Training as a Slime(74)

"Are you prepared for the lesson?" Shanson asked Cori.

"No, I wasn't made aware to prepare anything. Where do you check the things to bring?" Cori asked while feeling momentarily distracted by his halo.

"Don't worry, I have an extra packet here just in case," Shanson said and passed Cori a small paper bag.

"What is this?" Cori asked.

"Oh, it's a snack. Popmungs. You never had them before?" Shanson said as he popped open the bag, "Try it. It's delicious!"

A pink slime tapped Shanson on the shoulder, "Can I have 1 too, I forgot mine."

"Me too!" whispered another slime.

Shanson: "Don't worry, I have enough for everyone. You can just pass them around."

Marvyn: "What's going on?" 

The whole class went silent feigning ignorance.

"Do you want Popmungs Trainer Marvyn?" Shanson offered with a grin.

Marvyn: "Ah yes thank you, I happen to have bubble honey for everyone." The whole class cheered happily.

Marvyn: "Class, let's have a good movie day today. Although you might have already learned about it, please remember that this will be in the examination. Ok, let's start the show now!"

With a clap of his hands, the whole room dimmed as a projection appeared.

"Cori, hey Cori!" Shanson called out to Cori in a hushed tone.

"What?" Cori said turning around to find Shanson's chair reclined in optimal relaxation mode. Not wanting to appear incompetent, he used "observation" on the chair. System, "Classroom chair. Grade 5, unique rank. By inputting your manna into the chair, it will transform into the following- reclining mode, exam mode, massage mode." Cori gave Shason a wide grin as he reclined his chair and activated the massage mode.

Shanson did the same and tossed a popmung in the air which landed perfectly in his mouth and challenged Cori, "Can you do this?"

Cori ignored Shanson choosing to focus on the movie instead.

"I guess you can't haha," Shanson taunted as the movie showed the descend of the 4 gods.

"You do know we an exam for this movie, don't you?" Cori asked.

"Come on, it's common knowledge. Everyone else is already dozing off at this boring documentary. Besides, I can predict what's going to happen." Shanson replied softly.

"You see after this scene, the slimes finally are freed from the evil tree and fought for their freedom. Then comes the 10 year civil war where the fake saintess tried to resurrect the devil tree and casted a spell on the prince to trap him so that the demon lord can kill him and take over the kingdom. Luckily, with the aide of 7 heros, they managed to turn the tide and vanquish all the demons. And thus a reign of peace till now." Shanson said swelling with pride.

Cori: "And you know the exam questions?"

Shanson: "It's the same every intake. The name of the god, the name of the heroes, and how they defeated the evil forces."

"Shhhhhh!" the classmates hushed in unison.

"Sorry guys!" Shanson apologised and whispered to Cori with a wink, "Guess you got your wish."

Cori ignored Shanson's antics and continued watching the movie. But as the movie progressed, the more loopholes he found.

"So the winners claim glory while the losers bear the blame," Cori pondered, finding parallels with Earth's politics. "Politics seems to be universal among intelligent life," he noted, recognising the propaganda in the film. "Once a symbol of life, the tree now represents evil and doom. What a twisted portrayal of reality," Cori thought with a knot in his guts.

As the movie ended, the holy priest stood up in the well-lit room. "Well, I hope you enjoyed the show today and thank you Shanson for the snacks. Once again, I would like to remind everyone that you will be tested on this history and remember to do all references in MTS style."

A scuffle of commotion rumbled in the class and a slime raised his hand, "What do you mean by referencing?"  

Marvyn: "Well, I decided instead of the traditional exam, to submit to me a 1500-word essay on the founding history of Eo. You have to fact-check according to all the books in our library and quote the page it was found, the author's name, the title of the book and its page in this format."

The holy priest then wrote on the board the MTS format and demonstrated the short form beside each piece of information in the paragraph.

Marvyn: "Remember to submit it to me same time next week, any late submission will be penalised by 10 marks per day."

Groans and moans echoed in the classroom. Cori found Shanson in a state of shock and disbelief, his face as pale as a ghost.

"I should have watched the movie in silence!" Shanson cried with regrets but it was too late, the damage was done. An easy exam had become a tough essay.

Cori: "Well, you knew it by heart. I'm sure it will be easy."

Shanson gulped down his pride and asked, "Hey Cori, do you want to do this project together?"

Marvyn who was spying on their every word further announced, "Remember this is an individual project, you should not enlist anyone's help. Treat it as an examination with a generous time limit!"

Shanson: "What!"

Cori: "Sorry, I guess I can't help you now."

As Shanson and the rest of the class left, Cori stayed behind with numerous questions on his mind. 

Marvyn: "I'm glad you stayed."

Cori: "..."

Marvyn: "I can tell you have a lot of questions, but would you like to see another version of history? But you have to keep this to yourself."

Cori nodded. He felt this key information might help him reach home earlier.