"Did you get anything for us from the library?" Cassie asked as Wolfe sat down beside her in the cafeteria.
"Three introductory books that cover Nature Magic, Charms and Hexes, but the Librarian recommends that we don't touch the curses until you've mastered all of this since they come with a risk of backlash, and they're a perversion of the innate power that you're trying to learn," Wolfe explained.
"That's fine. Charms and basic Nature Magic will take long enough to learn."
Ella looked between the duo and then to Mary and Reiko, who were still in line for food. "We should spend more time on the other Elements first. Once we know we can ace the final exam, then we can start on the new skills."
"You worry too much. We will hit the training room tonight and see where we still need work, but so far, it's been too easy. It's the exact same spell, but with the Elemental Rune on the circle changed. Only the advanced spells are more difficult." Cassie argued.
That idea caught the attention of a few first-year Witches sitting nearby. Nearly everyone treated the armour spells as completely separate, but looking at them; they were very nearly identical.
Not every Witch could manipulate every element well, but if you could do the basics, then the rest of the process should be easy. Just do the same thing you did for the last version.
"Then we have a date. Elemental Practice tonight, and we will start on the new books tomorrow." Mary suggested, having heard their conversation.
"Do you think you can keep up, little one?" Wolfe teased.
"Pup is stronger than he looks. My skills are coming along quite well, thank you." She replied, then stuck her tongue out at him.
"I wish I could say the same. I can't seem to do anything with the Water Element. I'm great with Fire and good with the others, but water just doesn't work." Reiko sighed.
With Flame as her Familiar, that wasn't a surprise. She could also pass the exam without using water at all, she just wouldn't have as high of a score, but that wasn't her goal. If she wanted the best reference for job placement outside the city, Reiko needed to be on the honour roll at the end of her first year.
"Then we need to practice. We lose too much time in class while the teacher explains the spells over and over." Ella told the blonde Noble.
"Well, excuse us. Not everyone can be a prodigy." A Witch at the next table complained. She was from the advanced class, but she had been struggling with everything but Lightning Spells.
"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I just wish we could split up so those who need the help get more personal assistance while those who are ahead can study other spells on their own." Ella apologized.
"I know you didn't mean anything bad. It's just frustrating, you know? I can use every Lightning skill in the book, but I can barely touch the other Elements at all.
Plus, I got a Lightning Hamster as a Familiar, and he's really weak and afraid of everything. I can't even bring him to class because he panics and passes out, which gives me a panic attack through the link."
Wolfe patted her on the shoulder and gave her a one-armed hug. "It will get better. Do you want me to work with him while everyone else practices? Just letting him sit with me and Stephanie might help."
"Yeah, that might be alright. How about I bring him to class, and he can sit with you if he doesn't immediately panic and pass out? I would gladly sacrifice a few days worth of practice to get him adjusted to being in public." She agreed quickly, as if afraid Wolfe would change his mind.
"We will see you in class then." Wolfe agreed.
The timid Familiar and his Witch were waiting at the door when Wolfe arrived with the others. The hamster was safely in a cage, freaking out about the number of people and raising Lightning into the bars, which forced his Witch to hold the cage with a layer of lightning armour on her hand to avoid getting shocked.
Wolfe could see she was struggling already because of the link, so he took off his coat and placed it over the cage, then took it from the hamster's Mistress and placed the cage on a shelf in the corner.
That seemed to help a lot, so Wolfe moved the coat a little, letting the rodent see out, but with three sides of his cage covered.
That was fine for a moment, but when Wolfe touched Cassie and Ella to fill them with mana, the small creature began violently throwing himself at the cage, trying to get to Wolfe.
"What a strange creature. Why don't you feed him some mana as well? Maybe he's an immature creature, like the Witches who get kittens or tadpoles and have to nurture them to full growth before they are useful?" Reiko suggested.
Any way Wolfe looked at it, that was as big as a hamster got. But there was no harm in trying. Even in the worst-case scenario, feeding it mana would just strengthen it a little until the energy was absorbed.
Wolfe reached a finger into the cage to pet the fur ball and let a bit of mana flow from himself to the Familiar. It latched on to his hand and began licking his fingertip as if it had been starved its whole life, so Wolfe increased the flow and watched as the friendly little creature's fur turned bright purple and the lightning got more intense, to the point it was actually damaging the cage.
The Lightning stopped after a few seconds, and a black mist began to form around the hamster, made of pure energy taken from Wolfe.
That was when he let go of Wolfe's finger and rolled on his back, making happy noises and sucking in the mist of excess mana as if it were a liquid.
By the time he was done, the class was almost over, but the hamster looked much better. Bright purple and blue instead of brown, but confident, with glowing white eyes.
"What did you do to him?" The Witch asked in a panic when she saw the Familiar and was about to grab Wolfe's collar to demand answers when she suddenly stopped as the hamster began to squeak.
"Why is he defending you? I can sense the emotion, but I don't understand." She muttered.
The commotion brought the teacher over, and she knew in an instant what the problem was.
"You have been feeding this one like a rodent, right? It's not. They're magical creatures, and they need mana or Mystic plants to eat. If you've been starving your Familiar, it might have been panicking in public because it felt weak and vulnerable. Didn't you read the Familiar Care guidebook?"
The Professor was getting angrier with every word. Familiars were lifelong partners to Witches, and mistreating them was something that simply wasn't done.
"It was soft and fluffy and brown just an hour ago. I thought it was a regular hamster with Lightning Affinity." She tried to explain.
"Well then, it's good that someone knows about Familiars before you starved the poor thing to death. It would have been the end of your academy career. You're not strong enough to graduate without him." Professor Miranda chastised the young Witch.
"Sorry, professor. I will do better. I'll go get proper food right now, no matter what it costs." The girl begged.
"Just give it a purple mana gem once a week. That's enough to keep it fed until you can go outside and get real food. Magical creatures can be hard to care for. These four just got lucky with a Demon, a dog and a lizard that eats anything spicy." The Professor instructed.
If only she knew that Flame was as bad as Pup and would eat anything put in front of him, as long as he had roasted it to well done first.
"Now that he's feeling better, just bring him to class with you to help him get over his stage fright," Wolfe suggested, and the hamster gave him an angry look.
"Fine, bring him to class to help him get used to socializing with others." Wolfe amended, and the little purple fur ball looked much happier with the modified phrasing.
Most of the class was ignoring their interaction, afraid of being called out by the teacher for not taking good enough care of their Familiar, but two sets of eyes were glaring at them intently, while a small Goblin in a butler's uniform stood to one side.
