Senior He pauses as he points up, "Above us, you can see the separate floors, this is where general Inner court elders stay during the day. General elders don't teach specific classes, instead, they help you train in the courtyard or library. Sometimes you can find them giving seminars in the shared area in front of this hall."
"You will have to go through their personal secretaries to meet them outside of those activities though. On a rare occasion, a partially difficult mission may call for the aid of an elder, and the secretaries will set you up with an elder to join you."
Clapping his hands he walks past us while gesturing for us to follow. Heading back outside we follow him around the large hall to head north again.
"On your right, you will see the Hall of Knowledge, you are only ever allowed in there if you earn acknowledgments. An acknowledgment is just something you get from doing well in your classes or completing particularly difficult missions."
"On your left, behind the bushes, is the Golem yard. You can freely use it to test out your skills, though I will warn you, the golem's difficulty is always one rank above your own so tread carefully."
Making use of my good vision I take the time Senior He isn't talking to look around the sect more. In front of us is a large sprawling building only two stories tall but very wide. To the right of that building is a small hut that looks exactly like the array building in the outer court. On the left of it is another mage tower like the one in the outer court but this one seems far more grand, standing over twenty floors tall.
"This building in front of us is the mess hall, you will use your identification badges to get your meals. You can get up to three meals a day at any time, so if you wish to have a meal at one, two, and three, that is up to you. The meals all contain rank zero devil meat so it's not enough to cultivate but it will fill you with energy for the day, and it tastes good."
"Wait, then how do we get devil meat to cultivate?" The quiet girl Hisole Triss asks.
"Sorry, I should have explained earlier. The only way to get meat for cultivation is to either do missions or join an abyss expedition. There are forty-one expeditions per year so don't feel left out if you miss one. One hundred disciples are able to go on each expedition so your odds of getting in are fairly good even at rank one."
As Yi He begins to lead us elsewhere I begin to look around the sect again. Not far behind the mage tower is a training hall that seems to be built for martial artists. On the opposite side of the martial hall is a chapel with fifteen halls outstretched from a massive domed center room.
Even deeper into the sect, I see an absolutely massive palace, there are a few buildings surrounding it. Nine to be exact. Each of the surrounding buildings has its own courtyard, six of them are decorated while the rest are rather barren without water in their ponds. That must be the housing for the direct disciples.
Looking back at the palace I notice that the tall main doors are open so I peer inside a bit. Inside there are eight black thrones sitting on either side lining a path leading to a much brighter ivory throne. Resting on the throne sits a man-made of black mist with gold and red eyes, he is currently resting his chin upon his fist lazily.
I feel a shiver down my spine as I peer upon his indistinguishable facial features. As I am about to pull my vision back my blood runs cold as I see his eyes are not just dozing off to nowhere, they are looking at me. Nearly instantly I pull my vision back and stop walking as I take a deep breath.
*thump*
"Ow." I hear a girl's voice from behind me, she bumped into me as I stopped walking, it was Olivia.
"Sorry, " I say, turning a bit to give her an apologetic nod.
She shakes her head, "It's fine, I wasn't paying attention." Despite her kind words, I see Tang Ling is still glaring at me but I ignore it and continue following senior He.
Senior He shows around to each area giving us a rundown of each. The only interesting part is when he showed us the palace; he mentioned that once you were accepted as a direct disciple of the Devil Monarch, you have to kneel before the throne of the first monarch and ask for his blessing.
Once the tour is done he tells us that we will receive our robes and identification card when we get back to the dorms. I assume I will get mine from Uncle since I am staying with him at the moment.
"Since we are done here you can either go greet your teachers or head back to the dorms to get settled in."
Without much thought, I head to the mages tower out of curiosity. You can't blame me, I've idolized mages since I was a child.
As I get to the tower I see two disciples standing in front of the tower's entrance talking. I don't pay heed to them as I step past and enter the tower. I notice they both give me a glare but I don't pay attention to it and keep walking inside.
Inside the first floor is an open room with blue and purple stained glass windows behind a wide wooden desk. Sitting at the desk is a man reading a thick book with a bland face. The man looks to be in his mid-thirties with blond hair and gray eyes with a thin head.
"Excuse me, where is the first circle elder's office."
Without peering up from his book he asks, "Sorcerer or Mage?"
"Oh, sorry, mage."
"Go up two floors. It will be the first door on your right after you get off the stairs."
With a thankful nod, I head towards the stairs, "Thank you."
The man scoffs as he leans back reading his book. Heading up the stairs I sparsely pass any disciples at all on the way up the stairs, and the ones I do pass don't pay any attention to me.
It doesn't take long for me to get up to the third floor and to the Elder's office. Knocking on the door I stand outside patiently. After a few moments, the door swings open revealing an older-looking man sitting at a black desk with a tired expression.
Glancing at my robes he smiles a bit, "One of the new batch I assume? Come on in."
I nod as I walk in closing the door behind me, "Yes, I'm Engres Jun. I just wanted to meet you before the first time I attend your classes tomorrow."
He smirks, "I like the initiative, are you from 'that' Jun family?"
"My father was, but I have no connection to them at the moment."
"Heh, good. Your Uncle is an awful man, I'm glad you have no connection to him. You can call me Elder Drake, do you have any questions?"
"Uh, yes. I wanted to know what we will be learning about since we can't cultivate."
The elder leans back in his chair, "For first ranks, it is all about your ability to utilize mana to its greatest potential. So for most of the time, you are with me I will be teaching you mana control, mana theory, and cultivation control. I would hate for one of my students to go through deviation and end up dead."
"Is that all?" I ask a bit disappointed.
"That is a lot, you will see when you are in class tomorrow. Is that all you wanted?"
I nod, "Thank you, Elder Drake."
Looking back down at a paper on his desk he waves his hand and the door behind me swings open, "You are free to leave."
While thinking about how mana control training would even go I turn around and walk out. Walking back to the outer court I become a bit excited to see the twins and Thea again. It's only been a few hours but I'm worried about how they are fairing without Mother and Father around, it's only been two days after all.