"...Introductions are finished. For now, I don't have anything else to say, so you all can either go about the building to look around or enter the "fragment forest" right away." Miss noble said.
" For real?!"
" Hey, which are you going to choose?"
" Hah, I'm going to check out this fragment forest! It might be fun."
" Haha, talk big now, just don't piss yourself later! otherwise, you would just be slapping yourself in the face."
A group of boys spoke among themselves.
" Sigh, I want to go clean myself up."
" Me too. Siii, these chairs are no joke. My back is killing me."
' Yeah, my butt is hurting too.' One thought.
" Do you guys have any cosmetics? Let's go doll ourselves up! Since we have the time, we might as well. That fragmented forest thing isn't going anywhere."
" Oh, but...What about her?"
" Shhh! What about her? Didn't you hear about her background? If you want to get yourself killed, do it on your own!"
A group of girls conversed.
Many of the youths had formed little groups, while there were always those unlucky ones who were left out, and those who chose to be alone.
" You can walk around, but remember to be mindful of your manners. If I receive any complaints, all of you will be punished." Miss Noble turned towards the door.
" Eh! But!"
When they heard this, the youths were stunned.
No one liked the thought of getting punished because of others.
" Miss Valentine." Miss Noble called out as she waited.
" Humph." Victoria walked down from her seat and out of the classroom before Miss Noble said anything more.
"..." Levi slowly got up from his seat.
He turned to Heil beside him and opened his mouth, only to close it.
He then walked towards the door with a dejected expression.
' I can take a look at that infinite world later. For now, I want to go back and work on that thing.' He thought.
" Student." After leaving the class, he turned, but before he could take another step, a voice sounded behind him.
" Yes, teacher?" He asked with a weak smile.
"...Don't take it to heart. Diligently focus on learning and let your skills speak." Miss Noble said, before turning and following behind Victoria.
"..." Levi stood with a blank face.
' Was she trying to comfort me? She's so bad at it!' Levi thought.
' Aren't you always whining about being alone? Take what you get and shut up!' The demon saint cursed.
' Old demon, is your memory deteriorating? When did I ever whine about being alone? Murder has been committed for much less than slander, watch your words!' Levi threatened.
' Humph.' The demon saint went silent.
...
Click!
The door of Levi's room locked with a click.
His mental energy flame squirmed as if it had been blown, before vanishing.
" Sigh." A vein on his cheek bulged as he tried to sigh his irritation away.
" This place will drive me insane." He said.
"..." He slowly sat on the ground as if thinking about something.
"...I guess, to be safe, I have no choice." He mumbled as he reached for the necklace around his neck.
A thick book appeared out of thin air, dropping into his hand with a thud.
"..." The pages blurred as they were shifted one after the other.
They then suddenly stopped.
"...Space sealing inscription, " Little World"." He said as he rubbed the page.
" It conceals the presence of anything inside a container inscribed with it." He said.
"..." He sat silently for a while, but his eyes never left the page.
"...This small inscription, I doubt it will be enough to hide the presence of my blood energy, so I will have to modify it a bit...But that will lower the success rate." He said.
"Also...I can't continuously pour qi into an inscription while cultivating, so I will need a separate energy source..." After a bit of thought, he pulled out an ice-blue, fist-sized crystal. Concentrated cold Qi was still Qi, after all.
' The old man wanted me to keep practicing with this, but we both know it's pointless now.' Levi thought.
" This should be everything I need." He muttered.
Qi rose from his body, 'falling' upward like a reverse waterfall, as he formed many simple oval patterns.
They were spread across the room, close to the walls, the ceiling, and the floor.
Levi then formed multiple "bridges", which were essentially just channels that would connect the separate inscriptions, allowing for energy from the power source to flow through the monster of an inscription.
' The teacher said that arrays are made up of many inscriptions that are put together for one purpose. Isn't this an array then?' He thought.
...
A few minutes later.
" Sigh...Of course I failed." Levi said.
" Qi is not a problem. The only thing worse than something fragile is something both huge and fragile." He said.
" Plus, since I had already connected the individual inscriptions with those energy passages, spreading the entire thing in every direction to get it into the walls and floor tore it apart...That part was mostly my fault for not noticing something that obvious, though." He muttered.
" And while Qi isn't a problem, mental energy is a different story. Plus, since I came here, I've been using my mental energy a little too often." He said.
" In conclusion, next time I will make the individual inscriptions, coat them all with mental energy and implant them in the walls and the like without tethering them." He exhaled heavily.
" Then I will add the extra energy channels and fuse the entire thing with the room." He said.
" Hmm, easier said than done, though." He said.
" Well, right now, I can still cultivate...I will just leave working on this inscription, as well as 'that thing' for another day." He hesitantly said the last line.
"...Fuuu. I wonder, when will I be able to practice that hybrid technique again? Did I give it a name? I can't remember." He talked to himself as his qi poured out.
" That crippled guy at the city gate told me to relax instead of tensing my muscles." He said.
" But, rather than helping, wouldn't that have the opposite effect?" He said.
He sat enveloped in qi once more, his eyes half-closed as a qi spiral formed above him.
...
Next day. Early morning.
Glowing blue patterns faced each direction respectively.
The black flame flickered lightly as a Semi-Transparent, black mental energy cloaked the numerous patterns, dimming their light-blue glow.
The patterns then passed through the surfaces' of the room, some simultaneously.
" Simple enough..." Levi said quietly.
Balls of Qi varying in sizes floated to various positions.
" Feeling around to find the right places and lengths to connect these patterns now is the hard part..." He muttered, his brows furrowing.
"..." He silently began changing the shape of each ball of qi individually, before coating them in mental energy and sending them into the walls, etc.
Crack!
"..." A light cracking sound rang out.
Levi's brow twitched, as he quietly repaired a cracked pattern.
Crack!
Crack!!
Multiple cracking sounds rang out in succession, forcing Levi to focus on both repairing the cracks and fusing the new passages, or " bridges".
'!!' A stabbing pain assaulted his mind.
" Mental energy...overuse.." He squeezed out as veins bulged on his face.
Crack!!
Shatter.
"..." A few of the patterns shattered a few seconds later.
'...Fuse! Fuse! Fuse!' He directly stopped trying to fix the cracks, instead frantically trying to fuse the falling apart, oversized inscription.
His mental energy was running low, which meant that he had little time.
In his mind, taking a gamble was better than waiting for his mental energy to run out and watching his hard work shatter.
' Done!' He thought.
Without a second wasted, Qi exploded from his body quickly. Not in its usual water-like state, but more like a vapor or gas.
For the sake of speed, this qi was sent through every inch of the walls, ceiling, and floor, repairing any cracks and sealing any holes in the inscription, i.e., the ends of shattered patterns.
" Ngnn." He groaned as he looked down at the floor before him.
He had not fused every part of the inscription, instead, leaving a few channels that could still be modified on the ground in front of himself.
' Sleepy...' He thought.
A crisp dragging sound echoed as he swept the crystal along the floor, to a certain spot before himself.
"...Humph." He snorted after a few seconds of contemplation.
' I will fall unconscious if I waste too much time, so I'll just do it. I doubt a bloodline, especially this one, could do anything with an exhausted body.' He reassured himself.
Lifting his hand, he held out his index finger, as a liquid poured out.
It splattered as it dropped, but as if being held in an invisible container, the liquid was kept in a perfect circle on the ground.
'...See? That wasn't so bad...It's just raven, that unruly brat who tries to take control of my body...Oh, but now there is also little spider too, isn't there?' Levi thought groggily.
' I wonder if Lil raven keeps trying to take over my body because he resents me? Or for revenge?' He thought.
'...' After a few minutes of silence, he got back to the inscription.
A wide cylindrical hole appeared before him, as he placed the crystal inside, before weaving the inscription channels.
Qi shrouded the crystal, while on the inside, hair-like qi shapes drilled to the center from all directions. This was a very daunting task since, if the cold Qi exploded this time, Levi would be flash-frozen.
He allowed the soft, liquidized stone inside the floating liquid to pour back into the hole, before extracting all of the liquid, causing it to harden instantly.
' Ah, I can't hold on anymore...' His mind cleared for a moment before his consciousness began to fade.
Before his last shred of consciousness faded, he tried his best to fuse the remainder of the inscription to his room's floor.
Only when he awoke would he know whether or not he had succeeded.
...If he woke.
...
An unknown time during the day.
"..." Levi's eyes slowly opened, as an energized glow exuded from them.
"...Shit." He cursed under his breath as he realized a truly horrifying fact.
' I overslept!' He roared internally as he hurriedly headed for the compact bathroom.
It was quite funny how he always woke early to cultivate, but just after entering a sect where one had to attend all classes from the morning, he suddenly overslept.
...
A few minutes later, he sped from door to door, bathroom to bedroom, to the hallway door, before dashing down the hallway.
"...Student Levi, to your seat." Miss Noble said.
Levi awkwardly walked through the rows of people, scalded by the gazes of the youths.
Just as he was about to sit, Miss Noble said, " Follow me to receive your punishment later."
Levi could only smile helplessly as he sat.
' Well, if I get off with just that then that's good.' He thought.
' I will have to put on a good act.' He thought.
' But...it's not like I can change the state of my body. Instead of hurting me, won't they just break their paddles or something?... Well, whatever. It will work out one way or another.' He thought.
"...As I was saying. Inscriptions might seem simple, for example, the multiple patterns, but they are much more complicated." Miss Noble said.
" Each pattern has different roles in the end product, the stacked, or assembled inscription." She said.
" For example, in a single inscription pattern, there are tiny veins which channel Qi throughout the inscription-" She said.
" -Tiny structures that make seemingly insignificant movements that have huge roles in determining what an inscription will do, and when or how it will do it." She continued.
" Excuse me, what are these structures called?" The scholarly youth, Silas asked.
"...I don't know." Miss Noble said.
"...Pardon?" He asked.
"...I was too incompetent to learn the names of these structures." Miss Noble said after a pause.
"..." The class went silent.
' So, what you are trying to say is, you weren't paying attention in class or something, right? Right?!' The youths all thought.
"...but, regardless, all you will have to learn it." She said.
" But-" A girl raised her hand.
" Because if you don't- Punishment." Miss Noble said.
The girl's hand was stealthily lowered without a change in expression.
"...There are many books about inscriptions that you will have to read in your time here, so you won't turn out like me. Don't worry." Miss Noble reassured.
' What kind of double standard is this?!' The youths screamed internally.
' You didn't learn it, but are threatening us with punishment to make us learn it?! Big sis! Grandma! Aren't you a bit too much?' They thought.
" Continuing." Miss noble said as she continued the lesson.