Chapter 17. New Acquaintances.

 After the announcement of the end of the lesson, the novices immediately began to disperse to their own affairs. Rand also intended to return home and continue training in the Bronze Body technique, but as he was leaving the stadium, someone stopped him and offered him a piece of white cloth that resembled a light summer scarf.

 "Here, take it, wipe yourself with it, you have blood all over your face. Don't worry about the scarf, I have a lot of them.," a ten-year-old novice advised.

Rand looked at the boy, who was handing him this light, summer scarf, trying to detect any hidden malicious intent in his gaze, then spent a few seconds examining the piece of fabric, trying to find traces of something suspicious in it. But then he dismissed such thoughts because the likelihood of something like that in the sect was too small to take seriously. Especially against a meaningless novice like him. So he decided to accept this gesture of goodwill.

"Thank you," Rand replied, wiping the blood from his face and the rest of his body. The "giveaway sparring" with Lucius had some repercussions. His body was covered in bruises and abrasions, there might even be a few cracks in his bones, but fortunately, enhanced regeneration was already kicking in. The bleeding had stopped and in many places it even dried up slightly, and the pain began to subside slowly.

"I didn't introduce myself, my name is Weed, yes, yes, the same one the teacher scolded all day today. I'm not used to martial arts. And you don't have to introduce yourself, everyone here knows you from the first day and you are Oberin, the chosen one by elder," after these words, he hesitated slightly, as if gathering his thoughts, and then continued speaking, "I wanted to say that your fight was amazing, such fast and smooth movements. You fought like two real dancing dragons. I heard that Lucius trained for many years to achieve this under the guidance of his father. Did you also study martial arts somewhere?"

"No, but I've had to fight a few times in my village, and in my childhood, I liked watching the guards practice and tried to mimic them. But that's where my little acquaintance with martial arts ends, if you don't count today," Rand replied, not knowing why he decided to answer him in such detail.

"Really? It's hard to believe, because in the end you didn't give in to the elder's son at all. And also knocked him down in the last exchange of blows. So you are incredibly lucky, and you were born with a huge talent for martial arts," Weed spoke with some disbelief, examining his interlocutor.

"Maybe talented, or maybe this son of the elder isn't as good as he thinks he is," Rand continued to speak frankly.

At that moment, a small group of novices approached Rand and Weed. Or rather, they approached Weed, who even waved to them, inviting them to come closer.

From the very first day, many novices divided into tiny and not-so-tiny groups, Rand knew about it, but didn't attach much importance to it. But he noticed this particular group from the first day because there were several people in it worth his observation. But this strange boy, Weed, was not originally part of it. On the first day, he was completely aloof, standing on the sidelines almost the entire time, quietly observing his surroundings, practically ignoring Deacon Gerhard's lecture.

"Don't you want to go eat with us? We all recently met here and thought it would be nice to get to know each other better, since we'll be spending so much time together in the near future. Come on, I'll introduce you to everyone," Weed smoothly shifted the conversation to introducing all his friends.

"This is Eyron, our giant," he said, pointing to a two-meter tall man with the gift of Great Strength. The young man nodded to Rand as a greeting.

"And this is Fara, our beauty, there's no one like her... " he introduced the fifteen-year-old girl, but she interrupted him mid-sentence.

"Hey, quit talking about me like that, and anyway, for your young age, you seem too concerned with the beauty of girls," she then turned to Rand and smiled broadly, "Nice to meet you, I'm Fara".

Weed didn't respond to the girl's indignation, just shyly smiled, apparently that was enough for her, as she showed no further displeasure.

"And this is Balron, our brain," Weed shifted the conversation to the last member of the group, an eighteen-year-old boy with the gift of Royal Bone.

"Calling me the brain of the group is a bit too much honor for me, but you're definitely the group's tongue, you sure love to chat," Balron retorted.

Rand also greeted everyone in response, as decency required.

"Very unusual things are happening here. I haven't seen him for just one day, and now he's not only part of the group, but he's also in some way leading it? Those three went through the second trial together, which means they spent «several days» together in the illusory formation, and as far as I know, that's where they became friends. Then nobody had much time for socializing, as everyone spent almost all their free time cultivating. And now it's been only one day, and they already consider Weed as part of their circle and a close friend. Was he so eloquent from the start and just hid his ability to quickly make friends? Was he just shy to chat on the first day? Or is there something else going on here? Interesting.

"You've become friends so quickly, literally in a couple of days," Rand asked, trying to glean some information from them.

"Yes, Eyron, Balron, and I spent quite a lot of time in the illusion of the second trial, and there we helped each other many times, it's hard not to become good friends after that. And Weed joined us literally yesterday, but has already become the soul of the company, he's an amazing boy," declared Fara.

"Okay, okay, enough praising me, or I'll get conceited, and I'm not a boy anymore, stop calling me that," Weed objected to his friend, then turned to Rand again.

"Oberin, so will you join us for lunch?

Rand felt the urge to agree without any hesitation, to get to know new people, and perhaps finally he could make true friends... and that instantly alarmed him, such a reaction was atypical for him.

"Have I lost control over my emotions for a moment? How is it possible? I need to figure it all out now, rather than later. I hope that further observations will help understand what's happening right now. But I need to be cautious."

"I need to get back to training as soon as possible...

"Too bad..." Weed began to speak, already preparing words to persuade the former prince, but Rand's subsequent speech interrupted him before he could say anything"

"But I can spare an hour of my time for lunch, especially since my food supplies are running low".

"Great, then let's not waste time and move out".

And the group of young people set off for the dining hall, on the way they talked about many topics, from stories about their past to discussions of current events.

"Teacher Gerhard reminds me a bit of my father. And not only in appearance, he's just as strict and irritable if something doesn't go the way he likes, but inside he's very kind and cares about his novices. At least that's my first impression of him," the giant Eyron shared his thoughts.

"As for me, I believe he was too harsh with Quint, he only asked him a question at the wrong time, and after that Gerhard literally made Ahil hit him," Fara objected.

"Fara, you seem to take that situation too negatively, just a small bruise for a good life lesson, in my opinion, it's a fair trade," Balron interjected.

"Yes, yes, I agree with Balron, I heard that cultivators are generally very cruel, so I believe we're quite lucky with Gerhard," Weed added.

Rand mostly didn't get involved in their conversation, but gradually the discussion turned to what interested them most in recent days, to the topic of cultivation, and as a sole cultivator he couldn't avoid participating in it.

"Oberin, how did you reach the Qi Condensation stage so quickly? I mean, back at the square, you were just like us, mortal. And when we came to the first lesson, you had already reached the first stage. So, all in all, it took you no more than two days, probably even less, since you couldn't cultivate all the time. I've been trying for quite a long time now, my body is covered in scars, and I've only achieved a small increase in Qi quantity in my body. I'm still far from forming the dantian. I don't even know if I'll make it before the start of the competition. Can you please give me a couple of tips?" asked Fara.

"There are no universal solutions here, much depends on individual abilities and aptitude, but you can speed up reaching the first stage with pills, though I don't think you have the money for that. I can only advise you to dedicate all your time to cultivation.

"And not to spend so much time on meaningless conversations and joint trips for food. Especially when there's so little time left before the competition," Rand added though already to himself. If it weren't for this incomprehensible situation, he would never have gone with them and wouldn't have wasted time on such empty talks. Although there are some benefits to all this, at least positive relations with Balron in the future can be very useful."

Rand spent most of his time watching Weed, whom he wanted to study. And he also mentally noticed all his past oddities, how the obelisk broke when he was there, how he often looked somewhere above the other person's head and his radical and rapid changes in behavior over the last day. All this together evoked in Rand a feeling of... something wrong happening. And now, for some unknown reason, he wanted to believe Weed and discard all these unsubstantiated speculations.

"My reaction is completely abnormal. Probably, he has some kind of influence on the mind, otherwise it's impossible to explain. It's just fortunate that it's quite weak. The fact that I noticed it so quickly is the result of my natural suspicion and to some extent luck. It's clear that others don't notice it at all. Maybe he has some demonic lineage? They are famous for their ability to influence others and persuade them to do anything. But then why didn't anyone notice it in the sect? And there is nothing like that written about Weed in the journal... But wherever it came from, it's a dangerous ability. And then it's not surprising that he managed to quickly gather a group of friends. On the first day, he probably looked at who it would be most advantageous to use his ability on," Rand pondered as they walked.

"Oh, I somehow thought you'd say something like that. Without great talent, there's no way. Unfortunately, there are no easy, bypass solutions. The cheapest pill that will bring some benefit costs no less than twenty spiritual stones, and I don't have that many," Fara said sadly.

And as they were approaching the dining hall, Weed asked a question that literally stunned Rand with its unexpectedness and the absence of any logical prerequisites.

"Oberin, that's not your real name, is it?" asked Weed, his new acquaintance.