The twins kept silent during the whole transfer process. Along the way, the school dean and the dorm manager of Dascalos High School told Artem and Galen a lot of information about the duties and the new courses for third-year students. Then, the dorm manager led them to the storeroom to give the twins their books and the connected bracelets all awaken third-year students had to wear in school.

These bracelets had a lot of functions though they only worked in the limitations of the inner and private network of the school. They were used to give each student their schedule, record their performances and credits, book training halls, act as a key to their dorm room, and send brief messages.

The school dean tried to get the twins to talk to him, but Galen and Artem stayed impassive. The two men exchanged awkward looks until the manager whispered to the dean that the twins had to be heavily affected by the events in their Family. The school dean pursed his lips but didn’t insist.

The boys’ fairies fluttered around them, glad to be with them but restless. The twins didn’t dare to comfort them yet except with small gestures because they wanted to keep their guard up. Galen and Artem weren’t stupid: they suspected that this order to live in the school dorm was a way to keep them under surveillance. They couldn’t explain otherwise the dean’s presence and his attempts at small talk.

Finally, the two men left them alone in a cramped room with a bunk bed, a narrow wardrobe, two small desks, and two uncomfortable chairs. There was a bathroom next door, but they had to share it with the residents of another room.

The twins unpacked their baggage to hang their uniforms and some personal clothes in the wardrobe. They had also brought Artem’s weaponry and Galen’s pharmaceutical equipment, at least those that got the Beast Tamers Association's approval. These took up a lot of space. By the time the twins finished organizing their belongings, it was already late afternoon. The next day was a Sunday, so they would have time to get used to this new environment before starting their classes.

“My turn, boys!” Lyra startled the twins by speaking suddenly, after staying quiet since they got to the school. “These assholes interrupted my awesome rewards from your first achievement, and you still have a lot of choices to make! There is no way I’m willing to wait anymore!”

The twins could communicate with their CSI without speaking aloud, but if they did so, they couldn’t hear each other voices. Nevertheless, Galen answered in his mind that the priority was to check the room for listening devices, even if he admitted they had to learn more about Lyra and their fairies.

“You! Do you realize your fairies are suffering from neglect?” Lyra scolded him.

“You told us they were fine!” Galen frowned and called his fairy to his hand to examine her while Artem was doing the same. Galen still felt uncomfortable with his pet, but the youth didn’t show it.

“I might have glossed over the truth to keep you from worrying,” Lyra replied in an evasive tone.

Galen wasn’t one to ignore the well-being of someone under his care. While Galen was asking Lyra about the fairies’ health, Artem searched the room. His Fire Fairy soon understood what he was doing, and she clumsily helped him check the place.

Before the discussion between Galen and Lyra could become an argument, Artem quietly announced, “We found nothing, but that doesn’t mean that the place is completely safe. Moreover, our connected bracelets have likely been tampered with. Let’s be cautious without being too obvious about it.” The twins had carefully checked their personal belongings, they were confident that nothing was wrong with them. But Artem wasn’t familiar enough with the connected bracelet to notice anything amiss.

Once Lyra had transferred his warning to Galen, Artem said aloud, “What should we do now?”

“Give your fairies a name!” Lyra immediately said with great enthusiasm. “Do you want my help? As a free bonus, I can give you three choices!”

“Give names to the fairies?” Galen repeated, wondering what this had to do with their pets’ health.

“Why?” Artem asked curiously. “Didn’t Mom always just give her pets some nicknames like Snaky, Whitey or Little Flame?”

“Tell me you are joking! A name will help deepen your bond and allow the fairies to grow their own personality. Don’t be casual about it! Your mother should have given her pets real names, she just didn’t tell you… Didn’t she name her Immaculate Twilight Plover 'Caladrius Bird'?”

“I doubt that. I’m sure for Mom, it was only another nickname,” Galen answered. “I mean, it’s not a real name, is it?”

Artem added his input after Lyra relayed Galen’s answer, “I don’t know about his other pets, but Dad’s lion was called Regulus, so maybe all their pets had names.”

Galen shrugged to show he didn’t know either before saying aloud, “Do you have any ideas?”

“So, you want my three choices? Hmm, well," Lyra paused, hesitating to trust the twins' naming sense. "Please ignore the first proposition since I prepared it as a joke. Here are your choices. First, Hikari and Hikaru; second, Elin and Ayden; third, Lucia and Ember.”

“Hikari and Hikaru?” Artem repeated with a teasing smile.

“Well, it is fitting. Doesn’t it mean light and fire in Japanese?” Galen played along.

“No, no! It is as bad as naming twins John and Johnny! Don’t be dumb, please! Moreover, both mean light.”

“Both mean light?” Artem thought to Lyra to go on with his teasing. “You made a mistake?”

“Of course not! It was on purpose! Use Hanabi or Homura instead of Hikari, if you want to go with the Japanese pair.”

“I don’t know if Japanese names are fitting for fairies,” Galen commented aloud with a small smile. “Maybe we should stay simple like Mom and call them Light-Light and Fire-Fire.”

“No! Don’t do that, please! I got a lot more fitting names!”

Artem softly chuckled as the CSI rattled off names. He didn’t know if it was Lyra’s real character, but he suspected that she was trying to cheer them up. So Artem went along with her initial proposition. “I like Ayden for my little Fire Fairy.”

Hearing that, Galen hesitated.

“Don’t be silly!” Lyra chided Galen in a playful, yet stern tone. “Which one do you like?”

“Aren’t your choices going by pairs?” Galen explained his concerns.

“You insufferable twins, always sacrificing for the other one,” Lyra complained dramatically. The CSI had had the time to learn more about the twins during their captivity, so she knew how close they were to each other. Lyra admired their close relationship, but she wouldn’t let it become their shackles. “Just honestly tell us which one you like. I told you that names were important to the pets, but this isn't one of my fundamental choices. I just made the three choices for fun.”

“I like Lucia for my little Light Fairy,” the older boy finally said softly.

“Ask your fairies what they think. They are still juvenile, and their growth was stunted by these assholes’ examinations—which looked more like experimentation”, Lyra added in a sour tone, “but they should understand you.”

As the boys asked them about their opinions, the fairies' answer was to fly around their heads happily.

“You rushed me for everything before, so I want to do things right this time. Your fairies deserve it. Let’s do one of you first before taking care of the other.”

After a quick look between the twins, Galen informed Lyra that he was going first. His Light Fairy went to stand on his hand at his demand. The little creature was around 30 cm tall, and at first glance, she looked like a miniature ten-year-old girl clothed in a simple beige linen dress without sleeves. Her pale skin was as bright as her opal gem. She had fair, straight hairs falling over her shoulders and slightly hiding small pointed ears. If one were to take a closer look, one would notice that some of her hairs were very thin and delicate feathers. Her big golden eyes – almost too big for her small face – were looking at Galen without blinking. Her eyes appeared to glow with a strange light, giving her features a kind of otherness, making it impossible to mistake her for a human child even if she had been as tall as one. She had two delicate, transparent dragonfly wings on her back, which seemed to be made of light.

Lyra used her control over the system to send some energy into the Light Fairy. Blue lines of code appeared on Galen’s palm before disappearing into the pet. Thus, Lyra officially added the new name to the pet status. “I present to you Lucia, a common Light Fairy. Her innate skill is the common skill [small heal]. This pet is agile but fragile. The Light Fairy is usually raised to act as a healer or a support.”

Galen raised an eyebrow at Lyra’s mechanical tone. But seeing Lucia smiling up at him, he didn’t comment and smiled back at his pet. He felt like his bond with his fairy had deepened. Galen didn’t know if everything Lyra said was right, but he was glad to have named his fairy.

“As a reward for having contracted Lucia as your first pet, you can choose one of the following rare skills to teach her.” Lyra went on with what she thought was a proper voice for a system. “Be warned that the skills you won’t choose won’t appear again as a reward. Here are your choices. First, the support skill [light speed]: it can enhance the speed of the target. Second, the defensive skill [light shield]: it can block incoming damage. Third, the offensive skill [light ray]: it can damage the target from afar.”

It had always been agreed that Galen would follow their mother’s path, while Artem would follow their father’s. But things were different now so Galen hesitated to choose the skill [light speed] to confirm Lucia’s role as a support pet. As he was looking for ways to help him make his choice, he suddenly realized that he was missing an important piece of information. “Lyra, you never told me what was my beast-tamer talent. How can I decide a path for Lucia without knowing what I can do?”

“Finally!” Lyra exclaimed. Galen took so long to ask about it, that Lyra wanted to complain. But she had to play her role seriously. She answered in her system voice, “Your beast-tamer talent is [Insight]. In its first grade, it can help you infer what is wrong or important in what you observe.”

It looked like a fitting talent for the support path. Galen thought about it seriously, before he decided to seek further information and advice from Lyra. The twins had been living with beast tamers so they had some common knowledge. However, their parents had never taught them anything officially or methodically because they had focused on other parts of their training when they were home. Moreover, having missed a whole week of lessons at school, the twins' basic knowledge was even more so lacking.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“I appreciate you taking your time to think over your choice. That’s the main reason I built my system like this. For now, I’ll only go over the basics.”

Artem put his head on his brother’s shoulder while his Fire Fairy curled up on his right shoulder so that she could touch her gem. On Galen’s other side, Lucia imitated Ayden and sat on Galen’s left shoulder while touching her gem. Artem was ready to listen to Lyra’s explanation. He had already guessed that Galen was also asking her to help him when it was his turn.

“The beast tamers and the pets depend on each other, and this relationship can only exist thanks to the CSI, who creates and holds the contract between them. To explain the necessity of the contract, let me remind you that only beasts can cultivate and use the spiritual power present all around us. No matter how they tried, humans have never been able to use this power.

So one of the purposes of the CSI is to get the spiritual energy from the tamed beast and transform it into a form of energy usable by humans. This processed power is called chi. Without chi, humans can’t awaken nor fuel their beast-tamers talent. In exchange for sharing their spiritual energy, the pets get to awaken their mind and develop their intelligence, which allows them to learn more skills. Humans must also help them grow and evolve by stimulating and teaching them.

The other purpose of the CSI is to ensure that no humans use their pets as battery tools without respecting their part of the contract.”

The two boys stayed quiet as Lyra paused to let them assimilate what she just said. The twins had never realized that the humans and the pets were using different energies. Artem recalled that Lyra had needed the pets’ energy to activate any features in the inner world.

“Of course, I also need energy. Let’s not speak about the complicated details now: there are solid reasons why the carved spirit stones are rare and difficult to produce. To keep things simple, the pet unconsciously sends around 10% of its spiritual energy through the gem to me each time it cultivates. Then, I keep a small part to fuel my daily functions and convert the rest before sending it to you. Oh, by the way, I haven’t converted any energy yet for you. To spare your fairies, I closed the channel between your pets and me to the bare minimum.”

The twins instantly felt grateful toward Lyra. She had done so much for them without saying anything. This made the twins want to treat Lyra as a trusted member of their Family. She would make a great older sister.

Galen took a deep breath before going on. He didn’t want to try Lyra’s patience, but he needed to be sure of everything. “If I remember correctly, there are six grades distinguished by names and colors. These are used indifferently to evaluate the ranks of the beasts, the beasts’ skills, the CSI, and the beast-tamer talents. From the lowest, there is common represented by the color white, then the green notable, the blue rare, the purple epic, the black legendary and the golden mythic.”

“Yes, and what of it?”

“Your CSI’s power shines blue, so it must be of the rare grade.”

The boys didn’t mention that they remembered seeing it shining in a golden light before being divided. They were grateful enough to be able to both be beast tamers without complaining about the grade of their CSI and beast-tamer talents.

“The skills offered are rare too.” After a short pause, Galen added silently, “I just wanted to clarify things and evaluate how difficult it would be to find another way to learn the skills I wouldn’t choose.”

Galen fell silent again, pondering over his choices. The inspectors had thought of separating the twins once. Their enemies would surely try to do it again. All their life, the boys had thought that they would act as a team, and they trained in this direction as their parents had, but reality had just shown them that this kind of strategy also had its weaknesses.

“Say, Artem, a shield is also a weapon, isn’t it?”

Artem lifted his head from his brother’s shoulder to look at him scornfully. “Of course, it is a weapon! Only fools would think otherwise.”

“Bro, it looks like you’ll have to teach Lucia and me how to use the shield as a weapon.”

“You said it yourself. Don’t complain when I wake you up tomorrow morning,” Artem commented in a deadpan tone.

“Lucia, do you agree to learn the skill [light shield]? I’m sure we’ll be able to learn how to use it both in defensive and offensive ways.”

Versatility – that was the path that Galen chose for his pet. Lucia smiled and nodded at him. The Light Fairy didn’t understand what this skill was, but she trusted her beast tamer. Lyra also smiled, content to see Galen make good use of the choices she offered him.

“The manual for the skill [light shield] will stay accessible in the system until your pet achieves to learn it. Now, let’s take care of your brother. I can’t wait to know what he’ll choose!”

Without saying anything, Artem held out his hand, and his Fire Fairy went to stand on it. Like Lucia, she was around 30 cm tall and looked like a miniature ten-year-old girl clothed in a simple brown linen dress without sleeves. But her warm skin had an orange undertone, and she had curly hair falling wildly around her face in such a way that only the pointed furry parts of her ears were visible. Her hair and her eyes were as red as her carnelian. Artem could see some dark brown freckles on her round, adorable face. This should have made the fairy look as innocent as a human child, but her eyes had a strange glint, which could make one uncomfortable. She had two thin cicada wings on her back, which seemed to be made of fickle fire, creating ever-changing line patterns with its wings’ veins.

Lyra did the same manipulation to send some energy into the Fire Fairy and officially added the new name to the pet status. “I present to you Ayden, a common Fire Fairy. Her innate skill is the common skill [spark]. This pet is agile but fragile. The Fire Fairy is usually raised to act as a ranged damage dealer or a support.”

Like his brother, Artem didn’t comment on Lyra’s mechanical tone. He looked down at Ayden, as she happily jumped around on his hand. The little fairy obviously had a different character from Lucia. Acting impulsively, Artem pointed at Galen with his finger and said to Ayden, “This is my big brother Galen. We have to protect him because he is a bad fighter.” Ayden seriously nodded, which looked funny with her adorable face. Artem went on with his introduction, “And this is his pet Lucia. From now on, you are sisters. Since she is my older brother’s pet, she’ll also be an older sister to you.”

Instead of mocking Artem and Ayden, Galen responded with a serious tone. “Nice to meet you Ayden, I’ll be in your care. As the big sister and big brother, Lucia and I’ll take care of you, so that you can fight without reservations.”

“Aren’t you both cute? But you won’t derail me from my purpose, Artem.” Lyra switched to her proper system voice to go on. “As a reward for having contracted Ayden as your first pet, you can choose one of the following rare skills to teach her. Be warned that the skills you won’t choose won’t appear again as a reward. Here are your choices. First, the support skill [heat detection]: it can find targets using their heat. Second, the offensive skill [fire arrow]: it can damage the target from afar. Third, the support skill [fire enchantment]: it can add fire damage to a weapon.”

Artem knew the skill [spark] was an attack so weak that it was almost useless. The youth’s defined role was to deal damage, as it had always been understood that he would become a Beast Warrior – one of the beast fighters whose mission was to deal with the Abyss monsters. So Artem could choose to let Ayden deal damage directly by teaching her the skill [fire arrow], which was a decent offensive skill, or by getting stronger himself by having the fairy strengthen his weapon with the skill [fire enchantment]. This second option would lead her to the path of a support pet.

Feeling his brother’s gaze on him, Artem stopped thinking about his choice. He suddenly realized what Galen was trying to tell him. “Lyra, what is my beast-tamer talent?”

“Your beast-tamer talent is [Fusion]. In its first grade, it can allow you to share one of your pet’s stats or skills for a short time.” Lyra answered with a small shake of her head. How could they forget to ask about their talent? Weren’t they supposed to be excited about their new power? The twins were so calm about it, it was almost disappointing.

Artem wondered if his talent changed anything. Maybe he wasn’t looking at things from the right angle. The trick was that he might never again get the chance to learn these skills. From this point of view, [fire arrow] was a rare skill for its power, but since most fire pets learned it, it wasn’t so difficult to find it again later. Moreover, following his father’s teaching, Artem felt that Ayden should first seriously develop her skill [spark], as any fighter should first master his basic skills. It was a mistake to try to learn a more powerful offensive skill without first learning to use the weaker one.

So Artem went back to consider the two support skills. Using the same logic, it might be more clever to choose [heat detection] as he had never heard of this skill.

“Galen, do you know about the skill [heat detection]?” Artem wanted to confirm his idea. “I don’t remember any of Dad’s pets having it.”

“I’ve never heard of it either.”

Artem believed he found a clue to make his choice, though he admitted that being unknown didn’t mean it was useful. The skill [fire enchantment] sounded like the safe choice, but his instinct was telling him to choose [heat detection]. Why?

Then, it came back to him. Lyra had called him “Artem the Hunter”, not “Artem the Warrior”. The skill [heat detection] was obviously used to hunt or scout, a skill more in line with the mission of a Beast Ranger – one of the beast fighters charged with scouting and special missions.

Artem took some time to check his reasoning. He realized he was also reluctant to take the safe path because he didn’t want to let Galen get the better of him by being the only one to develop in an unpredictable direction. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing: he would also find ways to exploit his pet’s skills to the maximum.

“I choose the skill [heat detection],” Artem announced confidently.

Lyra repeated her little spiel. She was glad to be these boys’ CSI. Following their thought process was so interesting.

Since their first achievement still had one last reward, she went back to work. She explained how the shuffle worked while promising that she wouldn’t cheat in any way. She guaranteed that the result was random. At her current level, her hosts could only hear her. They couldn’t see what she was doing so they could only trust her. She was eager for her next level-up since it would allow her to communicate through visuals with her hosts, and that was the way to her dear blue boxes!

The boys activated the random shuffle once and obtained a new entry in the beast encyclopedia.

“What’s that?” Galen asked doubtfully.

“It’s one of my innate interface features! The encyclopedia is currently almost empty, but through the shuffle rewards or your hard work you can unlock new entries and see more details about a beast!”

“How is that useful? There are encyclopedias in any library.” Galen couldn’t see any practical use for this feature.

“Don’t you dare look down on me! The higher-tier entries can help define the best training courses for a pet and give tips about the steps necessary to evolve your pet into a stronger and higher-ranked beast.”

“Yeah? If this reward is so awesome, which rewards can we get with the shuffle?” Galen insisted.

“You can get pieces of skills. With six pieces of the same skill, you can redeem it to learn it. You can also get pieces of a new feature for the inner word. You’ll need ten of them to redeem it. Isn’t it fun?”

Galen and Artem looked at each other. They couldn’t muster any enthusiasm for this shuffle thing.

“How can’t you see the fun of this feature? Don’t you know the thrill and excitement you can get from playing games of chance? And about the encyclopedia, don’t you feel the urge to fill all the pages? To get all the entries? Imagine your satisfaction when you finally get the achievement: ‘You have completed 100% of the encyclopedia’!”

“How many entries do we have, and how did we get them?” Artem asked. He could maybe find some motivation if filling the pages was a challenge.

“With this reward, you have five basic entries. The Immaculate Twilight Plover, the Eternal Sky-Golden Phoenix egg, and the two fairies were already there. The new one is about the common Blue Crab.”

Remembering that they had seen some pets during the day, Artem then understood that to get a new entry, the twins needed to have direct contact with the beast. Trying to fill the pages with the more powerful beasts might be interesting. Artem could see how inserting this challenge to touch new and different beasts daily in his training routine could help him further develop his reaction speed and instinct.

The twins used their three remaining usages of the random shuffle and obtained one piece of the rare skill [illusion], one piece of the “Research hall” feature, and the pet entry for the common Green Caterpillar. This pet was known for being one of the fastest pets to evolve, usually in a type of moth or butterfly.

The boys talked a bit more about their gains with Lyra, but they soon called it a night. Artem and Galen didn’t have the energy to go out to eat, so they all went to sleep.