When I got home that night, Esteban was pacing restlessly just outside his door. He sagged in relief when he saw Alphonse and me come through the front door to the apartment building. “Oh, good, you both made it back,” he sighed.
“We’re fine, Esteban,” Al assured, giving our friend a smile.
“How is everyone else?” Esteban asked, his brows furrowed with concern.
Alphonse reassured him, “Everyone made it back just fine.”
I stepped forward, eager for news of Bella. “How are your other friends after the party?”
“They’re okay, well . . . except Bella,” Esteban answered, then nervously added, “She’s not dead or anything. She had to sneak out to come to the party so her guard wasn’t with her. He made all kinds of threats to the academy when he found out. Even made some threats against the three of us. I’m sorry to say, but as soon as Bella was stable, the guard had her house packed up, and they left.”
I was glad to hear Bella survived but was equally sad to hear she was gone. Still, I breathed a sigh of relief. She lived.
“I feel bad for encouraging her to sneak out. You don’t think it was my fault she got hurt, do you?” Esteban asked nervously.
“Of course not,” Al said. “You are not responsible for the choices she makes.”
I shook my head sadly. “I am glad to hear she survived, Comrade Esteban. But if you’ll excuse me, I need to rest.” I pushed through the pair of dogmen and climbed the stairs, entering my apartment and closing the door behind me a little more harshly than I should have.
I struggled to focus the next couple of days. I tried to read The Fearless Badger Cultivation Manual but found it kind of useless. It basically said I needed to cultivate the mana of a place of extreme danger, like in the middle of a lair break, or in a nest of the deadliest beasts known to kin kind. A place that any normal kin would have been absolutely terrified to go. The Fearless Badger indeed. There was of course more to it than that, but it was complex. Circulation patterns. Control exercises. Cultivating the myriad mystic gates to improve my Badger’s Constitution, how the manual knew I had such a constitution boggled the mind. And there was a whole lot more.
The only thing I really took away from it was a new Mana Circulation pattern, not that I was certain it was doing anything different. Coach Liv was more lively when he entered the Lair Team meeting room at our next meeting, his usual gravelly voice was replaced with an enthusiasm I hadn’t seen from him in a while. “Welcome back, team. I hope you all enjoyed a couple days of rest after the Hunter’s Run. Now that it is behind us, it is time for us to begin moving forward. The next Lair is the Hazardous Laboratory.”
“What’s the skill this month, coach?” Robin asked.
“Heat and Cold Resistance, which means I’ve booked us a special Elemental Box,” Coach answered.
“Why resistances?” Rober asked.
Coach answered excitedly “The Hazardous Laboratory is known for its sudden and rapid temperature changes and the elemental mutants we’ll fight our way through. It is also one of my favourite Lairs.”.
“Why is it a favourite?” Al asked.
Coach grinned, “Fire Attunement, Fire Manipulation, Ice Attunement, and Ice Manipulation. This lair is known to give out these skill stones. And if you weren’t aware, any elemental attunement or manipulation skill stone is worth a small fortune, even if we sell it to the Academy we’ll each be walking away with a good sized pile of gold.”
“The Elemental Box won’t be ready for a bit, so let’s start talking about how each of us would deal with an elemental with the skills you each currently possess.” Each of us was put on the spot to explain how we would deal with an ice or fire elemental with our current skills. And we were lacking a skill, it was strongly suggested we get a skill or tool for it. I cringed at the thought of how much it would cost to buy a fire or ice enchanted knife.
It wasn’t long before Coach was ready to move on, “Okay, homework assignment! By next class I want you each to come up with ten more ways of dealing with fire and ice elementals using your skills, five using the skills of your team, and one using a skill you don’t currently possess.”
“Next,” Coach paused to grumble, “this will be interesting.” He cleared his throat and spoke up, “Dean Weber has asked that you learn an additional skill. You are not required to learn it by the next Lair run or ever, but she does believe there will be value in it if you can learn the skill. Additionally, I will not be teaching you this skill. That is up to Mister Belov.”
I felt my eyes go wide in surprise. Just what was she expecting me to teach? Oh, that evil old goatwoman. She just couldn’t let me figure out how to teach Alphonse in my own time. Nor was she willing to wait after my first tutoring session.
I narrowed my eyes and gave Coach Liv a measured look, “Did the dean happen to mention we had a deal?”
Coach Liv nodded, “She said your request will be waiting at your home by the time you get there tonight.”
“Hmph,” I grunted, but eventually I sighed, “Fine, but if it isn’t, there will be hell to pay.”
Coach Liv snorted a laugh. “Good luck with that. Now, if you will.”
“Fine, fine,” I said as I stood up. “Okay, Dean Weber asked that I try to teach you a skill called Mana Circulation. It’s an advanced control exercise focused on internal mana manipulation. Professor Waltz has actually started you all along the path by getting you to move your mana inside the body. She’s told you to push the mana to your extremities then pull it back to your centre, kind of like a wave. This is good to get you used to moving the mana, unfortunately it is limited, the constant change in direction doesn’t allow you to pick up speed, to begin turning that mud into cool, clean water.”
“I know of two different circulation patterns for those just starting out,” I said, refusing to mention the third pattern related to my Badger’s Constitution. I had a feeling if they tried that one, it wouldn’t work. “If the first doesn’t work, the second should.”
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I spent the next hour trying to teach my team to master the basics of mana circulation. It was a difficult task, and I found myself having to explain and re-explain the same concepts over and over again. I started with the basics: teaching them how to sense and recognize mana as well as how to draw mana from the environment and direct it through their body.
The next step was to learn how to create a loop of mana, either in a tight circle or a long loop that could transport a lot of mana at once. Alphonse was the first one to grasp it, and with repeated practise, he could now move mana with a surprising amount of speed and control.
The last step was a difficult one—learning to circulate their mana constantly throughout their bodies. It was a much more efficient way of using mana, but it was a difficult concept to grasp, and only Han and Yui seemed to fully understand it.
At one point, frustration finally boiled over, and Plvoer asked, “What’s the point of this? Aren’t our mana control exercises enough?”
“It’s a prerequisite skill,” I answered.
“Prerequisite to what?” Plvoer demanded.
Thankfully Coach Liv intervened, “That will only be discussed if you manage to learn the Mana Circulation skill. Let it be enough, Mister Plvoer, that you’re being given an opportunity. Don’t waste it.”
Plvoer glowered at Coach Liv and then at me before huffing and getting back to work.
Class ended, and I was relieved to not be the centre of attention. I hoped this wouldn’t become a regular thing.
The rest of the day seemed to drag by as I eagerly anticipated my first session with my new trainer. I hoped creating the claw skills I wanted wouldn't take too many weeks.
I arrived home exhausted and dirty. I was mentally and physically worn. A feeling that was washed away when I saw a stern snakewoman standing outside my door. She was tall and lithe, her scaly skin tinted red, orange, and black. She had dark red hair that hung long down her back.
“Mister Belov?” she questioned as soon as she saw me, a thick Alhsashian accent colouring her voice.
“Yes, are you the promised trainer?” I asked.
“Trainer for what?” Al asked from just behind me.
She spoke up before I could, “I am Doctore Alia Fayed, you may call me Doctore. I am to assist you in creating two skills, Shadow Claws and Light Claws, correct?”
I nodded, “That's right. I am Burion Belov, pleased to meet you.”
“We will see how pleased you are when I am through with you,” she replied. “Now, hurry up and open the door, we have much work to do and little time to do it.”
I rushed up the stairs and let her inside.
As soon as I closed the door behind me, she started, “At least your home is clean even if you are not, though I suppose your current state can be forgiven as you have been in training all day. Starting tomorrow, I will be here before sunrise four days a week. It will save me from your stink. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Doctore,” I answered, hanging up my coat and satchel.
“Let’s begin,” she said, pulling out one of the stools from my counter and sitting on it to face me. “Creating skills is easy when you know what you want. The trick is to refine the skill into what the system will recognize. You are looking to create shadow and light element skills. You already have the shadow element at the Beginner Rank, which means you can learn skills but your ability to manipulate shadows is severely limited. If you really want to create a shadow skill, you need to rank up both your attunement and manipulation skills,” the snakewoman stated. “I know you are required to take Mysticism as a first year. Where are you at in Mana Manipulation? I also assume you are trying to gain a Light Attunement, or have you already?”
The manipulation exercises were straightforward as promised, each building on the previous exercise. First, I created an orb of shadows. Second, a cube. Third, a pyramid. Each shape was surprisingly difficult, especially with the exact nature of the shapes Professor Siqueira required. Shifting an orb into a cube should have been easy once I got through the first three exercises. It wasn’t. “I’m stuck on the fourth manipulation exercise. As for Light, I’m still trying to gain the attunement,” I answered.
She tutted and asked, “And are you close to learning it?”
I nodded this time. “I believe so. I am able to connect with the light. Two or three sessions in the elemental box and I should have it.” That belief was more of a hope, one I was starting to lose. The Light element box had been giving me headaches for a while now. It was enough that I found myself closing my eyes halfway through my sessions if only to stave off the pain.
She hummed, “Good, when you finally succeed, do not stop reserving time in the elemental box. Instead, switch to Shadows and ask Professor Zwief for the Intermediate Rank. You need to increase your attunement rank. Your objective is to increase your connection . . . to widen it. If you succeed, you will find creating a shadow element skill significantly easier.”
“Does that mean I can’t even try to create the skill anyway?” I asked, worried she was going to tell me to come back after I improved.
“Not at all. We will work on it together. However, your chances of learning or creating the system recognized skill is almost nil,” she answered. “For now, let me see if I can help you past the fourth exercise in Mana Manipulation.”
Doctore was kind of great. I appreciated her straightforward approach. She didn’t mince words or give me undeserved praise. The next morning, I had made it through the fourth exercise with her direction.
A couple hours after my morning training with Doctore, I was sitting down in the elemental box. I spoke the word to start my hour, and lights began drilling painfully into my eyes. Still, I forced myself to keep my eyes open. To feel each colour and all the spectrums of those colours. Red wasn’t just red, it crimson and pink and carnation and rose and hot. Orange wasn’t just orange, it was pumpkin and fall leaves and mandarin and fire.
“Enough,” I growled, finally reaching my breaking point, pushing mana into the air and taking a stranglehold on the colours, which instantly dimmed. I blinked a few times as the colours continued cycling, albeit dimmer than before. But that wasn’t my focus.
Congratulations! You’ve completed attunement to Light. The Mystic Skill Light Attunement has been added to your skill list.
My heart leapt with joy, and I blew out a huge sigh of relief. I had done it. I had gained my Light Attunement. It had been months of trying, and Alphonse had gained two attunements and was likely to gain his third any day now. All my hard work had paid off, and I felt a swell of pride.
I stood and left the elemental box, seeing a large smile on Professor Zwief’s face when I stopped clear.
“Success?” She asked, sounding hopeful.
I grinned and nodded, “Success.”
“Congratulations,” she said. “Will you be trying to learn another or maybe advance one of your attunements?”
“I want to try to advance my Shadow Attunement,” I answered.
Professor Zwief nodded, “Alright, I’ll have an Intermediate Box prepared for you next session. I hope you come ready to work.”
“I will,” I promised. “But now I need to go see Professor Sequeira to start on Light Manipulation.”
“Good luck,” the horsewoman bid, “See you in a couple days.”
Shadows took on a whole new meaning. Especially when the shadows weren’t there. Professor Zwief called it overcast. The idea was that the light was such that it wouldn’t cast a shadow despite being able to see clearly. Trying to find a shadow in such conditions was an exercise in futility. I had said as much to the professor and she just laughed at me and told me to keep working on it and I would eventually figure it out. And when I did I would have an increased skill rank. It was frustrating.