Kai eyed the enormous book that was as thick as his leg. "How many pages is that?"

"Six thousand three hundred and thirty-two pages."

"That's a lot!" Yumi said. "Can we really memorized everything in one year?"

Zoe shrugged and continued, "To open the book, put your hand on the cover and think about your cores. That's it. I'm leaving you two."

"Miss Zoe, what if we can't open it?"

Zoe stared at Yumi. "That's not my problem anymore." With that, she walked out of the room, leaving the two alone.

"She's the worst teacher ever!"

Kai didn't say anything. He had been staring at the book. For some reason, he couldn't take his eyes off it. He walked towards the book and just as he expected, the palm print was on the cover of the book.

"We're supposed to put our hand in there?" Yumi asked. "What if it won't open?"

"Did that happened before?"

"Of course!" Yumi said.

"What happened next?"

"I don't know." Yumi shrugged.

Kai nodded. "Then… let me start." He stood in front of the book that looked bigger than him. Closing his eyes, he put his hand on the handprint, then he thought about his core. Nothing.

After a few seconds of not feeling anything, Kai opened his eyes. "It didn't open." And he didn't feel anything.

"I — Let me try?" Yumi approached the other book and put her hand on the cover. Almost immediately, her hand trembled. She quickly withdrew it. "I — " She tried to pry the book open. "It opened! It's open!" She jumped, happiness shone in her eyes. "Why don't you do it again? Think about your core? I just thought about my core that could open a portal connecting us to the dimension of plants."

Kai nodded and did it again. This time, he made sure to think about his second core. As someone with a dual-core whose primary core was not a plant summoning core, Kai thought it would be natural for him not to be able to open the book.

Moreover, his elemental core is bigger than his plant summoning core. Slowly, Kai felt an electrical pulse on his palm. It was as if, it was trying to get inside his body. Sadly, he could feel his elemental core trying to fight the pulses.

Sweat trickled in his forehead as his brows knitted. He could feel the electric pulse trying to invade his plant summoning core, and his elemental core is not letting it inside.

[Warning! Attempted Invasion Detected!]

[Allowing access would give the invader information about the host]

[To Terminate Invader say: F*ck you!]

"..."

'Can you give them false information?' he couldn't help but ask. He knew that the voices would never answer his questions or do anything that does not involve killing people.

[Warning! Attempted Invasion Detected!]

[Allowing access would give the invader information about the host]

[To Terminate Invader say: F*ck you!]

[Host requesting fake information]

[Processing fake information about host's core]

[Fake Information completed. Uploading in three… two… one…]

[Allowing access to the invader in three… two… one…]

[Access Granted. Invader recorded fake information. The recording is done.]

Kai let out a sigh of relief as he opened his eyes. That was the first time that the voices listened to him. He recalled trying to request some maps and historical information. But the voice would never say anything. He wondered if it was because his request had evil intentions? Perhaps the voices would only listen if he wanted to do something evil?

"It's… open?" Yumi's voice brought him back from his stupor. He looked at the book and tried to open it.

"It did." Kai gave a tight-lipped smile. "We should start."

Yumi nodded excitedly, and the two started reading the contents of the book.

Slowly, Kai found all this entertaining. The contents of the book were nothing new to him. However, each plant has its limitations. For instance, the Hallucinogenic Ivy. Contrary to its name, this plant doesn't have any hallucinogenic properties unless you mix it with other plants. However, this Hallucinogenic Ivy would only last for five hours. After that, it would start to wilt and would lose its properties.

The thing is… one can only summon once every eight hours.

This would make the Hallucinogenic Ivy almost impossible to use if you were alone.

He started scanning the book and soon realized that most plants have this type of limitation. They would start to wilt after a few hours. Aside from this, there were no combat class plants in the book. All of these were ingredients that one cannot use when he or she was alone.

"There is no plant that eats people?" he asked.

"Where did you hear that from?" Yumi asked. "We can't summon plants that eat mortals. Maybe the S Class Summoners or maybe you can. But you can't summon something without familiarizing its properties first. So it would be almost impossible for you to summon something that is not in this book."

Kai nodded. This was new to him. Ten thousand years ago, this book didn't exist and people could summon something as long as they concentrate and think about its form and properties. Meaning, they could summon a completely new species out of nowhere as long as they could come up with its form and properties.

However, the risk of accidents was quite high as some plants eat mortals and have poison on them. So if one is not prepared. They would definitely die.

Now that Kai thought about it, this should be the reason why plant summoners are considered the weakest in this Era, right? They couldn't summon anything that could protect them!

[Large Data detected.]

[Large Data detected.]

[Large Data detected.]

Kai rolled his eyes. Sometimes, Kai thought warnings like this are pretty helpful. But these warnings apply to almost everything, even when it wasn't that helpful.

*BANG!*

The door was abruptly opened, making the two jumped. Kai looked at the man wearing a brown dirty robe who suddenly approached him. "Are you Kai?" There was a tinge of insanity in the man's eyes.

"Yes?"

"I — I am Alfred!" He looked at his body before his gaze sprang back to his face. "How old are you?"

"Sixteen."

"Good!" Alfred nodded before laughing. "Follow me!"

Kai stared at the older man with matter long white matted hair. Dark bags can be seen under his eyes. "Uhh…"

"Teacher Alfred! Where are you taking him?"Zoe who followed the old man asked.

"Just follow me!" Alfred said.

"He is the teacher here. Go ahead and follow him." Zoe instructed Kai.

Kai let out a sigh inwardly. He understood that the man is also an A-Class plant summoner, but… does he have to act like that? He followed him out of the room and outside of the building. Soon, they arrived behind the building where a small hut was located.

"Come! Follow me!" Alfred's voice was full of excitement as he led him inside. Then he did something with his hand and the floor of the hut changed. It opened into an underground passage. "It's dark. Be careful." Alfred said as he disappeared into the wooden stairs, leaving a creaking sound behind him.

Kai followed him. Soon, he realized that he already took about thirty steps and there were still no signs of ground. Kai look up and eyed the entrance, who was about to close on its own. Then he continued walking. After a few more minutes, his foot finally hit the ground.

He started walking in the tunnel lined with lamps that illuminated the way, his footsteps echoed against the stone pathway full of debris and dirt. His sense turned alert as he tried to listen for any wind shrieking through any gaps. There was none.

After walking for a few more seconds, he noticed that the passage started to become bigger, wider.

"Come here!" Alfred's voice caught his attention. The man was standing next to another book that resembled the previous one. He was inside what looked like a square room made of small rocks stacked on top of each other. The structure looked old, it made Kai wonder if it was durable. "Use your hand."

"What is that?"

"Something that only A-Class could open. Go ahead."

Kai was suspicious. However, the voices didn't say that this Alfred was a malicious mortal, so he wasn't too worried about it. After a few seconds, he planted his palm on the cover of the book. This time, the voices and the electrical pulses didn't appear.

"You can read it. From now on, you will train here separate from the others."

"Why?" Kai couldn't help but ask.

"What do you mean, why? Because the books that they gave us were junk! That's why!"

Kai's forehead puckered while staring at the pages of the book. Just like what Alfred said, this is different from the ones at the academy. Does this one have spiritual plants that you could contract? "The plants…"

"I have no time to teach you. So, you have read on your own. I have my own projects. As payment, I will have you summon some of the plants that I need. You will be my assistant and would have access to this cave. You can study the books and assist me in brewing. Do you accept?"

"You are not going to make me a disciple?" Kai was confused. Isn't this the part where the more experienced man would offer to become his master?

The older man's face contorted. "You think, I would just accept anyone as my disciple? Stop dreaming and start reading!"

"…" Kai was speechless.