NOLMBW: Chapter 30
This abrupt sentence awakened the group of shocked trainee carvers.
The student who most questioned Rong Mingshi clenched his fists and said, “Teacher, the purpose of carving energy stones is to activate the power inside. This energy stone is so flashy but it can only be used as an ornament. What is the use of vividness? A manor’s stone sculptor can do this. I still suspect that Classmate Rong’s energy detector has a problem. I am asking Teacher to test it with another instrument.”
It was like waking up from a dream. The empire’s beastmen knew that if perception wasn’t used to activate the energy stone, the carving process would be much easier. An average gardener or robot housekeeper could do it. Thus, there was another uproar in the classroom.
“Yes Teacher, the activated energy is the point. A false appearance means nothing!”
“Teacher, test it again!”
“Don’t talk about 100% activation. It is actually 0% activated, right?”
However, Professor Phillier had no doubts about this beast-shaped student. He had successfully advanced to a senior carver and had some vision. He wasn’t like these ignorant students in their 20s. It was just that in order to avoid the power in the carvings from influencing the classroom, special devices were placed to cover the energy of the power stone. The students couldn’t see that the energy overflowing from the energy stone was full.
The low-grade energy stone in front of Student Rong completely upended Professor Phillier’s original knowledge of energy stone carving. Over the years, he promoted his skills by relying on mid and expensive high-grade energy stones. He never thought about going back to carve low-grade energy stones. Professor Phillier took a breath and walked to Rong Mingshi. He solemnly stated, “Student Rong, I apologize for the doubts I just had!” He paused before continuing seriously, “Excuse me, can you sell me this carving?”
“…!”
The words once again silenced everyone in the classroom as they looked incredulously at their teacher. What was their tutor saying? Apologizing? Sell? Professor Phillier, who just advanced to become a senior carver, was one of the most promising carvers in the college. Yet he wanted to buy this flashy energy stone? The work of a student who wasn’t even qualified as a trainee carver? Wasn’t this a legendary college professor who had eyes higher than the top?
The little leopard raised his thick paws and pointed to the emperor penguin. “Instructor, this carving isn’t your beast shape. It will be of no use to you.”
Professor Phillier coughed with some shyness and said, “Student Rong, your work touched me a lot. I’m not buying it for mania but… I want a deeper understanding.”
As Professor Phillier was talking, the door of the classroom was pushed open. It was the famous elegant gentleman of the college, the fourth vice-president whose beast form was an emperor penguin. The fourth vice-president entered and nodded slightly at all the classmates. He spoke in a gentle voice, “I’m sorry to bother you students.”
Then he walked in Rong Mingshi’s direction.
“…”
All the students of Class 3 of the trainee carvers looked at the vice-president who suddenly came over with a bit of confusion. It was strange. The vice-president had obviously come over in human form. Why did they seem to see the shaking shape of the emperor penguin? Everyone inevitably looked at the emperor penguin energy stone on Rong Mingshi’s desk.
…This was the vice-president! The fourth vice-president stood in front of Rong Mingshi and greeted Professor Phillier. “Good morning, Phillier. Sorry to disturb you.”
The corners of Professor Phillier’s mouth twitched. “Good morning.”
Then the fourth vice-president smiled at the little leopard. “Student Rong, you carved my beast shape. Please sell this to me.”
“…”
A classmate muttered, “This is clearly just a flashy thing. Why are the professor and vice president fighting over it? Just because it looks very similar?”
Flashy…
The fourth vice-president chuckled and glanced at the tester attached to the desk beside them. Then he pointed to the emperor penguin in front of Rong Mingshi. “Is it okay?”
The little leopard nodded while covering his yawn with a thick paw. He was still sleepy…
The fourth vice-president picked up the carving and carefully placed it into the energy tester of the student next to Rong Mingshi. The data on the tester jumped and landed steadily on the ‘100’ value. It really was the ultimate energy activation rate.
All the students stared at the steady little leopard sitting in the transparent spherical seat.
Then the leopard paws could actually scratch out such an amazing carving? Should they consider becoming beasts to carry out the carving? What if they didn’t have claws? Could they use their teeth?
The classmate, who drove the rhythm from beginning to end, slightly lowered his head and unwillingly looked at his own carving. The clumsy porcupine grinned with slightly twisted teeth, as if laughing at his stupidity.
After dealing with the question of the carving, the fourth vice-president leaned down towards the little leopard who seemed unaffected. “Student Rong, have you thought about it?”
Rong Mingshi gazed at the fourth vice-president’s gentle eyes and was absent-minded for a moment. The man in front of him seemed to be in his 50s or 69s. His belly wasn’t big and he bent slightly to talk to Rong Mingshi. There was a kindness in his eyes that made him feel familiar, like Rong Mingshi’s former grandfather…
Thus, Rong Mingshi squinted with sleeping leopard eyes and seemed to be smiling. “I’ll give it to you.”
Phillier, who had already prepared a bid against the vice-president, was stunned. Give away? Did he hear wrong? This carving was worth at least 200,000 star coins. If he looked deeper, it had a completely different style from carvers up to now and could be worth at least one million star coins.
The fourth vice-president slightly clocked his head. “Give it to me… Okay, then I will give you permission to collect all the low-grade energy stones in the college’s inventory for free. You don’t have to make an application and can grab an unlimited number.”
Phillier and the whole class, ‘…This is an authority that only the college’s professors have.’
The little leopard followed the vice-president in cocking his head. Free stones? Then what about the finished products he made?
The vice-president seemed to understand Rong Mingshi’s doubts and explained, “The regulations of the college states that all student’s words belong to the students themselves. You have the complete right to dispose of them as you wish.”
The Imperial Capital’s Carver Academy charged such high tuition feeds but in fact, it already contained a certain amount of energy stones. The extent to which the students could use these energy stones to make up for their tuition fees or any extra profits was all based on their ability.
The little leopard, who just thought about making money to buy a large piece of energy stone for the Aojia statute, came to his senses. This meant he won’t have to worry about supply in the future! The little leopard nodded in agreement.
The fourth vice-president directly sent a limited key to Student Rong’s quantum computer. Then he reached out and patted the transparent ball that Rong Mingshi was sitting in. “Goodbye, little leopard.”
Phillier watched the vice-president leave and then coughed. “Today’s exam is over. Your mark will be counted in the assessment for the college’s scholarship. Based on the current results, you can choose your own seat and you should pick a good one. Students, please familiarize yourself with the campus and classes will start tomorrow.”
The happy little leopard directly chose the place he was sitting, waved his paws at Professor Phillier and walked away. There was nothing better than choosing the materials!
Phillier and the whole class, “…”
They were afraid that Student Rong didn’t know that choosing the seat reflected the talents of the students in the college. The structure of each classroom was a fan shape. Excellent students chose the seats in the front. The closer they were to the professor’s position, the better. There were only three seats in the front row. The most important thing was the closer to the front they were in the carving practice class, the more priority they had when choosing energy stones. Well, this didn’t seem to be of any use to Student Rong…
At this time, Rong Mingshi had gone straight to the college’s free energy stone carving office according to the map provided by his computer.
This was a smart collection system and Rong Mingshi only needed to provide the secret key to enter. The vice-president gave him permission to leisurely walk around to find his favourite stones in the college’s inventory.
The stones mixed with all types of colours filled the leopard’s eyes. Rong Mingshi didn’t feel dizzy at all as all types of carving ideas filled his head. This wasn’t the same as the resource star that he followed Aojia to in the beginning. At that time, the little leopard never thought he would be carving with leopard paws one day.
In the end, Rong Mingshi threw nearly 20 low-grade mixed energy stones into the auxiliary cart, while he chose 12 with black as the main colour. There was no way. Rong Mingshi admitted that he was a black dragon enthusiast!
Rong Mingshi checked it and confirmed that there were no other arrangements at the school today. The leopard was far more interested in carving than the college and contacted Aojia, ready to go back.
However, at this time, Marshal Black Dragon was handling military affairs at the military department and was temporarily unable to get away. Thus, he contacted the housekeeper at the manor. The housekeeper had been anxiously waiting when the little leopard was out of the house. The moment he received this news, he quickly drove the suspension car to pick the little leopard up.
Rong Mingshi stared at the housekeeper’s mechanical body and could see some eagerness from the mechanical eyes! It was probably an illusion because he was too sleepy…
“Aojia isn’t here?” Rong Mingshi asked.
“The lord is out on business.”
How good was it to finally be alone with his child again? The housekeeper was very pleased.
Rong Mingshi comfortably nested in the ball and slept all the way home. The fatherly housekeeper had a tender heart and drove the suspension car at a walking speed… they didn’t arrive at the manor until afternoon. It was enough to let the little leopard sleep for three hours.
The sleeping little leopard woke up and hurriedly ate something. He went into Aojia’s office and while waiting for Aojia to return, he opened his quantum computer and entered his online store. A few days had passed and Rong Mingshi found that a small row of numbers was flashing under his first sold item. He clicked on it and it showed him the buyer’s message on the product.
Rong Mingshi opened it curiously and was instantly shocked by all the comments. There were a few messages that were pushed to the top of the list by numerous clicks.
-Big store owner, come back soon to sell things. You can’t be lazy when running an online store! (Pitiful tears).
-Big store owner, sell things quickly. I am willing to throw a lot of money towards you (glittering gold).
-Dear store owner, aren’t you too lazy about making money? Can you only sell one item in your online store? In any case, it is okay to open a pre-sale (sorrowful)!
The little leopard subconsciously rubbed his nose. Was he lazy? He thought about everything he carved in the past few days compared to all the works he completed in months in his previous life… he was very diligent!