“Here we are,” Nilger said, “the Department of Formations.”

After finishing core development classes, Nilger had come to accompany Aiden and show him around the various departments of the Academy. And the first one they were visiting happened to be the Formations Department.

‘Denzel, I’ve never really gotten a chance to ask this, but what exactly are formations?’, Aiden asked as they headed in.

“In the simplest sense, a formation is an arrangement. It might be a military arrangement of soldiers, a battle arrangement of a group of cultivators, an arrangement of formation flags, and so on. In the field of formations, one studies everything there is to know about them. But generally, the subject deals with using formation flags to create specialised formations that serve various purposes.”

“A very simple example of a formation is the small mana bind formation. It uses 4 mana receptors,  and 12 neutral formation flags to capture any mana-based entity that enters its effective area. It can capture beings with a cultivation level lower than foundation establishment 3-dan. The power of the formation can, however, vary according to how skillfully the formation is placed. For example, a well-setup formation can display power as much as 5 times that of a poorly set-up formation.” Denzel calmly explained.

Meanwhile, Aiden had reached a large hall following Nilger. Various large square holes had been made on the wooden floor which revealed patches of the soil underneath. Many of these patches were occupied by 3 or 4 people placing short sticks with flags of various colours attached to them, onto the soil in beautiful patterns.

Suddenly a boy of 12 or 13 years of age, appeared out of nowhere and stopped Aiden and Nilger in their tracks.

“Hello there. Are you both thinking of joining the formations department?”, he asked.

“We are just looking around. Don’t mind us.”, said Nilger with disinterest.

Before he could walk ahead, the boy stopped them again. “I mean if you both are just looking around, I could give you a tour. I’m a junior apprentice here.”

“I mean, it's fine if it is just a tour right?”, Aiden told Nilger.

“But……”, Nilger, still reluctant, took another look at the pleading eyes of the boy and sighed, “Fine.”

“Awesome, my name is Darnet. I’ll be your guide for today.”, he said cheering up.

“I’ve said this before; I’ll say it again, too soft of heart.”, Denzel spoke contemptuously.

“Bah. Yes, I am. But then what? A little kid like that won’t be harming me for no reason right?”, he spoke with an annoyed voice.

“Ok fine. I’m sorry, you aren’t soft of heart……….”, he said.

“Why thank you. You are being sensible for once.”, Aiden spoke

“....but childishly naive and stupid for sure.”, Denzel finished his sentence.

Before Aiden could flip out at Denzel, Darnet started introducing the various formations that they passed by.

“That is the cardinal confinement formation which is extremely useful for trapping beasts with high speed. The speciality of this formation is that with a rise in the quality of the formation flag, the grade of the formation also rises, thus allowing the same kind of formation map to be used for many kinds of beasts with varying power levels. Of course there's also a huge disadvantage that if the beast is even slightly more powerful than the formation’s limit, it  can escape, irrespective of his speed.”

“That right there is the 10-petalled lotus beguilement formation which traps the target in an illusionary environment where everything is peaceful and relaxed. Oh! The formation there is the specialised desiccant environmental array used for ………..”

As the two patiently followed Darnet around, Aiden got a general idea of the different types of formations.

Basically, formations that used formation flags to set up, could be categorised under 7 different types: Beguilement Formations, Confinement Formations, Slaughter Formations, Environmental Formations, Augmentative Formations, Defensive Formations and Filtering Formations. Further, the formations were also ranked from A to F corresponding to the occupational ranks. F-rank formation masters could successfully set up F-rank formations and so on till rank A.

Beguilement Formations were meant to beguile the target and manipulate his/her senses to show illusions.

Confinement Formations were meant to trap the target through various means and could confine at one spot, or even within an area as if the target were trapped within a cage.

Slaughter Formations were meant to deploy various methods and techniques to eliminate or kill their target.

Environmental Formations aimed to alter and affect the temperature, humidity and other environmental factors within their effective area.

Augmentative Formations were used to augment an existent source of energy to concentrate it, spread it out, increase its power, direct it elsewhere or some other functions.

Defensive Formations were used to set up barriers or other defensive facilities which kept external entities out of the formation area.

Filtering Formations were used to selectively separate certain entities from others.

And all these formations used formation flags of primarily 5 types, which were: Fire Flags, Earth Flags, Wind Flags, Water Flags and Neutral Flags.

These flags contained concentrated spiritual energy of their respective element, while neutral flags contained untainted spiritual energy and could either be used as they were or be imbued with the user’s desired spiritual energy before, or during the working of formation.

Aiden was, needless to say, extremely thrilled on learning about this.

Of course, it wasn’t easy to set up formations. In fact, one required years of study to just become an F-ranked Formation Master. Setting up a formation involved complex calculations regarding the amount of energy going in and being used, the environmental layout of the place where it is being set up, the position of the flags and so much more, the elemental reactions taking place within it and so on. Even the slightest of deviations in any factor could vastly affect the effectiveness of a formation.

“Why do people use formations in the first place if it is so much trouble?”, Aiden thought subconsciously although he didn’t voice it out.

“Well, formations allow you to achieve things that would have been generally impossible. For example, an environmental formation set up beneath a room could help you keep the room pleasantly cold in even the hottest weather. When trying to capture or tame a mana beast that’s hard to catch hold of, a formation can help you restrict its movements, or even change the elemental gradient of the environment to oppose the beast’s native elemental nature.

Some formations can be used to concentrate energy, for example, the intensity of a fire, which helps in melting materials that have an extremely high melting point and so on. All one needs are appropriate formation flags and knowledge of the formation they are setting up, and proper control over their environment; with just these conditions, a person can easily manipulate things to aid him in his work.”

“I see”, Aiden nodded his head slightly as he contemplated those words.

“The cultivation room in your living abode has a spiritual gathering array underneath it. This comes under augmentative formations and concentrates the surrounding spiritual energy into the room.” Denzel said conclusively.

Walking along, Aiden visited many halls and rooms for different activities within the Formations Department. Finally, they all stopped in front of the examination hall where formation masters could undergo rank exams to raise their rank. Practically speaking it was a very straightforward exam. If you could successfully set up an F-rank formation in front of a recognised formation master, who'd be one rank higher than the examinee, you'd be promoted to an F-rank formation master. The same followed for all the other ranks. Within the academy, one could take the exam for a maximum of up to rank D, since the head of the formations department was of rank C and could act as the examiner.

Seeing Aiden peeking into the exam hall, Darnet spoke, "Sorry, but you won't be able to take the exam since you are so young. One needs to have a cultivation of at least 2-dan of foundation realm to be able to set up the simplest F-rank formation."

Nilger simply looked at the boy and chuckled. Before he could say anything, a group of older teens hanging around the area overheard them and came over. 

"Hey, these pip-squeaks aren't even qualified to take the base exam. Why are you bringing them over?" One of the boys in the group said. A small bronze-coloured medal with a bold F carved on it was pinned to his shirt.

"An F rank formation master", Darnet's lips parted and whispered slowly as he looked on with a hint of fear in his eyes.

Then he hurriedly spoke, "Senior, I was just showing them around. Master told me to recruit a few new members by the end of the month so I thought it'd be good if they both would join too." He was half stammering as if he was scared the F-rank formation master would eat him alive.

"Hmph, these brats are so young they must not even be in the 2 Dan primary stage of foundation establishment. Whatever were you thinking, showing them around?", he spoke.

"Hey!"Nilger was about to speak up when Aiden held him back. "It's not worth the effort. Let's just leave. I hate making a commotion.", He said and dragged Nilger back.

Nilger couldn't really refute it since Aiden was stronger than him.

Darnet rushed to follow them out, "Um I'm..I'm sorry. It's just that ranked Formations masters like them can kick apprentices out of the department if they are even slightly dissatisfied. P-please don't have a bad impression on the department because of them. I'm sure they are just in a bad mood or something."

Aiden gave a smile, "Don't worry about it. I'll come back later."

"Yeah, run away.", Another guy among the F rankers, shouted after them, "I bet your parents are just as cowardly as you."

Suddenly Aiden stopped in his tracks.

At that moment, Nilger, who was closest to him, felt slightly suffocated. Looking up at Aiden's face he said, “Aiden? What happen….. ”

Aiden's pupils had turned extremely narrow and Nilger felt a shiver go down his spine. Turning back, Aiden looked at the teen who had said it, "You are an F rank?"

The teen laughed, "Yeah. Whatcha gonna do about it kid? Go complain to your mom?"

Aiden calmed down and asked Darnet, "Hey, can someone in the E rank, kick him out of the department?"

Darnet said, “Um, yes but why'd anyone in the E rank help us?”

Aiden didn't speak. He turned to the door and left.

Nilger, following close behind, asked him “Hey where are you going?”

Aiden replied matter-of-factly with a smile, “To the library.”