start with contracting sprites
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Wednesday, 13th August. Sunny.
The 16th day after contracting Silkworm Baby.
The second day of school.
Sprite stream started formal lessons.
On the desk was a new book, Start From Contracting A Sprite, published by the Union of Sprite Trainers. It discussed how to grow from a beginner who just contracted a sprite to a real, qualified Sprite Trainer.
This book wasn’t as dull as most ordinary textbooks. Instead, it dived deep into the phases of Sprite Trainers and sprites using easily accessible language—mixed with many well-known anecdotes of famous Sprite Trainers.
Su Hao opened it and was immediately fully immersed in it.
The “Ding-Dong” tones of Intelligence Points increasing echoed in his ears. It was double the joy.
So wonderful and pleasant is the life of a Sprite Trainer.
In the classroom…
Apart from students, there were still sprites, squatting, standing, or lying on the stomach beside their own Sprite Trainers.
However, they were all quiet. Even the naughty sprites, which had only attended to their Sprite Trainers half-heartedly or gone off playing without returning the previous day, all looked completely good-natured now.
Silkworm Baby was not an exception. Its big eyes looked from time to time toward the puppet, which was as tall as a person, in front.
The puppet wore a dress with patterns of small flowers. There were silk strings tied to its hands and feet, suspending it in mid-air, held by a wooden hook the shape of a cross.
Its eyes were lively and dynamic. They turned around and, from time to time, glanced toward the budding new sprites in the classroom.
Marionette!
It was the evolved form of a Wooden Puppet. Even without looking, Su Hao knew that it was the overbearing power the Marionette exuded that put all the sprites in the classroom into a state of shock.
It is fat.
Silkworm Baby closed its eyes, opened them again, and closed them once more. Then, it kept crawling, until it was behind Su Hao, hiding itself.
Su Hao, “…”
Old Chen was teaching calmly on the podium.
“Since everyone chose Sprite stream, then you have only one purpose—to become a real Sprite Trainer.” She paused. “You should be clear about the condition to becoming a Sprite Trainer certified by the Union. That is to own an entry-level sprite.
“Then, what is an entry-level sprite?”
Old Chen’s gaze swept around; many classmates who were scared of being called up to answer the question hurried to bow down their heads.
Su Hao was immersed in learning and remained immune to the powerful gaze of the form teacher.
Old Chen didn’t think about asking a question at all. “When the spiritual force contained in a sprite reaches 100, it can start to try to compress the spiritual force energy in its body. The compressed spiritual force would have exponentially increased effectiveness, whether in applying unique skills or simple usage of spiritual force… Then, the sprite can truly be counted as entry-level.
“Sprites at their growing stage are in a period of rapid development. Many sprites don’t get enough cultivation during the growing stage, specifically insufficient spiritual force intake. After they reach adulthood, if their spiritual force still hasn’t reached 100 and their potential is exhausted, it will be challenging for them to break into entry-level.”
The beginners in the class listened carefully and also understood why feeding jade powder to sprites was emphasized continuously. The chance for sprites that only ate normal food to break through was minimal.
“So long as you can train your sprite to entry-level before the college entrance examination, you stand a very high chance of getting into a good sprite university.” Old Chen said, “Those who can’t break through but have a spiritual force of more than 90 still have a chance of entering sprite universities. In a word, if you don’t want to be eliminated in the competition, you have to pay serious attention from today onwards!”
A classmate raised her hand shyly.
“Speak.”
“Teacher, what level is your Puppet sprite at?”
Old Chen snorted. “You can even remember the name wrong. Go home and give your Sprite Encyclopedia a good read…”
She continued to say, “After entry-level, sprites have elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels. Even higher up, there is the elite-level. The same levels also go for Sprite Trainers. My Marionette is at advanced-level, but these are not important to you guys, don’t think too far. What you need to do at this stage is to set a solid foundation for the sprite.
“And before entry-level, if one wants to, sprites can be categorized into several stages. The first stage is the initial growing stage, the level that your sprite is at. The second stage is when the spiritual force exceeds 30. The sprites can try to learn unique skills… Unique skills are a more advanced way to use spiritual force and the key to applying sprites’ abilities.
“The third stage is when the spiritual force exceeds 60. The sprites can use multiple unique skills. Under the nourishment of spiritual force, the physical abilities of the sprite would also improve.
“The fourth stage is when the spiritual force reaches or exceeds 100. The sprites can start compressing spiritual force, and you can also start to design a battle tactics system for your sprites…
“My requirement to you all is to try to let your sprites’ spiritual force reach 60 points by the end of this semester. To that end, apart from supplementing nourishment such as jade powder, you also need to do some corresponding training to fully tap the sprites’ potential.”
It was pretty troublesome for others to test their sprites’ spiritual force, as they had to go to corresponding institutions.
Su Hao opened his interface and glanced at it. The statistics of Silkworm Baby were as following:
Physique: 11
Spiritual force: 18
It doesn’t seem too far from the 30 points of the first stage’s spiritual force, right?
…
There were very few classes for the Sprite stream. Every day, they only had two to three classes that had to be taken in the classroom. Another was an outdoor lesson, teaching students how to train sprites.
Su Hao also listened carefully. It had nothing to do with Intelligence Points. He felt that a lot of the knowledge opened up new doors for him.
Just that…
For the sprite cultivation plan, I still choose the interface.
In the weeks afterward, everything started to get on track.
On Monday, Silkworm Baby trained speed and endurance with the treadmill at the school. Long runs could no longer satisfy it.
On Tuesday, Silkworm Baby used the “wood column array” at school to train speed and agility.
On Wednesday, Su Hao used the “hitting force tester” to test the hitting force from Silkworm Baby’s full force.
The evaluation showed that it could break a small tree sapling as thick as the opening of a bowl.
On Thursday, Silkworm Baby trained spiritual force at school…
On Friday, Silkworm Baby…
Of course, Su Hao played a crucial part in it, which let the seemingly ordinary training achieve extraordinary results.
“Gurgle, gur… gle…”
Silkworm Baby squirmed and moved. It made a faint sigh, going dizzy.
When Silkworm Baby lost its fighting ability, Su Hao picked it up, stretched its body, and fixed it on the rack.
He applied the painstakingly expensive spiritual medicine essential oil he had bought and then sprinkled some medicinal powder.
He turned it over to sprinkle again, more evenly.
Underneath the simply made rack, he unscrewed the stove and slowly baked it with low fire to improve Silkworm Baby’s absorption of the medicine.
Silkworm Baby, powerless to resist, let him do what he wanted, looking tired of its life.
I’m already a useless silkworm.
…
1st September, the day that first and second graders started school.
Su Hao opened Silkworm Baby’s information.
Its physique had grown to 18, and its spiritual force had actually reached 30—the second stage that Old Chen had talked about!
This was the most basic progress.
Some hidden ones, those that wouldn’t show on the interface, were similarly significant. For instance, the skin that was increasingly comparable to a curst, cultivated from baking Silkworm Baby.