The school was located in the middle of the village. It was the only school in the region that taught children from all five villages. The school was a modest two-story building. It had eight classrooms in total, with each classroom teaching students spanning three age gaps. Each class also had only one teacher who taught everything.
Luis's classroom was on the second floor, where older students in their teens studied. Luis sat in the middle of the classroom between two of his friends while the teacher, Eldrin, started the class.
"Good morning, everyone. For today's class, we are going to learn more about aura control and development," Eldrin said as he started taking out circular objects from a box and handing them out. "As you already know, there are two main methods of increasing aura: physical and breathing—or as some say, meditating. Today, we will learn about some more techniques for each method."
Luis sat between two classmates: Taran, a boy from a neighboring village with black hair and fair skin, and Aelina, who was taller than both Luis and Taran. She had blonde hair that seemed to catch the sunlight coming from the window. Her hair had been red when she was born, but by using a Xoliti Clan blessing, it was permanently changed so she wouldn't be seen as someone from the Phoenix Clan.
Taran leaned over, whispering, "Feels like this is gonna be boring again."
Luis smirked and fiddled with the circular device placed on his desk. "Maybe, but this looks interesting."
The teacher stopped at the front of the class after giving out the circular objects. "Before we start, let me remind you why we focus so much on aura and aura control in classes. Back when humans were slaves to strong beasts, we focused on it to grow free from them. However, now it is to grow stronger than other humans. Unlike most other kingdoms and empires, our kingdom, Altheris, focuses more on aura and aura control than education. Why do you think that is?"
A student in the front row raised his hand and answered, "Isn't it because our kingdom is weaker compared to our neighbors?"
Eldrin nodded. "Yes. To be more precise, it is because we don't have any strong clans. We have a bunch of weak clans and one strong high-tier creature clan. To combat our neighbors, who have multiple strong clans, we focus on aura. Aura can equalize our power and give us a chance at survival."
A few seconds after the class fell silent under the weight of his words, Eldrin softened his tone and changed topics, picking up the item on his desk. It was a flat circular object with branching lines etched on its surface, resembling a spiderweb but more intricate.
"This," he explained while lifting it up, "is called an Aura Conduit Disk. It's a tool used to improve aura control. When imbued with aura, it lights up because it is made out of a tree that reacts to aura. The goal is to only light up specific parts of the branches and not light up other parts. If your control is better, you can light up multiple different parts that don't touch each other. Beyond that, you can start moving the aura through it. You can imbue small dots of aura and move them across the branches separately without touching each other. Add more dots, and the stronger your control is.
"This not only improves your aura control but also enhances your ability to sense aura from your surroundings. This is an item most aura users have."
He set the disk back down on the desk and continued, "You can practice with it at home. For now, we're going to learn about another method to train aura—training in aura-rich environments. These places allow you to absorb aura faster, which is useful when advancing to a higher tier. When you split your cores to reach a new tier, you typically lose 35–40% of your aura."
After pausing, he added, "Luis, you reached the Adept tier recently, right? How much aura did you lose when splitting your core?"
Luis straightened in his seat. "I lost about 32%."
Teacher Eldrin nodded approvingly. "That is better than average. Minimal aura loss is also a sign of a skilled aura user. Staying in aura-rich environments, meditating, visualization, and elemental exposure are all ways to replenish aura faster. We'll learn more about the latter in future classes."
The rest of the class focused on learning how to imbue aura into the disk. After the class ended and everyone was packing up their things, Luis, Taran, and Aelina were conversing.
"So the training with your dad helped you reach the Adept tier. What blessing did you get, Luis? Is it anything cool? Your first one is already cool—you can move aura through your body faster—but what about your second one?"
Luis hesitated for half a second. "I got a baby rock golem blessing. It's like leather armor, but slightly weaker."
"Oh, that's lucky. I wish my second one was cool like a defensive one. My first blessing just lets me make air as strong as a hand fan only. It's the weakest elemental blessing I've ever seen anyone have. I wish I got something cool like yours."
Aelina joined in. "Yeah, Luis. Both your blessings are pretty cool."
Luis smiled. "Yours are also pretty cool, Taran. Whenever it's really hot, I wish I had your blessing. Or your elemental resistance one, Aelina. Not feeling the heat or cold on really hot or cold days sounds nice."
Taran stretched after putting on his bag. "I can't believe how much your dad has taught you. Everyone says he was a soldier from another kingdom. Your dad married your mom and moved here so they could teach their kids more about aura. No wonder you're ahead of everyone else."
Luis shrugged as they started to walk out of the class, with Taran a few steps ahead. "Yeah, I guess."
Aelina leaned closer, whispering to Luis, "Surprised you didn't stutter while lying. I didn't think you'd get better at it."
Luis replied with a faint smile. "So are you. I don't even know what your actual second blessing is."
"Well, I can't just say it in public places," Aelina whispered.
As Aelina and Luis lingered back while talking, Taran shouted, "What are you guys talking about? Hurry up!"
Luis responded, "You're walking too fast. Slow down for us!"