Athar put away all these thoughts and began his cultivation. He did not touch any of the resource material he had received. Although he had a good idea about how to use and absorb them, he decided to wait and see if any of the teachers at the academy talked about how to use them.
It was the evening of the same day, and Athar, dressed in his uniform, arrived in one of the large sized halls of the academy for his practical class. The timing of the class felt a bit unusual to him.
The sun had already set, and darkness had overtaken the entire academy building. Rune lamps strapped along the walls of the academy were the only sources of light providing illumination to the students.
The class had been scheduled late in the evening. It had been more than twenty minutes since Athar had been waiting in the hall, and ten minutes since the designated time for the class to start. All the students were huddled in the centre of the hall and they were almost growing restless. The timing of the class, the environment and then the wait was not really sitting well with them on the first day of the academy.
Athar was standing at the back of the crowd when the incoming sounds of footsteps echoed in the hall.
All the students looked ahead to see a middle aged man approaching them. The man was massive and bulky, more than six feet tall, and bald. Completely bald. His presence was intimidating as he walked with an impassive expression on his face.
"Hello everyone," he boomed, his voice heavy. "I am Sankul, your main practical teacher."
"What do I mean by main?" He continued. "You will have two or three other teachers who will guide you through a few specific things, but I will be the one who will head the entire class."
"I believe that you have had two theory classes, and Vale has dealt with a few things," he continued, earning an echo of agreement from the students.
"Good," he said. "Now, like theory, before we move forward, I would like to take you all through what we will be aiming for or trying to accomplish in our classes."
"Before that, I would like you all to rearrange yourselves into a semicircle. I feel at ease when I can clearly see the faces of every student in my class."
A small chaos erupted as they formed into a semicircle. Athar found himself between two students. One of them was Kevin, who had answered the first question in Vale's class.
"Now," Sankul said. "The basic aim of our class is not difficult to define."
"It is very obvious," he stated. "To raise your strength, to make you more powerful and help you master combat."
"But the question is, how do we proceed?" He questioned.
"I divide the way to proceed into three pathways," he continued. "Mind you, these are not separate or parallel pathways."
"Instead, you have to follow all these pathways simultaneously, and the better overlap and synergy you have among the three pathways, the better result you will get."
"The first pathway is obviously cultivation. As your rank increases, your strength will continue to rise. In general trends, an E Rank will be stronger than an F Rank. And a D Rank will be stronger than both of them."
"There could be cases when an F Rank might beat an E Rank," he said. "It depends on a lot of factors. The said person might have some unique spiritual veins or a very high grade beast as his tamed beast."
"There are plenty of chances that an F Rank gold grade might defeat an E Rank Iron grade or Bronze grade for that matter. But these are the factors over which we hardly have any control."
"But there are these other two factors or pathways which are very instrumental in determining your combat abilities," he said. "If I say that all other factors, cultivation, spiritual veins, size of the Mindscape, and grade of the beasts are the same, then these two factors will determine who would emerge as the victor."
"The first factor is Human Beast Synergy," he announced.
"A lot of things come under this broad category," he continued. "You must have all received the first skill from your companions."
"If it is a high grade beast, then the skill would be powerful, otherwise, it could be weak. But apart from it, there is the synergy, which means how proficient you are in using it."
"Let me give you an example," he said as a ripple of light emerged behind him, and a beast appeared.
The students gasped as they stared at the beast that had emerged behind Sankul. It was an ape, more than seven feet tall, with a massive bulky body.
"This is an ape, a silver grade beast, and my companion," Sankul said, at which the ape let out a loud growl as if acknowledging his introduction.
"Now, the first skill I received from him," Sankul said as he raised his right hand. A rocky substance started to cover his palm, and in moments, a rock-like shell had formed on his entire fist.
"Rock fist. I used to call it," he explained. "Initially, this was the limit of what I could do with this."
"I could land a solid punch but that was it. Cover my fist in this shell and smash punches, but then I started to master my skills. I increased my synergy with my companion's skill."
As Sankul said this, his other fist too was covered in the same rocky substance, but that was not the end of it. A shell formed around his chest as if it was a shield.
"This is what I can do," Sankul said. "I can pack punches with them, and I can bear punches with it acting as a shield."
"But this is only the visible part. I also increased the strength and durability of these shells. I added a bit of flexibility in these so that they do not crackle easily. And they are pretty durable now."
"The better you master the skills you receive from your beast the better you can do in a battle."
"Then, under Human Beast Synergy comes the coordination between you and your companion during the battles," Sankul said. "How well you know each other and the strategies you are able to deploy together."
"Another example needed, I guess," he murmured as he gestured to his ape.
The ape moved at a very fast speed as it jumped extremely close to Sankul. Both of them brought their fists together as the back of their palms rubbed against each other.
The same rocky substance started to emerge from it and enveloped both of their fists in a shell. The shell this time looked even harder and stronger.
Sankul gave a nod, and the shell disappeared, and the ape jumped back.
"What you saw was the coordination I was talking about," he continued. "We combined our skills, and trust me, this move is much more powerful than if I simply added two of mine and my tamed beast's separate punches."
"In a battle, you can develop specific roles, merge skills, and do a lot of things," he said. "But those who fight as a unit will always have a better advantage compared to those who fight their battles separate from their companions."
"Do my words make sense?" He asked, and the students nodded in a daze with a confused face.
All this was making little sense to them but they still nodded.
"Do not worry," Sankul chuckled. "Human Beast Synergy is a different topic altogether, and you have a very competent teacher who will teach you and guide you through this topic."
"My purpose here is not to go into detail but to introduce the broader pathways," he added. "And this brings us to our third pathway."
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