"Essence manipulation is the core of all supernatural events in this universe!" Flitwick spoke loudly, silencing the students that were talking to one another, though Cho Chang, who for some reason still decided to sit beside me after my dressing down.
Finally perked up with our first actual lesson taking place.
"Whether it be monsters and their heretical methods of gaining strength and breeding. A wizard or mortals cultivate their magical cores to make themselves more then what they currently are. Or the very gods themselves."
Flitwick looked over us all and said very firmly. "All beings who walk the magical path are tied to their skill and knowledge of essence manipulation."
The short half goblin looked to one of the Ravenclaws behind me and called out. "Jaxely, what is Essence Manipulation?"
The Ravenclaw boy then spoke after a moment of thought. "Essence manipulation is the total movement and control of supernatural energy? Being qi, magic, mana, prana or any other derivatives."
Flitwick nodded and he said with a small smile. "Good! Five spirit stones to Ravenclaw. Now at it's core Essence Manipulation as in this classroom, will be spent focusing on training you all to feel for the magic around you and helping you master the ability to absorb the magic around you."
"You may be thinking... Why do we need an entire class devoted across years of study for the simple act of inhaling energy?" Flitwick spoke with amusement and I saw Cho in the corner of my vision nodding.
And the teacher answered our question on why that indeed was the case.
"Because, the act of absorbing magical energy is by far the most important part of being a wizard, a cultivator or anything else!" Flitwick said firmly with his gaze a heavy weight on us.
"What do techniques, cultivation manuals, beast bonds, or anything else matter... If you can't properly absorb the resulting energies involved in those sources and end up making your body explode!"
There was a heavy pause before Flitwick said very... Very bluntly. "You know that wizards are made to wait till their almost an adult to begin properly cultivating and learning magic. There is a very good reason for that. Back in the old days, centuries ago there was a large mortality rate for wizards who couldn't control themselves."
The half goblin closed his eye's with a dark expression crossing his face as he spoke quietly. "Young men and women in their early teens would think themselves ready to absorb some spirit stones sent from their parents to get a leg up on their peer's cultivation... And then a teacher finds their remains in their room, a complete mess!"
"In taking too much magical energy while their magical cores are still naturally growing in their teen years. They literally explode violently! Imagine you being sent back to your parent's not in a coffin but a large soup pot as you just became a bloody mist that covered the floor."
Flitwick took a breath as the room was filled with a deathly silence and then he spoke more measuredly. "In this class, you will learn all manners of absorbing magical energy and supernatural effects. And with my six centuries of experience in cultivating all kinds of manuals and doing rituals, I will be able to aid you in most forms of cultivation."
The rest of the class was then pivoted to less serious topics as Flitwick began explaining our future as wizards compared to normal humans who had to cultivate special martial arts through two major realms in Elemental Enrichment, and Magical Expulsion.
To reach the stage of Magical Core Formation, which we were all already at.
"Now you all are at the Magical Core Formation stage, so what you all need to be focusing on is finding out your elemental affinities and then finding a cultivation style that fits those affinities, as going against your affinity can actually harm you like poison. Flitwick explained before he added on that we weren't in a rush to do so.
Sure we could start now and get ahead, but in reality Hogwart's only truly expects people to set their path completely in a manual, the students decide to be their core style by second year.
With that Flitwick then moved from his high chair over to a raised padded flat stone platform and looking at it I realized it was a fucking massive spirit stone that had countless magical veins running through it.
"Now! This is a top grade Spirit Stone, it earns its rank as Top grade due to the simple reason that it has Spirit Vein's inside of it's and thus it can refuel itself from ambient mana in the air... And with Hogwarts being the epicenter of dozens of leylines or dragon veins. The mana in the air is extremely rich"
Flitwich explained, before he continued explaining how to absorb mana/qi from spirit stones which were simply stones, and in some cases special ores that had been baked in spiritual energy/magic for years next to a leyline. With special ores that turn into spirit stones having special effects.
Like magma spirit stones having a strong yang attribute, allowing people to use it to fuel fire/yang related formations, or enhancing the rate of growth if you absorb it while cultivating a fire/yang related manual.
Likewise, if you cultivated with Frost Spirit stones that form after being buried under at least a hundred meters of ice, snow, etc. With Frost Spirit Stones being rather common, actually with how they could be mined with ease from Antarctica.
Besides the whole... Fucking hordes of massive ice monsters that infested Antarctica and made it half as bad as Australia.
Speaking of the land down under... The country itself didn't exist in this timeline/world. Nope, it was simply called the Dark Lands or Forbidden Continent. Because even Nascent Soul wizards, and higher cultivation beings. Even gods had disappeared in that continent.
So, not much was known about the continent besides the few Nascent Souls that only touched upon the edges, finding it filled with resources. But filled with horrible creatures and literally every living being there was toxic or poisonous to some level.
"Now, each of you will likely choose different cultivation manuals, different styles in which you build up your magical cores. But the most important fact you all need to be aware of is thus." Flitwick took a breath and said bluntly.
"If you value your life, do not absorb more energy than your core can naturally take... I have personally seen entirely too many arrogant teenagers thinking they were heaven sent geniuses who managed to make a familiar bond with a powerful Magical Creature, only for them to be overwhelmed by the creature's naturally output mana."
Flitwick then looked over to the clock and said more calmly. "You all can spend the last five minutes of class talking quietly with your peers. I do mean quietly though, no shouting over to another student at another table!"
My lips twitched at the reminder of my old life at school as a couple dozen conversations broke out and thus the classroom was filled with a buzz of noise.
So with Weapon Infusion and Combat Arts as my next class for today, I just laid my head in my arm ignoring Cho Chang beside me even as she hadn't gone to speak with me yet.
And with my mind brought back into the Library of Heaven's Path, I took one look at the thousands of books I had scanned from the smaller library and I couldn't help being a little chunni as I spoke firmly. "Library, condense the manual to heaven!"
All the books glowed and then faded as they broke apart into motes of golden light that formed into a book made seemingly from the darkness of space, and the book was locked by a sun that rotated around a tapestry of stars.
"I will name you the Astral Path." I spoke softly as I grimaced at the heat in the sun like lock as I pushed it across the field of stars to unlock the book and in opening the book, the pages were folds of space, and each letter was built out of a dozen stars.
This cultivation method wasn't perfect, obviously, but having thousands of cultivation techniques and manuals all filtered into it's current form meant that reasonably... This was a very powerful one, and even if I condense several thousand more manuals and books into this one to make it even more complete.
It wouldn't matter because it was going to take me months, if not at least a couple of years, for me to reach the next stage of cultivation in reaching Nascent Soul regardless of the technique I use.
I had plenty of time to filter all this into make the omega BS cultivation manual that will make me super duper special and utterly unrivaled or whatever.
Though it would be nice if I could get some Golden Pages from the Library of Heaven's path like the MC from the novel named after this cheat did. But I need to help my peers be enlightened from my teachings in order to get those golden pages.
Which was rather difficult seeing as I myself was still just a new student. And those golden pages were extremely important as they gave me instant enlightenment on whatever topic I wanted to learn from.
And seeing as this cultivation manual was fucking written in star's and filled with cosmic truths... I definitely needed a bit of a hand in understanding it.
So with a cultivation manual that was already complicated enough to make my enhanced mind within the Library want to overheat. I realized beyond just my cultivation manual I needed to focus on something else as well.
What did I want my main weapon to be besides my wand? As in leaving Hogwarts being a Newblood. Unless I hid back in a wizarding area like Diagon Alley. I would be monster bait and needed to be able to defend myself.
Then it struck me. Seeing as I wanted to be able to help others to gain the Golden Pages of enlightenment. I needed to be spread out across different weapons. But I most certainly didn't want multiple weapons in reality.
So I needed a weapon in form that counted towards the dao of other weapons as well. And that weapon was the Nameless King's Spearsword with it falling well into the Saber, Sword, and Spear dao giving me a damn near perfect spread of martial dao's to explore.
To say nothing of how I could also look into mastering the fist and palm intents as well.
I pulled out the Library of Heavens Path with a bit of a headache after reading the Astral Path manual, and with a hum of thought I leaned back in my chair and looked over to Cho and asked casually.
"So do you know where the martial arts and weapon manual focused library is located?"
Cho blinked at my sudden question and said quietly. "There is the weapon and general martial arts library on the first floor of the castle near the outdoor training and private training rooms? Also, I heard your Gyrfindoor dorm area has its own martial arts and technique library."
I shrugged and said with a wry smile. "It's still the first real day of learning. We were escorted to the dorms, showed where we would be sleeping, and then told of the penis shrinking staircase leading to the girls dormitory. That's really it."
Cho Chang's face twitched as I mentioned the cursed staircase and she just shook her head. But in either case, with my question taken care of, I just looked down towards my timetables and the general map of Hogwarts that was lacking a good bit of information, obviously.
But I found my next classroom for the class of Weapon Infusion and Combat Arts down on the first floor, and then I saw that the martial arts library was also on the first floor.
'Hmm, I can snag a bunch of manuals and techniques while I am down there as well. Hmm, what kind of martial arts techniques would work for a Spearsword though?' I mused to myself.
Before mentally shrugging as Flitwick called out. "You all can head out and find your way to your next classroom. I will see you all in the next few days."
I got up and then I headed out of the Essence Manipulation Classroom where I followed my fellow Gryffindor's as we headed down towards the lower levels of the castle. And I got into conversation with a duo of guys.
One of them was named John Ceress, and was from a minor Pureblood family, and the other guy was Devin Thrasher. Both of them seemed to be more of the physical type, which is where the conversation started
"The martial path is at most. At most fifty percent based on your martial arts accomplishments, the basis of the martial path is the level you have refined your physical body!" Devin argued and he proved it as he had a rather powerfully built form and his dad was a boxing coach who had cultivated his own magical core and discarded his 'muggle' status.
While his mother was a pureblooded witch.
"Psh! The level of body refinement doesn't matter much at all if you force yourself down a dead end in using a weapon or style that is completely opposite yourself!" John argued in turn and I nodded more partial to John honestly.
With myself adding on calmly. "If someone doesn't have any talent for a particular martial art or weapon. Forcing themselves down that path will only lead to a block path when they run into the endless hurdles."
"Everyone has a talent of some sort, they just need to find it. And then have the strength to nurture that talent into real strength." I finished and both guys nodded in agreement at my middle point of their argument.
Then Charlotte Dunoise, who was a rather perky blond and talking to Lavender Brown who had been sorted into Gryffindor in this timeline as well interrupted us with amusement clear in her somewhat accented tone as her parent's were French and her English had a french tone.
"You boys just want to smash things with some sharp metal sticks, don't you? Why not just bombard your enemies with spells from afar!" She taunted.
Me and the boyz shared a look before I snarked back. "Nah I smash real good!" Making Lavender and Charlotte roll their eye's at my 'monke smash' tone of voice.
Charlotte herself was more on the petite side but she had a good complexion... And a nice ass.
However Lavender on the other hand? The brown eyed brunet had to hold an arm across her chest as with each step we took down the stairs her very ample prodigous chest would otherwise bounce.
"Anyway, I am surprised we are still getting combat class basically as our second period." I mused aloud and Lavender being a Pureblood explained.
"It's not just combat class, it's a lifestyle class that teaches us magic user's how to properly train our bodies. With the teacher watching us push ourselves at some level doing body refinement." She explained with a slight frown, and I realized that like Charlotte, she didn't so much enjoy the thought.
'Even in a new world, one with magic and Great Value cultivation. Girls still hate gym class.' I thought with some amusement at the thought.
Once we got down to the ground level of the castle, I looked at my watch and said. "I am going to take a peak at the martial arts and techniques library for a bit."
Lavender just waved as she took Charlotte's arm and pulled her away and I was followed by Joh who wanted to find a 'katana' based martial art/technique form. Which made me lose almost all respect for the guy until he mentioned wanting to understand the Japenese culture so he could go over there one day and snag Yuki-Onna for a wife.
Which honestly, props for the guy for being honest and having such a goal. "So like, where did you get this interest in snow women?" I asked the pureblood curiously.
And he sighed looking wistful as he spoke. "It was a few years ago, and my family was hosting a business dinner with some foreign businessmen my family worked with in getting alchemy ingredients for my families shops."
He shook his head. "One of my merchants brought his daughter who was a snow woman seeing as there as there is no such thing as half 'Veela, Yuki-Onna' and other all female magical races."
"Either way, she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my life. And after sitting next to her, I realized that she would be the perfect wife as with her, my bed will never get hot and sweaty!"
I couldn't help snorting at his ending reason so I just chuckled and said. "Good for you dude. Good luck on your quest, I am going to look through the books so have fun looking for eastern sword arts."
Sure Hogwarts had a massive series of libraries focused on endless topics. But how many actual Katana technique books did Hogwarts actually have?
Either way, I got to work running my finger across the spines of ALL the manuals, techniques, guides on weapons, and everything else in the Martial Path.
Though I had to be a bit more relaxed in doing so as there were other students in the library, so I couldn't just sprint down the aisles with a hand on each on the two levels of the bookcases.
I spent the next twenty minutes collecting all the manuals I could into my Library of Heaven's Path and then with that... I next went to the Weapon Infusion and Combat Arts class room which was attached to the castle in a large gym like room at the base level.
And as I took in the classroom, I saw our teacher... And seeing him. I couldn't help an internal laugh as I saw Rudeus Hagrid was our teacher and he was a jacked monster of muscle and padding that clearly made him out to be a power lifter.
Then as more students streamed in, Hagrid waved his hand over to the side doors and spoke out loudly. "All of you grab some exercise clothes and change in the locker rooms! We are going to see your physical baseline so I know where you all are!"
And as I shrugged, heading over to the locker rooms to get some clothes and get changed. I heard Dorea Malfoy grumbling as she walked next to another blond woman who I recongized as Daphne Greengrass, and who I could only possibly assume was Pansy Parkinson.