A few hours later, I wake up, and immediately connect with ChaCha for him to give the list of herbs a quick perusal. Unfortunately, the little weapon spirit can’t read, but the names of the herbs were familiar and he was able to guide me to three common herbs that we should pick up as often as possible.

  Verdant Dewgrass: Improves mana circulation and will increase mana purity for ChaLong.

  Spirit Nurture Clover: Slightly increases cultivation speed and accelerates the growth rates of other spirit herbs around it.

  Greenheart Bud: Strengthens meridians and enhances spirit bonds.

  Because these are all common herbs, their effects are not too drastic. But their effects will compound between ChaCha and myself, so over time, these common herbs will provide results at the level of uncommon or even rare herbs. After making this decision, I ask Dross to pick up some Verdant Dewgrass from the merit exchange after he drops me off at the torture array.

  Just like that I fall into a training rhythm and the weeks start to blur together as I continuously get ground down by the torture array and Croff’s weapon training. The torture array quickly moved to five, then ten, and finally twenty constructs—even under the effects of Petal Dance I left every training session with bruised bones and what I believe to be internal bleeding, but I’m told it’s fine as the medical staff force pills down my throat. From there I would join Croff in the increasingly heavy gravity array. By the end of the two months, we were practicing fluidly within 10x gravity and the sessions turned from mirroring Croff’s movements to fighting him with complimentary forms.

  During all of this time, I continued to follow meditation techniques, and ChaCha’s garden is starting to pay dividends as we started harvesting some of the spirit herbs’ growth. I leveled up Tea Service to Level Five, but I am still struggling with the second prerequisite of unlocking its evolved form Spirit of Tea. I’ve attempted imparting the benefits of the tea multiple times with Dross, but there seems to be some kind of roadblock in doing so. From my experiments, I think I need to understand the qualities of the teas at a deeper level and can’t just lean on the insights provided by the skill.

  Tea Connoisseur has also leveled up to five, since I’m constantly surrounded by spirit herbs and high-quality tea blends, but it’s also being held back by my inability to evolve Tea Service. Over the past few months, I’ve requested some assistance from Dross to pick up books on spirit herbs and herbology from the library—this has actually gotten me my first level in Sage’s Apprentice since I’ve gotten my class, which has helped with my knowledge retention. The biggest surprise to me is that no matter how the difficulty of the torture array increased, I didn’t receive any levels to Petal Dance—making me think that it will only grow stronger through true combat.

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  All of these improvements have contributed massively to my growth in strength, but the largest gains have been due to the fundamentals drilled into me by Croff and the torture array, as well as the gains in mana flow earned through meditation.

  As I finish my last meditation session before Sagaryn’s combat test, I look appreciatively at the growth and breakthroughs I’ve experienced with the patronage of The School. After two months of brutal training, I finally succeeded at breaking through to High Tier One. Sagaryn wanted an elite core disciple and I’ve proven to him, by beating his expectations once again, that he has definitely gotten one.

  NAME: CAMDEN DARJEAN

  AGE: 20

  CLASS: TEA SAGE’S APPRENTICE

  PROGRESSION: HIGH TIER ONE

  BOND: CHALONG (GROWTH TYPE WEAPON SPIRIT)

  AFFINITIES:

  MAJOR-WATER

  MINOR-PLANT

  INHERITANCES: BREATH OF THE PETAL

  SKILLS:

  TEA SERVICE LEVEL 5

  TEA CONNOISSEUR LEVEL 5

  PETAL DANCE LEVEL 1

  SAGE’S APPRENTICE LEVEL 2

  So much has changed in the three months since Sowing Day, but I’m making progress in my inheritance that other elites could only dream of. A major part of it is the resources that have been funneled into me by The School, but time and time again my compatibility to the path I’m following is paying high dividends. The compounding effects of spirit herbs being shared between ChaLong and myself as well as the compatibility with the inheritance has continuously pushed me through bottlenecks my contemporaries are facing. Even my affinities have changed after being exposed to ChaCha’s residual mana, fusing my earth and wind minor affinities into a singular plant affinity. That may have been one of the main contributions to me breaking through today, since I resonate with the inheritance’s meditation now more than ever.

  I end my reflection and mentally prepare myself for the fight tomorrow. I’ve already received a missive on my opponent, Jade Dawner. She is an inner disciple, and actually started off with The School as a core disciple. Her general distaste for following Sagaryn’s training program led to her demotion and she has been clawing for the chance to return to her rightful position ever since. The missive didn’t go too much into her skill set, all I know is that her class is based on light affinities and she uses a whip and throwing darts to shore up her range. I’ve seen some memory crystals of her previous bouts and she seems to really lean on her oppressive speed and dexterity to force her opponents into a disadvantage.

  I’ve already come up with some strategies using Croff’s flexible weapon forms and I’ve already prepared the right tea blend to match her strengths. Hopefully, since I’ve not been in any fights since the minotaur, she will underestimate me and I can end the battle quickly. On another note, I need to let Sagaryn know that I hit High Tier One, so my next spirit herb pick-up is actually doubled—I know ChaCha is going to be even more excited.

  I let my thoughts slowly drift away as I clear my mind and let sleep overtake me. Tomorrow is a big day, but I’m prepared and I won’t let anyone get in my way of joining Mallorc and Kat on the battlefield as soon as possible.

  I hope they’re okay.