Professions

The training was intense, yet silent. Adrien stood still as Selyra demonstrated forms, releasing slow pulses of dream energy. 

then, with only minutes to observe, Adrien would replicate them in his mind. Not just the external forms, but the internal flow. The breathing. The resonance.

Each motion played out in his mind like a perfect simulation. Selyra had told him that dream energy was the formal term for what he called aether.

By the end of the session, Selyra spoke just once more:

"Sleep. Then go where your instincts guide you."

He nodded, bowed again, and turned to leave.

Ding!

A notification rang out in his mind.

[System notification

New Passive ability unlocked!

Passive Abilities: (Passive regeneration, Awareness, Dream simulation, ??? )

]

He smiled lightly when he heard the notification, 'Progress, exactly what I need.' 

Adrien's footsteps faded, an inner disciple appeared, one of Selyra's fellow students, whom she shared a master with, stepped forward.

"Mistress Selyra," she said hesitantly. "Isn't it dangerous to let someone train that way? Without physical reinforcement, the body—"

Selyra interrupted. "He already trains his body with every thought."

And then, in a quieter tone, to herself: "I wonder... what kind of storm he'll bring."

Later That Day – Pavilion of Secondary Professions

After a brief, deep sleep that felt like mere seconds, Adrien awoke with feeling refreshed. Though his body still ached, his mind surged with clarity.

He made his way across the sect toward a lesser-travelled path. Very few in the world would choose the path of second professions.

It often served as an escape route for those who were not talented enough for the path of dream ascension. 

After all, even though weapons and artefacts contributed so much in terms of an individual's raw strength and technique, there was nothing all that could do against raw strength. 

Unless you are fighting someone who you are equally matched with in every single aspect, it was very rare to find a 1v1 where the weapon's quality decided the outcome of the match.

Not to say the second professions were not regarded as important, but raw individual strength was just regarded as more important.

Apart from the few legendary figures who made heaven defying weapons, potions and runes, most were subpar at most.

But even then, high level crafters and rune engravers were highly regarded, because their creations had a higher chance of tilting a fight in a person's favour.

Putting all that into account, the Pavilion of secondary professions rarely saw any eye-catching activity.

The Pavilion of Secondary Professions stood nestled against a ridge of twilight-lit jade cliffs. Unlike the other towering buildings of the sect, it was sprawling and wide, shaped like an open lotus whose petals were massive courtyards filled with strange instruments.

Adrien stepped inside, and he felt it immediately: a deep, thrumming pulse beneath his feet. This place was alive in a different way from the training grounds. Here, the air was saturated with precision.

With intention.

Forges that burned blue and white. Anvils inscribed with celestial sigils. Potions bubbling in endless glass tubes. Tapestries with diagrams woven into the threads. 

And people.

Dozens of disciples, worked at their stations, refining pills, inscribing talismans, chiselling rune patterns into metal cores, practicing transmutation circles.

They barely glanced at him, immersed in their tasks.

Adrien's heart leapt. He walked aimlessly around the pavilion. Admiring the numerous works underway.

He wandered through the various wings: one the area was pungent with the smell of various herbs and controlled explosions.

Another, where dream ink glowed on ethereal paper.

And one more area, echoing with rhythmic hammer falls like the beat of an ancient war drum.

He finally stopped in front of a wide circular forge. A plaque read:

"Dreamfire Forge — for Initiate Dreamcrafters"

There were slots for crystals, empty weapon cores, raw alloy blocks, and scrolls to log crafting sequences. Adrien placed a hand on the metal frame, and felt it hum, as if welcoming him.

A thin old man with long white eyebrows approached, peering at him. 

"New?" the elder grunted.

Adrien looked at the old man, his body looked malnourished, and his hands were covered in bruises and calluses, from overwork. But his eyes were sharp, with eyebrows like a blade.

"Yes," Adrien said, eyes locked onto the inner workings of the forge. "Very new. But I've studied enough theory to begin."

The elder chuckled. "They all say that. Then they melt the alloy, explode the runes, or summon a fire elemental inside the forge." He pointed at a blackened wall.

Adrien smiled. "I'll be careful."

"Come child, all are welcome here, whether you stay or not, only time will tell, this path is not for the fainthearted."

Adrien was registered with the pavilion as an amateur crafter, using his identification jade for confirmation of his identity.

Afterwards, the elder led him to one of the workstations that were in the open, like every other initiate crafter. 

"If you manage to raise your crafting proficiency, you will be assigned a more private space, this area open area with workbenches around the hall is for the beginners like you. Now, get to work."

Adrien nodded, and.

He set to work. Basically, a workbench was accompanied by small furnace, some tools, a hammer, a pool of water underneath, and more intricate functions he had never seen, 'I can figure these out as I go'

Taking a moment to look through what was provided to him on the workbench. He began wondering. 

Why was it that in this world, advanced as it looked, they looked to be so far behind in crafting technology as compared to modern earth?

It came to him as passing thought, and he did not know why at the moment. But his conscience told him that there was a much deeper explanation to how some things in this world worked than what was shown on the surface.

Pushing those thoughts aside, he got started on his first craft. He had been looking at the blueprints while his thoughts wandered. 

There were quite a lot provided to them on the workbenches, excluding the ones he had seen in the library. And he chose one from those. 

"Let's follow exactly what it says on the blueprint, then try to modify the design on the second try."

If any person in the world heard Adrien's thoughts right now, they would cry out in outrage. There was a reason why the blueprints provided to the students were so easily given out.

Most crafters would keep their creations' blueprints to themselves, after all, it was their lifeline.

But those provided in the Sects for novices to learn the art of crafting were public blueprints. These were seen, worked on, and made improvements upon by a multitude of master crafters.

One would day say, they were designed to perfection, without a single flaw.

They were already in the best form they could be.

And a novice crafter, who had barely set foot in the world of dream crafting, was casually saying he would make improvements on the design after looking at it for only a few seconds!

Oblivious to all this Adrien made his choice.

He chose a simple design, a focus ring. A small tool that helped dream cultivators stabilize their aura in battle.

The components were simple, but the rune sequence needed to be inscribed in layers of dream ink while simultaneously tempering the alloy with timed pulses.

Which was to say Adrien was not simply making any craft, he was making an engraved ring! 

Rune engraved items could only be made by intermediate crafters! Because it essentially meant learning two professions at the same time!

As soon as those closest to Adrien saw what he was doing, they laughed in contempt.

Even though it had felt like they were not paying attention to him all since his arrival here, beings of their level were more than capable of multitasking, and a secondary profession of any kind required higher than average mental strength.

Regardless, they all knew each other here, since there were only a couple dozen Initiate Dream crafters in a sect of hundreds of thousands of students, so Adrien stood out like a sore thumb.

To others watching, Adrien looked like a disaster waiting to happen.

Snickers rang out

"Trying to make a focus ring as an initiate, what a joke."

"Who does he think he is, Hephaestus or something."

"Let's watch him make a fool of himself."

Adrien could not hear a word, he had drowned out all the sounds in the hall. Putting his all into his first dream craft. He had a light smile on his lips.

But this was his first try, he was still figuring out how everything worked, what was supposed to go where, and how to use what.

He fumbled. Misaligned the crucible. Dropped a tool. Numerous times, over and over.

But then, then the unforgettable happened.

His hands moved with a calm confidence. The runes, once confusing, snapped into place in his mind like pieces of a machine.

His fingers found rhythm. He layered the ink between tempered heat stages. His breath synced with the forge's pulse.

And within ten minutes…

A soft chime echoed.

The craft in the forge dinged.

A perfectly stable Focus Ring sat in the centre of the forge bed, glowing softly.

The old man stared.

Another elder leaned over from the next station, eyes wide.

"…Huh."

Adrien turned, smiling through the sweat on his brow.

"That went rather well." he muttered, his voice low, but the place was so silent, everyone could hear him. But Adrien had eyes for nothing else but the gleaming ring on his worktable.