1133 Mission
3 days later, Ning had his first day without any classes. There would be another one after 2 more days too, giving him 5 days of total study days in a single week.
Just because he had no class, however, didn't mean that no one had classes at all.
A free day meant Ning did not have to study at all. However, he still had to remain in the academy ground, so he needed to do what he could do to pass some time.
There were 2 things every single student did during these days when they were bored of just sitting in their room.
The first was earning credits. They would do the missions that were given to them and earn credits.
The second thing they did was spend those credits. There were libraries, restaurants, conduit shops, clothing stores, and even an entertainment hall on the front wing of the academy.
Since this was Ning's first week, he decided to earn some credit. Otherwise, he wouldn't feel any good spending the 20 credits he had.
He made his way to the mission's building and quickly looked around for whatever missions were available.
There were papers on a board where one could take a piece to accept the mission. Ning looked around and found quite a few different types of missions.
It went from cleaning to picking trash to clearing the fields of any growing plants. There were also other missions such as helping in the academy cafeteria, helping a teacher with something, and other various things.
Ning decided to start off with something slow and easy, so he took the job to get rid of plants around the academy.
He took a piece of the paper and handed it to one of the many students that were working there. His request quickly went through and he was handed the mission.
"Get a shovel from the shed and you can start working. For every 20 sizable plants you manage to unroot, you will get 1 credit," the man said.
Ning nodded and walked away.
He no longer questioned why they were so gung-ho about removing all the trees. During one of his previous Essence lessons, a teacher had exchanged the reason behind the bleak and desolate landscape.
Apparently, trees, like any other thing in this world, required Essence to grow. So, if they let trees and other plants grow here, they would definitely steal the Essence from the air, reducing the amount available.
Given how many different students and teachers were here that relied on the Essence they could get to improve themselves through the rank, any little Essence they could save would go a long way for all of them.
Ning went to the shed and grabbed one of the shovels there, along with a basket to carry what he unearthed on his back. After all, he would need to show his 20 plants to gain the credits.
He walked around the barren land searching for any sort of plants, however, there weren't any there at all.
"Sigh, do I really have to go up in the mountains?" Ning thought as he looked in the distance where various students were either working or training. He sighed one last time and made his way there as the mountains were part of the academy as well.
* * * * *
In a well-lit room on the highest floor of the academy, 3 students were sitting around a table with drinks all around the table.
"Haha, it's been a while, hasn't it? Since we all sat around drinking," a bald man with a thick beard said.
"It sure has, headmaster," an older woman with short hair said.
"I can't believe you actually managed to convince us to drink when it's only late afternoon right now," the last man with a burn scar on his right cheek said.
"What else can I do?" the headmaster said as he took a swig from his cup. "We can't go around teaching students while hungover, so it's better to drink early and be sober by the time morning comes around."
"I'm not complaining," the man with the scar said.
"Anyway, stop talking and drink," the headmaster said. "You two suffered quite a lot during this year's student admissions. How many people was it? 5000?"
"Probably," the woman said. "It was so many that I didn't even bother counting."
"It was exactly 5492 participants in the tests," the man with the scar said. "Over the course of a week, we had to go through nearly 800 different people each day. There were days when I had to work until midnight."
"Alright, let's stop talking about the hardship," the headmaster said. "How is this batch of students? Any good seeds?"
"Umm, I would say a few," the woman said. "The daughter of the Redraven family is definitely someone we need to keep an eye on. She could turn out to be one of the best students given how trained she already is."
"There's the son of the Whiteowl family, the one named Tenn. He's close to ranking up from the Essence Manifestation realm, despite only being 16 years old," the man said.
"Kaleb Hass of the Greendove family shows potential as well. I've taught him for 3 days, and he seems to absorb information like a sponge. Although… his attitude could use a little work," the woman said.
The man nodded. "I hated dealing with him too in my class," he said.
"So, these 3 are the ones we should keep our eyes on, huh?" the headmaster asked.
The two nodded.
"Oh right, there might be another one," the man suddenly said.
"Oh, who?" the headmaster asked.
"There's one kid named Ning. He's a little old and has only recently ranked up to the Essence Sense realm," the man said. "However, he has something that everyone could only hope for."
"Oh? What?" the headmaster asked curiously.
The man got closer and whispered, "his Essence is barely tainted at all. It's almost as if it is fully
pure."
"Pure Essence?" the headmaster thought. "It's been a while since anyone with that sort of Essence direction has come to the academy. Things might turn fun very soon."
