“Are you sure about this?” Han asked, looking at the narrow space with apprehension.
“Absolutely,” Ren’s voice came from inside. “It’s time to head for the real objective.”
Min and Taro exchanged knowing looks before following him into the darkness.
Larissa smiled at her cousins, her eyes gleaming with barely contained curiosity.
One by one, they slipped through the crack. The ‘students’ took strategic positions to keep watch while the group entered.
Luna was the last to pass through. Before entering, her eyes swept the area one final time. There was something about the way Ren had been searching, something in the precision of his movements…
“You weren’t lost at all, were you?” she murmured as she slid through the opening. “You knew exactly what you were looking for from the beginning.”
Ren’s mushrooms pulsed softly in the darkness, but he offered no response.
“This way,” he directed his hydra. “I need a tunnel descending at a forty-five-degree angle in that direction.”
“Taro,” he turned to his friend, “could you start lining it with living minerals? And…” he looked at the girl with the earth wolverine, “your help would be useful at the front with my hydra.”
The girl frowned. “I’m not your excavation tool.”
“Shizu,” Larissa intervened with a smile that brooked no argument. “Please help Ren make the tunnel.”
The girl sighed but nodded, her manifested wolverine joining the digging efforts.
While they began working, Han and Mira approached Ren timidly.
“Um,” Han started, “about our beasts…”
“Could you tell us if we’re doing anything wrong?” Mira completed the question.
“We’ll pay whatever you want when we can, or you can ask us for favors…” Han added.
Ren turned to Larissa with narrowed eyes, a clear reproach for not having offered anything in exchange for the information he’d given her earlier. The princess simply smiled, completely immune to his accusing gaze.
“Don’t worry about that,” Ren sighed. “Just… remember that I helped you if I ever need your support.”
“Just that?” Kira, the girl with the giant goat, arched an eyebrow. “You’re not very greedy for an outskirts boy.”
Ren’s mushrooms pulsed as he responded: “My parents have lived a long life, and they always taught me that the most important things are the connections you make with people around you, not what you can get from them.”
“Why?” Matilda asked.
“Because we all might end up needing help in life,” Ren explained, his mushrooms emitting a gentle glow. “Even the richest… or so my father said. And I believe him.”
He turned to Mira: “Your cultivation is going well, but you need to change when you expose your crystals to seal the process. Use the midday sun for 20 minutes instead of morning light.”
“Why?” Mira asked, genuinely curious.
“Solar energy is more intense and pure at that point,” Ren explained. “Your giant rat needs that specific density to properly develop its plants.”
Then he addressed Han: “Your spider is also on the right track, but you need to change the web you’re using. Common weaver web isn’t optimal. You need greater weaver spider web from your own species.”
“But that’s harder to get,” Han protested.
“And more expensive for being Bronze rank,” Ren added. “But a higher-rank web is what weavers consume when they hatch from the cocoon left by a higher-rank one to cover the cores they collect and turn into eggs…”
“…Also…” Ren searched his knowledge, “what rune did they suggest?”
Han scratched his head, “they recommended using an attack rune for sealing…”
“Use an agility one,” Ren interrupted. “I know the hunter spider that would be the evolution from the method you’re following seems to have more potential because records say it reaches Silver 3 while the weaver only reaches Silver 1, but that’s a mistake.”
Han’s eyes widened in surprise. “A mistake?”
“Unlike the hunter, the weaver can surpass Silver rank,” Ren nodded, his mushrooms pulsing with certainty. “It just needs the correct cultivation method.”
Han and Mira stood contemplating, seemingly trying to burn the information into their minds.
Larissa appeared at Ren’s side, practically hanging off his arm.
“Since you gave me that reproachful look, let’s make something clear,” she smiled mischievously while whispering in his ear, “you forced me to be a double tamer, so you’ll have to take responsibility.”
“Wasn’t that what you really wanted? Mana doesn’t lie…” Ren blinked in confusion.
“Of course,” Larissa nodded with feigned seriousness. “But you gave me that potion without warning and without my consent. Now you’ll have to help me with the whole process to redeem your misdeeds.”
“Well yes, thinking about it that way you’re right that it was wrong but…” Ren began to protest.
“No buts,” Larissa smiled. “You’re already stuck with me in this.”
As the group continued advancing, Han and Mira exchanged glances. There was something comforting about how Ren shared his knowledge so freely, asking only friendship in return.
“You know,” Han murmured to Mira, “I think we can really trust him.”
Mira nodded, watching how Ren’s mushrooms illuminated the path ahead. For the first time since arriving at the academy, she felt they had found true allies.
Ren resigned himself. “Alright, I would have helped you with the information without asking for anything anyway… It was just that Mira and Han looked better than you…”
“I was joking, I’ll support you without doubt when you need it in return.” Larissa smiled and stuck closer to Ren, amused by his reactions.
Luna observed the interaction from the side, her eyes narrowing at her cousin’s boldness in invading personal space… She would never do something like that with… Her cheeks colored slightly at the thought and she quickly looked away.
“Oh!” Larissa, who had noticed her cousin’s blush and reaction, smiled mischievously and moved close to her…
“What do we have here? I smell jealousy in the air…” She whispered in Luna’s ear.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Luna responded with dignity, though her cheeks burned brighter.
“Really?” Larissa practically hung off Ren’s arm again. “Doesn’t he have a nice face when he’s explaining things?”
“Larissa!” Luna protested, her wolf ears and tail manifesting and bristling in reflection of her embarrassment.
“Y-you shouldn’t do that,” Ren tried to free himself from Larissa’s grip, his mushrooms pulsing erratically. “We’re in a dangerous place and…”
Larissa laughed. “Isn’t Luna adorable?”
Ren was about to respond and Luna about to shout when the ground began to tremble.