After 2 weeks, Belinda made her first edible candy. It wasn’t her first success, but her control was really bad and those candies become black. It was as if she burned them…

She dropped the candy on the ground and sighed.

  I really want to go back and kill those authors who dared to write that their protagonist succeeded refining on their first try! It’s a big lie! It’s harder than cooking!

„Congratulations!” Piusz said happily. „Your talent doesn’t that good, but you are hardworking. You will become better in the future.”

„Never! I don’t intend to learn refining. Horác forced me to do it because my energy control not that good. He said it’ll be a good training…” she stood up and smiled at him. „Thank you for your help. Later I’ll send some gift to you and your master.”

„Huh?! Do you really want to quit? You just started! You know some people need a longer time to learn refining and they can become a well know refiner after leaving the academy! Don’t give up because the beginning was hard!” Piusz tried to convince her. Belinda was a hardworking student, he really enjoyed teaching her.

Belinda shook her head. „Please, understand it. I’m not interested in it! I have a lot of other things to learn. It’s almost the end of the year, and I need to prepare things for my field practice…”

She spent a lot of time to made Piusz to give up on her. When he finally nodded, Belinda ran away without looking back.

She went into Horác laboratory and told him her result.

„… And you left after succeeding once?!” Horác looked at her sharply.

„… I can practice alone! I saved up enough fruits in my space, so I can make useful ones!” she was angry. She hated to learn things she wasn’t interested in.

„Okay. Then go and practice!” Horác gave in. It was really better if she tried to use those fruits. He didn’t tell her, those fruits had more energy in them and it would be harder to refine.

Belinda went into her space and practiced there. After 3 hours she realized, it was harder than before. She refined until late at night but failed repeatedly. She gave up and went out of the space.

Horác saw on her face it didn’t go well and he didn’t say anything.

Belinda said goodbye to him and left the laboratory. She walked around and enjoyed the cold night’s breeze. She already ate some fruits in her space, so she didn’t need to go to the cafeteria. She became used to eat them and she went there less and less.

She spent some hours to refine every night, and this time she succeeded after 5 days.

Belinda happily held the candy in his hand. She watched it for a while, then became confused.

  Why is it cold? I failed again?

She refined another 3 candies, but they gave off the same cold feeling. She put them away and went to find Horác. Let him thought about it what could cause the change.

She didn’t find him, so she just left a note with 3 candies and left.

During the training, Bertold suddenly changed her weapons into one normal katana, because she couldn’t use her precious swords in the field practice. She had a hard time to become used to the new weapon.

In the middle of the training, Horác visited them and they took a break.

„I checked those candies and there’s no problem with them. They had the cooling effect, because of your yin body. It’ll be easier to sell them in the summer.” Horác said happily.

„… I see. So if Bertold made them, would they had a warming effect?”

„Possible. But I think he’ll need a fire crystal to make the effect stronger.”

Belinda looked at her bracelets. She didn’t think they had this kind of effect. She learned to summon water and noticed it was cold, but she never thought about using these crystals to turn it into ice. Maybe after her next breakthrough, she would try it.

„Do you have more candies? I want to test their energy level.”

„I have but…” Belinda took out a plate with around 30 candies on it. „I was a little bored refining them, so I tried to change their shapes.”

Horác watched the candies blankly. They had different flowers and animal heads shapes. If he remembered right, the pills were balls because that was the easiest form they could get. Changing its shape was almost impossible, yet his stupid student did it out of boredom… He thought back for those 3 weeks she spent on learning refining while others need at worst 4 days and sighed. He really couldn’t understand why she had talents in those meaningless things…

Horác put away all the candies and left. Belinda felt heartbroken. She spent hours to refine them. She swore, next time she would only take out half of it!

Belinda continued her training and the days slowly passed.

One day, after their training Pedró stopped them. He watched the children and felt satisfied.

„A year almost passed. You guys worked really hard and I can see your progress. In two days we’ll hold your field practice. This will be your last test, so do your best! After it, you could rest enough during your 2 months long vacation.”

The children were happy to hear it. They could take a rest.

„But! If I see that you guys won’t do your best I’ll give you some bonus lessons during your break!” Pedró grinned. He hated the vacation the most. „Tomorrow morning we’ll go and choose you a weapon. Don’t forget to call over your mentor!”

The kids reluctantly left. They were sure, Pedró was eager to find problems with their performance to train them more.

At night, Belinda went into the library to work. She ran into Marina. It was rare to see any teacher, but she didn’t care about it. She respectfully greeted her and walked away.

„Wait!” the teacher stopped her. „You are Bertold’s student, right?”

„Yes.”

 „Come with me, I need to say something to you.”

Belinda was confused. She didn’t remember to do anything wrong. She reluctantly followed Marina into a room.