87 Third Lesson: Essence Nature (1/2)

The next couple of weeks went by smoothly.

Oli gave up trying to create a human form for the time being. He understood that it would be impossible if his body wasn't strong enough to handle the changes. Lucky for him, he had a body strengthening method.

Every other day, Oli was practicing the Infinite Compression art to strengthen both his body and his natural affinity for earth essence.

By killing two birds with one stone, Oli could feel that he was nearing a breakthrough to become a peak-novice. It was only a matter of time now.

Oli wasn't the only one though.

Yeter and Karos were both nearing the pinnacle of the novice plane, getting ready to enter the adept plane. After that, they would become the bottom seats of the adept advanced class and work their way up.

The most miraculous person was Netra. After receiving a perennial grade cultivation technique, her perfect dark affinity had helped her catch up to Oli and even surpass him.

On the morning of the third lesson, Oli had realized that something was different about Netra.

Her aura was less noticeable, but his own dark affinity allowed him to know that she had already become a peak-novice. She was even lower than him just a couple of months ago, yet she had already climbed two levels and her cultivation wasn't slowing down at all. If anything, it was still speeding up.

Joint cultivation mixed with the cultivation room's formation and her perfect affinity created the perfect storm for her, allowing her to fly through the novice plane and soon enter the adept plane.

Oli felt sad. Though he knew that she was always the first seat, he felt it was mainly due to casualty.

But now, Oli was starting to see what it meant to have a perfect affinity. It really did make a serious difference, and it wasn't a coincidence that Vloz and Rathe instantly gave her the first seat. There was even a chance that she would get one of the top three seats in the advanced adept class the moment she reaches the next plane, all because of her perfect affinity.

While Oli was feeling discouraged about his own cultivation speed, Ania was passing around the cushions and preparing to start the third lesson.

”Alright everyone, do you know what we're talking about today?” asked Ania.

Yeter was the first to shout, ”Essence nature!”

”Correct, good job, Yeter!” She smiled, happy to see that most of the class was excited for the new lesson. ”Then let's start the class off with a question. What exactly is essence nature?”

A hand went up. ”Essence nature is the nature of our essence.”

”True… but what does that mean, exactly? What does it mean for your essence to have its own nature?”

Everyone thought in silence for a moment, until Karos's tail went up. ”Teacher, isn't essence nature how our essence acts naturally?”

”That's very true. To put it simply, your essence nature is how your essence will interact naturally with the world around you. Here, let me show you.” A boulder appeared from Ania's void ring. ”If I cover my hand in my essence without any techniques or arts, then the essence will do nothing but act according to its nature. So watch this.”

With a smile, Ania casually placed her hand on the boulder, at least she tried to. Before her hand could actually touch it, the boulder would crumble away when it came into contact with her essence.

”Do you see what I mean? My essence has a nature to break things down on contact,” explained Ania. ”So, class, what do we learn about essence nature from this?”

”That teacher is really strong!” shouted Yeter.

”That essence can naturally attack!” yelled a wildebeest.

The lynx that Oli had once fought on test day also raised his tail to speak. ”Your essence nature affects how we attack one another.”

Ania nodded. ”Those are all true, but there's still a lot more to essence nature than just that. Oli, what else do we know about essence nature?”

”Well, our essence nature is directly linked with our cultivation techniques,” stated Oli. ”Our cultivation techniques shape and create our essence nature over time. The higher our plane, the stronger our essence nature can become.”

”Right! Please, Oli come to the front of the class.”