After Sarcony, Mo'er came out of the room. Glancing at Sarcony who was meditating in a corner, Mo'er shook her head with a bitter smile. ONEE-SAMA IS ALWAYS THE SAME. She sat beside Sarcony and waited for others. One by one, 80 students came out of their rooms and assembled at the reception. " Students, your Unveiling gifts shall show the class you are assigned to. Assemble at the sports ground at the eighth stellar unit in the morning. " " Yes sir!!! " x 80.
The next day at the training grounds, in the morning,
" No matter how strong you are, basic training is always necessary. Start by running ten laps. Now! " The students started running. In the beginning, few students tried to show off by running faster than others, it was a mistake as they underestimated the size of the grounds. They were thoroughly exhausted by the second lap. Sarcony, who had trained under Sun Wukong, would never do such a low level mistake. She calmly maintained her moderate pace throughout the lap and hence continued to the second lap with the same speed. By the end of the fifth lap, Sarcony, Mo'er and party were the only ones who were running in the field. The grounds had a special environmental feature, Energy dispersion. Energy of any form is completely dispelled in a matter of minutes. This made the cultivators, spirit seekers and magicians who supported their shabby physiques and low stamina with body fortification using energy collapse in an instant.
Only Sarcony and people like her (elves), who reconstructed their body again and again and improved stamina in a natural way could continue running. By the end of the eighth lap though, almost all of the students collapsed. Sarcony and Mo'er were the only ones running, at a moderate pace, that is. Mo'er was panting and sweating like crazy while Sarcony was completely fine and had an even breathing as is she wasn't running in a harsh environment at all.
" Onee-sama, so cool!!" Mo'er exclaimed as she fell flat on the ground, exhausted, after the ninth round. COOL! Sarcony thought, and voila!, with a jolt in her mind, Sarcony almost blacked out but then recovered almost instantly, saving her from embarrassment, but she felt different. She felt distant, colder and domineering in a different sense from before.
In her mind space though, Sarcony was glaring at the girl who looked like her but was extremely cold, both figuratively and literally. She felt like an ice mountain, cold and unfeeling. Her expression remained the same, all throughout the ordeal. But the moment cheeky Sarcony showed up, her expression instantly changed. She turned away indifferent. HEY, YOU CAN'T JUST IGNORE ME. I CAN. HEY!!! COME ON ICE CAKE, SHE MAKES GOOD FRIEND. AS IF I CARE. YOU HAVE TO, OR ELSE, WE WILL TAKE YOU DOWN TOGETHER. FINE, FINE, I AM NOT AGAINST HER, AND DON'T CALL ME ICE CAKE, YOU CHEEKY BRAT. HAHA!!!!!
The war in her mind space ended pretty much in an instant but the cold Sarcony took over. Using the phenomenon of water atoms clumping together to form ice, she condensed natural energy into clumps of high density and distributed them all over the body to use them to repair her strained muscles and ease her exhaustion, returning to peak state over and over again. A simple jog worked like a nice super compensation training, making her stronger and stronger.
Sarcony ended up being the only one who could complete the ten rounds, without even breaking a sweat. She was as good as new when they left the grounds to fresh up and go to the assigned classrooms. She promptly finished her bath and donned herself in her battle dress that had been dyed complete black with frills added to the shoulders.
In the classroom,
" Hi students, I am Sophie, your instructor for the theoritical part of your applied cultivation subject. I shall teach you how to use your energy in the most optimised way which you will develop yourselves anyway, how to practice your skills in a way that maximises your combat potential and reduces fatalities in the battle frontlines where you may go someday, how to harmonise the knowledge you have collected to so far and will collect in the future as well. So, for today's task, go find yourself a skill that you feel would do best as your primary skill; which basically means the skill upon which you shall construct your fighting style and forms the very foundation for your strength. You can find the map of the Academy in the Unveiling gift of yours and get the skills in the Primary skill Archive of the Library section of the Academy. If the librarian asks you, answer that teacher Sophie sent you. Now, scoot." she drove them away from the class and slumped in the chair, dozing off lazily.
Meanwhile, the students all headed to the library under the leadership of a boy who simply declared himself the leader of the class to which none objected. Sarcony, Mo'er and other elves simply trailed at the end of the group, walking at leisure. Many of the boys tried to talk to the pretty girls but were driven away by the cold, scary aura of Sarcony. Girls, seeking protection from flirty boys or plainly getting attracted to Sarcony's charm simply joined their group. Boys who behaved well and only spoke to girls as fellow classmates were allowed into the group as well and were unaffected by Sarcony's aura just like the girls were. Sarcony looked a leader without declaring herself one.
The groups reached the Library section. All of them rushed towards the librarian. " What is a bunch of smelly brats doing here? get lost before I swat you away. " roared an old man who popped from a book shelf. " Sir, we were sent here by teacher Sophie to get our primary skill. Can you please guide us to the librarian. " the leader ( self proclaimed ) asked. " I am the librarian. The primary skill archive is over there. Go do whatever you want as I'm very busy, but if I find one damaged book or hear as much as a whisper, I'll kick you all out straight away. " " Thank you sir. " The kids all ran towards the archive, well all except one. Sarcony stayed behind and started to examine the long bookshelves several average human lengths each, towering rows filled with innumerable books.
" Little girl, not going to the archive? " the old man spoke with a gentle tone, completely in contrast to his previous tone as he could see she was just like him, extremely interested in books. The kinship prompted him to speak politely. " Sir, if you don't mind, may I just look around for a while and grab a few books while I'm at it? " " Of course you can. Since I'm free, why don't I accompany you and suggest some good books, what do you say? Also call me grandpa, no need for the formal 'sir'. " " Okay grandpa. Let's go then. " She smiled sweetly while holding his wrinkled hand and pulled him towards the bookshelves. Sarcony's body was being controlled by her original self hence the polite and friendly attitude towards the librarian. In her mind space though, there was a ruckus between the cheeky self and the cold self of hers for the pecking order/heirarchy.
As if god had sent her to fulfill all his expectations, Sarcony's every action made the librarian's old heart happy. He blessed her with a happy life full of joys. This absent minded action of his resulted in a situation that neither he nor the girl would have even dreamt of.