The murky shadows in the sphere moved away to reveal brilliant white light that shined so bright that Ning had to block it with his hands.
The shine he had produced was far, far brighter than the young child he had seen a few days ago back in the city of beginnings.
The person in charge of the sphere cried out in shock. "C-C-Call the teachers!" he shouted.
The person who was in charge of age suddenly ran from his place and went somewhere.
"Please stay on the side for a moment." The man had lost all boredom and unenthusiasm after he saw the bright light.
'Hm, I wonder what made that happen. My fully acclimated body or my automatic absorption technique,' Ning thought.
The people in line were also surprised and looked at Ning in awe. They weren't even mad that their turn wasn't coming at all as they all waited to see what was going to happen next.
A man in his 50s arrived, brought by the man who was sent to get him. The old man was about as tall as Ning but had a chubbier body. He had a circular face with a bald head and gray beard.
He wore a black scholarly robe with white pants and had a shawl around his shoulders. He wore gold-rimmed spectacles with a golden chain attached to them in case they fell from his eyes.
The man arrived next to Ning and looked at him. "Are you the one who just tested?" he asked.
"Yes," Ning replied, wondering who he was talking to.
"Can you place your hands on that sphere once more?" he asked.
"Sure," Ning said and placed it back. The same phenomenon rose once more as a stark white light appeared from inside the sphere.
"My god! Just potential," the old man muttered under his breath. "May I know your name, young man?" he asked.
"I am Ning Ruogong," Ning introduced himself.
"Ning? What an unusual name," the old man said. "Young man Ning, I am called Elric Ringer. I am the vice-president of the Xandria Aether Tower."
"Oh," Ning said, understanding that this person was likely very important. "Nice to meet you, Vice president."
"Where are you from, young man? To think we missed such talent before," the vice president said.
"I am not from around here. I come from a village in the north, around the desert," Ning said. "It was only in recent years that I came up south."
"I see, no wonder we didn't find you. We should start sending more willing teachers to go find talents down in the north," the old man said.
"This… test. I passed it right?" Ning asked.
"Yes, my child. With flying colors," the vice president said.
"Ah, nice. So I am eligible for the next test too, right?" he asked.
"You don't need to worry about the next test. You are exempt from taking the next test. We can directly enroll you right now," the vice president said.
"Oh, are you sure? Won't that be against the tower rule or something?" Ning asked.
"No way. No one is going to contradict me, especially when I am trying to enroll a student with such high potential," the vice president said.
"Oh, alright then. Thank you," Ning said.
The vice president Ringer turned to the person he had come with and said, "Take him to the office and ask the teacher there to enroll him, okay?"
"Yes, Vice president," the man nodded.
"Where are you staying, my child?" the vice president asked.
"In a hotel, in the commercial district," Ning said.
"In a hotel? That's so bad. You can move to the dorm in the tower right now if you want to," the vice president said.
"No, no. It's fine. I want to experience living in the city for a while," Ning said.
"If you say so," the vice president said. "Remember, you can always just join here if you ever want to."
"I will keep that in mind. Thank you, Vice president," Ning said.
"Alright, go get yourself enrolled," the vice president said. He then brought out a piece of paper from his storage and wrote something on it.
"Where you are enrolling, just hand this paper to the teacher, okay?" he said. "I will need to return back to work, but I will see you later."
The vice president left the place, talking to no one else but Ning.
"Come on, brother. Let's go," the man said and took Ning along with him. They walked for a while, then up the stair once, and arrived in front of a room.
Ning read the word 'Admission' on the wall and waited for the person inside to walk out.
Once they did, the man took Ning inside. "Teacher, I have someone for you to admit to the tower," the man said.
"Oh, but it isn't the time to, right?" the teacher inside said. It was a female teacher who wore a similar cloth to the Vice president, just modeled in a way to make it more feminine.
"It's the Vice president's order," the man said.
"Oh," the teacher finally looked away and towards Ning.
"You are getting special treatment, boy. You must've done something to impress the vice president," she said. "Here, fill this form as well as you can."
Ning nodded and took the form. He took one of the pens on the table and started filling it up.
The man took his leave and left the place to go back to his work.
Ning filled the form the best he could and handed it back. The teacher took the form and read it.
"Everything looks fine. Now, just pay 30 Gols," she said.
"Eh? 30 Gols?" Ning asked. That was a lot of money to ask for such a 'young' man like him.
"You don't have the money?" the teacher asked, her eyes shining unusually for some reason.
"Ah, no," Ning said. "Ah, but I do have this thing the vice president gave me." Ning handed her the piece of paper.
"Oh," the teacher said and took the paper before reading it. Her expression dulled as she looked a little disappointed.
"Congratulations kid, You have a full scholarship.. Be sure to thank the vice president when you meet him again."
