The Cultivation Area was one of the most highly visited areas of the entire Fallen Arisen Hall. Its reason was simple: it was a place with one of the highest amounts of Apex Energy filling the air.
When Ryuk arrived in front of the dojo-like building, it was already around 8:00, and he saw no Fallen genius—just a Fallen lady standing in front of the gate.
Approaching the gate, she opened her eyes and stared at him.
"You are the new genius, and the last one in the ranking, no?"
She asked, and Ryuk nodded.
"Then the only cultivation areas you can access are those from Number 25 to 30. You’re unworthy of cultivating in any other room, save for that of 25 up to 30. Is that understood?" she asked him with narrowed eyes, and Ryuk nodded once more.
"Also, absolute silence is the only thing accepted. Any type of noise will lead to you getting thrown out of the cultivation area, and that will be the last time you’re allowed into this place. Do you understand that too?" she asked again, and this time, a notification appeared before Ryuk.
[Malicious intent is being targeted towards Host. Host must be careful.]
’She hates humans. I can already tell...’ Ryuk replied to the system.
"I understand..." he replied, and the Fallen lady looked at him with narrowed eyes before she eventually stepped aside. Ryuk reached for the dojo’s door and entered.
Just like the training room with various doors, the cultivation room also contained the same kind of doors, each with tags displaying clearly written numbers.
Immediately, Ryuk moved deeper into the hall, and before long, he found room Number 26.
Not wasting a single moment, he entered.
Before him was a simple room with a simple futon lying at its centre.
The moment Ryuk stepped inside; he could instantly sense the incredible amount of Apex Energy in the air.
It was close to three times the concentration presents in his room.
’I can at least cultivate here with no problem, and it’s silent too. Just what I need...’ Ryuk thought to himself as he moved toward the futon, but he suddenly stopped and hummed.
Right now, the Fallen lady was standing outside the cultivation dojo.
She held malicious intent toward him, and Ryuk didn’t know if the best action he could take was to sit down here and go deep into meditation.
What if she attacked him because of her hate!?
’No. She won’t do that. She’s heard of me and definitely knows I was recommended by the Half-Fallen Lady. While she might hate humans, she should refrain from attacking me due to the name of the Half-Fallen one. They all seemed to absolutely respect her.’
’So long as I don’t break any rules, she’ll have no justification to hurt me, even if she wants to...’ Ryuk analyzed before he took off his clothes and trousers, leaving only his pants on, and sat down cross-legged on the futon.
In the next instant, the grimoire fell down from the sky, landing in Ryuk’s palm.
A bit of silence followed as Ryuk sat down with the book for ten minutes straight, scanning its pages before he shut the book and made it fade back into the shop.
’I understand now...’ he mused silently.
In the next moment, Ryuk’s fingers began crossing into each other in a bizarre position that seemed to form a triangular shape at the center, with his fingers covering all areas of the triangular form and an X finger over the triangle.
The finger cross was hard to maintain, but Ryuk still managed to form it.
Slowly, he began muttering:
"By the breath of the frozen void,
I call upon the slumbering frost.
Crystals of stillness, awaken to my will,
Bind the chaos, and let the silence chill.
From the depths of the Apex Plane,
Grant me the strength of ice unchained.
Through my veins, let winter flow,
In my soul, let glaciers grow."
For the next ten minutes, Ryuk consciously muttered this, his eyes shut tightly, preventing him from seeing the changes in the area.
Quickly, the warm glow surrounding the room from the Apex Energy present in the air began fading away, turning the place into a world of ice and snow. The air rustled across the room as frost spread along the floor.
Slowly, the ice began moving forth, the concentration of snow gathering around Ryuk’s mostly bare figure. The snow quickly began radiating onto him, seeping into his skin.
Every touch of the snow caused Ryuk’s teeth to clatter.
COLD!
It was intensely cold!
But Ryuk knew he couldn’t stop the cultivation process for at least an hour. He had to continue the chant or suffer severe backlash.
For that reason, with clattering teeth, he continued chanting. The ice concentration all around him rushed straight into his body, and soon white air began puffing out of Ryuk’s lips and nostrils as his face turned frost-white.
Time swiftly passed with Ryuk endlessly chanting the incantation. Frost filled the air, and his clattering teeth followed after every word of the incantation that he recited to draw in Ice Apex Energy.
The cold concentration had reached an otherworldly level, and Ryuk had no concept of time to know whether it had been an hour due to the incredible flux of cold that caused chilling pain.
Eventually, all of his senses became numb to the pain. The ice concentration reached an even higher level, completely covering Ryuk until he transformed into an ice block.
Slowly, the chanting continued regardless, puffs of air emanating from his lips until that was all that could be seen—a testament to Ryuk’s will, as he continuously chanted even after being reduced to the state of a frozen block.
Silently, five hours passed. The ice and snow began to quiet down until, eventually, an ice cocoon formed around Ryuk, barely concealing his figure.
Yet, through the ice, one could hear faint, inhuman snapping sounds and muffled grunts.