Feeling as if he had woken up from a dream, Hazel was lying down feeling as if his body was light as a feather. The tension in his muscles had vanished and his mental burdens disappeared as if they never existed in the first place.
Rolling out of bed, Hazel saw the time and got up to start his day, class starting in 2 hours. Brushing his teeth, Hazel stared at his reflection in the mirror counting the time in his head for how long it'd take to finish up brushing.
In the reflection of the mirror, Hazel's appearance was visible in the light of the bathroom. Hazel was a proud and tall boy with deep set eyes, straight eyebrows, light skin tone, pure hazel eye color, lengthy black hair tied up in a pony tail with some loose hair dangling at the side of his head. With this hair style, his slightly long neck connected to merge with his upper body. Broad shoulders revealing some muscles on them and a muscular chest. He could be called a slim toned man without his shirt but called a stick figure with clothing on.
After a while of flossing and mouth wash, he dried off his face and proceeded to head out the door. On his way out, he wanted to go grab breakfast at the food court where it was free for students. Students were practically paid to join the college under the assumption they were qualified. The only things students would need to pay for is cultivation resources where they needed to rely on themselves and their connections to gather them.
Being a scholarship student, Hazel was pretty much given everything by the college. It was questionable why the college declared him as a scholarship student when he was in reality he was a chairman level student with unlimited access. Not really caring about the particular details about his enrollment here in Heaven's Domain, he went up to a booth serving breakfast and swiped his student card, picking whatever was on the meal and waited.
Looking on his phone scrolling through the school's website, Hazel noticed that there was an opportunity for students to compete for resources. He couldn't help but sigh thinking that he too would want to compete for resources if he was allowed to. Under the privileges granted for being a so called scholarship student, he was also given restrictions.
Some of these restrictions was that he couldn't compete for resources as he was already given an unlimited amount. He couldn't fight students on campus as he had special circumstances that needed to keep him in check to not recklessly use his privileges.
Given that he was now a college student, he couldn't help but want to do things as other college students even though he felt adverse to joining in the first place. Thinking over it, his sacrifice over his parents sacrifice made him feel better. He loved his parents very much and didn't regret joining the college at the expense of his emotions.
Emotions can be fixed over time, that was his motto after being here for an entire semester. Just like how time can cure pain, emotions fall in the same category. Hazel practically repeating a mantra in his mind about emotions and time, couldn't help but flinch when his meal number was called out.
Dashing over, he grabbed his tray of food. Today, he got a breakfast sandwich with a glass of orange juice. The breakfast sandwich consisted of eggs, smoked ham, shredded lettuce, and toasted bun with some special sauce spread on the inside.
The greatest meal of the day had to be breakfast since it was the first thing he ate in the morning, if he ate trash in the morning then the rest of the day would be after he ate trash. Luckily the food before him was practically a god sent meal carefully crafted with love and care by the food court workers.
Finishing his meal and sipping his juice, he looked at his phone for the time and saw he had 30 minutes left until class started. Quickly finishing off his drink, he moved his tray to the cleaning section where it'll be taken care of automatically by the workers later.
Navigating and sprinting through the campus to his class, he finally arrived at the door where it said 'Cultivation 101'. Entering the classroom there were already many of the seats filled, not wanting to stand out he hung his head low and found an isolated seat. Luckily this class period didn't have the girls in here to bother him so he could relax.
Soon, the professor of the class walked in.
Cultivation 101 Professor: "Has everyone read a bit of the book of legends? I expect everyone to know at least 2 legends from the book otherwise you wouldn't be able to finish up this semester if you aren't able to write a paper about yourself and how you want to create your own legend."
The class naturally fell silent as the professor spoke, but the words of the professor wasn't to be taken lightly. The professor of this class was special for a very simple reason. Whatever progress a student does in this class, it'll be used as the basic foundation for their future. In retrospect, to have a prosperous college life from now on, you must do well in this class or else your future class work will be difficult for you.
So when the professor brought up creating your own legend, many people naturally felt a sense of pressure since legends aren't a joke. Every being that has a legend dedicated to their name can be assumed to have existed at one point in life and has accomplishments that no one can achieve.
Creating your own legend whether if it's true or not can make or break your college future. Hazel realizing this small detail thought to create a fake legend about himself since he got unlimited funds. The easiest path in life sometimes isn't the things that come from heaven, it's the things handed down by man.
Relaxing, Hazel didn't really pay attention to the final assignment of creating your own legend and sought to think about his next class that had the group of girls in it. Shivering, he couldn't help but feel goosebumps on his body just thinking about the torture of being pestered by these woman, seeking to destroy is future.
Once class concluded, Hazel was called over by the professor to discuss something.
Cultivation 101 Professor: "Hazel, I know that since you're a scholarship student, you don't really need to take this class seriously. But I do hope that you do make a good effort in your final assignment. I believe whatever you write down for yourself can truly guide you in the future, whether it is educational or your career."
Hazel listening to this professor's small speech couldn't help but feel a slight desire to create his own legend. After all, who wouldn't want a story talking about a person's greatest achievements? Nodding his head, Hazel shown understanding and walked away heading to his next class.
The professor simply looked at the departing young man known as Hazel. He had known Hazel was a special existence within this college but he couldn't help but feel that Hazel was slowly losing himself. The most important thing about being a student is the opportunity to learn and grow. Hazel was learning but he wasn't growing. All the professors knew the circumstances regarding Hazel's campus life from the moment he was enrolled to now.
Although to them, Hazel wasn't really being bullied, it looked like he was flirting with a bunch of girls and those girls reciprocated him by not using their cultivation against him and lowered themselves to be at a mortal level like Hazel.
Cultivators as an existence was a higher level compared to mortals since even at the lowest level of cultivation, they were vastly superior to the highest level of mortals. Everyone in this college had some sort of cultivation level, only Hazel was mortal within the campus grounds.
Hazel now reached the doors of his next classroom, 'Combat Basics'. Hazel never really accomplished much in this class on individual assignments. He was undoubtedly receiving high grades thanks to the group projects with the girls that he reluctantly refuses to acknowledge. Regardless, Combat Basics class was a tough class that Hazel couldn't expect high grades from unless he gets help since he was definitely the weakest person in the class.
At this moment, Hazel couldn't but freeze up as if he was a goat scared stiff. He knew this sensation was whenever Julia was near him and that was his danger alarm going off in his head. Oddly enough, the approaching girls didn't interact with him. They had simply sat in their seats all around him and then pulling out their course material for the class.
An uneasy sensation crept up his spine seeing that they weren't acting as usual. Perhaps this was heaven's blessing? Had he finally earned the respect of someone that shouldn't be bullied by these bandit like girls? As he started to relax, the class had began its session.
Although the course content of Combat Basics was pretty much all about how to initiate a fight, the mindset someone should have when fighting and the types of fights one should take and not take, it never really covered how to fight in particular. Currently the professor was talking about his final lesson about body development.
This specific topic intrigued Hazel as he was finally about to learn how to get stronger. Unlike body building that mortals do, body cultivation was more or less the usage of spirit to enhance the qualitative traits that a person's body can possess. If mortals can possess the trait of endurance, flexibility, and denseness. Cultivators can go a step beyond that level into territories like regeneration, form, and molecular structure.
Hazel jotting down notes for this particular class because he wanted to become stronger, noticed something out of the corner of his eye. The girls had pulled out their phones and had been scrolls through their photo album showing his pictures. This made him feel infuriated. Both because the subject was his humiliation and his helplessness to stop them in the middle of class.
Last resort, ignore them and focus on taking notes for the future. Someday, these girls would regret having memories of my humiliation and I shall be the one they cannot imagine bothering! Regardless, the professor kept talking.
The professor had started to talk about specific techniques for body cultivation stating that it'll be a optional course for students as most students don't really find the need to work on body development as most of the time, ascenders don't really rely on their body to fight, they use their spirit to operate everything from defense to offense.
Body cultivation was more or less for appearance sake. Back in the day, men and woman had dreamed to achieve the god like physique. Now that it's possible, that dream had died down because of the intense complications and dedication it would require for it. The cost and benefit were simply not worth it when the opportunity to cultivate and become stronger had better cost and benefit performance.
At most, only mortals like Hazel would dream of a god physique. Although people found fully dedicating cultivation to be the best cost-benefit path, that didn't mean body cultivation was worthless either.
Just like how body cultivation was a path of cultivation, there were many other paths of cultivation people could take. A strong example would be the sword god. A man who dedicated himself to the sword and cultivated it to the peak to ascend to the higher realm. Who wouldn't dream of cultivating a path and becoming a legend with that path embedded into their legacy?
Finally, the professor closed off saying that this was the final class as most of the knowledge of combat basics would be found in the next Combat Basics class. Standing up, Hazel ran out of the class as soon as possible to avoid being bothered by the group of girls, successfully evading their attempt at holding him back in the classroom.
Truthfully speaking, Hazel wasn't sure what to do next. When he first enrolled into this college, it was out of pure luck that he had joined. He didn't even know how to enroll into classes and was automatically assigned these two general classes. He didn't have a path he wanted to learn or rather, he didn't know he had the choice to pick.
So, Hazel now with nothing to do would rather go off to the practice fields and workout. A strong mind forms a strong body as they say! So Hazel decided with his strong mind that he wanted to make a strong body so he wouldn't get bullied.
Strolling through the gym in the practice field, he came across some weights and watched and people workout. Simply copying them but with lighter weights, Hazel definitely felt the strain in his body as he tried to mimic them.
This continued for a few hours of Hazel trying out different work out routines trying to see what would make him feel more pain and what makes him feel as if would assist his bodily functions more. Hazel, someone born as a mortal being in a cultivation college, understood the extent to how much he could do.
These cultivators are always showing off their powers and it allowed him to constantly monitor their actions and see exactly what action produced what benefit. Only after doing the actions himself could he finally realize what the benefits were. During competitions, he'd seen cultivators lift their weapons and he'd witness different muscles contracting depending on the weapon and how it was held.
Thanks to his status, he was pretty much always given front row seats at a safe distance to analyze these competitions. With an good grasp at the benefits in mind, he proceeded to contemplate how to find the best routine. With that, he headed towards the staff lounge for the practice field requesting if there was someone who could teach him how to work out.
Soon after, a female employee came out and introduced herself. The woman wasn't quite what he was expecting. He thought the woman would be a pure cultivator, slim and sublime body to showcase the extent of her spirit force. Instead, the woman was quite toned with form thighs, slightly large arm muscles that can practically match a mortal body builder's hand, and she was quite tall.
Hailey Uvia: "Why hello there, I can help you work out. I'm quite good at it myself, what do you think? My name is Hailey Uvia, just call me Hailey."
Hazel Illum: "I'm Hazel Illum the scholarship student. Nice to meet you and please guide me on the equipment all around the gym."
Being polite, Hazel wasn't quite sure if Hailey was a student staff worker or a professor staff worker. Either way, thanks to her he would get some instructions about working out from her. Not soon after, she had begun her tour of the gym. Pointing out machines left and right, introducing them slowly and also pointing to some rooms where people can rest and recover if needed.
It was noted that there were busy hours and they were promptly moderated all the time so students can plan their gym sessions around their class schedules. Though, Hazel had no need for this since he practically didn't have any classes past morning.
After the tour was done, Hailey was about to continue on to what she'd recommend to Hazel when a speaker went off with a voice declaring there was an announcement.
Speaker: "Announcement to all students. Please attend the competition hall where we'll be holding our annual duel competition. Any student of any age, generation, and realm can join. Please arrive shortly at the competition hall to apply within the next 24 hours otherwise it'll be closed afterwards. I repeat, you have 24 hours to join the competition before it closes."
With that, the speaker went silent but the world didn't grow silent, instead it seemed as if the world was suddenly engulfed with emotion of excitement and anxiety. The main reason why annual competitions were highly anticipated was because students who achieved a good ranking could receive a title. This title can be incorporated into a student's legend. Any title a person receives in life can be an accomplishment.
This was the main reason why students would want to join the competition aside from the obvious cultivation resource rewards. Hazel on the other hand was calm but couldn't help but feel the world shift around him as the people ran off from the gym like a group of angry bulls. Hailey too disappeared with the march and now he was left alone.
Hazel couldn't help but feel like the entire campus was engulfed in madness. A madness that makes everyone mad but himself. Seeing this Hazel just shrugged and headed off to his dorm. He could probably expect some live stream action in the next few days about this competition. Whether or not he watches the competition though is up to him.