'Lets check out some weapons.' Yin thought to himself as he walked over to the dusty training ground. Flattened and hardened by multiple years of rigorous training. Long tables existed on the side of the training grounds, holding multiple different kinds of weapons.
As he walked by, he saw war axes, long swords, broadswords, daggers, scythes, spears, lances, double swords, maces, war hammers and hundreds more. Many even emanated different colored auras and some even made small sounds.
'Hmm... what should I chose?' He thought to himself.
After reviewing some of the weapons, he arrived to the end of that section of weapons. 'What is that.' He suddenly saw a sword stuck into the ground not too far away. It was a thin and sharp sword that emanated a slightly dark-red aura from its sides. On the blade were engraved words that read "ASI" In small curvy font.
'Asi, eh? I like it!' A smile appeared on his face as he lifted the sword out of the ground. Slight rumbling could be heard as he pointed the sword at the sky.
'Hahaha! This sword makes me feel powerful. I'll take it!'
Wasting no time, he started to train with the sword.
'I know that cultivation is very important, but reaching the next rank in the human stage looks like it will take a good time longer. I should also practice some other skills as well.'
He spent long hours training his sword skills on the dusty field. Parrying, slashing, dodging, striking, stabbing, lunging, feinting, sweeping, blocking, advancing, guarding, pivoting, thrusting, he did it all.
If his cultivation was to be lacking, he needed his offense skills to be at the very least top tier.
At the end of the day, he was on the ground due to exhaustion as he panted heavily. "Its too bad..." He paused to pant. "If only my goal wasn't to become the king of this world, I wouldn't have to train like this." He panted again as a smile started to slowly crawl on his face.
"Hahaha... Hahahah!" He laughed like a madman, looking at the sky.
After Yin returned to his room, he knew he wanted to cultivate through the night. 'The only dilemma is; I want to be able to sleep for growth and development, but I also want to cultivate. Because my Cerberus skill gathers mana on its own, I only need to maintain concentration while I sleep... should be easy enough.' He thought to himself as he sat down on his bed, crossed his legs and closed his eyes.
'Cerberus.' On saying this, everything instantly turned into pitch darkness as Yin's mana core started to radiate a white glow and colorful flows of mana started to appear in the air. After a couple of seconds, Cerberus started to move on its own, absorbing all of the mana in the area.
With pure concentration in mind, Yin fell asleep.
That night, Yin woke up a total of 47 times. Each time, his concentration broke, but every time he woke up, he slept in concentration for a little while longer.
Early next morning.
Yin woke up from his bed completely drowsy, he had barely slept last night, but that night still wasn't a failure, he had learned to sleep for about an hour without losing concentration. He quickly got dressed and walked down stairs. His plan was to eat some meat and immediately start training again. Excuses, laziness, dilemmas, nothing existed in his reality. To accomplish a goal such as ruler, one must defy all obstacles.
After eating in the lobby cafeteria, Yin went outside to the training grounds. As he arrived there, he immediately noticed the multiple kids who were nobles training their weapons on the field.
Swinging their swords under the heel of the blazing heat of the cruel sun, over 15 nobles were training with absolute discipline. All of them looked to be the same age, it seemed that they were all training for the same thing, the entrance exams at Dawn Magus Academy.
*Yawn* Yin scratched his ear. 'It seems that this place is going to be crowded. They better not bother me while I train.'
Yin leisurely walked to the middle of the training ground before pulling out Asi from his back sheath. He closed his eyes before exhaling deeply. He paused for a moment... suddenly, he exploded into a fury of moves.
His blows were fast and explosive, but were still very amateurish. He was not perfectly comfortable with the art of the sword yet, but that was a given. Still, he had improved vastly over the hours he had spent training yesterday, almost as if he had a talent for the sword from birth.
Everyone there immediately noticed him, as they stood still and practiced their weapons in one place, Yin moved around the field, swinging endlessly. Although his slashes and strikes weren't even close to as precise as the nobles, he still swung as if he had infinite endurance, not slowing down for even a split second.
Many of the nobles tried to continue practicing, but they could only practice for about an hour in the supreme sun before giving in to exhaustion. Even after they had all sat down to rest, Yin was still swinging his sword.
Sweat was pouring down his body, drenching all of his clothes. His expression was solemn and eyes were full of ferocious determination.
"That kid... who is he? His blows have not slowed down even a millisecond from when he arrived here." Leon Yuun who had bright white hair and silver eyes said as he drank from a water bottle.
"I have no idea, but it infuriates me! How he can train for so long without stopping! Its almost as if he's saying that we have given up, like he has more will power than us!" Another noble named Kang Alakos who had brown hair and bright brown eyes said in a frustrated tone.
"He does." Leon said.
"What?" Kang replied, raising an eye brow.
"Of course he has more will power than us. Why else are we on our asses while he is still going at it." Leon said in a joking but serious tone.
"Shut up Leon! If I wanted to, I could also train for that long, its just that its useless to train longer than needed!" Kang yelled in anger.
That night, Yin made slight progress with his concentration sleep. He continued this routine of training through the day and cultivating through the night for many months.
Throughout the months, many of the nobles had started to challenge themselves to duels in order to test their improvement and abilities. Soon, they had created an entire tournament that they did at the end of each week to update their rankings in strength.
Yin never competed, only observing from the sidelines. This infuriated some, creating an inferiority complex.
"Look at him over there, training alone in the corner! Haha!"
"What a loser! What are you? Scared!? Hahaha!"
Even still, Yin continued to simply train. His discipline did not allow him to sway away from training. Due to this, almost all of the nobles had started to develop hatred for Yin. To have someone train so hard, yet still not want to fight you was the greatest of insults.
Four months later.
As the sun started to rise above the horizon, Yin was sat in bed. He had learned to cultivate while sleeping throughout the four months, right now however, he was awake. 'Come on... almost there Cerberus, go a little faster.'
Finally, Cerberus absorbed the last piece of mana in the area as Yin's mana sea filled up for the second time in those four months. The sound of glass shattering could be heard again as spider-web like cracks could be seen appearing on Yins mana sea.
*Crack!*
The outer layer of the mana sea shattered, revealing another layer underneath. All of the mana stored inside was instantly absorbed by the new layer, hardening it and making more room for mana to be stored.
As soon as the new layer was rejuvenated, his entire body slightly floated in the air, glowing bright aura as his veins popped out of his body.
Finally, Yin had broken through to 3rd Rank Human Stage of cultivation. 'Finally! Now, this should be good enough.' He thought to himself as he stopped floating and his veins returned to normal.
He quickly got out of the bed and headed to the training grounds.
----------
"Alright! We will begin this weeks strength tournament!" Zoan Pao shouted in the middle of the training field. All of the kids had gathered in the middle to duel.
"Last time I came in 9th place, this time I'm gonna at least be in the top five!"
"Hah! There's no way you will get into the top five. I'm sixth place, and the guy above me is a monster!"
"Stop talking! It's time to duel!" Zoan finally shouted as everyone quieted down. They were all eager to see who their new matches would be for this weeks tournament.
"I hope I don't get Kang Alakas. I heard he's now in second place and that he's even stronger than the one in first!" A kid could be heard.
"That cant be true! The kid in first is like an ice cold demon! There's no way he would lose!" Another said.
"First up, Kang Alakas and-" Zoan, the announcer of the fights, was cut off as his expression turned confused. "You, what are you doing here?" He said, looking at Yin who had walked into the small crowd of kids. "Are you telling me that you finally want to fight one of us?"
"One of you? I'll take all of you at once!" Yin said loudly.
"Huh? Fine then! prepared to get destroye-" Zoan was cut off.
"No! Stop this at once! Don't act like your greater than us you bastard! You will be picked randomly just like everyone else!" Kang said as he looked at Yin, silencing everyone who were screaming to fight him.