Are the instructor and the gambling shop in cohorts? Kairos did not think so.

He could hear whispers coming from all around in the shop, each of those tiny voices belongs to a spirit ore.

The shop could have mixed the bad stone eggs among the good ones to make a profit, but they did not. Comparing with the prices of the other stone eggs gambling shop they passed, Kairos could tell the amount they charge for stone eggs of this quality is rather cheap.

To stock up with so many high-quality stone eggs, the merchant needs to appraise a larger number of goods, just the hefty cost of this is not something that many are willing.

And to purchase them from the miners also means that they have to be willing to fork out more than their competitions.

Now the reason this shop’s building is so tattered and worn made sense.

Kairos guessed the shopkeeper had been talking like a greedy old fraud is most possibly because he did not want these students to become addicted to stone gambling.

A person who would spend a lot of money to ensure quality products to his customers, would not make scathing remarks to turn them away.

Seeing their leader already made his way towards the stone eggs, the others followed behind hesitatingly. When Kairos held his fist up, everyone stopped and waited quietly.

K…kair..

Kair….os…

Kairos…..

“Words…? They are saying my name?”

The whispers from the spirit ores seemed to be more than just noise. At first, he could only hear confusing sounds though he could tell their intent, but these noises soon started making sense and turned into audible words. In this place where many voices persist, he concentrated on understanding what they are saying, and the result startled him; they were calling his name!

“Aisa! They… they know my name? What are they?”

Your name is pre-ordained

The reply was baffling.

Without really understanding what his dragon meant, Kairos could only continue trying to understand what those spirit ores are speaking with a confounded expression on his face.

Some of those waiting for Kairos started to feel uneasy.

The other students already started choosing their stone eggs by guessing if there is a spirit ore within and determining what kind of element it would be. For the others, though it is not guaranteed to find a spirit ore within a stone egg even if one has a lot of experience, it is possible to make good estimations.

It was serious business. After all, they would have to work with the material they found to craft their weapon or armour in class later. If they uncovered two ores with clashing elements, the potency of what they make with it would only be reduced. For example, someone who found a fire and a water spirit ore would have a terrible time to use both to make an item without their elemental effects cancelling out each other.

On each stone egg, there is a small slip of bamboo tied on it with a piece of string, and upon it is carved the date and location when it was mined.

From the formation of the limestone, the knowledge of what elements are abundant at its mining location, one can gather a lot of information.

“A lightning sword would be cool… let’s see… I will need ores from underneath the storm mountains,” a student walking pass Kairos mumbled.

While he was stalling, the others had already started. As apprentice blacksmiths, many are rather excited, especially that mines in this place stretch across the mountains, lakes and the countryside, offering a plethora of possible elements.

Of course, not all the spirit ore types could be found.

A student that is proficient in creating Water-type armours frowned and strolled back and forth, “Damn… This place just doesn’t have what I want. Should I make an Earth-type instead? But to create a higher quality piece for it, I’ll need to know crystal-wielding… How about a Metal-type instead? They are complementary types for Water, and I know a little about them. Okay, that’s decided then…”

All these while, those from the Snowdrifts did not move an inch as they waited for Kairos. Most of them fought together with him before, and they behaved as soldiers would be before their commanding officer. While some of the newcomers amongst them wanted to start, but noticing that the others were not moving, they reluctantly followed suit.

After a pregnant pause, Kairos approached the shelves, but then he once again stopped right before the shelves.

This time, his action irked quite a few of the more competitive ones, and they started murmuring.

“What is he doing?”

“Why are we waiting here… come on. We need to start before the others took everything.”

“Quiet. Just follow the boss, you won’t lose out.”

The veterans hushed them, not knowing what their leader is doing, but they completely trusted him.

A few minutes later, Kairos turned his back to the stone eggs to the surprise of everyone and went back to join the group.

He immediately pointed at one of the stone eggs from far, and then confidently announced, “That’s an Earth Element spirit stone.”

But quicker than anyone else, Leaf was the first to reach it, “Ehehe, thanks Kairos!”

“Hey, that’s for our group only!” Alan protested.

“I’m also part of your group~,” She said, flashing him a soul slip.

Unlike proper members of the Snowdrifts, Leaf, Snow, Small and Smaller had formed a contract with Kairos to keep the identity of Aisa a secret, but she still considered herself a part of their group.

Next, she grabbed Snow and pushed her to the front, to the surprise of the other Snowdrifts, but none complained. Wouldn’t it be asking for a public beating if someone dared to badmouth two beautiful young ladies?

However, it’s expected their thoughts ran wild.

“Why are those two here? As nobles, they surely inherited good ways to determine which stone egg is the better choice…”

“Following our boss, a lowborn Earl, they definitely made a mistake.”

As more join their group, it couldn’t be helped that there will be those who do not know of Kairos’ achievements and only joined merely for the benefits. There are also those that entered out of curiosity or because their friends had entered the guild and it is a given that they lacked the same respect towards Kairos as those that went through thick and thin with him.

At the same time, there are also spies within their group that were sent from the Blue Blood radical group. These are the ones that are full of enmity for Kairos, so asking them to trust him is impossible.

But, what happened next is unexpected for them all.

Afterwards, Kairos continued directing everyone to which stone eggs to purchase, but the group allowed Leaf and Snow to snatch the first sixty before they followed. A short while later, everyone has their own thirty stone eggs in hand, and they gathered before their instructor for the examination.

Of course, Er Tian had been observing how Kairos was directing a group of students on what to pick. It is, of course, breaking the rules, but he had never been one for the stickler and Kairos had been counting on it. In fact, the instructor is far more curious on the audacity that this boy has.

If one wins a stone gambling because of Kairos’ advice, its fine, but if one had a loss, he will be getting the blame. Repeat that for thirty times, for eleven classmates; it is a huge burden to bear. How can someone be so confident to choose over three hundred stone eggs without blinking an eye?

Anyway, since the grades for this exercise are not that weighty, Er Tian did not think it mattered, but he still whispered in Kairos’ ears, “If you really can get everyone good picks, I’ll personally give you the highest grade in this exercise. But if you failed, I will pin your failure as their grades.”

He waited a moment to see how the boy will react, but Kairos only nodded. After all, it sounded fair.

With mouth twitching from the unexpected response, the instructor addressed the rest, “W… well, let’s begin, you’ve already practised cracking open the stone eggs, so, go ahead and extract your stone eggs. Ah, hold on, you guys better stand accordingly to the class roll so I can see you. Okay, Kairos you’re right next to me, then Alan, and …”

The students moved into sequence as he called. The five of them, with Tommy included, are at the top of the class roll for all the different classes, so they are mentioned first.

The Academy already accounted Tommy and Snow taking leave, and would not mark them down for skipping class.

Of course, with Tommy charging forward to restore his cultivation, Snow could not accompany him all the time, and in-between she will still join whichever class she could. Taking the minimum courses, she might be able to continue to the third year, but Tommy will be held back for certain.

For these brothers, whatever that means when the time comes, they will deal with it. In any case, without cultivation – and combat strength playing a major role in grades – it is a futile attempt to get into the next year.

While the students busied themselves with hammering and chiselling, many of the miners that had followed them out of curiosity were observing. Some, even started a private game of speculation, with stone eggs as their wager of course.

After the spirit ores were extracted and people started murmuring in surprise.

“It’s another Mud Stone… it’s finger-sized, not bad… Oh, that kid also got a large piece of Heavy Mountain Iron… and is that a rare Earth Beauty crystal ore… Even a Motherlode Stone…? What is this, how is it possible? What kind of luck he has?”

But it was not only this student’s finds that were incredulous, but quite a few others also discovered a horde of rare and precious spirit ores and far more valuable than the cost of the stone eggs. But the onlookers soon noticed a strange thing: all of them are from the Snowdrifts.

Everyone, including the students themselves, became dumbfounded at the quality of spirit ores hidden within. Not only are those ores they uncovered rather valuable, not even a single stone egg was empty. That means Kairos did not make a single wrong prediction. What’s more astonishing is that all of those ores that each student uncover are of the exact element he said.

“Just… just what is the meaning of this?” Er Tian asked no one in particular.