Ning had 4 fist-sized rocks in his hands that he was constantly juggling as well as he could. He himself wasn't very good at juggling, but he had a little help from elsewhere.
The rocks jumped around in his hands unnaturally because they were being manipulated using Aether. He was training his Aether usage before going to sleep so that he could get better at it.
While he still didn't have the talent for it, the practice was helping him get there.
The 4 rocks stopped juggling and dropped onto his hands. That was enough training for today. He threw away the rocks and went to bed.
He slept for as long as he could, but when he woke up, it was still very dark outside. 'Damn this planet and its long nights,' he thought. He would rather go stay at the south where it was perpetually bright, compared to this place where days were so long.
Ning wanted to go out today as well, but he needed a guide, and without Reever, he didn't feel like going out on his own. So, he spent the whole day in his room, practicing his Aether arts.
From time to time, he left his room to go have some meal, but that was all. Soon, that day was over as well and he went to bed once more.
He woke up the next morning and decided he wanted to see more of the city this time. So, after having his lunch, he left the hotel to go roam the city.
The industrialized city was great and all, but due to everyone being so focused on their work all the time, Ning didn't feel the same level of friendliness from the residents as he would from any town or city in Kumia.
There were not only adult men and women but also children as young as 8 years old working to earn money in the stores and the streets. Ning felt disappointed when he saw that, but there was nothing he could do. He also understood that these people likely needed this work to keep themselves afloat.
'Sigh, everyone is out for their own self here,' he thought. He went around the city for a few more hours to look at the different landmarks and sceneries, and while he did like some of them, most of them left him feeling disappointed.
'Doesn't look like there is anything worth staying around here for,' he thought. Ning turned around to walk away from the south of the city he was currently in.
Just then, he heard a commotion from someplace close by. He could see a few amongst the masses walking at a faster pace towards a certain location and got curious.
He too decided to go and see what was happening. The place he was going to was an under construction building with a large compound that was empty of any equipment or stuff required in the construction.
There were however a large number of people gathered at the compound for some reason.
What surprised Ning the most was that the number of children that were here in the field was an astounding lot, and most of them looked to be younger than 10 too.
Due to the crowd in front of him, he couldn't really see what was happening, so he asked someone to his left as to what was going on right now.
"It's the people from the Aether Tower. They are here to see if any of the children are worthy to go to the Aether tower," the man told Ning.
"I see," Ning said. He understood the reason for the current crowd. 'Aether Tower… that's the place Reever wanted to go, right? It must be similar to a big sect back in Kumia. No wonder everyone is so excited. If their children get to go there, their life would be set.'
A middle-aged man with a thick mustache, and a bluish-black coat walked to the center and started speaking. "Alright, I don't have much time. All the adults, please move away from this space in front of me. Children, come line up," the man said.
The man didn't seem to hold respect for anyone in there and seemed to want to leave as soon as he could.
The people however weren't offended by his tone at all and did what he said. They all stepped aside and let the children line up.
"Over 400, from the looks of it. Well, I suppose a city at the edge of civilization wouldn't really have that many people anyway," the man said.
He then brought out something from his storage. The device, from what Ning could see, was a crystal ball, not unlike a fortune teller's crystal ball that Ning had a vague memory of.
Only, this one was entirely purple. Ning couldn't even see anything properly from this far away, so he had to use his new vision magnification skill he had very recently bought.
"Oh, is something glowing in there?" he wondered.
The man decided to waste no time and called out the children and made them put their hands on the crystal.
One by one, the children did as told and not a single one of them could elicit a single change in the crystal.
It wasn't until after 200 children when finally there was some change in the crystal. A small white light emitted from deep within the crystal that only the child who was touching the crystal, Ning, and the man could see.
It wasn't until a few seconds later that the light became more pronounced and the regular people started noticing it.
"Woah, he did it!"
"That child is going to have a great future now."
"We can now boast that someone from our city went to the Aether Tower as well."
The rest of the children tested, but not another one with the same results could be found. So, the middle-aged man was going to have to only take this one child back to the tower to train.
Once everything was done, people started leaving, and Ning standing alone couldn't help but wonder exactly what had happened.
