Nightmare Mythos

Cesar spends the next two classes in normal classrooms, with the current Fourth Years class present. At least half of the student body was still undergoing the selection and the classes he attended only had a few of them which is why Cesar was able to focus on those two particular classes.

Probably because the news of Cesar had already spread around, some of them weren't even curious about his situation. This made him very pleased as no additional disturbances happened to him and was able to act as a normal student.

These two specific classes were not part of his specialized lessons. They focused entirely on theoretical, book-based topics and covered subjects related to Nightmares.

The instructor even made a surprise quiz which Cesar easily aced. That hurt some of the students since it was Cesar's first time attending the class yet he finished it very flawlessly.

"Class Dismissed,"

Finally, the moment the instructor signaled the end of the class after giving back the test papers to him, Cesar trod outside and checked out the document in his hand to see his next schedule and the upcoming schedules that will all be special classes.

And at the end of the day, it was just another ordinary class he had to attend. Specialized or not.

'Five more to go…'

Cesar left the building he had been in, heading to the bathhouse where his next special class was held. Weirdly enough, this particular special class is different from the other classes like the physical one had attended with Randal earlier.

Arnold really made him a perfect schedule. If he's all about fighting and using brawns, he'll likely get burnt out and exhausted. With that kind of thinking, he developed a kind of method to reduce the physical part of his training.

This class is related to having a perfect mental state.

"Sentara Street, Seventh District"

Yet again very far from the area that the building for students to attend to, Cesar had to take another available cab he could see. After encountering traffic in the second district which he passed along the way, those minutes came fast as the cab driver immediately dropped him at the particular location he had spoken to him.

"Thanks,"

Cesar got down to the cab before observing his surroundings.

"Jade's Bathhouse… Jade's—"

Looking at the name of the bathhouse he was going to attend to, Cesar quickly spotted the right building.

'What the hell… it's big…'

Almost looking like a mansion, the bathhouse window glasses were clouded with fog. Because it was indeed a bathhouse that it turned into something like that, a curtain to cover the inside was no need for such a case.

As Cesar entered the bathhouse and stepped inside its interior, he instinctively waved his hand to clear the dense fog obscuring his vision. With faint lights scattered here and there to guide him and with patience to move forward, he finally managed to reach the person he had been searching for.

It was a fat man, topless while only using a towel to cover his bottom.

'There's no need to doubt his identity, all right…'

With a shake of his head, Cesar voiced out with a sigh, "Sir, Iso?"

Iso, the fat man, nodded, "That's right. You must be student Cesar Sparrow. There's only one person who will come here if that's not the case,"

Iso then paused, "Let's not get too chatty. Now, take your clothes off,"

'Huh?'

To make it not look like he was trying to assault Cesar, Iso let out a soft sigh before adding to his explanation.

"It is part of the class. Take your clothes off. While you do that, I'll hand over to cover… you,"

Cesar was still hesitant at first but since it was an order coming from his instructor, he reluctantly undressed himself. Thinking that Iso would throw him some sort of cloth, the fog suddenly moved and covered his lower part of the body.

"Now then, how about we start?" Iso didn't spare him a glance and continued, "Did you already take a bath in the morning?"

When Cesar gave a nod to answer his question, Iso ignored it and gestured to follow him deeper into the bathhouse.

Cesar curiously glanced around the bathhouse as he made his way through the showers, dressing rooms, and eventually the locker rooms where he was supposed to store his clothes. The place was spotless and empty, as one would not expect from a normal bathhouse.

After all, normal ones are really crowded most of the time.

As they walked deeper inside while the temperature of the bathhouse continued to rise up, Iso began to introduce himself.

"The full name's Iso Polo. I'm a doctor in the Army and merely just a Captain."

'A doctor in the academy. And he said 'merely' a Captain ranked in there? This guy must be good if he achieved that rank while being in this profession. Arnold really had a lot of contacts in there, huh,'

As if he didn't want Cesar to think deeply about it, Iso continued.

"Due to Arnold's request, I'm here to teach you something in this class specifically, I guess? Don't worry about it though. I'm on a specific leave which the Army permits. That's why me and the rest of the people he hired are here,"

Cesar suddenly got curious about Arnold's position when he was in the Army. To pull off these connections while dealing with the higher-ups of the Army itself, he must've pulled a lot of strings behind.

Iso gave a quick glance at Cesar through the thick fog before stating in a more convincing tone, "Now, we should focus on our lesson."

After walking through the thick fog and rising temperature, Cesar was led into a sauna with steam rooms. Clearly just looking at the thick fog surrounding him, he heard Iso speaking out loud.

"Your Fourth Class, Cleansing Course, targeted the specific user to keep their mental state stable. This will teach you how to bathe your exhausting mind with purity and just call it after a long and tiring day. This teaching of mine is very good and has been proven especially to Shadeds. it's very easy, really,"

Iso dropped down to the ground and sat cross-legged before urging Cesar to copy him which he abided wholeheartedly.

"After doing this pose, try to very focus on your 'center' and try to feel it. This center is what you can say is a 'core'. The moment you feel this center, relax and try to extend it through your body as if using your essence to spread out to be able to use your facet,"

Cesar struggled at it for a few moments, trying this new concept being delivered to him before Cedeit, the voice that had been quiet for today, voiced out in glee.

"Ohhhh!"

Cesar began to feel it as well.

"This guy is not bad! I don't know if he's aware of what he's doing but this is very beneficial for the likes of you, kid. It helps you replenish your Soul to receive essence from it while keeping the Soul itself in a state of relaxation."

Cesar wanted to utter what those words meant but Cedeit seemed to know what he was thinking already and replied.

"It means it will be good for you! What he's doing is at least stopping your Soul from completely breaking down. Okay, you should learn more about this guy. I don't know what method is this or because it is related to his facet but you should carefully listen to his teachings!"

Realizing that what Iso was teaching him was needed for the likes of him, especially with his unknown condition, Cesar didn't doubt this doctor any longer and how he was able to achieve that position in the Army while only doing this.

It's because this 'simple' this is great for the likes of them.

Right after, Cesar began to listen more attentively to his lesson.

"To keep you more focused, only let your thoughts drift to the core of yours and only it. The key detail on understanding more of your core is to keep it refreshed and maintained."

Cesar was still confused about the terminologies being used here. While undergoing the cleansing of his core, he couldn't help but ask him more about this subject and see how he came up with it.

"Sir Iso, how come you discovered this method of teaching? Honestly, the Academy isn't offering or at least a bit similar to this course. And what exactly is the core or center you're referring to,"

Iso remained in his position, fully relaxed, "To answer your first question, it is related to my power. I'm… well, it is related to directly being able to control essence very precisely. And while I continued to study more about it, I've discovered that essence is not just the end of it. There's more to essence, a higher level of understanding, and I named it a 'core',"

He paused, "Basically, the 'core' is something that is within us figuratively but it exists, that's for sure. I thought this core is something that gives us essence, and that didn't just come to us naturally. If we consider that, then that means this 'core' gets tired as well."

Iso let out a small breath, "That means we'll have to replenish and keep it maintained. And what we're doing is cleansing the very 'core' as if we're cleaning it like cleaning your room after making it dirty. But we're barely scratching the surface and it doesn't help me, really,"

Cesar couldn't help but frown as he mused inwardly, 'But why do I feel that it's actually helping me and not barely scratching the surface?'

As if he was in a good mood today after being able to feel Cesar's Soul not being shaky, Cedeit replied.

"Heh, the answer is simple. It's because you opened up your Subconsciousness unlike this guy and the rest who don't,"