The trio scrambled from the showers. Vicktor adjusting his robe and belt. His face was clearly still flushed. He felt light, like every stride carried him farther.

  He appreciated the experience, but was worried about it becoming a routine, a ritual. He doubted they wanted him romantically, the actions of the other two felt different than what he imagined romance would be like, like his parents had been.

  He knew he had a child's understanding of their retionships, but he frame of reference had been annihited. His early transition to the academy during his entire puberty might not have been the healthiest thing for his development.

  The other encounters with his actual professional teachers were thankfully, not horny in the slightest. Not so thankfully, was that the teachers that Master Tosk had assigned him didn't allow him to be horny in the slightest.

  Master Xan made him and the other assortment of people were forced to run ps while carrying magical packs on their back and weights in each hand. The pack and weight's gravitational force was maniputed by Master Xan to be perfect for each ‘student’. Thankfully only the gravitational force was modified but not the mass, so the weight didn't affect their momentum. They were far less likely to trip than expected.

  This ‘css’ consisted of various guild members. It was mostly young guardsmen, builders and battlemages. Surprisingly, there were a rge number of members from the cooking and farmers guild amongst a smattering of others.

  Thankfully, Master Xan was a lenient tyrant and required the ‘students’ to drink water at the end of every p. He would also take a second to examine each person as they drank and adjusted the gravity to suit them, if they truly became overwhelmed.

  Nora and Ar weren't in this css. Nora had said that it “cshed with her magic”, whatever that meant. Ar pointed to his wings and said “hoot hoot” in a derisive way. “I practice flying with other winged humanity, running with all those weights would make my arse too fat…hard to fly ya know?”

  Apparently they would alternate each day between running and lifting gravitationally altered weights… his poor mundane muscles.

  After running ragged for two hours, Vicktor's next teacher was actually a mundane woman. She had them channel every single ounce of their mana before and after an hour-long mediation. They channel every drop into an aluminum sphere with a series of magical [[inscription]]s engraved into it. It would dispy the amount of mana absorbed, mana throughput and after the mediation, the mana regeneration would be tested.

  Nora and Ar were in Vicktor’s group, but they were only allowed quick chats while everyone tested their mana before the hour long mediation. The meditation was quite useful for regenerating mana, he was twice as fast when doing it compared to passively regenerating. He knew there was probably some trick to make it go even faster, but he would wait a few weeks or until Master Tosk brought it up.

  At least lunch was next. He was able to grab a table with Ar and Nora, they spoke quick and ate quicker. They

  His final 'course' was assigned by Master Tosk, it was entitled ‘Simple, Remarkable, and Enhanced Beasts’. It was taught by a prim and proper Mage who insisted he was referred to as ‘Rector Magus William Aquarious the Fifth, Adjunct Archivist’ in its entirety.

  ‘Rector Magus William Aquarious the Fifth, Adjunct Archivist’ was both an incredibly knowledgeable man who knew literally nothing about anything besides the zoology of ‘Simple, Remarkable, and Enhanced Beasts’. As a Rector, he had a direct line to the Archive, and used it constantly to read off every mating habit and food preference the Archive had access to.

  Nobody except the rectors had direct access to the archive. Mages, mundanes and Chosen of all tiers were only able to access the Archive with engraved stes. Only rector Mages knew what really defined a rector Mage. They had a tier system simir to the Chosen but it was quite opaque and secretive.

  Vicktor knew he was equivalent to a tier 1 Chosen and a ‘remarkable’ beast. Below remarkable beasts were simple beasts and one tier above remarkable beasts were enhanced Beasts.

  “Some examples of simple beasts are wolves or giant rats”, Adjunct Will droned ”Absolutely no magical abilities, affinities, or resistances. It will probably die quickly from the stroke of a sword or the sting of an arrow assuming a decent hit”

  “Next, remarkable beasts. Remarkable beasts are either magically remarkable or just strong. A bear is considered remarkable despite no real magical abilities. This also includes your average goblin, kobold or a simple beast that has been granted an affinity. To the south, there is a well known area around Doru Ita, where a pack of Fme Wolves that are regurly harvested for alchemical firestarters as well their incredibly warm pelts. They have a nasty tendency to burn arrow and bolt shafts though. This tier also contains beasts that are difficult to kill, rock lobsters on our eastern coast would be a good example. Deliciously tender meat, but almost impossible to crack without magical weapons or attacks, but they are particurly weak to fire and lightning.”

  “Finally for the extents of this series of lectures, ‘Enhanced Beasts’. Enhanced beasts are where things start to get truly deadly. A mundane member of humanity basically has no chance to defeat beasts of this tier without extreme preparation –deadfall traps– for example. Some enhanced beasts might be able to entirely absorb your attacks. Trolls have durable skin and magical regenerative abilities. Only true destruction of the brain and heart works on them. The easy solutions are fireballs and lightning arcs, but you young’ins can get quite creative when pushed. If you and yours are not prepared for an encounter, there is an incredibly high chance of death.”

  The rest of Rector Magus William Aquarious the Fifth, Adjunct Archivist’s lecture was even worse than hearing a professor read from a textbook for 2 hours.

  ***Morphic beetles have a few well-known characteristics, such as it’s tendency for homosexuality and sex mimicry. Male beetles will often attempt copution with other males. Mimicry refers to the idea that some individuals choose to mimic and portray themselves as the opposite sex for various reasons. They will also attempt to mimic and portray themselves as other beast species. Males are territorial and aggressive towards other males. However, Morphic beetles have a strange retionship with pheromones. For various reasons, both males, and females change how they present themselves sexually. Males can often avoid intermale aggression by presenting with excess female sex pheromones. Furthermore, this means they can enter other males' territories to look for resources and mates. However, by mimicking females, males are less likely to get a mate, as females prefer mates with low female sex pheromones. Morphic beetles are usually quite rge, measuring around twenty feet in length. They range from bck to brown and have a distinct two-colored elytra. Elytra are the hardened forewings of beetles. Their eyes are of average size and are approximately half of the length of their head. The beetle has characteristic antennae consisting of brush-like sections. Morphic beetles are able to distract many opponents by producing lust pheromones such as androsenone and androstadienol. The lust generated by these beetles cannot be understated. Various sources have likened it to mind control. These beasts are thought to have been rendered extinct, but it is likely there are pockets of them hidden on some godforsaken isnd. Fme will destroy pheromones and should be used utterly and completely upon their corpses.

  ***

  After the lecture, Vicktor met up with Master Tosk, Nora and Ar.

  "Today will be a little different than how we normally will do this. We will still meet here and training our minds and bodies. In the future it will be more adversarial. Today will be most educational and instructional"

  Master Tosk paused, as if he was sniffing the air, then continued.

  "Vicktor, Nora and Ar, I will be taking on no more apprentices at this time. I will focus on you three burgeoning beasts. Everyone else will need a different Master. Too many of them want to go out killing stuff immediately, the fools. You will not practice your magic as a team. Vicktor, use your natural senses to figure out what Nora's and Ar's magic is. Nora and Ar, I want you to try to figure out what Vicktor is doing at any given time. My hope is that you three will be ready for your mage-sight within a month or so."

  He pointed to the three individually then commanded.

  "Exhaust yourselves now, I want no trace of mana in your bodies"

  Victor nodded then focused his mana on the task of hardening and softening the soil beneath the small groups feet. It wasn't costly in terms of mana per cubic foot, but it didn't required the movement of so much soil that would have to be put back ter.

  As he worked to expend his ruakh, he took a moment to study Nora and Ar.

  Ar had one hand in a pouch, his eyes focus on nothing infront of him. Vicktor could tell that mana was flowing into the bag, but he couldn't tell what it was doing except for that it produced no heat, light, or wind.

  Nora was a little more obvious, but he wasn't sure of what she was actually doing. Her body shifted under her loose clothes. The string of her warbow grew more and less taut against her body. She was clearly doing something with her physical form, even seeing in her in the nude earlier in the day didn't help. Her fur was thick enough to hide almost all inscriptions, especially if they weren't active.

  They all grew progressively more and more hunch after around a minute or so.

  "Alright, anyone have any theories?" Master Tosk broke the silence

  "We all need to get more mana reserves?" Ar asked sheepishly.

  "No, as you grow in density, your flow rate increases as well. If I were to do the same exercise, I would run out only a few moments or two faster than you."

  Vicktor had no real idea of the man's power, he imagined a crater the size of a house where the currently stood.

  Vicktor broke his concentration to speak to the two apprentices. "I'm not entirely sure what either of you are doing. I'm pretty sure Nora is doing some kind of body modification, but it could be anything from transformation to transmutation. I'd guess its probably more about physical buffing? There were a few strongmen and strongwomen at the Academy who would love to see how far they could throw hundred pound boulders. The actual mechanism is still a mystery to me"

  He looked to Nora, who shrugged, then looked to Master Tosk. "Close, but not quite. She'll tell you when I say so."

  "I think Vicktor did another one of his stupid traps" Nora said, then pounded her foot into the ground significantly harder than a person should be able to. "I felt something simir to when he pulled that shit."

  Master Tosk open his mouth to speak when Ar cut in. "I don't think so, there's no pilr of soil. Its possible he hardened the soil to try to reduce the volume and then move soil into that but that doesn't feel quite right. I didn't feel the magic move anything. It felt a bit more like he just hardened and softened the soil without actually moving any of it? Am I correct?"

  Master Tosk chuckled. "Entirely correct, you're probably ready for the mage-sight now, but its probably better if the three of you get it at the same time. You'll want to commiserate."

  Nora looked away from the group and did a little huff. "I almost felt that, I did say it was simir."

  "You did, now Vicktor, what do you think Ar is doing in that bag of his?"

  "Why are you telling him it's in my bag, isn't that cheating?" The man frowned.

  "Ar, a mundane probably would have been able to notice you were doing something in there, you should at least try to make it less obvious when doing magic in a pocket. It's rude to do it without announcing what you are doing."

  He tried to make the Avian feel a bit better, "It was definitely in the bag, but its hard to tell exactly what he's doing. It's probably charging kind of magic device, but the mana I can detect didn't seem to have much spill off. Your infusions of mana must be incredibly efficient. There was no heat, light, or wind coming from the bag."

  The man frowns loosened slightly.

  "Close, but yeah I am pretty efficient at it"

  Master Tosk nodded, then unched into a prepared speech:

  "This training will be on philosophy and magical warfare. I got this from an old lecture of an old friend. ‘The Art of the Wizard in Combat’ is base on a css I took from a truly ancient goat beastkin. This was of course before the term Wizard was less strictly offensive. The most important thing to do before a fight is of course to prepare. BUT, sometimes preparation comes in different forms. It can even include disengaging the fight. Not all fights can be or should be fought. Sometimes you do have to give the mugger your wallet and not punch him in the face as he grabs it. Sometimes the mugger might be an ally in the future, however unlikely"

  They spoke for hours. They spent a seemingly unending time on a single conflict, that between three wolves and two mundane guardsman. The story seemed highly detailed, like he was one of the mundane guardsman. Except, Master Tosk was no mundane...

  “And that'ss why you sshould always target the leader of a pack… Now lets get dinner. I'm Sstarving...”

  Master Tosk didn’t talk with a lisp before, he might just be that hungry?

  'I wonder if this is all that he does during this training session', Vicktor thought to himself.

  ***

  Dinner was at the barracks, but the food was simple, but it was good, free and there was plenty of it. After wordlessly feasting for several minutes, everyone returned their trays and sat back at the table rexing.

  Ar cooed gently and cracked his neck. It was a little disturbing to see how much he could rotate that cute feathered head. Nora held one hand in the other and stretched back, her tail swishing freely behind her.

  Master Tosk broke the pleasant silence. "I wanted to say this to clear the air. I'm aware you three did something sexual today. It is incredibly small but reality has acknowledged it so I will as well. I'm not going to judge, not in the slightest. Did any of you notice it?"

  Victor nodded, and was surprised to see the other two did as well.

  "Good, better than I hoped actually. Please notice when shifts like this happen in the future, its part of future advancement. It won't just be sexual retions, it could be any form of bonding, intimacy, or friendship. It's particur noticeable around Chosen for a variety of reasons."

  He held on that line for longer than was to be expected. They then turned to lighter subjects, trading small stories of their childhoods or food preferences.

  "Time for bed" Master Tosk said.

  And so it was...