After sneaking out of the Request Hall while everyone's gaze was on Master Gram and Mad Claw, Khal walked back to the Star Mansion and waited patiently there.
As he could do nothing but sit, he decided to take a seat on the side under a tree's shadow, and once taking a comfortable spot there he took out his book before starting to read it.
?
People looked at him in deep confusion about what he was doing, especially because it was not an everyday sight to see a Cultivator read a book that thick and big that Khal was looking at with an intense gaze.
Many hours later, when the sun was no longer in the sky and the people vanished from the streets, the door of the Star Mansion opened, and several individuals began to walk out with either a merry, a saddened, or angered complexion.
However, even though about a hundred individuals have walked out, Khal couldn't discover his Master thus shifted his gaze back at the book in his hand and proceeded on reading it.
Time flowed rapidly once again, and when the sun appeared and reached the highest point in the boundless sky, the door opened yet again, this time with Bazz's figure seen among the crowd.
"Master! How did it go?" Khal immediately put the book away and walked toward Bazz, who seemed to be in a very good mood.
"I did exceptionally great even though I didn't have high expectations for myself. I successfully acquired my sixth Golden Star!" Bazz even showed his Golden Star, grinning like a little kid who just got his first best grade from school.
"Congratulations, Master!" smiled Khal, even feeling happy for Bazz's success for some reason.
"Haha, you think too much of me. Anyway, how did it go for you?" Bazz turned serious when he asked that question, excited and worried at the same time to hear the answer.
Khal however just nodded and surprisingly even smiled, easing the heavy weight from Bazz's heart in an instant!
"I performed really well too, and maybe Master won't believe me, I even obtained 3 Golden Stars!"
"I see, I am glad-, wait... What did you just say? 3 Golden Stars?" Bazz eyes widened in shock, feeling as though he just misheard Khal's previous statement.
"Yeah, look." Khal summoned out the 3 Golden Stars he got from Elder Sige, even telling Bazz the full story of how he earned them.
"You... Did you just forge a Flaming Sun Steel and succeeded to pull its Soul Essence out?" Bazz could hardly believe his ear thus had to confirm if he heard it right or not, but Khal's nod left him even more speechless than before.
'He just forged a Supreme-Quality material with 8 Soul Threads under a few hours on his first try and he even succeeded?! Heavens, he is just 17 years old! How could this even happen?!'
Bazz turned silent for several minutes once Khal finished talking, not knowing whether he should laugh or cry about the fact that Khal had obtained 3 Golden Stars in less than 2 months of forging!
Maybe he was the very first human being in all history who achieved such a ridiculous feat and not even 'that' man was as heaven-defyingly talented as him.
After pondering and trying to digest the shocking news for several minutes, Bazz sighed before he put his hand on Khal's shoulder and smiled, "It looks like we have to make your training even harder than before."
'...'
"Wait, what?"
-
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After successfully completing the Star Forging Competition, Khal was brought back to Moon Academy, but when he waved goodbye to Bazz his complexion seemed nothing but tragic.
'Fucking hell, I shouldn't have told him what I have forged, I should have lied to him!' Khal felt helpless as from this moment on Bazz decided to double the difficulty of his forging sessions, meaning he will die almost every time he has to forge!
Even before the competition, he felt like dying whenever Bazz thought of him, but now that 'feeling' will no longer remain as a 'feeling' as it will become reality real soon!
"Argh!!!! I am so stupid!" groaned Khal with a mixture of anger and helplessness before he fell onto his butt and stared at the cave's ceiling above him in silence.
After pondering for a while, Khal decided to take out his book from his spatial ring as he still didn't finish reading the chapter he was currently in, but to his surprise what appeared in his hand was not the book but a wooden box.
"Huh? Why did this appear?" mumbled Khal, but soon realized it was because both the book and the box were next to each other, and as he didn't focus enough he accidentally summoned the box instead of the book.
'I must be tired, maybe I should sleep a bit...' thought Khal as he realized the last time he slept properly was quite a long time ago, so maybe it was time for that to do.
As he got to learn, Cultivators didn't have to sleep daily as normal humans like from his modern world as the Beast Essence would replenish their body instead, but they still had to sleep one or two times a month. If not, aftereffects could easily show on the Cultivator like stress, irritation, or fatigue. Even his cultivation and concentration could be affected which was not a very good thing.
'Now that I think about it, my body feels heavier than it used to be. If it weren't for the Beast Essences and the occasions in the Soul Prison where my body gets recovered to a degree, I don't know what could have happened with me.' sighed Khal inwardly as he wanted to put the box away, but suddenly Rubie flew down from his shoulder, her gaze fixed firmly on the box.
"Huh, what do you want?" asked Khal from her in a somewhat surprised look.
Though, when seeing she didn't answer but simply stared at the box, Khal frowned and opened it.
"There is nothing inside this but a letter and the gold toxic I wanted to use on Alde," exclaimed Khal, even taking out the letter and the small glass that held the Golden Hawk Toxic.
Yet, the moment he did, Rubie moved and with a swift move grabbed the glass out of his hand before smashing it on the ground, sending pieces of glass all around!
"What are you doi-, hey! Don't!" Khal seemed shocked by Rubie's abrupt behavior, but his eyes widened even larger the moment he saw her start drinking the golden liquid as if it was water!
"Stop it!" shouted Khal and even attempted to stop Rubie in fear she will die, but just as he was about to stand up, suddenly Rubie's body lit up with golden light while her body underwent abrupt and visible changes at once!
"What... Is happening?" Khal mumbled in a startled voice.
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