The rest of the week is all about studying, practice, and more studying. We also have theoretical exams since next week marks the beginning of the missions. I don’t really know what those are, other than the fact that they remind me of an adventurers' guild system. My classmates mention them a bit during meals. They’re all excited about them, and apparently, it’s tradition to end the first trimester this way. I don’t pay too much attention, though—I’d rather wait for an explanation in class.

  On Friday, another rumor spreads through the academy: Kai has been released. Someone paid his fine, and it wasn’t his family.

  If I see him at the ball on Sol’s arm, I’ll take that as confirmation of who it was.

  In any case, during my free moments these past few days, I’ve been practicing two spells: splash and breath control. At night, before bed, I meditate. Then, I burn through my mana. Breath control, being the more discreet of the two, is the one I practice the most. My efforts pay off on Thursday night:

  Congratulations! Your Minor Breath Control spell has leveled up. It is now Low Breath Control. The duration of the spell has increased to 5 minutes.

  I’m one step closer to improving my earth magic.

  And thanks to all that studying, it’s not the only thing I’ve achieved:

  Congratulations! Your Minor Scholar mastery has leveled up. It is now Low Scholar mastery.

  Low Scholar. Passive. +2 Wisdom, +20% memorization speed.

  Congratulations! You have reached 10 points in Wisdom. Your mana and health will now regenerate every 20 hours, as long as you sleep at least 6 hours and eat properly.

  Bianca L'Crom

  Race: Human

  Age: 18

  Level: 8

  Constitution: 7

  Strength: 5

  Intelligence: 7

  Agility: 7

  Wisdom: 10

  Health Points: 7

  Mana Points: 10

  Magic Affinities:

  Elemental: Earth, medium level. Water, medium level. Fire, medium level. Air, medium level. Spirit, high level.

  Non-elemental: Light, medium level.

  Skills:

  Minor runner: Passive. +1 Agi. Run 10% faster.

  Low sword mastery: Passive. +2 Stre. Wielding a sword feels natural.

  Low scholar: Passive. +2 Wis, +20% memorization speed.

  Spells: Intermediate earth control. Low earth wall. Minor stone bullets. Low fire arrow. Low breath control. Minor splash. Minor healing. Minor light orb. Minor channeling with water and air. Low channeling with fire. Intermediate Channeling with earth. Minor flash. Minor meditation.

  When Friday afternoon arrives, after my training, I pick up the stones from my room's floor, grab a backpack I had prepared beforehand, and head to where I agreed to meet Ronan—right at the door of the supply room Catrina lets us use.

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  "Hey, do you have everything?" I greet him.

  A bit blunt and straight to the point, but we know each other well enough for that.

  "Good afternoon, my lady." He places his right hand on one of the two bags strapped to his back—the bulkier one—and gives it a couple of taps. "Everything."

  "Great, let’s go."

  I imagine that bag contains the items from the list (nails, a hammer, pickaxes, chisels...), while the other holds his personal belongings. In the end, after whispering through mental messages, we decided the most practical thing would be to spend the night there.

  That reminds me...

  "Hey, listen," I say to the guard assigned as my escort, who has stopped a few steps behind me. "We’re going to train in the forest, hunt boars and all that. Catrina should have informed you. We’ll be back in the morning."

  That way, he won’t worry when I take too long to return. At least I’m relieved that he won’t follow me there.

  "Understood, thanks for letting me know," he replies.

  Ronan and I step into the small room, most of which is filled with our teacher’s class materials, and I lock the door from the inside. Then, I place the stones at the vertices of the heptagon, directly around Ronan and me since space is quite limited.

  "Teleport to active location," I pronounce.

  Immediately, Ronan and I appear in the village square. The sun hasn’t set yet, thanks to the fact that we didn’t waste time having dinner. Instead, we had agreed to bring some bread and fruit with us to eat along the way.

  As we arrive at the teleportation point in the square, a few villagers glance our way and greet us. We head toward the palisade gate, exchange greetings with the guards, and step into the forest.

  Once there, we don’t waste any time—straight to the goblin village.

  “My lady, if you permit me, we could ride a bear and get there faster,” Ronan suggests after we’ve been walking at a good pace for a while—me leading, him following closely behind. By now, we’re far from the palisade and its guards.

  I stop dead in my tracks. Somehow, despite his low agility, he manages to avoid crashing into me.

  “On a zombie?”

  His skeletons don’t smell bad—they’re just bones. But a zombie… Remembering the ones from the insanity difficulty dungeon, I feel a wave of disgust at the thought. Those things reeked. I have to remind myself that I’ve already ridden one of Ronan’s small bears before, and since it was freshly reanimated, it wasn’t rotten.

  And the one he summoned in the desert dungeon didn’t seem to have much of a smell either—or at least, not strong enough to notice in the middle of battle.

  “Does the idea displease you?” he asks, looking puzzled.

  “The smell,” I reply. “Some zombies stink horribly.”

  “Ah, so that’s what concerns you? If I raise a corpse that’s already decomposing, the zombie will smell just like that corpse. But my bears were fresh. And now, I don’t animate them—I summon them. I can only summon creatures I’ve previously animated. Don’t worry, my summons don’t smell bad. They’re zombies that have been restored. They’re stronger than they were in life. Their flesh is dead, but it doesn’t rot.”

  “Thanks.”

  It’s a relief to hear that. Look, I’d never make it as a necromancer, but at least the summons don’t stink. Because riding a zombie bear, if it had bits of flesh hanging off… ugh, horrifying! And I don’t even want to imagine if your zombie pet asked you for a hug…

  “By the way,” I suddenly realize, “if you’ve previously animated a bear, can you summon a whole army of bears?”

  “It doesn’t work like that. If I want to summon an army of bears, I have to animate each of those bears beforehand. One by one. And, of course, I need enough mana.”

  Well, thank goodness! Necromancy is already overpowered enough without the only limit being the caster’s mana. So, if he wants an undead army, he’ll have to work for it.

  Oh, now I’m picturing him spending his free time hanging out in graveyards making new friends…

  No, Bianca, stop. He wouldn’t do that.

  “Ronan, how many human skeletons can you summon? Besides Tom, Bob, and Joe.”

  He shrugs.

  “A few, my lady, but those three are special. They’re some of my best friends.”

  Why do I even ask…?

  “All right then, summon your bear.”

  “I have enough mana for two, my lady. There’s no need for us to ride the same one.”

  I remember how close we had to sit the last time and immediately feel my cheeks warm. I just hope he doesn’t think I want to repeat that.

  “Right, much better. Thanks.”

  He summons two of the small bears we fought alongside last week. Yeah, only a week ago, even though it feels like months.

  Oh well. I climb onto one easily thanks to my agility and grab onto its fur. It’s coarse—very coarse and rough. But at least I don’t rip any of it out.

  “He will carry you carefully, my lady. Just say the word,” Ronan says as he climbs onto his own bear, which lowers itself to help him mount.

  “Then let’s go.”

  Immediately, both bears begin galloping through the forest. I think they could go faster, but Ronan must have ordered this pace so we’d be relatively comfortable. What would normally take hours is significantly shortened thanks to our mounts.

  I let out a small laugh, wondering what Darius would say if he saw me now.

  In any case, I find myself enjoying the ride. As we approach the goblin settlement, one of the female bears spots us and greets us with a respectful growl.

  We continue forward and reach the cave entrance, where two goblin guards are stationed. They greet us as we pass. Ronan stops the bears, we dismount, and enter the massive cavern that is now home to the goblins. Truth be told, they look healthier—like they’re eating better or maybe even benefiting from the +1 to health from my sword.

  And curiously enough, once inside, all I see are pregnant females. Which is odd, because just a week ago, those bellies weren’t there.

  Gump approaches and greets us.

  “Leader and strategist of the leader, welcome.”

  “Hello, Gump, how has your week been?”