Everyone participating in the morning practice at the village sqare would wait their turn to walk up to the sleepy-looking martial artist and get punched in the stomach after telling him their roughly estimated mastery of the law of Taurus and whether or not they dabbled in law or Aries.

The punched people would return to their spots and sit down cross-legged, contemplating the energy that passed through their bodies.

That was supposed to go for an hour and then would be followed by physical training before everyone went off to their duties.

In Zoemi’s opinion, it was a rather crude method – the getting punched part, that is – especially since he himself began to be able to channel the spiritual energy within his body and was quite sure it was possible to pass it to another person without actually attacking them. Still, no one from the crowd of people seemed to find it troublesome.

On the other hand, the black-haired man could tell that the dangers connected with living in close proximity to monsters that would not refuse human flesh for a meal if such an opportunity presented itself for them would make the villagers try everything to become stronger and hence increase their survivability.

Including getting punched to toughen up

*WHAM*

“…ghh…!”

“…hmm~…”

“…”

Although, the glimpse of satisfaction in the leading marital artist’s eyes when he punched someone and caused them to take a step back and grimace in pain was certainly a red flag in Zoemi’s eyes.

“Psst…Chris.”

“Yes…?”

The black-haired man continued to observe the martial artist in charge of the training and tapped the shoulder of the young boy he put back down on the ground with his finger.

“I know that you want to get stronger, but if that guy hits you too hard, tell me immediately, okay?”

Zoemi looked over to the child and asked with a serious and even slightly worried expression.

“Okay… But I will be fine!”

Chris nodded his head bashfully before straightening his back and declaring with an innocent conviction.

*bump*

“Thank you, teacher.”

“Remember to meditate diligently.”

A little girl around Chris’s age bowed her head and thank the marital artist who waved his hand dismissively and shooed her away before turning to her father and…

*WHAM*

“Hurgh…!”

“…hmm~…”

Forcing him to back away, holding his stomach with a pained grimace on his face.

It was almost their turn, the child and their father in front of Zoemi and Chris received a light tap and a powerful sounding hit respectably.

“…”

𝒪𝒱𝓵xt.𝗇𝓔t

That made Zoemi breathe out and relax just a little bit. Whether Zoemi’s feeling about the martial artist in charge of the training was correct or not, the man was leaving kids out of the area of his interest.

“Teacher, I’m already at a second-star level!”

As they stood in front of him, Chris declared proudly, looking up with sparkling eyes – only not at the martial artist, but at the black-haired man by his side.

“Already? And you are eight at most! Isn’t that amazing~? Law of Taurus consists of nine stars, to get on to the second one at such a young age it’s increadible~”

The marital artist livened up, revealing that his heavy eyelids weren’t the usual part of his appearance but simply evidence of his lack of sleep the previous night, and he did so by opening his eyes widely.

The man crouched down by Chris and began patting his head with an overjoyed smile.

“What was your name, boy?”

The martial arts teacher asked, even though he honestly should know literally everyone in the village as he lived there for over a year and the place wasn’t particularly big, to begin with.

“Do you know that for the law of Taurus, if you will be able to reach the third star level before you are ten years old, you will be able to join a sect as a gifted student? If you will work diligently and reach that point, I would be delighted to introduce you to the Raging Bull sect that I myself am a part of. We are specializing in the law of Taurus and our sect leader is at its eighth star level already. Of course, you should ask your parent whether that is a… oh…”

The martial artist aid in a happy tone, properly introducing the young boy to the idea of joining his sect before looking up at the person he thought was the boy’s father only to meet Zoemi’s eyes.

The black-haired man wasn’t glaring or anything, if anything, he found it amazing that Chris was shaping up to be a prodigy – no, the problem was on the martial artist’s side.

“…there are no monsters here to slay, wanderer, haven’t you said that you have no business training in the law of Taurus?”

Clearly annoyed marital artist stood up and glared up at the taller man’s face.

“Don’t make a scene here, Seth. I didn’t take over your post on purpose. I just happened to be killing beasts that attacked me anyway. The energy transfer?”

Zoemi shrugged his shoulders not even attempting to get pulled in by the marital artist’s provocation and patted Chris’s head while tilting his head with a pleasant smile.

“Hmph. Of course.”

Seth’s eyes gleamed with angry light but he only nodded back and focused on the little boy.

*bump*

“Thank you, teacher!”

Zoemi was prepared to pull Chris back at the slightest sigh of the martial artist trying to get some petty revenge on him through the child he accompanied, but Seth was not angry enough to even think about something like that – and lightly tapped on Chris’s stomach making the boy bow to him cheerfully not experiencing even the slightest bit of discomfort.

“I will talk with his mother about the idea of joining your sect. Do the gifted students learn for free?”

While already guiding Chris around to return to their spot, Zoemi said, looking over his shoulder at the grim martial artist starring daggers at his back.

“Huh? Wait…you will…? That would be… appreciated, much appriciated, actually. And yes. As long as the gifted students will train diligently and keep getting good results, the sect will take care of their every need, that’s why every sect has only a limited amount of spots available each year.”

The black-haired man’s words surprised the martial artist who furrowed his brows and fidgetted awkwardly, trying to push his personal animosity to the side for the good of his sect.

“So it’s nothing certain even after he achieves the third star level, I see. Thank you for the heads up~”

Zoemi nodded with a solemn expression before smirking and nodding at Seth as he followed behind Chris.

“…annoying, can’t even properly hate the guy… Everyone, if someone will have trouble controlling the flow of energy, speak up and call me immediately! Especially those of third star level or higher!”

Seth murmured to himself scoffing at Zoemi’s back before calling out for all trainees to hear.

For the next hour, the village square was completely silent with the meditating villagers sitting silently cross-legged right on the ground.

Although he did not receive any spirit energy from the marital arts teacher, Seth, Zoemi was also doing basically the same thing as the rest.

Only in his case, he was concentrating on separating and guiding the flow of a power that was already within him.

Already knowing how useful the law of Libra was, being the technique that helped him deal with Cherro and save Miriette, reaching the first out of six stars in the Libra constellation was the black-haired man’s focus.

Back when Guide send him to the manaless land they indeed took away the supernova-level of mastery over the law of Capricorn and Libra, leaving Zoemi’s star power at the same level as it was before the faceless god’s interference.

Those being – Law of Aries at Supernova – whatever that level actually meant, as Aries was only supposed to have six stars, Law of Capricorn at the five out of eleven stars, and Law of Libra at zero out of six.

Guide did not deceive Zoemi by telling him that although they take the mastery away from him, the pathways to achieve the same level would stay open.

In short, Zoemi did not require the guidance of a teacher like Seth to meditate.

Although unfortunately, he only learned about a proper way of meditation when he encountered the people of the lumberjack’s village – hence, even after all the time spent killing monsters while traversing the manaless land his star levels didn’t change much…

After learning the proper meditation method he managed to increase his masteries in the law of Capricorn to the sixth star, but he did not have the same luck and meditation speed with the law of Libra.

He could not wait for being able to reach the starting point and utilize the balancing power of Libra, even though barely achieving the first star level out of six would mean that it would not be nearly as efficient as he remembered – obviously.

But it would already be a great help.

That’s why Zoemi focused his meditation efforts on the law of Libra instead of the law of Capricorn.

Being able to access the purification of the law of Aquarius and recovery of the law of Virgo became his number one priority the moment he did not have to fight his way through the monstrous fauna of the manaless world, as either would make his return to the land of mana – and more specifically, the kingdom of Bellcephora – that much more feasible.

—-

And so, the hour was gone in a flash.

One by one the trainees would open their eyes and stand up – one hour a day of meditation with the use of the spiritual power was the utmost a normal person could take before their bodies would start to feel the burn of the star power. No one was entirely sure about the reason for the phenomenon, but it was the same experience for basically everyone…

“Zoemi…?”

Chris, who also was already done with the first part of the morning practice, furrowed his brows and looked at the silent, deeply focused black-haired man.

*tsss*

“OWW..?!”

As the boy touched Zoemi’s hand, he was immediately burnt, scalding his finger on the ridiculously hot skin of the black-haired man.

“Hmm…? Oh dear, sorry, sweetie. It has been an hour already, I see… Not good. I don’t want to start a fire…”

The yelp of pain of the little boy snapped Zoemi out of a trance-like state and the black-haired man stood up, fanning his clothes to disperse the heat of his body.

“Are you okay?”

“Y… yeah…”

Zoemi asked worriedly and Chris nodded his head, hiding his hand behind his back.

“…he would not stop if the boy didn’t cry, what a ridiculous endurance, I must make another report for the sect leader…”

Seth muttered to himself as he finished circling around the trainees, making sure that everyone is fine and did not encounter any problems during meditation.