Glan Natural Science Academy

The whole morning passed unnoticed.

Seeing how Ryger seemed to have already known about the knowledge he talked about, Satro made a pleased look. He thought of how all of it seemed like a foreign language when his mentor first explained these things. He didn’t understand anything at all and this frustrated mentor a lot.

If junior brother is so intelligent, he might be able to accomplish something in the future.

“Junior brother, the foundation of learning evolutionary secrets lies in the collection of natural specimens, just as the foundation of learning natural laws is in mathematical foundations. For a scholar studying evolutionary secrets, it is the number of specimens that he has collected and dissected as well as the quality of it, that determines his knowledge store. And for scholars, knowledge is power!

Ryger recorded everything on the notebook made of Frostfire bird’s skin.

A whole morning’s worth of basic initiate studies benefitted Ryger a lot. It has opened the door to Ryger’s desire to learn natural sciences and thoroughly erased the reverence Ryger felt towards the great Light Creator Deity. Now, Satro looked as though he was going to teach something more practical.

“So are we going out to collect specimens?” Ryger asked expectantly.

Satro shook his head.

“Collecting high-level natural specimens requires scholars to be out for a long time. Usually, they’re encountered by a team of same-level scholars or mercenary groups when out completing missions. This isn’t really urgent. It wouldn’t be late for you to consider doing it after you’ve learned the basic courses, mastered your own level 0 academic skill and have some self-defence capabilities.”

Level 0 academic skill.

Ryger thought of Auen’s fireball, which, according to him, couldn’t really threaten those mercenaries at all.

“Junior brother, you and I are the same. We come from commoner backgrounds and have not received basic education. So let’s begin with the most basic of all – literacy. As the medium of inheritance for human knowledge, words have accompanied humans in their development. It can be divided into about 16700 basic hieroglyphs…”  

Satro thought of a certain experience in the past and regret was painted on his face. .

“You’ll need to learn properly. It was because I was too dull when I was learning writing from mentor and forgot everything I had just learned that I kept getting reprimanded by him.”

Satro naturally assumed that Ryger did not have any basics in literacy and so planned to start with it. This was also the reason why the Academy would arrange an initiate tutor for all students with a contribution badge.  

If that really was the case, then by the time Ryger was literate, at least several months would have passed.

Reading?

Ryger slowly said: “Senior brother, I have already learned to read and write in the town church!”

“Ah?” 

Satro’s quill stopped moving. He asked amazedly, “You’ve learned how to read and write? It’ll be easier then. Mentor really worried for nothing. “

After saying that, Satro turned around and took two books from the bookshelf — “Basic Training in Dwarvish” and “Basic Training in Elvish”.

“Junior brother, since you have been exposed to initiate knowledge in the church, then you should have had some exposure to Dwarvish and Elvish, right?”

The Church naturally did not have any illiteracy elimination classes. The Church’s seminaries were established with the goal of training preachers from the very first day, and Elvish and Dwarvish were compulsory lessons. Satro naturally knew this much.  

Ryger hesitantly said, “The priest taught some, but I’ve never actually used it before.”

Although Ryger knew some Dwarvish and Elvish, it’s not hard to see from his exchange with Krellina that he couldn’t be considered to have mastered the language.

    “That’s fine! Keep the language books first. I’ll correct you later on. Junior brother, since you already have some basics, the following lessons will be much easier. After you’ve learned about dissecting natural specimens and energy field, then we can let mentor arrange some classes for you and learn with the other students!”

“Yes!”

Ryger made a joyful, longing expression.

If an ordinary commoner really were to learn basic initiate knowledge, they would have to learn literacy, foreign languages, dissecting a specimen, and learning energy field. Learning all of these would require at least several months, what more mastering it. Ryger himself studied for 4 years in the church.

This only goes to show the large knowledge gap between commoners and nobles.

Under Ryger’s gaze, Satro took out a box.

Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit.

Inside the box were many lively, croaking frogs. Satro grabbed one and handed it to Ryger then took one for himself and re-covered the box.

For there to be this many frogs in this season. They should be specimens that senior brother bred specially.

Ryger grabbed his frog tightly. The sticky frog was struggling incessantly and seemed as though it could slip out of his anytime, leaving Ryger with no choice to hold it tightly with two hands so that it can’t escape.

“Natural specimens generally can be divided into 5 categories, namely microorganisms, animals, plants, minerals and fossils. For animal specimens, we generally use dissection to comprehensively understand how their muscles operate. After that, we use it to make biological specimens that can be stored for a long period of time to function as a continuous source of intellectual inspiration. Today we’ll start learning with these frogs. “

While talking, Satro opened a toolbox and skillfully took out a fine needle from it, demonstrating in front of Ryger.

There was also such a toolbox In the spacebox that Satro gave to Ryger. In it, there were all sorts of scalpels, needles, tweezers, pipe wrenches and so on.

 

“This is a bone needle, we insert it into the frog’s central nerves to destroy its perception of pain and make it quiet, facilitating our dissection and observation of their physiological mysteries. This method is applicable to all animal specimens.”

As Satro’s needle was gently inserted into the frog’s body, the struggling frog suddenly stopped moving. It was still breathing and croaking.

“Junior brother, try it too!”

    Ryger took the bone piercing needle handed to him by Satro. Comparing Satro’s technique that he’d just shown, Ryger gently pricked the frog in his hand gently.

However, the frog in his hand struggled even more and with a croak, jumped out of his hand.

“Junior brother, you did not find the right central nerve location. No need to rush. Do it slowly.”

Ryger sweated out of embarrassment and ran all over the room to catch the frog.

Satro looked at his junior brother’s frantic look and laughed out. “Junior brother, did you know that ancient scholars will first take a bite out of their animal specimens to study it in the most primal way when it’s their first time dissecting it. Do you want to try?”

“I’ll pass!”

After a while, Ryger finally caught the frog, only to see that there were blood spots on the frog’s skin. The frog that was handled by Satro had none at all.

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Satro leaned over and pointed to a spot on the frog’s back, patiently saying, “Here. A little to the left. Try again.”

 

Ryger followed Satro’s instructions and inserted the needle.

The frog that kept struggling in his hands suddenly stopped. Ryger made a smile of pleasant surprise and let out a breath of relief. Gently, he put the frog on a dissection tray.

Satro put on rubber gloves and said, “Many scholars feel negative emotions such as guilt, exhilaration, fainting and others when they first begin to learn about dissecting living specimens. We need to correct our attitudes and treat the specimen’s life and death rationally. The killings in the process of research is merely a necessary process in the pursuit of knowledge. When it isn’t necessary, we need to avoid needless killing.”

Among Satro’s murmurings, an exquisite scalpel slowly glided across the white belly of the frog without any hindrance.

As if what he was cutting through was not frog skin, but a piece of soft, fluffy cheese.

The frog on the dissection tray no longer had any sense of pain. Bright red blood flowed out of the wound.

As Satro peeled open the incision with a tweezer, the fresh organs within the frog’s abdomen were revealed to the two of them. Thump, thump. The frog’s heart was still beating.