"GATHER ROUND! ALL NEW STUDENTS GATHER ROUND!" A deep imposing voice exploded through the waiting crowd.
All the new students who were talking excitedly were quickly silenced, some older students who were nearby quickly extricated themselves from the new students, they wore concerned and sometimes even frightened faces.
The fiery red muscular Elemental, who was only wearing red trousers, shouted once again, seeing that the new students hadn't responded quickly enough.
"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR! ON THE LEFT, SINGLE FILE, NOW!" he shouted as he pointed towards the admission's building.
This time everyone quickly reacted, there were around 100 people here but they did there best to neatly line up. Casmir and his friends happened to be waiting in the area where they needed to line up so they didn't need to rush about at all.
Casmir took this moment to size up this person.
From his aura Casmir could tell that this person was an Elemental and from his aura's thickness and size, this person was a high level cultivator, likely grade 6. Casmir assumed this person was an instructor of the University and from his appearance, he was likely sent here to intimidate the new students into behaving.
As the instructor watched the students line up, he put on a smile.
"WELCOME TO HELDAN ACADEMY, I AM INSTRUCTOR REDFIRE. I HOPE YOU ALL KNOW WHAT COURSES YOU WANT TO APPLY FOR." Redfire shouted, even though the scene was quiet and all he needed to do was slightly raise his voice.
Many of the new students couldn't help wearing awkward smiles as they watched this instructor, he was truly odd, yet no one had the courage to call him out on it.
"I UNDERSTAND THAT THERE WILL BE SOME PEOPLE WHO WANT TO APPLY FOR DUAL COURSE'S OR SPECIALISED COURSE'S. RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU ARE ONE SUCH PERSON." Redfire continued to shout as he explained.
In the queue a few people raised their hands, including Casmir, Instructor Redfire noted all these people in his head before picking one.
"YOU, STEP FORWARD" he shouted at a young elemental.
The man nearly jumped out of his aura, he awkwardly stepped forward towards the instructor and as he arrived in front of Redfire he was expecting a loud voice to blast his eardrum's.
"Tell me young man what are you applying for?" Redfire said in a gentle voice.
The young man was understandably confused by the instructors sudden change but quickly replied hoping that the instructor's voice wouldn't change again.
Instructor Redfire dutifully instructed the young man before calling over the next, he spoke calmly to each individual. Once they had finished their conversation some of the students returned to the queue, other's needed to go to other buildings and sometimes the instructor told them to wait behind him.
When it came to Casmir's turn, he walked over standing in front of the instructor.
Casmir couldn't help but admire the ferocious looking, yet vibrant, red tiger head in front of him as they spoke.
"What are you applying for young man?" asked Redfire.
"I'm applying for a dual course in biology and Qi studies, I have a recommendation from Gloria Sing. She's an Associate professor of biology here." Casmir explained.
Gloria had told him to hand over her recommendation as soon as possible when an instructor asked him what he was applying for.
"Ah, another person for Qi studies, fantastic. Hmm.. what's your name young man?" he replied.
Redfire was one of the Qi studies instructor's, he wanted as many new students as he could have.
"Casmir Sing."
Redfire looked at a notepad he had been holding as he talked to the student's, it was a pre-admissions list, it contained the information for students who had sent in information previously.
"Hmm.. you're not on the pre-admissions list... I'll have to rely on your recommendation then.." the instructor said, Casmir had only decided to come here recently and hadn't been able to send in pre-admission information.
As Instructor Redfire opened and read the recommendation he nodded calmly at first before his face warped in a strange way.
It seemed as if he wanted to frown but was reluctant to expose his expression, when he finished reading the recommendation, he looked at Casmir strangely, he wanted to see if there was anything special about this young man.
"Erm... stand behind me for now, there's no problem with your application for courses so don't worry, I just need to bring you to meet someone later." Redfire said slightly awkwardly.
Casmir understood, he simply stood behind the instructor with a few others as he waited for him to finish.
Eventually Instructor Redfire finished talking to the students, his job today was to guide the specialist or dual course students, he would be walking to and from this building all day.
"Come on you lot, I'll be sending you to where you need to go now." Redfire said to the small group of students behind him as he started walking away.
Redfire walked through the campus's occasionally sending students into different building's or getting older students to guide the new students to the appropriate teachers.
After half an hour of walking around the only person left with Redfire was Casmir, as they walked Redfire struck up a conversation with Casmir.
"So you want to be a biologist and a Qi cultivator? What do you want to focus on?" he asked out of the blue.
Casmir was confused as to why he had asked him this, he also wanted to know why he was left until last, it could be a coincidence but Casmir wasn't sure.
"Well.. I've wanted to be a biologist for a while, mainly because of my mother. She's Gloria Sing who recommended me. However recently I was very interested in Qi cultivation, it was my mother who convinced me I should study a dual course here." Casmir answered truthfully.
Redfire wasn't pleased after learning that his mother had recommended him, he thought that perhaps she was being biased. However this didn't explain why she had recommended he be taught by Master Bluefire, her instruction wasn't necessarily a favour, more of a torturous experience.
In Gloria's recommendation letter she had written the appropriate information for Casmir to be accepted but also an extra recommendation for him to be taught by a specific instructor, Master Bluefire.
"Do you know Master Bluefire then?" the instructor asked.
Casmir frowned, "Master Bluefire?" he questioned.
Redfire became even more confused as he learnt that Casmir didn't know Bluefire, in the end he simply brushed aside his thoughts as they reached their destination.
They stood outside a small refinery, in looked like a large cottage with a tall chimney behind it releasing smoke. It was located on campus but it was fairly remote, this was in fact a Teacher's refinery, built so that teacher's could refine item's in peace without disturbance.
"Master Bluefire should be inside, wait here for a minute while I find her." Redfire said as he walked into the cottage.
Casmir stood outside the cottage for a short while, he noticed a nearby sign that read 'Bluefire refinery'. Apparently this was the cottage's name, Casmir realised that the cottage must belong to this Master Bluefire.
BANG
A loud noise, as if an explosion, came from the cottage shocking Casmir out of his thoughts. A billow of thick black smoke started flooding out the top of the chimney.
Before Casmir could react, Instructor Redfire walked out of the cottage.
He was followed by a trail of soot that was gradually falling off of him, the soot stuck to his body and aura. Typically an Elemental would be able to easily remove anything left on their bodies but apparently this soot was more resilient, from what Casmir understood it was likely the remnants of some kind of material that contained Qi energy.
Redfire was clearly annoyed, but he didn't dare show it on his face, just after he walked out of the cottage a large floating ball of blue fire appeared behind him. It was quite beautiful as it seemed to flutter through the air, but because of the aura surrounding it Casmir understood that it was an Elemental, this person simply took the form of a blue ball of fire.
As Casmir watched the pair exit the cottage he heard a shrill cry and a high pitched voice.
"EAHH.. YOU IDIOT, WHY DIDN'T YOU WARN ME!"
Casmir realised the voice was coming from the blue flame, he was confused for a moment, he realised that this Elemental was likely Master Bluefire, but he was confused by the feminine voice.
Elemental's didn't have sex's but they often liked to identify as a sex for various reasons, however some elemental's liked to be unidentifiable, they believed they should stay in their natural forms.
Casmir had assumed that this Master Bluefire was one of the naturalist's, however from the shrill feminine voice she clearly wants to be seen as a woman.
Redfire, whom Casmir expected to argue back, reacted oddly, he stood at the side meekly as Bluefire screamed at him.
"...THAT WAS A GRADE 4 SANDSTONE! WHAT A WASTE.." Bluefire continued to shout.
Suddenly, as she saw Casmir, she remembered the reason for her mishap, she had learned a piece of shocking news pertaining to this young man standing nearby....