Soon, Dyon and his group had caught up to the competing Luvan and Erlan.

Their eyes flashed with pale whites as they slowly analyzed the formation around them. Without an innate aurora, not only did they lack Dyon’s golden color, they were also substantially slower than him at analyzing formations. In fact, it wasn’t until Dyon had passed them and they heard Lyla’s giggling that they realized they had been passed.

Surprise colored their faces.

Suddenly Erlan’s eyes flashed with an odd glint. “He’s human…”

A look of realization surfaced on Luvon’s face, “so he must have come from the continent for some reason or another… that’s probably why we haven’t heard of him or whoever gave him that badge. He probably has a good master who lent him that credit badge.”

Erlan nodded, his eyes flashing with white to continue his analysis of the formation. “It doesn’t matter. Don’t we have the same access? But, he’s not ascending with his own power, so how could he compare to us?”

Luvon hummed in agreement, “I heard him speak with the blue haired girl about the formation guild. Maybe he’s thinking of taking the 1st common level formation test.”

Erlan snorted with disdain. “He’s human, it’s rare for them to have an innate soul strength. With his lack of cultivation, would his soul even be at the Lower Foundation stage? And even if he by some miracle did have an innate soul strength at the Lower Foundation stage, he’s a year younger than us. Do you think that teenage formation masters are just everywhere? Stop trying to distract me, I’m not allowing you to win.” 𝘪𝑎.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Luvon chuckled, ignoring Erlan as he continued with each step cautiously.

Maybe if the two knew that Dyon’s innate soul strength was at the Middle Blossoming stage, they would have saved themselves some future embarrassment…

**

Soon, Dyon’s group sat in a private room in the top tier. They had to go all the way to the top to get such a privilege, but it was well worth it. Here, Dyon could eat as much as he wanted and stay away from prying eyes. In addition, if he focused on the cultivating aspect instead of the food aspect, he’d get more out of the spiritual food than he did previously.

Dyon inserted the badge into the center of the oak round table, flipping the array-like menu that appeared to Lyla so she could choose what she wanted. Little Lyla’s eyes glistened. Not having any concept of money, she chose anything she thought looked tasty. Although this sent Ri into a cold sweat, she noticed that Dyon didn’t seem to mind.

Little Black, despite his large body, found ample space to lie down comfortably on the table, waiting patiently for his food as well. After Lyla chose everything she wanted, she adorably blushed and passed the floating menu to Ri.

Ri looked up at Dyon to find him looking at her with a gentle smile on his face, “I can really choose anything I want?”

Dyon laughed “Of course. Who would have more credit than the disciple of the owner? It was a badge given to him by his master. I’ve already used my aurora to check the badge, there is no limit.”

What Dyon didn’t know was that the owner was only so giving to his disciples because normal people couldn’t eat as much food as Dyon could, let alone as much spiritual foods. There was no doubt that if the owner has a disciple like Dyon, he would impose a limit.

Ri blinked at Dyon, but eventually smiled, accepting his kindness.

Dyon patted Little Black on the head and helped Little Lyla deal with the foods she had picked. He covertly moved strong alcohol away from her, and only allowed her to eat the most delicate of foods. Although high level spiritual foods were beneficial, if too much was taken into a weak body, the effects could be horrible.

So, although he let Lyla choose everything she wanted, he only truly let her eat low level foods that could be found in the lower tiers. As she matured, he’d allow her to eat higher tiers of spiritual foods.

Much like cultivation and secondary jobs, spiritual foods came with their own rankings. However, naturally occurring foods like fruits, were seen differently than prepared ones like wine. For example, the art of wine making was actually its own secondary profession, the level of which depended on not just the quality of the ingredients, but also the experience of the creator.

A lot of care went into the fermentation and purification processes. Even the container and aging procedures were of utmost importance. So, wines followed the same ranking system as array alchemy did.

However, naturally occurring fruits were different. There was obviously no creator needed for these, so, they followed the same ranking system as cultivators would. A fruit comparably beneficial for a foundation stage expert would be known as a foundational fruit. A fruit beneficial for a fighter at the meridian formation stage would be known as a meridian fruit. While a higher level would be known as an essence fruit. So on, and so forth.

The only last important part that Dyon sorted from his master’s memories was that each food, whether it be created or from nature, would also be separated into what cultivation type it was useful for. That being body, soul, or energy. Dyon could only shake his head and berate himself for ignoring this before. Luckily because of his essence blood and Madeleine’s body constitution, they didn’t suffer from eating high level spiritual foods. But, he didn’t want to make the same mistake with Little Lyla.

As Dyon was silently thinking to himself he suddenly realized that Ri was being a little too quiet.

When he looked up, he felt as though his heart was being pulled out of his chest.

Sitting across from him, silently looking at the menu, Ri seemed to be frozen in time… the only sign that she was in fact still here was the trembling of her fingers. She stared at the menu with her lips quivering. Her eyes reddened as she grit her teeth trying to hold something back.

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