Those that went on an adventure with Kairos had all found a great many stone eggs in the lair of the Cave Trolls. With the site being close to the Origin of the Land, it is an expected result.

When Snow took out her stone egg, it is only slightly shorter than what Calculus had found but with a fuller girth.

Without properly measuring, it is hard to tell which is bigger. They will need to peel off the limestone to measure which shell is thinner and which spirit ore is of a higher grade.

Calculus pointedly gave Snow a dismissive look, as if telling her that his prize will be better.

The girl huffed and rolled her eyes, whispering under her breath, “Boys are so childish…”

While she did not care to compete, another was eager to take up the challenge. Alan caught everyone’s attention with a loud voice, “HA HA HA! Those stones are nothing, come and see mine!”

Then, with a grand display, he slowly summoned his stone egg from his Time-Space ring. The white rock slowly exited an invisible pocket in the air in a dramatic manner as everyone gasped in unconcealed amazement.

“Whoa, that thing looks huge!”

“Amazing! That’s almost twice as large as the others!”

While Alan had everyone’s complete attention, the shoulder-height stone tumbled heavily onto the ground. By all means, when summoning an item from a Time-Space ring the owner should have perfect control where the object will appear, so dropping it has no other reason than because Alan wished so.

And just he wanted, his stone egg splendidly shook the ground with a thud.

“Whoaaaa! That’s heavy.”

When someone said the thing he wanted to hear, Alan proudly turned his nose upwards, and even more so when the instructor rushed over. Judging by his expression, one would think he is in the midst of attaining ascension.

But, unlike the praise he was expecting, Er Tian shook his head, and spoke as if to console, “Ahhh… As I thought… this stone egg made a pretty bad sound. Unless it contains a wind elemental or anti-gravity ore, shouldn’t it be much heavier?

Anyway boy, we wouldn’t know until you crack it open, but don’t keep your hopes up okay?”

Alan stared at him wide-eyed, “Eh? It’s light…?”

“About half of what it should be from the sound I’ve heard.”

There was an instant disappointment on his face, but as though finishing him off, Kairos snuck over and whispered in his ears, “The spirit ore within is only a quarter size. Heh Heh… Trust me, I can tell.”

“Trust you…? Whaaaaa…!”

Leaving a dazed Alan by himself, the others laughed and carried on bringing out their own stone eggs.

His best buddy Jim, someone whom he can entrust his life with, valiantly betrayed him and proudly shouted, “Don’t bother about that failure. Come look at what I found!”

He summoned his stone egg in the same manner as Alan, and this time, the white stone surface that exited from his Time-Space ring is nearly three times larger than Alan’s.

“Whoa! Just how big is that?”

“Huuugee… that’s huge! Did they dig into a treasure trove to gather so many?”

Unfortunately, before the students had more time to be in awe, they heard a loud pop, and the stone fell out onto the ground with a sad display.

While it is longer than Alan’s shoulder-height prize by nearly three times, it is also very slender, making it look like a long pole.

“Isn’t it impressive? Even the shape is already perfect for a sword or a pole! Haha!”

There was a moment of absolute silence after they heard Jim declare that, then everyone burst out laughing.

“Ummm, Jim,” Snow whispered, “You do know that no matter what shape the spirit ore is found in, we will need to melt it down to take out its impurities…?”

“Ahh! Is that so?”

“And,” Edward added with a laugh, “What made you think that thin and long is bigger? Hahaha. Your spirit ore will be barely worth a knee height stone egg in weight.”

“No way! My stone egg is heavier, right?”

“You didn’t know the edges of the stone egg are all limestone? Stone eggs with too much surface area don’t have much space for the spirit ore.”

The betrayer Jim joined Alan’s side, and the two stood face down with evident disappointment.

Kairos gave Edward a grin, and like a signal, the latter took out his own stone egg.

It was the biggest Edward found. Although only at knee height, it is doubtlessly bigger than the ones found by Alan and Jim.

The archer patted his friends on their back, saying ‘nice try guys’ and the two shrunk further.

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Even the seniors and the lecturer laughed, despite most of them secretly surprised at the lack of basic knowledge that the two boys displayed.

However, before anyone could dwell on that thought, Kairos copied the way his friends summoned their stone eggs, each person more dramatic than the one before. Unlike the others, he found only one, however, it is at a scale unmeasurably larger than the others.

“What the heck is that…!”

There was a roar of surprise from the crowd, but the ones that were the most staggered were his friends that dug it out.

A carriage-sized stone egg such as this is extremely rare, and if the spirit ore within is high-quality, it will cause a lot of unnecessary attention and jealousy.

Even Alucard and Calculus had supposed that Kairos would keep his find until he could privately pry it open, but Kairos no longer wished to tarry. He will reveal their strength today; A declaration that they will take the world by storm!

With a tremendous cloud of dust, the stone egg lands on the ground with a solid thud.

This is Kairos, no, Snowdrifts’ announcement that they will no longer operate behind a veil of secrecy. Of course, many things must remain hidden out of safety, like the existence of the Origin Energy, their ability to use rudimentary magic, their hoard of treasures and the divine dragons residing in his manor’s basement.

Everyone crowded around his prize. Such a find is the biggest in the last decade, and even the old miners who saw it from far curiously came over.

With so many onlookers surrounding them, the instructor asked the students to crack open their stone eggs carefully. The elites from Saint Cadets Academy must not become a laughingstock.

“Oei, Old Tian, you’re not going to sell those? If some crappy spirit stones come out, it’d be too late for you to regret,” a soot-covered miner yelled good-humouredly from the side.

“Let them. I have a feeling that this time the spirit ores will make all of you green with envy. Haha!”

“Well, it’s your loss, I’ll pay a pretty coin for a few of them,” said the man while licking his lips. The gambling instinct in their blood is what caused the miners to stay in this sunless cave all month long.

Er Tian, unfortunately no better than any of them, laughed and shook his head, “Old chap, don’t try this on me again. The last time I sold you some, the principal nearly nagged my ears off.”

When these stones are mined, they can be sold to stone gambling shops without breaking them open, but the price they receive will only be around half the usual market rates. Because of this, some gamblers go directly to those with freshly extracted stone eggs and offer a little bit more than the shops.

The stone gambling businesses frequently grumble about this, but none of them are big enough to police the place and can only turn a blind eye.

In any case, these under-table transactions are usually too small to affect the industry, and no one can guarantee there could be real trust between individuals.

When a seller finds out that the gambler had uncovered a real valuable spirit ore within, even best friends may turn into enemies. Few men could stay indifferent after they cheaply sell a stone egg that is found to worth a fortune. Thanks to this, people continued turning to the shops that offer a low rate when selling in bulk and gamblers still patron the shops.

For the same reasons, the Academy strongly forbade Er Tian from selling any more stone eggs to those miners. Besides, the students need to learn how to open their own finds.

Under Er Tian’s inspection, everyone started chipping off the shells of their stone eggs, but the instructor did not have to teach these newbies how to break open the limestone shells without damaging the ores within.

With veteran miners surrounding them with anticipation and carefully observing every move they make, whenever there was the slightest blunder made, the crowd couldn’t help but give advice.

Many treated the students unreservedly as though these were their own children, especially since the children are between thirteen to sixteen years old and similar age to their own kids.

Despite their apparent embarrassment, Er Tian stood nearby laughing heartily whenever someone was reprimanded, “Good, good! Scold them more, then they will remember it by heart. Hahaha!”

No one knows if it was because of the constant nagging, the strangers watching or because the students had outdone themselves, but everyone quickly became proficient in deshelling the stones.

As the spirit ores started to be uncovered, the miners will come close to the stone eggs. If it was an ore which leaks energy, they have to cover it with their Ki quickly. Then, right after the entire shell is removed, the spirit ore must be wrapped up by a specially prepared transparent sheet. As for ores that give off aggressive energy or radiates harmful substances that could penetrate the flimsy coverings, they must be contained by air-tight Old Ice Jade boxes.

All of these items are, of course, kept in Er Tian’s Time-Space ring.

The average stone eggs that were found by the students were small and easy to be extracted, and they finished their work first.

The more troublesome ones are the bigger stone eggs. With a small accident, they could spoil a valuable, treasured spirit ore contained within, and everyone observed carefully to ensure that every part of the process is meticulously, and perfectly, done.

When the student with the first knee-height stone egg had trembling hands, the miners from the side lost their patience and grabbed the carving chisels from him and forcefully took over.

The student lowered his head unhappily, being helped means that he would lose a lot of marks for this course, but because he also feared to lose a valuable treasure he could only keep silent as they broke apart the stone egg for him.

Surprisingly, unlike what Er Tian had guessed, it was not a depleted spirit ore. The shell around it was rather thin, making the extraction work extra difficult. When the miners, after some strenuous efforts, broke it open for him, a large, dull grey, wind elemental ore was revealed. Surrounding it were wispy grey smoke that spiralled yet never dissipating.

An Unending Dust Ore.

With wind being its controlled domain, it is lighter than usual and highly sought-after because of its ability to safely enclose and confine all kinds of gases like a natural storage box, or a partition against poisonous fumes. Because of its stable composition, even when there was a flaw in the shell during its formation, no energy dissipated into the air and the size of this thing was worth a prime piece of land if sold.

It is indeed a valuable treasure.

The male student widened his eyes in disbelief and cried out uncontrollably. As one of the few commoners that managed to make it within the Academy because of his natural talent, he is only a poor student.

Depending solely on himself, he had been rather unremarkable amongst his classmates. Living an almost unnoticed life, even his name was plain.

Toprak, which means the earthen soil. It was something that those around openly laughed at him for being so old-fashioned and dull, but it was a name he held proudly.

“Toprak…”, his late grandfather would say, “I gave you this name for you to remember no matter how far you go, never forget the earthen soil you stand on and stay humble.”

Others in his situation would join a large sect or swore themselves into a noble family. However, he did not even tried to enter the Snowdrifts, a guild that is famously filled with commoners, and instead earned a living as a mere errand boy for his schoolmates.

As the only child in his family, he could not do so. If a sect or a noble house ask a servant to give up their lives, no matter how much complains one has one will still die. Of course, any sacrifice made will be repaid, and the victim's family will be better off, otherwise who will dare to be part of a clan?

Unfortunately, his own old mother’s heart could not bear to lose him, so how could he join any risky factions?

No doubt, this stone egg is his turning point and had completely changed his future.