Liu came closer again. His expression mixed wonder with skepticism that had not yet faded.
“How were you so sure this would work?”
“Because I know Beasts better than the books do.”
Ren answered evenly.
“And this is only the first day of the training.”
Taro stood and tested the sensation of the new power flowing inside him.
Not only had he survived what was plainly a storm of mana poisoning, he felt more refreshed than ever.
The first crystal had worked perfectly, exactly as Ren had planned.
Ninety-nine more times. Then the Beetle's evolution would be a reality no one could deny.
***
While Ren headed off to his early morning training with Assistant Instructor Lin, Taro walked into Professor Wei's classroom with a heavy heart.
Over the past month the professor's behavior had been peculiar. He did more than simply ignore Ren's empty seat; he savored it like a trophy.
As Taro took his seat, the professor showed open satisfaction at the sight of him deprived of his friend.
Every lecture was a cunningly arranged feast of condemnation that made Ren the perfect cautionary example.
“As this diagram shows,”
Professor Wei pointed at an illustration of training patterns.
“this is the way mana flows in a proper Beast. On the basis of this data, we can confirm that proven methods are superior to...... baseless theories originating from a certain ‘source of contamination.’”
That was the third time in the first ten minutes of the lecture.
Taro counted them in his head. The current record was twelve ‘examples’ in a single lecture.
“Between proper training and.......”
Professor Wei projected two images side by side.
“something infected with baseless ideology, remember the difference clearly.”
Spores, sources of contamination, theories like epidemics. Jokes of that sort had become routine by now.
What tormented Taro most was not the professor's childishness.
It was the fact that he used his authority like a subtle weapon to manipulate opinion in the lecture hall, making Ren an endless scapegoat so that his own teachings would sound more convincing.
“Today we shall try something different.”
Professor Wei announced.
“Pair up and research a training method for a Beast other than your own. An outside perspective can sometimes provide fresh inspiration.”
He paused theatrically, then added with a malicious smile.
“But bear this in mind. Open your minds, yes, but not so wide that they rot through. Do it wrong and...... you will end up like those dreamers with mushrooms growing out of their brains.”
The classroom dissolved into laughter. Over the course of a month, Professor Wei had carefully built an atmosphere in which mocking Ren was taken for granted.
Taro gripped his pencil hard. For a respected professor, he was more like a child consumed by a personal grudge.
Looking around the room in dejection, he saw no one willing to pair with him, labeled as he was ‘the friend of the rotten-headed bastard.’
His gaze met Jin's group. The tiger boy glared at him with an exaggerated look of disgust.
Taro flinched at a light touch on his shoulder.
“Here. Let's work together.”
When Taro turned, Luna was standing beside his desk.
Her expression was as cold as ever, but her eyes held a sharp intelligence that suggested this was no whim.
“M...... me?”
The question came out in a far higher, more cracked tone than he had intended.
‘Why would Luna, the most promising student here, work with me?’
“Luna, why not join me instead?”
Klein cut in.
“My Golden Lion would make a far more interesting subject of study than some beetle, wouldn't it?”
Luna treated Klein as though he did not exist and sat down beside Taro.
Klein's Golden Lion glowed irritably on his arm, but Luna concentrated only on the study materials she had just taken out.
“Um.......”
Taro began nervously.
“Digger Beetle.”
Luna said, going straight to the point. Pretending to review a diagram, she lowered her voice almost to a whisper.
“The method Ren talked about. Have you started it?”
Some of the tension left Taro's shoulders. This was a subject he could talk about comfortably.
“We processed the first crystals last night.”
The two of them shared secrets in low voices, pretending to be absorbed in the assignment.
“Ren used condensed moonlight.......”
“And did it work?”
For the first time, pure interest flickered in Luna's eyes.
“I absorbed the first crystal this morning. It was...... how should I put it, like a storm.”
They carried on the conversation while pretending to analyze elements of Beast training. Luna's questions were as precise as a surgeon's scalpel. How the light had been focused, which moons had been used, the exposure times.
Suddenly she stopped her analysis and stared at Taro with a gaze intense enough to make him uncomfortable.
“Something about you has changed.” she murmured. The shape of the Shadow Wolf wavered faintly within her pupils.
“Huh? Me?”
“The mana inside you.”
Luna narrowed her eyes.
“The pattern of its flow...... has shifted slightly. My wolf can see it. As though.......”
“Ah.”
Taro understood and smiled slightly.
“It must be because of this morning. It was a crystal processed a little differently, by Ren's method. At first I thought it was mana poisoning and that I was going to die.......”
“Interesting.”
Luna cut him off gently. She asked nothing further, but Taro could feel her gaze sweeping over him at intervals, observing the change in his mana.
By the time the assignment was finished, Luna had pinpointed the two key elements required for a Digger Beetle's evolution.
The decisive role of moonlight, and, astonishingly, the necessity of deep earth.
“The second one was a little different.”
Taro pointed out, recalling Ren's explanation.
“He said only a specific moonlight was needed.”
Luna looked at him with a curiosity that bordered on confusion, but she did not argue.
When the assignment ended, she rose with the same quiet grace with which she had appeared.
Watching her return to her seat without a single word, Taro wondered whether what had just happened had been a dream.
***
It was time for the combat arts lecture.
“Everyone, assemble!”
Professor Yang's voice rang across the training ground.
“Today we raise the intensity.”
Ren and Min joined Taro.
They were all panting from training clearly harder than the day before.
Ren, though, looked noticeably better off than the rest. A month of hellish training with Assistant Instructor Lin had carved a new standard into his body.
“Every Tamer has a different style and a different specialty.”
Professor Yang walked among the students. His Stone Behemoth pattern glinted in the morning sun.
“Assistant Instructor Lin and I have decided it is time to adjust your training according to your natural strengths. But let me say this before you ask.”
He smiled knowingly at the confused faces.
“We decide which group you belong to.”
Assistant Instructor Lin began moving among the students.
Each time she pointed to a different section of the training ground, her Swift Crane's feathers glittered.
“Attack types with Professor Yang.” she directed.
“Speed types with me. Defense types to the east section. Long-range mage types to the west.”
The training ground grew busy with students moving about. Faces satisfied with their group crossed with faces that were not.
“Hey, in Professor Wei's lecture.......”
Taro came up to Ren and whispered.
“Luna asked about you.”
Ren did not seem surprised in the least. As though he had expected it.
“Was it a mistake for me to tell her everything......?”
“It's fine.”
Ren shrugged.
“It isn't a secret anyway, is it? Besides, she's helped me out once before.”
“Partinder!”
Assistant Instructor Lin called.
“You're with the attack group!”
“Strength specialization?”
Several students sneered.
“That rotten bastard? Surely his strength amplification is lower than mine, and I'm a speed type?”
“That boy's ‘strength’ is a little different from what you imagine.”
Assistant Instructor Lin winked.
“A month of special tutoring works miracles.”
Taro joined the defense group, and Min the long-range mage group.
As the lecture went on with specialized exercises for each group, Ren realized how solid his training with Lin had made him. Every movement felt more natural and more powerful than before.
Toward the end of the session, Professor Yang gathered all the students again.
“As you know, the final examination includes hunting an actual Beast.”
His voice turned serious.
“But that is only half of the examination. A Tamer must also know how to fight other Tamers. Often that matters more.”
Assistant Instructor Lin stepped forward.
“So from next month we will begin team sparring. Form groups of three before this month is out.”
“Can we choose anyone?” someone asked from the crowd.
“Anyone whose training level differs by at most one stage.”
Assistant Instructor Lin confirmed.
Glances began crossing the training ground.
The students were assembling teams in their heads, running the numbers. Jin was already gathering his clique.
Klein glanced sideways at Luna, but she merely gazed off at the distant mountains.
Just then, Ren, Taro, and Min met one another's eyes.
No words were needed.
A month of sweating together in the mines had already made them a single team. The three of them gave small nods at the same moment.
“Let me give you one warning.”
Professor Yang's voice cut through the murmuring.
“Build your teams around compatibility and strategy, not raw power. I have seen countless times a team of ‘weak’ Beasts smash a so-called ‘superior’ group through better coordination alone.”
His gaze rested briefly on Ren's group before returning to the whole.
“You have one month to practice and to choose. Use it wisely.”