Soru was at the peak of Power Realm, at its fifth stage. The light in his diagram was blinding, almost ready to burst hence the nickname Blinding Stage when referring to it. Being at the peak of the Power Realm at the age of 15 didn't make him a prodigy, but it doesn't make him practically a cripple like they were told.
"There is no way the reading crystal was wrong! Either those bastards at the slave market tricked us or they didn't know either. I highly doubt they didn't know, they probably wanted us to get a cheaper collar!"
Madam Cherry looked between Wonder and Soru. She couldn't help but feel a bit more uneasy at the unexpected development but wasn't too concerned.
"Wonder, call that bastard owner and have him come up with an explanation. Tell him if he doesn't give me a reasonable explanation, then I'm going to call my nephew and get him rigged onto a collar as well! And strap a more powerful collar on the boy pronto!"
Wonder didn't say anything and simply bowed. His wavy blue hair falling down before going back up and leaving the room. Mere moments later, another male servant, in similar attire to Wonder but with yellow hair stepped in.
"Hmm, come here Soru."
The yellow hair male replaced Wonder in writing letters in energy for Soru. Stepping up close to Madam Cherry, her round stomach nearly touching him as he stood close.
"Although it is hard, I am a patient person. Not a vile one like the other bidders that you could have gone to... 15 years old eh? I hear that your birthday is in a month's time."
With that parting sentence, Madam Cherry stood up while patting and caressing Soru's face. He closed his eyes not thinking about that hand that was roaming his features. Leaving to who knows where after she was satisfied. Soru could hear her briefly in the hallway.
"Now I need to think of a name for him. Hoho, it's true what Dina said about getting them young. Not only are they cheaper but also..."
Even with straining his ears, he couldn't hear anymore without looking suspicious. The blonde man that stayed behind led him back to his room stopping midway to get breakfast. Leaving him in his room to eat, the person who introduced himself as Inca told him that he will come for him later for training.
And like that, a time limit was set for Soru's escape. After all, he wouldn't want to be here when the month is over.
---
Inca did what he said he was going to do and came back for Soru within the hour. With such a short time set for his breakfast, he didn't have set aside for cultivation.
Once again surrounded by the ever-looming walls, this time he was escorted to an outdoor training ground. It was very big with weapons lining the walls from swords to spears to bows.
'Surely they don't train the slaves *ahem* servants to fight right? Are they that confident with the collars?'
"Inca, is this the new recruit that I was told to train? The deaf one?"
Inca smiled at the middle age man that was waiting for them in the middle of the training grounds.
"Just the technique to actualize Star Energy to communicate. After he is with us for a few more years and gains our trust, we will teach him more."
Inca spoke freely still thinking that Soru was deaf. Such a situation was exactly as he wanted.
"No problem, even if he has the worst cultivation and talent, I will make sure he learns this within a few months."
Cultivation techniques, a way of using your cultivation in various forms to achieve different results. The most common techniques are ones built for combat, but there are others like using energy to create letters.
Such a technique was quite simple that usually takes days for the average cultivator since it was at the lowest rank, cardinal rank.
All things in the cultivation world have ranks to indicate power and while cultivation follows its own ranks, everything else follows another set of standardized ranks. From treasures to materials to techniques, it was to simplify the categorization of such items. Of course, ranks were only relative to their respective items and sometimes not always accurate.
Cardinal being at the bottom while intermediate and superior follow. There were surely more power ranks but Soru hasn't heard of them yet. Despite this, he has heard that there were some items that countries and cultivation sects have waged wars over. Items such as his own cultivation manual was surely better than something like superior rank.
Cardinal rank on the other hand is as common as water if you have the necessary cash. The reason Soru's parents didn't use it was because the necessity was limited and easily replaced with pen and paper. And even still, they barely communicated with him in the first place. Why waste time and money on their useless son?
"I'll leave you to it, Albus."
Leaving Soru with Albus, the old man, they got started on his training. With the wall of communication separating them, Albus already had a plan of attack when he heard of his condition. After all, he was the oldest servant that taught all his successors like Wonder and Inca.
"Stand up straight. I am going to touch all the places where energy flows through and you are going to copy me."
His booming voice nearly causing Soru to flinch as words appeared before him saying the same things. Albus started to touch all around Soru's body with a cane simulating where the energy veins are supposed to flow and showcased him how to circulate them.
Albus really showed his expertise and experience by showing Soru the basics of utilizing his energy. It really surprised Albus that Soru was able to keep up although he was using a different and rough method but was pleasantly surprised.
And like that they trained throughout the morning.
---
Back at his room, Soru, who was once again meditating, was trying to figure out how to unlock the first stage. Doing so will give him the help he needs to get out of the lecherous lady's touches. Usually, cultivation techniques were inscribed inside cultivation manuals for one to practice while they go through their cultivation path.
Such a technique is tailored to all who practice the manual, but unfortunately for Soru, even after reading all the pages he was allowed, he couldn't find one in his book. So his only save and grace was unlocking the first stage which would change his body from a fundamental level.
Although the book didn't have any techniques, it still had stages in which when someone achieves it, would receive a boost in expertise regarding the teaching of the manual. Usually, stages are connected to cultivation realms, with the first stage of any manual to be achieved by someone in Sensory Refinement, the realm after Power Realm. Of course, there were some geniuses that bypassed this and if Soru wanted to escape, he had to be that genius.
The first stage was called: Shadow Camouflage
"Blending in with the shadows that adorn the world. No matter where you go, you will be able to hide as shadows are omnipresent."
The idea is that even in the most well-lit places, there will be shadows that follow. He just didn't know where to start or how to go about it. Usually one would read the text and after gaining a connection with the text of the manual would one reach the stage. But with no mentor to help him, he wouldn't even know if he reached that stage or not.
'But even with this, I won't be able to remove this damned collar. I need to go back to that room with the orb.'
Soru by his nature was very sly and observant which is part of the reason he started to like the shadowy nature of his cultivation manual more and more. Remembering back to when he was tested and when Madam Cherry was sitting in her chair, he saw something that caught his eye. A drawer at the bottom of her desk at a strange object sticking that had his name and the other butler's names with buttons on them.
It was all but confirmed when Madam Cherry asked him to approach her desk and he was able to take a peek behind the scenes. Such an idiotic move from her, he wondered how she could have gone so far being so careless.
Soru calmed down a bit and rethought his plan.
'One step at a time, let me first try to accomplish the first stage of this manual. Then I will worry about everything else.'
And like that, Soru went back to silently cultivating in his free time, training in the morning, and doing service work in the afternoon being trained as a servant.