Chapter 1129: Registering
“Ning… Ning… Ning… Ning… Ning… Ah! There it is,” Ning said when he saw his name on the poster. “I knew I could do it.”
He was still a little happy that he made officially made it. He looked at his name for a few seconds more and walked away from the crowd.
He could hear shouts of cheer and cries. There were definitely more cries than cheers. Given how many people have taken the test, it was obvious that more people would’ve failed.
As he was wondering what he was supposed to do now, a person from the academy walked out and posted another piece of paper. Then, he spoke out loud.
“Everyone who has passed, please register as soon as you can. You will have to register and move into the academy by the end of the week. Any later, and you will be rejected from joining the academy,” the man said before disappearing.
Ning saw that the post on the wall said the same thing as well.
‘Did I bring my money?’ Ning thought and grabbed onto the pouch on his back. “I did. I should get registered right now.”
He walked to the open gate and handed over his token. He mentioned his name and the guard there looked through the list to find him.
“Head over to that building over there. You can already see a small crowd gathering, can’t you?” the man said.
“Ah, yes. Thank you,” Ning said and walked away. He went into the academy, slightly surprised at the fact that all the testing locations that had been set up had already been stripped away, leaving behind empty land on the ground.
Ning stared ahead at the massive building that simply towered over everything. He couldn’t see what was beyond it, except for the barren mountains that occasionally flashed with some colors.
There were most likely people there that were learning or practicing with their Essence, which was what he was seeing.
‘Why is one of the best academies of the continent so gloomy?’ Ning wondered. ‘There’s barely any color anywhere. I can’t even see that many trees at all.’
He arrived at the registration building and waited for his turn. He could see the ages of the people that had passed along with him. Every single one of them was a teenager or in their early 20s from what he could see.
The rare exceptions were younger people, but never older ones. The academy didn’t trust an older person to have the talent required to make it big as an Essence User.
Ning went into the registration building when his turn came and started filling up information when he was asked.
Clara had already helped him come up with a fake identity, so besides keeping his name the same, he had new backgrounds that he needed to remember.
They were rather easy, so he wrote them down.
Ning was now from a small noble family in the eastern region of the Frolane empire. He was born to a loving father and mother and had 2 elder sisters. His father used his hard-earned money to buy him the best crystals, which he had diligently used to practice Essence.
As a result, from a very young age, his Essence had been quite pure. That caused the problem of his having to improve slowly, but Ning’s father was fine with it, and so was Ning.
However, now Ning had grown and very soon he would have to take over for his father. So, to improve himself even further and learn more about being an Essence User, he had come to the Blackhawk academy which was one of the best in the world.
Ning wrote down everything the piece of paper asked for and brought out a pouch to pay the required fee of 250 Fire coins.
That was just the entrance fee too. Every 3 months, he would have to pay another 50 Fire coins if he wanted to continue his practice.
After Ning paid the cost of admission, he was admitted into the academy and was made to quickly return with his item by the end of the week.
After that point, leaving the academy would also be prohibited for him, with some exceptions. After he moved to the academy, he was going to have to stay in the academy for months at a time.
Ning had no choice but to agree to those terms. He wasn’t particularly unhappy with them either, but he would’ve preferred being a little freer. Maybe the teachers here hated their students having freedom.
Ning left the building and walked out of the academy. He could still hear the cries of those that hadn’t managed to make it into the academy.
He could swear that he almost tasted the salt in the air with how many buckets of tears were being shed today.
He had to walk amongst the disappointed people back to the city, but their mood never affected his own. He had made it into the academy after all.
After this point, Ning planned on becoming as great as he could with Essence. If he could, he would help Clara with whatever her problem was.
After that, he would spend a few more years gathering enough energy, and then at some point, he would leave this place too.
‘I hope I have enough adventure in the next few years to last me a while,’ Ning thought. ‘I need to go find a planet with a corrupt Constellation so I can drain it.’
The system didn’t care whether a constellation was corrupt or not, as it did with humans. While Ning was punished if he intentionally hurt someone innocent, there was no such thing as a Constellation.
Even then, Ning preferred going after the bad ones anyway just so he didn’t feel guilty at all.
‘I can ask System for a bad one,’ Ning thought. ‘After that, I should find a few planets to put into my world.’
He wanted to give his daughter some actual friends, and partners for his beasts. Those were after all the only reasons why he was even bothering with everything.
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