Chapter 35: Entering the Junior Academy of the Gifted (2)

The man who was projected smiled as he looked down, as though he really was up in the sky looking down upon us. He then opened his mouth to speak, causing the earlier shrill from the crowd to die down.

"Every decade, yes, every ten years, it fills my heart with joy to know that more Gifted cultivators would be joining the great Gifted Academies from all over the world. This year is the allotted day for the Junior Academy of the Gifted, an academy I founded first, before my other two academies, exactly a millennium ago. I am the Old Academy Autarch, or as some prefer to call me, Founder.

"Sadly, we'll have to part with the former set to let in this new set. The graduation ceremony of the former decade-old students has already taken place, and they'll all be departing tomorrow, as has been decided here in the headquarter. Some had chosen to pursue business, while others have decided to advance further into the Intermediate Academy of the Gifted.

"When this school was first established, it was created with just one objective; and that is to help the Gifted excel even the more by focusing in one — or several — professions.

"Several million years ago, our ancestors discovered that they could cultivate after successfully discovering a way to create another dimension in the earth. Because of how they were neglected by other humans due to their Gifted abilities, they worked hard in fabricating billions of formations, and successfully, they were able to create what we know as our world.

"Although this dimension they created is still part of the Earth, it was well-guarded by faithful of these ancestral brothers. Those guardians came to be what we all know as the Guardians. Till date, their legacy has been passed down over many, many generations to the safety of you and I.

"To end every of their businesses with the activities of the humans, the ancestral Gifted decided to all retreat to live in this dimension which they then named, Planet Arerat, which they interpreted, 'Planet of the Gifted'. In it, different continents have been established that has soared far more stronger than the human world ever could.

"Today, several hundreds of races are moving back to the realistic Earth in order to give birth to children and live normal lives... which is not so bad. But there's no hiding that by the age of twelve, a Gifted one would awaken. Due to their not living in the Arerat, they might even develop a unique constitution which might evolve to something even far more powerful after going through the ritual of crossing the Gateway of the Gifted.

"Legends have it, that the ancestral Gifted had first appeared at this Gateway of the Gifted, and together, they sacrificed their lives and Gifts in order to provide the global spiritual energy that now exists in the air, for you and I to cultivate with. Did their sacrifice go to the sewers? Not at all! Today, not only do we have special gifts, we also can cultivate!

"Sadly, however, we did have a little problem. The Demon tribe who had been trapped in their own dimensions for years finally rose when the Arerat was established. The spiritual energy was very magnetic, and they found a way to cross over to our continents. Because this Arerat was a gateway to the main part of the universe, they sought to take advantage of this and find a way to overpower us, so that they could rule the universe. Hence, the need for Gifted cultivators were necessary.

"During my generation, we suffered lots of casualties on our part, in this never-ending war. I then saw the need to create this academy. Junior Academy of the Gifted, established to prepare young cultivators under the age of twenty who are best amongst the best of their peers. My brothers and I were personally trained by the third generation of ancestors, and we were all able to acquire in-depth knowledge in all nine professions of the Phantom Dynasty continent. Successfully, I established the nine guilds of the Junior Academy of the Gifted.

"Know this, that your entrance into this great academy is proof that you're destined to be great stars in the vast sky. You'll be nurtured to the best of our abilities! These teachers are the best among best of teachers we've selected from the Acorn Valley. If you're able to best the others, one... or probably two... of you, would be able to be promoted into the Intermediate Academy of the Gifted, over at the Dwindling Mountains kingdom, in less than a year! Tests would be given, near-death challenges would be encountered, but these are to prepare you for the ongoing war against the Demon tribe. Humans and demi-humans all have this responsibility! One more thing — be vigilant! You only have yourself to trust and rely on! I look forward to seeing today's batch in the nearest future. Principals, please proceed on to do your thing. Happy learning age, everyone!"

'Swoosh!'

After the historical and introductory panegyric, the handsome academy founder's face dissipated into thin air, as though it'd never been there some minutes ago.

Looking around, I saw the agitation burning in the eyes of the newly enrolled Gifted, and the pride in the eyes of the decade-old former students. I turned my attention back to the nine principals and read the great reverence in their eyes for Founder. They shook out of their daze, momentarily, then turned their attentions back to the crowd, letting everyone the chance to take their time with digesting all that had been said.

Principal Dongwu of the Beast Guild then took a step forward.

He gave a short speech, that seemed more of an advise, than an instruction, before ordering the teachers and some other management staffs to lead us to a hall not too far off called Hall of Apprehension. We were each registered formally into the academy, before given Academy Tokens which had our names carved on each. It was much more beautiful that the Acorn Master's Beast Hall's jade token.

It felt cold in my hand. There was a depression in the middle of the token that fitted well to one's grip. Unlike the token I was used to, this well-carved Academy Token could only be used the same way a storage ring is used, in the sense that one's blood essence had to be dripped onto it to claim it for oneself. After claiming it through this process, I felt a telepathic connection between it. It felt much warmer in my hand this time.

We were asked to send our spiritual consciousness into our Academy Tokens if we wanted to find any of the important locations within the school building. Sending my consciousness in for testing, I saw the layout of the whole academy and couldn't help but be baffled. It truly was impressive. Through it, I got the direction of my assigned dormitory, and my room. I retrieved my keys and uniforms from the Hall of Apprehension, as well, and my monthly allowance, in addition to some other stuffs I gained as a result of my position as first place in the Beast Tamers entrance test. I was too excited to even go through them, and just stowed them away into my storage ring and ran for my dormitory. I was asked to go to the school cafeteria in three hours time. I smirked. At least, meal seemed to be on a punctual rotation.

I totally forgot about those weird principals and headed to the dormitory. It was just behind the Hall of Apprehension. However, the buildings were so long that it converged from East to West.

In a very short walk, I arrived before the grand dormitories. They were lettered A to I in total. I began to wonder if everything just had to be nine in numbers.

At the moment, I was in front of Dormitory E, and my assigned dormitory was still far off West, in Dormitory A. Shaking my head, hands akimbo, the words of an ancient writer appeared in my mind: "Beast Tamers are not known for trekking."

That being said, I summoned my buddy, Roy, from my recluse ring and soared quickly to Dormitory A. Today was quite busy. Both air and land were covered with people.

"You finally got in, Steph, I knew you could do it!" Roy said as we advanced forward. His voice really held pride.

I smiled, and thought for a moment how I should respond. Finding no words, I rubbed Roy's head, making it to smile broadly.

The bird's view of this academy was just awesomazing! My eyes couldn't even reach the boundary of the academy. This was definitely a city inside a city. It should have been named Academy City, in my own opinion. It was little wonder why the main city was so populated. Everyone wanted to live close to the beautiful gates of the academy.

"Drop over there."

"Mmm."

Roy lowered its wings and found a suitable landing spot.

"A mutated savage beast? Interesting. This school really is amusing."

I turned my head around to see a feminine about fifteen to sixteen. She held tightly to a wand as though it'd fly off. She had a pair of spectacles on her nose. Nothing else looked notable apart from her rich-looking dress, and... gosh... those hills. And she wasn't anything like the Asian faces I'd now gotten used to. She could have been an actual Cinderella, with that perfect figure.

"Yeah," I said, awkwardly. I wanted to ask how she knew this, but held myself back. "I'm Stephanie."

She stretched forth her hand, "I'm Jessica."

Receiving her hand, I found out that she'd intertwined my gloved fingers with some form of thaumaturgy. She laughed and said, "You're lucky you met me first. Take my advice, Steph, never blindly shake a thaumaturgist."

She then let off the spell and smiled cutely.

I flexed my wrists and smiled shyly, "Well... thanks."

"No qualms, mate. Dormitory A as well?"

I nodded, then added, "Room 1."

She smiled broadly and pushed a fist into the air with a "yeah!". There was a ripple in the air, because her cultivation wasn't reined in, so I could tell she was also in the pinnacle stage of Transcendent Mortal realm.

"Roomies!" she exclaimed, giving me an awkward motherly hug.

'Wait... what?!'