Ning returned back to his room with a million thoughts roaming his mind. But he decided to keep them away for the moment and just relax.
The day seemed to be way too long today, and he needed some free time.
Rachel, Battle Force examination, Merasi, Murder Mystery, and now the talk with the lord of the tower. The day was going on for longer than it should have in Ning's mind.
However, when he looked outside, there was still a good 6 hours of daylight left.
"Screw it," he thought and went to sleep on his new bed that was comfortable beyond belief. After just laying for a few minutes, he fell deep into sleep.
KNOCK KNOCK
Ning was woken out of his sleep by a rather loud knock on his door. 'Is someone trying to break my door or what?' he thought. He slowly opened his eyes and looked outside of his window to the right.
It was already nighttime. He turned to look at the clock that was next to his bed and was surprised.
'I slept for over 6 hours already? I thought I just started sleeping,' he thought.
KNOCK KNOCK
"Oh right, the door." He quickly fixed his hair however much he could with his hands and walked to the door.
When he opened it, he realized why the knocking had been so loud. "Captain, you're back?" he asked.
"Yeah, I came not long ago," Merasi said and looked into the room. "Not bad. They are treating you well."
She then looked back at Ning and narrowed her eyes. "Were you sleeping perhaps?" she asked.
"Huh? Oh yeah. It's been a long day, so I was a little tired," Ning said.
"Well, I won't keep you for long then. Here's your schedule for every week from now on," she said.
Ning looked at the schedule and frowned a little. "That's a lot of free time," he said.
"Well, as a Supreme's squad, you don't get called unless the work is very important," Merasi said.
"And a lot of fighting. A bit excessive amount of fighting," Ning said.
"That's a normal amount," Merasi said. "You'll be fighting every day now that you're in my squad. Think that as your way to put everything you've learned into training."
"You're an Aether Supreme. It can't be that you want to fight me so much right?" Ning asked. There wouldn't be any point to.
"Hehe," Merasi gave an awkward smile. "Mercy forced me to add a lot of fighting time to your schedule. But hey, I've taken away your other duties such as scouting and patroling so that you can have some free time instead for all the fighting, okay?"
Ning sighed. "Alright, I will follow this schedule."
"Okay, I'll see you in a week then," Merasi said.
"In a week? Are you going somewhere?" Ning asked with a confused look.
"Oh no, I'm going to sleep," Merasi said.
"For a week? You can't be that tired, right?" Ning asked.
"Uh… no. This sleep is different from normal sleep. Now that you are an Aether Saint, you should get used to sleeping too," Merasi said.
"What is this sleep then?" Ning asked.
"It's… what we call going into a long period of absorption so that we can advance in our rank. Since progressing becomes hard after Aether saint, we choose to go in our room and absorb as much as we can for as long as we can. That we call sleeping," Merasi explained.
"Oh," Ning said. 'That's just closed cultivation. They should really find a better name than Sleeping.'
He had heard the term sleeping a few times but had never thought it was just closed cultivation. Now that he did, he understood why some of the Aether Supremes disappeared for so long.
"Alright then, I will follow this routine from tomorrow onwards. Thank you for bringing this to me, captain," Ning said.
"Ok, you can go back to sleep now. Good night," Merasi said and left. Ning smiled as he watched Merasi leave his floor and go towards the stairs instead of the elevator.
He liked this girl. She was genuine and fun to be around. While her physique was terrifying, she was a sweet little girl in reality.
Although, her love for battle was a bit too hard to handle. Ning made a wry face as he looked at the schedule in his hands.
Wake up at 8 AM before the sun rises.
Reach the training hall on the 45th Floor by 9 AM.
Fight until 12 AM.
Free time until 15 Am.
Fight until Noon.
Free time until 4 PM.
Fight until 8 PM.
Free time until 12 PM
Fight until 15 PM
Go to Sleep.
Repeat.
That was all the routine said and it would follow for all days of the week except the fifth. The fifth was fully free to do whatever he wanted to do.
'Well, that's quite a bit of freedom for sure,' he thought. However, when he saw the fights, he frowned. 13 hours of fighting in a day with 36 hours, of which, a normal human slept at least 10.
Ning sighed and went back to the bed and fell asleep again.
He woke up once again, his sleep done while the sky was still dark outside. It wasn't just dark because it was night, Ning could also see dark clouds with occasional lightning.
'Oh, is it going to rain?' he wondered. He looked at the time and realized he had woken up a bit early.
So, he sat on his sofa and watched the rainfall from the sky.
On the 52nd floor of the tower, Ning was very high in the air, so seeing the thunderbolt and lightning so close to him was quite surreal to him.
'Lightning,' he thought. 'I wonder when I am going to unlock that Energy. Is it the next one perhaps?'
That reminded him. "Hey system, how are Ely and the others doing?" he asked.
<Good>
That was all Ning needed to hear really. "I hope it won't take a very long time to reach them," he said.
<Time is relative, so the Host can afford to take some time>
CRACK!
"What?"
