"You’ll have to be very careful," Larissa whispered, "not to tell anyone that all three of us are double tamers now." Luna frowned. "What are you talking about? We’re not..." A faint glow suddenly enveloped the two girls, so brief it could have been mistaken for a flicker of the lamps. Larissa covered her mouth in feigned surprise while her cousins stared at her with enormous eyes, suddenly understanding. "Oh," Larissa smiled behind her hand. "It seems we’re all the same." "You..." Liora looked at her empty cup. "The drink..." "Did you just...?" Luna seemed at a loss for words. "Give you potions?" Larissa completed cheerfully. "Of course. We’re family after all." "But..." Liora whispered, "my father wanted..." "But your grandmother will surely be delighted," Larissa assured. "The Ashenways support female double tamers, right?" "You don’t understand... my grandmother was..." Luna wasn’t faring better. "The few men left in the family... My father is going to..." Luna murmured. "They don’t have to find out," Larissa winked. "Not until it’s too late to do anything about it." The two girls fell silent processing what had just happened, wasn’t it too late already? Their beasts stirred within them. "Why?" Liora finally asked. "Because things have to change," Larissa responded, her expression becoming serious for the first time. "We can prove that we’re valuable investments too." "Investments?" Luna looked at her curiously. "Oh yes," Larissa smiled mysteriously. "For the future... one that promises very interesting things. Especially now that a certain boy with glowing mushrooms is involved." "Larissa..." Liora began, but her cousin interrupted her. "Now," Larissa clasped her hands with enthusiasm, "what beasts would you like as second companions?" The two girls stared at her open-mouthed at her casual change of topic, but Larissa only smiled more broadly. "What?" she asked with feigned innocence. "Don’t tell me you’ve never dreamed of having a second beast? I have several ideas..." Her mineral fairy glowed cheerfully while she began enumerating possibilities, leaving her cousins still trying to process how their life had just changed with a simple cup of tea. ♢♢♢♢ "Fifty more!" Ren ordered, his mushrooms pulsing in red and yellow with what seemed like too much joy. "But we already did a hundred!" Min complained, his arms trembling. "Oh?" Ren smiled in a disturbingly similar way to Lin. "You want them to be a hundred more then?" "No!" three voices responded in unison. "Master Lin will be proud," Ren commented while watching his friends suffer. "You’re learning the importance of not complaining." Taro tried to say something, but only managed an exhausted groan. Knocks on the door interrupted the torture session. Ren went to open it, finding Julius and Victor. "I see you’re busy," Julius smiled seeing the three boys practically melting on the floor. "Just some basic training," Ren responded innocently. "About the scorpion cores," Julius went straight to the point. "Since you took the trouble to work on them, could I take them? We want to do some experiments." "Experiments?" "We’re trying to understand how Yino gets their abyssal beasts," Julius explained. Ren nodded. "Of course. I can also give you the crystals from the leftover scales..." "Not necessary," Julius shook his head. "In fact, you can keep ten of the cores and the remaining crystals to do your own experiments." "Thanks," Ren added, "But they still need to be filled with a hundred thousand mana crystals each." Victor, who had been observing silently, stepped forward. "Do you know how to make other types of eggs besides those scorpions?" The three boys on the floor suddenly seemed to find new energy for their exercises, moving with suspicious intensity while looking away and sweating cold. "Yes," Ren responded casually. "The bug, too, not just the scorpion." His mushrooms pulsed softly while he avoided mentioning that he could create practically any species up to the gold ring 1. Julius noticed how Ren’s friends suddenly doubled their efforts in the exercises again, as if wanting to appear too busy to be interrogated. "I see," Victor murmured, taking another step toward Ren. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮 Julius stopped him with a hand on his shoulder, leaning to whisper in his ear: "We shouldn’t pressure him for now." Victor nodded reluctantly, though his eyes shone with barely contained curiosity. "Well," Julius smiled, "I’ll bring you a gift for the information later. I expect great things from the future new noble who opened the last seed." He looked meaningfully at the three boys who were still exercising frantically, "I think now you should return to your... training." "Oh, right," Ren turned to his friends with a smile that made them shudder. "Where were we? Ah yes, ONE HUNDRED more repetitions." The groans of protest were music to his ears. As the princes withdrew, they could hear Ren counting cheerfully: "One! Harder! Two! I don’t see you suffering enough!" "Definitely Lin’s student," Julius laughed softly. "Do you think he knows how to make more types of eggs?" Victor asked as they walked away. "Oh, I’m almost certain," Julius smiled. "But for now, let’s let him keep some secrets for the new team to discover." ♢♢♢♢ "You can... you can rest for a moment," Ren smiled while his mushrooms pulsed cheerfully. Min, Taro, and Liu collapsed instantly, their agitated breathing being the only sound in the room. "You know?" Ren sat near them, his tone surprisingly animated for someone who had just tortured his friends. "Before coming here, I used to read the Wandering King’s book. I always thought the magical medicines to become a double tamer would be in some far and mysterious place..." "...And they ended up being almost in the heart of the city," Ren laughed softly. "Right beneath our feet." "What irony," Liu murmured from the floor. Knocks on the door interrupted the moment. Zhao and Lin entered, carrying several packages and materials. "Did you break them already?" Lin smiled seeing the three boys lying on the floor. "Just some basic training," Ren responded, imitating her tone. "That’s my student," Lin nodded with approval. Ren approached to examine the materials while his friends tried to recover the ability to move. "We got almost everything," Zhao explained. "But we couldn’t find the raptor core or Liu’s hyena one. They didn’t have complete specimens and had already sent the cores to the castle." Stay updated via freewebnovel "We had to buy some silver rank parts too," Lin added. "They only had high quality in stock, pieces that almost nobody buys. They cost us a hundred thousand total for the parts of those two rare beasts." "No problem," Ren nodded while his mushrooms pulsed. "I have some free cores now, I can make those two. Although..." he grimaced, "I’m running low on tentacles." "About that," Zhao smiled, "don’t worry. The last excursion is near. The third collection of the semester, well… second in your case. My unit’s final exam." "Your territory again?" Ren’s mushrooms pulsed with more intensity. "Exactly," Zhao nodded. "And with everything you’ve shown, you’ll surely pass with honors." Ren began organizing the materials while preparing the necessary runes. "The final exams begin," he murmured while tracing the first pattern. Lin observed her student work, a proud smile on her face. On the floor, the three boys finally began to sit up, their muscles protesting from the effort. The sun was setting over the academy, its last rays illuminating the room through the window. Soon the trials would begin, but for now, in this moment, everything seemed to be in its place. Ren continued drawing runes, his mushrooms pulsing softly while he thought about everything that had happened since he arrived at the academy. The impossible evolutions, the transformation potions, the ancestral seed... and this was just the beginning. "Are you ready for your own exercise?" Lin asked. Ren looked at his friends, now double tamers thanks to him. Looked at his teachers, who trusted in his knowledge despite his age. Looked at the runes he was tracing, runes that nobody else knows. His mushrooms pulsed one more time while he smiled. "Always." [End of Volume 1]