“The weather on the side of the continent where the Humans, Elves, and Dwarves live is tame. By that, I mean it's tame compared to almost anywhere else in Taylima. While we have strong storms, there is nothing compared to out at sea or on the far islands. We also lack the endless desert storms from the south. It's something no one, not even a dragon rider, would want to be stuck in, especially with the giant desert wyrms that make those storms their home.” - Redcloth Stal, Grade Four Explorer, during talks regarding an expedition to see the other side of the desert.

Aster

I looked down at the problem, reached up, and rubbed my right ear. It was a motion that had become a habit when I was confused or stressed. In this case, I was both.

For the past two months, I’d put my full attention on the academy and studying. I had learned quite a bit, and a fair amount of my skills had gone up a few levels. Overall, the entire experience, while hard and involving a lot of late nights, was paying off.

There was only one problem: the strategy club. I had made time at least two days every week for it, but I couldn't grasp some of the overarching points of the game. I could handle the logistics, the combat, and most of the functions. It was what the game wanted me to do and what I couldn't do in the game that made me frustrated.

“I don't understand why you can't build a road or start a new town,” I complained to Umbra through the bond.

She was currently watching the game through my eyes. With little to do at the tower besides work on her ground fighting, and that was only if another dragon was present, she had practically become a full-time student at the academy, an unseen one, but I was able to ask any questions she had.

As for the club, Umbra grasped a fair amount of the game, such as aerial fighting, troop placement, and excelled in almost any way in anything that involved dragons. It was to the point that I thought a rider had been involved in the creation of the game. As some would say, she was my trump card, even if she wasn't a piece on the board.

“From what the old man says, you have to work with only existing things you have been given. This isn't real after all,” Umbra replied.

I sighed, drawing Kat's attention. She raised an eyebrow at me, smirking. “Having problems?”

Currently, she had a chorus of griffins and twelve regiments of basic grade two infantry in my territory. They were besieging Yertium, the southernmost border city and the only one that had walls, making it a vital border point. She had snuck around through the desert to attack it from behind while I'd been distracted with my own plans.

“No, I'm just disappointed in the lack of options to expand into the desert or anything that involves new infrastructure.”

Kat gave me a look, one that said we'd been over this a dozen times. “This is a military game, Aster. It's about war and moving troops to the right spots.”

I nodded reluctantly, but I couldn't help but give a small amount of disagreement, even if not verbally. I felt like fighting was a significant part of war, but there were a lot of other factors that were lacking. Using the control stick, I unveiled the dragons that had been posted in the desert. It was only three dragons, a half flight, and I had put them there as desert scouts. A habit since I'd learned that it was actually done to watch for threats coming from the south where there wasn't actually a proper border.

The look on Kat's face as the dragons arrived behind her army had me forgetting about the problems and starting to enjoy the game.

It was during the next day in my first class, Fundamentals of Magic, that the rhythm of my weeks changed.

“As you know, our Academy prides itself on being the best place for knowledge in the kingdom for newly evolved grade ones. It is also one of the biggest places of recruitment for aspiring military officers after graduation.” Mage Eldrim was speaking in his same slow lecturing voice I'd grown used to as we all listened. “It is for that reason that we have exams and tests every few months. This week is the official start of this process, as you will find out in your other courses.”

Test and exams? I had taken a few tests, and oh gods, were they boring. The worst test I'd taken had actually been in this class involving everything we learned in the first month, and it had been memory questions, nothing else. While this sounded like a bigger deal than a twenty-question paper, my excitement for next week dropped like a tree branch with too much weight on it at the announcement. The only upside of the rest of the course was that we were starting to learn about the gods, but that only started at the end of the class.

True to Mage Eldrim’s words, in my next class, Enchantment Basics, an exam was announced, but unlike the paper test that we were assigned in Fumendals of Magic, this was a project.

The project seemed fun and even sounded a bit similar to the torch we had created that was sitting in my bedroom.

In essence, we had to create an item that functioned completely off of runes that we had learned in this class. We had to use at least three runes, but there wasn't an upper limit that we had to stop at; it could do anything, but the grading scale would be how well it performed its intended function.

Basic resources were provided, but anything else we would have to purchase.

The idea that I had come up with I felt was unique but not unheard of in the Adventures Guild.

It would also be good practice for a more refined version in the future. What I wanted to create was a rune-etched bowstring made out of some fiber-like material I hadn't decided on yet. The etching portion would be a mix of basic rune craft, a skill that was now sitting at a nice level six in my status screen, and really careful hand work on the bow to engrave the runes necessary. I would only use four runes to start with, and if it was possible, I would add more, but I didn't want to overstress the material with mana and cause mana deterioration. Mana deterioration was something we had learned about and been warned about multiple times and could cause a lot of issues.

There was a fine balance in how much mana an object could hold based on the material used if the object had a crystal embedded in it, the size of the object, and its quality. This was translated to how many runes could be put on an object. If that limit was passed, a number of things could happen, such as the runes breaking, mana throwback which harmed the person using it, or even explosions.

In the back of the book for the class that I was using to keep track of the runes we learned, I added a section for projects and ideas that could be related to runes. I flipped through the first several pages, marking down the runes I wanted to use: the required mana storage rune, the increase durability rune to stop the fibers of the string from splitting, the flexibility rune to help with the string bending easier, and the last one, a new one I had only learned recently, Lesser Mend. The last one would be the toughest, but if I could engrave it, it could repair threads of the string when they inevitability broke. It would be slow and over time, but it would stop me from having to remake the entire string. In the end, if this went well, then I could look at doing the same to my own bow at a higher level and maybe even look at making rune arrows.

I was so engrossed in all of the possible ideas that I didn't even notice the bell had rung until Kat tapped me on my shoulder.

We talked about our ideas until we had to split up to go to our own courses.

I felt Umbra's attention as I walked into Bonding and waved to Union, where he was sitting on a table, legs crossed.

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Out of all of my instructors, he was probably the one I enjoyed the most, not that any of them were bad, just that Union had been understanding when I had explained to him that Umbra didn't want to attend. She actually very much did want to attend, but a dragon showing up in the school would have caused a lot of problems.

At the time, he had even proceeded to explain that it was normal that every few years, there would be a bond that didn't or couldn't attend due to various reasons and was easy to work around in the first year of the course.

Once all four of us, the entire class, had gathered in our usual spread-out spots, Union told us what our exam would be for this class.

Unlocking the bonded tab in our status screen.

I knew from the class that the only ways to do that were either to learn a bonded skill or reach grade two and unlock the bonded skill with skill points.

Only really one option was available to us. It was something we had already been working towards since the start of the course, so I think we all were surprised to hear that it was our first exam.

Before any of us could start asking questions, Union had let us know that we were actually near the end of finishing the process. To learn a bonded skill as it had been described was a hard but simple process. Basically, a skill had to be learned by both me and Umbra. The skill was unique to each bond and was based on something that matched both bonded individuals’ mana affinity. The problem was that because the skill was so extremely specific, it was ridiculously difficult to figure out what the skill even was, especially for new bonds. To find the skill in grade one, there were two known ways.

First was a mix of luck, time, and studying until you came across the skill by chance. The second option and way easier way was an item that could be used. The reason it wasn't a go-to option for everyone was that it was expensive enough to make me, Umbra, a noble, and maybe even a god wince. The difference was the school was funded by the entire country, so I was able to borrow one to use with Umbra after signing a contract to return it the next day.

That night, we learned the name of the bonded skill, which was called Frost Control. To learn this skill, it would be done the same way anyone would learn a control skill. Studying.

The academy library had books on basic control skills, as they were what mages learned to control their affinity. Learning frost control was a process of trial and error that we were still working on, or rather, I was still working on. Umbra had picked it up in the first week of working on it, but it hadn't shown on her status because both of us had to pick it up. It looked like I would have to do my best to pick it up this week.

My next class, Natural Magic with Elder Trekum, was probably the easiest so far in all of the courses, as all we had been doing in the course was working on the skill meditation.

In that time, we had slowly started to include our senses and movements into the skill, and currently, we were learning different stretches while in meditation.

It was a struggle not to break focus when doing the movements, but slowly, I could tell I was progressing. At the moment, the skill was sitting at a respectable level nine, and the benefits the skill gave were not to be understated. At level seven, meditation had started to increase the rate of stamina regeneration, and since it hit level nine, it had gotten easier to move while using the skill.

Our test in this course was so simple it was almost a relief. I had been starting to worry with the first three courses, adding more to do and work on outside of course rooms. It was to the point I was starting to think that sleep wouldn't be an option. The wise words of Elder Trekum eased that thought

“Your task is to make meditation into a form more suited for you.” which I understood a moment later to mean getting it to level ten and evolving it.

It was, on the outside, a simple task, but I would probably have to end up replacing part of the time I spent sleeping with meditation. It was not the worst exam, but it was another thing I had to work towards this week.

The last course of the day, Adventuring and Dungeoning, was the most interesting. I had expected maybe duels, fighting a monster, or even going into another dungeon to be the exam we were assigned. The last week had been about dungeon survival tactics and what to do if you were somehow split up, which I learned was common in later floors if you weren't careful.

My whole idea of the exam was flipped on its side when Adventure Herney announced that instead of any combat, it would be a week-long survival trek into a nearby forest.

We would be teleported out there in our previous groups with the exception of no minder. Instead, we would be watched by various volunteer instructors, but they would not assist in any way unless absolutely necessary. After a week, we would be approached and teleported back. This was set to take place in two weeks after all other course examinations had finished and the academy entered a rest period. It was the first one of the year. A rest period was an unofficial time set after examinations in which the instructors slowed down their teachings to give us students a break.

When the survival trek was announced, I was confused.

The whole thing sounded ridiculous. How was this even considered a test?

Kat, who was next to me on the stone seating, chuckled and gave me a side hug when I asked her. Once she had stopped and pointed out how much of a small village kid I was, Fernand, who was on my other side, explained it to me

“In the academy, a large number of the students are either nobles or are from the city. Because of this, most of them have no experience in survival and haven't left the city or have only explored the outskirts. This will be a good chance for them to pick up a few survival skills which, if you're on an adventure or making your way to a dungeon, are used quite often, from what I read in the library.”

“Oh, that makes sense. I'll try to get some of the skills, too. I didn't even think of those skills really existing,” I said, trying to think of any survival skills that I might already have some levels in.

“Didn't you live near the Claw Woods forest? I would have thought you would have at least a dozen skills.” Fernand asked, sounding curious.

Before I could respond, Wren, who for some reason was near, let out one of his customary snorts. “I don't see why survival skills would even be needed when you can just pay someone to have you teleported to a dungeon. This whole exam is a joke.”

Kat glared at him.“There are so many reasons that you're wrong that I couldn't even list them all.”

Wren didn't respond, and I took a moment to answer Fernand. “I was only in grade one for a little while before coming to the academy, and I never really thought to learn any skills for survival. Living at my home just felt normal. So, I guess the thought of actively trying to gain a survival skill didn't cross my mind. It's like trying to gain a skill for walking; you don't really need one, and the benefit isn't really worth the effort.”

We switched topics and started to plan for the upcoming test, and even Wren joined in, if reluctantly. After all, it was a group exam. If one of us failed, then it would hurt all of us.

I was making my way to the tower at the end of the day after saying goodbye to Kat when Umbra spoke up. She had been quiet after the announcement of the upcoming survival track.

I'd chosen to skip the club for the next two weeks in favor of all of the studying and work I had to do, and Kat was of the same mind.

“You're going to be gone an entire week this time,” She said, her disappointment clearly evident in her voice. I had to agree with her. As much as I enjoyed learning about dungeons, being gone an entire week felt like too much, and on top of that, there was almost nothing for her to do in the Tower’s courtyard.

“We’ll figure something out; how about tonight we use the crystals and work on our bonded skill? It might not fix the issue, but it'll be a start, and you still have a boss core to consume,” I suggested. It felt like a while since we had really done much together.

She could tell what I was doing, and I felt her appreciation.

We had put off using the crystals from the dungeon in favor of reading the books Roslin had provided us first to get as much knowledge as possible.

While we weren't finished with all three of the books, we were close, with the last book left being on dragon biology.

The book was really more of a journal written by a mage from two centuries ago who was fascinated with the anatomy of dragons, even evolving a class and skills related to the study of it. We both found the book really interesting, and if I could have, I would have kept it, as it was a copy, but that hope was shut down by Roslin as soon as I brought it up, something about it being technically a secret of the kingdom.

“Do you think the book has anything on the race crystals? And is it a good time to use the race crystals? A new skill might cause problems with your studies.” Umbra asked.

I moved out of the way of a cart that was tilting slightly, its weight unbalanced. I went down a side path to avoid the cart as I responded.

“I think Kat and Fernand have already used the crystals even though we haven't talked about it since the dungeon, and I don't think the book will have anything on any skills. It was a stretch anyway, hoping to find anything on dragon race skills in a book. Silt and Emyr were our best options there, and as you said, they are not open to sharing what skills a dragon can get. As for the crystal, I'm already going to have to learn the bonded skill, and this might help.”

Umbra made a rumbling noise. “I understand why they want to keep it to themselves. Like you humans, dragons like to keep their skills a secret.”

I smiled as I approached the back entrance to the Tower. “Let's hope then that the race skill you get is good, and if it is, we can celebrate with the dungeon core.”

I was pleased she would finally consume the core. The day we got back, we had went to the Adventurers Guild to get a price on the dungeon core and the other things from the boss. It cost half a silver to get the core and all the items valued. It gave me a price to pay, and instead of selling it to the guild, I had just paid the party and kept it.

I felt Umbra's excitement. “I hope it tastes better than most grade two cores.”