"Alright everyone, that's it for today. Tomorrow, make sure you're on time or you'll lose the comfort of your cus.h.i.+ons during your long cultivation time. Now, everyone come hand me your cus.h.i.+ons and you'll be dismissed."

A line was quickly formed as the beasts grabbed their cus.h.i.+ons however possible, be it with hands, paws, or mouths. They were all handed in as Oli and Netra were the last in line.

"Mom, can I go use my cultivation room? I want to test it out."

"That's fine dear, thanks for letting me know. Just make sure you get home to have some sleep, okay," Ania chuckled and then looked at Netra. "Did you want to do the same? I'm sure he already showed you your cultivation room, so you must want to try it out too, right?"

Netra nodded, still a bit shy since it was Oli's mother she was addressing.

"That's fine. You're both allowed to use it so long as you ask beforehand. Make sure to remember today's lesson."

The two of them left the cla.s.sroom and found Yeter outside waiting for them. "Huh? You two are going to the library? But why, you already have what you needed?"

"We're going to cultivate there," answered Oli. "The third floor is different than the first two floors. There, the top three students of both cla.s.ses have private cultivation rooms prepared with formations to help gather even more essence. Cultivating in there should be much better than anywhere else."

"What?! You mean I can't cultivate up there?!"

"Sorry, Yeter. Rules are rules. You'll have to beat Karos first, then you'll get his room." Oli shrugged, sure that Yeter would be even more motivated to cultivate after hearing that.

"Really?! After I beat him, I'll get the other room? That's perfect!" Yeter shouted for joy, forgetting that he was left out in the first place. "Just wait, soon I'll beat that lynx and steal his room. Then, I'll beat you too and push you to third."

"You can try whenever you want, but I won't go easy on you like I did in the tournament."

"Fine, just wait till I beat Karos. Then we'll see who's stronger."

While they talked, the trio of friends was nearing the library. Since Yeter had no reason to go, he said his goodbye and let the other two go straight to the third floor.

They arrived to see that one of the three doors was shut already. Both of them smiled, knowing that Karos was already cultivating inside. With his determination, it would be hard for Yeter to beat him, but only time would tell.

"You should take the center room, you are the first seat after all," stated Oli with a smile.

"Okay, then we'll be next to each other."

"Here, let me explain what's in the room." Taking the liberties as the room's designer, Oli wanted Netra to make full use of everything available to her. They entered her room and looked around.

"The room is big enough for only a handful of people, the same is true for the formation."

"Does that mean that I can bring people in here to cultivate with?" asked Netra. "Like if we wanted to cultivate our dark essence together like before?"

"Sure, that's very possible. You're also allowed to bring other people who aren't students inside. For example, you're allowed to bring your mom with permission in case you wanted her to guide you in a specific aspect of your cultivation, like if you wanted her to test your essence nature," explained Oli.

"Okay, that makes sense. What's that?"

Netra was looking at a dull green stone embedded to the right of the door. It stood out because there were small symbols inscribed in the wall around it, as if the stone was a part of a separate formation altogether.

"That's a special formation that Vloz recommended using. By placing a certain amount of essence into that stone, the symbols around it will start to light up. This is used as a timer to help us not lose track of time," Oli explained.

"If you want to be here for four hours, then put enough essence in the stone to light up four symbols. When time runs out, the stone will release a ripple of energy with the last of the essence stored inside it, just strong enough to gently wake us from our trances of cultivation."

"Wow… You really thought of everything."

Amazed by such a new concept, Netra reached out her paw and started to slowly put essence into the stone. Gradually, it started to light up and fill the first symbol.

"When did you want to head back home?" asked Oli.

She looked away shyly. "When were you planning on it?"

"Me? I was planning on skipping dinner and cultivating all night till it was time to sleep," Oli laughed, willing to admit his addiction to cultivation.

"Then, can we cultivate together today? I'll do the same and I'm not sure how everything in here works."

"Sure, but it can't be every day, okay?"

"Then every other day," reasoned Netra. "You said you still want to cultivate dark essence, but if you don't do it evenly, your essence will be imbalanced. So we should at least do it every other day, that way you won't need to worry about that."

Oli sighed, sensing that Netra was a little desperate to train with him. "Fine, I can't argue with that logic."

He closed the door and shut the latch to lock it. A formation on the door suddenly activated, sealing the room and making it unable for anyone outside to sense what was happening beyond the locked door.

"Let's set the timer to eight hours, since its only afternoon. That way we'll maximize our cultivation time and have just enough time to rush home and sleep," said Oli as he sat down in the center of the formation.

"Okay."

Netra filled eight of the forty-eight symbols and sat on the ground, back to back with Oli. They both released their dark essence, lighting up the formation below them. It then started to gather all nearby dark essence with them, making their joint cultivation even more effective.