Mr Silva left the podium to carry on his other works. Students also started leaving one by one as the headmaster left. We also stood up to leave. Just before that, a group of 4 approached us. One of them addressed me

"Hey Veda, are you interested in the soul beasts?"

I looked at him and shook my head "Those are not my preferences. Most of them are not even on my list of possible beasts. I prefer dual elementals as my primo. So, if you are worried, I would snatch one of them. You don't have to."

"Thanks, we were worried you'd ask for one. If you had asked the school would've given you priority. We were thinking of giving it to those among us who have scored a lower capacity rating. What do you think?"

"That's great. I applaud that decision. People with higher capacity will have more beasts to select from later. Also, I think they could get it faster via beast tamer guild. I suggest you guys also take the poor guys into consideration first along with their capacity get priority over rich and low capacity."

"We'll keep that in mind. Most of us have backed out and some of us have already contacted people to get our soul beasts. So, most of us don't even lose anything. You could contact him if you have any soul beast requests" he pointed to a guy in their group. He was looking like a nouveau roturier or newly rich. "His parents have a beast farm in a nearby village". He waved at me and I wave back.

"Sure, will do. I got something to do. So, see you guys later"

I bid farewell to them and moved towards the room they said soul beads were evaluated. There was a small queue. But it was moving at great speed, soon it was my turn. I was accompanied by Oli, Muni & Jani.

There was a man with spectacles and a huge grin. He looked at me and said "Please state your name and put your soul bead on the table for verification"

"Veda Ambu," I said as I put the soul bead on the table. He held the soul bead with a pair of tongs and held it towards an apparatus with a magnifying glass on top of it and a needle in the middle. The needle touched the soul bead and made a hissing sound. The guys turned the soul bead while looking under the magnifying glass. He then poured a drop of a liquid on the bead. It hissed lightly and turned brown for a moment before flowing down. He wiped the bead and placed it back on the table.

"It's an armoured ape with earth elemental affinity," he said "Do you wish to keep it or exchange it. There are two or three people who had requested this kind of beast in the association. So, if you want, we can find you a buyer. You could get up to 80 silvers."

I breathed along with 3 others' '80 Silvers, that's a lot of money.' But I shook my head and said "Thank you, but I have already promised someone to give it."

He said okay and waved us to move.

Oli had a worried expression and told me "80 silvers is a lot of money; you should sell it. I can get some other soul bead from the next room"

I shook my head again "Why, I told you if you like it and it's good for you then you can have it. From the sound of it, it seems to be a great choice. Let's ask the teacher what are its available skill and if we don't find any useful skills then we can sell this. Do you know any of its skills?"

Oli shook her head. But someone from behind said "I know"

We turned our heads to look at the energetic guy with a big smile and curious gaze. It was Gaja Vidvan. He was known for his love for beasts and knowledge about them. He was one of the few who didn't get what they wanted. He was someone who wanted to be an aatma user. But he has mana proficiency what makes this worse is the fact that he does not even have an affinity with aatma. He was one of the rare ones that got the opposite of what they wanted. But he doesn't seem to be too shaken by that matter.

"If I may, I can tell you about them. The armour chested apes, also known by other names such as Armoured apes, stick-wielding apes or gatkapi, it's a local name, is a kind of ape that is seen mainly on the border of the Rathi kingdom and most of the Jabla kingdom. They are also seen on the Paripatra kingdom borders." He paused and looked at us then continued.

"They are huge apes with the lowest being 4 feet to the highest being 7 and a half feet. They are fearless guys who could be seen fighting beasts that are even bigger than themselves like the Pterosaurs Lizard which are around 14 feet on average. Their name stick-wielding ape is derived from their fighting style which involves using a stick or stick-like equipment made out of stones or metal. They are usually seen with earth or Metal element affinity. But rare cases are seen with wind and water affinity." He took a breath and then continued looking at Oli.

"Considering how good Oli is with spear this is the ideal soul beast for her. Its skills like armour body, twisting swing, cleave hit, thrust, fast hands, heavy twist, head breaker, etc. are all skills that a spear user could use with ease and will love to have as a spear master. If you ever think of a soul beast that you should merge it is this beast. It's like you are the beast" he was ready to go full-on about how perfect this beast is for Oli but was interrupted by Muni's laughter.

"HA HA HA HA, Oli, this, this is what you call karma. Yesterday what did you say about my choice of maned bartaffe. I look like it and act like it, wasn't it? Now you got an ape, that too a spear master ape. It's all fate you know, fate" he was laughing his butt off. Oli smacked his head hard and hmphed. Gaja stopped his explanation to see what was happening, he had a confused look. I was smiling lightly as well as Jani who had bigger laughter than me.

"Thanks, Gaja that was godsend info. You are going to study at university, right?" I said to him.

"Ah, yes, I will be going to Gokar University at the border of Rathi and Kindha kingdoms. They have a course on beast research. I think it will be my best bet" he was about to say more about it but I jumped before that and asked Oli.

"So, Oli you are taking this right. From what Gaja said this one is perfect for you" I said while stifling a laugh seeing Oli's face. Muni was still laughing on the side. Oli's face had turned a dark shade you don't see often.

"Don't" she raised her finger at me and swung it to and fro. "Don't push it"

"Okay, okay, so you are taking it." I put my hand around her shoulder in a half hugging form. She smacked my hands of off her.

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"Don't think that I will forget this and yes, I am taking it. And you traitor, why are you laughing, especially at this stupid's joke" she turned to Jani who still had a small laugh.

"It was kind of ironic and funny, you know," Jani said.

"Your laugh just fuels this idiot," she said pointing her fingers at Muni.

"You should know how to take a joke Oli," Muni said controlling his laugh for a bit.

"You should remember those words, you idiot" she snorted at him and started walking out of the school while dragging Jani along with her. I also pulled Muni out of the school building and started walking.

"So, what are we going to do for 6 months," I asked everyone as we exited the building.

Muni looked at me with a weird smile and said "How about this. Jani said she wants to study at Taxila or Nalandha. Nalandha has 1st test among the universities and Taxila comes very soon, Naga and Kaanch are in the middle. So, start a journey from our village to Nalandha. Let's travel the maximum distance then we can take teleportation if necessary. This journey will also help us decide whether to go on and be an adventurer for life or go to a university then do whatever we want."

We all looked to Jani at the same time. She was in thought with an uncertain expression then said "I don't know. I would love to do that. Let me discuss it with my parents before coming to a conclusion. If I could convince them then we could have a great journey"

I looked at Oli, who looked at me and said "You were always ready for the trip, so we could just get up and go. We can look into universities later. Our objective was always been an adventure"

I nodded "Yeah, let's do that. Hey Jani, do you want us to come and convince your parents?"

"No, you guys coming now might make his decision making a bit slower. My father is unpredictable most of the time. So, if you came, the chances of him agreeing are not any better than me doing it alone. If I am unsuccessful, you guys can come and try"

We nodded and continued our walk towards the alchemy store of Mrs Silva. All of us needed powdered elemental essence. You can buy it from almost all the alchemy stores as well as the alchemy association. But the cost of purchase from the alchemy association is a tad bit higher than buying it from other stores. Moreover, when it came to buying from stores Mrs Silva had the best price to quality. Other than that Alchemy association has a long number of procedures and steps for every purchase. For a simple thing like elemental essence powder, nobody is willing to go through all that. The average cost of elemental essence was about 4 or 5 bronze a bottle. So, why bother with all the procedures.

As we entered the shop, the doorbell rang 'ting, ting'

We walked inside the long shop. There was a lady sitting on the left side of the door. That was the payment counter. She was smiling at the person who just bought something and was paying. She was addressing him with the warmest smile you could see a person give. We walked past them and moved inside the shop. We walked to the counter that was free in the back. There was a seller who was free, and we knew him. His name was Saul. He was Mr and Mrs Silva's distant cousin from the neighbouring town. His talent and capacity were not very high. So, he asked Mr and Mrs Silva if he could help them around the shop. You could see him running around the village carrying services from Mr Silva to Mrs Silva. Furthermore, he was very friendly with everyone. He is also married to a girl from my neighbourhood. So, he was kind of my neighbour.

"Heyya, guys are ya here for the elemental essence," he asked seeing us.

"YES" we replied almost shouting simultaneously.

"So, which essences do you require?" he asked.

"Oli needs earth and I need earth, water, dark and fauna," I said.

"You two don't need anything?" he asked Muni and Jani.

"Our family have procured more than enough for both of us." Muni was the one that replied.

"Oh, by the way, why do you want 4? Are you maybe buying for someone else?" He asked me.

"Nope, I'm an aatma user and I have 4 affinities. But I haven't found a suitable beast to make a pact with. So, I'm buying all four so that I can use them when I find 1. You can't expect a beast to stand still until you buy your elemental essence or take an egg and not let it hatch for a long period of time." I said.

"Oh, so, which type of beast are you looking for?" he asked me.

"Haven't decided any. Have to look at the beast taming guild. But I prefer to have a dual element beast if possible. Also, I have a huge bias toward dark elements being my primo's element. Hiding or shadow merging or something along the lines in their repertoire would be an instant sell to me."

"Hmmm." he looked at me and started contemplating something and after some time said "Could you wait for a few moments. I'll be right back," he said that and went to Mrs Silva who was counting coins and writing something. Saul leaned on to her and told her something. He then looked at me at the same time she also looked at me and she smiled. He then again told her something, she looked at him then called an assistant over to the counter and asked to sit there.

"Hello, Veda boy, I hear that you stunned everyone with your 4 elemental affinities and Aatma affinity. Congrats, I also heard that you got a great score on the capacity test also" She smiled at me, then looked at the others "I hear you guys also got good scores, congrats to you too. Wow, such a talented bunch huh. You don't see that always, do you?"

I wanted to tell her I got all three affinities but I stopped myself. We all just thanked her politely. I scratched my head a little while I thanked shyly.

"Don't be shy, just work hard that your potential is fully utilised okay. Don't waste God-given talent" she said smiling before pausing. She then continued "You see, Saul here told me that you haven't had a soul beast to make a pact with, isn't that right? Well, the fact of the matter is that we had a request from one of our client for a particular beast egg of dark nature and with our connection, we got one. But what happened is that the one we got turned out to be a dual elemental instead of a single element, moreover the client later cancelled the order saying that they don't want this particular beast."

At this point, my face had a big grin knowing where this could possibly lead.