"Wow Ginger, you really went through it," Reiss said after his friend finished his narration, which took until the pair that had gone into the chamber came out, wounded and soulless like most others that came before.

"Yeah," Ginger said, his eyes hiding a twinge of guilt.

While Reiss mulled over everything he had said, everything except the bit about how he suddenly felt his body grow heavy, how his stok suddenly began overflowing with Kardia, how his eyes started seeing things that they shouldn't, Ginger deliberated.

He and Reiss shared a lot, but he didn't share his deepest secret with his friend. The only person in Ravi who knew said secret was Ira.

Speaking of the gatekeeper, Ginger had shared with Reiss what he and Ira had talked about right after the Second Burning. All except his dual-soul nature and his past, that was.

And once again, Ginger was withholding information, and he didn't know if that was for the best or not.

The boy had Ancor to teach him that one's secrets were not to be revealed lightly, and only someone Ancor trusted was worthy of knowing things he would rather take to the grave.

'It's probably better this way,' Ginger told himself. But was it?

"Looks like you weren't kidding – not that I didn't believe you. You really are pretty experienced in combat. I can't imagine maintaining a steady state of mind to cast light through Mana Essence while being pinned by that big of a Blighted," Reiss said, his eyes sparkling.

Ginger scratched his head.

"You get used to keeping a cool head even when you are in real danger," he said with a small smile.

"I'd say that's a little more than just keeping a cool head, Ginger. Maybe on top of teaching me how best to use Mana Essence, I'm also going to need you to teach me how to fight. In exchange, I'll do a bit of your homework. Willingly."

Ginger laughed.

"That sounds good, but we should probably learn from Professor Cain and Professor Mara first."

At that moment, the pair that had just come from the chamber sombrely dragged themselves past them and sat down a few meters away.

They looked dreadful.

"Come to think of it, how long did Alcaeus and I take to finish the exercise?"

Reiss looked up thoughtfully.

"Maybe ten to eleven minutes. Why?"

"I don't know," Ginger shrugged and made a face. "Time flows differently when you're faced with a threat. What's funny is, sometimes it slows down when you are close to death, or at least when you feel like you are, you know? It's always felt to me like the world is giving you a last chance in that moment."

Reiss hummed while nodding thoughtfully.

A pause lingered between the two.

During that pause, a name was called that drew their attention away.

"Caron Ester and Ophelia Burns."

At Professor Lyall's words, everyone turned to those who were next.

Well, most looked at Caron. The redhead was pretty famous as she was the only one among the First Years to have Totality-type Kardia.

Unlike the girl she had been paired with, Caron didn't hesitate to walk towards the mouth of the chamber.

"What? She doesn't get paired with her obvious enemy?" Reiss said with apparent bitterness.

"I guess not," Ginger said.

He still hadn't forgiven how Professor Lyall arranged his and Reiss' pairs. He was sure they weren't coincidences.

"Was she still behaving like she was ready to kill someone AND herself?" Reiss asked.

"Yeah. Though she was a little concerned for you."

Reiss scoffed.

The two watched as Caron in her yet-to-be-ravaged Light Gear, wielding her four-section staff, was devoured by the darkness of the chamber, her partner following close behind her.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Ginger was quite confident in Caron. Despite her lazy nature, she had proven more than once that she wasn't simply a lucky dragonling blessed with a rare type of Kardia. She had shown that she could wield it pretty well, exceptionally well, in fact.

Also, she still held onto her confident declaration that she would teach Reiss and Ginger how to control their Kardia better in three Strides.

Right then, Ginger felt another twang of guilt.

'Reiss is talented too. He has one of the five best casts. But I was so sure he would get hurt,' he thought.

He had shown a bit of a lack of faith in his best friend before, and it ate at him that Caron was the one to call him out for it earlier.

Ginger frowned.

He had good reason to fear for his friend, right? Yeah!

The cacophony of noises that all the students had finally gotten used to after the first few times, was heard once again; the roar of the wingless Blighted, muffled thumps and booms.

What was made clear, even to those who had yet to go in to face the monsters, was that the caliber of enemies was the same. The Blighted selected for the exercise had the same unimpressive casts, and the same physiques, which gave a few students some much-needed confidence.

That said, none were confident enough to think they would clear the threats they had to face in five minutes, or even less… quite like the current pair managed to.

Gasps were heard as Caron emerged from the mouth of the chamber at the four-minute and some mark, Ophelia trailing behind her by a few steps.

"Good grief…" Reiss muttered in shock.

Ginger merely stared wordlessly at Caron and her bloody four-section staff whose chains clinked every second.

The redhead seemed to look a little livelier than before. The hollow look in her eyes was pretty much gone, and so were the dark circles under them. She even spotted a small smile as she led the way to Professor Lyall who gave her the same meaningless V smile.

Intense murmurs filled the cavern.

Superficial details were what the majority of the students fixated on mostly.

How in the world had Caron and her partner beaten the Blighted so quickly?

How strong was she, really?

"She must be really good at using that thing."

"I wonder what she used her Kardia for? If she was simply Affixing it to her staff so well that she was able to kill those things, maybe I…"

"It's not all that impressive."

The last bitter comment came from Fillys who earned the nods of her fellow haters. She couldn't stomach Caron getting some positive attention, especially after all she did to bring out the opposite.

To her dismay, strength comparisons were quickly made between Vassilis and Caron. Their partners hardly mattered in the contention. Ophelia looked shaken while Reiss had gotten his hammer destroyed. They were taken as placeholders.

While hearing all these things, Ginger turned furious, but before he could think too much about them, Caron approached him and Reiss.

"No shame at all," the dwarfish dragonling said.

"What?" Ginger asked, confused.

"For people she's been giving a good, cold attitude to today, she sure doesn't mind our company," Reiss said. His awe at Caron's achievements had vanished from his mind, it seemed.

Finally, the redhead reached them and sat next to Ginger.

Instantly, the attention shifted towards the trio.

Ginger shivered at feeling it all. Now that his Kardia was refined, his body seemed to get even more sensitive to supernatural forces, and three hundred sets of draconic eyes honing in on him was definitely unnatural.

Reiss seemed unbothered though. He leaned forth and looked at Caron beyond the wall that was Ginger.

"Look who's back. Got that attitude out of your system?" he said.

Caron didn't respond. She merely took a deep breath and started cleaning the sections of her staff on her Light Gear.

Ginger and Reiss, staring hard, thought this was both disgusting and somehow…raw, in the best possible way.

While they had more to think about with Caron than most besides her powers and how she actually compared to Vassilis, they did wonder for a brief moment. She seemed to have it way easier than both of them in the chamber.

"Can I ask you something?" Caron suddenly asked the two in a low voice. Her eyes remained pinned on her staff.

The two boys didn't answer, but them staring at Caron's face told her they weren't against the idea of listening.

"Do you think it's possible for people to really care about each other, genuinely?"

Ginger and Reiss recoiled.

"Where did that come from?" the latter said.

Caron turned to look at the two in the eyes unflinchingly.

"N-never mind," she then said.

The confusion Ginger and Reiss felt grew to turn into hesitation the more the seconds ticked by. When the hesitation grew, it in turn caused the emergence of an awkward silence between the three.

The silence was so uncomfortable that Ginger felt it inappropriate to start a conversation with Reiss, as that would probably lead them to exclude Caron, who clearly had yet to find her normal, carefree butting-in quirk. Reiss felt the same way.

Starting a conversation with Caron was also a non-option – at least Ginger thought so. The only subject he could have possibly thought to talk about with the girl was what had happened with Fillys at the girls' dormitories. That didn't seem like the best idea right now.

Thus, till the last pair for the exercise came out of the chamber after a dreadful eighteen minutes, the three didn't speak. They only watched this side of the cavern fill up with other students.

When it did, Professor Lyall came before all of them, her lips drawn taut, and she clapped to gain the attention of the chattering students.

"I am pleased with all your performances. All of you managed to refine your Kardia and even incorporate what you learned over the last two Strides. I can safely say, as far as batches of First Years go, you are not subpar," she said, her eyes scrolling over the faces of the students from above her glasses. "Only a few of you required my intervention, but that is not at all a measure of failure. After all, I did say, this is not a competition, simply an exercise. The former is yet to come."

Ginger frowned.

'Wait? She intervened for others? Who? She's just been standing there the whole time,' he thought.

It indeed was curious. Many shared his thoughts as well.

"To conclude, I have a few things to enlighten you on before passing you into the rest of your Breather. For some, I'm sure you have already discovered some of these things – and loathe me for it – and some are things you wouldn't know unless you explored the library more than usual."

The thickly dragon cleared her thought.

"For starters, the tiny pedestal you encountered…" she said. "…I'm sure most of you were beginning to doubt it indeed is a pedestal. Well, I hope you will treat it with a bit of respect in the future. After all, it did belong to the smallest dragon in history, one whom a cult in the 103rd Tally of the Azure Dragon called the Great Godling."