Time moved on and I spent my days with grandma, enjoying her meals and learning under her tutelage. I even got a job as a herbalist, this village didn't have it's own pharmacist so it was easy for me to take over as a herbalist making medicine. At first people didn't trust me, but after grandma gave her guaranty that my stuff worked people started to trust me. I guess grandma's words hold a lot of weight in the village. I used what I had learned in my past life to make basic medicine, there where plenty of herbs that grew along the village. Even some rare ones that should be a bit expensive grew in excess around the village. People around the village appreciated me, but my terrible small talk made it hard for me to get any friends.
Grandma also told me about her life, she told me she was a general of the Empires army. She told me about how there was a old war or something. I liked grandma but I couldn't care less about war, I hated it and even the word itself. "Hey grandma, when can I leave the village?" I asked abruptly interrupting her stories of war. "Huh? leave the village? Why would you do that?" Grandma asked a bit surprised.
"I can't stay here making herbs forever grandma, there's a whole world out there. I can't live my life living in this small village, I want to go out and experience all kinds of things. I want to go out and start my own traveling massaging business!" After living in this new world I had decided how I wanted to live this life. I didn't want to be tied down to one place anymore, I wanted to leave this nest and go out doing what I love. "Ugh, Zion that's a very.... interesting goal. How do you expect to do that? You know how dangerous it is for a male to go out alone, what if you get kidnapped?" Her worried expression made my heart melt a bit. I loved grandma and didn't want her to worry about me but at the same time I refused to live out this new life in constant fear. "Grandma, I know it'll be dangerous but I can't live this life to its full potential in this small village. I'd rather risk the kidnapping than be limited by my fear."
We where at an impasse, I wanted to live my life freely and grandma wanted me to live my life safely. We didn't talk about it after that, but a few days later grandma called me over. "Zion, I understand your side and I know that I cannot hold you here forever. So I've come up with a compromise, if you can prove to me that you can handle yourself then I will have nothing against you leaving the village." I was happy that she would at least allow me to try and prove myself. Even if she couldn't hold me from leaving, I was more than happy to prove myself so that she could rest easy knowing I could handle myself. "Okay, so how can I prove that I'm ready?"
She swiftly pulled out a yellow envelope with a red wax seal on it. "You must get accepted and graduate from Golden Sprout Academy!" Although she had a serious look on her face, and yelled as if it was a big deal.. "Uh grandma, what's Golden Sprout Academy?". Grandma suddenly faced palmed, forgetting that she didn't teach me about the Academy. "Ahem- It is an extremally prestigious academy that only accepts the best of the best. Not even a queen can force their way in if they don't pass the entrance exam. Just getting a chance to participate in the entrance exam is difficult." Grandma said with a huge smile on her face. "This seems a little unfair grandma!" No it seemed very unfair, it felt like every odd was stacked against me here. "This is how your life will be if you leave the village, I'd say it's perfectly fair!" Grandma crossed her arms and gave me a smug smile. "Fine then! I'll go to this stupid academy and graduate with flying colors!" I said, no matter what I needed to leave the village, and going to this academy could prove to be useful in growing stronger.
It was decided, on the day I turned eighteen I would leave to go to the Empire. In the meantime grandma's training only got harder. She told me I needed to at least be able to cultivate if I wanted to have a chance of passing the entrance exam. I barely got any sleep, I woke up early for morning training, left mid day for my job as a herbalist and came back to night training. Only having one rest day to recover. It was bad, but not worst than having to live out the rest of my life in a village. On the day I turned twelve I was given another birthday.
"Huh, grandma what is this?" I was holding a old paper scroll wrapped with red silk. "It's a class awakener. With it there's a chance to awaken a class lying dormant in your body. Although it's rare to awaken, and even rarer to get a good class." Grandma then showed my her palm, small blue lettering appeared on her hand [Soldier]. "I have a common awakened class, it improves my talent with spears and swords. It also allows me to learn sword and spear techniques easier. You can level up a class by gaining experience. How to get experience depends on what class you are, as a soldier I get experience by beating enemies with my sword. Leveling up allows you to get skills. "
"Classes are also ranked, the lower the rank the more common and less powerful it will be. From least to greatest the rankings go iron, bronze, copper, silver, and gold. My solider class is bronze rank. Ranks are decided by how useful and powerful a class is, so even my bronze class is still considered to be better than a copper ranked maid class." After that heft explanation, Zion gave a nod and unrolled the scroll. He then activated it by chanting its magical worlds.
[Class Unlocked, System activated]
'hmmm?' A familiar blue box appeared in front of Zion's face, slightly shocking him.
[Class given by System: Platinum masseur]
'HMMMMMMM? Platinum? that isn't even on the rankings!'