Get me out of here

If there was someone right now, who was even more frazzled then Eluraa, it would be instructor Max.

Damn it. I have been bullied and made to babysit. Max cleared his throat and looked at the classroom full of small kids.

Since he was a newcomer, he had been assigned to the beginner classes. Apparently, there was a hierarchy in everything!

"Young lady over there, why don't you come to the front." He pointed at Eluraa and said.

He then looked at the toddlers and spoke while clearly enunciating his every word, "Close your eyes and count the number of stars you see."

Well, he could have also said, close your eyes and try to sense mana specs, but considering these were still children, he chose the former approach.

After Eluraa walked over to the front next to him, Max quickly cast a ward of silence.

He didn't want to further disturb the already jiggling and wiggling kids, squirming silently trying their best to concentrate.

"Everybody has to start from the basics, so don't worry about it. That's the only reason you are here."

"If you demonstrate the proper technique, I can promote you to the next class even today." He explained to Eluraa.

In the early years, it is astronomically important to build a strong foundation. But now, since Eluraa was already past that age, things might not go as smoothly.

Instructor Max was precisely worried about this.

He wanted to see just how stable a tutor-less country bumpkin's cultivation base could be.

Eluraa rotated her cultivation base, and slowly circulated the mana she had accumulated through her body.

She then dispersed her accumulated mana, focussed it on her hand, into a ball of water.

"Affinity to water element? Interesting." Max nodded.

"Perfect. Unless you have established a stable mana core, you won't be able to manipulate elemental energies with your mana and stably command and consolidate an element."

"Here you go. Submit this in the office and you can proceed to the next class." He handed Eluraa a slip and even gave her an awkward encouraging smile.

Eluraa nodded and left the class immediately.

This week she had learned a lot about the cultivation practices in this century from the library.

So she was eager to progress further in the school curriculum and test her limits.

The next class in the cultivation branch was not as easy as this one, as it involved successfully invoking elemental affinities and using your mana to manipulate the elemental energy.

Children usually took around 5 years to establish a stable mana core and then two to four years for successfully invoking elemental affinities.

Hence, in the next class, most students were closer to Eluraa's age, around eleven to fifteen.

The cultivation branch classes were all close to each other, and Eluraa quickly reached the next class without having to walk from one end of the academy to the other.

She knocked on the door and patiently waited for the class instructor to respond.

"Get in."

The instructor looked at Eluraa and scoffed angrily.

The tall voluptuous woman, for some reason, already held detectable amounts of disdain and contempt in her face, as she looked at Eluraa, even if it was for the first time.

She forcefully grabbed the sheet of paper from Eluraa's hand and quickly glanced at it.

"Hmph. Invoking an affinity is not an easy task. Go collect your books from the office later and for now just sit somewhere."

She mumbled and went back to her seat, supervising the various students, practicing their mana manipulation.

Eluraa hesitated a little. She actually wanted to test out of this class today as well, but the indifferent instructor had already gone back and was no longer paying attention to her.

"Hey dumbass. Move to the back. Don't block my view of the beautiful teacher Zhang." A freckled kid sitting in the front barked at her.

Another kid eagerly chimed in, "Loser, just how long did you repeat the same class, to be this old and still hang around in mana manipulation class. Tch. Tch."

Immediately kids seated in the front row started snickering.

Noticing the commotion, teacher Zhang again scoffed angrily, "Don't disrupt the class. Find your seat soon."

"Hmph. This is what happens when commoners are randomly let in. No manners whatsoever."

Heh... Interesting...

Eluraa smiled, finally understanding what was going on. The keyword was 'commoners'. This explained everything.

Not reacting to any of the comments, her cold piercing eyes gazed intently at the beautiful haughty woman sitting cross-legged on her chair.

A rare smile appeared on her face, clearly visible even with the mask covering half of her face.

"Sorry about my lacking manners, but I am ready to test out of this class."