He wanted to say these things out loud to Slav, but he kept them within his heart because he didn’t dare to draw the ire of Muni by saying something that might disrupt his class. He didn’t want to be lashed enough to bleed, so he kept quiet.
But the fact that he had to keep quiet about his true feelings only made him angrier. He wished dearly that he could punch the smug look on Slav’s face and knock out some of his teeth.
He knew that Slav was extremely talented, abnormal even, but he refused to believe that Slav had advanced because of cultivation. He is willing to bet his left kidney and an arm that Slav acquired his cultivation by using a cloudy date.
Just thinking about it made him furious, and he became furious the more he thought about it. "Not only is his talent outrageous, but he is also extremely wealthy. If I hadn’t taken the Rewind Metac from him, there would be no stopping him. No wonder he was smug when he awakened the Rewind Metac in the first timeline. I would be too."
Finally, he cried out inwardly, saying, "Is life fair? Is there any fairness in the world?"
Then he remembered his situation, so he calmed down and said, "Right. I have Fenrir, so I’m cheating too. So maybe I don’t have any right to complain."
He was able to calm himself down quickly despite how infuriating the whole situation was, but not everyone else was as "mature" as he was.
Many people didn’t like that Slav had advanced so quickly, and they especially didn’t like how he treated his progress as a normal thing that wasn’t worth mentioning. This all showed on their faces if they were sincere enough about what they were feeling.
The young man with the Sword Heart Metac, Craig, in particular, was fuming. He looked as if fire would come out of his eyes as he glared at Slav.
But some other people weren’t so honest with their feelings. Many of them smiled at Slav and congratulated him.
Slav’s sycophants went the extra length in this ass-kissing ritual. The sight was bad for Loki to see because he knew that if they could kiss Slav’s ass in exchange for some benefits, they would take it. So their behavior quickly became too disgusting and sickening for Loki to watch.
Eventually, Muni called the class to order. Then he said, "For the next hour, I will teach you all that you need to know about Metacs and the skillful use of Metacs. Then you will have the rest of the day for yourself."
"Tomorrow, I’ll introduce willpower and how to train it to you. This will take up three hours of your time, too."
"For this week, we will spend one hour on cultivation, Metacs, and Dao heart for a total of three hours every day. At the end of the week, you will then pick your first Metacs and decide on your path of cultivation."
Everyone was excited to hear that they would be able to start using Metacs soon. Even Slav was excited despite being so rich. It made Loki, who had an important reason for wanting to gain Metacs, become suspicious.
He asked himself, "I saw yesterday that we can buy Metacs with money. So what could be great about what Muni is offering that makes Slav, this rich second-generation young master, so full of anticipation?"
He was wondering about this to himself, but had to stop thinking about it because Muni began his lecture in earnest.
Muni said, "Let’s start from the beginning. What are Metacs?"
"Metacs are Metaphysical objects. They are neither living things nor nonliving things. In fact, I dare say that they have transcended the definition of life and death. They are the power of the world made manifest in a form that can be grasped and used."
"The nature of Metacs is why they are called fragments of the power of the world and fragments of the great dao. You can call Metacs anything you want, but the fact remains that they are powerful objects that one must have in order to produce power."
He chucked and said, "After my many years of cultivation, I have heard many fairy tales about how ancient cultivators were better than us. It is said that ancient cultivators all have longer lifespans and can easily replenish their energy from the atmosphere. But I have never heard anyone say that ancient cultivators are stronger than us."
At this point, he shook his head and said, "The fairy tales might be true or false. I can’t tell. But I have asked myself this question: if the ancient cultivators were so great, why did they disappear?"
"Many people have asked this question, and some of them have found some answers. The most popular answer is that we, the new cultivators, are stronger than the ancient cultivators. This is why the ancient cultivators faded into history despite having a longer lifespan than we do."
He shook his head again and said, "I don’t know if this is true. But I do know without a doubt that ancient cultivators couldn’t use Metacs. There is simply no record of it. Not even in fairy tales."
"As far as we can tell, ancient cultivators use spells, and their spells rely on environmental energy to empower them. It is only we, the new cultivators, who use Metacs. I suspect that it is our use of Metacs that made us stronger and capable of eliminating ancient cultivators into extinction."
After he said this, he began to pace back and forth. It seemed he had become too agitated and engrossed with his lecture to stand in one position.
He said, "There are different types and kinds of Metacs, but they all range from rank 1 to rank 9. For now, all you need to know is that there are Core Metacs and Branch Metacs. Then there are Common Metacs and Divine Metacs."