Pella leaned across her stand. "You faced the first boss?" Her eyes darted up and down her dragon student, her long ears swiveling. "You seem to still be standing."

Smolder lifted her shoulders. "We saw him, fought him, and realized we weren't winning that one, so we bounced." She grabbed a kebab off Pella's stand, chomping it. "But your lessons really paid off. Being a battle chef is great! We need to practice a bit, get better gear, but we're gonna get past that jerk."

"Him? Ah… What… did that first boss appear as? Was it a six-armed giant with eyes of crackling electricity?"

Smolder frowned at that. "Not even close. Big angry dog in a room of pillar piles of stone. Fog everywhere?"

Pella shook her head. "I always suspected… Also." She held out a hand towards Smolder, only withdrawing it when coins were set in it. "Thank you. Each party faces different challenges, including the bosses. They are meant to test where you are weakest. It didn't break you… That's the important part."

Smolder swatted the side of her teacher's shoulder. "We didn't win, but we'll be back."

"I can't say the same of my group… You remember that." She scratched softly behind one of her long ears. "Lucky I made it out at all."

Smolder winced. "Yeah… Spike really came through for us, got us all out in one piece. He's a real stand-up dragon."

Pella's whiskers went askew. "For such a fine dragon, he only rarely stops by."

Smolder suddenly gave Pelle a shove with a bright laugh. "Don't be that way. He's training right now. I have to get back to that too. We're not gonna let this keep us down." She set down the kebab where the used ones went. "Thanks."

Pella watched her student stroll off with a bitter little smile. "Perhaps I gave up too quickly… Are they laughing at me, or happy I found this little life." She picked up the kebab and got to cleaning it. There was work yet to be done.

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“Come and see then, the power of the summoner,” the robed figure said.

The young adventurer looked over, a hungry look in his eyes.

The robed figure waved his hands and summoned a small beaver, crackling with electricity, and the boy’s excitement drained from his face. “Really? A beaver?”

The robed figure raised a finger up. “Not just any beaver, an electric beaver!”

“Tch,” the boy took a step back. “I figured this would be cool, but this is lame.” He walked away.

The figure put his hands on his hips and looked down at his summon. “I thought for sure people liked electric rodents.” He sighed. “Next time, then.” He turned back up, sensing someone approaching. “Perhaps right now!” He whirled around to face someone, and raised an eyebrow at the figure.

Sandra stood before him, waving somewhat sheepishly. “Um… Hi.”

“A student of mine, welcome, welcome,” he said, sitting himself down. “Please, make yourself comfortable. I am happy to see you. Was your excursion productive?”

“Oh!” Sandra sat down on the ground. “Yes. I got a new spirit!”

“Ah, good!” The instructor’s face lit up. “While you can’t store an unlimited number of them, you definitely should collect a good number, now--”

“Ah, well, I had a question?” Sandra interrupted. “See, when I was using Aiden, and I asked him to do his biggest attack, he got… tired? Is that normal?”

He slapped his knees to disguise his sitting up. "I didn't expect I'd have to go over that just yet. You only just entered the tower, did you not?"

Sandra glanced towards the massive pillar. "Y-yes, we reached the first boss an--"

"Already?!" He was standing, leaping to his feet. He realized his outburst as quickly, clearing his throat and slowly sitting back down. "Quite the achievement… Against enemies that are too difficult to pierce, a loyal spirit will try with all their strength to press through. I hope you are not upset with them, I'm certain they did their best if they were forced back into the ether afterwards."

“I was... just worried that I did something wrong, which is why he was exhausted.”

“Well--” the instructor held up a finger. “--It’s not wrong as long as you’re alright with them needing to recuperate. Usually as long as you don’t crazy overwork them in each fight, and have magic reserves available, then they will be fine for the next one.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Well… this was in the boss fight, remember?”

“Yes, many spirits can expend the rest of their energy, but typically won't on their own. You must have been very much in need." He set two fingers down on her shoulder. "What were you thinking, just before Aiden acted?"

“Well… The fight was not going well. My party was getting beat up and… well I thought that we needed to do something drastic.”

The instructor nodded. “Yes, yes. That sounds definitely like the spirit was motivated by your desperation. Aiden was a fire spirit, right? They would be particularly sensitive to feelings like that. They burn bright, but all fires eventually fade. Better to be a star than a smoldering speck."

"Yeah…" Sandra rubbed behind her head. "But I should avoid doing that. It was scary, and I bet he was super tired afterwards."

"Oh, certainly. Have you not called him since then? Do that, thank him for his work." He brought his hands together softly. "You are a team. You are unified in victory and defeat."

Sandra looked down. “It’s the same with my party, isn’t it? If one of us messes up, we all kinda lose.”

“Well… that’s not exactly what I meant, but the same kind of principles apply, yes.” He laughed heartily. “That being said, your party can probably bail you out more easily than your spirits can. If you fall unconscious they won’t be able to help you for very long.”

Sandra looked down, and then back up. “What is the best way I can help out with my party? What can I do to help them with what I can do? Are there any other abilities I need to learn? Do I need special equipment? Do--”

“Hangon, hang on. One question at a time, now--”

----------------------------------------

With a great slam, his blade crackling angrily at the steel it met, Garble tried to press his moment of advantage, only for his mentor to suddenly dart back and to the side, allowing Garble to fall forward.

"You have improved." The less obviously mighty blade was at Garble's throat with the speed of silent lightning. "But there is room yet."

Garble slapped the blade aside as he turned to face his teacher. "That's why I'm here, right?"

A little smirk graced the human's face. "I am pleased to hear that." There was a time when Garble would not have admitted so easily he had more to learn. "Now let us spar, and tell me of the battles you waged."

"I was the sword of the team." He danced, ducking, parrying and coming in at the march of an unheard song. "Minus a few annoying things, and the boss that sent us packing, I was feeling powerful."

"Because you are." The teacher vanished. Garble spun his blade around suddenly, catching the unseen strike. "And you are growing more so, good…" He danced back, seemingly unbothered that his surprise strike was caught. "Just know that you stand at the start of the journey, not the end. This is the first of worse encounters you will face."

"Then I'll just have to get better and smash them too." Garble leaped at his mentor with bared teeth, pressing the spar to continue.

----------------------------------------

Spike trudged along the city. Go train by yourself. That was what the party was doing. Get new abilities, learn new strategies. All great, right? And he knew that all the other members were with the people who gave them classes.

Which left him to… wander around trying to figure out what to do. He figured an altar in a goblin infested cave wasn’t going to be a very good place to find strategies. Not that he could actually get through the goblins all alone.

He looked down at his guildchain, rolling the gem in his claw. The setting he had looked very much like a crown, with what he assumed were magic staffs or scepters on three points.

His class was all about working with the team. “Fighting alongside” them. What good was training alone?

… At least he could see if he can get any new gear.

He sighed, and he trudged. At least until he saw a familiar figure. Well, more accurately, she stood before him, directly in his way.

“Hmph. What do we have here?” The armored woman put her hands to her hips. “Miss Silver Spoon’s little servant demihuman?”

“Oh,” Spike muttered, stopping in his tracks and glaring at the woman. “It’s Tabitha. We haven’t seen you around to bully us.”

“I--” she flipped her hair. “Have better things to do than to keep tabs on my old useless party members, you know.”

“Great,” Spike said, trying to step aside around her. “So you can go do that, I can go away.”

She stepped back in front of him, grinning a wicked grin. “Aw, come on, summon. Regale me with tales of her helplessness.”

Spike snarled. “She’s not helpless. She got her new class, we got to the first boss of the tower, we’re spending time getting new skills and advice before we go in and start training as a party.”

Tabitha’s smile faded with this, turning into a cold glare. “Is that so,” she basically stated. “I didn’t think… she had it in her.”

She also stopped blocking him, so he began to finally make his way past her, only to give a look at the guildchain on her side. The setting showing her class was a now-familiar crown with scepters on the side. Spike halted.

Tabitha turned to him, looking down at his smaller figure. “You just--

“You’re a divine lord?” Spike said, interrupting her.

“... Excuse me?”

He looked up to her, now glaring back. “How the hay is a bully like you a class that’s all about healing and helping your friends. I’d have figured cruelty is not something a divine lord should do, you know.”

Her expression darkened into a scowl as others began to peer at them. "What do you know, summon?"

"About that." He held up his chain with a victorious smirk. "We aren't that anymore. Sandra isn't who you think she is anymore either. People change, they grow up. Pity you haven't."

"You've just been lucky!" she squeaked almost as much as any shout. "I bet you don't even know how to use that class. It's for humans. Which you are not and never will be no matter how much you 'grow'."

Some part of him suggested being the larger dragon. The rest of him… "Try me."

With a roar of laughter, a new male human showed up on the scene, one of Tabitha's party members. "You're going to let him talk to you like that? He just challenged you to a duel. You have to do it now."

Wait… "Duel?" Spike scratched at the side of his head in rapidly growing alarm.

Tabitha wasn't nearly as confused, stomping a foot with balled fists. "I'll crush you! See you in the arena, three days! If you aren't there, I'll know you're a little scaley coward not even worth consideration." Tabitha turned up her nose and stormed away.

The team-mate, still as well armored as always, slapped Spike's shoulder. "I'll be there to see how you do, Dragon. Make it an interesting show."