Since his childhood, all the people around him were nauseating and fake. They were always flattering him and agreeing with him. This is one of the reasons why s.h.i.+ Meng appreciates Jian Tan a lot. The dude had a pure heart and was only after innocent things.

But Eluraa was completely different. She neither cared about him nor acknowledged him. Grabbing his attention meant nothing to her. She was not ogling at him and didn't even need any favors. It is totally possible that she had already forgotten about him.

"Hey Meng" Jian Tan called out. "I am not looking at her. I was just staring blankly" s.h.i.+ Meng blurted out quickly.

"Okay.. Dude shall we go take a sneak peak of the black smithing workshop. I really need to check how crude it is. I still don't get why I need to learn blacksmithing if you are already learning it. My fingers are meant for softer things!" Jian Tan dragged s.h.i.+ Meng along.

" Stuffed rhizome - used for adjusting temperatures while concocting health potions; grows in dry soil with moist environment " Eluraa finished her five hundredth question.

Next to her, Reina was gnas.h.i.+ng her teeth. She was stuck at her 456th question and didn't look like she was able to proceed further.

Luckily for her, only 350 correct descriptions was required this year to clear the first exam. Five out of the partic.i.p.ating ten students cleared the first exam and proceeded to the second training grounds.

Students were required to gather, store, label and describe each herb and were graded on the quality and quant.i.ty of herbs collected. The academy herb garden was left untouched as a huge forest for training the students.

Since there was only an hour of allotted time, Eluraa decided to stick to one spot and process the herbs available there. Since many herbs required fertile soil for good growth, she picked a spot near the lake area and searched for herbs there. Other students also picked similar areas and started their recording process.

After completing her selected patch, Eluraa was thinking how to proceed next.

"Look at her getting dazed already and day dreaming. It's not like she can divine where the herbs are. I bet she has never seen anything like this in her village" Reina mocked her loudly when pa.s.sing by.

Eluraa smirked slightly and suddenly had an idea. She might not be able to divine the location of the herbs but she can always cast a spell to identify mana rich soil areas. The rarer herbs require very high mana soil.

"n.o.body is around and my spell won't be detected. This is a perfect place to try out some spells" Eluraa quickly began to cast her energy scanning spell and found some energy dense patches of soil ahead. They were perfectly placed and she wouldn't run out of time.

As expected, she found a few rare herbs there and quickly finished processing them. She even managed to get to the entrance with a few minutes to spare.

"Look at her! Probably just snagged a bunch of herbs here and there and raced to the finish line to show off"

"It's fine. I think the master is h.e.l.l bent on not letting anyone get selected this year! Some people are just about flaunting."

Eluraa was gritting her teeth on the side "These kids are really getting on my nerves. f.u.c.k it. I am their great great great great grandma and need to teach them some good manners from time to time. Besides looks like I need some money for these professions."

She turned towards one of the gossiping students "Say.. do you have the guts to back up your statement? Or is it just your habit to spout random nonsense?"

"Hey look who is finally talking to us ! don't talk too much just because you were selected in the top five. Everybody knows that was by fluke! " the student angrily retorted.

Smirking at the student, Eluraa again stressed her point, " do you or do you not have the guts to back up your words ?"

A crowd had gathered at the entrance to witness the results of the second test and under everybody's eyes the student couldn't refuse " Here are 10 silver coins. They are all yours if my words are incorrect. Now how about you show me your 10 silver coins. Bet you don't even have one ! How about this.. I am feeling very generous today, if you fail to qualify for the alchemy disciple positions, you need to bow and pay respect to me every time I see you and follow all my orders."

"Why is Eluraa picking a fight with Himrann ! Even the alchemy instructors are watching! Though they don't usually interfere in these things, it's still very embarra.s.sing"

Another student chimed in, " everyone knows alchemy department is not taking any disciples this year and the entrance exam has been set extremely difficult. The head instructor himself is personally grading the results for the second exam and it is very difficult to satisfy him. Now she is creating unnecessary drama on top of it."

Eluraa was still gently smiling on the side and politely replied, " Thank you for your generosity. I will agree to you conditions gladly".

The time limit was almost over and other testing students reached the entrance as well. The head instructor who was watching all this childish squabble, loudly cleared his throat and brought everyone's attention back.

He was even more sure that he made the right decision to focus completely on Wu Cheng. He crisply announced the end of preliminary tests and asked the partic.i.p.ants to hand in their processed herbs.