Ning set his class schedule and went back to the class the next day to wait for new students to come. However, that day went on without any students.
Ning just shook his head and spent the next 3 hours cultivating. Once the time was over, he went back to the staff room to pass some time.
"Oh hey teacher Ning," Ryuger came up to Ning and sat next to him. "How are your classes going on?" he asked.
"I had no students today, so that's about as good as my classes are going," Ning said. "What about you?"
"Hah, mine's not better either. Barely got a student today, but he too asked to leave after an hour. That little sh*t, I will get him someday," Ryuger said making Ning chortle.
"I guess it all depends on the lecture in 3 days then," Ning said. Ryuger nodded his head when he heard that.
Another day passed, and Ning was back in his class, waiting. Fortunately, there wasn't nobody in his class today.
"Good Morning, Teacher Ning," Reya's voice sounded from the doorway.
"Oh, good morning Reya. You chose to come here today?" Ning asked.
"Ah, yes. Teacher Boel told me to come here and learn. I tried to call my friends too, but they didn't want to come at all," Reya said.
"That's okay. Come on in, we can learn now," Ning said.
That entire day, he taught Reya about the concept behind forming pills. Up until now, she had been making pills while following the recipe, but Ning decided to remedy that so that she could see on her own and improve the pills.
Reya left once the classes ended.
For the next 2 days as well, Reya came to Ning's classes to learn and was improving very quickly thanks to him teaching her with only her improvement in mind.
"Oh yeah, don't bother coming here tomorrow. I have a lecture and won't be here," Ning told her.
"You have a lecture, Teacher? Hmm… is this your first lecture?" Reya asked.
"Yes," Ning answered.
"Oh, good luck then. Choose an easy but interesting topic, or the students won't come to your lecture," Reya said.
"Interesting topic? What would you consider as interesting?" he asked curiously.
"Umm…" Reya hesitated. "I'm quite interested in almost all aspects of Alchemy, so I might be a bad person to ask that question. You will have to figure it out yourself."
"Just make sure to have it be interesting to the general mass. You need a lure to get the students. Sometimes, it's the teacher's reputation, sometimes it's the topic itself."
"As long as one of them is interesting enough to get the student's interest, you will have a successful lecture," Reya said.
"Oh, thank you for that knowledge. I shall choose a very interesting topic indeed," Ning said.
Reya left and Ning went back to the staff room to look for ideas.
He searched through the many books in the hope of getting a hint at what his lecture should be about. 'Urgh, I don't really like this. Can't I just teach something simple?' he wondered.
He opened a book and saw a recipe in that book. It was a simple recipe for a pill that even a beginner could make using some everyday ingredients.
Ning quickly closed that book and moved on to another one. He looked through the content of that book as well and came across another pill.
"That's…" he curiously checked that book, especially a part of the recipe.
"Hey, Teacher Ning," somebody called him from the side.
"Ah, Senior Jezeere, how was your class today?" Ning asked.
"Same old. Too many students to teach properly you know," Jezeere said. "How was yours?"
"Uh, I still just have one student. It looks like students don't really care about teachers with no reputation," Ning said.
"Yeah, the students are stubborn like that," Jezeere said with a sigh. "However, your lecture should be coming up soon, so that should help you a bit," Jezeere said.
"Yes, It's tomorrow, and I'm looking for some topic ideas right now," Ning said.
"Oh, yes. Those are important," Jezeere said. "Have you thought of anything?"
"Actually, I have," Ning said as he flipped through the book he was reading just now and pointed at something.
"You're going to lecture about that? Is there even enough material to fill the 3-hour gap?" Jezeere asked.
"I… think so. There definitely is enough content, I just need to know if it's interesting," Ning said.
"Alright, assume I'm a student and give me the lecture on it," Jezeere said.
"Um… sure," Ning said and started explaining what he knew about the topic. At first, Jezeere had a simple smile while he listened to it. However, it soon turned into confusion as time went along, followed by dread and terror.
Ning didn't realize what was happening as he focused all of his attention on remembering the topic from his mind.
*****
Ning stopped cultivating and left the room. He walked out of the underground space and walked into the staff room before getting into the queue to write his information about the schedule.
"Oh, Teacher Ning. You excited for the lecture today?" someone came and stood behind Ning. Ning turned around to see who it was.
"Ah, Teacher Bagoo. Of course, I am excited. You must be excited as well," Ning said with a smile.
"Haha, of course, I'm excited. My topic today is quite interesting as well. I think I will get a lot of students," Bagoo said.
"Oh, good luck. Teacher Bagoo. I hope my topic does well as well," Ning said and walked up to the now-empty board.
He quickly checked his schedule first. Thankfully, it wasn't during the daytime for now. 'I guess new teachers are given the perfect time to teach,' he thought.
He quickly filled in the information for his schedule and turned to the Teacher Bagoo to say his goodbyes.
After he left, Bagoo was left there looking at the board. When his eyes fell on Ning's topic, it was only met with a face of confusion and an audible exclamation.
"Huh?"