“Hey Thomas, Aimee, thanks for coming.” in the public library, Caroline and Jason sat down at the table where Aimee and Thomas were already waiting: “How was your class?”

“Ugh, slightly better than the police academy.” Thomas shook his head and rubbed his face: “I am so not the theory type, I think I’ll need more of your help. But - let’s talk about your story first? You were saying students and even a professor got poisoned?”

“Yeah, I’m not sure what the academy will do regarding the situation - but looks like they’re related to the forbidden ingredients that were reported.” Jason said: “I was just testing spells in the public lab, and someone was having some kind of reaction and almost choked to death. They said it was because he was exposed to small amounts of swamp serpent teeth.”

“And I was in the hunting ground just doing some catch and release practice. And I ran into a Shape Shifting Boar that had Kekugora in its stomach, which caused it to go into rampaging mode and almost severely injured some students.” Caroline said: “Then I ran into Jason while we’re both at the hospital.”

“At the same time? That’s too much of a coincidence.” Aimee asked with a frown.

“Yeah, I know. And what’s freaky was that Professor Norin was sent to the hospital at almost the same time.” Jaosn said: “It doesn’t make sense.”

“No it doesn’t.” Aimee said: “If the forbidden material has been circulating, we would see some kind of build up at first, instead of this kind of sudden outbreak.”

“Yeah, Carl told me there were already some students being treated for the exposure, and all from the last few days ...” Jason thought for a few seconds, then he took out his notebook and started taking notes and drawing diagrams: “Okay, let’s list all the details out: first is the guy from the lab, then the young couple from the hunting ground, then Professor Norin … these all happened today, so I would assume, we can find the rough time of their exposure if we know the time it takes for the victim to show symptoms.”

“For those I know, the effects usually range from three days to a week.” Aimee said, taking out her notebook and showing everyone on the table a page filled with all kinds of notes and even some pictures: “I actually researched some basics on some of the forbidden material - which documented only the bare minimum of information.”

“Hi guys, meet my sister, she’s a nerd.” Thomas joked, and got elbowed by Aimee.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“This is great. Thank you Aimee.” Jason chuckled and scanned through Aimee’s notes: “Oh here, swamp serpent teeth, symptoms include loss of senses, stroke and choking due to throat swelling, takes up to a week for minor exposure to manifest into symptoms. Can affect through touch and ingestion through breathing and food.”

“Kekugora.” Caroline gently tapped her finger at a picture on the note, which depicted a mushroom with some kind of patterns on its cap that looked like a hissing cat: “This looks… almost … I wanna say cute?”

“Keku is a word from one of the fair languages, it means ‘cat’. And these fairies are quite small in size and cats actually used to be one of their major sources of danger.” Aimee sighed: “They used this kind of mushroom to craft darts and spears to repel cats.”

“Yikes.” Thomas scratched his nose and said.

“‘It can cause hallucination, amplified sense of danger and therefore paranoia, uncontrollable flows of magic power which could damage the internal organs of magic wielders...’” Jason continued reading Aimee’s notes: “‘And combined with other hallucinogens it can be made into Berserker Drug’.”

“So that answers the question of why it’s on the forbidden list.” Caroline frowned: “But looks like it should be instant effects, right? I don’t imagine it would lay dormant in the victim’s body?”

“Which would explain your situation earlier.” Jason looked at Caroline: “The students are bitten by the boar that’s under the effect of Kekugora - and through the bites the effect transmitted to the students?”

“Umm… It’s not a zombie virus. It’s just a strongly toxic mushroom.” Aimee shook her head.

“Unless the boar was just eating it and had some remnants in its teeth.” Thomas realized something: “This is interesting - it’s forbidden no? The rangers and the maintenance staff would definitely report it if they found them. So assuming that the rangers are doing their jobs - it must be brought in the hunting ground recently.”

“Okay, this is good.” Jason wrote these points down on his notebook: “So, another magical school conspiracy.”

“All students and faculties, please head to the common auditorium or the auditorium of your own houses immediately.” the voice of the principal echoed through the library: “I repeat, all students and faculties, please head to the common auditorium or the auditorium of your own houses immediately. We have another emergency announcement.”

“Holy - again?” Thomas whined.

“I think it’s because of the sudden cases of exposure and poisoning.” Jason sighed.

Just this minute, Jason and Caroline got the same text message from Jianmen on their phone: “Check library history section, shelf 8A, below the shelf.”

“Excuse us.” Caroline frowned: “We need to check something, be right back.”

“Is it something wrong?” Thomas asked: “Do you need help? I’m happy to help.”

“No … just something weird.” Jason chuckled.

When Jason and Caroline left to look for the bookshelf, Aimee slapped Thomas by his arm: “Keep your head in the game a bit, okay? We’re here to learn and train.”

“Geez, sis.” Thomas laughed: “I am just doing that? But what’s a little bit of effort spent trying to impress a girl?”

“You call that trying to impress a girl? I’m fine with it as long as you try being less desperate.” Aimee slapped Thomas on the arm again: “Get good before you seriously start trying.”

“Okay, okay.” Thomas laughed out loud: “But seriously, you don’t need to worry about me - last time I checked I’ve been on way more dates than you.”