The School of Arrays had managed pique to Lucian's interest, and while learning wasn't as fun as doing nothing, Lucian had to admit that it had its own charm.
Part of the reason he liked doing nothing was a fear he held that he would dedicate himself to something and find a brick wall at some point marking the end of the road, but the school of arrays didn't seem to have that ending.
So, he made up his mind, he wouldn't excel at the subject, but he would absorb all the knowledge he came across and achieve the minimum requirements to reach the next stage.
On the third day of the week, the final of the new time-draining activities was presented to him, on the bright side he had no need to attend some academy for this one.
The most he would ever have to do for this one is visit one of the eleven energy towers of Mercurion if he wanted to, as the final introduction was cultivation.
As far as cultivation techniques went there were 7 tiers each corresponding to the 7 levels of cultivation, but the tier of a cultivation technique used by a cultivator had to correspond with a cultivator's core level.
For instance, someone with a red core could not cultivate using a tier 2 cultivation technique they had to use a tier-one technique.
Cultivation techniques are hard on the body, it's sort of like running an excavation team through the organs you're improving, and if you want to use better tools like a gigantic drill, you need to ensure the organ can sustain the weight of the equipment.
But even amongst the various tiers, there are different levels of techniques, common, special, elite, mystic and legendary, and the various different levels have different degrees and effects.
For instance, a common technique will allow for a small amount of energy infusion per hour, while a special technique could almost double the amount of energy infusion.
But aside from energy infusion, the higher-level techniques can grant other perks, evolution energy that allows special improvements to the body, some techniques can improve multiple organs there are even those techniques that improve entire body systems.
There are introductions of unique enhancements to certain organs, and the rarest thing of all is the creation of abilities.
Every organ in the body could be selected for focused cultivation, and selecting them would require techniques that are designed to improve those organs, but this also came with a series of choices.
It was a truth that every cultivator could choose any organ they wished to cultivate, and they could choose every single organ in their body if they wished, and in an empire like Mercurion, the cultivation manuals for every organ did exist.
Yet despite this, it was unheard of for great cultivators to choose more than twenty organs, in fact, 15 was the limit of some of the greatest cultivators in history.
The reason was two-fold, the first reason was that as people climbed higher the demand for energy to grow became increasingly demanding and it was increasingly difficult to obtain the techniques to improve themselves, and creating one's own techniques came with its own fair share of risks.
And second, was the most important reason, energy expulsion, every hour the organs of the body would release a tiny portion of the cultivated energy stored within, the amounts might be tiny, but they build up over time, and the higher the level of the organs the greater the degree of energy expulsion.
Take on too many organs and the energy expulsion will catch up and drag you down, if a person were to reach the blue core it would be impossible for them to regress to a green core, but that is where the problem lies.
The body would start to consume the life force of the cultivator to sustain itself, leading to the desiccation of the body and core, a horrendous state that no small number of foolish cultivators died from due to their desperate acts to ascend without having a means of sustaining themselves.
Lucian got a long-winded lecture to caution him against overstepping his bounds when he decided to choose his organs of choice.
And as a prince, he was granted access to choose any number of elite tier 1 cultivation techniques to begin his cultivation, from the empire's collection.
In truth, it was a very good selection that would guarantee him a certain amount of evolution energy on every breakthrough, but there was a part of his instincts that was cautioning him against selecting those techniques.
It's not that they were bad for him, but there was something at the back of his mind eating away at him telling him that he would regret selecting those techniques forever.
Lucian could only heave a sigh, 'Well I only plan on starting to cultivate when I can no longer avoid it, I guess I have six years to figure out what this feeling is if not then I'll be using these techniques,' Lucian thought with a soft sigh as he fell into a trance.
When suddenly he bolted upright on his bed, his eyes opened wide and sharp, his caretaker Ezra was busy dusting a cushion when she noticed his strange behaviour, "Is everything' alriyte' me' prince'?" she asked looking around the room for some kind of intrusion, but the longer she looked the more apparent it became that nothing was wrong.
"Did you hear that Ezra?" Lucian asked as he too studied the room.
"I'm sorri' me' prince' what was I supposed te' hear'?" she asked with raised brows.
Lucian gave another look around before shaking his head, "Never mind," he answered and returned to his trance.
"...fiiiinnddd meeeee…" the voice came again at barely an audible whisper.
Lucian froze as he tried to identify the voice, it sounded feminine and extremely weak like it was on the verge of going out.
"…..slooooth…"
The word caused Lucian's entire body to tremble and his mind began to race, he shut his eyes and tried to burrow himself deeper into the voice but after an hour passed it seemed it would speak no more.
---
"Princess," Eros called out as he knocked at her door, he waited a moment before pushing it open and walking in with a small gift-wrapped box in his palm.
He walked in to see Alphea lounging on a couch near the window, sipping on some steaming tea.
"Another gift has come for you princess, apparently your latest capture did more than just serve as a gift to the Lawvellius lineage, but an Ancestral royal family of the Mortician empire had a couple of grievances with him," he said placing the gift down on the glass coffee table.
"Also, the Umbars have managed to gather quite the ransom on that pair of mischievous twins you captured," Eros added placing a report next to the gift.
Alphea paid it only a glance, "Have you had any success in luring out Aridex?" she asked.
"He has been playing carefully since his altercation with Malfer Umbar, the Umbar's are only a small step away from elevating their bounty on him to a DoA, and he has also had a number of scuffles with the Goldore's,"
"Ouroboros has assigned him to someplace else to wait for this whole thing to blow over," Eros reported.
Alphea raised a brow, "You know where he is, don't you?" she asked with a grin crossing her lips.
"Of course, I contacted the Underworld and arranged a few things, that being said you will be required to make a considerable contribution to 'charity' for this favour," Eros added.
"Naturally," Alphea rolled her eyes, "Now tell me where he can be found?" she asked with an impatient pout.
"The Swamps of Shara," he answered.
Alphea climbed to her feet, "It will take two weeks for me to get there," she muttered as she began to collect things from her drawers.
Eros nodded, "But please do tread with caution princess, Aridex is a slippery one he did escape from Malfer, and I imagine if he discovers you he'll flee and delve deeper into hiding," Eros cautioned.
Alphea smiled like a predator that had just snared its prey, "Oh, I doubt that he'll be able to get away from me," she replied with a lustrous smile.
"Shall I accompany you for this capture, princess?" Eros asked.
Alphea shook her head, "It's like you said he slipped away from Malfer, I'm afraid I must move as quietly as possible and your armour sticks out like a sore thumb,"
Eros nodded in acceptance, "I suppose you're right princess, good luck with your task, may Borealis keep your steps light," he wished her good fortune and handed her a file.
"Just a couple of assignments you can take care of along the way," he added.
"Thanks, Eros," Alphea said and took the file, there really was too much to do, she couldn't remember the last time she took a trip that had only a single destination, and playing bounty hunter wasn't exactly something that should have been on her to-do list, so she had to compromise at times.