The Academy courtyard was quieter than usual, a heavy, expectant silence that felt like the stillness before a summer storm. In a place like Aetherfall, word doesn't just travel; it colonizes. By the time the first bells chimed for the morning rites, the news had already taken root in every dormitory and faculty lounge.
SSS.
Beast Tamer.
Immediate Summon.
The air itself felt different—charged with a prickly mixture of curiosity and a very specific, cold distance. It was the way people look at a beautiful, predatory animal behind a glass wall. They admire the coat, but they never forget the teeth. No one approached us directly as we crossed the manicured lawn, but I could feel the weight of a hundred gazes pressing against my back, tracing the line of my shoulders and the silent, silver shape padding beside me.
Claudia, as usual, was the exception to the gravity of the moment. She was jogging backward in front of me, her hands laced behind her head, grinning with an infectious, manic energy that seemed to defy the somber mood of the morning.
"So," she said, her boots crunching rhythmically on the gravel as she moved in exaggerated, slow-motion steps. "Do I have to start bowing now? Or do I wait until you've officially conquered a small kingdom? I need to know the protocol for being best friends with a 'Walking Natural Disaster.'"
"You can start by tying your hair properly," I replied, my voice steady despite the adrenaline still humming in my veins from the Awakening. "The 'Bird's Nest' look isn't very regal."
She gasped dramatically, clutching her chest as if I'd run her through with a practice blade. "Cruel. Absolutely heartless. Here I am, offering my eternal fealty, and you're critiquing my grooming."
Her red hair was held back by a fraying silk ribbon, but stubborn, fiery strands escaped wildly, catching the early morning light until it looked like her head was wreathed in actual embers.
Beside me, Luna moved like a ghost. Her paws made no sound on the gravel, a feat of predatory grace that made students move aside instinctively as we passed. It wasn't fear yet—not the bone-deep terror of a monster—but it was an acute, prickly awareness. They were stepping out of the path of a Tier 0 student who had suddenly been reclassified as a Tier SSS enigma.
"So," Claudia continued, her voice dropping into a conspiratorial whisper. "Are you going to keep pretending you're just a boring botanist who got lucky, or are you going to embrace the 'Mysterious Beast Lord' persona? I have some capes you can borrow. Very dramatic. Lots of fur."
"I plan to be exactly as boring as I was yesterday," I said, eyeing the training fields ahead. "Consistency is the only thing that survives scrutiny."
She leaned closer, her green eyes dancing. "Raven, you just summoned a legendary-tier Frost Wolf in a room full of Church inquisitors. Being 'boring' would be the most suspicious thing you've ever done."
She had a point. In nature, a plant that grows too fast either dominates the canopy or is choked out by the surrounding brush. I needed to ensure my roots were deep enough to handle the growth.
The Grinding Stone
We reached the outer training field. It was a vast expanse of emerald grass, still silvered with a low-hanging morning mist that smelled of damp clover and cold earth. The main Academy bell hadn't rung for the first lecture yet, leaving the field empty save for a few dedicated combat-track students in the far distance.
I set my bag down near a weathered wooden bench. The wood was damp with dew, the scent of rotting oak mixing with the crisp morning air.
Claudia stretched, her joints popping in the silence. "Alright, O Mighty One. Same routine? Or does an SSS rank get a pass on the manual labor?"
"The routine is the foundation," I said, dropping into a plank position. "The rank just means the stakes are higher."
"One day," she groaned, dropping down beside me, "I'm going to convince you that 'Leg Day' is a myth invented by the Church to keep us humble."
"Unlikely."
Push-ups. One. Two. Ten. The rhythm was a metronome. I focused on the texture of the grass beneath my palms—the cool, slightly sharp blades and the give of the moist soil. I could feel the internal gears of my body working, the familiar burn in my triceps and chest.
Luna sat a few feet away, her blue eyes tracking our movements with an expression of quiet, almost regal confusion. To a creature of her instinct, watching humans go up and down in the dirt must have looked like a bizarre religious rite.
After fifty reps, Claudia's breathing turned rhythmic and heavy. "You realize," she said between gasps, "that you're the only person in history to awaken at the pinnacle of talent and immediately decide that the best use of your time is to get sweaty in the mud."
"It's consistent," I grunted, my heart starting to thrum.
"With what? Insanity?"
"With improvement. A talent is just a seed, Claudia. If you don't water it with effort, it stays a seed."
She rolled her eyes, a stray lock of red hair plastered to her forehead with sweat. "You're exhausting. Truly. Eighty. Eighty-one..."
"One hundred."
We flipped over into sit-ups. The mist was beginning to burn off as the sun climbed higher, turning the field into a shimmering, golden bowl. At eighty-seven, Claudia leaned over and bumped my shoulder mid-rise, a playful, jagged move intended to break my form.
"Race to the finish?" she challenged, her face flushed pink.
I didn't answer with words. I simply increased my pace. She smirked, her competitive streak flaring like a struck match. We hit one hundred almost simultaneously, but she threw her arms up with a triumphant shout that echoed off the distant stone walls of the armory.
"Victory! I definitely had more extension on that last one!"
"You leaned forward on ninety-nine," I noted, standing up and wiping the dirt from my palms. "Technicalities don't win wars."
"They win bragging rights, which are much more important," she retorted, though she was smiling.
We moved into the squats, then the lunges. Each movement felt different today. The "Synchronization" Nexa had mentioned was subtle, but I could feel it. A phantom strength was bleeding from Luna into my muscles—a cold, clean energy that acted like a lubricant for my joints. I wasn't stronger in a way that would break a wall, but I was sturdier.
As we finished the calisthenics, Luna stood and trotted over. She pressed her cold, wet nose against my hand, a silent check-in. Claudia watched us, her hands on her hips, her breath finally slowing.
"She's really attached to you, Raven. It's not like the other beast tamers I've seen. Usually, there's a chain, or a charm, or at least a lot of shouting. She just... knows you."
"It's a contract," I said, though even as the words left my mouth, I knew they were inadequate.
"It's more than that," Claudia insisted. She reached out a hand, hesitant for the first time. Luna watched her with those piercing, ancient blue eyes, then huffed a small cloud of frost into the air. Claudia laughed. "Excuse me? I am a delight! Don't you give me that look, you overgrown rug."
The Ten-Kilometer Threshold
The run took us around the perimeter of the Academy, following the massive gray stone walls that separated the scholars from the wilder forests of Aetherfall. The path was narrow, winding through ancient groves of ironwood trees whose leaves were the color of tarnished copper.
Luna ran beside us, her movement a blur of silver-white. She didn't seem to exert any effort, gliding over fallen logs and protruding roots as if they weren't there.
"You feel different," Claudia said after the fifth kilometer. We were deep in the woods now, the air smelling of pine needles and damp moss.
"How?"
"Calmer. Like you finally found the last piece of a puzzle you've been staring at for years."
I considered that. Deep in the back of my mind, the golden shimmer of Nexa was a constant, neutral presence. It didn't feel like an intrusion; it felt like a tool that had finally been returned to its rightful owner.
"Yes," I admitted. "I suppose I do."
"Is it the SSS confidence? Knowing you can probably flatten most of the faculty if they annoy you?"
"No. It's the clarity."
She grinned, her pace never wavering. "Mysterious Beast Lord energy. I knew it. Next week, you'll be brooding in corners and talking to ravens."
Halfway through the return leg, we passed a clearing where the elite combat students practiced. Lucian was there. Alone.
He was already drenched, his training tunic clinging to his back. Behind him, a heavy wooden practice dummy lay in splinters, the wood sheared as if by a giant blade. Even as we ran past, he was moving—a blur of silver wind and steel. He was practicing a high-level Gale Strike, his movements so precise they looked choreographed.
He didn't look at us. He didn't acknowledge our presence at all. But as we pulled away, I heard the sound of his sword whistling through the air accelerate. The intensity of his mana flared, a sharp, metallic tang in the air.
"He's definitely not sleeping tonight," Claudia noted, glancing back.
"He's a Valtieri," I said. "They don't know how to lose gracefully."
"He hates you a little bit, you know."
"He doesn't know me well enough to hate me yet."
"Give it until the first combat trial," she smirked. "He'll find the time."
As we crossed the ten-kilometer mark and returned to the bench, a faint, golden chime echoed in my mind.
[Daily Quest Completed.]
[Reward: 1 Silver Coin added to balance.]
I didn't feel a heavy coin drop into my pocket. Instead, there was a sense of fullness in a space I hadn't known existed—a digital ledger tucked into the folds of my soul.
The Watchers in the White
As we cooled down, Luna suddenly stiffened. Her fur bristled, and a low, gutteral vibration started in her chest. I followed her gaze to the archway leading back to the main campus.
Two Church attendants stood there. Their white robes were blindingly bright in the morning sun, embroidered with the gold sunburst of the Holy See. They weren't doing anything—just standing, observing us with the detached interest of scientists watching a new strain of bacteria in a petri dish.
"Creepy," Claudia muttered, her playful mood evaporating. "They've been hovering since the ceremony ended."
"They're evaluating a variable they didn't account for," I said. "The Church likes their heroes predictable. SSS-rank Beast Tamers are many things, but 'predictable' isn't one of them."
"Let them watch," Claudia said, folding her arms. "I'll give them something to write home about when I awaken my talent. I'm aiming for something that lets me set things on fire with my mind."
"You haven't awakened yet, Claudia. Don't jinx it."
She stuck her tongue out at me. "I will. And it'll be glorious. You're not worried, though? About being... different? About the target on your back?"
I looked at Luna. I looked at the faint, crystalline frost that had formed on the grass where she had stood—a tiny, beautiful piece of winter in the middle of spring.
"I've spent my whole life in the gardens, Claudia. I know that the rarest flowers are the ones everyone wants to pick, but they're also the ones with the deepest thorns."
She studied me for a long moment, the humor leaving her face. She nodded once, a sharp, decisive movement. "Good. I'd be bored if you were just another Magic Swordsman."
We spent the rest of the morning in light drills. I used a practice spear—a weighted ash pole—while she practiced her footwork with a wooden training blade. We clashed, the clack-clack of wood on wood a familiar rhythm.
When midday came, the Academy was in full swing. The whispers were louder now. I saw a group of third-years stop and stare at Luna, their expressions a mix of awe and visible discomfort. Beast Tamers were often seen as "wild"—too close to the monsters that threatened the empire's borders.
Lucian passed us in the hall on the way to the refectory. His eyes were cold, his training gloves torn at the knuckles. He didn't speak, but the air around him felt sharp, like a whetted blade.
That evening, back in the quiet of the dorm, Luna made it very clear that the floor was beneath her station. She jumped onto my narrow bed, circling three times before curling into a silver ball against my side.
Claudia stood in the doorway, watching us. "Well, it's official. You've been claimed. I hope you like sleeping on the edge of the mattress."
"It seems I don't have a choice."
"She's adorable, honestly," Claudia said, stepping closer. Luna narrowed her eyes, a warning flash of blue. Claudia held up her hands. "Relax, wolf-lady. I'm not competition. I'm just the sidekick."
Luna huffed, a tiny cloud of mist settling on the blankets, then closed her eyes.
I lay back, staring at the dark wooden beams of the ceiling.
[Currency balance: 1 Silver.]
[Next shop refresh: 00:00.]
I would wait. I needed to see what the "Emporium" offered before I made my next move.
"Hey, Raven?" Claudia said softly from her side of the room.
"Yes?"
"Tomorrow the combat drills start for real. The instructors aren't going to go easy on you just because you have a fancy rank. If anything, they'll try to break you to see if the Stone was right."
"I know."
"And... don't pull away, okay? When people get strong in this place, they tend to drift. They start thinking they don't need the 'normal' people anymore."
I turned my head to look at her. In the shadows, her red hair looked like cooling coals. "I'm not drifting, Claudia. I'm just growing."
She studied me for a second, then nodded. "Good. Because if you try to drift, I'm stabbing you with a training blade. It'll hurt, and it'll be embarrassing."
"I'll keep that in mind."
Silence settled over the room, broken only by the steady, rhythmic breathing of the wolf at my side. Tomorrow, the world would stop watching and start testing. But for now, I had a silver coin in my soul and a friend who wasn't afraid of the dark.
Maybe being a "danger to social stability" wasn't going to be so bad after all.