27.

"You are here!" Inside the hall, the familiar face of the boy greeted Eldirc with a smile.

"Your lesson will be held on the third floor in room number 12." Signing Eldric to follow him, the boy soon brought Eldric to his room before raking his leave.

"Your lesson will last for one hour at most. Then, I shall take my leave." Leaving Eldric, he walked away.

"One hour..." Even though Eldric was annoyed that the time limit wasn't mentioned before, he still didn't make a fuss. One hour was more than enough to know everything he wanted to know.

Opening the door, he entered the room. And the moment he entered, he was stunned by the familiar figure sitting there in silence while looking at their personal panel.

"Ellina?" Subconsciously, Eldric muttered out a name. Who could it be if not the mature beautiful professor who once gave them a lesson in high school?

Even though it was only a few weeks ago, Eldric still felt a long time had passed.

"Huh!?" Hearing someone mutter her name, Ellina raised her eyebrows before finally looking at the newcomer.

Seeing the young boy standing there in silence, she frowned for a bit. Feeling like she had seen him before, she tried to remember. And after a few moments, the frown on her face was gone, replaced by a seductive smile.

"Well... If it isn't the one who seduced his 'Mature' teacher." With a teasing voice, she looked at him with a smile while resting her face on her palm.

"..." Listening to her, Eldric almost cursed out loudly. That day in the class when he was mentioning his great love affairs, he certainly wasn't expecting anyone to listen. It was his bad luck that this woman happened to be present there.

But for her to even remember such a small incident, Eldric didn't know what to say.

"Take a seat." There was still a smile on Ellina's face as he pointed at the chair in front of her.

"Don't worry. I won't ask you about it." Seeing Eldric's hesitation, she almost burst out in laughter.

Controlling his emotions and the feeling of running out of the door, Eldric walked to his seat and sat there in silence.

"Hmm..." Ellina kept on looking at him in silence with a constant smile on her face. She didn't speak, but her eyes kept wandering all over him.

Eldric who was sitting there awkwardly, not daring to meet her eyes was beginning to feel uncomfortable. Sitting there felt like sitting on a bunch of needles.

And just when he was wondering whether he should speak first, Ellina broke the silence.

"Okay... I won't tease you anymore." With a clap, she spoke future. "Tell me, what do you want to know?"

Hearing her, Eldric finally took a breath of relief. There were a lot of questions in his mind, so without wasting another moment, he asked his first question.

"What is this place?"

"Uh!?" Ellina wasn't expecting this question. She looked at Eldric with her narrowed eyes before asking "When did you complete your evolution?"

"Yesterday." There was nothing to hide, so Eldric gave her a direct reply.

"Yesterday..." Tapping on the chair with her finger, the frown on her face became a bit deeper.

"So it means, you failed to get into any university."

"Did you join any faction?"

Eldric didn't know why she was the one asking questions instead of answering, he still shook his head.

"I didn't join any faction."

The frown on her face deepened as she looked at Eldric with dissatisfaction. "So, did you use those fifty tokens which were given to you after you awakened, here?"

"Err... Yes."

Hearing his answer, Ellina looked at Eldric from top to bottom once again before shaking her head. This time the smile from her face was gone, replaced by an expression of disappointment.

"Those tokens were gifted to you so you can buy equipment and get stronger..."

"You were supposed to use those tokens to clear the trials and join a university."

"Instead you wasted those tokens on the lesson that you would have gotten after joining the university."

The more she spoke, the more annoyed she became. She still couldn't understand how could someone be so stupid.

"Forget it.

Since you have made your decision, I will respect it. Even if that is a stupid decision."

Shaking her head, she added further.

"As for your question about what this place is...

This is the initial Zone that one would arrive after going through their first evolution."

"Unlike the trial where your body will be teleported, you can only exist as a spirit here. Your body still exists in the real world."

As soon as she spoke, Eldric narrowed his eyes. Till now he thought that he was transferred to this place just like the trial. But to think that it was only his spirit instead of his real body... Eldric just exhaled a mouthful of air.

How could anyone think that this is not a real place when everything here feels real?

"Does it mean everyone who goes through the evolution comes here? Then why aren't there more people?"

This was what confused him. From what he had learned in school, this world is big and there are countless cities other than the one he was living in. So, there should be a lot of people going through evolution every day. In that case, this place should have been overcrowded.

But looking around, there didn't seem to be that many people.

Listening to his question, Ellina smiled before shaking her head.

"A zone is like a combination of cities.

One zone will only include cities in a radius of a certain area."

"Other than your city of Aetheria, there are nine more cities in this zone. So, every person who lives in one of these cities can only come here."

"It is the same case for people who are visiting these cities. No matter from which corner of the world they are from. As long as they arrive in the area of this zone, they can only come here."

There was a look of realization on Eldric's face as he was beginning to understand. It seems that there were numerous zones with numerous cities. No wonder this place wasn't crowded.

"There are actually divisions amongst zones too. But it would be difficult for you to understand everything all at once.

You will eventually understand it once you become stronger."

"I see." Eldric didn't ask further. Right now, he wanted to know more about some basic things, not go into details. He would have plenty of time later to explore these skills once he understood them enough.

"What about Evolution? Can you tell me more about it?"

This was what he wanted to know. After going through the first evolution, he had no idea about the next step.

"Hmm, yes. That is the most important thing for you right now."

With a nod, Ellina softly began to tell him everything about Evolution.

"When someone first awakens, they reach the pinnacle of human strength. After reaching this state, no matter how much one trains, or does anything, growing further is impossible.

The only way forward is to go through Evolution."

"So, there are actually two ways of evolving further.

The first one is simple. Just complete the trial and go through evolution."

"Let's talk about this way first before I tell you about the second way of evolution."

Listening to her, Eldric nodded in silence.

"You see... After the first evolution, the remaining evolutions depend on many factors.

Take your evolution for example.

Now that you have completed your first evolution, you need to fulfill a criteria before going through your second evolution."

"To go through your second evolution, you need to have all your attributes reach [5] and merge with the essence of monsters to form your own skill."

Eldric's breath paused for a moment before looking at her in confusion. She was saying something that he had no idea about.

Perhaps sensing his confusion, she explained.

"Unlike the first evolution, there won't be any trials for the further evolution. You have to do it all by yourself.

You see... After the first evolution, one doesn't gain skills automatically after going through further evolutions. Thus, one needs to create a skill all by themselves according to their initial professional skills.

Ordinary professionals who get one skill after awakening need to create one skill. Rare professions need to create two skills, epic needs three skills, and so on. The more powerful your profession, the more skills you need."

"Gulp..." Swallowing a mouthful of air, Eldric thanked the god that he only awakened an ordinary profession. If he were to awaken a rare or above, he would have died of exhaustion.

Sensing his thoughts, Ellina sneered. How couldn't this idiot understand that the more skills one masters, the more powerful they are? But she didn't mock him and explained further.

"And the simplest way to create skills is to integrate with a monster essence, understand its skill, and make it your own."

"For example, a mage can kill a fire wolf and try to understand its skill fire tornado.

But, the skill that you are trying to create should not conflict with your profession, otherwise the results will be dire."

There was a hint of warning in her voice as if telling Eldric not to bite off more than he could chew.

"And this is where the problem arises."

"Remember the bloodline that is rewarded after the completion of the trial?

Well, that bloodline decides whether you can absorb certain essence or not."

By now, Eldric was beginning to understand what evolution is. Ellina on the other hand spoke further after a brief pause.

"And this is where we come back to the second method of evolution."

"Not everyone is lucky enough to get high points in the trial. So, if the person is rich, they can choose to go through another procedure and that is to implant a bloodline all by themselves.

Many powerful families tend to go through this option."

"Wait... Can those people come in zones too?" Eldric couldn't help but ask.

"Absolutely.

Once they completely integrate the bloodline, their panel will change automatically."

"So... I need to gain [5] points in every attribute, and make my own skill to be eligible to go through evolution?"

"Correct."

"Then what about further evolution?"

As soon as Eldric asked this question, Ellina looked at him like she was looking at an idiot.

"Do you know that ninety-five percent of people are stuck at their first evolution?

Do you even know how hard is it to gain just one point?

Truly... The newborn calf isn't afraid of the tiger."

Listening to her, Eldric didn't dare to refute. He could buy potions from the nightmare shop to increase his attributes, but that is the case for him only. He didn't know how others increased their attributes, but judging by Ellina's tone, it didn't seem easy.

In the end, he could only listen to her in silence.