Antelina furrowed her brows before sighing softly. "That's a joke, right? My country is 5N³ and her country is 1N¹, can you see the difference? Not only is Ariwen the Longevity Child of her family which means she has the entire resources of the country at her disposal, but her country is naturally ahead of mine. But you think I'm more impressive."

Both Ariwen and Antelina came from the northern hemisphere which made their countries 'N', but Ariwen lived on the First World which was designed as '1', which was naturally ahead of the Fifth World which was designed as '5'. Ariwen was also on the first-degree region which was way closer to the water dungeon than Antelina's third-degree region which had less ambient mana and world essence. The difference was clear but he still felt Antelina was somewhat impressive.

"Whatever. Just tell me why you want the class rep position."

"I have already told you the benefits of being a class rep, so why are you still asking? Just answer my question: do you want to be the class rep?"

"After hearing all the benefits I want to."

Antelina smiled. "Thank you for being honest with me. But if you maintain your position until next week, I want you to let me lead the class into the spirit realm."

"Why would I do that?"

Antelina leaned forward and lowered her voice. "Because I can help you get a very powerful spirit companion since my family has already mapped out some areas in the spirit realm."

A tempting offer.

"You want to lead the way in exchange for giving me a spirit?"

She nodded. "Not just any spirit, a powerful spirit."

"I will consider it. Now that we are friends you can surely do me a favor or two." The purpose of the conversation was to ask the former class rep these favors and everything before had been just a way to get there.

Antelina frowned a little. She couldn't turn back now after making her ambition known.

"I want information about all the class members, specifically their names, origin, and skills. Can you provide it?"

"I have it already."

"Good. I also want to know why we don't have a class on bloodlines. Is that because we don't have many bloodline limiters in our class?"

Antelina sighed softly. "Why do I feel I'm losing the bargain already?"

Gaus ignored her question and went on, "I also want to see a demonstration of your watch skill."

"That's unreasonably selfish. You can't possibly expect me to show you my primary skill, do you?"

"I am expecting it as long as you want to lead the team into the spirit realm," Gaus said with a 'friendly' smile.

They stared silently at each other for a whole minute before Antelina harrumphed. "I'll consider it."

"Take your time," he said. "But before you go just tell me why we don't have a class about the various bloodlines."

"It's you that don't have it."

What?

"Okay. This is supposed to be a secret but since you're the class rep now I can tell you. For the few students that have magiwatch skills and the few that have bloodline limits, there's a provision for an extra class where they teach us how to control our skills. Everyone is usually sorted out on admission when they receive their skill book. If you have a magiwatch skill or a bloodline limit they'll introduce you to the elite class, and if you don't have any then you'll never even find out about the class. That's the real reason we don't have a bloodline lecture as a general class. You're usually told that you will learn the dark arts after mastering mana sense and mana taming but the truth is that very few of you will ever manage to master those skills during your stay in the academy. Even if you are to master the skills, they will just test your affinity and tell you it's not enough. Meanwhile, your classmates have been taking secret classes on the dark arts for months or years."

This was a freaking cult.

"Why must they lie?" Gaus asked angrily. "Nothing will happen even if they tell everyone the truth. It isn't as if we can run away or something. Do we even have any other options?"

"You don't actually. And if you've been in the academy for long then you would have known that what I've just told you isn't much of a secret. Most students are already aware of it. I don't even know why the academy still keeps it a secret. Anyway, Raya is waiting for me. I'll consider your offer. See you later..."

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Tell me how they run the classes and.."

She shook her head to interrupt him. "I can't give you the location, don't even ask for it. If by some chance you find us while in the middle of a lecture I'll be in trouble."

"I don't want the location. Just tell me what they teach you. Have you started learning the dark arts? Is that what you are practicing with Raya?"

"It's a mistake telling you that, I don't even know why I did it." She sighed. "Look, we started the dark arts just a few days ago and yes that's what we are practicing with Raya. It's not our fault; the Book Master recognized our skills when he gave us the skill book and he recommended us for the elite class."

Ah. So the robot man giving the skill book was the Book Master.

"Even if you don't have a watch skill or bloodline limit," she went on in an attempt to placate him. "Your affinity for world essence can be considered. If you've affinity of more than 10% in any of the three world essences then you'll be considered. The only problem is that it's considerably difficult to have an affinity for world essence. You can have very high affinities for all the schools, you can even have a magiwatch skill and a bloodline limit, but still have zero affinity for world essence. Having an affinity for world essence makes you closer to nature."

"How can I test my affinity for the world essence?" He asked.

"Er... I don't think that's a good idea," Antelina said with a soft voice. "The shock may be too much for one day. You'll likely be better off not knowing your status when it comes to the world essence."

"I want to know even if it's zero," he said with a stern voice.

Antelina hesitated. She acted just like that when she was advised against testing her affinity for the world essence.

She moved closer to him and took his cold hands into her own. "My mom has 11.4% affinity in mind essence. She is a genius by all standards when it comes to mind magic. My family thought I'll have a high affinity just like her. So when my friend advised me not to test it in front of other people, I refused and went ahead. It was catastrophic. My affinity turned out to be 3.9%. It was still impressive for many other people but not for me. Everyone had their hope in me especially when my brother turned out to be a blazer and I a pacifist. All I'm saying is to take it slow. Don't rush it. Take your time and get over what I've just told you about the secret classes. Later on, you can check it out in private."

She was starting to sound like his grandma.

"Antelina," he yanked his hand away, "tell me how to test my affinity for the world essence."

"Alright. Don't blame me when you face the inevitable. Raya," she called out and the girl hiding behind the tree came out, "test the affinity of our new class rep for world essence."

"Gladly."

Raya retrieved a small box from her inventory. She held his right hand with her left while she opened the box with her right. Suddenly the world around him disappeared and was instantly replaced by darkness. The only light came from a blue panel inside the box.

Mana status: untamed

Mana affinity for time essence: 79.1%

Mana affinity for soul essence: 0.2%

Mana affinity for mind essence: 3.1%

There were three types of world essence: time, soul, and mind. Gaus had a high affinity for time essence contrary to expectations. His affinity for mind essence was low but it was still impressive according to Antelina.

Raya closed the box and the world returned to normal. Her face was a mixture of shock and disbelief.

"Alright," she turned to Antelina, "I told you we shouldn't buy this second-generation tester, it has already broken."

"What? You can't be serious. We've only used it for a couple of times and it's already done for," Antelina shouted in disbelief.

"It's showing some bizarre affinity for time in the range of seventy to eighty," Raya explained, showing the results to Antelina.

Antelina frowned deeply. "It is broken. He would have to give us our money back. Just test me to file the evidence."

Raya tested her. The results came out exactly as they were.

"Huh?"

They tested it three more times but it was still the same.

"Can someone tell me what's going on?" Gaus asked, tired of their drama.

"Gaus, give me your hand," Antelina grabbed his hand without waiting for his consent. She tested it herself. It was still the same at 79.1%.

"Please, tell me your name," Antelina said.

"Gaus Lake. Why?"

"Have you ever experienced any unusual sensations while around trees?"

Gaus didn't know why she was asking these irrelevant questions. "I don't know what you mean by unusual sensations but nothing out of the ordinary ever happened."

"In the woods?"

He shook his head.

"While stepping on leaves?"

"No."

"Do you eat vegetables?"

"Of course, I do."

"How much energy do you get from them?"

"Energy? I don't get any energy from any vegetables. What are you even talking about."

As soon as the Q&A session was done, Antelina tested him again and again until she was sure. Then Raya took over and tested him again. It was still the same.

Raya moved closer to him and lowered her voice to a whisper. "Tell me honestly, have you ever experienced any unusual happenings around you, any at all? Because my uncle who only has an 18.6% affinity for time affected the grasses around his home. They usually grew much taller than normal grasses and had different colors. When I was little, my mom taught me how to play with wood puppets. One day, I sent a puppet to my uncle's house to steal something. Somehow I lost the puppet as soon as it entered the house. I didn't get what happened at the time and it was later on that my mom told me wood puppets didn't work around my uncle. If I wanted to steal from him I had to use another type of puppet. Much later on, I came to realize that not only wood puppets and grasses, but even trees also reacted to my uncle. There's no way you'll have seventy-nine percent affinity and refused to have any control over nature," Raya explained her confusion.

Wood puppets?

Now that he thought about it there were two wood clones following him around according to Tyren. Could it be...? Shit.

"So you are telling me I can subconsciously hijack wood puppets and clones just by being near them like a magnet?" He asked.

"Exactly. We must put it to test now."

Before asking for his permission, Antelina ran to the nearby tree and took a small branch.

"Give me your hand." She grabbed his left arm and tried to stab him.

Just a few inches away from his arm and the stick bent. When she tried to push, it shattered.

Now, that was unexpected.