Glan Natural Science Academy

Chapter 61

Without noticing, time passed.

One month later.

At the Academy’s square, as the first season of the first-year honour roll was officially distributed, many first-year students couldn’t wait to go look at it. Even Ryger went to take a look at the list released1, currently standing among the crowd.

Mature, steady and silent.

The unique charms that a scholar should have, a form persistence towards the dissection of the truth of all matters. These traits were now silently glowing in Ryger’s calm eyes.

[1. Psyker, Hall. 207 points]

[2. Morgana. 199 points]

[3. Phoenix, Angina. 177 points]

[4. …]

“Still not in the top hundred?”

Letting out a slightly disappointed mumbling, Ryger, his expression still the face as before he knew the results, soon found his name at the list’s 108th spot.

[108. Ryger. 51 points]

After the book burning event one month before and following numerous trips to the library, Ryger finally managed to finish appraising the three specimens he obtained in his journey to the Furnace Mountains.

Firstly was that large turtle-shelled organism he had caught himself. It was confirmed that it was a rare organism facing extinction named a cupula turtle. The reasons causing the cupula turtles to face extinction included outside factors such as geological and environmental changes, but the root causes for it were its low reproduction rate, overhunting by humans and the propensity for scholars to make them a specimen collection.

Who knows? Perhaps the one Ryger caught was the last cupula turtle in the world…

Regardless, for the Glan Natural Sciences Academy’s scholars who believe in the survival of the fittest, they had no ‘awareness of conservation’, so to speak. None of them sympathized with the turtles; since they were unable to adapt to this world, it was a should that they be eliminated by this world!

The cupula turtles were not the first organism to become extinct nor would they be the last.

Other than that were the two specimens Ryger got the Sealand student’s spacebox.

Shaped like a bamboo shoot and growing in the soil where proteuses decayed, the tulda, as Ryger found out after some inquiries, had many functions. Consuming it raw would impart to the user a special scent. This scent’s formation was closely related to the proteus that died. Using this smell, someone who encountered proteuses of the same species as the rotting corpse would be able to greatly lower the proteus’ hostility towards them. And so, the plant’s value would vary depending on the proteus corpse.

Sadly, laboratory tests found that Ryger’s tulda was formed from the corpse of a migratory avian proteus called a “Buro bird”. This bird was of low value as it didn’t have any outstanding power and was rarely found in Glan. And so, the tulda Ryger had was of little value when consumed raw and could only be used to prepare drugs.

As for the other biological specimen, the purple-feathered avian with a red crown and two pairs of wings, it was a mutated Sunfacer bird. Naturally, a normal Sunfacer bird didn’t have much research value to it. But this mutated Sunfacer bird grew another pair of wings – apparently, this was because it ingested a certain magical plant – resulting in it to have some degrees of research value.

Lastly was the 0.5 grammes of icy wasteland soil Ryger got from Stella.

After Ryger’s many inquiries, he finally got some information regarding it. Shockingly, this precious magical material’s history could be traced back to even before the Gu Lan civilisation. Apparently, it was a type of magical ingredient unique to the period of time where the previous-previous-generation of organisms ruled, before humans appeared in the Land of Star Veil.

Later on, because of geological changes, history changed. Even the Gu Lan civilisation the current humans knew little of, let alone the existences that concerned the period of time before the Gu Lan civilisation.

Regrettably, there were only 0.5 grammes of icy wasteland soil in the fossilised conch. Perhaps to those large-scale laboratories of the Academy’s or to those advanced scholars studying history, this 0.5 grammes of icy wasteland soil would be of certain value for either research or collection purposes, but for Ryger, for the low-level scholars, it didn’t really have much practical use.

And so, Ryger naturally handed over the soil to the mentors at the education office, using it to exchange for some honour roll points.

Unexpectedly, yet also expectedly, the Academy actually gave 36 points for the 0.5 grammes of icy wasteland soil! Whereas the sum total of the Sunfacer bird, tulda and cupula turtle only netted him a mere 9 points.

From this, it wasn’t hard to see that the idea of trying to rely on many low-level specimens to rise through the honour roll was truly delusional.

Moreover, compared to the list of everybody’s that Ryger had gotten from Kubo before this, the points in the list he was seeing now were significantly higher. Evidently, there were many students like Ryger and Stella who managed to finish their final spurt in the last period of time before the honour roll’s unveiling.

As for Stella, Ryger found her name at the 29th spot. She actually managed to get 95 points.

Evidently, that oblation turtle of hers netted her quite a bit of points.

“Auen.”

Soon, Ryger found Auen’s name on the honour roll at the 37th place with 88 points.

As for Sokal, he was at the very end of the list at 545th place with 5 points.

Another thing worth noting was that following the Psyker Hall, the second student to be granted an epithet by the senior mentors appeared, in the form the Phoenix Morgana, of the third place in the honour roll.

Obtaining an epithet represented the Academy’s focused attention towards them. It was equivalent to saying they were the ones who represented the Glan Natural Sciences Academy’s face when the Academy faced off with the other academies in an academic exchange. These people were outstanding students who were said to be geniuses in certain academic disciplines, whose strength had been publicly recognised by the Academy and whose potential far exceeded normal students!

Shaking his head, Ryger walked towards Class 11.

“Ryger!”

Ryger stopped. He was about to enter the classroom when somebody called out his name from afar. With a surprised expression, he looked over at an Auen who was wearing grey-scholar robes! Behind him were four elves who looked travel worn. And because of the four tall, lithe Elves, many students would take a few looks when they passed through. Thankfully, this here was St Glans Castle. It was nothing all too strange for some Elves to be here.

Auen walked to Ryger’s sides with the Elves with a full of smiles.

“Ryger, news from Krellina!”

Ryger was astonished.

Krellina. Wasn’t she that Elf girl he and Auen saved while they were on their way to the Glan Natural Sciences Academy three months ago?

“Ah?”

At this time, a lithe Elf from behind Auen looked at Ryger and after confirming his identity, took out two green leaves that were far larger than a person’s palm. He smiled and said, “Thank you very much for sending Krellina back to our tribe safely. When the grand elder knew of this, he was very grateful for your kind deeds and specially sent the few of us to thank you in person.”

The two leaves were distributed to Auen and Ryger.

“What a strong aura of life!” Feeling the dense life energy contained in the leaf, Ryger was shocked; meanwhile, Auen thought of something after he received the leaf and his hands trembled for a bit. “Could this be…”

The Elf nodded, smiling. “These two leaves are from a tree of life. They also represent the friendship of our Moon Tree tribe.”

Huff…

Auen took in a deep breath and put away the leaf with a solemn expression.

Although Ryger had never seen a leaf from a tree of life before, he had much heard of this famed holy medicine of healing, detoxification, regeneration and mending. He put away the leaf hurriedly, knowing full well of how precious it was.

“Oh yeah!”

Inspiration came all of a sudden, and Ryger thought back to the reason for why 《Self Control》 failed in the many experiments he had conducted the past few months.

“If I rely on the nourishment from this tree of life’s leaf , I might be able to ward off the danger of renal failure from frequent detoxification!”

Thinking of the breakthrough in his experiment brought to him by the tree of life leaf, Ryger felt slightly excited.

Auen looked at the Elf and said sincerely, “I believe that even if it were other people that encountered Krellina’s predicament, they would surely lend a hand!”

The two of them didn’t think that their act of kindness done without any ulterior intentions would result in them getting such a reward now.

The four elves, seeing that Ryger and Auen had accepted the gift, nodded and took out a letter of gratitude from Krellina. Only then did they leave.

Ryger and Auen opened the letter impatiently.

But because it was in Elvish, there was no other way around it than Ryger translating.

“Dear Auen and Ryger, I’ve reached the Moon Tree tribe safely under the protection of the Glan Principality’s mercenaries. What I’ve experienced in this journey will forever be with me. It has made me see the bad people among humans. Luckily, it has also allowed me to recognise you two. I’m now trying to learn the human language. Once I become an adult, I will definitely apply to the grand elder to go to the Glan Principality…”

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