“I’ve been working on a bestiary.” Sanders spoke with confidence, his exhausted and anxious expressions fading away as satisfaction overcame his posture. Satisfaction that was quickly snuffed out when someone in the trio of boys—I wasn’t sure which—Asked:

  “What’s a bestiary?” His tone was filled with confusion. It wasn’t a sort of confusion I shared, finding the name rather easy to infer from. However, the trio of Flanders, Henrick and Just all looked very lost.

  “Come here and I’ll show you all.” Sanders offered, waving his hand emphatically in a motion to draw us closer.

  With a shrug I pushed myself to stand, walking over to the makeshift table alongside Tulip and the myriad other students.

  “I’ve made one for all of you—Filling these out with what information we do have at hand for these beasts,” Sanders began explaining, gesturing to the collection of magical critters as we approached him. “But the goal of this class is the research of these beasts alongside the furthering of public information around magical beasts.”

  “As such, I’ll be asking you all to read through these Bestiaries and fill yours out with whatever information you’ve found. That is all for today, simply read through the bestiary and be on your way. I do however expect there to be some additions to each of your copies by the time the next trial ends however!” Sanders ended his short explanation rather quickly. Soon enough he was handing the books out to whoever reached for them first—I grabbed mine last.

  The leather was peculiar to hold, mostly because it just felt wrong compared to most other books. Especially if I thought about how the ones in the library felt to hold onto. The ones from the Library were old and decrepit, the pages yellowed and aging. This book however didn’t feel like that, nor did it feel like what I imagined those books felt like brand new.

  The hide that made the tome felt odd, rough and porose in my hands. I could feel magic emanating off of it in strange patterns, settling into the pages with clear intent that I didn’t understand.

  After a few moments of intrigued staring at the odd materials I let out a sigh, resigning myself to find a little bit of shade next to Akemi where I sat down again.

  Tulip and Lucia both ended up sitting under the same tree, leaving the three of us to open the books and begin taking in the contents held within.

  The first few pages of the book were simple—Going over an explanation of the purpose of it, a purpose that was easily broken down into a few words: To pursue further public information and study on magical beasts.

  Soon enough however the book faded into information that I was able to find rather intriguing.

  “Before describing Beasts, first one must describe the system in which beasts are Classified. There are two publicly accepted systems in measuring the capabilities of beasts, measuring them from categories similar to mages, or measuring them based upon letters for how threatening they can be.”

  “Similar to mages, Beasts are classified in the following ways from weakest to strongest: Burst, Storm, Quake, Surge and Cataclysm. These classifications exclusively look at the raw magical output of a beast, making magically weak beasts such as Elemental Wolves relatively weak compared to magically existing beasts such as Elementals. When in many cases the strength of these creatures in fact overlaps.”

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  “Instead there is the system which the relatively young Adventurers Guild has invented, classing beasts upon ranks F through A, ending on S. These are based upon aggression, magical capability, intellect and more. As this system is more universally understood, it is the primary focus of this Bestiary.”

  I paused after reading the first few paragraphs, looking up with a confused expression I glanced over to Tulip.

  “What’s the Adventurers Guild?” I asked curiously.

  “Hm?” Tulip inquired, looking up from her book and blinking several times before she mustered a response. “They’re a growing group of mercenaries—A lot of land in Berinia is uninhabited and so sporadically populated that they’re a needed addition to keep Beasts away from settlements. Sometimes they’ll stumble upon old ruins or a cluster of nests—A Dungeon—And clear them out.” Tulip sighed, letting her head rest back slowly.

  “Frankly, they’re growing so quickly because of how massive the four nations are. No one can keep enough military dedicated to it, so everyone lets Adventurers travel free of charge thanks to how useful they are.” She added after only a moment of silence.

  “Huh,” I found that rather interesting to think about, until I registered part of Tulip’s explanation. “Wait—There’s ruins? Ruins from what?” I quickly asked, my intrigue piqued even further.

  “Yeah, all around Berinia there are ancient Ruins, mostly away from where settlements are. I think there are some in Alcor as well.” Lucia was the one who answered me this time, bringing my gaze over to her.

  “Huh…” Once again I had nothing else to say.

  After silence took over the group I returned my gaze back to the book, reading through the next page that caught my interest.

  “Elemental Fox - ‘Kitsune’”

  “Elemental foxes, otherwise known as ‘Kitsunes’ are a collective race of fox-like magical beasts. They are most commonly found in the lands of Alcor and even worshipped as beings of mischief and luck in those lands.”

  “Elemental foxes have three major life stages from pups to adolescence and finally adults. These three stages are easily spotted by the number of tails they have, varying from three to six to nine respectively.”

  “Thanks to these drastic stages of life the Kitsune has three main threat-rankings, D, B and A. Beyond this, little is properly known about these Kitsunes thanks to their tenacity and capability to stay hidden from sapient races.”

  After reading through the rather short page on Kitsunes I glanced at Akemi, examining her resting figure on my lap. For whatever reason I could hardly believe that she was such a threatening beast—Even though I saw her handling the Ghouls.

  With a soft sigh I turned back to the book, quickly finding myself intrigued by another after only a few seconds of skimming.

  “Unspeakables”

  “Unspeakables, thought to be near extinct on all of Enadelle, are a peculiar family of creatures. While we broadly classify Unspeakables as one species, they vary far too drastically to be considered a singular race. As such, they are divided into two sub-categories. Sapient and Non-Sapient.”

  Soon enough I found my eyes lost in the pages, taking in every piece of information I could about the beasts I heard so much about.

  Commander O’Neill, the White Wolf stood at the front of his gathered soldiers. A hand gently stroked through his well trimmed beard, his gaze piercing through the horizon as he stood at the top of a small incline.

  “Hmm…” O’Neill muttered to himself, letting his hand drift slowly to the hilt of the blade at his side.

  “Is something wrong sir?” Frederick, O’Neill’s second in command, asked quickly.

  Frederick was a young man, especially if O’Neill compared Frederick to himself. His still round, scarless face was adorned with freckles, standing in stark opposition to his pink eyes and blonde hair.

  “Ready the men, we’ll be on top of the beast by sundown.” O’Neill declared, casting his gaze towards the midday sun with a sigh of trepidation. He had a bad feeling about this—The tracks kept going, an Unspeakable, followed by a group of people nearly as large as the one he currently led.

  “Y-Yes Sir!” Frederick answered after a moment of shocked silence. O’Neill could hardly blame the kid, after all, they’d been chasing this beast for the better part of a month now. Yet now it stood only a few hours away, hidden only by the dense woodline before them.

  “Let this old man's instincts be wrong…” O’Neill whispered hesitantly, his grip tightening against the handle of his blade harshly as he did. “Just this one time…”

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