The weekend came and went, leaving Max revitalized after the grueling days spent on the camping trip, his aching body really needed that rest.

Yet now it was time to return to school as a new week had started, making Max groan as the alarm woke him up to start his morning routine, which begun by shutting the alarm off and staying in bed until the second alarm went off, letting him know that he had to actually get up from bed now.

He did so reluctantly and went to the bathroom, which was nothing impressive, just a tub, a toilet, the sink along with the cabinet above that also functioned as the bathroom's mirror, Max opened the cabinet and retrieved his toothbrush along with the half-finished tube of toothpaste.

After brushing his teeth Max went to the cramped kitchen to prepare himself some breakfast.

The kitchen was small, the limited counter space made preparing any kind of food or meal a chore, something the Volcano Elemental had learned to work around with, atleast they had a usable oven.

That thought made Max slightly uncomfortable as he prepared himself some jam on toast, it was the first time he referred to himself as a Volcano Elemental.

That reminded him that his Mom didn't know about what the Principal had said, but what she didn't know wouldn't kill her... right?

After finishing up his routine Max went to catch the bus and within 20 minutes he was entering the school and heading towards Professor Bronn's class, it didn't take long before he reached the classroom and sat down on his regular spot.

Just a few minutes later Professor Bronn entered the class, yet all the students could notice he wasn't having a good day, his brow was furrowed while his whole demeanor irradiated contained anger.

After checking attendance the Professor got up from his seat "To the field now, I have to talk about some stuff with all of you..." The intensity of his voice made the students quiver and sheepishly follow, they were unsure about what could have caused the Professor to be in such a bad mood today.

After reaching the field they used to run in the students looked around yet found nothing that would explain why the Professor brought them here, said Professor was browsing a thick folder filled with papers as his expression became more and more stern.

Before the students could ask about why the Professor had specifically asked them to come here he spoke "it seems I haven't been through enough with all of you... Let me ask... Do you think how you all acted on that exam is how a Hunter should act?! Betraying their companions for a simple meal?!" The Professor looked at a student in particular who lowered his head in shame while who seemed to be his ex-friend gave him a dirty look.

"Hunting down your fellow Cadets as if they were mere Beasts just because they called you out on your bullshit?!" The Professor looked at another student, who received multiple dirty looks.

"And don't get me started on you three, you bunch of dimwitted good for nothing pieces of excrement! You're the worst of the bunch, hunting down your own friends like they were mere Beasts just to show off on an exam focused on survival, it was not a Free For All!" The Professor pointed at three students in particular, the strongest of the class, a Metal Elemental named Oliver, a Magma Elemental named Thomas and an Ice Elemental named Teresa, they all looked down in shame as almost everyone on the class gave them dirty looks.

"Almost all of you've made me extremely disappointed, get on the ground and give me 30!" Then the Professor started calling out names, the student who got their names called had to get down and start doing push-ups as soon as they could.

Unsurprisingly, Max, Vitria and Gareth did not get their names called along with a few lucky others, it seemed they had been the exception.

"And for those that think that they did nothing bad and are being wrongly punished, let me remind you that use of lethal force was strictly not allowed! Throwing a Boulder at someone's head, smacking them with a tree trunk or throwing a fireball the size of a car tire also count as lethal force!" That shut up the few students that wanted to protest about their punishment.

Stolen novel; please report.

After all the students were done with their push-ups the Professor gave a nod before continuing "I'll start from the beginning with all of you... What's the job of a hunter?!"

The Professor's gaze moved from left to right until a student put a hand up. "Hunt Elemental Beasts...?"

The Professor snorted at the answer. "Don't be a smartass, what's the job of a Hunter?!"

After a few seconds to gather their courage another student spoke "To- To protect people?"

"That's half the answer, the full answer is... To protect Elemental Society, To hunt down Elemental Beasts... and to be the catalyst of a much brighter future... Because every Beast you will kill in your career is one less prowling on the wilds, growing stronger or becoming the meal of a stronger beast, because for every single beast you kill, you're saving the life of an innocent, for every beast you kill another hunter gets to live another day... and for every beast you kill a Cadet has the chance to become a Hunter..." The students looked at the Professor with wide eyes, they didn't see being a Hunter as such a noble profession.

"What? How do you think the government pays me for teaching you? The equipment you use? Your free lunches? Almost all of it comes from the cut they take for every Beast you kill and manage to take back. That is why Hunters are held in such high regard and standard... One all of you failed to uphold! Why do you think I'm so mad?!" After hearing the Professor the student's view of the world changed, and in turn they became embarrassed of themselves and of how badly they screwed up.

Seeing that what he said finally got inside the student's thick teenage skulls the Professor sighed as his anger subsided.

"From now on I don't want to see any more bullshit like this, all of you are a team and are going to work like one! I can accept some holding a grudge, but if any of you try to sabotage teamwork... I'll curbstomp that attitude out of the perpetrator." The students shivered as the Professor's gaze passed through them, it's intensity threatening to burn to a crisp the poor sap it lingered on.

Unluckily, that poor sap was Max.

Max tensed up as the Professor cleared his throat and spoke. "Maximilian Avasius, To the Principal's Office."

Max took a second to process what the professor said and then started walking towards the school building as the students around him started gossiping about his current predicament.

"Stop the nonsense! And prepare yourselves for the most hellish training you have ever gone through, I'll turn you all into proper Hunters by the end of this year by blood, sweat and tears or some of you will die trying!" That shut them up again as they followed the Professor to their usual training grounds.

Max went on the opposite direction and entered the school building, nervously making his way to the Principal's Office.

Once he got there he knocked the door and heard the chatter inside stop immediately, after a few moments he heard the principal say "Come in!"

Max entered the office and saw Edward sitting on his desk while a woman he had never seen before stood by the side of the Principal.

"Sorry for calling you over so soon Max, there were some things we didn't get to discuss last time you came to my office, one of these being... Let me introduce you to Professor Narain, the Director of the Healing Department."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Max." Professor Narain had a smile on her face as she extended a hand towards Max, who shook it nervously.

"Please sit down, this is going to take a bit." Edward said and Max sat down on the chair he was becoming familiar to.

"Alright, it has come to my attention what happened with the student named Mark Alaris and how you healed him, that is why Professor Narain is here with me right now, we wanted to do a little test, if you don't mind obviously." Edward explained as the blue crystal on one of Professor Narain's rings flashed and a weirdly shaped crystal the size of an apple appeared on her hand.

Max nodded at the Principal and then looked in shock at the ring on Professor Narain's hand . 'A Space ring?! But how did she get her hands on a Fractal Crystal, a blue one even?'

Nevermind Max's internal monologue Professor Narain smirked and gave him the crystal while explaining its use. "This was cut from the core of the Crystal Heart fruit and its a Life-Force Sensitive crystal, could you kindly fill it with your own life-force?"

Max did as instructed and the crystal started to letivate on his hand, slowly glowing a lighter and lighter green.

Starting from a pale light green to an emerald green, yet Max looked up from the crystal to see Professor Narain urging him to continue adding as much life-force as he could to it, so he did.

The crystal hadn't changed in shade for a few seconds now, yet Max hadn't noticed because his eyes were closed to properly concentrate on the task, the second his concentration broke the life-force inside the crystal would try to reunite with him, yet he still had more to bring out.

Professor Narain and Edward were already impressed at Max, they both had never seen an Elemental so young bring a Life-Force Sensitive crystal to emerald green, much less the current bright green it had reached, which was the limit of the crystal.

They were about to urge him to stop yet before they could something inside the crystal had changed, sparks started to appear from its center which jumped around inside of it, more and more sparks appeared by the second and coalesced in the center, they seemed to be on the cusp of becoming an ember, yet...

The green glow that was becoming blinding emanating from the Crystal suddenly dissapeared as it fell into Max hand, devoid of color and translucent just like how it was before Max started filling it with life-force.

"Sorry, that green glow was too distracting and I couldn't stop the life-force from spilling out..." Max explained as he put the crystal on the desk, now noticing that both Professor Narain and the Principal had stupefied expressions on their faces.

"What?" Max looked at them with a raised eyebrow as they tried to wipe the incredulity off their faces, without much progress.

"How did you-" Edward spoke first but Professor Narain cut him off "G-Genius!"

"Genius...? Wha-" Max tried to get a word in, but Professor Narain cut him off just like she did with Edward. "See why I need him on my Department?!"

"Yes... But it's still up to him, I can't force the decision-" Edward spoke fast yet Professor Narain cut him yet again.

"I'll show you why you should join my department then! What do you think?!" Professor Narain looked at Max, awaiting his decision eagerly