Tuesday.

Gwen was up again at 8 AM, ready to meet the world ahead. Richard was already gone, having left at daybreak for his Questing credits. Outside, a cloudy horizon hung over the vista, with looming clouds hinting at thunder.

Gwen took precautions by switching to her thrifted boots and jeans, then daringly chose an old tee that left a smidgeon of flesh exposed about her navel.

An exposed midriff.

A part of her felt ashamed, yet at the same time, she also felt thrilled and delighted by her second chance at youth.

Whatever her choice of attire, Bestiary and Care of Familiars took place down on the lower campus, south of Guoding Rd. According to Petra, Daishan Stadium tapped into a leyline that bisected the Guanhua Towers and the five-path epicentre of Wujiaochang. That was the reason for its tiered construction, a visual spectacle that reminded Gwen of latticed rice paddies as she descended the stairs into its daunting concavity.

Nearer the bottom, the arena's markings indicated that here was the home ground for the Fudan University teams, where various competitors vied for magical dominion across a dozen Spellcraft sports. Here was also where the final selection of the Fudan Inter-University team would take place. First, they would be shortlisted based on accomplishments and accolades. Then, the top twenty would undergo contests to ultimately produce five core and five reserve members to participate in the illustrious International Inter-University Competition.

Gwen's lesson took place in the arena's interior, within the containment array. Here, the facilities double-dutied in the off-season as holding pens for Summoned beasts and Familiars, allowing Creature Mages to perfect their skills and practice fending off various Magical Monsters.

Inside the spacious chamber, she saw a few familiar faces from Conjuration and new students who should be her seniors. As she entered the underground, an instructor arrived from the bay door where two vice-like steel panels unfurled, resembling a giant maw. The barrier was a bulkhead freight section—Gwen recognised the contraption from her journey to Singapore. Should the Force Shields fail, the steel bulkheads could significantly impede all but the most powerful of Elemental Familiars.

The instructor was a grizzled Asian man with a square face and small beady eyes glinting with intelligence. His distinguishing feature was a nose that was deformed and askew as if someone had struck its bridge repeatedly. Compared to a prideful Senior Mage, the shabby, dishevelled attire of Hufei reminded Gwen of an NoM machinist.

"My name is Instructor Chen Hufei," Chen introduced himself. "I am a simple Conjurer, not a Magus and certainly not a Magister, so no need for formalities. My highest rank in the PLA was as an NCO, so don't worry about that either."

A slight murmur echoed around the underground chamber.

"I have, nonetheless, served with the 42nd Battalion and 83rd PLA Canton Division across four tours and two Purges. Since retiring from the PLA, I held the position of Warden for the Canton Wildland Reserve for over two decades. Rest assured that the training you will receive is sound and tailored to your specific needs. Any questions?"

The room had no complaints.

"Good. For those in possession of Spirits, proceed to Sectors 5 - 12. I will be overseeing your training. For those of you with mundane Familiars, proceed to Sectors 22 - 27. Sergeant Pei will be overseeing your training."

The groups began to split. As Gwen expected, those with Spirits acted with justified arrogance.

"Is there a Gwen Song?" Chen called out suddenly.

"I am here, Sir," Gwen answered.

A dozen pairs of eyes from both sides centred upon her. Unconsciously, her hands moved across to cover her midriff. When gazed upon, her body was prideful, but her mind remained very self-conscious indeed.

"You're with this side."

"Yessir."

She peeled from the first group to expressions of confusion, disappointment and envy, then joined the second group, whose faces remained dismissive. No one would claim to be No. 1 in Spellcraft, but extreme competitiveness typified the academic field. In a nation of old rites and fathomless history like China with its Clans and Sects, the same truth was more explicitly than in the west.

There were five members within Gwen's new group, making her the youngest by far. They were four men and one girl. The girl Gwen recognised from her Conjuration class, which made the men Second or Third Years.

Gwen followed without complaint as the team made for Section 5.

Within the arena's underground, the sectors were simple micro-arenas closed off by bulkhead doors a dozen meters wide and four meters high, which ran parallel and perpendicular to the massive concrete pillars that held up the superstructure above.

"Alright, everyone, let's introduce yourselves." Hufei stopped, then stood like a drill sergeant.

Gwen's companions arranged themselves in chronological order by seniority. Once they were done, Gwen stood awkwardly at the back row, looming almost half a head taller than the tallest man present.

In reality, she was the same height as her instructor, but her ankle boots added another inch-and-a-half atop her gangly frame, giving her the likeness of a crane among bobbing chooks.

"Nihao! I am Ji Lu, I am a tier 5 Conjurer, and this is my Spirit partner, Ahu."

A burst of flames escaped the Mage's chest and formed a cat with intelligent eyes. Upon closer inspection, it was clear that the orange tabby was a tiger Spirit with great potential.

A round of golf claps echoed through the chamber.

"Hello, my name is Chan Baoguo. I am a tier 4 Conjurer and Tier 3 Transmuter; this is Feifei."

Following Lu's fire was water. Baoguo's animal was a water bird of some sort, mayhap a crane or a shallow-water stalker. The summoned crane obediently followed its Master and stood to the side, fully understanding its partner's orders.

The following student had an unassuming water Sprite as well. It would appear to Gwen that Water Spirits were the more common kind, but that came as no surprise; Earth was, after all, a blue planet.

Candidate No.4 announced himself with a burst of vibrant Blue-Green energy that leapt from his chest and frizzled the ceiling above them.

"Wanli!"

"Scree—!" The hawk's screech pierced their ears.

A Lightning Elemental! Gwen's bosom rose and fell with awe as the young man announced himself to be Lu Fung from the Nantong Fungs. Gwen recognised the Clan name, as it belonged to Dai, the inheriting son of the Police Commissioner of Shanghai's Metropolitan Security Bureau. Though she and Dai had since amicably resolved their differences, Gwen wondered if this particular Fung would recognise her.

Lu's Spirit Hawk soared through the air majestically before returning to him. Gwen wanted to whistle. Now there was a proper Spirit of Thunder and Lightning! Once the crackling lightning faded, they could see that the creature was a sparrowhawk.

Wanli, whose name meant 'ten thousand li', alighted on its Master's shoulder, making Gwen coo with desire.

"Eunae, your turn," the instructor implored the girl in front of Gwen.

The quiet girl nodded palely, likewise intimidated by the display put on by Lu's hawk.

"My name is Eunae Lee, and this is Luyi!"

A mote of pale emerald energy manifested in front of the girl as something akin to a fig tree materialised, first forming four legs, a lumbar, then a slender neck, a tail, liquid eyes, then a black, pointed nose.

It was a deer! Gwen gasped—one that was beyond adorable! The forest Spirit then looked upon its surroundings with eyes sparkling with intelligence, radiating a warm radiance Gwen long missed.

A nature Familiar! The girl, this Eunae, possessed a Sprite just like Elvia!

"Luyi…" the girl cuddled the deer's neck.

"Eeee!"

Her familiar struggled from its Master's embrace and bolted right toward Gwen.

"Luyi!" Eunae's eyes filled with fear as the flesh of her flesh, the quintessence of her Conjuration, the child of her imagination and her contracted soul mate, abandoned her and ran head-first into Gwen's legs. Upon reaching Gwen, it began to nuzzle her, seeking the source of Gwen's mana.

Gwen looked up with a horrified expression at the poor girl, who was now on the verge of tears.

'Luyi' gazed up at Gwen with its soulful brown eyes, too human to belong to a mere beast, and made a puckering motion with its lips.

"I know you got it. Give it up! Hoss!" it seemed to say to her.

No! Your Master is watching! Gwen grimaced at the forest-friendly critter tried to bedevil her into yielding a trickle of her Druidic essence.

"Go back to your owner," Gwen urged the creature.

The faux wood-doe bleated adorably at her. It then rudely nudged her thigh gap.

The men snickered.

Gwen swore under her teeth, and bodily picked up the doe, much to the dismay of Eunae, then dragged it across the concrete to deposit it in its owner's lap.

"Keep a leash on your Familiar," Gwen reprimanded the Conjurer sternly.

"Y-yes!" The girl nodded furiously, stroking her precious Spirit-doe.

Now that Gwen had taken a better look at Eunae, she could see that her classmate was actually Korean in her appearance and not just name.

"It would appear your lack of authority over your Spirit is as serious as your instructors say," Instructor Chen observed dryly. He then turned to Gwen. "Miss Song, if you would finish the introductions?"

Gwen left Eunae and found a safe spot far away from the others.

She then moved another ten paces or so away.

"She must have a big Familiar," someone commented.

"How big can it be?" Another one of her peers scoffed.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"She's not a Spirit Conjurer, right?"

"Heh, I bet she's got connections higher up. That's why the instructor is personally taking care of her," Lu Fung said sardonically.

No one had humanoid Spirits, Gwen observed as she primed her body. Richard's Undine must be a dream.

"You may proceed." Instructor Chen glanced at the other students with an expression of expectant schadenfreude. If so, Chen must have gone over her records already.

"Ariel!"

Gwen called out her Lightning beast. The marten materialised, rolled, then struck a pose. It then sniffed the air and ran toward her, making infinity tracks around her legs as it joyously celebrated rapturous freedom.

"Haha! What the hell?!" Lu could be heard chuckling from across the threshold.

"It's a mundane marten!"

"A common beast!"

"Wait, it is not a Spirit?"

"It looks altered, though. It's got horns."

"Doesn't change the fact that it's a dumb animal. Haha, what a waste of talent!" Lu snickered.

Gwen blushed annoyedly at the insults and called Ariel to her. She scooped up the marten in her arms and kissed it on its forehead.

Eunae, meanwhile, became even more confused. Why did her Familiar run to Gwen? Was likely the thought haunting the girl as she held onto Luyi tightly, her eyes full of incomprehension.

Instructor Chen made a motion that said, get on with it.

Gwen stepped back.

"Caliban!" she called out.

A slit opened in-between time and space.

"What the f-"

"She has two?"

"Impossible!"

A long, spindly leg cut through the air before stabbing into the concrete floor. Another soon joined the first, then another and another, forming a cluster of disjointed, anorexic fingers searching for nourishment. As a walking nightmare, Caliban emerged in its wholly uncensored Lovecraftian glory. Her Familiar's back-carapace pulsed like a beating organ as it walked, its semi-translucent plates of obsidian bleeding ambiguous grey goo as it flexed. When the final length of its tail emerged into the Material Plane, it extended a pair of blue-red tentacles from its slurping underside and caressed Gwen's cheeks.

"Wocao, that's fucking magnificent," Instructor Chen applauded her beast. "What a Buddha-cursed monster! It's like something that crawled out of the nine-fold underworld."

Following the instructor's comment, a moment of complete silence hung in the air, humming with the tension of a taut violin string.

Then all hell broke loose.

“MAO’S BALLS!”

“RED STARS!"

“CAONINAINAI!”

The junior Mages took a defensive stance and even manifested their Shielding spells; their Familiars stood at their sides, ready to defend their Masters.

"Luyi!" Eunae's doe bolted right into its mistress and bowled her over, then fled the scene, sprinting across the hall in full gallop.

Lu Fung's Sparrowhawk rose to the air and bellowed a challenge, sending out a shower of sparks. The Mage himself had turned as pale as a ghost but kept up his guard even though his knees grew noodly.

"Shaa—SHAA?" Caliban sensed, as Gwen had, the delicious mana radiating off Eunae.

Click—Click-Click—Click—

It began to skitter toward the Korean healer for a closer inspection. Caliban might not possess a brain, but Gwen felt that Cali might have mistaken Eunae for someone like Sufina, who had fed it sumptuous feasts of mana.

Instructor Chen muttered an incantation under his breath but did not move to stop her Familiar.

"Caliban, stop!" Gwen commanded her creature. "Hey! Cali! I said stop!"

She felt no malice nor hunger from Caliban and pulled at her creature half-heartedly as it dragged her along toward the shaking Eunae. Downwind, the poor girl fell onto her buttocks and desperately called for her Familiar.

"Luyi!" Luyi appeared before Eunae in a flash of silver Conjuration. "Luyi! Protect me!"

Luyi took one look at Caliban, then fled the scene like a bandit on a fast horse, or deer, as the case may be. To the discerning viewer of Gwen's world, the setting reminded her of the infamous video in which a mother doe abandons its fawn to a cheetah with the decisiveness of a meth dealer fleeing the cops.

"Luyi…" Eunae's face was a mess of snot and tears as Caliban approached, likely praying to a higher power she would not soil herself.

Gwen understood the girl's troubles well, thereby feeling the greatest sorrow and sympathy for herself and her victim.

"No! No!" The girl was shouting in Korean.

"SHAA—SHAA—!" Caliban did not know Korean.

Gwen slapped Caliban on its cephalothorax, bidding it to back away before the girl became permanently deaf, dumb and insensible.

"Caliban!" Gwen enforced her will.

"Feather Shard!" Lu Fung commanded his Familiar.

The attack came out of nowhere. Even as the other three junior Conjurers relaxed, realising that the monstrous vision was no danger, Fung had entirely lost his cool.

Perhaps the Master of Wanli had not thought Caliban's skittering approach was benign; maybe the induced hysteria had overwhelmed his shuddering will, but the reality remained that Lu Fung opened up a barrage from his Spirit hawk.

A deadly, long-range AOE Lighting assault that Caliban could withstand, Gwen could dodge, but not Eunae.

"Caliban, help her!" Gwen commanded. Unlike other elemental Familiars, Caliban's physical form regenerated so long as she provided the vitality. Therefore, unlike her fellow Creature Mages, she needn't worry about Caliban's health.

Her creature needed no coaxing to protect the healer. The Void-spider lumbered over Eunae with supernatural haste and flared out its carapace. Below, Eunae came vis-a-vis with an unmitigated view of Caliban's second mouth, where a slit opened to reveal a lamprey's mouth with multiple tentacles, each with independent mouths, all waving at her.

As the shards of bladed lightning rained down around the beast and the beauty, Caliban reported that the Korean girl had fallen unconscious.

"Idiot!" Instructor Chen finally took action invoked his Familiar even as he swore at the Fung's scion. "Huonu!"

A stench of rotten eggs and brimstone filled the air as a massive three-pronged claw reached out from thin air and seized the hovering lightning-hawk, sending it crashing into the ground. A pulsating mass of scaly flesh followed, crimson with flowing magma and smoking with ash and sulphur.

The gathered students opened their mouths in awe. Their fear of the Caliban thing became momentarily forgotten as they witnessed the full fury of an upper-middle tier Spirit Familiar—a Magma Salamander.

Gwen saw that Chen's partner was no common Spirit. A true Salamander possessed not the amphibious likeness of a creature in-between frog and newt, but a half-humanoid giant with a female upper body and the lower body of a snake, akin to that of the Greco-Lamia. From her Master's vague lessons, Gwen knew that these Salamanders were citizens of the Elemental Plane of Fire, living in colonies in a place called the Brass City.

Before Gwen's feelings of awe extinguished, Chen's Familiar completely overpowered the Lightning-Hawk. Then, as quickly as it had manifested, Huonu faded from the scene, leaving behind globs of magma and an unbearable stench of sulphur.

"Wanli!" Lu Fung glared at the instructor in shame and fury. Gwen winced, for the Familiar would likely take weeks to restore.

"Intemperate fool!" Instructor Chen howled at the cadet. "All of you! Attention!"

The lucid students quickly stood to attention. The three who stood ramrod straight had seen military duty and presented themselves for inspection. Gwen helped Eunae to her feet but couldn't stop her sobbing. Meanwhile, Lu stared defiantly with barely contained rage at his instructor.

Instructor Chen nodded approvingly at the three seniors but then turned upon the girls and the inconsolably furious Lu.

"You three are the worst Creature-Conjurers I have never seen!"

"How dar—Oof!"

Instructor Chen punched the air before him, and two meters away, Lu Fung fell to the floor and discharged the contents of his breakfast.

"Shut UP, shit stain!" The militant instructor's voice was like a thunderclap. "This is your last warning. Another strike, and you are out of my class. I will personally see to it that Fudan removes you from its roster. Do you understand?"

"I- I understand-" Lu spat between gritted teeth.

"What was that?!"

"I UNDERSTAND! Sir!" Lu shouted back at the instructor.

"Now stand back up and act like a man, you boot scum! Do you think you're top dog because you have a mid-tier Spirit? Think again, worm! Your Clan bought you that Thunder Hawk. You did not tame it! You did not fight for it! You did not scale the twenty-thousand steps of Kunlun's Evergreen Peak to steal the egg from the Heaven-Splitting Crag! You're nothing without your Clan!"

Lu remained standing, inflated by nought but the sheer force of his indignation.

"You don't even know how to control your hawk's ability! You can't aim the AoE! It cannot even identify friend or foe! What a waste of a beautiful Spirit on a piece of amphibian shit."

Eunae stood shaking and shivering no more than a dozen meters beside the screaming instructor, while Gwen had commanded Caliban to skitter away quietly and hide behind her. Ariel, meanwhile, dug into her T-shirt and quaked with terror.

As expected, the Spirit healer was the instructor's next victim.

"Where is your Familiar, Miss Lee?"

Eunae looked at the instructor as though he had demanded she strip down and give birth; her face was equal parts incomprehension and stunned terror.

"WHERE IS YOUR FAMILIAR?! CONJURER?"

"Luyi!!" Eunae wailed helplessly, summoning her Familiar once again. The girl was in tears again, crying out for her Familiar to appear while trying to retract her bubbling snot. When finally her doe materialised, it took one look at the instructor and turned to flee.

"Luyi," the instructor said in a voice filled with command. "Luyi, stay."

To their surprise, the skittish doe dropped to one knee.

"Do you want to protect Eunae, Luyi?" Instructor Chen spoke calmly and softly.

Luyi bobbed its head vigorously.

"Then you can't let her fear affect you, okay? I know that's how Empathic Link works, but you have to know that you're stronger than your mistress. You're her protector. Do you understand?"

Luyi nodded again. That was the thing with Spirits. They understood human speech, and they understood human empathy.

"Okay, you're a good girl, aren't you?"

Luyi licked the old Conjurer's hand.

Instructor Chen rapped Eunae's forehead.

"You have much to learn."

"Y-yes, Sir!" Eunae's head bobbed like a drinking bird.

Gwen was just about to smile when her half-formed grin froze on her face.

Instructor Chen turned toward her.

Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit! Her inner dialogue crapped itself.

"They told me to take special care of you." Chen approached Gwen until he was no more than two inches from her. She could still smell the sulphur on his skin, feel the heat radiating from the Magma Mage like a glowing furnace. She had to circulate a thimble of Lightning mana to resist the pressure he was exerting upon her. "Your link with your creatures are untempered, and that makes them a danger to yourself and your allies."

"I am sorry, Sir! I will take greater care with my Familiars in the future!"

Chen looked past Gwen at the massive spider-thing behind her.

"Caliban, come here!" he commanded.

Surprisingly, Caliban came.

"Caliban. Sit!"

The scorpion-spider thing roosted itself until its belly touched the floor.

Gwen's lips formed an 'O'.

Instructor Chen produced two raw, uncut fragments of mana crystals and offered them to Caliban. The creature extended two tendrils and retrieved both pieces, then fed them into its maw, crunching them luxuriously as it enjoyed the burst of raw mana infusing its body.

"Gwen, tell it to return to its lesser form," the instructor told her.

"Caliban, Serpent!"

Caliban focused on its meal instead.

"You also have much to learn." Instructor Chen shook his head. "How did you manage to tame this creature? I find it difficult to believe that it would have come to you naturally. It is too powerful, too wilful and far too volatile."

"It's a long story, Sir."

"Next time then." Instructor Chen patted Caliban on the forehead of its faceless carapace and retreated from them. Gwen produced a piece of LDM and fed Ariel sneakily under her shirt, for Ariel had seen the instructor provide for its half-brother and was wondering if it too should take on the role of the troublemaker. After all, it appeared that Caliban got rewarded for harassing the Mage with the familiar scent.

Instructor Chen returned to the bulkhead entrance of the section.

"Your task!" Instructor Chen announced. "Is to temper the connection to your Familiars. Get them to remain in the Material Plane! You will eat with them. Sleep with them. Go to class with them. They will become a part of you, and you a part of them! They will not be unsummoned until you are OOM!"

There were groans all around, but Gwen had to regard the nightmarish bulk of Caliban with alarm.

Eat with Cali? Sleep with Cali? GO TO CLASS WITH CALI?