Edith Academy, training ground.
A girl with golden hair in an orange dress stood under the shade board, watching the stones on the distant ground. She raised a hand, and fiery red particles emerged from the air, then converged continually, forming a rotating flame vortex.
The heat wave brought up her hair and dress, and in the center of that flaming whirlpool, a twisting and compressing ball of flame gradually appeared.
Then the sphere of flame shot out, striking the rocks hundreds of meters away, bursting into countless flames that licked the surrounding pebbles and earth. Even standing under this shade board, one could feel the heat wave from far away.
"Efnie is so amazing,"
The praise from a few companions standing behind her, however, did not cheer up Efnie.
She only revealed a polite smile, thanked her companions for their praise, then silently returned to her seat and sank into contemplation.
Indeed, her ability was not bad, and among her peers, few could outperform her. But even so, she wasn't happy.
Because of her talent that was difficult for ordinary people to match, achieving such results had not been difficult. Comparing herself with those historically talented individuals at the Perfect Level, many had advanced to Sequence 4 at the age of 16. Take, for instance, a boy she knew of who also had a "Perfect Level" Talent, and was about her age. It had almost been a year since he advanced to Sequence 4, and now he was challenging Sequence 5. In that light, her own progress didn't seem sufficient.
Her friends around her praised her because they did not know that her advancement speed, when compared to other geniuses, was actually slower.
Sigh... She exhaled lightly. Though a little annoyed inside, she didn't want to discuss it with the people around her.
Her father was a high-ranking official, and her mother also worked in a governmental institution. They often needed to be cautious in their speech and behavior. Besides, from an early age, there had been many who fawned over and flattered her, with ulterior motives, which made her somewhat disgusted with social interactions. Those who pursued her were either lechers or attempting to use her to make a connection with her father, or both.
The only one she could confide in was a childhood friend she had grown up with. Unfortunately, that person did not come to Edith Academy and went to another school instead.
The rest, though they could be considered classmates and friends on the surface, weren't that close after all.
Sitting aside, Efnie gazed at the ground, lost in thought, when footsteps approached, awakening her from her reverie, and she looked up.
It was the boys from yesterday's ball game; she recognized these five who approached her.
"Hello, Efnie. We're sorry about what happened yesterday, this is our apology gift to you," they said while bowing, then handed over a crystal box.
Within the crystal box was a leaping and rotating Core of Flames, an extremely intricate artificial core, used for demonstration and decoration.
Natural Sequence 4—Vortex Star Flame (rated "Perfect Level"), one simply needed to condense their own Transcendent Core according to this artificial core's template to advance to the profession of Vortex Star Flame. This method was even better than a Memory Card for passing on the secret technique of a Transcendent Profession.
Even at Edith Academy, this was considered a rather precious gift. Outside, it would cost at least several million Federation Coins, as such artificial cores were not easy to make, typically crafted manually by some master of the field, incapable of mass production.
Suddenly receiving such an expensive gift made Efnie somewhat irritated. Truth be told, she did not lack such things, and accepting them for no reason brought its own set of troubles, probably leading to another lecture from her father when she got home.
"Who asked you to send this? Getting ahead of yourselves, presumptuous and annoying," she said bluntly, giving no face to the other party.
Said and done, the girl flung her sleeves, turned around, and, together with her companions, left behind the bewildered boys.
"Efnie is indeed as difficult as the rumors say," some onlooking students whispered.
"She's so prideful..."
"She really didn't give her classmates any face,"
The surrounding students chattered while the few boys, disgruntled, put the box away. They had been happy with the plan they had devised yesterday to collect money and give a gift as a group, but now felt anything but happiness.
"Why though? Wasn't it a very nice gift?" They couldn't understand.
"Seems we misjudged her. Efnie really is that kind of haughty and difficult person,"
"Sigh, we didn't really want to offend Efnie. My family is also in the energy business, and if her dad just decides to make things difficult, we could lose a lot of money,"
There was nothing they could do; finally, to avoid further embarrassment, they quickly left the training ground.
On another side of the training ground, Tilan was practicing swordsmanship, facing off against Anneli. The swords in their hands were slightly different; Anneli's sword leaned more towards a rapier, light and swift, while the sword in Tilan's hand appeared more formal with a slender sword edge and a cross-shaped hilt, giving the illusion of being somewhat ornate in her grasp.
Today, Tilan wore a black dress, black stockings, a black hair clip, with only a few blue roses adorning the collar and dress. Her eyes were crystal blue, and her figure was delicate, an interplay of innocence and allure perfectly merged into one.
Luckily for them, the practice area they occupied was a private room, without spectators. Otherwise, photos of Tilan would probably circulate throughout the campus the next day.
As she shed her previous timidity, the charm of this black-haired, blue-eyed girl began to shine through.