First And Last

The sprint challenge for most students was exceptionally easy.

You ran as far as you could in one hundred seconds, and then waited there while the other students took their turn.

However, there was a dearth of rules for the sprint challenge, and a few students had started throwing projectiles at other students only to find the teachers completely ignorant to their actions.

One child had gotten hit with a rock in the face and barely made it ten feet from the finish line. He limped an extra foot at the thought of his family being absorbed for the good of the Sacred Fire Universe Nation.

Universe Nations had a rule about creating children like many of the other nations. Children that wasted resources would get absorbed back into the planet in so more fruitful children could be created.

Normally, having a rich family with vast amount of resources meant that your family would be safe. However, Machin had changed all that with a few words, causing many of the kids in the challenges to start playing against the rules.

Dozens of children had already gone through the sprint challenge, and the last person to go Grassley got the attention of all the students.

He frowned while the grey haired teacher, Justin, pushed him up to the starting line.

"Grassley, your looks here are going to be the reason at least 50 students here die and their entire families lose all their resources. You better be really fast because if you get in the school nothing will ever be more valuable."

The teacher sighed and blew the whistle, expecting to see Grassley dash off at his fastest speed.

However, Grassley didn't run, he instead jumped into the air a few feet, causing all the students to laugh. Normally, during a sprinting test, one would dash at their fastest speed. Still if you were a teacher, and looking for a smart student, Grassley's crazy action made a ton of sense.

'So, he didn't want to get hit by hundreds of projectiles, so he decided to jump from the getgo in order to avoid getting crushed." The teacher looked at a few irate students staring angrily at Grassley hopping and playfully skipping on what should be a serious obstacle course.

"I guess that means he thinks he has a lot of elemental talent." Justin counted the seconds in his head before noticing Grassley's strange movements. Every time he jumped, he dodged a few dozen rocks without getting hit, however, he managed to look strange enough that most students just laughed rather than taking offense. "Quite a talented set of children."

Justin clapped his hands and laughed before walking over to Grassley, with each step taking him over a meter as second, and put his hand on his back. "I see you have some talent sprout. The next challenge, though, you won't be able to hide your ability. You better be careful."

******

Grassley sat in front of a large rock holding his flute while humming a tune.

He'd spent all morning listening to his favorite song, and couldn't help sing it while waiting for his turn at the elemental challenge.

Justin, the teacher, recognizing the song, walked over to Grassley and sighed before patting him on the shoulder. The more he heard the kid play the flute like a bumpkin, the more he wished that the little brat wouldn't be recycled for the betterment of the planet.

"Kid, you're humming Nightcry by the Premium group, right? What's your favorite lyric."

Grassley looked up at Justin and smiled, before nodding his head. "Heh, I like the part about the nightmare learning to dream."

"Ah,yes. I know that lyric. When the nightmare learns to dream… It will return madness to its rightful place. Kind of a dark part for such a happy song, right?"

"I think it's beautiful," Grassley said with a smile, "With everything back in it's rightful place, even nightmares will be happier."

"Simple way to look at it," Justin handed Grassley six different color stones and pointed him to a table with ten other students. "Here, I'm giving you my favorite element stones. Go up there and get five of them to glow for me will you. Otherwise, that beautiful mother of yours will have to be recycled."

"Why? Why would anyone be recycled?" Grassley stared up at his teacher with a worried gaze. "Wouldn't that be a waste of life."

"Every life takes countless amount of resources," Justin said with a sigh, "A few people in this universe are fighting for the ultimate seat of power. Even someone like you has enough energy in your body to help the strongest person get a little bit stronger. If our nation wants to maintain its balance, we must balance even life carefully."

"Yes, teacher Justin," Grassley nodded his head and walked over to the table. A few students snarled at him when he sat down while a single girl sat to his left in a blue short dress.

She had eyes like diamonds, and put her hand against Justin's leg while he layed the six stones out in front of him. The girl next to him, seeing his actions, leaned into his ear while the other students angrily turned in the opposite direction.

"You need to hold them to get them to glow, see." The little girl picked up the clearest stone and put her hand against her heart. "Try and put the energy you feel in your body into the rock."

"Thank you for the advice," Grassley picked up the blue rock and put it in his hand before doing what the girl described.

Cultivation involved strengthening what humans after the age of cultivation called spiritual roots. Spiritual roots began to exist in humans after the 20th century before the great planetary expansion. Technology caused rapid acceleration of growth in both humans and other species, causing them to develop new organs and what moderners called sacred cavities.

The sacred cavities consisted of three new organs, spiritual roots, a sacred core, and inner wings. In order to become a cultivator, you had to find your spiritual roots, strengthen your sacred core, before your inner wings would grow and eventually expand outside of your body.

Those that had grown their inner wings were called expanders, which were thousands of times stronger than a normal mortal. Only a few people were ever able to grow their inner wings because such a feat required either a tremendous amount of resources or a tremendous amount of time.

Grassley's father had spent nearly one million years to grow his inner wings, and most elementalist cultivators took at least 10,000 years to become expanders.

Yet before becoming an expander, there were several ranks that someone could achieve to grow their strength. Before being an expander, you had to start at the rootless rank, and then could achieve even greater strength! After the prime rootless rank, there was the life duplicity rank, the absorption rank, the spiritual soul rank, the core burgeoning rank, the soul encapsulation rank, the soul expansion rank, and the domain charter rank…

These weren't the only ranks, but to even get up to the spiritual soul rank meant you'd accomplished something few existences in the universe could comprehend! At the prime rootless rank, you gained access to your spiritual roots and then at each further rank you gained more and more abilities depending on the amount of nourishment you put into yourself.

Grassley had only been alive for ten years, but he already had surpassed the rootless rank and reached the life transformation rank! At the life duplicity rank, a person could fully use their spiritual roots to enhance their abiltiies! Frankly, if Grassley wanted to, he could've easily picked up the 500 kg rock, but he had bigger fish to fry than such meager achievements!

He picked up the blue rock in his hand and caused it to glimmer to Justin's delight. Looking down in his other hand, three more rocks began to glow as a large look of surprise formed on Grassley's face.

"Hey, beautiful girl! I got the rocks to glow," Grassley smiled with the other girl turned towards him and stared with suspicion. "Four of the rocks are glowing? Is that good?"

"It's average. You have to get five to glow to be in the top 50. Stop drawing attention to yourself." The girl showed him five glowing rocks in her hand and nodded her head. "The quicker you get the rocks to glow the higher your score. Right now, you still have one minute to beat the highest score. Try and get the green rock to glow, okay?"

"Dalila, my daughter," Justin walked over to the little girl, and put his arm on her shoulder, "You got first in the strength test, so we are in no danger, but why are you taunting little Grassley here?"

"Her reminds me of mother." Dalilia looked up at her father with anger before picking up the sixth rock and putting all her energy into it.

She sighed, and saw her mother's dead body in the shades of glass before she tossed it across the room. She humped and looked over at Grassley, only to find him missing from his seat.

"Hey idiot! I threw that for a reason! You only have so much time to make the rocks grow!"

"Don't throw things that are so beautiful, idiot," Grassley picked up the pink colored rock and put it in his hand, causing it to glow with a smile on his face. "Here, i made it glow. You owe me a smile now."

"You-you made it glow?" Delila rubbed her eyes and smacked the rock out of her hand. "Don't make it glow idiot! Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

"I just wanted to make you smile," Grassley bent over to pick over the rock only to find Justin holding it in his grasp.

He sighed and looked over at Grassley with a look of disappointment on his face. He pointed him over back to the seat where ten other students were sweating bullets trying to get their rocks to glow.

"You have one more minute to get the green stone to glow Grassley. As for this pink stone, if you get this to glow you're a once in a million year talent. To be honest, if such a thing did happen, you'd probably either be killed or worshipped. Either one of this isn't necessarily a good thing."

"Yes, teacher Justin," Grassley gulped and ran over back to his workstation.

'Idiot! What are you doing! Father told you not to show off!' Grassley picked up the green stone and quickly caused it to glow before Delila sat down next to him with a blank stare. She smiled and put her hand on her leg before raising Grassley's hand in the air!

"Father! Come here and take a look at Grassley's results. You're not going to believe it!"