"Grandpa! I'm off to school!" Hazen shouted as he hurriedly dressed up, grabbed a scroll and an ink brush before bolting off from the house.
"Don't run, Hazen!" The Village Chief shouted as he watched the tiny figure of Hazen rush out of the house, laughing when Hazen returned sheepishly to place the wrong scroll that he had picked up.
After grabbing the correct scroll, Hazen left for class. It wasn't that far though, just a couple of floors down. The school was basically a large auditorium situated on the ground floor of the building. And there were around ten people in his class.
The classes only consisted of basic things like arithmetic, language, a little bit about the history of the Gaider Realm, agriculture, etc.
And the content was divided over the ages. So for Hazen's class, they were only tackling simple arithmetic and language.
Moreover, they only had classes for two hours a day and this continued until they became teenagers when classes spanned half a day.
There wasn't much to learn about in their tiny village where most knowledge was lost. And as they lived an isolated life, things were pretty chill.
After all, their basic needs were wholly met, whether it be food, water, or even medicine. The Vitality Bowl produced everything at set intervals, varying the contents throughout the day.
And, the production always exceeded the demand, so much so that their granary was practically overflowing.
The village used the excess to raise the foundation of their village, gradually slowing down the desertification. And by now, large trees had already cropped up throughout the village.
Moreover, the tree roots spanned into the ocean waters, growing from the external ends of the roots to sprout more trees, ending up creating a root platform beyond the village.
And over time, they created large root platforms on the ocean surface, stable ones that allowed the villagers to walk on it.
The platform wasn't fully covered by roots though as tiny potholes existed throughout it, revealing the ocean water below. These holes ranged from foot sized to around a few metres in radius.
When the tree leaves fell, they made their way into these waters, raising the scale of carbon data of the place.
It was unknown as to which corner of the ocean they came from, but tiny shrimp-like creatures began to congregate around the roots of these trees, living there as they formed a symbiotic relationship, causing the trees to grow and expand better.
It created a beneficial cycle resulting from the excess food the Vitality Bowl was preparing. Thanks to that, the village flourished with greenery.
Moreover, it seemed the Shrimps too had a cultivation, even though the highest among them was only at the Third Layer of the Origin Refinement Stage.
Thanks to that, the fruits borne by the trees gradually contained faint traces of Origin Essence. Such fruits were rather beneficial for consumption, bettering the health of the villagers.
Even though the trace Origin Essence couldn't be used by them as they lacked Martial Spirits, it revitalised their bodies. Though, it didn't deposit in their bodies, for that wasn't in the Origin Essence's trait.
The Class Teacher noticed that the children in her class barely paid attention to what she was talking about, sighing as she decided to change things, "Why don't we draw something fun?"
"Yaay!" The eyes of the ten children in the class lit up in surprise, beaming in response as they became excited, Hazen included.
"Well, let's start with something simple, alright?" The Class Teacher said, taking a chalk that she used to draw the symbol of Secret Society on the board. She had just drawn the first 'C' when she realised her actions, hurriedly making a full circle before she turned the drawing into the face of a man.
Her art was comical, to say the least as the kids burst into laughter.
Through the corner of her eye, the Class Teacher noticed Hazen instinctively shielding his forehead, sweating internally as she thought of something, quickly drawing even more comical expressions, sighing in relief upon seeing Hazen breaking into laughter along with the rest.
'I almost made a mistake myself.' She heaved a sigh in relief.
"Teacher!" A girl seated next to Hazen raised her hand, "I want to ask something."
"What is it, Alika?" The teacher smiled as he nodded at the girl, watching her stand up in response.
Hazen stared at the girl as she got up, spraining his neck a little as she was damn tall for her age, at least a head taller than him. Or rather, Hazen was somewhat on the shorter end as compared to his peers while the girl was taller among her peers, hence creating this disproportion.
The girl addressed as Alika pointed at Hazen, "Why does our village have the same name as Hazen?"
"Oh, that's simple." The Class Teacher heaved a sigh in relief, for she had long since prepared an answer for this question, smiling as she said, "The name Hazen means Harbinger of Serenity. Since Hazen was born at the same time our village came into being, he was named the same."
"Is everyone in our village happy, teacher?" Alika asked next.
"Don't you see it?" The Class Teacher smiled in response, "How much happy are the people around you?"
"Hm…" Alika thought aloud as she extended her hands to the limit, "This much!"
"Haha!" Laughing in response, the Class Teacher motioned for Alika to be seated, continuing with the fun art session.
She then watched everyone doodle their version of the face on the board when suddenly, Alika shouted, "Teacher, Hazen is copying my drawing!"
"No, I'm not!" Hazen replied in response, hiding his drawing, "I drew it first!"
"No, I drew it first!" Alika protested.
"Calm down you too." The Class Teacher intervened, motioning for them to show their drawing to her. Her eyelids twitched as she stared at the drawing, "This is…copying?"
For, whether it was Hazen or Alika, both had only drawn a circle and made two dots to represent the eyes. It could hardly be counted as a face.
The Class Teacher smiled suddenly, saying, "Both are original! It's impossible to copy them."
"Told you!" Hazen snorted.
"Okay!" Alika nodded and happily continued to doodle.
