With how much time passed since the dawn of cultivation, it is understandable that humanity will improve and refine the methods they use to elevate their strength.
Many things had been decoded by the geniuses of the past, allowing Humanity to improve even further so that they can do a better job at protecting themselves and surviving in this cruel world.
According to the books he's now reading, especially those that are centered about cultivation itself, there isn't really much difference from a Knight or a Mage.
Both uses Mana to cultivate. They just use different terminologies and born with different affinities.
Those who are born with more affinity towards Mana will most likely be a Mage and those who are born with excellent physiques are mostly likely going to end-up awakening as a Knight, that's all there is to it.
Of course, disparity appears depending on the Aptitudes they're born with, however it is still up to their personal efforts on how far they can go should they decide to pursue cultivation.
It is known that Mages uses Spells to fight and Knights have Skills/Battle Arts. At the end of the day, the only difference for these two are on how they are called. Both uses mana to cast and requires repeated to use in order to be mastered. So in the end, there isn't really much of a difference.
Later down the line, what divides these two will eventually disappear. They will merge in a single one that all will collectively pursue. The first few stages of cultivation is just based off of building foundations anyway.
Speaking of stages of cultivation, Ashton found out the realms in the same book. They are:
[Knights]: Trainee, Fighter, Warrior, Master, Grandmaster.
[Mage]: Apprentice, Practitioner, Archmage, Warlock, Sorcerer
He didn't see explanations about what each stage does, probably because there will be other books that will focus on that instead.
However, he do knows what the Apprentice Stage was supposed to do.
See, a child that's been awakened as a Mage will have their own 'Mage Crest' which will mostly stay dormant inside their consciousness. The appearance of the crest will differ from person to person, making it unique to an individual.
Ashton already saw his a couple of times now. His Mage Crest was a rainbow colored token that has a tree insignia within, at the core of the said tree, an image of a book could be seen. These represents several aspects of Ashton's Aptitude.
Around the crest is an array circle. This represents his Lv.1 of strength, each rise of his level, another circle will appear. This how cultivation works for most people.
The only difference with Ashton is that, because of his cultivation technique, he needs to refine each array circle a total of 9 times before he proceeds.
In order to strengthen one's foundation, they may choose to refine the inscriptions that's composing their cultivation array circles. When he read this, Ashton now understands why Inscriptions were automatically added to the list of subjects he will be studying. It is indeed a crucial part of everyone's cultivation and it will only benefit them if they learn more about it.
After 9 array circles are formed, it is said that what they should do next is to fuse them one at a time in the Practitioner Stage. Doing this will improve their foundations and increase their mana capacities, allowing them to cast more spells.
So far, this is as much as he knows. The books hasn't revealed much to him yet but that's fine. He has time anyways. There will come a day when he'll learn about it, he just needed to wait and seek out more books here.
Time passed in Ashton's shift and before he knew it, three hours already passed. A tiny alarm woke him out of his focus.
Ashton took a deep breath and closed the books he had. He then rested his back on his chair and stretched for a bit. He looked around and saw Aria approaching the station.
He stood-up and cleaned-up after his mess. Once he was done, he bid farewell to Aria and left the Grand Library to go home.
"...uh." Ashton blinked several time and was confused.
In front of him, Jeanne chuckled and said: "Hello again, Mr. West."
"Good afternoon, Prof. Jeanne. Are you my..."
"Yes. Indeed." She nodded before he could finish his sentence. "I also am your Herbology Professor. Also, yes. You are again, alone in this class. Surprising isn't it?"
It was Thursday today and Ashton attended his Herbology Class, not expecting this strange scenario at all.
He didn't expect that he'll be, once again, the only one in this class but also to have Jeanne as his Professor as well.
"I kind of understand why with the White Magic Class but...Herbology? Really, nobody takes it?" He asked, sounding a little bit incredulous.
"Well, what can we do?" Jeanne shrugged. "Not everyone is fond of studying boring subjects." She said as she placed her things on her table.
"Similar to White Magic Class, Herbology is an extensive subject that tends to be boring yet also very demanding. It doesn't have any blood-pumping activities and it doesn't directly benefit your cultivation so it's no surprise that it's a less popular subject." She shrugged.
'Less popular' is being used lightly here. With thousands of students enrolling in this Academy, it is a little ridiculous that not even a handful will take interest in taking Herbology at all.
"Don't fuss over the small details." Jeanne stated, "We provide students with freedom to choose their own classes. If they don't see the merit of this class then that's on them. We shouldn't interest ourselves in whatever they're thinking."
"I understand." Ashton nodded.
Still, this doesn't make this situation less strange. But just like she said, it's no use thinking about it this much, he couldn't change their opinions anyways. He should just focus on what he's supposed to do instead.
"Alright. Since your situation is a little bit special, we'd follow the same rules for the White Magic Class. I'll use unorthodox means to teach you. We won't stick with the conventional means since that would just hold us back."
Ashton didn't have any problems with that.
Jeanne then brought out a thick, thick book from her belt and placed on the table. Ashton gulped at the sight of that thing.
"This is the Bible of Herbology." She stated, "In here, all of the known herbs are recorded, including their uses, information about how they grow, and etc."
"Your goal is to memorize everything that is recorded in this book by heart." Jeanne stated with a bit of twisted grin on her face. "Of course, in order to test your knowledge, I will require you to demonstrate the things you've learned using live ingredients. That will also solidify your skills should you choose to pursue Alchemy as well."
Ashton bit his lips as he stared at the thick book. He could feel a headache incoming but he didn't utter a word of complain. He wanted this so he should be responsible.
"Don't fret. I'm not asking you to memorize everything in here today." Jeanne chuckled. "We'll break it down to chapters to make it easier for you. Of course, you can also do some advance reading since that would make it faster for us to progress. Take the book with you."
Ashton nodded and stoop up to fetch the book.
Holy hell was the book heavy. It also smells really old too. Nevertheless, Ashton didn't complain and hulled the book back to his seat. He didn't keep it since he wanted to check it out first.
"Read the first five chapters and memorize everything in there." Jeanne stated, getting his attention. "On our next meeting, I will bring out fresh ingredients for you to play around with."
"Alright." Ashton nodded as he began flipping the book.
"Don't worry about the book itself." She said, "Unlike other books, that one doesn't have any durability. It's a latest original copy as well so it is updated. Just handle it with minimal cate and you'd be fine. We have a lot of original copies anyways so it's fine even if that one is damaged. But of course, don't do intentionally. Also, don't show that to others who aren't studying here."
"Understood."
"Alright. I'll leave you to it. Use the remaining time to read or whatever, just make sure during our next class you know your stuff and we'll be good."
After saying that, Jeanne picked up her things and exited the classroom, leaving Ashton mildly speechless.
The woman sure is taking her job very lightly. She didn't even bothered with some pleasantries. She just gave him a homework and peaced-out. How ridiculous.
Nevertheless, this works too. Since Ashton is alone in this class, he can focus more.
He decided to stay behind and read the first ten chapters of this massive book. If he can't finish it here of he gets bored, he'll do it back in his home.
'With my enhanced memory, memorizing this whole thing shouldn't be difficult. Maybe I'll finish this subject even before the year ends. Who knows?'
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