Start With Contracting Sprites

At the finishing point…

After ten rounds, as expected, Su Hao finished in third place.

There was simply a limit to his stamina. At the very last moment, he was overtaken by a tall and muscular boy.

Old Gu, the form teacher of Class 1, walked over. He looked at the tall and muscular boy and asked, "Where's your sprite?"

The boy's gaze shifted to the back. It was only after searching for a while that he found his Little Rolling Stone dozens of meters away in the distance.

It was currently rolling along feebly.

"It… It's over there." He didn't sound very confident.

"Are you aware of the test's requirement? You're supposed to finish ten rounds with your sprite."

"I… I'm just coming to the finishing point in advance to wait for it. Besides, surely other people's sprites aren't next to them at every moment, right?"

The more he spoke, the more he was filled with righteous indignation.

On the running track, instances of sprites running off the running track were commonplace.

His Little Rolling Stone was just lagging behind by a few dozen meters. What was wrong with that!

Old Gu cast a glance at him. There was disappointment in his eyes. "Did you think that we wouldn't realize that Little Rolling Stone is falling short by one round?"

The boy wanted very much to be stubborn and say that that wasn't true. However, when he met Old Gu's eyes straight on, it was as though everything was revealed in his eyes. The stubborn words were stuck in his throat.

Instinctively, he lowered his head.

"Remember this—there are no Sprite Trainers who abandon their sprites… Your evaluation test result is: Disqualified!"

Little Rolling Stone was a pretty strong sprite. If it had finished its ten rounds normally, it would still have had a chance at fighting for the top ten positions.

The boy's mouth opened and closed. Then, he walked to the side dejectedly.

Old Gu turned to Su Hao. A smile actually appeared on his stern face.

"Lad, you're doing pretty well. Continue to work hard."

Su Hao responded joyfully.

As expected, handsome boys were popular everywhere. As for those who were both handsome and capable… Cough, he mustn't be full of himself. He must remain calm.

The boy with the crew cut, who had finished all ten rounds while consistently being in top place and still had energy to spare, suddenly walked toward Su Hao and grinned at him.

Su Hao seemed to see… Teeth with light reflecting off them?

"Let me introduce myself. I'm Li Songting. When you've overcome your shortcoming in your physical endurance, I hope we can compete against each other again."

"Err… Alright. I'm Su Hao from Class 2."

Su Hao touched the tip of his nose.

A challenge invitation was alright, but… Could he be less blunt about it?

What did he mean by a shortcoming in physical endurance? He was clearly making a strategic energy-saving move!

"How can a strategic move be called a shortcoming!" Su Hao grumbled to himself.

Silkworm Baby clung onto the hem of his trousers, climbed up to the top of his head, and laid there with its eyes closed.

It looked like a large yellow hat on Su Hao's head. Also, it was rather heavy!

Su Hao, who had only just taken a few dozen breaths after running ten rounds around the field, wanted to tug it down. He didn't manage to nudge it.

"Gurgle, gurgle!"

Silkworm Baby cried out in dissatisfaction.

How could one call a sprite lazy? It was clearly resting and conserving its energy!

…

Su Hao found a tree and sat under it. The most pleasurable thing in life was nothing more than being able to hide in the shade and rest while others were still slaving away to finish their ten rounds.

This feels awesome.

Right from the start, ten rounds around the field were already a distance that most students couldn't hope to complete, Not to mention when there was even a group of mischievous sprites holding them back.

They hadn't even covered half the journey when many of them turned from a jogging state into one where they ran half the time and walked the other half.

What were they to do when the teachers had already stated that they had to finish all ten rounds even if they had to walk?

Even students who pretended to have finished all ten rounds were dragged out by their form teachers. They were completely clear about how many rounds the students needed to complete.

The remaining students felt incredibly hopeless.

There were obviously more than 100 people on the running track. How was it that they could see everything so clearly?

An hour later, Liu Ren finally ran past the finishing point. He crumpled onto the ground and laid there facing up, his little belly shaking up and down in waves.

Next to him, Little Charcoal Tortoise spat out a few fiery sparks. It didn't look tired at all.

Su Hao had seen the process of Liu Ren's ten rounds.

In the very beginning, Liu Ren had been urging Little Charcoal Tortoise to go faster.

By the middle, Liu Ren had been jogging alongside Little Charcoal Tortoise.

However, during the second to third last rounds, even if it was a brisk walk, Fatty Liu was already close to being unable to move. He had to grit his teeth in order to keep up with Little Charcoal Tortoise's speed.

Was this the legendary race between the tortoise and Liu <anno data-annotation-id="46cd8a83-5508-4ea2-a378-ba2834d63cba">Ren</anno>?

…

Liu Ren wasn't part of the tier that arrived last at the finishing point. He barely managed to place in the mid-ranks. He was ahead of the student in the last place by a good two rounds.

However, in terms of grades, the student in the last place still outdid 1/3 of the student body in the Sprite stream.

Even if those people were requested to finish the entire distance, they honestly wouldn't have been able to do it. What were they supposed to do when they couldn't get their sprites to move at all?

The newbie Sprite Trainers felt very hopeless too, you know!

Some of them were still cajoling their sprites while the others had already straight up given up on themselves.

The whistle rang out at this point.

"Students of Class 2, assemble!"

Old Chen's clear and resounding voice reached them from afar.

Several people, with their heads hung low, slowly walked over to the assembly point.

Old Chen looked at them, her gaze sweeping across every single student's face. She said, "I'm very disappointed in all of you. You are the worst batch of students I've ever taught!

"Look at all of you! Can Sprite Trainers still call themselves Sprite Trainers when they can't even command their sprite to move?!

"Don't give me the excuse that you've only just contracted your sprites. Isn't a new contract a contract all the same!? If you can't do it because it's impossible, how can others achieve it then? Commanding sprites is the most basic requirement of a Sprite Trainer!"

Old Chen reprimanded them harshly. One-third of the students in the rectangular formation hung their heads in shame.

Then, Old Chen suddenly changed the targets of her words, just that this time, her tone became a little more mellow. She said, "For those who managed to complete all ten rounds, all of you are to think about this—just how many of you couldn't keep up with your sprite's speed and ended up holding them back?"

Liu Ren wasn't the only one.

In actuality, while the agility of most sprites which had just entered the growth stage couldn't keep up with a high school student's dash, their stamina outclassed them by miles!

Before the students that had initially found their sprites too slow even ran a few rounds, the drastic decline in their own stamina had made them realize that they themselves were too lacking in stamina.

The only thing they could do was to get their sprites to slow down.

"Sprite Trainers aren't just a flashy occupation where you get to command sprites to battle on the competition floor. It is an occupation where the human battles alongside his sprite!"

Old Chen's tone of voice was very serious. With her hands resting on her hips and a sharp look in her eyes, she added, "Things like lack of stamina, insufficient speed, and an untimely response—all of these will become your shortcomings, which will, in turn, become a fatal flaw in your battles.

"Of course, these things that I'm talking about are still very far in the future for all of you. But all of you must remember this—do not neglect your own training. Sprite Trainers and their sprites have never been individual existences that are separate from each other.

"This time, there are also a few students in our class who performed pretty well. Li Songting, Su Hao, and Qi Lin took first, second, and eighth place, respectively. I hope all of you can follow the examples of these three students in the future. I also hope that all of you will continue to work hard and grow to become qualified Sprite Trainers soon."

While hiding the mirth in her eyes, Old Chen merely said dispassionately, "Alright, the three of you, follow me."

In the office…

Old Gu, the form teacher of Class 1 and also the headmaster… Headmaster Gu was currently preparing the rewards for the test.

"What the school will reward Wood-Element Sprites with this time is Sap-Spreading Jade Powder. Earth-Element Sprites will receive Black Rock Jade Powder, while Water-Element ones will…"

"If none of you have any objections, you'll be able to receive the jade powder tomorrow… Today?" Old Gu shook his head. He said, "The school also needs to procure jade powder which corresponds to your respective sprites."

This was very practical.

A month's worth of jade powder cost 2,000-odd yuan, and three months' worth cost 6,000-odd yuan. This was free money, after all. Even Gu Lingyao was smiling at this point, despite being an existence that was a class higher than even the whales.

Su Hao didn't leave immediately. He waited until the other students had more or less left before he asked hesitantly, "Umm, sir, can I change my Sap-Spreading Jade Powder reward to Green Bamboo Jade Powder instead?"

"Err, why is that?"

Sap-Spreading Jade Powder cost 650 yuan per box while the Green Bamboo Jade Powder cost 599 yuan per box. No matter how one looked at it, this wasn't a good deal.

"Because my sprite is used to eating Green Bamboo Jade Powder."

Su Hao gave Silkworm Baby a look.

"Gurgle~"

Silkworm Baby echoed him unwillingly.

"Sure, no problem. There would only be an issue if you wanted to change it to a more expensive type," replied Old Gu with a laugh.

His words made Su Hao swallow the inquiry of whether he could exchange the difference in value for cash back down his throat.

After Su Hao left, Old Gu touched his balding scalp and remarked, "Looks like this is a student with his own views."

<annotations style="display: none;"><ol class="tinymce-annotation-container"><li data-annotation-id="46cd8a83-5508-4ea2-a378-ba2834d63cba">A reference to the Aesop's fable, The Hare And The Tortoise</li></ol></annotations>",