"We have already discussed what is world essence, but how does one gather world essence?"

"In the continued efforts from the Elden inquisitors to learn more about the Nervadellirs, they discovered one crucial fact about how to gather world essences."

"One must be an ascended being before they could sense and gather world essence. The Eldens was confused at first because divined beings were already ascended creatures, but the Higher Elders of before, who were already divined, have never been able to gather nor sense the so-called world essence."

"The inquisitors then concluded that the Nervadellirs may have referred to the 'Ascended' divined beings equivalent to the present era, while others said that it must have been higher than that."

"After all, the Nervadellirs have an extreme mana affinity and fast cultivation. Hundreds of them would be equivalent to an Ascended divined being in the present era, and with that, another issue arose."

"If that many Nervadellir could gather world essences, why do they still have to impose a World Rule of Restriction instead of directly eliminating their enemy civilization?"

"The inquisitors then carefully considered this problem and introduced two new theories."

"The first theory assumed that the ceremony requires sacrificial rites before the world will listen to their call and grant them the power to use its world essence and impose a rule."

"The second theory proposed that the ceremony required a medium that will receive the world essence and impose the World Rule themselves."

"The introduced theories were opposed by many. It was simply preposterous because the world had a will of itself and wouldn't easily submit just because it was offered a sacrifice. If it could be done that easily, then those rats from the Fleeting Shadow should've been helped by the world itself many years ago."

"Another point given was that the mysterious ceremony had long existed way before their enemies had arrived."

"The last theory that they devised was derived from the previous second theory. According to the third theory, the ceremony would require a creature that had completed the ceremonial conditions and then bless them, changing its physical and mental aspects such that it could absorb the world essence, impose World Rules, and become a legendary being that surpassed everything in Pandragea."

"Unfortunately, due to the deteriorated archives of the Nervadellirs, the inquisitors were unable to determine whether the last theory was true or not, though it was the most accepted and plausible theory devised until this day."

The students were fascinated by the new information that Sir Jonas discussed with them. They imagined themselves to be the said blessed creature and gathering world essences and imposing World Rules.

Amidst their illusionary world, a student raised his hand and asked a question.

"Sir Jonas, what do the Nervadellirs look like?"

The whole class was stumped. `Yeah, how do they look like, anyway?`

`Are they super-cool and handsome people? If they look like the demon beasts, then forget it!`

"The Nervadellir's appearance was humanoid but the specifics were not mentioned. The only most notable characteristics that they had were-"

The door opened. It was Instructor Rebecca.

The classroom dropped in silence. The situation was similar to a wife finding out that her husband was cheating on her with another woman.

...

"This is déjà vu." Luiz was gasping hard for air as he conjured his mana essence to his surroundings.

"Luiz Carrico, do you want to pass this class or not?!" Instructor Rebecca had an extremely dark expression on her face.

Luiz forced himself to conjure more, but he was already feeling the effects of mana exhaustion. `At this rate, I will really die!`

"The test is over!" Instructor Rebecca shouted to the whole class. The students slumped to the ground; their tongues fell out of their mouths as they tried to stay alive by breathing more air.

"More students have passed this time. A good indication that you have truly put a good effort in your mana cultivation."

`Good effort my ass!` The students cursed with great enmity.

`You're clearly jealous that Sir Jonas is way better than you!`

`Damn it, I'm going to teach this b*tch a lesson when I grow up!`

"Now, Rejuvenate!"

The student's vitality was restored to normal. They still didn't forgive her though.

"I'll now be discussing mana cores and the limits of mana cores we could form in our bodies."

`There's actually a limit to our mana cores? How come nobody told me of this back in preliminary school?`

The students were confused. Can't they infinitely form more mana cores and become a divined being while doing so?

"In mana essence cultivation, our way of getting stronger is through forming our mana cores, expanding it, and then form new mana cores. A general outline of what a mana core is had already been explained to you during your preliminary school teachers. Now, I'll be discussing more deeply about them today."

"The mana core is divided into two types, the primary and the supplementary. The primary mana core will uniquely store mana essences. Successive mana cores will not be able to store the mana essences already existing on the other primary mana cores."

"The amount of primary mana cores that a being could store depends on their race. For us humans, we could only store at most 10 different mana cores in our bodies. They are in the brain, neck, heart, stomach, shoulders, elbows, hands, hips, legs, and feet."

"On the other hand, the supplementary mana core is responsible for storing more mana essences based on its primary mana core, and the number of supplementary mana core you could form would depend on your mana core grade, and where the primary mana core is located in the body."

"That is why when forming your first primary mana cores, you have to carefully consider the essence it will store, and to which part of the body should it be located in consideration to your supplementary mana cores."

"Our body points in the brain, the heart, and the stomach store the greatest number of supplementary mana cores in our body. The best way to utilize them is to only form primary mana cores that store compound or transformed mana essences like lightning mana essence, life mana essence, and many more."

The students were worried. Most of them formed their first mana cores in one of the body points that Instructor Rebecca has mentioned. They wouldn't be able to store a large amount of compound or transformed essences since the main body points were already taken up.

"Many of you must be very worried about mistakenly forming your mana cores in the main body points, right?" Instructor Rebecca evilly smirked at the students. They felt a chill in their spines. `Oh no! Is this our judgment day?!`

"Don't worry. There's a method called Mana Core Absolution, in which a selected mana core's functions are temporarily removed, and all the stored mana essences will be transferred elsewhere. The absolved mana core can be used, but not earlier than one month and not later than five years. Otherwise, it will deteriorate, and you will never be able to form a mana core in the same location."

The students were relieved when they heard that. At least there was a chance to redeem their mistakes in life.

"However, one would require a professional to do this. The good news is that this beautiful instructor knows how to perform Mana Core Absolution."

The students rolled their eyes regarding Instructor Rebecca's narcissism. However, the next one stumped them.

"The bad news is that you should first be able to pass my tests in three consecutive attempts before I consider handing out my services."

Instructor Rebecca smirked. `It's so fun seeing their pained expressions. This is what you get for going against me. I would've freely given it but this class's behavior is really something.`

`Damn it, this b*tch is clearly playing us around!`

The students could only curse and lament in their minds.

"Since there are no more questions, class is dismissed." She quickly left the training area.

`What the?! She didn't even ask if we had any questions!`

`What an unreasonable instructor! Damn her!`

The students were left to stare at her disappearing figure.

"F*ck! How preposterous of her to leave us hanging like that!" Luiz shouted at the top of his lungs.

The students agreed. Instructor Jonas was friendlier than her.

They left the training area.

Iria dragged Luiz and Luka away. Kaela and Ksenia followed them.

"Hey, what's the matter now? Are you going to destroy my eggs too?"

"Shut up! I didn't drag you here for that!"

"Don't tell me, class president, that you're going to do that?!"

The two boys were terrified. They didn't want to die.

"I said shut up! Listen to me! I don't know if you haven't noticed but it seems like something is wrong with Zachariel ever since the Prospect meeting that happened a few days ago."

Iria said carefully, afraid that somebody else might hear them out.

"There's something wrong with him?" The two thought carefully. Zachariel was indifferent just like before. What was wrong with that?

"I'm not talking about his behavior; I'm talking about their training."

"Their training? Isn't he and Sabrina training for the upcoming selection process for the Prospects?" The two were clearly starting to doubt this class president of theirs.

"You're wrong, Luiz. Recollect what Sabrina said earlier."

"She said training for the upcoming skirmish even-"

"See? Here comes the confusing part. The selection process should be done together with the regular selection process. How come the representatives are already chosen on the first day of class?"

"Iria, what are you trying to imply?"

"The selection process for the Prospects was done a few days ago, and Zachariel must've failed."

"Hey Iria, I respect you as the class president but don't try to degrade Zachariel like that." Luiz frowned at how Iria disrespected Zachariel's competence. `This girl is starting to get ahead of herself!`

"I'm not degrading him!"

"Then what are you trying to imply then? That they failed Zachariel on purpose? Why would they do so then? And how could you be so sure that the selection process is already done?"

"I don't know about their purpose, but when you talked to Sabrina earlier, she had a change of expression when you mentioned the training and Zachariel. It gave me an assumption that something bad must have happened. Listen carefully, if they're still training for the selection process, Sabrina shouldn't have reacted in that way."

"What if she was the one who failed? Iria, you're just paranoid. Zachariel would never fail given his strength, assuming that the selection process is already done."

Luiz was confident about Zachariel being one of the representatives for the Prospect category.

"Let's ask him later then!" Luka interjected.

"Sure! If he's really a representative, Iria, you're going to address me, Luka, and Zachariel as big brothers then."

"Hmph! That certainly won't happen!" Iria looked at the time.

"Let's go now, it's almost lunchtime."