The afternoon did not go any better for Sage or Eriba from the looks on their faces. If anything, it was worse, with both of them getting hit with energy reversals, and exhaustion etched across their slouching bodies. The problem of the Wordless components draining their energy clearly only got worse as time went on.

  Det, on the other hand, continued to make progress. Moving the kernel of energy inside his body was just as natural as moving the mist-form of his energy by the end of the day. It was still a bit more challenging within his painting, but he at least got it down to fitting within the two seconds it took him to normally summon one of his renditions. Really, that should’ve been a success to celebrate.

  Except, something had occurred to him that kept him stretching for more. If he could do one kernel, why couldn’t he do two? Even if he wasn’t using both hands at the same time, he had more kernels of the energy up his arms. If he could fit two—or even three—of the kernels in his renditions, that would be three parts of it he was enhancing.

  Which, of course, had led to another revelation. Why would he stop at having kernels just in the nodes of his arms? His body had other nodes that could potentially hold the kernelized energy for him to use.

  As far as he knew—Det was no expert—the nodes for his energy weren’t the same as from traditional medicine back on Earth. Here, his ReSouled body had seventeen nodes he could find. So, despite finding success moving one kernel into his rendition, the rest of his afternoon got spent kernelizing energy in each of them.

  By the end of it, he’d worked up a bit of a sweat, with each successive kernel taking more effort. Still, with the way his whole system thrummed when he locked the seventeenth and final drop of liquified energy in place, it was totally worth it. It was like he could feel his channels in a way he’d never noticed before. Stronger. More connected.

  A loud clap from the front of the classroom pulled his attention from his own inner workings, to where Beauty stood.

  “Excellent work for your first day,” Beauty said, his eyes scanning across the exhausted students. Much like he’d told Det earlier, energy reversals had been popping off in the afternoon session.

  More than half the class had experienced one—some, like Eriba and Sage, had gone through multiple—and those who hadn’t had one yet had a look on their faces like they knew they weren’t working hard enough. Their own reversals were in their very near futures.

  “And, with that progress, we shall bring our first day together to a close,” Beauty continued. “Yes, Cadet Oligy?” he said, as a hand went up.

  “Are we back here tomorrow?” Oligy said.

  To the question, the smile that spread on Beauty’s face made every cadet in the room pause. There was something far too predatory about it.

  “Tomorrow is actually your first day off,” the instructor finally said, and everybody paused a second time.

  “Really?” Oligy risked asking the question going through every cadet’s head.

  “Really,” Beauty said. “Even with the potency of our ReSouled body, we’ve learned there needs to be some downtime. We can burn out eventually. Also, I mentioned your magic was like a muscle, if you remember. Your channels benefit from the push-and-recover cycle, just like normal muscles would. This recovery portion will shorten as you ascend through the Ranks, though it will also take more to seriously push them, resulting in longer overall Ranks.

  “That’s a discussion for tomorrow. Well, the day after tomorrow, technically,” Beauty said with a dad-joke-esque chuckle. “As for your day off, I do have a piece of advice. Don’t ignore your channels…”

  “Didn’t you just say we needed to recover?” Oligy interrupted.

  The look Beauty gave him had Oligy’s hand shooting into the air.

  “Yes, Cadet Oligy?” Beauty said in a flat tone.

  “Didn’t you just say we needed to recover?” Oligy repeated.

  “Yes,” Beauty said. “But, as I was about to say…” he trailed off, to make sure Oligy knew the interruption hadn’t been appreciated. “Don’t ignore your channels, or they will be stiff when we come back in two days. Like you would do with sore muscles, make sure you ‘stretch’.” He made some air quotes with that last word. “In this case, consciously moving your energy through your channels will suffice. It will help with the recovery process, and will take somewhere between thirty and sixty minutes to do properly.”

  In front of Det, Aria’s hand went up.

  “Yes, Cadet Aria?” Beauty said.

  “Can we keep working on this lesson?” Aria said. “You see, I think I’m close to getting it.”

  Det had his doubts about that, given that Aria was one of the ones who hadn’t had a reversal yet, but—if anything—that was likely the reason she wanted to keep working. And, honestly, Det didn’t plan on taking the day off, so he paid attention to Beauty’s response.

  “You can do whatever you want on your day off,” Beauty said. “With one warning. Reversals may not be fatal, but that doesn’t make them healthy. If you experience one without an instructor around, stop. Cease practicing whatever you’re doing—even if you feel like you’re close—and wait an hour before restarting.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “Yes, you should be over the effects of the reversal in less time than that, but far too many cadets have rushed this in the past. If you push too hard, you will be practically useless when it comes to classes in two days. That will only put you further behind your classmates, instead of ahead.

  “Do I make myself clear?”

  The last question was clearly aimed at the whole class, and not just Aria. Twenty cadet heads nodded in understanding.

  “Good,” Beauty said, clapping his hands together a second time. “Then that’s a wrap for today. Be back in this classroom for eight, the day after tomorrow. Eriba, Sage, could you please stay after class? Det, you as well.”

  “Yes, sir,” the three said, though they shared a glance. What could he want them for?

  They weren’t the only ones wondering that either, with baby-face scowling at them from the front of the room.

  He really needs a hobby or something…

  ReSouled cadets standing up from the seats finally broke the line of sight between baby-face and Det, and he quickly turned to look at Eriba. “Any idea what this is about?”

  The woman ducked so her bangs covered her face, and shook her head.

  “I have an idea what it’s about,” Sage said from beyond Eriba. “No idea what it means, though.”

  “Hey, Det?” Aria said from where she stood in front of his desk.

  “Yeah?” Det said, then nodded at Crazy Legs as the other man passed with a quick ‘thanks for the help today’.

  Aria didn’t immediately say anything, instead watching Crazy Legs meet up with Trium at the front of the room. The three of them had all been together at lunch, and from the look the other two gave her, they were waiting for her now.

  “Any other tips?” she finally said. “I don’t want to fall behind. Especially not behind Neferan.”

  “You won’t…” Det started.

  “I already am,” Aria stopped him. “It’s only the first day, and I can see it. What can I do?”

  “First, don’t panic,” Det said, keeping his voice calm. “Like you just said, it’s only the first day. And…” he held up a hand to cut her off as her mouth opened to stress the point again. “If you’re pushing too hard, you’re just going to be banging your head against the wall. You probably couldn’t see it, since you’re sitting in front of me, but did you notice how many times I didn’t use my magic, compared to the rest of you?”

  “Det was practically lazing around all day,” Sage joked, having come over while most of the class exited the room.

  “Because he already succeeded at the lesson,” Aria said.

  “Not at all,” Det said. He pointed to the sheen of sweat on his skin. “I was working just as hard as the rest of you. Just, on something different.”

  “What?” Aria said, putting her hands down on his desk and leaning eagerly forward. “What were you working on?”

  “Getting familiar with the energy in my channels,” Det explained. “My suggestion for tomorrow?”

  Aria nodded.

  “Don’t focus on manifesting your magic,” Det said. “Just get familiar with how it feels moving through your body. Practice moving it around yourself. I saw how many spirits you called on today.”

  “I was spamming them,” she admitted.

  “Yeah,” Det said. “Stop that, or at least slow down. That’s what I did today.”

  “Slow down, huh?” Aria said. She nodded again. “Thanks, Det. I appreciate the advice, you see.”

  “Sure, Aria,” Det said, noting she was the last cadet in the room other than Det and his roommates. Beast and Beauty had ushered the rest out, even Trium and Crazy Legs. “You should probably get going.”

  At the comment, Aria seemed to notice the same thing he had, “Ah, sorry.” She looked from Beauty to Det again. “Good luck, with whatever this is.”

  “I’m sure we’ll be fine,” Det said, and the woman nodded one final time before jogging out of the room.

  “Sir. Ma’am,” Aria said to the two instructors as she passed them, then she was gone.

  Beast closed the door behind Aria, then put her back to it, blocking the only exit from the room.

  Maybe we won’t be fine…?

  “Det, I asked you to stay,” Beauty started. “Because this discussion will impact you and the rest of your suitemates. It’ll be best if you can help convince the others of the necessity.”

  “The necessity of what, sir?” Sage asked.

  “Observing you and Cadet Eriba today,” Beauty said. “It’s clear we’ve run into the same problem we’ve experienced in the past. It’s uncommon to have ReSouled whose magic is so tied to… artificers’ creations.” The purposeful pause at the end there made it clear he was talking about Wordless.

  “How uncommon?” Det said. Since Sage and Eriba had been taken to a dungeon, that meant the Mistguard knew well enough about how their magic could work to run that test.

  “Usually, it’s only one every three or four cycles, if that,” Beauty said. “You two are the first time we have a record of more than one appearing at a time. Then again, the… early days… when some ReSouled were believed to be ‘defective’ could color those numbers somewhat.”

  “And they had the same problem we do?” Sage prompted. “Which is…?”

  “The energy demands of the… toys,” Beauty said. “Normally, the toys would be benefiting from an external power supply. The nature of where they are most often commonly deployed provides most of what they need to operate. Outside of their natural habitat, so to speak, you are the sole source of energy. And, no offense, you are not up to the task at E-Rank. At least, not yet.

  “You, more than any others from this class, have barely been able to use your magic for your entire lives, if at all,” Beauty continued. “Sage, you may have inadvertently tapped into your hand-me-down-daggers, but even if that is the case, your channels—both of you—are vastly underdeveloped. It’s a large part of the reason you both experienced multiple reversals today.”

  “If you knew this was going to be a problem…” Sage started, though he didn’t sound angry. In fact, it was almost like he expected it. Then again, with his family’s history, it could be he knew about this as well.

  “We suspected,” Beauty emphasized. “As I said, you are the first in several cycles, with the last on record being seven cycles ago. One hundred and forty years. That was the last time we had a ReSouled born with abilities similar to yours. We don’t have a lot of use cases to go by, and figured the best plan was to treat you as normal. At least for the first day.”

  “And now that the first day didn’t go as well as it did for others?” Sage said. “You have another option?”

  “We do,” Beauty said. “One made possible by the circumstances that brought you and your roommates together. Since there are six of you, we are going to go on a bit of field trip. There, we will push you—and your channels—to a state where you can solely power the E-Rank toys with little problem.

  “As an added benefit, it will give your roommates some real-world experience, albeit a little ahead of the schedule we’d originally envisioned.”

  “A field trip?” Det said. “You mean we’re going to…”

  “Yes,” Beauty said. “You’re returning to the last pillar Cadets Det and Calisco found themselves on.

  “You’re going back to Ironsalt. You leave tonight.”