Ning taught the two about the summoning circle's symbols for a while before taking a break. "We should go slowly. You don't need to learn everything in a single day, right?"
"Yes, yes," the old woman nodded. "Alright, go do what you want. I will learn these numbers."
Ning nodded and walked out and so did Tessa.
"Thank you for giving us that information for free. You could have had us buy it, and we would've, but you didn't," she said.
"Oh, I didn't even think about that," Ning said for a second before turning to look at the horrified face of Tessa who had realized that she screwed up.
"Haha, don't worry. I don't want money," he said and entered the actual library.
He looked around, wondering what he should do now when he noticed one other student wearing a gold star on their clothes, just like Tessa was.
"By the way, what's that gold star about? Is that a fashion choice, or is there more to it?" he asked.
"This? This means you are an elite," she said.
"Elite?" Ning got curious. "Do you get any benefits? How many of you are there?"
"There's no inherent advantage to being an Elite, but you do get considered for a lot of things. For example, if a country wants an advisor or help, the school will let you choose first."
"As for the number, I don't know. An elite is chosen based on what you are good at in different subjects. For example, I am good at summoning circles. One can be good at fighting with beasts or fighting without beasts. Or even be an expert on having knowledge about different beasts."
"As long as you can prove that you have what it takes in one of these fields, and are in the top 10, then you become an elite," she said.
"So, how do I go about it? Do I tell a teacher I want to be an elite, or…?" Ning asked.
"If there are places in the top 10, then yes. You go to a teacher and they test you to see if you are eligible. If not, then you directly challenge one of the elites."
"You can only challenge that person once though, so you have to be careful there, but I don't think you will have to worry about that. There is only me as an elite in the field of summoning circles," she said.
Ning smiled mysteriously. "Who knows, I might want to go for other elites too," he said.
Tessa separated from him and went on to do her own thing, while Ning walked around the library looking at the various different books.
Just then, he heard a commotion coming from outside as many people run throughout the school for some reason.
It wasn't until someone entered the library and told them what was happening that Ning found out.
Someone was challenging an elite.
"Well, that's quite the timing," Ning thought to himself and walked out of the library before following the crowd towards the dueling arenas in the north.
One of those arenas was where the fight was going to happen.
The crowd surrounded it, and Ning appeared amongst them as well.
On one side was a blue-haired young man wearing a golden pin on his chest. Ning heard the name 'Henderson' being called out a lot, which was most likely the young man.
On the other side, it was Saphandra.
Ning couldn't help but laugh when he realized that it was her. 'Why is she fighting an elite already? It is barely the first day,' he thought.
Everyone looked excitedly at the match, and after the teacher saw they were ready, he started the match.
The young man looked angry for some reason, so he dashed forward. However, before he could do anything, Saphandra pushed on him, and he suddenly flew in an arch before slamming down hard on a different arena.
Everyone looked in shock at how fast the match was over.
"What was that?" someone asked in shock.
The teacher looked in shock too and only looked away from the unconscious elite that was on the other side.
"You… you have won," he told Saphandra who shrugged. She turned around to leave when the teacher stopped her.
Her face scrunched up in a frown as she asked, "what?"
"Eh? You forgot the badge," he said and asked someone to take away the unconscious elite's badge before handing it over to her.
"What's this?" she asked when she saw the gold star.
"It's the symbol to represent you as an elite," the teacher explained while very surprised that Saphandra didn't know it.
"Oh, so this is what he was talking about, huh?" she said and took the badge before leaving.
The crowd parted as she walked away and Ning appeared next to her. "What happened? You fought to be elite?" he asked.
"What? No. I have no idea what that means. That man was annoying, so I just wanted to beat him up without breaking any rules," she said.
Ning looked at the unconscious man that was being taken away. "What did he do?" he asked.
"He tried to ask me to be his girl," Saphandra said, remembering what happened not very long ago.
"He saw your hair?" Ning asked while looking at her hat. She was fully covered, so that shouldn't have been possible.
"No, he just saw a new face and thought he would try his luck, I suppose," she said.
"Then why was he so angry?" Ning asked. "I don't think a simple rejection would have done that."
"Well, he started saying he was an elite and how he was strong and what not. When I rejected him and told him that he was weak, he dared me to fight him. So I did."
"I didn't know I was dueling to become an elite," Saphandra said.
"Hah, and here I just learned of being an elite as well, and somehow you beat me to it," Ning said.
"If you want, you should try your hand at it," she said. "These people are very weak."
