When I woke up, I was enveloped by comfort and ease. I felt amazingly rested.

I had been up for almost two days straight since, during the time I was supposed to sleep a night ago, I instead advanced and my mind was overloaded with energy. I couldn’t go to sleep even if I wanted to.

But now, I had finally slept and reset my system. That rest seemed to have completely solidified the effects of my advancement, making me feel even stronger than before, perhaps smarter as well.

But my mind was preoccupied with the girl in my arms. Once my eyes opened and cleared, I saw her still dead asleep.

In fact, she had started drooling on my arm at some point, leaving a puddle on my sleeve. I just chuckled a bit and continued to lay there.

Honestly, sometimes it felt like the touch of the person you liked or loved was just as intoxicating as any drug. Simply looking at Umara made me happy.

Was I head over heels for this girl? Nah, no way. I’m in complete control of my emotions.

After a while of staring and enjoying her comfort, I suddenly saw her shift a tiny bit, indicating her awakening.

I smiled and leaned forward a bit, kissing her forehead.

Then I kissed her cheek, her breathing hitching a bit.

And then I kissed her chin, causing her hand to clutch my shirt.

When my lips were planted on her neck, her breathing came out like a shiver.

“J-John… Haah…”

“Hmm, good morning.”

I pulled away and looked at her with a smile, her ears burning red as she let out a few harsh breaths.

Unlike last night though, she was no longer so daring and bold. In embarrassment, she turned and buried her face in the pillow.

I laughed while climbing out of bed.

Both of us were still in our attire from last night, not having bothered to take anything off or change. Perhaps we would need to engage in the walk of shame back to the Magisterium.

Then again, I had my coat in my spatial sack, so throwing it on would make me look normal.

I looked back at Umara. After some silence, she went from embarrassed to curious about the room.

“Is this your own room?”

“Yea. The Key Master gave it to me back when I had nowhere to stay.”

“You were homeless?”

“Temporarily when I first came to the capital. I didn’t have a single coin to my name back then, but the Key Master was generous enough to give me this room for free.”

“Wow. Honestly, it’s nicer than my bedroom at our family mansion, so you got a pretty good deal.”

“I would agree.”

I nodded and looked around. This place was befit to house the famous, rich, and influential. To get a place like this anywhere else in the city would cost a massive sum of money, and I had gotten it for free.

Well, I’ve gotten everything I have now through the generosity of many people. It will take a long time trying to repay all of them, but it’ll happen one way or another.

Letting out a small breath, I pointed to the bathroom.

“If you need to, you can clean up in there. Do you have a change of clothes or do you want to go out and buy some?”

“No, I have my robes.”

“Oh, good. Well, you take the bathroom first. I’ll order some breakfast.”

“Alright.”

She nodded and jumped out of bed, heading into the bathroom.

While she did that, I ordered some room service, getting a breakfast platter.

And it didn’t take long to get here. I heard a knock on the door by the time Umara came back out in her robes.

“Here you go, sir. Call if there’s anything else you need.”

“Thank you.”

I took the cart that was rolled in, bringing it over to my dining area.

The wall closest to the dining area was entirely made out of glass from floor to ceiling, so we were able to eat while taking in the view of the morning city from so high up.

“Oh, smells good.”

Umara smiled and sat down, digging in with me. While we ate though, I looked out toward the two most eye catching buildings in the city.

The Royal Palace and the Magic Spire.

They were the tallest buildings in the city, the Royal Palace being particularly bold and grandiose with its golden exterior and artistic depictions across the pillars and walls of its construction.

The Spire was similarly prestigious, created of dark crystal and enchanted profoundly. The Magisterium wasn’t far from that place, but the two seemed worlds away.

I had heard much about the Spire. It was a place most warlocks aspired to go. It was humanity’s single greatest magic innovation center. I believed Sawn worked from there as well.

However, since warlocks were coveted in the military, it was difficult to get into the Spire. It was mainly for the dedicated researchers. In fact, I believed that the majority of people within the Spire were summoners, not warlocks.

Suddenly, I remembered something and broke the silence.

“Hey, I wanted to ask you about something.”

“Sure.”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Summoners have Sparks that that strengthen our mind and Psyka. What do Warlocks have?”

“Oh, we have Mana Hearts. We accumulate mana in our hearts and that mana gets circulated through our blood, allowing us to intimately connect with the world around us. But there are different systems of spellcasting dictated by how we layer our Mana Hearts through our advancements.”

“I see. So, is the term tempering familiar to you?”

I asked, thinking back to Maxwell's explanation. Warlocks and Knights were supposed to have a system of tempering, something Summoners didn’t have which stunted their growth.

Sure enough, Umara nodded.

“Yes, though it’s a very rare path to take and not exactly well known. My mother allows me to but she tells me that I can’t tell anyone about it. But, how do you know about it?”

“Maxwell, my teacher. He helped me carry out some tempering during my recent advancement.”

“Ah, I knew something felt different. So you advanced. Congratulations.”

Umara smiled in cheer, but after a few more seconds, her face suddenly fell.

“Wait, Summoners don’t have tempering.”

“I’d like it if you kept this a secret for now, but my teacher has created a way to temper a Summoner’s Spark.”

“Oh! That’s revolutionary! Summoners are notoriously weak because they’re unable to temper themselves like knights and warlocks can. It has prevented them from ever reaching Authority 12. If that changes, the whole of humanity will benefit!”

“Maybe. But, I wanted to ask about how warlocks temper themselves, see how my tampering would match up.”

I asked, wanting more information. I didn’t know much about how knights and warlocks worked.

And Umara started describing her own tempering experience.

It seemed similar to mine. By gathering multiple White Crystals above your own Authority, you could concentrate Magika and use it to temper yourself during an advancement while your body was completely open to its power.

However, it seemed that Umara’s tempering was drastically toned down from my own.

Whereas I was surrounded by 8 White Crystals, all of which had their powers concentrated by a device, and had all my Psyka drained in its entirety, she only had 3 White Crystals and also didn’t drain herself of mana.

Apparently the ring device was common enough for those who had the money and connections to get one for advancements. But everything else about her tempering was watered down.

I felt like I was going to die at one point during the tempering, but she had very mild pain. Not only that, but she didn’t even know that she could enhance her body with Psyka and Vigor. Since her tempering was easier, it was arguable if her body was enhanced by those two energies at all, though I was inclined to believe she still received some.

So it begged the question. Why was her tempering so much more mild than my own? Maxwell was basing the tempering according to how the other Magi did it, merely adapting it to Summoners.

Was he just being more extreme? Or was Umara’s tempering not extreme enough?

Because we were both aware of tempering, there wasn’t any need to hide things. I told her about the differences between our experiences, and she too quickly figured out that something was wrong.

“I created a Mana Core during my Authority 2 and 3 advancements. Then I merged them during my advancement to Authority 4 to create the foundation for my Mana Heart. That’s when I conducted the tempering with my mother. So it seems like tempering is supposed to occur during every third advancement, but I don’t know why mine was weaker than yours. I don’t believe my mother would withhold anything from me.”

“Maybe you should ask her. Perhaps there’s something different about warlocks and summoners that requires different intensities.”

“I doubt it, but I’ll wait to ask. No matter what, my first tempering has already passed. In fact, I’m close to Authority 5.”

“Oh, that’s good. Think you’ll have it before the next trip?”

“Mm.”

She nodded while taking a bite out of some eggs over easy.

I smiled and watched her, going through the rest of breakfast before deciding to head out.

By now, classes had already long started. Not that I cared. As a good delinquent, I took my sweet ass time going back to the Magisterium where me and my girlfriend went straight to the dorms.

Once inside, she nudged me.

“Hey, let me see your room. You got to see mine.”

“Huh? I don’t mind, but we were just in my other room. I’d think it's a lot nicer than here.”

“Just show me.”

“Okay…”

I looked at her weirdly while entering my dorm room.

And as soon as the door closed, she jumped on me while sealing our mouths.

Oh, so that’s what she wanted.

Chuckling as she wrapped her legs around my waist, I went and placed her back against a wall, propping her up and going to town.

And that’s when I learned that she was a very fast learner. Compared to last night, she seemed like a pro.

Still, I was shocked at how eager she could get. With how embarrassed she always got when I teased her or showed her some love, I figured she was just more innocent or reserved.

But my goodness. This girl could get dirty.

After pinning her against the wall for a while, she eventually pushed off and brought us to the bed where we continued.

And we didn’t stop until one of my alarms went off around an hour later, signaling the time to head over to our training.

So after we reluctantly pulled away from each other, we cleaned up and left the dorms.

“Oh, we should go see the leaderboard.”

“That’s right! I wonder what place you’re at.”

Suddenly remembering how I was now an Elite, we both went and checked the leaderboard where I would be placed.

The leaderboard was located in the school’s secondary plaza near the west wing. There, the board was held between two marble pillars.

I looked at the silvery white metal frame that had 32 names atop it.

And there, in 11th place, was my name with 490 points next to it.

I nodded with a pleased expression.

“Not bad, if I do say so myself.”

“Mm, for only going on one trip, it’s amazing. Keep going like that and you’ll reach the top of the leaderboard. Though, I’m surprised that there’s also 3 others who become Elites.”

Umara looked at the bottom of the leaderboard where three more names were added along with mine. While she was occupied though, I suddenly turned and looked around.

There were always plenty of students within the plaza, but I was noticing how many eyes the two of us were pulling.

With my Aura I could sense the curiosity in the gazes of all the younger students, wondering who I was. I could also sense a lot of boys staring at Umara.

At first, I was simply amazed at how acute my senses and attunement to Aura had become. But the next moment, I found myself smirking.

I suddenly took Umara’s hand in my own, raising it and kissing the back of her fingers.

“W-Wait, why?”

She looked at me with a flushed face, her eyes darting around to all those around us, seeing all their whispers and giggles.

I didn't respond, intertwining our fingers before pulling her to the training grounds.

There, we found most of the other Elites waiting around by the Puppet Master’s outpost. The rest of our squad was included.

As we walked over, I felt Umara’s hand clutch my own a bit harder. I could imagine that it was a bit nerve wracking to be so open about our relationship in front of friends, but at the same time, what would it mean if we let go? That we were afraid to tell people?

Well, I think we were beyond that with everything that had happened in recent days.

Still, even I was a bit embarrassed as I saw Vetsmon and Feiden chuckle mischievously.

“Look at these two.”

“Where were you guys yesterday?”

“I-I knew it!”

Tana shouted from behind the men, as if she hadn’t been completely oblivious a week ago.

I laughed a bit as Umara tried to hide behind me.

“We were having fun not getting our asses kicked by the Puppet Master.”

“Yea? Well, you’re in for a good surprise.”

“John!”

Suddenly, there was a yell as the Puppet Master came stomping out of his outpost.

I scratched my head as he approached.

“Where were you two yesterday?! Actually, I don’t want to know. But since you skipped a scenario, your squad gets to do a hard one today! Now get ready!”

“Well shit.”

I cursed as we were all mercilessly enveloped by a pulling force, teleporting into the scenario.

Today was going to be a long day.