Professor Andr Cain only lost to Professor Aarons in terms of being quirky to a fault. He was a short, muscular dragon with a round face that looked as though it bench-pressed every other Breather. He was like most blondes, exceptionally concerned with the purity of his hair, but in addition, he also had a powerful attachment to his bushy straw-colored mustache.

Where the First Years pegged him first as eccentric was with his clothing. Unlike the other Professors, he seemed to loathe wearing his Professorial coat and would rather wear a different tight-fitting blue shirt every day that – of course – accentuated the insurmountable contours of his muscles.

He didn’t bother with a scarf. He was very much averse to hiding even that from his audience (students).

By some measure, this would have been considered inappropriate, but somehow, Professor Cain got away with it.

For all his quirks, however, Professor Cain was a very good teacher. The fact that Professor Lyall approved of him was evidence enough.

“That’s right. Keep at it,” he said to Fillys as she jabbed at her brother who guarded by throwing up both arms before his face. There was a crisp impact on contact. Fillys kept throwing fist after fist at her brother, but his guard was more than enough to handle the attacks. “Now, switch.”

Fillys immediately threw up her arms and it was her brother’s turn to throw controlled punches at her. It didn’t show, but Alcaeus’ arms were laced with Kardia from within, and so were Fillys’.

Some of the First Years matched into pairs for the same exercise, stole glances at Fillys and Alcaeus to make sure they were doing it right.

“You see, now that your Kardia has been refined, you can Permeate and Saturate with ease. This is the first step to perfecting your applications of the fundamental Pieyro. The Custos Zoe you have just managed to trace the shape of can now be given a staunch, solid form. It can defend in full. It’s a pity that you couldn’t use it in your exercise during the Breather, but well, that’s what Hunts are for,” Professor Cain said as he strode between pairs of students.

He measured the flow of Kardia from their second heart into their flesh to strengthen it – Saturation – and advised when he noticed them allowing too much Kardia to leave their body – Permeation. For the latter, Kardia didn’t simply slip out readily, even if students had Alien-type, but it was harder for some of them to simultaneously keep the Kardia in check while focusing on defending themselves from blows or attacking.

Ginger and Reiss had been paired with each other, which was such a fierce relief for them both.

They were also taking turns attacking and defending.

Ginger noticed that both Permeation and Saturation were rather easy for him, at least at a rudimentary capacity. He could let his Kardia stream out easily by having it adapt Alien-type qualities and reinforcing his body with it, his arms in particular, wasn’t too hard when he had it embody Pooling-type properties.

He still lacked finesse, however.

He was lagging behind Reiss.

He felt it when his punch landed against Reiss’ guard. He had thrown a decent jab laced with a significant amount of Kardia, yet Reiss received it easily without being knocked back at all. When it was his turn to receive the dwarfish dragonling’s blow – which Reiss delivered after leaping upward – Ginger had actually felt a sharp pang of pain on the back of his forearm.

He could hardly believe it. Was it because he (Ginger) still had a pathetic amount of Kardia?

It was far beneath Ginger to get jealous of Reiss, but the fact that he was lagging only served to sour his mood even further.

“What’s with that face? I already told you, you’ll get a chance to fix things with Kairos. Don’t let it bother you so much,” Reiss said as he guarded against Ginger’s quick jab.

“It’s not just Kairos. This Stride has just begun on a horrible note, hasn’t it?” said Ginger and he glanced at Kairos who had been paired with Konstantina Flohr. The gaunt-faced First Year must have sensed Ginger’s gaze because he immediately turned to him only to adjust his position so that he wouldn’t get so much as a peripheral glance of Ginger.

Ginger sighed and then he searched for Caron. She was fighting a hesitant brunette who kept quivering when Caron balled her hand into a fist. Professor Can rushed to the pair to see what was wrong.

Since the exercise at the Beginner’s Den, Caron’s reputation had seen a new light. She was being matched against Vassilis in terms of talent and power since both of them had defeated the Blighted assigned to them and their partners in relatively short periods. Even before that, Caron had been rivaling Vassilis in Professor Mara’s class, exercising genius levels of Affixing.

And now, in Professor Cain’s class, it showed. Most weren’t confident in facing Caron even for a supervised exercise like this which had no stakes whatsoever.

Reiss followed Ginger’s line of sight and gave an exasperated sigh.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“There’s nothing we can do about Caron. She’s being hard-headed for no reason. If she wants to keep her pride instead of telling us what’s bugging her, that’s her problem. We can’t force anything,” he said.

“I know,” said Ginger, but he didn’t share the same stalwart stance as his friend. He had secrets too and he knew exactly why he didn’t go around sharing them. It wasn’t just because of pride.

Professor Cain suddenly clapped to get everyone’s attention. It worked spectacularly.

“You are all making sturdy progress. These mock battles will always be a thing, I assure you. They are not only to help me gauge your progress with concepts I’ve taught, but they also help you familiarise yourselves with your peers’ skills – their strengths and weaknesses. That is essential for allies. And indeed, you are allies above all. Someday, you will see the worth in the people you fear or hate now,” he said.

Another one of Professor Cain’s quirks surfaced right then: his lopsided smile.

It did more damage than good.

It forced some of the students to ignore him and look at the peers they weren’t all too friendly with. Just because they were in one class it meant they were friends? Fat chance!

“Anyway, I have another trick I want to teach you. Saturation and Permeation go hand-in-hand when it comes to Pieyro,” he said and raised a hand. “I am a Pooler, like many of you. I know there are misconceptions that go around claiming that Poolers are incapable of releasing their Kardia from their body, but that is not entirely true. I’m sure Professor Lyall has or will kill that logic soon enough.”

Professor Cain pulled the right sleeve of his shirt and tensed the muscles of his right arm. There might have been eggs underneath his skin because of how swollen it became. He gathered his Pooling-type Kardia into his arm and condensed it to the limit. Of course, his students couldn’t tell what he was doing, and thus, he explained.

“This seems like a basic thing, pointless even, but you should know – Poolers especially – that there is a limit to how you can condense your Kardia. There is a limit to Saturation. When your Kardia reaches a certain density…”

Right when he said this, Kardia leaked in straight spokes around his arm, hazy royal blue, and pressurized like thin streams of water from a hose. It warped the air around Professor Cain.

The dragonlings of First Blue gaped.

This revelation about Pooling-type Kardia was surprising, but so was the fact that they could see the Kardia of their instructor now without him having to dumb it down, as Professor Mara had so gracefully put it.

Ginger took in this lesson with wide eyes.

Professor Cain wore his lopsided smile.

“To be sure, this isn’t some secret to Pieyro – not at all. This trick is only useful in combat or some obscure utility, but it does teach two things,” he said while raising his index finger. “You’ll learn to properly determine the depth of your Saturation” – he raised a second finger – “and also get used to the idea that your basic Kardia cannot harm you, even if it rushes through you at frightening speed. That is essential to know in combat.”

As it turned out, this lesson was important even to non-Poolers. Admittedly, Pooler had a greater capacity to condense their Kardia, but Professor Cain emphasized that Affixers and Alien-type Kardia users had to learn the limits of how much they could condense their Kardia within their bodies too.

Thus, just as he had done with the previous exercise – where the students had to open and close their palms to learn Saturation from scratch – he assigned this one where they had to condense Kardia as best as they could within their bodies. The students were to do it every chance they got and Professor Cain promised that he would be able to see through them if they didn’t practise.

“This is pretty difficult,” said Reiss as he and Ginger were heading towards the Frost Mount’s Tooth after the class. He had immediately begun trying out the exercise to see if he could yield a miracle on the first try and see just where his limit with Saturation was. He wasn’t having much luck.

Ginger wore a crooked smile.

He found the exercise much easier, of course. He felt a little guilty for extracting a little joy and relief from Reiss’ struggle though.

“Well, of course, you can’t just become an expert at something that your Kardia type isn’t good at from the start,” he said to console his friend.

“Hmm. You’re right. I suppose I’m just being impatient,” Reiss said with a sigh.

“But why? You’re making steady progress.”

Reiss fixed him with narrowed eyes.

“I have a hammer I need to start being able to swing effectively soon, you know? That’s going to be crucial during Hunts. You’ve already overtaken me when it comes to readiness for that kind of stuff,” he said.

“Taking on a Hunt doesn’t mean I’m ready.”

“Fine, but it does mean you are equipped with the basic skills you need to complete a Hunt,” Reiss said and his face suddenly hardened. “I still can’t get over Vassilis helping me during Professor Lyall’s exercise. I needed to be more independent. Soon, I will be.”

Ginger had nothing to add or subtract from Reiss’ resolve.

They switched topics soon and split when Reiss went to fetch his bowl for dinner. When they met back up in the Feeding Hall, their discussions had turned whimsical. It was mostly due to Reiss’ effort to ease the strain he could see in Ginger’s eyes.

“Look at her,” said the dwarfish dragonling with a look of disgust behind Ginger.

Ginger turned with a bit of Spiced Bull Tongue stuck in his mouth.

Caron was sitting alone at the edge of a table populated by older students who were chatting excitedly, ignoring her existence. She never looked up from her food.

The delight in Ginger’s eyes faded instantly.

“Canf ve justh go sith with her?” he said to Reiss.

“What would that accomplish?” Reiss said, frowning.

Ginger had no answer. He had a suspicion that if he and Reiss decided to go sit with Caron, she’d just move. Yet still…

After dinner, the two immediately headed for Kartile at the Huddling Fury. They met Madame Agathe on the way, and she gave the pair a narrowed look that made them very conscious of the fact that she was suspicious of them and would continue to be. The hags here at Draggard-Phoenix Institute never seemed to forget faces and names.

When Ginger and Reiss met up with the rest of their fellow Kartileheads, however, they were forced to confront the idea that the Warden’s suspicions about them might have been warranted. Their company was questionable at best.

The upperclassmen who headed Kartile were loose cannons and they turned even looser when all the First Years registered for Kartile showed up for the Out Course.

Basillia was worse than any firecracker known to man or dragon.

“Our cute underclassmen have graduated into real dragonlings!” she screamed. “Let’s celebrate with some long-distance violence!”