After finishing his trial practice, and felt exhausted.
It seemed that Practicing the Divine Trinity chaos law consumed all of his mental and physical energy, the moment he dropped over the rough dorm bed face first, he was sound asleep.
He slept all the way to dawn where he woke up from the light coming through the window and the chill blowing wind that Penetrated all the way to his bones.
Feeling the cold , Aric ravaged through the small cabin for firewood to light the fireplace but couldn't find any, all he found was a piece of flint and a rusty wood cutting axe.
Aric sighed, took the axe and made his way out of the dorm and into the small forest Hills standing in the academy grounds.
It was fascinating how large the academy was, capable of holding a small forest within and not lacking the space for their other sectors and services.
When Aric made his way to the hills, he started by collecting twicks and sash to start the fire, he then spent an hour or so cutting and retrieving fire wood .
When Aric was done collecting wood, he didn't make his way back to the dorm, instead he found a quiet place within the hills, and then sat training in the Trinity chaos law.
It was worth mentioning that laws and techniques such as this were extremely rare, to harvest essence from one's surrounding was usually considered extremely inefficient since the essence in the air was very impure, and if one doesn't know exactly what he's doing, one wouldn't make any noticeable progress even if they trained for a hundred years.
Of course they're was exceptions to this , arts as such that tap into secret supplies of the cosmos, or use illusory concepts to elevate The quality or quantity of essence tapped into by the artist, an example of that would be Aric's royal family's legacy , the angelic origin purgatory art.
Although Aric never had the chance to train or even read the art, it was known as one of the strongest legacy class techniques in the entire realm and was the reason he was so excited when he first read the legacy he had obtained.
Aric sat down, and started reciting the mantra and cleared his mind from all distractions.
He found it a lot easier to get into the detached soul state this time, and was able to be a lot more efficient in the use of his soul force.
In just three hours he was able to get two twigs of essence refined in the chaotic crystale and even though he was tired, he wasn't nearly as exhausted as he was yesterday when he finished his training.
Yet this time was also different in that he felt slightly bored, since he didn't fall into the same semi unconscious stance as he did last time, and so he felt the three hours pass in normal time.
But it wasn't that great of an inconvenience to Aric, he wasn't so spoiled that he didn't have the will to sit three hours in place while reciting a mantra.
Aric went through emmanse hardship to make it this far, he couldn't count how many nights he spent under the pouring rain pushing his body to the limit with a heavy staff in arms, he held his weapon straight no matter what, be it his aching muscles or his shivering body from the cold, he always remained unfazed, with his goal at sight.
Aric decided to not go all out, and first deal with what must be dealt with today.
After finishing his practice session, Aric still felt slightly tired, it seemed that the Divine Trinity chaos law put a lot of pressure on the soul, thus giving him the headache and Mental fatigue he was in.
But it wasn't that unbearable, he descended the hills and went back to his dorm to drop the fire wood.
He found a small wooden box in his room when he returned, it seems to have been dropped by one of the executives since only they had the other key to these dorms.
He looked inside and found his previous , now completely burnt robe and soft armor, his carbonized red wooden staff, and a small white token alongside a small note.
" It seems we're not given much privacy in this place " having noted that Aric then went to inspect the stuff in the box.
The soft armor was completely ruined and so was the silk robe, but what Aric was most sad about was the staff.
The red staff was a gift from one of the servants at his uncle's house, and it meant a lot to Aric, to paladin's a weapon was a sacred part of their lives, and for Aric it was even more so since those maids and servants raised him themselves and were his parents essentially.
" Sigh, it seems I'll need to get a new one " after raping the staff in cloth and setting it aside, Aric went to pick the token and the note beside it.
The note read " to student Aric Damar, you've been assigned a token pass to the white pavilion, the token can be used to retrieve a copy of any one art within the three floors of the white pavilion, you can retrieve the art in any time in the next three weeks and the token can only be used once, so take ample time and be wise. "
Having finished reading the note, Aric looked at the token in his arm, it was made of white jade, cold to the touch yet surprisingly solid and resilient.
Aric's palm tightened around the token and he muttered, " finally!…"
As excited as Aric was of the trinity chaos law he obtained, he knew it'd be the secret of his life, and probably a trump card that not many will know about.
Also at the end of the day ,the legacy he received didn't mention a single thing about how chaos essence should be utilized , and Aric knew it'd be a long journey of trial and error before he would make any progress in it.
He will never be willing to give up on the Divine Trinity chaos law, just the fact that it can contain essence within his body so easily proved it to Be a heaven defying art, and that's all fine and dandy but what Aric was in desperate need of right now was not hope , rather power.
His fight with the assassins in the darkwoods left quite the mark on him, he never felt so helpless and powerless in his life, to Aric the difference between a mortal and a true paladin had always been just a concept, and only till that fateful day did he truly understand how far he was from being able to stand in the same league of power as a paladin.
He wanted something tangible , he wanted progress and amidiate one so that he can at least survive till he can uncover the secrets within the legacy and make all his once impossible dreams a reality.
But even if he was desperate for progress, he wasn't going to rush his mystic art choice cause that would be the dumbest thing he could possibly ever do.
A good choice of mystic art would mean a smooth sailing progress in your training and advancements, as for a wrong choice, it might completely ruin your life and any chance for a future prospect.
Thus Aric was going to take all the time In the world before making his pick, the note came with a notice of his attributes,and although slightly different, it was basically the same as the results from back then.
The only choice in his hand was either fire or light elemental arts that were of decent talent, the rest was all subpar or low.
For Aric it was an obvious choice of going with fire, since his weapon of choice was the staff, with an explosive and formless characteristics, it fits perfectly with the fire attribute.
But the problem stood in which of the dozen of the fire elemental arts the ancestral school has should he pick.
After all, the fire element wasn't a rare element at all, especially in the Damar empire situated slightly to the south, with a hot climate and a greater concentration of fire essence, it had an abundance of fire arts and fire experts all around.
Thus giving Aric a headache on how he should go about picking his art.
" I need someone experienced to help me deal with this ." Aric thought and felt helpless, usually disciples had they're families , guilds of origin or even instructors to help answer any of their questions.
But Aric found himself on his own here, he barely knew how his family looked from descriptions and portraits, and he didn't have any paladin friends at disposal, and since he was early at entry, he couldn't really ask instructors since classes are yet to begin and he knows none of them.
In fact, in this entire school, he had only ever spoken to two people who he knew by name and they were his only options.
Having eliminated the headmaster immediately, since considering her position she probably doesn't have time to answer any of he's questions, and since he already had only two to choose from, that left him with no other choice than the Clinic guy, Leonard.
" It seems I have no other choice than the white haired weirdo " Aric sighed and stuffed the token in his robe before making his way to the clinic sector.