BANG BANG
"Wake up, Idiot!!"
Someone started banging on Nilo's room.
"Stop! Stop! I'm already awake," Nilo shouted from inside with obvious annoyance. Nilo was a young man with a handsome face, but messy hair that brought down his attractiveness a bit.
He got out of the bed and stretched. He then went to wash his face before looking at the robes in his storage.
"Hmm… red or black?" he wondered for a few seconds. He thought about what he needed to do today and picked red. He quickly changed his clothes and walked out.
Outside the door were 2 other young men waiting for him.
"What the F*ck? Why are you wearing red? I thought we were going to go tame some beasts today," one of the young men said.
"Yeah, Nilo. You went to the Alchemy wing yesterday too," the other man said.
"I'm sorry guys, I didn't get an answer yesterday, so today I'm going to try once again," Nilo said.
"You serious? Damn. Okay, I can't stop you now I guess," the man said. " Alright, let's go or we will be late."
The group of 3 walked out of the massive student's house and climbed up the stairs to the top of the mountain.
The students lived on the west side of the mountain, opposite the city. This was a special place the academy owned and built houses here for its students.
After reaching the top of the stairs, the other 2 black-robed students went to the Beast Mastery wing, while Nilo walked towards the Alchemy wing.
'What's on the schedule today?' he wondered and checked it on the massive board in the hallway.
'Oh, the old geezer is teaching? Should I go to him?' he wondered. 'Nah, his class has way too many students to learn anything I want to learn.'
'What about Tyra? Is that woman teaching anything?… doesn't seem so.'
'Oh yeah, who's on lecture today,' Nilo thought and looked through.
'Boring, boring, oh a new name… but still boring, boring, bor— huh?' Nilo walked forward to see the schedule closely.
"WHAT?!" he shouted out loud.
"I know right?" someone else beside him said.
"That's so stupid that I want to go check it out."
"Me too."
"Haha, let us all go there."
People started walking towards the lecture hall, leaving behind Nilo and a few others. Nilo just looked at the lecture topic and was still very surprised and confused by it. So much so that, he couldn't help but question out loud.
"Who in their right mind teaches Alchemy students about Cabbages?"
*****
Ning looked at his lecture hall that could easily fit around 25,000 students quickly start to fill up. It was unlikely that he would get 25 thousand students, but he would be happy with just 5000 of them.
He had a wide smile on his face as he looked at the students come in and give him a weird look. He was secretly patting himself on the back for coming up with such a stupid, yet brilliant idea.
He watched as students quickly filled about 1000 seats. He waited, and as hoped, more and more came in. However, after 2500, they started slowing down.
In the end, only 3000 of them were in there. 'Sigh, I guess luring with Cabbage wasn't the best idea. Still, if I can keep these people, I should be able to do quite well in the monthly count. I only really need half of them to join one class and I will be set for the Bronze star badge,' Ning thought.
He waited for a little longer and the time to start the lecture finally arrived.
"Please quiet down," Ning said. The student's chatter came to a grinding halt as the lecture hall had a pin drop silence.
"My name is Ning Ruogong. I'm a new teacher in the Five Professions Academy and this is my first lecture. So, for my first lecture, I decided to go with something that everyone would know about… a cabbage," Ning said.
"How many of you don't know what a cabbage is?" Ning asked, but did not get a single response.
"Exactly. However, how many of your truly, and I mean TRULY know about cabbages?" Ning asked. Once again, the students remained silent. They didn't know what the teacher was talking about at all.
Ning smiled and picked a random student. "You, young man with short hair and gold earrings, What benefits do cabbages have?" Ning asked.
The student stood up, under the prying eyes of his other 3000 fellow students, and started nervously answering.
"Uh… they are nutritional," he said.
"Yes, keep going," Ning encouraged.
"Um…" the guy looked around him and then back towards Ning before saying, "They are…good for keeping your thin. They fill your stomach without making you fat."
"More?" Ning asked.
"Um… I'm an Alchemy student, teacher… I don't know about vegetables," the student said.
Ning shook his head and asked, "Anyone know anything more?"
A few students answered him.
"It helps reduce your fever," A girl said.
"Good! More?" Ning asked.
"Uh…It helps maintain a person's blood pressure," another girl said.
"Yes, keep going," Ning said.
"It helps with digestion?" a young man questioned.
"It does… however, all the answers you guys are giving me are something a chef would tell me, not an Alchemist. Tell me, from an alchemy perspective, what does a cabbage do?" he asked.
The students looked around at themselves wondering what to say. They hadn't even heard of using cabbage in Alchemy before this.
"Um, teacher… is Cabbage even an Alchemy ingredient?" a girl asked.
Ning smiled and said, "Of course it is."
"Did you know that you could submerge a cabbage in a Fire Fox's urine, and then use it to make a pill that cures blindness?"
"Did you know that cabbage is one of the most important ingredients in making a pill that directly removes the kidney stone of a person without hurting them at all?"
"Did you know that using cabbage, you can make a pill that instantly removes any form of insomnia?" Ning asked.
The crowd looked around, dumbfounded.
"Well, you are in a bit of luck then.. In today's lecture, I will tell you about 40 different ways Cabbage can be used to make pills that truly do wonderful things.