setup.
We can take turns keeping watch while the other cultivates, making sure nobody walks in on you practicing your Lightning.”
“You’re a lifesaver, Monkey,” Mo Fan grinned, tossing his bag onto his mattress.
As Mo Fan started unpacking his clothes, I booted up my laptop to place an order for a Spirit-grade Stardust Magic Tool, which cost 16 million RMB.
Since my status as a mage had just been updated in the government database, I could finally start buying magical equipment legally.
A Spirit-grade Stardust Magic Tool would effectively double my meditation time.
I also placed an order for a Spiritual Necklace to protect my mind from psychic attacks.
That cost me another 45 million RMB, as defensive artifacts are notoriously expensive.
Next, I scrolled through the listings to find the best armor available for a Novice Mage.
For 29 million RMB, I secured a set capable of withstanding a strike from a Warrior-class monster.
I added an order for five sets of specialized Hunter clothing that provided full body coverage and automatic temperature regulation for 23 million RMB.
They had built in resistance to all elements, ensuring a Hunter wouldn’t end up naked after surviving a stray fireball or acid spit.
Finally, I purchased a pair of boots with a Lightning affinity.
They would boost my physical speed using lightning elemental energy, costing me a cool 13 million RMB.
I had spent 126 million RMB in a single day, right after officially becoming a mage.
I also spent another 6 million RMB on a standard Stardust Magic Tool for Mo Fan.
I knew his Little Loach pendant would absorb and destroy it, but I needed him to share the pendant’s secret with me.
If he did, I could eventually partner with him to farm the souls of the monsters I killed as a Hunter.
I wanted to increase my cultivation beyond Tier 3, and there was no better shortcut for upgrading star paths than Mo Fan’s pendant.
I would kill the monsters, he would collect their souls, and once we had enough, I would use the condensed Soul Essences to push my cultivation past the normal limits.
For that kind of future payoff, a small investment of 6 million RMB was absolutely worth it.
After confirming my final order, I closed my laptop and focused on my System.
‘Status Window open magic status’
===============
STATUS WINDOW
===============
> > PROFILE STATUS
NAME : Zhang Xiaohou
TITLES : [The Good Boy]
AGE : 15 years 2 months 26 days
> > MAGICAL CULTIVATION
[STATUS] : Awakened
[Primary Element: Lightning]
[Stardust Status: Tier 1 (0/7 Stars Connected)]
[Progress To Next Level: 0.2%]
===============
Well, it was time to grind my way through this cultivation world.
Then, I checked my notifications.
A lot of skills that had been bottlenecked because I lacked magic were now waiting for my confirmation to level up.
I pressed ‘Okay’.
> [Physical Fitness Theory Lv.31]
With the level increase, a rush of new knowledge flooded my brain.
I now understood how to use lightning elemental energy to actively temper and improve my physique, a technique I could safely execute once I officially became a Tier 3 Novice Mage.
> [Meditation: Lv.21]
> [Martial Arts: Lv.11]
> [Instinct: Lv.11]
After reviewing and closing the System panel, I settled in and began meditating to control my stars.
It didn’t take more than ten minutes to catch my first star.
In the next fifteen minutes, I caught my second.
After that, it took thirty seven minutes to catch my third star.
I tried for another seventy minutes to catch my fourth, but the moment I grasped it, I lost control of the previous three.
After trying for another hour, the exact same thing happened.
I stopped to check my System again.
> [Stardust Status: Tier 1 (3/7 Stars Connected)]
Even after cultivating for nearly three hours and twenty two minutes, I didn’t feel my spiritual energy emptying at all.
Perks of having Level 3 Spiritual Strength, I guessed.
Most people start at Level 0.
Spiritual attainment naturally increases the more you meditate.
A person with Level 0 spiritual attainment can likely only cultivate for one hour before their spiritual energy empties, forcing them to wait for it to replenish.
The only reason Mo Fan can cultivate so fast is because of his pendant.
It massively accelerates his spiritual energy recovery, increasing his total daily cultivation time.
That’s how he manages to cultivate both elements simultaneously despite starting with Level 0 spiritual attainment.
For me, I could already cultivate for approximately ten to eleven hours a day.
Once my Spirit-grade Stardust Magic Tool arrived, that number would double to twenty to twenty two hours daily.
Combine that with my passive spiritual recovery over those twenty hours, and it effectively meant I could cultivate nonstop all day.
But I still had to tend to my physical needs, eating, sleeping, and maintaining my bodily functions, so I couldn’t literally meditate twenty four hours a day.
I needed to reschedule my time effectively, so I didn’t lose my advantages.
I glanced over at Mo Fan, who was also deep in meditation on his bed.
Seeing the pendant resting against his chest, I decided to go to sleep.
Knowing the endless grind would begin tomorrow, I wanted to treat myself to a sweet ten hours of sleep just this once.
Usually, thanks to meditation, I only needed four hours of sleep a night.
But once a month, I allowed myself to skip the late night meditation session to get a full ten hours of rest.
Dreaming about becoming a top-tier Forbidden Mage, I fell into a deep sleep.
To be continued…