The next day.
I am an orphan. I realised that yesterday when someone suddenly came to fetch me to the orphanage for a party. Needless to say, I avoided it due to lack of options.
Anyways I am poor. It meant that I do not have the capability to take some choices of my own. Choices like education, house, food and when to come at night.
Whatever. I put on my uniform, combed my hair, sighed and went to school.
Today was the day I would begin attending the academy and I had officially entered the Red Mountain Academy's Soul Master class. I wasn't given a choice. This would be the first day of my nine years of compulsory learning.
According to the regulations set by the Sun Moon Federation, the government of this particular continent, elementary and intermediate academies had free tuition and were compulsory. Elementary academy was three years while the intermediate academy was six years long.
The only choice that the kids have in regards of education is which academy they can go. Only for the poor though. I will tell you later in the story.
"Mr Fan Lin! Here."
The Soul Master class specially had a teacher at the front doors to welcome the new students. Clearly, I was treated much better than the ordinary students. Mostly because I am a soul master and the Sun Moon Federation much pretty runs through our efforts, from technology to security, everything relied too much on the soul masters existence. Thus the Federation gave huge incentives for them. At the end of the day, it was all about profits and continuity.
I followed the teacher to the class as he politely lead on while explaining the landscape and pathways for my future endeavours. Can't deny, the academy was pretty big. He bade farewell and left after escorting me to the class.
I sat down at one side and glanced at the rest of the class, eyeing the protagonist Protagonist Tang Wulin but he hasn't entered yet.
Yeah, I am in the same timeline as him. I went to find his house yesterday and I actually did. Nice house though.
After a while, I counted again and all the students that should be present were here.
This year's Soul Master class only had 16 students, adding me.
The number of children who awakened soul power were simply too low. It was even more apparent in a small city like Glorybound City, thus what's in front of me was actually considered a lot by many. Even my orphanage matron said so.
Hmm. On that note, they seem to be avoiding me. I haven't even told them that I have a Blue Silver Grass as my martial soul and I am an orphan as well and yet they are avoiding me. Do I look that weird?
I checked the mirror and I don't know. I wasn't tanned or malnourished in my previous life. I do look like dried human though.
I looked around at different angles and I still couldn't grasp the problem.
Needless to say, my looks might not have been the problem, my actions were.
'Am I getting the same treatment as the protagonist, a little bit worse actually. But why? Where's the reason?'
....
"Hello everyone. I'm your homeroom teacher, Lin Ximeng. I'll be teaching you the basic knowledge required for Soul Masters over the next three years. How about you all introduce yourselves now? Tell us your name, martial soul and innate soul power rank."
A Teacher finally came and started the class
There were only 16 students, so the introductions went by quickly. As per the norms, When Li Ximeng heard that Tang Wulin's martial soul was Bluesilver Grass, she couldn't help but be startled while the other students roared with laughter. She tried to calm them down but it was hard to see that even she was smiling at the relevation.
'As exactly as it was written. Hmm.'
Well even though I have read the novel and all but this world really discriminated between the weak and the strong... or should I say, the potential between who could be strong and who will always stay weak. But this also meant that it wasn't some alternative fan fiction reality written by someone just to mess with me
I could at least be assured that he won't suddenly be assaulted with some out of the book plot. Although I need some further proof. A day isn't enough.
Thankfully for me, Tang Wulin was here. I can observe his life trajectory.
The teacher, Li Ximeng was a qualified teacher to say. Even though she looks down on trash spirits because they were trash, nothing wrong with it from her perspective. Garbage is garbage.
The lessons were easy as it was just elementary school stuff and half the school time was spent on meditations. Well, it was how to do meditation correctly and to use it to increase your cultivation.
That day ended with a quick history lesson and they were all set to go.
I looked at the book that was given to me and closed it. I didn't know how to read whatever language it was in front of me. Not a problem actually, many of my classmates didn't know how to read this either. The Teacher will teach us.
'At least now I know what I am spending my time on.'
....
After school I went to the nearby market. Money I didn't have any. Hence work. But sadly no one gave me any jobs as I neither have a creditor who can vouch for me nor do I have any guardian to be my witness. Being an orphan sucks. Obviously!
Now I need a way to amass wealth as in this city or to be precise in this whole world, a Soul Master is an occupation that required resources. Lots of resources be it nutritious soul power infused food, cultivation techniques and what not. Actually I don't know what else they need.
I just know that the most commonly available way to increase cultivation progress was the ingestion of soul power infused food which was all non vegetarian food items or related to it.
And~ I am a vegetarian.
Let's think about it later.
Riding the protagonist tail is something my ego won't agree and even if I want to I can't because my Martial Soul is Blue Silver Grass. When I finally get on level 10, my protagonist, Wulin would have already crossed his level 20, becoming a Soul Grandmaster.
It was that hard.
I love how determined I am sometimes.
*Time skip*
Three years later. Red Mountain Academy.
Wan Yunchao twisted his chubby body, moving closer to Tang Wulin's side and whispered, "Wulin, I heard that Zhou Shao Long broke through rank 10, and he's going to buy a spirit soul tonight. How about you? Didn't you tell me last time that you're already at rank 9? We're about to graduate. If you're not rank 10 by the time we graduate, you'll have to go home and cultivate without the academy's recommendation letter. It'll be very troublesome to enter an intermediate academy later."
Three years had gone by, and with it came big changes for Tang Wulin.
Originally only 1.2 meters in height, he had now grown to a height of 1.4 meters. He was already somewhat taller than his peers. With a moderate build, he was neither fat nor thin. From an outsider's perspective, he didn't seem particularly strong. Along with his growth, his face had become increasingly handsome, especially his crystal clear black eyes that reflected light like mirrors. Although his martial soul was Bluesilver Grass, he was still very popular within Red Mountain Academy.
Exactly the same as it was written. Nothing had changed. It was indeed the actual book's iteration.
Well that's the original protagonist! He reached level 10 in just three years even though his innate soul power was 3. And today he will go to buy his first spirit Soul and wallow in misery. All according to his fated destiny.
Hmmm.
My name is Fan Lin. I am a reincarnated person. Now I am dropped in this world and I have to bear all of this for some of the things that I had done in my past life.
I am a vegetarian and a member of forest conservation department... I was . Now I am just a Vegetarian Soul Master living in a world where 99% of the world's human wants the eradication of soul beasts(?) due to unknown reasons and the veracity of this claim haven't been proven yet but I still hate this world and the humans in it.
Why am I ranting about this again? Well I forgot that when there are two people with the same starting point but one of them gets ahead, the other one is going to be mocked by the world. I am personally experiencing it myself because my poor and pitiful classmates could not do anything to Wulin, he is as strong as an ox, so they started taunting me to heal their shattered pride after he left them behind.
And I was barely able to stop myself from massacring them. Kids are really ruthless with words and words aren't my forte.
But I am happy. Not that Wulin is going to go to another school but that I can finally start to create poisons and secondly that I would also be level 10 in around 9 months.
Concoction of poison was a tough choice but since my promise was to..... I can't remember what I even promised. To whom at that.
I will be creating something new. I am not breaking any promises.
The past three years were bitter for me as I kept losing my previous memories and in return also losing my self, reverting to my child like mentality and knowledge level and that was tough.
I didn't have money except for the Alliance funding with whom I can barely feed myself. Now I understood why Wulin had to hammer the ores and only after three years, he barely had enough for a random draw. Not even a normal 10 year old Spirit Soul but A RANDOM DRAW.
I still tried my hardest to cope with the changes in me. I ate berries from the forest to fill my stomach because I was saving for the future.
I only bought a single uniform in a year and I did so many different odd jobs with really low pays cuz those were the only one I can afford to do. Others didn't even allow me to sweep their stores.
I am being sassy~
Was I an incarnation of destitution or something?
So after all this time and work, I barely collected 5,000 Alliance coins. Just 5,000!!!
I didn't even have money for a random Spirit Soul. Well, I wasn't collecting it for that.
For the past three years and after coming tl the realisation that the general public could care less for the lives of others, I was searching for a way to recreate my past learnings while learning to read this world's language and getting accustomed to the flora. I was able to conclude that there were many herbs and vegetables here that were the same as my previous world's but there was some slight differences and one of which was that the herbs here are more potent on their nutrition and such.
Actually, they was far more potent than they were on my previous world.
It should be the effect of spiritual energy of this world. Probably. I still need time to decipher and understand it more.
In just a few months though, I would have enough knowledge to start some basic concoctions and stuff. For now, I can make lemonade with a tomato. I actually can.
I didn't want to do this but last resort, for no matter what happened, I am going to create a better future, even If I have to destroy the one that exists.
I barely have any of my memories of my poison creation or anything related to that. As time had passed, my memories had faded day by day, and I personally don't care now. Everything had ended already and no point to remember things now, I am not going me make me proud with my future actions.
Even without my memories though, I do have an instinctive know-how that this wasn't how I had previously created or used to create my different toxin or concoctions. And with that instinctive know-how, I am avoiding going that path of creation.
Although I don't remember the promises that I made, I still want to try to keep them. No more of my previous poison stuff.
I am gifted in this field, give me a bit more time and I will work wonders.