Why Did You Summon Me?

The bald guy’s haughty expression softened as soon as his mind registered their words. Staring at the guidebook in his hand, he asked tentatively, “Sae everything in this book… they’re all untruths?”

“Oh no, they’re accurate, alright. In fact, I bet everything in that book is true. Still doesn’t warrant spending a dime for it,” the hunky student replied.

“True that. You can get practically the same kind of information from the book just by asking any senior in the faculty. Hell, treat them with a drink or something, and they will tell you everything, free of charg e. Pay attention to what they say and you, too, can author a book like that!” The shorter Southerner chimed in. “Oh, I’d wager that was exactly how that Business Faculty bastard compiled this overpriced guidebook in the first place.”

The bald guy’s eyebrows started pushing towards the center. Being charged a piece of gold coin for what could be free was already stupid enough, but he managed to gift that merchant t hirty pieces of gold coins altogether! At least these Southern scunners were kind enough not to ask him on how much he had paid, or he was sure they would crown him the best clown of the year.

Not to say that they needed to ask in the first place — just watching the storm settling on their bald Northern friend’s features was enough of a clue. ‘That’s the Business Faculty for ya” , they remarked in their head. ‘Every last one of them was a heartless, soulless, scheming piece of s***. It was just like them to exploit everyone for their own profits!’

“Fie! Is there nothing th’ academy cuid dae aboot these dastards!?” One could hear the rising tide of anger in his voice.

“Ah, how shall I put it? Uh, hem. The book was compiled by that merchant, so technically, he was selling you something he had ‘personally created’. Neither did the element of force came into play during the sale, so the deal was legal. The academy can’t weigh in since it didn’t breach any rules,” The shorter student said gingerly.

The hunky one looked like he was trying to stifle his laughter. Nonetheless, as a display of sensitivity, he attempted to be as solemn as possible when he added, “Don’t they teach kids about arming against s****y conmen back in the North? You know, how to watch for the telltale signs of a scam? ‘Cause you’ll be seeing red flags everywhere on the Business Faculty, man. From their teach’ to their apprentices, every last one of them is a scum without a conscience. Hell, they gather together, learn how to swindle every nickel out from the rest of the world, and called it ‘business tactics’!”

His commentary sounded harsh, but it was not really an exaggeration. With the Merchant Walker taking the helm as the Principal, the Charlatan Walker as his Vice-Principal, and the legal-loophole abuser-extraordinaire, Kashi the Painter, as their Leading Lecturer, the Business Faculty’s integrity practically rot from the top. Combined with students whom these S-class conmen handpicked based on their kindred potentials, the entire faculty was basically a conmen production factory.

If Baiyi was to relax even a little while overseeing them, they would have turned into a bona fide crime syndicate.

The bald guy gritted his teeth. It was not the loss of money that infuriated him — as the son of a prominent Northern nobility, thirty gold coins were just a sub-amount of his monthly allowance. No, he was furious because his pride was hurt.

He fumed, “Cravens! This shall not rest ’til justice is mete! I’d defended th’ academy wi’ mah blood! I will nae stand tae be mocked! I’m off tae give thair Principal a piece o’ mah mind!”

“Halt, buddy. That ain’t gonna work,” The hunky one interjected like a slick advising his predictable friend. “Debating with a bunch of con artists? They will obfuscate you till you see stars spinning around you. Trust me, ten of you can’t beat even one of them.”

“Besides, the skill of gathering intel is also a part of the test, man. What should you equip yourself with? How do you go about gathering and filter your intel of interest? We’ve been taught this over classes all the time. Every proper knight knows how to properly prepare themselves before a mission,” The shorter one joined his compatriot. “You can be mad about this, but you’re not going to win the argument.”

“Yer taught how tae collect information?” The bald guy asked, bemused. Due to their unique status, the Northerners never joined any of the classes taught in the Knight Faculty. Instead, their lessons were solely on elemental combat chi control, which was taught by “Huffing Piggy #1” the Warrior Walker.

“Of course. It’s only gonna be more important once we leave the academy and venture into the wild, messy world out there, right? What if you wanted to explore somewhere or embark on an adventure in an unfamiliar place? What should be your gears and equipment? How to gather accurate and useful intel from information brokers?” The hunky student explained patiently. “All of these take skills. Though every respectable fighter would learn them after some experience, the faculty teaches it right now.”

“And this is why Da Xue stands out among all educational institutions! Not only do they teach us fighting techniques and tactics, but we also learn about the trades and skills to strive in the society out there. Unlike us, students from other schools have to spend their time learning these the hard way while we Da Xue graduates immediately make a name for ourselves [1],” The shorter one added, patting the bald guy reassuringly. “So don’t fret about it, alright? Just think about it this way: that Business Faculty is a den of snakes, right? Once you learn how to counter them, there’s no one else in the world who would ever get the better of you again!”

The bald guy gave an amused chortle. “In all honesty, I’m o’ nae need fur th’ art o’ combating conmen… But I ken yer advice. Mayhap th’ others ‘n’ I ought tae partake in these classes in th’ future.”

Despite his youth and his shiny, glowing head, this Northern lad was the eldest son of a high-ranking general and heir to the position. Indeed, it was his high-born station that automatically made him the Northern students’ leader. Rightfully, the most important knowledge for him was how to lead and fight, instead of evading street-level scam artists and snake-oil salesmen.

Nonetheless, it did not stop him from understanding the importance of these lessons. On the surface, they were about avoiding scammers, but the larger intention was always to mold the students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

This sort of practicality in their curriculum was one of the many reasons Da Xue stood out and eclipsed all other institutions. [2]

“Alright, let bygones be bygones. Let’s focus on the present, shall we? We should check our missions now. If we’re lucky, we could help each other on our quests,” The hunky one began before reading out his missions to the other two: obtain ten Titantail Salamanders’ tails, capture a Furria’s cub, and poach five lindworm eggs.

“What the hell, you’re a senior! Aww man, just look at the difficulty of your missions…” The shorter one exclaimed in shock before flashing them his missions: draw a map of on a targeted area; pick a stalk of a herb by the name of Dracohepatia, and finally, obtain ten of a Steel Scarab’s scales.

As the Titantail Salamanders and the lindworms were apex predators of Mount Parazonium’s ecosystem, it entailed two deadly battles in the hunky student’s quests. The Furrias were relatively harmless, but to compensate for their lack of self-defense mechanisms, these creatures had long established a commensal relationship with other aggressive beasts, relying on the latter to protect them indirectly. Hence, one could only find a Furria’s nest close to the dens of other deadlier creatures.

In comparison, the shorter students’ missions were several leagues easier. At least two of them — drawing a map and picking herbs — could be done without actually getting into a fight. The only mission that may involve some form of weapon-brandishing would be one involving the Steel Scarab, and even that was still relatively easy. Since it was a solitary animal with hundreds of scales around it, one could take a Steel Scarab down with a team and divide the creature’s parts and still be able to meet the requirement of their mission.

Needless to say, placing the two students’ quests side-by-side easily highlight the gap of difficulty between them, once again hinting at the two students’ differing academic grade.

However, it turned out that the bald Northerner’s missions managed to out-easy them both. Two of his missions were essentially mandated explorations, while the last one involved hunting three Shield Gars. These fish were famous for their swift, nasty bite when provoked and their severe lack of intelligence. A humanoid effigy made from a reliably sturdy material would suffice to bait these Shield Gars into attacking, so fishing them could not even count as a test of patience. They were so dumb that their intelligence may even be more inferior than players of free-to-play mobile games.

“Whoa! Now those take me back to my first grade,” the shorter student muttered enviously. “Back then, the greatest challenge of the Trial was plain survival, ’cause the missions themselves were pretty damn basic.”

The hunky Southerner, meanwhile, affixed the bald guy with a look of disbelief. He tipped his head higher, his eyes skimming through the other’s head as if to find any fiber that could resemble hair before murmuring, “Um, I… I didn’t expect you to be a freshman.”

The bald Northerner was embarrassed and indignant. A Northern warrior constantly trained their body and mind under the tutelage of the eve unforgiving mother nature, so he clearly should have been tasked with something more challenging than these small fries!

“Unacceptable… I wull nae be satisfied wi’ these pathetic missions! I’ll complete three more side quests as well — I’ll complete six missions throo’ out these ten days!” The bald guy declared boldly as he furiously drew out three more metallic sheets from his pouch, each of them color-coded: bronze being easy, silver as intermediate, and gold as hard.

He flipped the bronze sheet and read the quest: ‘Submit a Lavasioth’s beating heart’ .

The two Southern students immediately made a face at each other as if saying ‘Nope, I don’t think we should know the rest’ . Then, in unison, they marched towards him and simultaneously gripped onto the latter’s shoulder with one hand, shaking their heads.

“I admire your passion, my friend, but I think we should just put that back into the pouch and focus on our dinner,” the hunky one advised.

“How dae ye mean? Are these impossible?”

The Northerners shook their heads simultaneously again and explained, “Well, it’s not impossible per se , but it’s so tedious that it’s wiser to just give up. Sure, maybe a Lavasioth isn’t the most powerful enemy you can find here, but your mission is to submit its beating heart. Emphasis on ‘ beating’.  So, to make sure that the heart remains alive despite being taken out of its chest, you can only hunt it close to the last or second last day of the Trial…”

“A Lavasioth is known for its shrewdness and hypervigilance, man. It takes cover deep within the earth, and if you don’t know how to force it out by drilling or blasting a crater out from the earth, the only other option is to wait for it to come out on its own volition at night when it hunts for food. Due to the time constraint, this means you only have one night to fight it and defeat it. Lose that, and your chance is gone forever!”

“If you wanna make sure that you will succeed, you’ll have to spend several nights not sleeping and locate its possible hideout as well as observe its pattern and habits…”

The bald guy was choked into a silent stare. Although Northern warriors were no strangers to survival training in the wilderness, those training never involved hunting. This mission, however, was not just a test of hunting skills, but also superhuman endurance and patience. The amount of effort needed just to increase the odds of success alone was enough to obstruct one’s progress on their main missions!

Just thinking about the absurd difficulty of completing a bronze-level side quest made the bald Northerner questioned the viability of completing silver- and gold-level ones. Still too headstrong to admit inadequacy, he shook his head to abandon the thought of giving up. “Why, haes na one ever finish all six quests afore?”

“Well, someone did,” The shorter one admitted.

“Then how come did ye think it wid be impossible fur me?” The bald guy replied hotly.

“My young and foolish friend, do you even have nary an idea who that person was?” The hunky student rebutted a little mockingly.

The bald guy shook his head, confirming the former of his suspicion.

The hunky one lifted his finger and said solemnly, “Throughout these ten years, there was only one legend who had managed to complete all six missions. Do you know who that was?”

“None other than our beautiful, adorable, sexy, gentle Professor Attie!” The shorter one replied with beaming adoration and awe. “Dude, do you know how powerful that sword of hers is?”

“There you have it. You better just stick to thinking about what to eat tonight, if you ask me.”