Attribute

As Thirteen and his friends made their way into the kitchen they saw the other half of their 'generation' as Instructor Piers had put it. Those who attended the cultivation hall.

As the students all reunited, Thirteen took his seat along with Ten, Nine, Four and few of those lucky enough to have attended cultivation hall already.

"So? What was cultivation hall like?" Ten asked another girl who seemed exhausted.

"Confusing" The girl replied "Instructor Nicholas explained it all really well, but I don't feel like I understood. But we learned about the different ways to cultivate, and apparently we'll each be given our own Arts after this week.

Everyone's interest piqued at this and discussions became fantasy talks about the mysterious powers they'll learn.

A while later, as his stomach began grumbling, Thirteen asked the girl, whose number was apparently forty-five, a question.

"Hey, who's supposed to be making the food today anyway? I didn't see any kitchen staff last time aside from the two supervisors. Can they cook more than 40 meals by themselves?"

"Ah that! Head Instructor had everyone who got in trouble today prepare lunch. Apparently they'll have the worst of it in physical training later too."

'Ah… I need to be careful to pay attention today. Yep.'

A while later, the troublemakers in question brought out lunch for each of the students before serving their own.

Lunch passed by rather uneventfully and soon, the students were again splitting into two groups. One heading for the Theory Hall, while the other made their way to the Cultivation Hall.

As the students made their way into the Cultivation Hall, they each grabbed a cushion and sat on the floor, in the position instructed by Instructor Nicholas.

The Lecture started with a small talk on what the children can expect from their day to day lives and some other miscellaneous talk before he began to expound on cultivation.

"When we say the word cultivation, what each person means may differ, however in every person's tongue the word still means one thing: Improvement.

Whether it's the improvement of oneself or another, whether its improving one's physique, their spirituality or merely their state of mind. But the word from my tongue means this. To cultivate is to hone one's strength. That is the only meaning I need from the word, and for now, it is the only meaning I require you take from it.

To hone one's strength, or cultivate, there are many methods. Too many to count. I cannot present each of these to you, nor could you learn any one of them simply because you desire it.

Instead what I will do today is provide a rough explanation of the two most common forms taken by cultivation, and then speak about the general stages of cultivation and what they entail.

Remember that you do not need to be a meta to cultivate, but only cultivators can make the most of their identity as a metahuman. Any human cultivator could and would wipe the floor with a metahuman brat, so work hard if you want that status to mean something.

The first basic method is Body Refinement. There are many ways to refine the physical body, but most involve refining external energies and then baptizing your body in it, growing innately strong, fast, and resilient. Body Refiners, often known as augmenters are usually but not always melee combatants and will never lose in a battle of arms against other practitioners, however as a general rule they lack any internal reserve of expendable energy, So while they may indeed have seemingly limitless stamina, they are limited to what they can achieve with their body alone.

The greatest flaw of body refinement is its straightforward nature. A good body refiner is impossible to escape from, but a bad one will never land a blow. If you walk this path, you do it well or not at all. At its core, body refinement is a path of self-reliance.

The second method is Qi Refinement. In refining personal qi within your dantian, you can attain more mysterious, spiritual power. Qi refiners attune themselves to the world around them, and use their own personal qi to resonate with that of the world, gently manipulating it to devastating effect. A qi refiner has a wide array of combat techniques available to him and is capable of expanding his knowledge of the arts through meditation. This path centers around resonance with the natural order.

These are the two most orthodox methods available to you. You will not make this choice yourself, I will do it for you after understanding your abilities, Attributes, and aptitudes."

The lecture continued for quite a while. Nicholas spoke with a rather drab voice, but as it was all new and exciting information for Thirteen so he managed to keep his mind straight as he listened.

At the end of the lecture, Nicholas finally announced to the children each of their Attributes.

"

8-23: Constitution

8-22: Intelligence

8-21: Dexterity

…

8-17: Memory

8-16: Coordination

...

8-13: Healing

…

8-10: Strength

8-09: Intuition

…

8-04: Strength

"

'I knew it…' Thirteen lamented. He had expected this. After all the man who brought him here only did so after cutting his arm, and that cut was already long gone. 'I was really hoping for something else though.'

As the lecture came to an end, Nicholas instructed them each to head for the open area to the north of the estate outside. The area they first gathered this yesterday.

As they did just that, the students were surprised to find a few instructors in training garbs.

"Gather!" Nicholas called.

The children wasted no time gathering in a large disorderly group. Nicholas then got set to work splitting the group into four and sending them each with a different instructor.

"You will follow the orders of the instructors as if they were my own. Anyone found lacking will have me to answer to. Now move!"

Luckily, unlike with the Theory hall earlier today, all of Thirteen's friends remained together this time. They stood before a rather tall instructor garbed in loose but functional training clothes. Thirteen had seen something similar in his dorm room wardrobe. He wondered if they would be expected to go back to their dorms and change once a daily routine had set in,

"Listen up! I am Instructor Diores, remember my name and face, every day when we gather for physical training you will group in front of me, understand?

We're going to start with basic workouts as most of you look too frail to swing even a wooden sword. Start with a run, I don't care where you go just form a line and keep running until I say otherwise. Go!"

Immediately, the quicker witted kids took off, leaving the rest to follow their path.

The Instructor kept them running for as long as he could until some started to slow down, at which point he ran up behind them, clapping loudly in their ears and yelling to keep running.

This continued until the point it looked like plain bullying, at which point, the instructor took note of those who still gave it all when their bodies failed, and those who gave up before their body could.

Thirteen was quite proud of his performance. He started off really slow and near the back of the line together with Nine, unable to catch up to the likes of Ten & Four who sprinted ahead of most others. But after ten minutes he was near the middle of the line, and after half an hour he was near the front as one of the few still moving. Meanwhile Ten & Four had each fallen near the rear, and Nine had to stop.

'It's not like it's easy though, I've felt like my legs were going to give out since the very start.'

As Instructor Diores called to stop running, Thirteen immediately collapsed, feeling like he had run up a mountain for three days straight.

Instructor Diores soon came over with a bucket of water from which he filled cups to give the students. 'They did very well for orphans that haven't eaten well in years. Most collapsing from a 10 minute jog was within expectations, but that a few held on for 30 minutes can be considered marvelous.'

As the day continued onward towards night, the group continued performing a variety of exercises, though none with the amount of vigor shown in the jog.

Instructor Diores was sure to give 'special attention' to those who had been rowdy in the Head Instructors lecture, and let everyone know it.

By dusk, the children were ushered back to the dining room. None of them had to cook this time, instead a great deal of previously unseen cooks brought out meals for them.

The dinner passed quickly and quietly as the exhausted children were eager to shuffle their way back to their new beds.

Among them were Thirteen and Nine, both of whom almost fell asleep in the hallways as they walked back. By the time they reached the dorm, they both collapsed on their beds immediately, falling asleep with the door still wide open.