Life in the village.

In is room, Darius slowly opened his eyes. He let out a sigh then got out of bed. Today, he was going to look around the village. He stepped out of his room and immediately squinted his eyes. The sun was already so bright this early in the morning. After a few seconds, his eyes adjusted to the sunlight.

He headed toward the centre of the village. He wanted to see what the oasis looked like up close. Fortunately for him, he met the brawny looking guard who volunteered to to give him a tour. Darius suspected his actions were being monitored by the brawny looking guard. He he advised himself to be cautious from here on out.

On their way through the village, Darius asked a question that had been bothering him since he arrived in the village. “Why is everything made of sand?”. The brawny guard answered “it is because of oases. They are not permanent. On the contrary, they are easily exhaustible therefore, the was frequent migration. Fortunately and unfortunately, there were many oases scattered all over the eastern desert but few of them were of a decent quality”. Villages with stronger inhabitants often occupy the ones of higher quality. Also the said “stonger” village could also be attacked at any time when a stronger village seeks out a new oasis.

After digesting the answer, Darius felt he should familiarise with the brawny looking guard. “What's your name?” Darius asked. “ It's Jal” the brawny looking guard replied. The continued to chat as they made their way through the village. Soon they reached the oasis.

It appeared to be a small lake surrounded by plants and patches of grass. Judging from its size, Darius could not guess if the village was powerful or weak. It was not huge but it was not tiny either.

There was a fence around the oasis, also made out of sand which signified not everyone could get close to it. Darius walked up to the fence, he wanted to guage what Jal's reaction would be. Strangely, he did not react in anyway. He felt a surge in the elemental essence in the vicinity.

On the other side, Darius could see a bunch of people sitting in a cross legged position right outside the fence. Evidently, they were cultivating. Darius subconsciously looked at his elemental sea. The barrier was full of cracks and looked like it would shatter at the slightest touch. He withdrew his attention from his elemental sea and let out a sigh. He had to find a way to awaken without alerting anyone.

Jal walked up to him while looking across the oasis. “Those will be your classmates starting tomorrow, would you like to meet them?”. “No need to rush the introductions, I'll meet them tomorrow.” Darius replied.

“Thanks for the tour Jal, see you around.” Darius bade his farewell and left.

He was reminded of his situation. He had to awaken when no one was around, and here lies dilemma, on one hand, the elemental essence in the atmosphere was subpar but the essence around the oasis was of a higher quality although there would always be someone around it.

This was also a reason why back at the northern continent, students were allowed to enter chambers with highly condensed elemental essence. He also couldn't sneak to the oasis and try to cultivate out of sight because he was most likely being watched. Which was fair because no one who is able to think critically would allow a stranger into their home without watching their every action.

Darius continued to mull over this dilemma as he walked back to his residence. He stayed in his room trying to cultivate until it was late in the afternoon. He had made a decision. He would join the students and try to perform beyond expectations then when there was an opportunity to go outside the village, he would stealthily cause a commotion then sneak away for a few days to try to awaken.

This idea was incredibly reckless and had a relatively low chance of success, but alterations could be made in the heat of the moment. This was a plan Darius came up with to calm himself from overthinking his situation. It was not a good plan but it calmed him down.

He strolled about in the village once again. This time it was to observe how people lived in the village. During his stroll, Darius noticed that since the village was not too big, everyone knew eachother. Kids were playing all over, mother's chatting the day away, fathers arriving back from hunting trips with huge fox like game.

It was a very cheerful environment but he sad reality was that, all this would not last. Bandits and other villages may attack the village at the next moment and cause what was once a cheerful environment to turn grim.

Only time could tell if this village would be destroyed and replaced or remain standing. Darius roamed around interacting with several villagers until it was night time.

He went back to his residence, ate dinner, cultivated for a while then went to bed.

The next day, after Darius woke up, he headed straight towards the oasis. A few minutes later, he arrived. He walked towards toward the bunch of students gathered at the other side of the oasis. Once he got close, all attention fell on him. Darius was a bit flustered. Although he was a grown man in a child's body, he had always been an introvert.

Either way, he introduced himself. “Hello everyone, my name is Cyrus. I am thirteen and I will be joining you for lessons from today. I will be in your care.”

What a robotic introduction, Darius thought to himself.

Fortunately, a few students walked towards him while the others nodded in acknowledgement.

After a brief exchange of introductions, two guys stayed with Darius while the others returned to their business. The two of them were named Raha and Somir. Raha was short and stout while Somir was tall and slender, much like Darius. They chattered among themselves for a while before a man who appeared to be a tutor sauntered towards them.

“Hey guys”, oh I see you have already meet your new comrade. “Cadet”, he called ou to Darius, you may address me as Mr. Del. “Yes Mr. Del” Darius replied immediately causing a bout of laughter to spread among the students. Darius looked around in confusion. Upon noticing Darius' confused look, Somir said, “everyone's laughing because of the way you replied. Mr. Del always does this whenever someone new joins us. Most just stare in confusion but you just went along with it. “And you guys find that funny?” Darius asked unimpressed. “Yeah, I guess.” Somir answered.

In his previous life, this was the kind of humour Darius would have commented “cringe” on then proceed to sneer in disdain. This time though, he was at the centre of the unfunny joke.

Soon the sounds of laughter faded and Del began to speak. He announced the lesson for the day. He was going to educate the students about the various beasts that roam the eastern desert that should be avoided.

“Giant sandworms, giant scorpions, giant sand vipers, desert foxes, giant centipedes.” Mr. Del listed a few animals that roamed the eastern desert. He then said “you all should be very careful when you come into contact with any of these creatures.”

Any essence user below tier two stands no chance against these creatures. Thinking back, Darius felt he was extremely lucky to have not encountered any of these creatures on his journey through the desert.

“Fortunately for us, most of these creatures live in areas close to the center of the desert, but occasionally, some of them pop up around these areas.”

Realization dawned on Darius as he realised the actual reason why he did not encounter any of these beasts.

Unless you have a very powerful means of attack, you should always aim for the eyes when fighting these beasts.

The lesson went on as Mr. Del elaborated on the dos and don'ts when one encounters these beasts.

Late in the afternoon, the lesson came to an end. The students were then allowed to cultivate for a few hours.

Considering his situation, Darius just sat in place as he watched everyone else with envy. He also wanted to cultivate but that was not possible unless he wanted to end up dead.

A few hours later, Mr. Del announced the end of the lesson. He also notified the students of the lessons for the next day which were combat practice and a hunting lesson outside the village. Darius' eyes lit up when he heard this. Finally the chance to execute his plans had arrived. He was overjoyed.

Darius had arrived at another crossroad. With information available suggesting that he would be able to control his eyes after awakening, Darius planned to make full use of his eyes but here lay the problem, he had to find a mask or something to cover his eyes in orde to be able to use them in broad daylight.

Darius put all these thoughts to the back of his mind. That was a bridge he would cross when he reached it, but first, he had to make sure he awakened smoothly.

With these thoughts in mind, Darius bade his new friends farewell as he headed to his residence.

On his way back, he ran into Jal. The two of them chatted for a while before going their separate ways.

Once home, Darius' food had already been served. This sent Darius into his thoughts once again. He thought that he could be easily poisoned this way if someone had bad intentions towards him. With this thought in mind, Darius took a bit of the food in hand and headed outside. He found some dog around and fed the food to them. He watched them for a while, and when nothing happened to them, he let out a sigh of relief, headed back inside to have his meal. Once done with his meal, he cultivated for a while then went to bed.