Training the two new techniques was tiring to say the least, both in different ways. While “Lightning sword” was physically taxing (for now), “Enlightenment” was mentally draining, the False soul construct was so obtuse that at times Augus thought it was just nonsense. Trying to make what was basically a tesseract out of spiritual energy was beyond what his current mind could take for long stretches. Though he had made headway, at least he could make one, but not sustain it, silver linings. Things with “Lightning sword” were as expected, he had technically learned it, but expecting any “flowing like water” sword strikes would require at least a month of continuous practice, on the other hand, the electric side of the equation was going delightfully well. Maybe because all his previous uses of electricity, he now had a pretty good handle on electrifying the sword while also empowering his arms. Though Augus could still practice more, considering he couldn’t maintain that “state” for long, the moment his concentration slipped for a moment it would fall apart.

  It would need to do for now, he had to finish his new realm, not because of any deadline, but because he wanted to focus on his cultivation after a while, leaving his World project just on the cusp of finishing it was unacceptable. Augus would resume practicing the combat technique afterwards, for now he dedicated all his time and concentration to the “Enlightenment” technique.

  *

  “A week for mastering it and another week for learning the formation version. But alas, it has ended. I can finally publish “Research realm” and forget about that for a while.” Augus now had a bit of a trauma regarding geometric shapes, nothing serious but he wouldn’t be delving into another technique of such complexity anytime soon. He did pick up a few techniques to study while he resumed focus on his cultivation but they were general stuff that the school didn’t teach, like a cleaning spell or summoning water from the surrounding moisture.

  The main reason why he decided not to add anymore to the World for now was, aside from his recent struggle, that he had gotten wind of an upcoming competition of sorts. The military was looking for talented World Makers outside of Companies and Sects, rouge cultivators as they were named before, for a special assignment. The competition was divided between Foundation Establishment, Golden World and Nascent soul cultivators (mainly because there still wasn’t a good measurement on a World Make’s skill aside of their creations). The method to apply was the simplest Augus had ever seen, any World published during this week by a World Maker in these three realms was considered for the competition. And from what the notice stated the special assignment is about creating multiple advance post at the current border with the Siphon’s, even if “border” was being used rather generously, it was more of a no man’s zone according to the news.

  A curious theory he had picked up on after reading comments about the scarce rules was that the main focus were really the Golden World and Nascent soul cultivators, Foundation Establishment cultivators were still to green and bluntly weak for whatever the military wanted them for. Their participation was partially a lookout for talent and partially to put pressure on the other, higher, cultivators. More competition, even if false, would pressure World Makers to ditch out their best ideas, even if none of them knew what exactly the military was looking for, if it was creativity many would suffer, but if it wasn’t then Augus may suffer. As those who weren’t exactly overflowing with creative ideas focused on perfecting those they had to really obsessive details. One such example was the World posted right as Augus was checking the competition, by a Nascent Soul cultivator named Jean who seemed to have spent months already making it. The idea was plenty simple, generic even, a training ground for movement techniques, but the creator had gone above and beyond providing a variety of environments were a movement technique would be used, from a city to a jungle to a meadow to a simple plain to a complex mountain range, etc. The way they had designed the training course was ingenious as well, they used the semi-solidification Augus also used on the whole environment and had the cultivators choose the stage they wanted to practice on. A few of these separated by barriers and you had a training World even Augus would want to use, given he had a movement technique to practice with.

  This also gave him an idea for future study and practice, instead of trying to provide for everything himself he could look for World his colleagues had made that would suit his needs, maybe from this very competition, if Jean’s World was anything to go by then there was some serious quality to take advantage of.

  *

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Having completed all the details on his World and solidifying everything that should be solid, he arrived at the DWM to submit his World and for the first time he was ever here, there was activity in the place. Most likely from the competition, a lot of cultivators seemed to linger to chat with each other after submitting their Worlds and Augus planned to do exactly the same, even if not to learn anything else about the competition, connecting with other World Makers aside from his classmates seemed like the smart thing to do.

  After Augus delivered his World and all it’s information he looked for a group to join, after looking around the room he tried with a medium sized group of about five cultivators at Foundation Establishment and Golden World realms who seemed about his age if a little older. The age difference seemed weird at first glance but considering the circumstances of most freelance World Makers it made a lot of sense, most were not the best of their classes when they graduated their respective schools so they left most likely at Early Foundation Establishment. The main reason why Augus was so advanced in his cultivation by the time he graduated were his grades, the top performers of each class sometimes received Cloudy spiritual crystals which together with all his free time from finishing his assignments early meant he had quite the advantage in his cultivation. Augus big success with “Siphon raid” couldn’t be compared to most rouge World Makers, as the debut World of most received a few dozen cultivators a month at best, sometimes not even a few. Such great success explained the reactions he got after presenting himself.

  “You are the one who made “Siphon raid”!? We got a celebrity between us.” That immediately got the attention of the rest of the group, though said with some edge it stemmed from harmless envy rather than malicious jealousy. It also served as a presentation from the first guy Augus talked to.

  “And he’s even young to boot. I expected you to be a corpo runaway rather than a green first timer.

  “Your debut caused a lot of waves between us older folks, we hadn’t ever seen such a first World from a non corpo or sect guy, they usually take the talented ones.”

  “Guess I escaped their net.” A white lie, he couldn’t exactly introduce himself by listing the Corporations he rejected during his school years to a group outcasted by corporations and sects.

  “Guess you did, were you submitting a World for the competition?”

  “Precisely, I actually wanted to ask you about the competition. Do you know anything that was not on the notice?”

  “Even if we know something, why should we tell you?” The question was made by a third person aside from the guy who introduced Augus and the one he was just talking with. The one who asked was a girl in a yellow dress who didn’t seem too happy with his presence, even if Augus hadn’t done anything to bother her.

  “I could pay you for the information if you wanted.” Money tended to work wonder for acquiring information.

  The second guy, who Augus learned was named Franz through the rest of the groups muttering, told him: “No, no, don’t worry to pay us, it’s not really exclusive information. There’s this rumor going around that those who perform well in the military’s assignment, aside of being rewarded, will be put on a ranking of World Makers that other forces can look up.”

  “But those other forces already have a lot of talent to pull from, what would they need us for?”

  “They are always looking for more talents to add to their rosters, even the closed off sects sometimes look for outside talents. If they get you in on a request they might get you to join them. It’s not the first time this has happened, the only weird part is the military.”

  “What about them?”

  “They aren’t the ones who organize this kind of stuff, they sometimes participate but not often from what I know. If they need a specially talented cultivator they can just get them, a Military Request is designed to be unavoidable.” Augus had heard a little about them, special requests the military could make to any cultivator to help them in anything. Although they were supposed to be incredibly complicated to issue, according to his professors they had to go through all the high ranking Commanders to be approved and if the individual was in a sensitive position like an elder in a Sect or an executive in a Company, they also had to be approved by the central government. From what they learned in history classes, the time period where they were most issued was 87 years ago during the height of the last Siphon war.

  With this new knowledge in hand, Augus went back home and… resumed his cultivation, at his current situation there wasn’t much else to do other than cleanse a little bit more of his Golden Core.