Chapter 9: Road to Fame

News traveled fast across the academy and within half a day the whole academy had heard the breaking news.

The focus of the news were the triad, Zachery Rizon, and the pure, Teo Char.

Every corner of the academy started talking about them.

"Hey did you hear about those two new students? A triad and a pure appeared in the academy!"

"What are the odds of having both of them enroll in the same school at the same time? its almost impossible! If it wasn't already confirmed I wouldn't have believed it"

"The triad is from the Rizon family. Despite that he is from the branch family, I'm sure that he'll get invited to the main family after he graduates"

"Do you know anything about that pure?"

"They said he was from Char village down south"

"Hey, isn't that senior who recently graduated from Char too"

"Yeah he was, I believe his name was Aran.. Aran Char"

"Probably no relation, but man Char village sure is producing so many uniquely attributed people"

"I know right? Senior Aran was a dualist, but his elements are total opposites, dark and light? there is no synergy at all!"

While a group of people were talking about them in a bar, a figure approached wearing an emerald green badge shaped like a building, embroidered with golden yellow threads.

"Big news guys!"

"Whats up Socho? whats the big news?"

"You know about that pure new student?"

"Yeah we know about that news already, we were just talking about it"

"Did you know that what his growth potential was? it is all 1!"

Everyone on the table stopped everything that they were doing; people who were eating stopped chewing, people who was drinking stopped swallowing. They all looked at Socho as if he was crazy

"What do you mean all 1s? Doesn't all pures get a growth potential of all 3s?. There must be wrong with your sources"

"Yeah, I don't think I've heard of a pure who didn't get a growth potential of 3s before"

"It isn't wrong! I have a reliable sources"

"What sources?"

"I have a friend who has a cousin that works at the central office. He saw Dina flipping through the information of the student and saw that pure's result from his divination. Other teachers confirmed it. The Pavilion also confirmed it too. My cousin even confirmed it, he knew the guy personally"

After the group thought about what Socho had said, one finally broke the silence

"What the hell? Wouldn't he be too old to be useful?"

The growth potential evaluation was a very important factor to ones growth. Normally, only generalists were the only type of elementalists that could get an evaluation of 1 in a specific attribute.

Having an evaluation of 1 in one's growth potential meant that it would take a very long time for them to have any accomplishments within that attribute. When a generalist get such an evaluation, they would often ignore practicing the attribute in question.

This was because it was not feasible in their lifetime to master such a time consuming attribute. It was more productive to master an attributes that they had more potential in.

"I guess Char village really does produce unique people. HA HA HA"

"I got excited for nothing, he is basically a non-elementalists until he is 80!"

"Maybe is born under the a bad star HA HA HA"

A female figure was at the corner of the bar sitting across another person. She had over heard the conversation from start to finish. At first she was elated hearing the news but as the conversation continued her elation vanished. A hint of sadness on her face, as well as anger towards people who were laughing

.....

In the evening, Teo was heading back from the library to his residence.

He was ecstatic being able to read at least 2 new books a day. He didn't have to reread them like before, there were too many to pick from. The books were also easy to read, unlike the array book.

Upon nearing his cave, he saw a shadowy figure leaning near his door.

As he approached closer, the moonlight revealed to him the person. He instantly recognized this person. It was his big sister Rowen.

"Big Sister! what are you doing here?" with a smile on his face hurriedly walked closer.

The siblings did not meet each other everyday, but they met at least once a week.

"Little Teo, your finally back", she said as she saw the book in his hands

"I should have known that you were at the library", she smiled

Teo invited Rowen into his cave so they can talk

"Little Teo, I heard the news that you were a pure generalists, that's great!"

A warm smile was on her face, but a hint of sadness was there. She also heard the news of his growth potential but did not mention it at all

"I knew you were also special. Big brother Aran and I ended up being elementalists too. Mom and dad decided to not tell you because you might feel down knowing both your siblings are elementalists and you were not. I didn't plan on mentioning it until I heard the good news earlier today"

"I see. So thats why big sister is here" Teo smiled and felt a little guilty

"Sorry I didn't tell you before, its just that I forgot"

"You forgot?" Rowen was a little surprised

'Who could forget your own divination rite evaluation?' she thought

Teo awkwardly smiled like a rascal who was in trouble

"To me big sister, I don't care much about it. Being a craftsman and all that isn't what I want to do. I just want to be a librarian"

Despite Teo's knowledge about craftsmen being shallow, he had already decided that his future should be something related to books.

When Rowen heard Teo's statement, her sadden heart felt a little relieved. A normal boy would be disheartened if they were in Teo's situation, but surprisingly Teo wasn't affected at all

"I see" she smiled

.....

The siblings chatted for a long time.

After Rowen left, Teo continued reading the book he just got from the library.

When it was time to sleep, Teo entered the world within the turtle's shell

As usual the old man Cien was still laying on his hammock as if asleep.

Cien picked up the book and continued to read and study the book.

After 2 hours, Teo grabbed the book and walked over to the old man Cien.

"Mr Cien, I have finished understanding the first quarter of the book. You will help me understand anything onwards right?"

The old man opened right eye a bit to peak at Teo for a bit.

"Are you sure you completely understand it?"

It was only a little over a year since Teo started reading his book and now this little child no older than 10 actually says he understood it? A regular person who is age 20 or older would take at least 4 years to completely comprehend the first quarter of the book.

Teo nodded

"Yup, I understood all of it. It was hard but I did it"

The old man sat up and looked at Teo, a suspicious smile was across his face

"You say you understand it, so I'll give you a test. If you pass the test not only will I help explain the contents of the book, I'll even explain this you want to know that isn't related to the book. That is of course to an extent, there are things you are not qualified to know"

Then right after saying that his suspicious smile grew bigger

"BUT, if you fail my test, you will have to do a few things I ask you to do for a full year"

"Things like what?" Teo asked

"Nothing much, maybe massaging my back when its aching, or buying me food. I know you recently got some money to buy some delicacies"

the old man was basically asking him to be his gofer for a whole year, even coveting his hard earned money

"What are the conditions for passing the test?"

Teo wanted to know so he wouldn't get cheated. He knew that Cien's personality was quite shrewd, last time Cien gave him a "favor" he experience unimaginable pain that he had never felt before, so Teo was quite cautious

"Nothing much I'll ask you 100 questions, if you can answer any 80 of them correctly you pass, if not, I win -cough- I mean you fail"

"Deal", Teo quickly agreed.

He was confident with his understanding of the first quarter of the book. He even memorized it to the letter. He also memorized all the symbols and shapes that first quarter of the book covered.

[Author's Note: Second Revision]