When Max had formed contracts with Dura and Trill, he'd assimilated Trill in less than an hour, which turned out to be rather lucky. Even he could tell that his Summoner power burned much brighter now. Once he had bonded completely with Trill, he'd immediately gotten a decent idea of certain things that he could do with her power. Max wanted to practice with her, but ever since their bonding, she'd been non-stop generating a field to hide Max from other spirits and from Summoner senses.

This was necessary. The two of them had had a quick conversation at the speed of thought, and Max agreed with Trill that she should do so. Now he knew that Dura told Trill before contracting with Max that it would likely be necessary.

The problem was that Max stood out too much now in dangerous ways. With two remnant spirits, especially one as powerful as Dura, he had zero expectation that he would continue to fly under the radar anymore, especially if he was physically too close to one of the older professors, much less Mong Hao Han himself.

Max finished assimilating Dura's spirit a few days later, and from that point on, his days had truly become the most busy that he'd experienced since coming to the Quartet. It felt like all he did was train, study, and sleep.

Every time he started thinking about Amy, or romantic relationships in his past life–old regrets, he threw himself even harder into work.

When he had started his crazy schedule, the end of semester competition was just over a week away. The competition itself was going to last about two days, and then Max had been told via spirit messenger that he would be summoned. His testing was going to be called an “exhibition match.”

Max had been in fairly steady correspondence with the Summoner Academy headmaster, and he asked the man to organize for some of the senior competition to be on standby for the exhibition match. Max didn't want to just come out and tell the headmasters that he was so much more powerful now. Mong Hao wasn’t happy about Max’s line of questioning about the upcoming exhibition match, but also seemed cautiously optimistic about it. He was reading between the lines that Max was feeling confident. Max had also assured the Summoner headmaster that no matter what happened, he would settle the other headmasters’ minimum requirements for him.

As a three star mana body Blade Sorcerer, Max felt confident standing toe-to-toe with most enemies he could encounter until he returned to Earth, now. He might not be able to win every fight, or prevail against some of the strongest monsters in the Quartet dungeon system, but at least he would be able to hurt them. More importantly, they wouldn't be able to kill him quicker than he could escape.

His new, more durable body was not the only advantage he had, either. Armor from Lavinia was just a thought away. Saliron’s spirits inhabited his bones, making them even stronger than they otherwise would be. He was tanky as hell now, but his offense had gone up too.

Now that he was a three-star mana body, Max could use the mana vault artifact much more easily…and get greater effects pairing it with his bead sorcery. Max now kept a few small pieces of bone in his pocket. Saliron also gave him a power amplifier, letting him increase the power of his available tools with different synergies. If he used a bone bead and supercharged it with mana, Max could now create a gate into his storage space much more easily. He no longer had to build an entire doorway of bone.

This new functionality had presented some interesting potential options, like the possibility of stealing books from the library. However, after discreetly looking into it, he was disappointed. Whoever had planned the Quartet schools was no dummy. It was very difficult to steal anything in any way from any building in the entire Quartet. Even though this quartet didn't generally have any Challengers with spatial abilities or powers that helped with theft, the other Quartets in the universe definitely did. They were all protected the same.

Max had almost run out of mana units while reaching a third star mana body, but luckily he still had a great deal of mana pills left. The large stock of mana pills meant he didn’t need to worry too much about being broke, at least for a while. Mana pills still helped him, and definitely helped all of his friends, still.

Besides, since he’d just achieved a new level of mana body, the most important training he needed in the short term now was practical, not further mana refinement.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

When the day finally came for the end of semester competition, Max wasn't really excited or worried. If anything, he felt somewhat numb, like he'd put all of his expectations and nerves on hold until after they would be convenient again.

His friends all met in the forest the night before. More than half of them planned to try placing in the competition and be qualified to fight at the end of the year. They didn’t meet to train. This get together was more of a celebration than anything. Lance, over the last couple of months, had become very good at procuring alcohol if Max gave him a mana unit or two, and so all of them had plenty of drinks on hand around a bonfire.

Max drank too, and after he was tipsy, Gantry said, "Hey everybody, you should see what Max can do now."

Max was sitting in a crude log chair, just relaxing, he glanced up in annoyance at Gantry. "First, what the hell are you talking about? Also, why are you so drunk? You all have to compete tomorrow."

"That's not a problem because of you," said Lance, drunkenly pointing at Max. "After all, you're the one who showed us how to use the mana in our bodies to burn off alcohol."

"Damn it, that's true," grumbled Max.

"Come on," Gantry pleaded, "just show them one time. You know what I’m talking about."

"Fine," grumbled Max. He didn't like to let Trill drop the concealing field that she kept around him at all times. But luckily, even for this trick, he didn’t need to. One thing he discovered almost immediately after contracting with Trill was that the field she kept tight to his body could also be expanded into a sphere around him. Before this, the only quick, supernatural structures Max had access to building were Lavinia’s spirits creating armor, and a handful of other shapes or tools. But now Max had a bubble and all of Max’s spirits’ powers could interact with each other.

Max hadn't forgotten how Territ Mond had blocked one of his attacks during their fight. The half-shield of power made of interlocking plates was something Max would probably never be able to replicate. However, Lavinia's spirits could mimic a close approximation. In barely more than a thought, suddenly a half-circle of interlocking ectoplasmic plates shielded Max from the front. He wasn't sure how durable this protection would be, but he was fairly confident it could stop extremely substantial attacks. Once the barrier manifested, all of his friends made suitably impressed noises and then went to get another beer as Max settled back in his seat.

He knew he probably shouldn't since he'd been drinking, but he opened his tablet to see his message history with Amy. Since they'd stopped seeing each other, Max had messaged her twice. The first time, she hadn't answered at all. The second time, when he asked, "Are you busy?" she just responded with "Yes."

Oh well, maybe third time's the charm, Max thought. He didn't truly expect for the relationship to start again, but Amy was a good person and he didn't like how things had ended so abruptly. And more importantly, he didn't like the idea that she would still be upset about what had happened. It probably wasn't the most rational thing for him to feel since neither one of them had actually done anything wrong, but he couldn't help it, and the alcohol wasn't making matters better.

Reaching out to an ex while drinking was dumb, and he knew better, but he forged ahead regardless.

He sent,

[I hope you are doing okay.]

This time he got a reply back almost immediately, but it made him frown. He stared at it for a moment. It read,

[I'm fine. Good luck in your competition. I think it's tomorrow.]

Max thought of several different things to respond with, but ultimately just closed up his tablet and put it back around his wrist. He might have been unwise enough to send the message in the first place while he was drunk, but there was no way in hell he was going to have a messaging conversation with Amy while he was inebriated. He also wasn't ready yet to burn away his buzz with mana. Everyone around him was still having fun. His friends, at least some of them, could drink like a fish. Surprisingly, Momo probably held her alcohol the best.

If Max burned off all of the alcohol in his system, he'd be the only sober one there. So he stayed in his chair and was just content watching the fire. It didn't take long until even while inebriated, he started planning out new beads to create and stash around his wrists and ankles. Recently he'd gotten over the discomfort of tying his bracelets tighter so he wouldn't jingle as he walked.

Max realized that it was very difficult for him to stop working even when he was otherwise at rest. With a flash of clarity, he decided that while he generally liked himself, sometimes his workaholic tendencies made him hate himself just a little. He took a drink and wondered where all this focus had been when he was on Earth. Recognizing that the alcohol was likely fueling some self-indulgent depression, he regretfully finally burned the alcohol out of his system and told all of his friends he was heading back to his room.

He didn't miss the look that Momo gave him before he left. The invitation had been more than obvious in her eyes. He rationalized his pretend ignorance that his friends would be competing the next day and nobody needed any more distractions. But before he got back to his dorm, he admitted to himself that he just wasn't ready for any more romantic attempts. Maybe after he was done pleasing the mysterious headmaster Bojana, he’d also have time for more than just training.

Then all the headmasters would theoretically be on his side. Of course, now that Max knew about Bojana's history with Ancilla in the very distant past, he was wondering even more than before who he was really working for now.