The days swiftly passed, consumed by Ruel's relentless schedule of classes and practice. From dawn till dusk, he immersed himself in a whirlwind of lectures, never allowing his own physical training to be neglected.
In addition to the combat class and the survival class, he also had the extra circular classes related to alchemy, formation, and arrays as well as blacksmithing and spirit cooking.
Alchemy used herbs as well as special plants formed with the nurturing of the spiritual energy in the atmosphere and the remains of spiritual beasts in the wild. Every alchemist had different methods to make pills but the end results were always the same.
The pills were one of the necessities for every cultivator. With their wide uses, they were one of the important things.
Formation and alchemy were required more in the military-based departments as well as research-based departments.
Blacksmithing, as the name suggested, was to forge armor, weapons, and elemental emblems. Spirit weapons were in most demand after pills. After all, how many people can fight with their fists? Forgoing the advantage of weapons.
Spirit cooking provided the benefit of not starving in the wild as well as being able to find the right ingredients to cure some of the effects caused by calamities. Spiritual food had the property to replenish spiritual energy.
There was one department regarding medical and healthcare, but it was one of the rare ones. Only occasionally did people join it.
These all had one thing in common: they used spiritual energy to perform the acts and increase their quality. If the Saints were at the forefront of humanity's survival then the spiritual activities were the backbone of it all.
After all, humans were weak social creatures, even in the same realm, how many could kill the beasts and demons? They had physical and number advantages, only through these activities could humanity still be alive.
The easiest of these was the spirit cooking, but Ruel didn't want to choose something unproductive. He had to pick something that would help in his journey, and what better option was there other than blacksmithing.
Ruel had confidence in his ability to survive with enough information about any environment. He was getting the information from the survival classes now only the combat power and the ability to tackle the unknown remained.
Only with time and effort could his combat ability increase, but to increase the ability to tackle unforeseen things could be negated to some extent with the blacksmithing.
If his weapon broke or even needed repair, if his armor broke down or his elemental emblem malfunctioned, he would need those skills.
Even if he couldn't repair them, he could at least make them usable. Other skills needed much more perquisites, which Ruel couldn't provide.
His days went by in this schedule, and now only around 10 days were left at most in his advancement to the Foundation Establishment realm.
He was eagerly waiting to advance through. The days were monotonous as well without any entertainment, but he hadn't come here to enjoy.
Today, as he was returning from his class, he noticed Sia sitting inside his house, meditating on one of the vacant seats. Ruel didn't know the reason she was visiting him today.
Entering the house, he removed his shoes and sat opposite her, waiting for her to wake up. A meditating person should always be given time to complete their meditation.
As the time went by and with no chance of Sia opening her eyes, Ruel also started meditating in the wait, he didn't have anything other than that to do.
The thing he hated most was not properly utilizing time. The time once lost never came back. One had to use it to the fullest.
As the time passed, he heard a rustling sound. Looking to his left, he saw Sia trying to walk away when her eyes moved toward him.
Again sitting back down, she spoke in a haughty voice.
"Oh, look who finally decided to wake up? I have been waiting for you for so long and instead of waiting for me, you copy me and make me wait."
"hmph," A pout had formed on her cheeks. Looking at her, Ruel couldn't not be baffled every time.
'How can one be this shameless….'
Facepalming himself, Ruel said while ignoring the previous statement.
"Why are you here again? Oh, and take this back as well." Saying this, he took out the plaque she had given him some time back.
Looking at it for some moments, she said in a dark tone, "Why didn't you use it? Don't you want some sword art or any elemental techniques? Not even body-strengthening techniques? Or is it that you don't wanna use your sister's credits?"
"Do you seriously-"
"No," interrupting her in the middle of her soon-to-start rampage, Ruel said.
"I already have credits from my time in the twilight forest, and I will be going to hunt and do missions from tomorrow onwards. I don't need these."
"I would have asked for them myself if I needed them, just use them for yourself. You don't have to worry about me that much you know?"
As soon as he said that, he stood up from his place, going towards Sia. Rotating her body to face, her eyes suddenly widened.
Ruel was hugging her. He had dropped down to his knees, with his face just beside her. She could feel some trembling in his body. Her brother had been quite distant at all terms from her. Seeing him hug her was just surprising.
In a whispering voice, Ruel said, "You are the only family I have left…. Don't spend your hard-earned credits on me. Use it on yourself and not on me."
"You can reach new heights, believe me. Oh and believe me, sis, I love you, so don't go getting injured or something on my watch."
Sia just couldn't digest what her brother had said. With a reluctant smile on her face, she hugged him tightly.
Some moments passed by when she heard him again.
"Uh, can you let me go now? I can't breathe oof"
Looking towards him, she saw his cheeks were red from the lack of air. With a sudden bout of embarrassment spreading through her, she let go of him.
"Ehem" she fake coughed in the embarrassment.
Cracking his back, Ruel said in a mischievous smile, "Aren't you quite the macho?"
Listening to this, her eyes turned towards him, glaring at the imbecile of a brother. "Lemme show you who is the macho…"
With some fun talks with Sia, Ruel's mind calmed down from the stress of the past few days. He had been grinding for weeks, doing nothing but training. His hands had calluses all over them from the hammering as well as the sword practice.
His muscles were bruised and aching most of the time, that's how much time he had spent just consistently training, even forgetting to talk with people. It had been over a month since he had even seen Agon and Steve.
After saying byes to Sia, he went deep inside his house, packing his stuff for tomorrow.
He had a field trip for two days starting tomorrow.
It was just a trip to get real-life fighting experience with beasts, for a fact no other student than Ruel and some more had any fighting experience.
The only reason he was stranded in the Twilight forest when regressed was because of….Because of
He couldn't remember the reason! He didn't remember for what reason he and others went there.
This was a pressing matter! He didn't remember the reason for going there…
This was suspicious. He was in a life-threatening situation at that time, and the keeper had regressed him to that point in time.
He couldn't think of any reasons for these events, and he had a feeling that even if he asked others for the reason, he wouldn't get the answer he will be searching for.
A secret hidden behind veils….