Death... and me

Mia didn't know what to say about it. The twins were pretty okay with their own cultivations. If anything, they are a little too fast. Otherwise, it wouldn't be too bad to put one of them under a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator's tutelage. However, Rean and Roan's situation was quite complicated.

"I can't decide it for Rean. Besides, I believe Droman will not let you do so. As you probably know already, he was the one to enter the Soul Transformation Realm. Not to mention that he took Rean as his disciple. Also, you need to convince Rean himself."

Reliance pondered a bit before saying.

"So, I just need to convince both of them, right?"

Mia shrugged her shoulders.

"Yes, but you have to bring back the Decaying Roots first. Well, it will be a good thing since Rean will be one of those entering the Profound Abyss anyway."

Elder Reliance nodded his head as he turned around to leave.

"Good! Don't worry about the Decaying Roots. I'll get them for you. To be honest, you are not the only one thinking about the Surge, so there will be quite a few trying to obtain it. But that doesn't matter since most of them can't do the same as me and have a tame Demon Beast fetch them. Alright, I'm off."

Reliance then left the room straight away to the Profound Abyss. As for Mia, she didn't seem very concerned about the issue. In fact, she showed a rare hint of a playful smile. Too bad no one was there to see such a beautiful view.

'Reliance... Both twins are not just like any kid you had seen before. I don't know about Droman, but I'm very eager to see how you will convince Rean about it.'

The days passed in a flash as both Rean and Roan occupied themselves with their own things. Rean tried to find elder Reliance again, but the man seemed to have evaporated in mid-air. Without another choice, he could only keep the chick with him to train it.

He thought about leaving the chick with Elder Javiu to take care. However, the chick would go crazy every time he tried to leave it behind. Without another choice, he could only bring it with him.

Of course, Rean and Roan didn't forget about cultivation. Every night, they would use some drops of Heaven's Might Water to fortify their foundations. Too bad that a foundation of their level received very little effect from it. Not to mention that the water was not something for their Light and Dark Elemental affinities. Still, it was better than nothing.

Two weeks later, Droman had finally finished dealing with all the visits that were congratulating him for the breakthrough. That meant he would need to leave soon to continue supervising the installation of the Communication Network. Also, he ended teaching Rean the basics about Formations, so he took some time to have Rean build a basic one.

"Alright, it turned out that you were better than I thought. But I should have expected that, though. After all, you were able to come up with the Router Formation concept. Anyway, I want you to show me what you can do. Go ahead and try to make a simple Energy Gathering Formation."

Rean nodded and immediately began to work. Droman was quite pleased with Rean. Usually, it would take a few months for someone to learn how to use all the most basic necessary runes for this Formation. However, Rean was simply way too fast. Droman was quite confident in his talent for Formations. Still, he wasn't even near to what Rean could do when he started.

It is not wrong to say that Rean has a talent for the occupation. However, there were another two points that put Rean far ahead of any other new Formations Master.

The first one was pretty obvious, Sister Orb! She didn't know how to build formations herself. However, she was able to analyze them for her own use. With such an ability, she could tell Rean about the flaws in his Formations while he was still building it! That was an advantage that no one could compare with.

The second main point is that Rean came from Earth! As mentioned before, Rean has no idea how to build a circuit. However, he does know about the concepts behind them. It turned out that Formations were not that far from Earth's Electronic Equipments. Of course, thanks to Spiritual Energy, the formations were capable of doing things that Earth's Electronic Builders couldn't even dream about. 

Thanks to Sister Orb and his experience as an Earthling, Rean really seemed like a heaven-defying genius in the eyes of others. Well, there was obviously one exception. Roan knows about Rean and Sister Orb, so he wasn't even close to being impressed.

Rean then began to build the Energy Gathering Formation in front of Droman skillfully. Not only that, but he did it quite fast. As Droman looked at him, he nodded his head in satisfaction from time to time. 

'He's really a genius, but it seems like I'm also an excellent Master. Hahaha!'

Of course, he didn't let those feelings appear on his face.

Finally, the Formation was completed and began to gather the Spiritual Energy on the surroundings. Rean had built one of the most basic types, so it wasn't anything extraordinary. Besides, he still has to study and comprehend a lot of runes that could have improved the Formation. Nevertheless, that was an excellent job for someone who entered this path not long ago.

"Very good! You are learning a lot faster than I did at your age. Here, take this."

Suddenly, Droman threw a mountain of books at Rean.

"Your basics are quite solid, but you lack knowledge. I could see several places where different types of runes and arrangements could have been much better."

There was no helping it. Sister Orb could only tell what was wrong, not what could be improved or changed.

"However, it is nothing to be ashamed of. As long as you memorize the contents, things should get a lot better for you. Also, don't forget that there is nothing wrong with coming up with your own ideas."

Rean looked at all those books and felt like he was back in high school's final exams for metallurgists.

'Hmph! Since I passed through that hell once, I can definitely pass it twice!'

Droman then continued.

"This should summarize around 2% of everything we have available in our Formations Hall. Once you are finished, we will start a new round of training between Master and Disciple to put everything you learned into practice."

Rean's confidence suddenly deflated like a balloon...

"Did you say... 2%?"

Droman looked at Rean and began to laugh out loud.

"Hahaha! As expected of someone that I took as my disciple! I really can't hide it from you, can I? Alright, I just wanted to make you feel better, but it seems like you already noticed that it wasn't so simple. Anyway, the truth is that it only counts for at most a single %. Besides, our Jialin Country is quite small, so we have a severe lack of information about Formations in our repositories."

"There was one time when I visited the Formations guild in the Empire's Capital. It was really an incredible view. I can't even fathom how many times more information about Formations they have compared to us! If what you have in your hands is considered 1% of our repository, it wouldn't be even 0.1% of the capital's one. That was really a sight to behold."

Droman then looked in the distance as if recalling some happy moments of his life.

Rean, on the other hand, seemed to be having a nightmare at the moment.

"Ahem... surely Elder Droman jests, right?"

Droman immediately shook his head.

"Of course not! Formations are just this impressive. The number of arrangements possible is basically unlimited! Don't worry. You will never run out of fun when you are dealing with Formations. As your Master, I guarantee you this much. Hahaha!"

While Droman laughed, Rean cried.

"Anyway, I need to leave for a few weeks to get a look at the communication system project. Make sure you have all of this memorized by the time I come back."

Droman then turned around and left the Formations Master Hall. Rean didn't even have time to complain about his arrangement. In the end, he couldn't help but sigh.

"Well, I went to a pretty common high school back in my previous life anyway..."

Rean began to ponder a bit and finally reached a decision.

"Alright, let's pretend that I suddenly joined Harvard, and I am aiming to become the first in my class."

Unfortunately, Sister orb was there, hearing Rean trying to comfort himself.

[Stop dreaming! Considering the possible number of books and how much you need to learn, you better aim to become the best student Harvard has ever seen. Good luck!]

If one looked closely, they would notice the moment that a tear fell from Rean's eyes. Sure enough, Sister Orb doesn't know how to show mercy...

Just as Rean was intending to cry a little more, he received a message from Roan through their Soul Connection.

"Hey, Doctor Wilson. I finished devising the Dark and Light Cultivation Establizing Pills. I should be done making them this night. After that, we can finally make our breakthrough."

Rean sighed as he picked the first book on the pile.

'Well... I might as well start it now until Roan is ready."