He paused, searching for the right words in the dim light.
“You always surprise us,” he finally continued, voice thick with emotion.
“With your knowledge, with your predictions… Now if even those cores transform into eggs, I won’t be able to help it anymore. And now, with my beetle’s cultivation, I…” Tears began forming in his eyes…
The mushrooms pulsed gently as Ren watched his friend struggle with his doubts.
“I’m scared,” Taro admitted in a whisper that barely disturbed the night air. “Scared that this hope will turn into disappointment. Everyone says it’s impossible, that I should be content with bronze rank 2 at most.”
Ren sat up in his bed, ignoring the protest of his aching muscles.
“I promise you that won’t happen.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because,” Ren smiled with quiet confidence, “I see what others can’t. And you have potential you can’t even imagine…”
Taro opened his mouth to respond, but a sharp knock at the door interrupted them. The sound echoed strangely in the quiet dormitory.
Who could be visiting at this hour?
“Did Liu forget his key again?” Taro rose, setting aside his studies.
“No, they told me…” Ren shook his head. “He and Min are in the library until late, Liu’s helping Min with an assignment.”
Another knock, more insistent this time.
♢♢♢♢
“Good evening, Ren,” Prince Julius smiled when the door opened, his presence immediately filling the small room. “How have you been?”
Without waiting for an invitation, he strode inside. His eyes immediately fixed on the cores resting in their elaborate “nests” of diverse materials.
“Interesting,” he murmured, studying the setup with undisguised curiosity. “I see you’ve been busy.”
Taro had frozen on his bed, textbooks forgotten as he watched the crown prince enter their dormitory for the second time.
“I brought you a gift,” Julius continued, dropping a stained backpack onto the floor. Dozens of cores rolled across the wooden planks, their dull surfaces catching the light from Ren’s mushrooms.
Ren showed his surprise as he observed the sheer quantity of cores scattered before him.
“I was thinking,” the prince casually leaned against Taro’s desk, his Qilin’s power subtly manifesting in golden ripples across his skin. “Instead of taking them back to be converted into random ones, how about I leave them with you to show me what you can do with them?”
Ren glanced between the cores and the prince. “That’s…”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Julius waved a dismissive hand. “The castle has far more than we can process anyway.”
Ren’s mushrooms pulsed as he analyzed the cores. They all appeared to be from scorpions, their essence still faintly resonating with their original nature.
“Filling them all with mana will be difficult,” Ren commented cautiously, acutely aware of Taro’s presence.
“You have time,” the prince smiled. “Besides, I think that vein we found will be safe for quite a while.” He winked at Ren.
Julius transformed his stomach into something resembling a bottomless void and pulled out an enormous package. “I also brought you these,” he unwrapped it to reveal ten more hydra plates. “This should give you enough to work with for a while.”
Ren nodded slowly, noting how the prince carefully avoided mentioning eggs specifically in front of Taro.
“Though,” Julius added casually, “in your next demonstration, I’d like to see if you can do something more… interesting. Like a hydra one, for example.”
Ren felt his throat go dry. His mushrooms pulsed erratically as he searched for an excuse. But then he noticed something peculiar. Among all the scattered cores, there wasn’t a single hydra one. They were all scorpion cores.
“Wouldn’t it be strange for the intruder who was trying so hard to get a hydra core not to have any among their collection?”
The prince followed his gaze. “Oh? I hadn’t paid attention to that. To me, all cores were just cores.” His smile widened. “Thank you for noticing.”
He moved toward the door. “Unfortunately, my ‘vacation’ has to end. My siblings must be drowning in work without me.”
Before leaving, he paused in the threshold. “I’ll visit you again, Ren. I have a feeling you’ll do very interesting things in the future.”
Ren scratched his head, unsure how to respond as the door closed behind the prince.
“What… what just happened?” Taro finally found his voice.
Ren surveyed the cores scattered across the floor. The prince had been somewhat careful with his words, but the message was clear: he knew more than he let on.
“Seems I have more work than I thought,” he murmured as he began gathering the cores.
♢♢♢♢
“Day 105,” Liu sighed while checking his calendar. “Only 75 days left until the end of semester.”
Min looked up from his books, his water snake coiling lazily around his shoulders. “105 days have passed already? Feels like we just arrived yesterday.”
“We should be going gathering today,” Taro commented while absorbing his daily crystal. His cultivation was on day 75.
“At least we have the tournament to distract us,” Min tried to sound optimistic. “Three days of competition.”
Ren, who was organizing his trunk, struggled to make space among his materials. The fifteen hydra plates and cores took up an enormous amount of room, even the space under his bed hadn’t been spared.
“Most are from the prince,” he insisted when he noticed his friends’ knowing looks.
“Sure, sure,” Liu smiled. “Like the hundred thousand crystals you ‘casually’ deposited the other day.”
“Or the fifty thousand you ‘invested’ in your core lamps,” Min added.
“Oh!” Taro perked up. “Did you hear about our tournament prize? Professor Yang will announce it today, but I overheard some senior students talking about it.”
“No… Is it something good?” Liu asked, noticing Taro’s excitement.
“It must be!” Taro practically bounced on his bed. “It’s to compensate for the canceled gathering trip after all.”
“I didn’t get that kinda event last year but I bet it’s special materials,” Liu speculated. “Like Ren’s hydra plates.”
“The ones worth 30 thousand each?” Min whistled.
“Most are from the prince,” Ren repeated.
“Or maybe some bronze shine crystals?” Taro continued excitedly. “Like the ones Ren wastes on his ‘nests’!”
“The ones that cost ten thousand each,” Min recalled.
“It’s not a waste,” Ren muttered.
The bell rang.
“Oh!” Min jumped up. “It’s time! Yang’s going to make the announcement!”
All four hurried to the training field, where other students were already gathering. The afternoon sun cast long shadows across the packed earth as they found their places.
Yang waited for everyone to settle before beginning.
“This friendly tournament will compensate for the gathering trip,” his voice resonated across the field. “Three days of competition. The best teams will prove their worth.”
The tension was palpable as students waited for the prize announcement.
“The winning team,” Yang made a dramatic pause, “will be exempt from the final tamer battle exam and receive ten thousand crystals for each member.”
Min, Liu, and Taro slowly turned to look at Ren, who tried to maintain a neutral expression.
“Ten… thousand…” Min murmured.
“Like… one-third of a hydra plate?” Liu calculated.
“Or one of his ‘nest’ crystals,” Taro added.
The three sighed in unison.
“The plates are from the prince,” Ren repeated automatically, his mushrooms now definitely pulsing with amusement.
“Still,” Min complained. “After seeing your hundred thousand deposit…”
“And the thirty thousand you spent on materials with Jessy…”
“And the fifty thousand on your ‘lamps’…”
“And…”
“They’re from the prince!” Ren interrupted, but this time he didn’t even try to hide his smile.
The mushrooms in his hair pulsed cheerfully while his friends continued lamenting how ten thousand crystals no longer sounded impressive after witnessing Ren’s “investments.”
“At least,” Liu grinned, “we know who to borrow from if we need money.”
“If he sells any of his 15 hydra plates,” Min laughed.
“Most are from the prince,” all three chorused along with Ren, bursting into laughter.