Anya and Jack stood on the opposite end of the Student Hall's battle court. Anya held onto a 50cm short sword while Jack carried a 30cm Bowie knife they have loaned out from the student hall.

Ashe, Vincent and Xavier watched from the side. Xavier prepared his his journal and quill to record the match.

"I guess I will officiate this match," said Nico. Ashe would probably be biased and Vincent was being Vincent. "On the count of three. One, two, THREE!"

Exactly on the third count, Anya released a spell. Jack was momentarily confused. It gave Anya enough time to charge directly at him.

"Is that a spell?" Nico wondered why Jack didn't attack.

"It looks like a Scramble spell," said Ashe. "It's use to delay an opponent attack."

As Anya slash across, Jack instintly dodged to the left right before impact.

Anya continuously swung her swords.

"Hey! You in the magic branch hack!" Jack shout ed. "Stop attacking with swords!"

Anya continued slashing her swords. "You're an idiot! Who said magician can't fight with weapons!?"

Anya attacked, forcing Jack in the defense position.

"Why isn't Jack fighting back?" asked Ashe.

"The Bowie knife reach is shorter than Anya," Nico explained. "He's surveying Anya fighting style first before attacking."

"He should have picked a longsword."

"He probably never used one before. And besides, Bowie knife is more flexible and fits Jack fighting style. He can't move really quickly with a longsword."

Anya slashed from left to right as Jack dodged with his acrobatic flips.

Nico noticed Anya was using the same attacks. "Why isn't she varying her attacks?"

"She can't, she's in the middle of casting another spell," Ashe replied. "She has to concentrate on that, so it's easier just to default on one move."

Jack suddenly made a strike. He guarded the short sword, and closed in on Anya. Just before he strike, he saw another flash and froze. Anya used the opportunity to strike three times into the force barrier.

Jack cuff turned white.

"Victory for Anya," said Nico.

Jack shook and knocked his head to clear the light spots in his eyes.

"That's so unfair, I felt like I was frozen forever."

"Just two seconds," Anya responded.

"Is it just sort of mind control?"

"Scramble is classified as an illusion spell. I'm not particular good at it yet. I can freeze a person for less than a second if they are far. If it's within range, the spell could last for 2 seconds."

"Wow, that's actually useful," said Nico. "Can you exchange one illusion spell? Let's say for ten manacores?"

Anya laughed. "You know I'll be expelled from the Magic Branch if I do that."

Jack patted Nico on the back. "Good try buddy."

"Well, it was worth a try," Nico was only kidding, but he really wanted to see what an illusion spell could do.

Even then, replicating a spell from sight was difficult. Nico spent a little more than a week watching the manacentipede shoot out poison acid before understanding its structure.

"Hey! Get off the court already!" A group of three green robe students walked along the side of their courtyard.

"Sir Fredrick, we still have 5 minutes left to use the court," Anya eyed them cautiously and responded.

Anya was well aware of Sir Fredrick reputation. He was regular on the second floor, but due to the combat team tryouts, many students had been reserving the courts to spar and practice.

"Oh, well, well, isn't it miss Anya?" Rooney, one off Sir Fredrick's entourage, leered.

"I heard you have made it on the combat tryout team as well," Sir Fredrick commented as he surveyed Anya's body. "I wonder what sort of favors you had to give for that position."

Anya shivered.

"If you don't mind, we would like some of the favors," said Salaon.

"How about a three-way or four-way?" Sir Fredrick added.

"F*** off Fredrick," Ashe jumped down the battle court.

"Oh, the sissy boy is here too," Sir Fredrick smirked. "I guess sticking with the lesser humans make you feel high and mighty now."

"And how is the great Sir Fredrick feel being on the first floor? It seems you have the short end of the stick if you couldn't even reserve a court on the second floor," Ashe sneered.

"At least I can go in and out freely. I can't say the same about a wimp who is too afraid to enter the 2nd floor."

"It's time, we should leave," Anya whispered to everyone.

"Hey! How about a spar!?" Jack unexpectedly proposed to Sir Fredrick.

"A spar? Hmm... What's the term?" asked Sir Fredrick.

"A 3 vs 3 matchup," Jack suggested. "If we win, all of you will have to kneel and we get your hour slot for the court. If you win, we will kneel and won't ever use the court again. How about it?"

The roommates were surprised at Jack suggestion.

"I'm in," Ashe didn't have any objection.

"Nico, Vincent, are you in?" asked Jack.

Vincent shook his head from the side. He had never sparred with them before, and he wasn't likely to join.

"Why should I?" Nico shrugged, he was sure it was better for Anya to thrash those guys. "Anya should join."

Nico also thought the three of them could handle Sir Fredrick and his goons.

"Me?" Anya was unsure if she could handle sparring against green robed students. She haven't sparred against people she didn't know too well.

"You can do it!" Nico cheered.

Vincent and Xavier clapped.

Jack and Ashe both nodded.

"All right then," Sir Fredrick nodded. "We need some punching bags for our practice, you better keep your word about kneeling at the end."

Sir Fredrick wondered if Baron Randall will award him with something if he knew Ashe bowed down to him.

Jack, Ashe and Anya all gathered near the weapon rack to discuss their strategy.

"Fredrick specializes in spear art, so we have a disadvantage right off the bat with range," Ashe knew them the best, and took the lead over strategizing the fight. "Salaon is a decent hammerhead user, but he's slow. Rooney can cast spells quickly, but his waterblast is pretty weak. You don't have to focus much on avoiding his spells."

Ashe explained to them their attack plans.

Jack nodded.

Ashe looked at Anya. "Are you good?"

"I'll try," Anya nodded.

They requested an instructor to officiate the match. A small crowd of students approached to watch the fight.

"Ooh, interesting, a group match." As the students talked, more gathered.

"Hm... Between green robes students too! You don't see this too often on the first floor!"

On the court, Anya and Jack stood in front and Ashe remained in the rear. Sir Fredrick, Salaon, and Rooney stood in vertical position, with Rooney, the magician, in the rear.

The instructor gave the signal. "Go!"

Anya and Jack both rushed toward Sir Fredrick. Sir Fredrick held his ground.

Rooney rapidly shot several waterblasts toward Jack and Anya. They effortlessly blocked the blasts.

As Jack closed in the front line, he stabbed his knife directly toward Sir Fredrick.

Sir Fredrick jumped backward before impact, allowing Salaon to charge in from the right, pinching Jack in between. Ashe's fireball stopped Salaon attack. Jack sidestepped to the left and countered Salaon.

Anya focused her attention on Sir Fredrick, continuously slashing him.

Jack knocked Salaon down and charged toward Rooney, took a hit from the waterblast and dismantled the fleeing Rooney.

Anya slashes were inactive against Fredrick spear. She Scrambled him quickly and attacked several times.

"You bitch!" Sir Fredrick broke from the spell and thrust his spear into Anya.

Anya was in a bad position. Ashe aimed a fireball directly at Sir Fredrick. The fireball damaged the force barrier, but it wasn't enough to stop him.

Sir Fredrick overpowered Anya.

Anya's cuff turned white.

From the moment Anya was hit, Ashe's twin ice blades shot out and penetrated into Sir Fredrick barrier from behind.

Sir Fredrick's cuff turned white.

"No f***** way, they got Sir Fredrick," the students commented.

"Well, Ashe is a pretty strong magician, so it's expected. I didn't expect the other two to be so fast."

Ashe's third ice blade curved toward Salaon, who was in the midst of defending against Jack. Salaon dodged the ice blade.

Jack jumped into a new position so that Salaon was in between Ashe and himself. It took another move to bring him down.

By the end of the fight, everyone huffed and breathed heavily.

"Whew! That was exhausting!" Cried Jack.

"Sure, sacrifice me why don't ya," said Anya with a smile.

"Well, it's Ashe who's late," Jack stared at Ashe.

"I did say it takes a long time to cast three ice blades," said Ashe.

Anya felt so happy. "At least we won."

Ashe could see Anya's hands shaking and patted her head. "You did great."

Sir Fredrick and his friends sneakily backed away.

Vincent blocked their way. "I believe there is still something you owe them."

Sir Fredrick glared at Vincent, but knowing Vincent's reputation from Professor Aseroth's class, he resigned.

"Fine!"

Sir Fredrick and the other two quickly knelt for a second and ran off.

You are not going to get away from this! Sir Fredrick promised in his heart as he fled the student hall.

"Don't show your face in front of us again!" Jack yelled out.

With the battle court slot in their possession, they continued to spar until late in the afternoon.

After their sparring session, Nico returned to the dorm room and laid down in bed carefully. He had snuck in two eggs and hid them under the bed.

Normally, weapons and harmful items that were not loaners from the Academy or registered could be detected by the magical barrier. Fortunately, the eggs were able to pass through.

According to the Beastology instructor, Karkardo eggs typically took 150 days to hatch. Nico wondered if it was possible to check the status of the egg.

The instructor thought it was a good question, and taught the class the process of candling the egg. Candling was the process of lighting the egg in the dark room. The method sounded simple, but manabeasts had tougher shell and required specialized light in order to work.

Nico tested out the different light talismans on the egg. The Yellow Light Talisman worked the best. Judging by the dark spot of the embryo form, Nico assumed it was midway in development. It would take another 70 days before it would hatch.

However, there was no information about the incubation method, so it was up to the eggs whether they wanted to survive or not.

Once on his bed, he opened up the Plus-One Pill recipe box and held up a slip of the sleeping pill formula. Compared to the sleeping pill formula he had received during class, the method for the Plus-One Pill was more precised, but simpler. Before testing the Plus-One Pill recipe, Nico wanted to try the Academy method first.

In the next Herbology class, there were fifteen cauldrons set up on the tables.

"All right everyone, find yourself a partner and situate yourself in front of a table," Professor Wenlet instructed.

Nico naturally looked for Xavier since he was the only one he knew. However, Xavier was late and the lecture hall was already filled, so Xavier had to look for lecture hall. After a few weeks, students naturally settled on a professor they like. With Nico entering Professor Wenlet's class, the class count was disrupted.

Nico looked around for any lone students, but everyone had a partner. Everyone, except for the one rough looking student standing in the corner.

The rough looking student stared at Nico as he approached.

"New kid, it looks like you're stuck with me," he said.

"I'm Nico, and you are?"

"Norick."

Nico looked at the table. There was a little cauldron, a scale, and all sort of equipment laid out in front of them.

The little black cauldron could hold one liter of liquid. It had a round seal with three colored crystal embedded on the side; red, blue, and black.

Nico had seen cauldrons in Fenrir Shop, and they were expensive. The least expensive cauldron with one flame setting was at least 300-gold pieces. The one on the table had three flame settings!

"Wow, this is exciting!" Nico fingers and hands wiggled in anticipation.

Most of the students in the room were also excited since it was also their first time attempting alchemy. Not only were the equipment expensive, rarely anyone loan them out.

"Okay everyone, today we will create the Sleeping Pill. It is the lowest grade pill that is used to assist people with insomnia. The average completion time is 1-hour for an Apprentice Alchemist. I do not expect you to complete the pill, but hopefully by the end of the semester, everyone will be able to form the pill within the time limit."

Professor Wenlet examined the set of ingredients in front of him and held up a sprig of Jujuju.

"Okay everyone, we will start by refining the Jujuju leaves. First, add two cups of water and set the cauldron to the blue frame. To activate the cauldron, simply use your aura. If you're a cultivator, touch the cauldron and add spirit force."

Nico watched as Norick added the water. He touched the blue crystal and added spirit force. A little bit of spirit force was enough to initiate the cauldron.

"Next, add five leaves into the cauldron. Once the leaves are softened, remove the mixture."

Norick backed up, eyeing Nico as it was his turn. Nico picked out the five leaves and dropped it in the cauldron. Once the leaves softened, he poured the mixture into a large vial.

"Next, one cup of water and ten gram of Manavalerian root with the red flame."

Norick cut up the root and Nico poured the mixture in the vial.

"Last is the one cup of water and Manalemon-balm with red flame. Once you have all ingredients, mix them all together in the cauldron and let it sit in the red flame. If you can use aura, you can speed up the process by using it to stir the mixture."

It was the last piece of advice from Professor Wenlet before he walked around to check on everyone mixture.

Nico and Norick followed the remaining instructions and waited for the liquid to evaporate.

Nico thought Norick was unusually calm and patient for someone who looked so rough on the outside.

"You look big and rough, but you're not a bad kid," Nico stated.

Norick tilted his eyes to look at Nico for a moment, pause, and thought it was funny.

"Hahahahaha!"

Everyone turned to stare at Norick.

"You're a funny one." Norick patted Nico in the back. "Now I remember you, you're on the combat team shortlist?"

"Huh, how do you know?" asked Nico.

"Aside from the top rankers, the unknown names tend to stick out a lot," Norick explained and then looked at Nico. "I'm on the list too."

"Oh, cool. That means we'll probably compete?"

Norick shook his head. "Probably not." Norick knew of Professor Clemson tryout pattern. "You didn't look at the bulletin board?"

"I was busy."

Boom!

Norick and Nico snapped their head toward the front to see the source of the sound.

"F*****!!! Damn it, this is all your fault!" An irritated student yelled out to his partner.

His mixture exploded, leaving his table and the surrounding area covered in green goo. The student continued to harass his partner until Professor Wenlet asked him to stop.

"That's Lougram," Norick pointed him out to Nico. "He's on the list too. His father is a baron, so he thinks everyone else is beneath him."

Nico didn't care about Lougram or the nobility. "Do mixture normally explode like that?"

"Rarely, but it does happen," Norick responded. "They've probably added too much herbs."

They talked about random topics until the class end. As Professor Wenlet had expected, no one completed the sleeping pill.

Prince Keras and Obi noticed Norick walking out of class along with Nico. They were in another Sigillogy 301 lecture hall next door.

"It's unusual to see Norick with another student. A blue robe as well... And already in Sigillogy 301, that is interesting," Prince Keras commented.

"Hm... The only blue robe student I know in the 301 class is the chatty scholar from the Academic Branch," Obi remarked.

Prince Keras thought about it. "Professor Constantine has a new assistance name Nico. Keep an eye out for him."