With their new schedule, time quickly passed by in the academy. Between classes, the tutoring sessions with Stark, studying and their extracurricular training on the fourth floor—the end of the second semester was soon approaching.

While their trial and error research into creating a healing spell had yet to bear fruits, they had made significant progress in discovering and cataloging what didn't work.

It might not seem like much, but every failure was a step towards success—at least this was what professor Stark had told them

Michael was not discouraged, in fact he was quite pleased with the progress they'd made. Perhaps the only thing he regretted at the moment was the weird atmosphere between him and Melody after that night.

She had become different around him, almost unnervingly so. It was to the point where even Rudy had noticed, and the guy was known to be oblivious to such things.

It was rather confusing. They had pretended to be engaged before, even playing off each other and using banter as a way of breaking through the awkwardness of their predicament. Yet Melody had completely changed seemingly overnight.

He had considered trying to talk to her a few times to try and clear the air, but that's when Michael realized she always avoided being left alone with him. At first he thought it might have been a coincidence, but it was soon clear that this was not the case.

At this point, Michael was starting to get annoyed. All he had tried to do was try and help her, yet she was treating him like this? However, he was mature enough to withhold the feelings—at least in public.

Every now and then the headmaster would check up on Michael through the emblem's messaging function to discuss a few things. Judging from the amount of inquiries about his soul trait, it seemed that the man was a little impatient.

Throughout these four months, Michael had not had another mystical dream. Part of him was happy since he was so focused on trying to recreate the healing spell. Unfortunately, the headmaster did not share his happiness.

Apparently the guy was intent on recovering as much lost magic as possible, which was understandable since his family's main purpose was to spread knowledge throughout Hyperia.

However, Michael trusted the man. Given the fact he had agreed to keep the light element a secret and allow Michael to research it independently, it showed just how trustworthy he was.

Another person might have agreed on the surface, yet stolen it behind his back. After all, he was only a mere first-year student at the academy at the tender age of thirteen. Who would even believe him if he caused a stir?

The final exams of the year were soon upon them, creating another round of unease amongst the students. The only silver lining was that the summer break was far longer than they'd had between semesters.

Almost a full three months away from the academy, and all they had to do was survive through a hellish week of exams.

Professor Murphy had not yet returned from whatever he had been doing, which meant Gabe was still teaching the poor first-year students. Fortunately, Melody, Michael and Rudy had been tutored throughout the second semester by Stark—meaning everything on the first-year exam felt like child's play.

The same could not be said for the other subjects unfortunately.

With so much attention poured onto one discipline, they were bound to be lacking in other areas. Michael's bane was both Ancient languages and alchemy, whereas Rudy still lagged behind in mana theory despite taking the soul pill.

Perhaps it was only Melody who continued to be good at everything.

Once exam week started, Stark relieved them of their tutoring obligations and the trio were set free. Of course free was a loose term, since they were forced into a flurry of anxiety inducing theoretical exams that lasted for hours at a time.

Even if they wanted to have a break, there was no time.

Their only solace was their meal breaks within the great hall. Even Rudy despite his love for food looked extremely fatigued—like his brain juices had been sucked directly from his skull.

"How the hell are we meant to survive another three days of this?" he complained bitterly, "I swear we've done every subject already right?"

"There's still combat," Michael interjected, rubbing the fatigue from his eyes. He had just come back from the ancient languages exam which sapped all of his energy.

"Huh? Oh yeah… Wasn't it that tournament or something?" Rudy perked up.

The combat tournament was something held once a year across all classes. It was somewhat of a tradition, one that had a storied history that spanned nearly the entirety of Arcadia's existence.

Since the academy was almost two thousand years old, it was quite a monumental event.

Noble houses and institutions would come witness the prowess of the Arcadia students in the arena, some looking for new talent, and others just to watch their own kin. It was kind of a big deal.

Of course most of these special guests would be more inclined to watch the older students, particularly the third and fourth-years who were close to graduating the academy.

But by that time, most of these students would have already been snapped up by the noble houses—so long as they had even a little bit of fame.

So in reality, only those in their first and second year would be eligible for poaching.

The tournament would take place over three days within the arena. For the earlier rounds, three battles would occur at the same time upon three platforms within the arena—used to separate the chaff from the wheat.

Only when the final eight students were revealed in each year would the fights become one at a time.

Melody explained this to the two boys who each wore varying expressions. There was a lot of pressure to perform—especially for Michael who planned on establishing his own noble house after graduating.

Essentially, he needed to show his prowess to the influential figures of the noble circles who would be in attendance.

"Will the royal family also be there?" he asked, his emerald eyes shining with a determined look.

Melody looked slightly taken aback, but she eventually nodded. "This is Magnus's last tournament since he's graduating in a few days. The king himself will probably attend…"

"Good." Michael said, his eyes shining.

The tournament would be where he showed off his talents. That way, even the king couldn't deny him when he petitioned to establish his noble house in the future.

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