It was almost an hour later that the four of us had finished dismantling the beasts and stored away our own shares of cores.

The normal Dark Wolf cores and meat would be given in for contribution while the higher level cores for Mason and I and half of the Golden Sunflower for Cage and Aeron. All four of us decided we had more gains, both in practice hunting manabeasts and in materials for the rest of the weekend than most of our classmates. We decided to go back to camp, hand in out Dark Wolf cores and bodies before spending the rest of our day and the next day cultivating.

I think that, me personally, gained the least from this trip. I gained practice dropping deeper into my instincts from Clin but not much practice with my spells, only fighting. I was the literal only one who didn't gain a cultivation resource though. It will be the first time Clin and I used a beast core of a different element for him, I’m pretty sure it should work.

Sitting down in my tent I started cultivating, Clin eating some of the Moss Python meat to my side. The mana here felt more active, flowing into my body faster and rushing through my body, it took me more effort than normal to process it through my technique before merging into my core. After a few hours my core started to feel bloated, like I had overfilled it, instead of taking in more mana I started pulling the mana out of my core and flowing it through the infinity around my chakras.

My mana was decreasing, but what was left was purer than what was there in the first place.

Clin, noticing something was happening left what was left of his meal and came back over to me. He wrapped himself back around my neck, starting to cultivate in conjunction with me. After a while of the stronger and purer mana flowing back and forth between, Clin sent a feeling of want to me, I wasn’t sure what he meant, after a moment I realised the only thing he could want was the core we took from the Moss Python. Without pausing my cultivation, I took it out and held it out for him, Clin snapped it out of my hand and a flood of unfamiliar mana roared through our system.

I lost touch of the outside world, my entire mind focusing on our mana and cultivation. The mana flooding between us felt wrong, hungry even. Clin and I were desperately trying to absorb the power of it, incorporating it within ourselves. It was almost like the will of the Moss Python was still there, I was struggling to purify the mana through my channels, there were some moments we failed, pulling the Nature mana that still tasted of snake into my core, I could feel Clin was in the same boat.

I lost track of time, there was only Clin, the mana and me, circling around each other, Clin and I growing closer in mind and body. I felt barrier after barrier in my core break in the process, advancing my cultivation, pushing straight past Tempering-5 and 6, settling into Tempering-7.

I had no idea how long we had been consumed by our cultivation, I reopened my eyes and screamed.

A yelp of surprise answered my scream, Peterson leant back from being right in my face. He had dropped his usual illusions covering his face, I don’t think I could pick him out of a room anyway, except his eyes, cold and blue right now.

“You certainly have a way of causing a scene, don’t you?” He started.

“What do you mean?” I asked in response.

“It's friday, it’s been almost a week since you pulled this insane move. Do you have any idea how many people have died from exactly what you just did in the past few hundred years?” Peterson asked instead of answering my question straight.

“Insane?” I answered the rhetorical questions.

“You pulled something that only one in a billion survive, most die horribly or become a terrible monster. You had your familiar feed on a Manabeast Core of a different element, one neither of you can absorb normally. Did your sponsor never teach you one of the most basic lessons of hunting? Manabeast cores should never be consumed like that before being processed.” He explained.

“I’m sorry, I assumed because it was from a Snake manabeast Clin would be able to use it to cultivate, but as I say that out loud I don’t know what I was thinking.” I replied.

“Next time you have a core from a different element, swap it in for contribution points or straight swap it for one the right element. Alternatively you can use a purification ritual or formation to convert the mana into neutral mana, but that’s better if you have a lot of weaker cores instead of a stronger one.” Peterson explained.

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After a few minutes of silence as I sorted the information I had just received in my head Peterson stood up and I followed suit.

“Let’s get out of here.” Peterson announced as he put his hand on my shoulder.

He seemed to press something in his pocket and he was suddenly standing in a stone room, the Principal entered just as we arrived.

“Mr Herondale, as I just finished talking to your Guardian, I would request that you try not to do anything like this again? She is not a person I would wish to get on the wrong side of, especially from actions out of my control.” he said.

“I’m sorry Sir, I didn’t mean to worry anyone.” I answered, hanging my head.

“Worry not, as it is just about dinner time, why don’t you head back to your dorm and get a good night sleep for class in the morning.” the Principal politely ordered.

“Yes, Sir.”

I exited the room, as the door was closing behind me the last thing I heard was the Principal talking to Peterson.

“Survived a cross element core infusion, how remarkable…”

The door closing cut off anything else he had to say. I left the room and entered a hallway with no other door in it, just a set of stairs at the other end.

I went up the stairs to find out I was in the administration building, I left and made my way back to the dorm.

Once I entered the dining hall, a ripple of silence spread out as some people saw me and nudged their friends and so on. A yell from across the room, the feel of shadow mana appearing behind me and the impact of a body let me know Mason had seen me.

Instead of talking he dragged me over to the table of our friends. They had been looking towards the entrance in confusion at Mason's action until they saw me and relief showed on their faces. Haru and Hoshi slumped back down in their seats, appearing to relax for the first time in days while Ivy ran up and hugged me, Aspen awkwardly nodded while the twins just smiled.

"Don't scare us like that," a muffled voice against my chest said,

Followed by a chorus of agreement from the table.

After a few minutes, I had food and everyone was once again seated around the table, I started eating before the conversation I knew was coming started. They gave me less than five minutes before they started telling me just how stupid I had been. I took it all silently, knowing I had worried them in my mistake.

"Could have damaged your meridians…"

"Don't you care about your own life?"

And more kept coming.

"Guys, I'm sorry! Remember, I have amnesia. Things that seem like common sense to you are completely unknown to me. It felt like it would work to Clin so we went for it. It hurt and our bond was tested but we both came out stronger, and it's something I'm never doing again." I finally almost snapped.

"Now that awkward conversation has happened, what did I miss?" I asked, trying to bring levity to the moment.

"Nice segue," Mason muttered next to me.

He received a mock glare for his trouble before I looked back at the rest of the table. As I looked around I felt Clin leave my neck and to my shock moved into Ivy's lap.

Ivy and I just stared at him in shock for a moment before we shrugged and went back to them filling me in.

Annoyingly enough, Rio and his partner traded in the most spoils between cores, manabeast corpses and natural treasures and gained a prize. They never told anyone what the prize was but I'm sure it was something useful considering Peterson gave it.

We kept talking about nothing for a while longer, moving into a common room nearby. It wasn't until I was getting ready to go to be that I chose to take Clin back from Ivy. I could sense he didn't want to leave her, he almost felt like he was cultivating.

I gasped out loud when I looked at him, the formally borderline transparent snake, had a bright green streak running from his head to his tail. Apparently the Moss Python core affected him more than I ever realised, he must have been slowly absorbing the ambient mana Ivy's aura gave off.

"Umm anyone ever heard of a Void manabeast having a second element?" I asked, still stunned.

"Only the really powerful ones which have been in our dimension for a long time. It is thought Void is essentially a blank slate when it comes to absorbing mana. It's usually only when they get to Lord or stronger though." Mason rattled off.

"Tell no one, you're too much of an anomaly already!" The twins said together.

"Questions you won't answer will be asked, information that must not be known will spread, the Mist will come for you once again. We have SEEN, you must grow before they come." They continued in my head.

"How?" I asked.

"We are those who see much, most we don't understand. Stronger than most but we have no control, we see too much, know too little, it is a rare gift and we hide from jt." They answered.

"The funny thing about having the psychic affinity is that we can't use our skills on each other, our affinity blocks theirs. Unfortunately we can't help you block yours, all that information, behind the flimsy barrier of that bracelet." The twins finished.

Haru finally made his presence known again,

"You guys are weird…"

We burst into laughter, cutting off whatever else he was going to say. All the seriousness that had crept into the conversation disappearing with one small statement.

We dispersed back to our rooms for the night, just as I went to enter my room Mason, in a much more serious tone, stopped me.

"You really did scare the hell out of us, even Aunt Essie called every day. I...you know...uhhh," he started.

"I really didn't know it was such a big deal." I answered.

"I'm trying to do a thing here, shut up!" Mason snapped back.

"You're my first proper friend and I don't know what I'd do without you around, alright! The others are nice but they aren't the same. Just...don't do something this crazy again without me, ok?" Mason finished.

"I promise I won't do anything stupid without you." I answered with my hand on my heart.

*

In a dark room a teen lay in bed, drifting off to sleep, his golden hair spread across his pillow.

The sound of material against the wall alerted him to someone in his room, he jerked up, his ice blue eyes searching for the intruder.

"Pathetic," a voice rang out, the unseen sneer heard in the inflection.

Fear flew across the teens face, quickly being covered. He leapt off his bed and kneeled on the ground.

"I'm sorry sir, I still must play the faithful servant. My orders from my family were clear, I must maintain the relationship." He answered the voice.

"You had your chance while they were in the forest. You were supposed to deliver the boy to us. It is imperative for all our safety." The voice ordered.

"Sir, wouldn't Sergeant Peterson get in the way?" The boy asked.

"That man is irrelevant, I will make sure you won't be delayed by him. You have one last chance, bring me the boy." The voice ordered.

The sound of material against the wall rang again as the figure disappeared. The teen was left kneeling on the ground.

"What the fuck has my father gotten me into." The teen swore.