"Professor, I read in books that Dragons, Phoenixes, and some other beasts are called Divine beasts instead of elemental beasts. And they also can morph into humans and also talk like humans. Is it true?"

On a typical day, in a usual classroom, a naive-looking boy's voice rang out.

It was the Elemental Beast Biology class I was attending. Unlike Rune Arts class, I wasn't feeling lonely as Jacob also took this subject. And, not to mention the professor was a funny and friendly guy who won't let you feel bored. After a few classes, all of his students got along with him pretty well.

And in today's class, the first question our Professor of Biology, Mr. Dickenson asked was- "Which elemental beast interests us most?''

Not so surprisingly, everyone's answer was Dragons. They were known as the strongest creatures out there, and also had a nickname of 'Walking Disasters'. As he was talking about the elemental beast Dragon, one guy asked such a silly question.

Mr. Dickenson paused for a moment before he burst into laughter.

"Hahaha….ah, Hahaha...hahaha."

The poor boy could only look at his figure, laughing like a maniac.

His laughter echoed in the silent classroom for a while before subsiding.

"Sorry, got carried away. Hahaha. Boy, before I answer your doubts, let's play a game. Truth or Dare? "

"Umm...Truth, sir." The boy spoke in a confused tone.

"Huh, no fun. Now, the book you are talking about, don't tell me it was a fantasy novel."

[There are light novels in this world too, you know!]

The boy answered hesitantly,

"Umm, I don't know, sir. I read it when I was a little kid."

"No, you are lying. I am pretty sure you are talking about that novel where a dragon morphed into a hot woman and falls in love with the main character."

"No, sir. I am telling the truth. I really read it in a children's book."

"Then you are saying I am the liar here?"

"Of course not, professor. How can you be a liar? I am the liar, sir. "

Well, it looked like the Professor was having fun bullying the poor boy, while the boy was already on the verge of crying.

After teasing the poor guy, Mr. Dickenson laughed as he directed at the class,

"It's surprising that even in this age, people have this notion. But sorry to disappoint you, you aren't getting any hot dragon lady as your wife. So, be satisfied with your human partner in the future. And about the context behind the story of a dragon morphing into a human, let's find out."

"In ancient times, Dragons and phoenixes practically ruled the ground and sky as these creatures were born blessed with strong elemental affinity. Their affinity also made them take place on top of the food chain. In short, they were the strongest beasts our ancestors ever met, even after humans started practicing origin art."

The students nodded as everyone knew this.

"Until the birth of our first Human Elemental Manipulator. An Elemental Manipulator could manipulate all the fire elements of his surroundings at will, like the strongest Fire dragons. That was a terrifying power to be wielded by humans. People of that era believed that a human couldn't possess such power. Thus, they took him as a fire dragon that has morphed into a human, even after that poor fire manipulator's refusal. People didn't even leave his children alone and started calling them 'Inheritor of the Dragon bloodline'- These were all written in personal diary. And this misconception is seasoned in multiple spices by authors in their writings from the ancient eras. I mean, you need to have some common sense to live. How can a 20 meters tall creature reduce itself to 2 meters? This sheer idea is ridiculous. So, I believe no one will ever mention this stupid notion again."

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Professor sure talked like a Folklore major degree holder, not Biology, fulfilling our curiosity with legends and stories. But, my roommate Jacob had a different kind of curiosity.

"Sir, what would you have asked him to do if he picked 'Dare'?"

Others became curious too. And he replied with a mischievous smile on his face, "Let's see, to release the list of all naughty books he read, I guess,"

Listening to this, the naive guy started to sweep his cold sweats with a napkin.

"Looks like he had a rich collection." I chuckled.

"Okay, back to our main topic. Elemental beasts are beasts with strong elemental affinity. But, their affinity awakens, only after their body grows enough to form an origin core unlike humans, who awaken their affinity first."

This made me confused. Elemental beasts awaken after forming their cores! Then what's the purpose of the core before it wields elements?

I raised my hand, "Professor, how can they form their core without awakening affinity? And what's the use of forming a core then? So that they can wield pure Origin energy to empower themselves? Or, does their core work in a different way than ours?"

Mr, Dickenson asked me in reverse, "What's your name, boy?"

"Arian, sir.."

"Ok Aryan, did you forget about Aadavan's legend?"

"No, professor."

"Then you must remember the details carefully. If you do, you will discover why Aadhavan is considered one of the greatest minds of humankind. While people of that age used beasts origin core as some round shape rare delicacy, Aadavan reverse-engineered the process of creating the core and successfully implemented it on a human body!"

"That mean it's a natural process to form the core before awakening?" I asked.

"Yes, and ours is not natural as the world didn't intend to give us origin core naturally. But we reverse engineered nature's process to form it."

I was enlightened! I didn't even think about this issue previously. Why didn't humans form the core before Aadavan? Why did only Aadhavan become a legend- not someone else? The answer was simple. It was our mindset that was limiting our potential. But, Aadavan used the best inborn weapon humans had-"His brain", instead of some weapons made of stone and wood.

"I understand. Thank you for answering."

But Professor wasn't finished yet,

"Little Aryan, don't you find it's unfair that the world gave the beast core but didn't give us? Before Aadavan, we served as food for those beasts for thousands of years. Moreover, as the human's Origin core doesn't form naturally, our cultivation is slower and harder than those beasts. They can just- eat, drink, sleep and have the same level of strength as us!"

I answered after thinking for some time.

"I don't think so, sir."

"Why is that?"

"Well, Humans have the ability to think but, they have a weak physical body as limitations. And beasts don't have such analytic minds as humans, that's their limitation too. So we can say, humans and elemental beasts excelled in separate fields. That's nature's way of balancing."

I felt nostalgic as I remembered that memorable rabbit incident in my life. I couldn't even hurt them much before forming my core. After forming the core, the whole rabbit colony became a plaything to me. If humans were given core naturally and could cultivate like the beasts, we would have already wiped out other creatures in this world. I would have thought of it as a good thing if this was the previous me. But after discovering purpose in everything in this world, my whole worldview has changed.

"Oh! Nature's way of balancing, that's an interesting way to put it. Nature is unkind, but mostly- it's impartial. You surprised me, Aryan. Quite a mature way of thinking."

Mr. Dickenson told me to sit down and continued, while the whole class looked at me with a prying gaze.

"But these creatures weren't like this all the time. Otherwise, we humans would have been wiped clean by them before Aadavan could even create his origin art. They also evolved for billions of years and created such complex biodiversity that can make anyone confused."

His teaching gave me a different idea.

'Doesn't that mean humans are just failures who failed to evolve in a way that could form the origin core naturally? So, that's why he didn't say my answer was right, just that my way of thinking was interesting. This case has nothing to do with nature's way of doing things! We are the ones who failed to evolve and had to approach the artificial way.'

Professor's voice rang out,

"To make it simple, battle academies classified them based on their element, growth, and equivalent battle prowess to Elementalist. Other academies also use different classifications, and we don't need to know about those. The elemental beast's battle prowess roughly depends on their core and the grade of their body that channels elemental energies. We divide them into Infant, Youngling, Mature beast, Adult beast, Elder beast, and the Beast King, respectively, based on their core's development. I will talk about their body grades later."

The lecturer carried on, scribbled on the board, describing different beast tribes, their living conditions, and their food habits. Only after teaching to his heart's content, did our passionate teacher stop.

Jacob whispered in my ears, "I think the teacher needs to slow down a little bit from the next class."

I agreed too. There were way too many pieces of information to handle in one class. The complex biodiversity of elemental beasts made this subject also complex. In this one class, I have learned more than I learned in 16 years of my life!