Combat Practice and the hunting trip.

The next day, Darius woke up to the sound of knocking on his door. Jal had brought his breakfast. This made Darius feel reliant and he did not like that feeling. Darius felt the need to earn money.

He didn't want to have to meet this guy everyday. Darius never liked to be dependent on anyone. He didn't worry too much about it though, all these problems would be solved once he had awakened.

Darius repeated his previous night's routine of feeding the dogs a bit of his food first. Once there was no problem, he had his breakfast, cultivated for about two hours then left towards the oasis.

This time at the oasis, a platform had been mounted. Darius guessed the combat practice was going to take place here. After about thirty minutes, Mr. Del arrived.

He split the students into two groups, the people who had awakened and the people who had not awakened yet. The ones who had awakened would fight others who had awakened whilst the “regular humans” would also fight among themselves. Darius thought it was fair, besides the obvious advantage an essence user would have over a regular human, there was another reason for the split.

Anyone who had awakened would find an outline of a weapon in their elemental sea. This was known as one's soul weapon. The soul weapon came in all shapes and sizes, be it sword, daggers, axes, spears and so on. The weapon would form based on the fighting style that would best suit the user.

The soul weapon is often fused with an elemental core to reduce the usage of one's elemental essence while performing elemental attacks. For example, if an air essence user wanted to perform a wind blade attack, they could just materialize the wind blade with their elemental essence but it would be a very condensed wind blade. Hence, the soul weapon is used to fine tune the concentration of the attack based on one's preferences and presets as quickly as possible during battles. They could also be used as regular weapons.

Elemental cores look like a transparent pearl with associated elements within. Elemental cores are also able to store a certain amount of elemental essence. And one had to find the correct elemental core to fuse with their weapon. For example, if one was a water essence user, they would have to find a water elemental core to fuse with their soul weapon.

Low level elemental cores could be found at places with high elemental essence concentration. For example, volcanoes for fire essence users, large waterfalls, springs and oases for water essence users, mountains and hills for earth essence users and the aftermath of sandstorms and tornadoes for air essence users.

Anywhere one could consider an extreme environment, or an extreme weather condition there was a possibility for elemental cores to form.

Higher level elemental cores, though, are obtained when one kills a high level beast with the corresponding element. High level beasts were beasts that had human intelligence. In essence, they were beasts that had lived long enough to attain human level intelligence. An example was the elemental dragon race.

Darius was naturally among those who had not awakened yet. His closest friends Raha and Somir though had already awakened and were both at tier one stage two. There were three stages between each tier.

Soon the battles would begin. Mr. Del stepped on the stage and announced the rules. There was to be no deaths or serious injuries. As there would be a hunting trip for about three days. Darius was overjoyed, he thought the trip would only last one day. Things had become much easier for him.

The battle began as two females squared up on the stage. They battled for a while before a victor was announced. During that fight, Darius had been thinking. He wondered if he should show off his combat prowess. Darius had been training in all forms of combat from childhood since he reincarnated into this world.

Darius decided to display a competent level, not too much to cause suspicion about his background.

Soon it was his turn. He climbed up the stage. He noticed his opponent, who was a well built youth far shorter than he was. Darius immediately noticed that he had the advantage in reach just by looking at his opponent.

Both of them shook hands before taking their stances. Darius balled his fists as he brought them to his face. He decided to mimic the boxing style from earth. The reason he chose this style was so he could give off the impression that he had cat like reflexes. This was so everyone who watched the fight would assume he only relied on his footwork rather than skill.

His opponent on the other hand, stood akimbo clearly underestimating his opponent. Darius did not mind, he surged forward and once he was close enough, he jabbed twice to the left side of his opponent followed by a quick right. His opponent who was not familiar with this strange style of fighting walked right into the quick right jab.

After being hit in the face, he began to take the fight seriously. He also balled up his fists letting out a flurry of powerful punches. Darius bobbed and weaved through all those punches, sending out a few of his own and connecting. His opponent got more furious as the fight went on. He tanked a few blows before sending a kick towards Darius’ stomach. Darius anticipated the kick but was too close to avoid it. He was sent flying across the stage.

Darius coughed uncontrollably for a few seconds before getting back to his feet. Darius thought to himself “damn that hurt” before he balled up his fists again. This time , he decided to go Muhammed Ali style. With his fists dropped by his sides, he charged forward once again. It was time to end this fight. His opponent also rushed forward preparing to end this fight. He took a big swing which was a rookie mistake in fights. Darius circumvented the punch then threw one at his aiming right for the jaw. The punch landed and his opponent was knocked out. Darius had won the fight.

After Darius' fight, a few others followed before it was time for those who had awakened to take the stage. Most of those matches ended in draws. The fights of those who had awakened was very flashy.

Raha and Somir were pitted against each other as they were of a similar level of cultivation.

They bowed towards one another, as they slowly walked towards each other. Fist and kicks were exchanged in a blur. The impact sent shock waves through the air. Each strike was met with a counter, in a dazzling display of skill and precision.

Raha was a hulking force, he used sheer strength and calculated strikes to try to overpower Somir. On the other hand, Somir who was slender and agile, relied on his speed and flexibility, darting around Raha’s attacks. Their combat style appeared to be simple martial arts at the moment.

Soon, they summoned their soul weapons. Raha's soul weapon appeared to be a larger version of a sledge hammer, whilst Somir’s was a longsword. Somir was a fire essence user, whilst Raha was an earth essence user.

Somir slashed his sword towards Raha, sending out an arc of flames towards Raha. “Bang”, “bang”, “bang”, Raha drove his hammer into the ground thrice, summoning a wall of earth, the flames slammed into the wall of earth, causing cracks to form all over it.

Despite the intense exchange, neither yielded an inch. They clashed with unwavering determination, each refusing to relent after several rounds. As the fight intensified, fatigue began to set in, their movements becoming more strained.

With a sudden surge of energy, Somir executed a barrage of hacks and slashes, seizing the moment to gain the upper hand. A few hacks and slashes landed with precision on Raha, incapacitating him. After several rounds of battle, it was Somir who emerged victorious.

After the fight, a few uneventful fights followed. Soon, the whole event came to an end. The students had enough time to rest for a while. As they would be going on the hunting trip very soon.

The students were allowed to go back home and prepare for the hunting trip. They would be given special camouflage outfits and weapons for those who had not awakened to blend in with the desert environment, so they would not be easily picked off by the beasts.

A few hours later, the students converged at the oasis, suited up and set off. They trudged through the desert sand steadily moving towards the hunting grounds.

The hunting grounds were a large area, covered in sky high pillars. It appeared to be an abandoned temple indicating signs of an ancient civilization. It was rumored that such temples were spread all over this world, each with a different style of architecture.

Soon, they reached the hunting grounds. Everyone was armed and moving stealthily.

“Crash”, suddenly, a loud sound spread through the grounds. It seemed like a battle between beasts was taking place on the hunting grounds.