Karl returned to his apartment, and sighed as he realized Cara had already stolen the spot next to Dana, right in the middle of the bed.
[What is this? Are you trying to steal my Dana Mage?] Karl demanded with amusement as he realized that Dana was sleeping with Cara half draped across her.
[You are part of me, I am part of you. We are basically one person.] Cara replied.
[Really now?]
[Yep. So it’s not your Dana, it’s our Dana.]
[There is definitely something wrong with that logic. If she’s our Dana, you should be on the other side. So we can share properly.]
Cara considered it, then used a wing to pull Dana across the bed with her, so the mage was in the middle of the bed.
[Much better.]
Karl woke up the next morning with Cara’s head on his chest and Dana against his side. The sun was already well above the horizon, and he was a bit shocked that nobody had woken them up earlier, until he heard splashing in the hot tub.
If there were multiple people soaking in the morning, they must not have anything planned.
Karl got out of bed and noticed that the closet door was open with a lot of new clothing in it. He was headed to pick something out when Rae’s voice called out to him from the other room.
“Put on pool shorts and come soak with us. There are bubbles.”
That made Karl wonder what they were planning for the day. He couldn’t see any of them willingly getting out of a bubble bath early.
Karl put on a pair of shorts from the closet while Dana tried to escape Cara, who was not ready to get out of bed yet.
After a few seconds, the mage had convinced the reluctant badger to go back to the bed in her own space, where she could rest comfortably, then Dana began to search the closet for a swimsuit.
“Shoo. Go play with your spider. I will be along in a few minutes.” Dana admonished Karl as he lingered hopefully outside the closet.
“Spoilsport. Fine, I will see you there.”
All of the others, plus Rae and Sybil, were already in the hot tub, which was overflowing with bubbles.
“Oh, are we not training today?” Karl asked as he settled in next to Rae, letting the hot water relax his muscles.
Ophelia smiled. “The next two days are off days, then it’s exam week for the students. Most people take the week off, as it finishes with the Divine Injection Ceremony. We decided that the cadets can have this last weekend, then we will train them all week before we put them on the train to the Academy to join their peers on the first day.
The train is an important experience for all the students, even if they awakened a few days in advance.”
She had a point. That was where Karl had first met Dana, where he had competed to be the first to the school to pick his dorm, where he mentally adjusted to Academy life.
“So, they’re discharging the Special Forces group for training?” Karl asked.
Ophelia shook her head. “Not them, they will remain with the military for training. Officially, they want to keep the fact that there are so many new beast affiliated Elites quiet. But our five young Acolytes will be departing after next week.”
Karl smirked and ruffled Sybil’s hair. “Are they going to be ready to rejoin society after only one more week in our tender loving care? I could likely ask the Bureau to send them back after the first few days.”
Sybil’s look of panic made everyone laugh. Rae had been intensively training her since they first met, and the young Rogue hadn’t been out of the spider’s sight for more than a few minutes at a time, with the exception of one night in the dorms.
Rae didn’t even let her go home, she kept her tied to a hammock in the spare room as part of her training.
Rae smiled happily. “I think she will be ready. I remember how we were when we were young. She should be at least that good by the time that I’m finished. At least she’s already Awakened, so she won’t be too weak to train.”
Tessa smiled. “Rae is in a good mood because she got to train with Overlord Niall again last night. The second training room is out of commission, by the way. They did some damage during their training.”
Rae smirked, but kept her thoughts about the training to herself.
Sybil smiled as she signed and Tessa translated. {Brother Hawk promised to come out for training next week to help me learn fire attacks.}
[You need to combine a flaming sword attack for her before we go back to training. I don’t want to start from the basics.] Hawk added from the nest in his space.
Now Karl understood how this system would work. He made the skill, then Hawk and Rae would teach her to use it properly.
“Did I miss anything while I was out for the day? The Archbishop asked for a Runecrafting book.” Karl explained.
Dana sighed, then replied. “More than a day, actually. I guess it’s easy to lose track of time while you’re working on a skill. All five of our students have made progress now that they’re at the Awakened Rank. The warriors have both mastered [Shred] and [Guard], and Joan is coming along well in her healing training. Owen learned [Barrier], and he’s made great progress on his mana. But it’s Sybil that’s the star of our show.”
The little Rogue blushed, then squeaked as Rae pulled her into a surprise hug from behind.
“Sybil has Backstab, Shadow Step, Silent Movement, Lacerate and Poisoned Blade in her repertoire now.” Rae informed them.
“That’s quite the list. How did you manage to teach all those?” Karl asked. ƒrēewebnovel.com
“She got some skill points when she advanced, and she picked [Poisoned Blade] as her first chosen skill. She’s waiting to get a few more to get the second stage of it instead of getting the other introductory skills.” Rae explained.
“As long as it doesn’t interfere with her versatility. Mages can have a specialty spell, but Rogues need to be good in every situation.” Karl reminded her, though the warning was also for Sybil.