They went over and saw all the goodies Aella had in her hands.
'Ahh, so she has a sweet tooth,' they all concluded.
Seeing everyone staring at her, Aella tucked the cake away before saying:
"I-I'm not sharing my cake.... Th-there are a lot of other cakes and pastries in those bags," she said, pointing at the other shopping bags.
They stared at her as she hid the cakes in disbelief.
"Yeah, yeah, we don't want your damn cake either," Amari rolled her eyes as she pulled out another cake.
Aella gathered a pile of pastries in her arms. She took them and walked in the direction of the living room. The class F dormitory had a living room that was furnished with a large L-shaped sofa, and next to the sofa there were three soft brown chairs. In the middle of the room was a coffee table, on which Aella placed all the pastries she had in her hand. The residence had a kitchen, which wasn't as big as the living room, but it wasn't small either, there was a small dining room and a spacious balcony.
"All of you come over here. It's time for a chat," she called to everyone.
They all gathered in the lounge. Some of them stayed standing, some of them sat on the floor like Aella, while others sat on the sofa and in the chairs. They watched as Aella stuffed a large piece of strawberry cheesecake into her mouth. There was a silent exchange of glances between them.
'Where is all this food going?' they thought, staring at her from head to toe.
'This place needs a good renovation. Aella sat down in front of the coffee table and continued to eat all of the pastries that were in front of her as if there was no tomorrow.
"Whew, that was delicious," she licked the corner of her lips. "Now," she said, "I'm going to need one of you to come over here and start cultivating.
Everyone looked at each other. There was not a single one of them who wanted to do this. Because they already knew what was going to happen if they tried to cultivate. As soon as they get in position and start absorbing mana into their bodies, their core essence and their blood vessels, they will start vomiting blood and suffer a lot of pain all over their bodies.
Aella took another slice of strawberry cheesecake and shoved it all into her mouth, she glanced at Aisha, then Adam, her eyes watching each of them without saying anything as she devoured the cakes.
They flinched under Aella's gaze, but they really didn't want to go through that kind of pain again. Well, I can't blame them for being afraid," Amari thought, noticing that no one wanted to go.
She wanted to volunteer, but it looked like Aella only wanted those who had the ring on their fingers to cultivate.
"I'll do it." Just as she was about to ask Aella if she could do it, Kye approached and said.
"Oho," Aella mused, "then come over here". Kye pushed the coffee table, which was now empty and only had some waste wrap and empty boxes on it, to the side and sat cross-legged in front of Aella. The two of them were facing each other. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and focused on his five senses to gather mana energy.
The air around him began to change. Kye could feel the flow of mana into his body. But when the mana energy reached his core essence, Kye's body shook. He felt his whole body burning. It was as if he had been thrown into a pit of raging fire. His heart was beating at a high rate, and it felt as if someone was pressing down on his heart. Blood poured out of his mouth and down his nose, and he tensed and frowned as he tried to endure the searing pain that was rising in his chest.
"You can stop," Aella urged him.
Kye abruptly opened his eyes, "Haa haa, ugh".
He was struggling to catch his breath. Even though he had already stopped cultivating, he was still feeling the aftereffects. He wiped the blood from the corner of his lip and tried to stand up. However, he felt dazed, as if he was going to faint at any moment. He heard Aella say just as he was about to get up.
"Sit back down, don't get up." Aella stopped him. "Until your body has recovered, do not get up. The Mana you've just cultivated hasn't settled down yet, if you get up right now, you're going to get knocked out for a long time," Aella looked at him.
Adam stroked his chin: "Aha, that's why I always feel like this when I cultivate?"
"But eh??…, mana, but we don't have any, even if we cultivate it's a waste of time since we can't store mana inside our bodies anymore".
Aella stared at them and shook her head, "I honestly don't know how you guys have managed to survive up until now with that kind of attitude."
Then she held out her hand to Kye and said, "Give me that.
Kye looked at her confused, "Give you what?" he didn't understand what Aella was referring to.
"The ring. Take it off and give it to me."
"Huh!" his eyes opened wide.
"Take the ring off your finger," Aella said again patiently. She saw him frozen like a statue.
"Huh!" there was a look of surprise from all of them.
'Is that ring really what's causing all this?'
Kye looked at Aella once more, his eyes wide with surprise. Seeing her serious expression, he stared incredulously at the ring on her index finger. Slowly he removed the ring from his finger.
Upon removing the ring, Kye immediately felt his body become light as a leaf, he felt a thin energy forming inside his body. Aella's eyes narrowed and she immediately cast a barrier around him.
It was at that moment that an intense force erupted from within his body.
Kye gasped in surprise at the power he was displaying. He looked at Aella to confirm his suspicion.
Meeting Kye's gaze, Aella nodded: "It's the mana you've been cultivating all this time."
"H-how is that possible?" Kye couldn't believe it. "I thought that all the time we suffered from these symptoms when we cultivated, it meant that we didn't have any talents anymore. And that it was impossible for us to have mana stored in our bodies. What is going on?"
"Well, you guys were wrong.
"WHAT!!?"
Then please explain to me all the problems we've been having every time we've tried to cultivate. Like the pain we would feel every time, or the blood we would cough up. Like all those symptoms, where did they come from?"
"That is naturally caused by the ring. The ring doesn't make you unable to cultivate. Rather, it prevents you from activating the transformation of the mana in your core essence, thus making the awakening of your power impossible. Aella clarified.
"When cultivating, mana enters your body. It begins to travel through our blood vessels and core essence. Once enough mana is stored in the core essence, it will start to transform when it feels that the individual body, mind and physique is ready, and that's when your power is born," she finished.
"So, the whole time that you've been feeling this intense pain, it wasn't caused because you cultivated, it was caused because of the rings that y'all have in your fingers.
"What did you just say..." Nara, Yui and Junior collapsed on the couch.
"Are you saying that everything that's been happening to us has been because of our own naivety and carelessness when we accepted these rings?"
"Correct," Aella was very straightforward, because it was actually their own fault for not keeping their guard up in a school where everyone was competing against each other to be the best.
"Well, your problems are far from over," Aella spoke again. Their eyes trembled with fear as they stared at Aella.
"W..what do you mean?"
"I mean it's a lot worse than you guys could have imagined," they gulped.
"So, what do you think happens when a person's mana is trapped inside them with no way to release it? Aella asked them.
".....!!" Each of them felt as if someone had poured a bucket of cold water on their heads. Adam looked at his hand. Then he touched his body as if searching for something in panic.
"And what will happen if this person continues to cultivate mana non-stop, and this mana continues to build up inside of him without being released?" Aella continued
Kye, Nian, Kathleen and the rest of them were stunned, unable to believe what they were hearing. They stared with horrified eyes.
Shion's eyes were on Aella and then on the ring on his finger as he stroked it. He wanted to take it off, but Aella noticed him.
"Don't take it off now... I'm hungry, I can't work without eating".
Aella opened her mouth wide and signaled with her finger and spoke. "You guys are not going to die.... well not now. Feed me first. Otherwise, I'll starve to death here".
"Eh!!?" they all shouted. "You have just eaten a whole bunch of pastries."
"Yeah, that was just the appetizer, now it's the main course turn. Don't think that I'm going to be satisfied with this little food".
She got up from the floor and sat down on the big L-shaped sofa. She crossed her legs, raised her eyes and looked at everyone's astonished faces and said.
"Don't worry. We'll have time to talk about the poison in the rings".