As Ning Rongrong ran, she gradually noticed that quite a few people had caught up from behind. Xiao Wu and Zhu Zhuqing were right beside her.
"What are you doing here?" Ning Rongrong asked, puzzled.
"We came to keep you company," Xiao Wu said.
"Want a sausage? It'll help you recover if you're running out of stamina," Oscar offered from behind her.
"I don't want your sausages."
With that, Ning Rongrong activated her soul skill, boosted her agility by thirty percent, and sped away.
The others wanted to follow her.
"Go back and rest," Su Ling said. "Your bodies won't be able to take this kind of training on your first day. Only proper rest will prepare you for this afternoon's and tonight's training. Ning Rongrong's temper needs some polishing. Leave this to me."
Hearing Su Ling's words, they understood.
It wasn't that Ning Rongrong couldn't run. She was throwing a tantrum and had deliberately slowed down.
Since Su Ling had spoken, they took his advice and stopped following.
Picking up his pace, Su Ling soon caught up with Ning Rongrong again. He said nothing, simply supervising her as before.
"It's only twenty laps. That's nothing I can't handle." Seeing Su Ling catch up, Ning Rongrong's temper flared again.
Su Ling shook his head helplessly. This was Ning Rongrong's first long-distance run. Her slow pace at the beginning had made it easy, but now she had suddenly sprinted off at full speed.
There were still ten laps left. She would certainly have little stamina remaining toward the end.
Sure enough, before she had completed three laps, Ning Rongrong slowed down. Her legs were visibly struggling, so she activated her support skills again.
Her agility and strength both increased by thirty percent, and her speed surged once more.
After another three laps, her stamina could no longer keep up. Even with her support skills, she was struggling.
With only two laps left, she was moving at about the same pace as when she had deliberately jogged slowly at the start.
This time, she wasn't slowing down on purpose. She was genuinely too exhausted to keep running.
Suddenly, Ning Rongrong slumped to the ground and waved her hand. "I'm done. I can't run anymore. Even if you hit me, I'm not running."
Pampered since childhood, she had never experienced training like this. She had already reached her limit.
"What?" Su Ling said. "You can't even run twenty laps?"
Ning Rongrong rolled her eyes at him. "I'm not a power attack system soul master. I'm just support. Why should I train my stamina? It's useless to me."
"What if I told you it was useful?" Su Ling asked.
"How is it useful?" Ning Rongrong looked at him in confusion.
"Then tell me, when two teams fight, who does the enemy want to kill first?" Su Ling asked in return.
"Hmm..." Ning Rongrong thought for a moment. "The support, probably! My dad said that too."
"Exactly. The support," Su Ling said. "A good support can determine the course of a battle and serves as the entire team's backbone. So a good support must not only help their teammates at critical moments, but also protect themselves. If you can't even protect yourself, how can you talk about supporting anyone else? Don't you agree?"
"There should be someone on the team protecting the support too," Ning Rongrong said earnestly.
"Yes, a team should protect its support. But can you be certain your teammates will protect you every single time? What if there are only three of you, including yourself, and dozens of enemies? What then? Your support may be useful, but you could also become a burden."
"So in that situation, you must not only support your companions, but also find a way to stay alive under enemy attacks. Support doesn't require you to attack your opponents, but you must have the ability to survive. Didn't the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, the greatest support sect in the world, teach you that?"
After speaking, Su Ling looked at Ning Rongrong and saw that her face had flushed red.
She actually couldn't refute anything he had said.
Seeing this, Su Ling continued, "Since you chose to come to Shrek Academy, you must want to learn something before going home and surprise your family, don't you?"
"If you only came to Shrek Academy to fool around, you might as well leave now instead of wasting everyone's time. Go back to your sect and keep being its pampered young lady."
"Besides, do you think your Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect is really that powerful and secure?" Su Ling continued. I know the entire plot. How could I fail to get a little Ning Rongrong like you under control?
"Of course!" Ning Rongrong nodded.
Su Ling shook his head. "I wouldn't be so sure. One of the biggest problems with your Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect is the flaw in its martial soul. You can only reach rank seventy-nine."
"Although Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo are both powerful, they're getting older. They can't protect the sect forever."
"Right now, those two are the only people your Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect can really boast of. As for the younger generation, I haven't heard of anyone impressive in all these years. There doesn't seem to be anyone worth showing off. Such an enormous sect, yet no one to carry on its legacy."
"That's not true!" Ning Rongrong immediately protested.
"Then tell me," Su Ling said, "how many juniors from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect have been able to match the continent's geniuses in recent years?"
"I..." Ning Rongrong thought about it. It seemed there really weren't any.
"Look at everyone working hard to train. None of their talents are worse than yours, either. Tang San, Xiao Wu, and Oscar all have innate full soul power."
"Zhu Zhuqing is a little younger than you, yet her soul power is two ranks higher. Dai Mubai is fifteen, and his soul power has already reached rank thirty-seven."
"As for Ma Hongjun, he's no worse than you either, and he even has a mutated martial soul. You have nothing to feel superior about here. You were born into the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, yet a disciple of a great sect can't even endure this little hardship. If your generation is what your sect has to look forward to, sigh..."
Su Ling stopped there, leaving Ning Rongrong to think through the rest herself.
This time, Su Ling had effectively taken on Flender's role in the novel.
Having him bring about Ning Rongrong's transformation was a pretty good choice too.
After thinking for quite a while, Ning Rongrong suddenly looked at Su Ling. The girl actually smiled. "You have a point, but so what? I'll definitely be stronger than you someday."
With that, she got up and continued running.
Su Ling checked the system again. The temporary negative status on Ning Rongrong's favorability was gone.
After Ning Rongrong ran off, Su Ling followed her again.
Ning Rongrong wasn't wrong. His single failed attempt to absorb his fourth soul ring had already put him behind countless soul masters. But that had happened to the body's former owner. It had nothing to do with him.
After getting up, Ning Rongrong finished the remaining two laps in one go, then collapsed on the ground in exhaustion.
By then, however, noon had already passed, and there was no lunch left.
Grrr...
After she rested for a while, Ning Rongrong's stomach growled against her wishes.
"Come with me. I'll take you to find something to eat."
Ning Rongrong was obedient now. She followed Su Ling to a small river a hundred or so meters from the village entrance.
Releasing his martial soul, Su Ling raised the Water Moon Bow and fired three arrows, striking three large fish.
Then he lit a fire and grilled them.
A living person couldn't let a full bladder be the death of them. Just because there was no food in the cafeteria didn't mean they couldn't find their own.
He grilled the three large fish and added some seasoning. Before long, the aroma of grilled fish wafted out, making Ning Rongrong drool.
"Eat!" Su Ling handed one to Ning Rongrong.
Ning Rongrong didn't stand on ceremony. She took it and brought it straight to her mouth, nearly burning herself.
"Thank you!"
"Actually, you're not a bad person!"
[Ding... Ning Rongrong's favorability +1. Obtained White Chest ×1.]
Her favorability went up just like that?
Looks like Ning Rongrong really does need putting in her place! The more I straighten her out, the more she likes me?
Before you continue