The next day.

Ginger and Reiss were quick to wake up and prepare themselves for the day. This was to be their first time going out of the school, well, for reasons unrelated to class activities, at least.

They were both excited, but their secondary reasons for this differed quite a bit.

They joined a large group of students galloping their way out of the humongous cubical castle – the Frost Mountain's Tooth – chatting away as they went. The freshest topic the two discussed was how Zale had invaded their dormitory just to ask how the exercise yesterday had gone. It was a heart-warming gesture to see the Third Year show such care, and even more so when he listened to brief narrations of how they handled the Blighted.

Of course, Zale wasn't the only upperclassman to visit his juniors this morning. Out Course hounds, most of whom donned fake smiles and pretended to give an Olarmander's ass about the First Years' needs also came and nearly flooded the whole dorm while barely showing signs of leaving.

How unrefined.

Thankfully, Zale wasn't as clingy, though, that could have been because he had already made Reiss and Ginger sign up for Kartile.

"That was nice of him, but I still don't like him very much. I can't forget that he pretty much coerced us into joining," Reiss said.

Ginger only partially agreed. He viewed joining Kartile as a great experience, after all, when he was fighting the large Blighted yesterday, him managing to shoot out the gathering mass of Kardia in his body as a piercing projectile was something he had learned during the Out Course. Perhaps 'learned' was an overstatement, but watching the older students show off did inspire him.

Because of this, he was sold on the Out Course, though he did wonder if he should really keep to only one Out Course as Professor Lyall had encouraged. Ginger needed more time before he could make a definitive choice.

Going down the path leading to the school entrance bordered on most sides by the massive bronze wall onto which the statues of the Ancient Dragons were placed, felt exhilarating. Neither Ginger nor Reiss felt a crushing sense of morbid anticipation like yesterday.

The only thing that somewhat bothered the two boys was that passing through the entrance reminded them of the ordeal with Caron yesterday. She hadn't joined everyone until they were here.

"Do you think she's alright? I mean, she wouldn't tell us, but do you think Fillys and the others are giving her a hard time today too?" Ginger asked Reiss.

"I don't know. Unfortunately, we won't be able to find out anytime soon. Knowing Caron, whether she's being bullied or not, she'll probably choose to sleep through the entire Breather," the dwarfish dragonling said as he pushed his scarf up. "Besides, after how she performed yesterday, do you think the other girls will still mess with her so casually? I mean good grief, she's been named Vassilis' rival."

Ginger nodded.

That made sense.

His main concerns mainly stemmed from the fact that they didn't speak to her yesterday when they flew back to the school. It just didn't feel right to leave things as they were, but then again, as Reiss said, there was no way to know how she was doing for now.

The two walked briskly among the other students on the large bridge which led into familiar civilization.

Ginger clutched his sling bag tight while Reiss was practically bouncing with excitement.

Before, the First Years had been taken out by Professor Lyall to be shown important spots in the town ahead, most of which were organizations affiliated with the school and leisure spots – age-appropriate ones.

Ginger and Reiss didn't get such an orientation, but they had the option of finding a Monitor who could show them around.

Fortunately, for their separate adventures, the two boys weren't going to be needing a guide. Reiss' father had sent the location they were to meet through Junns, his Olarmander.

Ginger, on the other hand, would soon be face to face with his destination. He couldn't have forgotten the location even if he wanted to. In fact, walking on the demarcated paths on the bridge made his memories of the first day he came to Ravi all the more vivid.

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The approach of a few, wide beasts, quite like lizards with a lot more skin than they needed, made the group of students retreat to the two areas on the furthest parts of the road reserved for pedestrians.

The great creatures pulled along large, luxurious carriages that Ginger felt were a bit ahead of their time. No one steered the beasts, which stunned him all the more.

The carriages headed towards the entrance to the school.

"Who do you think is in that?" Ginger asked Reiss.

The dwarfish dragonling gave Ginger an odd look… and then burst into laughter.

The plump dragonling was stunned.

"What? What's so funny?" he asked.

Only after Reiss wiped his tears did he answer.

"What do you mean who? You think it's someone important coming to the school? That's a cargo carriage, Ginger. It's got supplies and stuff."

Ginger was flabbergasted.

"What?"

He turned and appraised the carriages a bit more. They didn't look that big. Each was roughly five meters long and three or so meters wide. What cargo could they be carrying?

"Is it like my bag? There's more space inside it than you'd expect?" Ginger asked.

"Yeah," Reiss said while glancing at his friend's sling bag. "Something like that."

Ginger had shown Reiss the unique qualities of his bag. There was no way he was going to be able to hide something like that forever, after all. Though the dwarfish dragonling wasn't at all that impressed, one of the stories behind the bag – Ginger's favorite one – did amuse him. He had remarked on how he would have loved to see the enchanted, house-sized toad Ancor had hunted down, killed, and fit in the bag for the crime of flattening his Shaman hat.

"The school requires a lot of materials including food and the like on the regular. I wouldn't be surprised if these cargo carriages come every week. But seriously, if those things look that luxurious to you, how would you react if you saw the proper transportation for important people here?"

Ginger gulped.

He really was too green. In his defence though, he didn't have much of a choice but to remain ignorant about the world outside the school's walls for the last two Strides.

The two boys soon reached the bustling town and all its active glory amid its neat, relatively packed streets. They and the throngs of other students around them, all in uniform, bled into the town, populating it even further.

The town was called Proin, which meant 'former'. Whatever could have been the meaning of this name did not enchant either Reiss or Ginger. Their focus immediately split on arrival, each to his own journey.

Ginger was the first to speak when the straight road leading into Proin branched to the left.

"I'll see you later then."

"Sure. I hope you're smart enough to not get lost," Reiss said with a big smile.

"You know I'm not."

After a brief fit of laughter, the two boys parted.

Ginger caught a last glimpse of Reiss who charged through the crowds while heading straight ahead before turning to face his own path.

He was back here again.

Good Yield Street.

The words were written in bold on the road, just as Ginger remembered. It was somewhat nostalgic.

Looking at the varying species – lesser races, as many dragons called them – he still felt a bit uncomfortable, but it was more bearable after yesterday. Nothing was as unnerving as that spindly figure in the chamber.

Ginger tried his best not to bump into a shirtless, lizard creature built like a stack of boulders, walking on two legs with animalistic dignity.

The creature gave Ginger a sharp look that he assumed to be annoyance, but that could have easily been a normal glance, given that the creature's eyes looked to be eternally frozen in a squint.

Strangely enough though, the lizard also made sure to not so much as graze Ginger's clothing. The same was true for another creature that looked a little like a man from its top half and a giant snake below its waist. It also carried itself well, adorning a fuzzy long coat of thick fur, but when it came close and caught a glance of the plump dragonling Ginger, it avoided him.

'What's going on?' Ginger thought.

He looked around. Just like before, he noticed some older dragons among the crowds, wearing scarves like him or using other pieces of clothing to hide their necks. He noticed that they walked in empty pockets on the street where no one else dared to approach.

'But… this didn't happen back then?'

Indeed, it hadn't. Two Strides ago, Ginger walked among everyone just fine. But…

The boy stopped.

'Is it because my Kardia has gotten refined? Can they all sense it?'

Right. That must have been it.

Besides the fact that Ginger hadn't even awakened his Kardia back when he last walked on this street, he also didn't have features most dragons had, like the slit-like pupils. As far as he could tell, his eyes were still a humanly round shape after yesterday's exercise. If not for his scarf, barely anyone would have thought he was a dragon.

However, now he had Kardia, and it was even refined. There was bound to be a difference with his presence, and the other non-draconic races could sense it.

Ginger didn't know how to feel. He might have been proud of this discovery if he was in the Wild, but not here; being able to make dangerous beasts wary of him without even lifting a finger would have been a great asset back home, but the creatures here were different. They were civilized and reasonable. Probably.

'It's good to know anyway.'

Ginger continued on his way, trying his best to rein in his ego and appear as harmless as possible to the menagerie of different-aged creatures he met. For all he knew, he might be giving innocent, elderly newt men heartaches with ill-timed bursts of his Kardia.

Soon, Ginger's destination was in sight.

A couple of meters away, a shack of a shop stood in between classy buildings that almost looked new.

In front of it, a skinny and funny-looking man was holding out pamphlets and making a lazy attempt at handing them out with the worst bit of verbal marketing ever.

"Hunters! Looking for Hunters! Strong Hunters! Come on in and sign up for perilous tasks and little reward!"

Ginger wore a determined face.

'Here we go.'