"Why can't I be in Hua Academy?" Kai asked. In the first place, potion-making required a lot of money. Even if they receive a monthly stipend, it wouldn't be enough to buy all the materials needed to practice brewing potions.
"That's right… Miss Zoe. Why can't he come here?"
"Simple… Hua Academy is a school for Beasts and Weapons summoner. Not for plants summoner. The materials and support are extremely lacking. He would prosper in other schools than in Hua." Zoe answered Yumi. "Introduce yourself."
"I am Yumi Lin. B Class Summoner."
"I see…" Zoe stared at them. "Idya, Ambro, and Lek were both B Class. When they arrived here, a lot of people asked why they chose this place too. We already considered a B Class plant summoner as rare. It means… they could summon the different type of materials and is extremely in demand in potioneering world."
"B Class is considered rare?" Kai's brows knitted. Rare? What does that mean? In his time, A Class plant's summoners are not even considered rare.
"Yes. For plant summoners, fighting skills were not necessary. So, the other academies, accept people with low-ranking cores. After all, they only needed to use their cores to help them with brewing. For instance, D Class summoners who are considered weak in other types of summoners were pretty common in potion academies. C Class is already considered high rank and of course, B Rank is a rare one. As for A-class… " Miss Zoe shifted her gaze back to Kai. "Aside from our representative, I haven't heard of any other A-class plant summoner who finished their education in our academy."
"Miss Zoe, may I know why A-Class is considered that special? I've heard that A-Class Weapons and Beast summoners are good but we can't summon spiritual plant's right? Our Mantra doesn't have spiritual Plants." Idya asked, curiosity filled her eyes.
Kai thought about Idya's question and lowered his gaze, hiding the emotions in his face. When he woke up, Kai's original memories were as good as nothing. He was pampered and protected and doesn't know much about this world.
Then he spent the last three years on the run.
In those three years, his grandmother doesn't talk about anything else aside from brewing potions. She was quite eccentric and would prefer to be alone with her cauldron all the time. Kai knew that she was an A-class summoner too.
Aside from this, he knew nothing about the history of potioneering and its relation to the ranking of one's core. His knowledge was definitely outdated.
"They can… "Zoe clenched her jaw. "They are eccentric. So not many people know about their skills."
Kai knew she was lying. Zoe must have seen something, but she didn't want to say something.
Interesting.
"Alright… you two needed to identify all types of plants. Come with me, I will show you the mantra that we have. This… is currently not updated, but there's no need to learn the others yet. Right now, you have to familiarize yourself with the first twenty species of plants that you can summon. Learn about how they look like, how they smell, where they live. Remember, you have to think about these things before you can summon any of them." Zoe nodded at Idya and Lek before she walked towards the exit. Kai and Yumi followed her out.
"Second, you have to learn about their functions and how you use them properly. Brewing potions is not like cooking. Use your core to complete the brewing. I will give you a copy of the complete process. You two are considered beginners, so you aren't allowed to make anything. For now, memorized the species and you have to be very careful about the plants that you summon. I'm sure you already know this, but summoners can only summon once in every eight hours."
Limitations.
Kai found it weird that people in this Era had so many limitations in their abilities. In this Era, they could only use their cores once every eight hours. Ten thousand years ago. That wasn't the case. "Miss Zoe… may I know why we can only summon once every eight hours?" Unable to stop himself, Kai asked. He never once saw her grandmother summoning something. He doesn't even know what her class was. Weird, but the woman had her secrets.
"You can summon more than once, but your core is fragile. It might not be able to handle it and shattered. You know what happens to people with shattered cores, right?"
Kai nodded. They lose their humanity and become an empty shell. However, cores aren't that fragile, or at least this was strong ten thousand years ago. But this wasn't the answer to his question. He lowered his head and looked at the ring in his hand. For some reason, he felt that this anomaly had something to do with the ring.
Soon, questions upon questions filled his mind. He tried his best to ignore it. "May I know when can we have access to the library? I mean… I am interested to know more about the history."
"Booklover, eh?" Yumi gave him a look.
"It's point system. To access the library, you have to be able to create one of the healing potions. One lowest class healing potion is five minutes worth of stay in the lower library."
Kai nodded. He expected some point system and five minutes should be enough for him. His memory is pretty good, and he could easily memorize a book in a few minutes.
"But we are not allowed to create a potion, yet." Yumi burst his bubble. "If we can't create a potion then… does this mean we won't have a way to go to the library?"
"We don't allow it because we think you won't be able to do it. But some people still wanted to try. If you are courageous enough, then let me inform you that any damages incurred in your core will be on you. We won't take any responsibility for any injuries, shattered cores, burns, and whatever it is that would happen. As long as you can create something in your assigned lab, then you can submit it for review anytime. Also… buying a healing potion is extremely expensive and the board would know. So… I suggest you stay away from cheating."
Kai arched an eyebrow but said nothing. He started brewing healing potions two years ago. Brewing the lowest type of potion is something that he could easily do, even if he closed his eyes. He laughed at his own smug self as he thought about the limitations.
Without the ring, he could summon as many mimic mushrooms as long as he had the money to do it. Using the mimic mushroom as an ingredient could make his potion more potent than the normal ones. Even his lowest-class healing potion is comparable to an intermediate rank potion. However, he couldn't just show this to anyone else.
F*ck the laws.
F*ck the limitations.
He hated it.
But he had no choice but to follow it since he wasn't knowledgeable enough about the current world.
"Alright… were here. This is the Mantra. We have two copies. Each of you can have one. It's a bit heavy, so I advise that you don't take it outside. Just keep it here. You can study anytime as long as you memorized everything by the end of the school year. If you won't be able to do that, then the school would have to kick you out." Before anyone could respond, Zoe already added. "We are not the top school in plant summoning, but we don't tolerate stupidity in this school. Either you learn something or you leave."