Once Ning drew the final symbol for the soul, he was done with the first beast in the test.
He checked if he had made some mistakes here and there and confirmed some things he had just assumed about such as the organs of the beast and then turned over the page.
However, just as he did, the old woman came and grabbed it from his hands.
"Ma'am?" Ning looked at her curiously, but the old woman wasn't paying any attention to him at all.
She looked at it all and pointed to something, "why did you draw this?" she asked.
"This? That's the symbol to represent a beast's kidneys," Ning said.
"And this?" she asked.
"That's his age, written in days," Ning said once again.
"Is this stomach?" she asked.
"Close, it's the intestine," Ning said.
"You asked something about the Elemental, Physical,… and what was it? Mental ratio? Is that this?" she asked while pointing at the 2nd layer of the circle.
"Yes, that is it," Ning said. "Although, there are no mental capabilities for the beast from what I hear, so I only have this elemental area and this physical area."
The woman was fascinated by all of this. While she understood a lot of it, there were still so many summoning circles that were documented from so many different types of beasts that it was just impossible to understand what meant what.
She understood about 60% of what Ning made and had a guess on what 10% of the rest were, but the remaining 30% she was completely oblivious about.
She was really surprised at how much he knew, and how much passion he must have put into it all. She asked a few different things, ending up with the black, empty circle at the center of it all.
"What is this?" she asked. "I've seen this or the filled-up circles, but I have never learned what this is."
"That's soul," Ning said.
"Soul?" the woman looked confused. "What's a soul?"
"Uhh…" Ning thought for a moment. 'Did these people not have a concept of soul?'
"Do you know what reincarnation is?" he asked.
"Hmm, that just sounds like being born again," the old woman said. The words she heard coming out of Ning's mouth perfectly explained to her what he was asking her, even though there was no actual word for reincarnation in this world.
"Yes, and if you were to get born again, there has to be something connecting you to the previous you, right? That's soul. It's a lot to explain right now, but the most basic thing you need to know is that a beast with a soul is usually very intelligent."
"That is not to say that beasts without souls can't show some modicum of intelligence at all," he said.
"Okay, okay. I think I get it a little," the old woman nodded. She turned to look at the young man that had summoned the mastiff and gave him the order to unsummon it.
The young man nodded and unsummoned the mastiff. As the mastiff disappeared, the summoning circle for the beast appeared underneath it, and both Ning and the old woman Verina compared it.
The outer band of the circle that represented the Rank and spiritual energy of the beast was perfect.
The 2nd band of the circle had to do with the capabilities of the beast in all 3 aspects, and that was where Ning made some mistakes.
The elemental ability of the beast was more towards 50% than 40%, and it also had the slightest piece of mental prowess, but that was for reasons Ning only learned a little later.
In the final circle, Ning was wrong on the age of the beast which was an obvious mistake to make. What other mistake that surprised NIng was the fact that the beast had a soul.
'No wonder it had some mental prowess,' Ning thought to himself.
"Such accuracy," the old woman said in surprise. "You must tell me where you learned it all."
"Uh… here and there. Mostly just by myself while summoning a hundred different beasts," Ning said.
"You learned it all by yourself? You must be a genius," the woman said. "Come on, do some more. Do some more."
The woman took Ning to the rest of the students who were standing there with their beasts and Ning started drawing the summoning circles with the woman by her side.
At her request, he explained everything he was doing from asking questions to making symbols. After he finished one, he and the old woman watched the summoning circle flash again while the beast was unsummoned.
After all of those beasts were gone, the old woman kept murmuring 'incredible' under her breath.
"You can't be a student with such a mind. You must work on the Summoning Circle more."
"How about this, young man? Work as my assistant in my research. You will not only have a higher status than a student, but also a higher level of freedom."
"Not only that, you will get paid too, instead of having to pay the school," the old woman said.
"Assistant?" Ning frowned a little. Why was it that whenever he tried to join some sort of academy, he always ended up getting preferential treatment?
Sometimes it was him being a teacher, sometimes it was him being enrolled with a full scholarship, and now it was him being enrolled as an assistant.
"You are a teacher, right? not just a researcher?" Ning asked.
"Yes, I am," she said. "One of the oldest ones at that, and as such I garner a high amount of respect from everyone."
"If I were to be your assistant, will I have to help you while you teach as well?" he asked.
"A little, but not necessarily. You will be there for the summoning circle research," the woman said.
"I see," Ning said. "Then I agree. I'm willing to be your assistant."
He didn't come here to study anyway, so there was no point in being anything else.
