Chapter 19 - Lucky me

'Lucky me.' Thought Pan, looking at the grain of light as the tutor gave detailed instructions on the process to create his own essence core.

 The process was basically what Pan had gone through, the globe of light was an extremely rare and expensive alchemy item that left a small amount of external essence in the body. This essence would act like a flawed core making it easy to understand and to trigger the creation of its own nucleus. The external essence generated by the grain of light could stay in the body from one month to four months depending on the quality of the grain.

 The professor also explained that the Order could not distribute another grain of light, as it was said to be a rare and expensive item. However, he relieved those who were worried about being unable to generate an essence core or even awaken. The instructor said that awakening itself was almost a certainty when ingesting the grain and for those who were unable to create a nucleus while the external energy was in their bodies, there was good news, even if the energy dissipates, the body still would remember how the essence of the grain acted in the body, facilitating the creation of a nucleus in the future. The process would only be more difficult and time-consuming, which would leave those unable to enjoy the item behind their peers.

 'Forty-fourth in? How shocked would he be if I told him I was already a crusader?' Thought Pan, as he looked at the instructor who rated him forty-fourth of fifty-six apprentices.  'Not that that's much of an advantage in my case anyway.'

 Pan probably possessed more essence than all the apprentices present and would increase even more when he consumed the grain of light, his core had been growing for almost three weeks now and he still managed to harvest essence from one plant or another when no one was looking.

 But his state of absolute clarity was consuming essence at breakneck speed and the only other thing he knew how to do was healing. So he had a big pond but no bucket.

 After the teacher answered some questions here and there, the students were instructed to mark which specialties they wanted on a sheet and then hand the sheet to an assistant.

 Pan would pick up, long-range combat, apothecary and forge.  But he decided to stick with just two classes and after debating a lot between forge and ranged combat, he ended up choosing forge.

 Pan knew there wouldn't be many classes that would help a green in ranged combat, after all, greens were as rare as shooting stars. So he decided to follow what Thorin had told him and develop his own use of the essence, based on what he learned in the forge and the apothecary.

 'A bet based on a fable, I hope it doesn't kill me.' Thought Pan, remembering the fable of the "Green Ruin."

 At first he would not risk his literal future on a tale passed down through generations to teach children about gratitude and greed. But every time he remembered the phrase. 'He then took all the gifts once given and the green became sand again.' Pan couldn't stop thinking about the sunflower turning to dust in her hands.

 Which means that just as Nanna had always said, there was truth to the family's fables and he was willing to bet on them.

 He also kept the book very carefully and well away from prying eyes. For when asking the butler that was, in fact, a very literate man, he did not know any of the fables that were in Pan's family book and he intended it to remain so.

 'Selfishness? Probably yes, but I'm already an armless green, any advantage over others is welcome, and it wouldn't be an advantage if everyone had it.' He thought.

 Pan then marked the apothecary and forge on his enrollment sheet, exchanged a few compliments with Ava who again shuffled her answers and returned to his room.

 The brooding butler was waiting for him in the same place as usual, with a sumptuous new feast awaiting him. Pan had to admit he was starting to like the man. He was silent, helpful and prepared food fit for the gods.

 "Master Pan, if I may intrude," said the butler in a soft voice.

 "Speak," Pan meant he didn't need to ask permission to ask questions, but serving as a high-class butler seemed to bring the man pride.  So who was he to try to change his dogmas?

 "What position does the master get?" Asked the butler hesitantly that the act was considered rude. Especially if Pan had had a bad position.

 "Hm? And that's the big question? Is that why you've been looking at me like that?"  Asked Pan, surprised by all this hesitation to ask something so silly. "I got forty-fourth out of fifty-six, not that it matters anyway," Pan informed him before throwing himself into the banquet like a hungry homeless person.