Long Shen sat in the lotus position on his floor and quietly cultivated. It took him longer than usual to finally calm his mind and enter a deep state of meditation but when he did he found himself at his usual spot by the lake. He noticed that large red rock was no longer spinning. As he looked closer it looked less like a rock and more like a piece of bone. The voice angrily boomed out, "A dragon does not wallow in ignorance."
Long Shen thought for a moment and then asked, "What is the red rock?"
"A dragon that can't recognize it's own scales is a pathetic existence." The voice sounded angry and slightly frustrated.
"Am I a dragon?" Long Shen tentatively asked.
The voice boomed in laughter, "A dragon does not wallow in ignorance. A dragon ignorant of its own origins and its own destiny is unable to awaken." Long Shen suddenly felt a rush of strange memories flood into his mind. A massive ancient red dragon roared majestically on a planet larger than the entire known universe. He saw through the dragon's eyes as it ruled over the massive planet. As it reached the end of its life it decided to fly out into the void to create an opportunity for a successor to be born from its ashes. He watched as it imbued its scales with a legacy before choosing to end its own life in a fiery explosion.
"How did I get the scale?" Long Shen felt confused.
The voice boomed out, "Ignorant!" Long Shen was forcefully expelled from the lake. As his eyes opened his body felt different.
Sarah burst through his door dressed in her uniform and said, "Better hurry up, class starts in fifteen minutes."
He nodded and got up. His body felt different than usual as he headed in for a shower. He quickly cleaned up and threw on his uniform before calling up his itinerary for the day. That's when he noticed that it was Saturday and he had no classes. He frowned and then walked out to the common area. Sarah was waiting by the door, "Come on slowpoke we're going to breakfast."
"There's no class today." He grumpily replied.
She laughed and said, "You might have chosen to skip breakfast and kept cultivating like you did yesterday when you skipped dinner. You have to come with me to meet everyone in our circle of friends."
"Don't you mean your friends?" He looked at her as he shook his head.
She laughed again and grabbed his arm, "Since I am your only friend here and your wife, you have to at least make an attempt to meet our friends."
"You aren't my wife! Alright, let's go, I should at least meet my fellow classmates." He grumbled. Sarah half dragged him down the hall to the elevator.
The academy dining room was nothing like a military mess hall. It resembled a nicer restaurant instead. Most likely because of the civilian employees. Sarah led him to a large booth in the corner where four other people were waiting. One of the women looked Huaxian, the other looked to be Persian. One of the men was a very handsome Indian and the other was an equally handsome European. Long Shen recognized the European man from his own dorm room. The one he recognized sheepishly smiled and greeted him, "Hey bro, sorry about yesterday. Yo, Sarah 'bout time you finally got here."
"Who's the hottie?" The Huaxian woman at the table smiled at Long Shen before looking at Sarah.
She plopped down on the booth and scooted over leaving a spot for Long Shen, "This is my new husband, Long Shin. He's only level seven, can you believe that shit?" As long Shen stood there she patted the seat next to her until he sat down with her.
"I'm not her husband, and my name is Long Shen, you can call me Shen." He smiled at them.
The two women looked at each other with surprised faces, the one who spoke the first time spoke up again asking, "Are you really only level seven? Oh, we should introduce ourselves, I am Bai Ting. You can call me Ting Ting."
The other woman smiled at him and said in a silky seductive voice, "I am Elaheh Farzaneh. Everyone just calls me Ela."
The Indian man smiled and said, "Raj Singh."
The other man smiled and said, "Pierre Bour."
"What happened yesterday, Shen? I feel like we missed something good." Ela asked him. Pierre shook his head no slightly while trying to make eye contact with Long Shen.
Long Shen who was still looking at the menu answered without looking up, "Sarah and Pierre were using my room. I accidentally walked in on them." Pierre started to get punched and slapped by Raj and Ela on his shoulders as they were sitting next to him.
Sarah laughed and said, "It was just a little dual cultivation, I wasn't trying to steal your man, Ela."
Raj frowned and said, "I thought I was your dual cultivation partner?"
Ela shook her head and said, "I can't believe you two. No regard for my feelings at all. How did we even end up as friends here?"
Sarah who was seated next to her gave Ela a hug and kissed her on the cheek and said, "I'm sorry Ela. I really thought I could make some good progress and Raj was busy playing Fleet Sim so I grabbed Pierre to dual cultivate with. I shouldn't have done that, I didn't know they were going to send me a husband."
Ela frowned and then said, "That's not the point Sarah, I am hurt that you did this behind my back. You and Pierre tried to hide it from me. Pierre and I haven't even gone that far in our relationship and you already did that with him. Didn't you consider my feelings even a little?"
Long Shen cleared his throat and broke in, "I'm sorry to interrupt you, but what is dual cultivation?"
Raj spoke up, "A man and woman have sex while cultivating. It allows you both to combine your energy and cultivate with twice the results. That's why they have the dorms as one male and one female to a room. It's to encourage dual cultivation between the roommates. Sarah and I used to be the only two on this floor without a roommate. Ting Ting's roommate Jason hasn't come out of his VR pod yet or he would be here with us too. That's why we call the roommates husband and wife."
Long Shen nodded and then asked, "So Pierre and Ela are roommates?"
Ela nodded and said, "I only recently arrived. I have only been here for two months. Pierre and Sarah have been here the longest. After I arrived Sarah stopped seeing Pierre and hooked up with Raj instead. I didn't feel comfortable enough to dual cultivate with him yet, but we have been spending a lot of time together during our free time and I was considering dual cultivation with him."
Sarah leaned against Ela and said, "I'm sorry Ela, you can dual cultivate with my husband to get back at us."
Long Shen blinked as Ela replied, "I'll wait until you two are involved and happy then." She pouted and glared at Pierre who kept his mouth shut and tried not to make any eye contact with anyone.
Raj slumped back in the booth and grumbled out, "I sure hope they get me a wife soon. I am so close to my breakthrough. I can feel it. I have been stuck at the early stage for a month now. I want to get to the low stage by the fall."
Long Shen tilted his head and asked, "How long does it take to break through from the ninth level?"
Ting Ting spoke up, "Everyone is different. Some people only need two years but most take up to five years. Those of us who used high-quality resources to advance to the ninth level in fifteen to twenty years usually manage to make a breakthrough in about four years on average. We are the youngest officer candidates here though because of our families having the power and resources to allow us to quickly cultivate to a high level. That's why we all eat together. The others are much older and think we are spoiled brats."
Long Shen nodded and then asked, "All of you come from wealthy powerful families?"
"Of course, how else could someone in their twenties reach the ninth stage of the foundation stage? We all started cultivating early and had the help of high-level resources. You didn't think your family was the only one on Earth with deep pockets, I hope?" Ela chuckled in her seductive smooth voice.
Long Shen looked down and then said, "Ah, I see. Well, I am a little different from you guys then, I have never had any high-level resources. I just started cultivating recently. I am an orphan, I have no idea who my parents or family are. I just got lucky when a co-worker at the gold farming studio I worked at used to be a soldier. He gifted me his family cultivation method after we became close friends. I earned my right to attend the academy through battlefield merits."
"Wait, recently? How long have you been cultivating?" Sarah asked with a curious expression on her face.
"Hmm, I think two years now?" He shrugged.
"Holy shit bro, you are a monster! You might hit Major before you turn forty!" Pierre spoke up at last.
Ela smiled and said, "Sarah, I might have to take you up on your offer sooner than I thought." The three women stared at Long Shen like he was a winning lottery ticket. It was widely known that higher a person's talent in cultivating the better dual cultivation partner they would be. Long Shen had just admitted to having a talent for cultivation that was off the charts. All of the women at the table suddenly saw him as an ultimate cultivation resource. It didn't hurt that he was fairly handsome on top of that.
Raj slunk down in his seat and said, "Damn, I am totally screwed here. They better find me a wife soon or I'm going to end up here until I am old enough to mingle with the oldsters."
Sarah laughed and said, "Ah, poor Raj. I heard Terri in your history class is single too. Maybe you should go ask her out?"
Raj frowned and said, "Terri is my mother's age. She's a beautiful woman, but she treats me like a child. Well, at least I can still boast being the best Fleet Sim player in the academy."
Long Shen cleared his throat and then asked, "How are the academy students ranked here?"
Raj smiled and said, "If you open the academy home page and go to the student ranking board it will show your progress. Everything you do at the academy is rated including your gaming. If you look at the rankings for Fleet Sim you'll see that I am the second place... Wait, what the absolute fuck? Who is this God Shen? He only played three battles and he is ranked number one? What are these numbers? 90% accuracy, who did he play against?"
Sarah stood up and said, "He beat me, Raj, fucking hacker! His ships moved like there were separate AIs giving commands at the same time. I couldn't reposition my defense or get good shots on offense. It was a total slaughter. He had to be cheating with a bot or something. It was inhuman."
"God Shen... No way," Pierre started to laugh hysterically, "Guys, he has three battles. His name is God Shen. Who else at the academy could that possibly be." He turned and pointed at Long Shen.
Long Shen smiled and shrugged his shoulders, "What can I say, I was a professional gamer. I'm just really good at that game."
Sarah's eyes got really big, "You're a hacker?"
Long Shen frowned at Sarah, "No, I'm just really good at Fleet Sim. The reason I beat you so easily is that you are still thinking two-dimensionally. In Fleet Sim, remember that your ships need to account for the Y-axis as well."
"Dude, did you really have to take that from me too?" Raj slumped back into the booth again.
One of the administrators walked over to their table with a smile on his face. Ela warmly greeted him, "Good morning Mr. Takei."
He looked around the table and greeted, "Mr. Long, we haven't met yet. I'm Hanzo Takei, I'm the cultivation administrator here at OTS. I was just looking at your charts, it seems congratulations are in order. You have broken through to the eighth level. Based on your progress we feel that you are on a fast track to the higher levels. You have the potential to become Earth's first general. You'll be pleased to know that the higher-ups have decided to provide you with the best resources normally only provided to full bird colonels."
Long Shen had no idea what that meant, but he felt from the stares of his new circle of friends that it was good. He smiled and gave a small bow, "Thank you, Mr. Takei, I didn't realize I had made another breakthrough."
"Make sure that you attend your classes and take your study here at the academy seriously. Although you can become an officer through cultivation alone, without the foundation of study here at the academy you'll find that you won't be as of an effective leader." Mr. Takei smiled and then looked at the ladies, "And ladies, you should allow Mr. Long some sleep once in a while. Mr. Long, it was a pleasure making your acquaintance. If you have any needs for you cultivation you can come to find me in the student support building."
"I will, Mr. Takei, thank you."
After he walked away, Ela looked at Ting Ting and said, "He totally just called us all sluts."
Ting Ting laughed and said, "Pretty much. Sarah maybe, but not us, Ela. Although I did kinda dual cultivate with Jason the other night. I was feeling like I hadn't made any progress and he was looking cute sitting on the couch so I kinda pounced on him."
Sara looked at her two friends with a scowl, "I'm sitting right here you know."
Ting Ting looked at Sara and said, "Girl, you have dual cultivated with Jason, Raj, and Pierre."
Sara pouted cutely and said, "The thing with Jason was a one-time thing and he begged me to do it. Raj and Pierre were both steady for a while cause I didn't have a partner and they were both available."
Ela frowned at Sarah, "And today?"
Sara looked away and said, "I have no excuse."
Long Shen cleared his throat once again hoping to talk about something other dual cultivation. "Are the classes here hard?"
Raj shook his head, "It's all stuff our tutors drilled into us as a kid. But I know some of the older students struggle with the math, the history, the language, and the science portions. Those might be harder for you if you didn't have much education. I know you were an orphan."
Long Shen nodded and said, "I was given education until high school and then I was released on my own after I graduated. I never had the money for college and just worked for a gold farming studio so I could make money and play VR."
Ela smiled and said in her smooth seductive tone, "If you need a tutor, I could come by your place."
Sarah frowned and said, "My grades kinda suck. I do fine in strategy and tactics but the boring subjects just don't interest me enough to put my heart into it. It's all rehash for me."
"Ting Ting and Jason have the best grades in the school, but they would be horrible tutors. No offense Ting Ting, it's just that the two of you can't understand that other people aren't human computers like you two." Pierre chuckled.
Ting Ting shrugged and said, "I can't help being a genius."