Before Noele could make it to the front, Felum quickly ran to Sindelle with an amiable smile, making the former stop in his tracks.
"Uh, Ms. Shanirose, if I may..." Felum kept his voice low. "My friend, Noele, wants to keep his Elemental Compatibility Ratings, uh, low-key. If possible, can you not do his...?"
"Nonsense! Everyone here needs to take the test. I wanna see someone with a unique 'Spirit Animal'! Besides, this is the introduction activity, so I can remember all your names..."
Felum was inclined to believe that the latter was the real reason. "Then, how about calling Noele whenever everyone gets bored? That way, no one will pay attention to his."
"Sure. I don't see anything wrong with that arrangement."
Felum turned to Noele and gave him a thumbs-up.
Noele shrugged and sat down.
"Well. Since you're already here, how about you try first?"
"Wha? I--"
Before Felum could respond, Sindelle had already pulled his hand and placed it on her modified Elemental Compatibility Orb.
The mist in the orb suddenly became turbulent as it spun around, a striking red and orange taking over the mist at a rapid speed. For a split second, the orb trembled.
Sindelle's breath quickened. 'A... A genius! This should be around a 90% compatibility with the fire element. Almost no compatibility with everything else, but who cares!'
"Okay, let's see what elemental beast represents you, Mr. Peore..."
She turned the orb over and pressed the button. Once more, the classroom was invaded with a beautiful sight.
The student on the far right had the bright idea to darken the classroom. As he was sitting conveniently beside the light switch, he didn't need to stand up to flick it off.
As the lights in the room disappeared, the holographic projection of the beast shined even more than before.
"This beast... It's the Ignis Rex!" Sindelle adjusted her glasses to marvel at the sight.
"The Ignis Rex?" "Isn't that just a dragon?" "Dragons are real?"
The class burst into an uproar once the Ignis Rex came into full display inside the classroom.
Hurriedly, Felum removed his palm from the orb. The Ignis Rex disappeared as soon as it came.
"Ahem," Sindelle snapped her fingers twice. "Pay attention. You should know of dragons, right? From fairytales and fantasies, they have always been prevalent in culture. But they are commonly regarded as myths."
She took in a deep breath before continuing, "but recent research into the Deep Wilderness has shown that they do, in fact, exist! One of the rovers we--erm, I mean, the researchers sent into the Deep Wilderness has captured live footage of an Ignis Rex."
She hurriedly opened up her laptop and played the video on its small screen full of cracks.
The class rushed to the front to get the best view of the video. It was 3 minutes and 13 seconds long.
The brave rover ventured into a scorched land. There were trees, but with glowing orange leaves and wood with a reddish tint. The ground was full of spouts that spat out a pillar of fire in random intervals, which the driver had to avoid.
Eventually, the rover was confronted by a large black wall with streaks of bright, orange liquid leaking from its pores. There was an entrance carved out on the side, seemingly by a single blunt force. The hole was large enough for three rovers to enter.
Not knowing what to expect, the driver controlled the rover to go inside of the strangely dark entrance.
Only, it wasn't actually dark.
The rover bumped into something, softer than rock, but harder than skin. With a closer look, it became obvious that they were scales, as black as the night sky. The scales had covered the entire entrance, making it seem dark.
As the rover carefully retreated, the scales suddenly convulsed, a loud roar echoing inside the cave. Dust and rocks rained from the ceiling as the video shook.
In between the scales jetted out fire. The large creature moved, until an eye appeared, peering out the entrance. The pupil was a single slit of black in the center, surrounded by a flaming hot red iris that filled the rest of the eye.
The rover froze in its tracks--the receiver had lost connection, but the camera feed was still going, albeit with a bit of static.
The creature took a few steps back, allowing the camera to get a look on its head for a total of 3 seconds, before it spewed fire directly onto the rover, losing connection immediately.
"Holy shit, that's real life?" "There's something that big in the Deep Wilderness, huh." "That was epic!"
"Okay, everyone, go back to your seats. Shoo, shoo. What you just watched is one of the only videos humanity has on such a mythical creature. And no, I'm not gonna show you the other videos. They're confidential..." '...and scarring for life, actually.'
"Well, at least you saw the full figure of the Ignis Rex earlier, right? Just not in motion. So, consider ourselves lucky to have a classmate Ike Mr. Peore here."
Felum, who went back to his seat with everybody else, felt both embarrassed and prideful. "It's nothing, guys. You don't have to thank me."
"Okay, now that that's over with, let's proceed with the next student. Uhm, you in the corner over there."
A male student stood up excitedly and smirked at his friends before heading to the front. He touched the orb. Subtle green and white floated in the mist.
"What's your name?"
"My name is Gran Delios, teach."
"Okay, Mr. Delios, let's see what your 'spirit animal' is..."
Click.
The holographic projection showed up once more, this time with a less impressive showcase than the Ignis Rex.
"Oh, Mr. Delios, you have the same compatibilities as the Lizern!"
The Lizern in the image rotated slowly, its oversized head and undersized wings haphazardly stuck on its small reptilian body stood out to the class.
"You can go back to your seat now, Mr. Delios."
Gran Delios went back with a depressed face, his friends mocking him for such an underwhelming result.
Sindelle ignored them as she explained, "Unlike the Ignis Rex, the Lizerns do not live in the Deep Wilderness, they live among us, on this continent. One can find them in a swamp, or in a forest like the one in the back of the school.
"Since we have a lot of information on them, I'll just take this opportunity to teach you about the Lizerns.
"Small, annoying, sometimes deadly pests. The Lizerns are basically like an oversized mosquito..."
"Attracted to fire, so if you have a campfire, you are susceptible to their attack..."
"They spew acidic substances that are somewhat harmful to the skin. Just avoid concentrated lines of fire..."
"They have a spot right below their jaw that contains all their acid. This spot is where their thick skin is the weakest..."
Soon enough, the teacher's lecture on Lizerns ended.
"Now, you know what to be careful of when going camping.
"Okay, let's do the next student."
Despite Grant's lackluster results in comparison to Felum, the students still wanted to find out what their 'spirit animal' was. Their curiosity and enthusiasm trumped any potential embarrassment.
"Next will be... you, with the braids over there."
The braided girl excitedly stood up.
"Ring! Ring! Ring!"
The ringing bell effectively erased the braided girl's enthusiasm and replaced it with frustration.
"Ah... Looks like we ran out of time. What a shame." Sindelle shrugged. "We'll just continue next time. We meet Mondays and Tuesdays... That's about it. See you tomorrow, guys!"
"Bye, Ms. Shanirose!" "Ba-bye, Ms. Delle!" "Goodbye, teach!"
Sindelle walked out of the room with an overwhelmingly positive reception from the students.