Kale just did that out of habit and wasn't too serious about it, after all, the room was for two students, he was bound to have a roommate while living in the academy.
He took a deep breath then swiped his ID card at the device on the side and pushed open the door.
When the door opened, Kale saw three cardboard boxes and a tourist bag lying near the bed on the right.
The sound of the shower being used was coming from the bathroom.
Kale closed the door, and changed his getup, he removed the mask from his face and switched to his glasses.
He then led on the bed and started browsing through the book.
The first page contained information about the origin of the technique. The technique was found in the inheritance of a summoner with an unknown cultivation base, his name was Relin, like many other inheritance makers, that man didn't have any records in the Blazing Sun Kingdom but this technique was sold to the academy by his inheritor.
'A summoner? Sigh... If I had a talent for something like this then, Tch... To think I'm having such a pathetic thought, there are no ifs in this world,' Kale shook his head.
A summoner, a rare class among mages. It is one of the classes whose aptitude can only be obtained from birth, a summoner is similar to a beast tamer but the difference is that the beast they can enslave or make a contract with aren't from this world but a different plane, known as the spiritual plane.
The spiritual plane has mysterious creatures that don't exist in this world, many of them are as intelligent as humans at birth or have a heritage that cannot be described in words.
Even a thousand mage might not have one summoner in them.
The most alluring thing about a summoner is that just like a beast tamer, when makes a contract with a strong higher lifeform they can gain some of their abilities, they too can do it but the difference is that it's easy for summoners to do it as a beast tamer cannot find such beast on the streets, convincing them aside, just finding them in the wilderness may lead them to their death.
Unlike them, summoner doesn't need to worry about being killed in the spiritual plane because they cannot die even if someone kills them in the spiritual plane as their real body is not there, the most that could happen is their soul may receive some serious damage.
Moreover, summoners could choose to summon the real body or just the spiritual form of the beast/creature from the spiritual plane. If they choose to summon the spiritual form of the beast then its power would be weakened but in that form even if it is killed in the real world, it won't die in the spiritual plane and can be summoned later on, unless it dies in the spiritual plane in the hands of other beasts.
Unlike them, when beast tamer's beast dies, it's over for them.
Kale was lost in thought, he heard the sound of the door opened and raised his head to look.
The door of the bathroom opened and a boy around the same age as him came out.
He had blonde hair and deep blue eyes, the boy was wearing a white gown but the well-toned muscles on his body and abs were visible through the gaps.
He looked at Kale for a while, then clumsily raised his hand "Er... Hye… I guess,"
Kale nodded as he thought 'An antisocial weirdo,'
He again focused on reading his book.
The boy's lips twitched, this wasn't the reaction he was expecting, he spoke again "I'm Arlo,"
"Kale," Kale said without turning back.
"I specialize in close combat,"
"Close and mid-range combat," Kale replied while reading the book.
"I'm going to be Marti… Mutant Martial Artist,"
"Mutant Mage," Kale said then flipped the page.
The boy looked at him and sighed, "Dude why are you giving me the cold shoulder, we are going to live as roommates you know,"
Kale stopped reading and looked at him, he subconsciously touched his stomach and realized that he haven't eaten anything since the morning. Kale then closed his book and said "Wanna go grab a bite… After you wear something?"
"Hehe… That's more like it, just give me a minute," Arlo laughed then hurried to change his clothes.
While doing so he opened one of the boxes, the box was filled with soft drinks. Arlo picked the whole set and arranged it into the mini-fridge, he turned to Kale and gave a thumbs up "Don't hesitate to try some, if you want,"
Kale nodded, he then took out his phone and sent a message to Layla.
{I'm going to the cafeteria for dinner, interested in tagging along?} (Kale)
The reply came just after.
{Are you paying?} (Layla)
{No,} Kale said without hesitation, he had a lot of things on his list that he wanted to buy that's why he couldn't make himself to choose the money-oriented way of pleasing someone.
{I'm cultivating right now so I will just use home delivery for my dinner later,} (Layla)
'Cultivating your smartphone,' Kale thought.
{See you later then,} Kale said, ending the chat.
Arlo was ready by the time he finished chatting, he wore a blue jacket with loose black pants.
This time Kale didn't wear a mask while heading out, he just covered his head using the hood. To his surprise, Arlo did the same thing.
"You were reading the book from Grand Library earlier, right? So did you also figured out the word trick of the academy," Arlo asked on their way to the cafeteria.
Kale was slightly surprised by his words, there were only a few examinees that figured it out and Arlo too figured it which made him stand out from the rest and those that stand out aren't simple, just like how Layla subdued a beast without even becoming a beast tamer.
"I just bought the information," Kale replied.
Arlo just smiled and didn't peruse the topic.
'It doesn't seem bad to have two friends this way, I won't have to make fake excuses when dad asks me on call,' Kale thought.
They soon arrived at the cafeteria as it was near the dormitory. The food inside the cafeteria wasn't free but it was half the price and better in quality compared to the food in the restaurants outside the academy.
There was a reason why food wasn't free, it was because a practitioner's diet is closely related to the path they follow.
A mutant and mage have the same diet as a normal human but someone like the martial artist has a big appetite that only grows with their lifeform level.
Martial Artists cultivates Battle Qi that helps them temporarily strengthen their body by several times but it also nurtures their body, permanently strengthening it hence increasing their appetite for the enhanced body.
It was still early so most of the cafeteria was empty, most students preferred to eat their dinner in the room so not many would come to the cafeteria at this time.
Kale moved to the counter with Arlo.
A middle-aged woman smiled and handled today's menu.
The cafeteria served several types of dishes every day to give multiple choices to the students. Many students here are aristocrats so the academy had to make adjustments taking everyone into account.
Arlo browsed through the dishes, then ordered one of each kind "One steak, One meat roll, a mixed veg soup with…"
The woman wrote down his order then looked at Kale.
Kale put down his menu and gave his order "I want two mixed veg soup without meat,"
The woman looked at him and said "Boy, you are still young it's not good to be so picky with food, if you want to survive in the academy you need a strong body and for a strong body you need a good diet,"
Kale shook his head "You misunderstood aunty, I have some digestion issues these days that's why I'm eating just veggies nothing else,"
The woman hesitated but then sighed and nodded.
'Some of my techniques have special requirements, not eating flesh is one of those, I still haven't decided on which type of technique I want to cultivate yet, I will wait until I get to observe the secondary cultivation technique too before making the decision or my last three years of not eating meat would become a joke,' Kale thought.
The food soon arrived, both of them took a table and started eating.
Unlike Kale, Arlo was more talkative.
He talked about his family members, the place he used to live in, and the things he likes but Kale noticed that until now he hadn't brought up the topic of examination ranking.
Kale ate his serving and waited for him to finish. He thought for a while and decided to directly ask "How did you do in the examination?"
Arlo stopped eating for a second then looked at Kale and said "Bro haven't you heard, you need to tell me about yourself before asking about others?"
He said in a joking manner.
But the words also had other implications, Kale hadn't said anything about himself until now so he wanted to know about him before revealing his.
"Sigh… Long story short, I didn't participate in the examination, because I was hospitalized so I was curious how the examination was done," Kale said.
"So that's how it is, it can't be helped I guess. The examination was divided into two parts, theory and practical, you should be able to guess the theory part as for the practical one, we were given batches and got released in a safe forest, the task was to collect badges wore by others and hidden in the forest, the students were evaluated based in their skills and ranking.
The top 10 rankers received extra contribution points compared to others when entering the academy, nothing else. I got in top 10 ranks myself and all I got was some contribution points," Arlo said while eating. He didn't react in any way when Kale said that he didn't participate in the examination rather than being compassionate it was like he didn't care if he was lying or just giving an excuse for entering from the backdoor.
Kale nodded without any change in his expression.
This time Arlo was a little surprised, he was pretty sure that Kale's reaction would change and the cold demeanor will disappear but it didn't seem like the case.
After Arlo finished eating, they came back to their room, their trip back to the room was not eventful.
In the room…
Arlo sat cross-legged on his bed and started meditating.
Kale first took out his laptop, connected it to wifi then used the RAT system installed in it to connect it to the eight spyware cameras he installed outside his house via the internet.
Riyan's house had an octane frame so it had eight edges, Kale installed one camera on one edge each, he installed them outside to keep a watch on the whole garden. The camera wasn't of high quality and the RAT system was also cheap as it can be downloaded and installed from the internet.
After successfully connecting them, he switched to the back camera view and zoomed in to check the condition of the three square plots he dug out there.
The first plot was wholly filled with lush green grass just like he left it, the second and third plots were also the same. There was a small hole at the corner of the garden, it was the nest of the four rabbits he had enslaved to work as laborers.
'I need to wait patiently, for now, once I became a Plant Mage I would have several methods to speed up their growth unlike now, moreover, those methods are not orthodox,' Kale thought. He then closed his laptop, took out the book he got from the Grand Library, and started reading until he completely memorized it.