As soon as Souta received the token of Inner Disciple, he heard a familiar notification in his mind.
Hmm...? A quest...
Souta slightly knitted his brows as a semi-transparent screen appeared in front of him. He opened the details and checked the content of the quest.
[Disciple]: Became a Core Disciple of Mince Hand within a month.
Rewards: Manual of [Divine Light Circulation], 10,000 experience points, 5 attribute points, and 3 skill points
Within a month, isn't this too suspicious? Souta tightly knitted his brows. He could only complete this quest to get that reward. The reward was the opposite of his current technique, [Divine Dark Circulation]. Since the technique was too compatible with him, the reward should also help him improve his light affinity to achieve the Second Level Integration.
A month... It should be fine to complete it on the last day while completing the Chain Quest. As for Quest 2 of the Chain Quest, Souta only knows that the person who used Charm in White Line City was a member of the unknown group. They were collaborating with the Wingless Crow.
It was bad.
Wingless Crow and an unknown organization. Luckily, the main headquarters of the Wingless Crow wasn't in the Hall Plains. They were far from this land. They were the same as Red Matter Organization which had various branches.
And then... There's the Murder Society of Hall Plains, one of the strongest organizations in this land.
Souta killed their people before so he was sure that the Murder Society would investigate the Hundred Face Alliance. If he was in their position too, he would send more people to know what happened to the squad that attack the alliance. That's simple.
He wasn't sure about their might but he guess that the Murder Society had a bunch of Shackled Realm experts.
Souta shook his head as he walked forward. What he needed to do right now was to choose from five paths and a teacher which would guide him.
The five paths of Mince Hand. Dark Fighter, Dark Mage, Potioneer, Shadow Cleric, and Craftsman.
Souta only had two choices. The Dark Fighter and Dark Mage. After a few minutes of pondering, he chose the Dark Fighter. As for any attribute, he didn't find any of them in this school. It seems that Mince Hand's focus is on the darkness attribute.
Dark Fighter or Dark Mage and choosing a teacher. Souta randomly chose them. He was sure that he was far stronger than any of the teachers in this place. The only thing that is important to him was the second volume of [Divine Dark Circulation]. If Souta was wicked enough, he could simply destroy this school and take the techniques. Unless everybody offends him, Souta wouldn't do shit like that.
At the very least, even if he was stronger than them, the teachers' attainment in [Divine Dark Circulation] was far better than his. They could give him some pointers that would help him advance this technique.
Souta choose one teacher and he followed a guide. They passed through several corridors, a garden, and one huge hall. Then, they stopped in front of an area with a small arena in the center. There were rooms circling around it and in one room a number was written on it.
Dark Fighter Class 0-2
The guide looked at Souta before he turned around, leaving him in front of the door.
"That guy..."
Souta was speechless as he stared at the guide's back. He shook his head and raised his hand.
Knock! Knock!
He knocked on the door and after waiting for a second, a voice echoed inside.
"Come in!"
Souta opened the door and stepped inside the room. The room was a little spacious and it had dozens of chairs for students. There was a man in front, observing him.
"I'm a new disciple..."
Souta passed a piece of paper to the middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man looked at the paper for a while before he turned his attention to Souta. "So you're a new inner disciple. I'm Vick, from now on, you're one of my students. If you had any questions about your training you can ask me."
"Thank you, Teacher Vick." Souta bowed slightly. He already saw through Teacher Vic's power level. An expert at Initial A-rank.
"Alright, since you are my new student, show me your mastery of [Divine Dark Circulation]." Teacher Vick quickly said.
"Alright." Souta nodded and followed the instruction of his teacher. He showed him the circulation of a Second Stage of [Divine Dark Circulation]. It was flawless and perfect, almost reaching the Third Level.
Teacher Vick showed an amazed expression looking at Souta. He didn't expect that this new disciple's technique was too deep. It was perfectly built without mistakes.
"You're attainment is higher than what I imagined... It even surpassed the Second Stage of us teachers..." Teacher Vick muttered.
Souta was also confused. He just knows that this technique was highly compatible with him. It was as if it was made for him.
Teacher Vick stared at Souta in the eyes. "You're going to reach the Third Stage in less than two weeks. I can feel it in your aura so I'm going to pass you the second volume of technique or maybe do you want other techniques? I can only give you one for free after becoming an inner disciple."
"I'll choose the Second Volume of the [Divine Dark Circulation], Teacher Vick," Souta answered.
"Yeah, that's my thoughts too. With your attainment in this technique, you shouldn't train other techniques until you reach the Sixth Stage." Teacher Vick nodded in approval.
Then, he began to run down the basics of the Third Stage, Fourth Stage, Fifth Stage, and Sixth Stage to Souta so that he would have an idea once he started the training. Souta listened attentively and the more he listened, the more confused he became.
From Teacher Vick's words, [Divine Dark Circulation] shouldn't be as effective as what Souta gained. This made him speechless as he realized that his Second Stage was comparable to Third Stage of other disciples.
'How? I'm getting more and more curious about this technique and the background of Mince Hand.' Souta said inwardly.
After Teacher Vick explained the Sixth Stage, the final stage of the second volume, he proceeded to teach the fundamentals of the Inner Disciple. In this school, to get other techniques, skills, or spells, the disciples had to complete a task of their professors to earn school points. These school points were used to exchange for other techniques or skills. They could also use it to buy potions or items. They could even borrow the high grade artifact of the school for a limited amount of time if they had enough school points.
After that, Souta walked out of the Dark Fighter Class 0-2.
'It's good that I got the second volume. I could use this time to perfect it to the highest grade before I think about becoming a Core Disciple.' Souta gazed at the book in his hand. He could guess from Teacher Vick's words that there were other volumes of this technique. This was making him excited and he couldn't help but grin while thinking about the other volumes.
"Junior Brother...?!" A feminine voice sounded beside him.
Souta was startled. He realized that he lowered his guard while thinking about the technique. He got carried away and his emotion went high. Although it was piqued up by his [Crimson Perception], he subconsciously ignore it as the person didn't have any killer intent and was too weak to become a threat.
He turned his head and saw that it was his beautiful senior. He smiled and said, "Good morning, Senior Sister Heili!"
"Y-You are here...! It means that you are already..." Senior Sister Heili stared at him in shock.
"Yep, I'm an Inner Disciple now." Souta didn't hide it from his senior.
"It's too fast! I thought that you haven't reached the First Stage a few days ago!" Senior Sister Heili said.
"Hehe, I actually hid it from you. I just want to surprise you when I became an Inner Disciple." Souta smiled wryly as he quickly found an excuse.
"You certainly surprised me..." Heili said blankly. "I didn't expect it..."
"I still need to rely on Senior Sister. I don't know a lot of things here so maybe..." Souta smiled.
"Oh, sure. If you have any problem you can ask me." Senior Sister Heili said.
Souta traded some words with her before he returned to his residence. He was an Inner Disciple now so the Outer Disciple looked at him in admiration when he walked back to his residence.
If he was any younger, the entire Mince Hand would have treated him a genius that could reach Shackled Realm. Sadly, the appearance that Souta had came from a thug in his mid-twenties.
Souta smiled as he saw down and looked through the entire second volume of the [Divine Dark Circulation]. Right now, he had Six Stages of the technique and he mastered upto the Second Stage. It seems that it would take a lot of time to reach the Sixth Stage.
