"He is." Cooper said grimly. "No matter what!"

Oh, by the way, because of the upcoming contest between the Cosmic Guild branches, Cooper was dead set on having the rather-stay-in-bed genius Tang Yin join the training camp.

He was serious. Gathering three other guys from Club Saturn, they went to hunt… err… cordially invite Tang Yin the sleepyhead over to the Compulsory Camp That Everyone Must Go To!

"Spatial Lock!"

"Paralysis!"

"Shock Stun!"

"Living Chains!"

"Binding Vines!"

"Wind Whip!"

"OW!" Tang Yin spluttered. "What's with the whip!?"

But n.o.body answered or apologized. They simply hauled him out of there bodily. They bundled him into a carriage and rode off into the sunset…

Actually, no, they went to a large observatory on a tall hill just outside Ecclesia City. It took them roughly an hour, during which Tang Yin couldn't so much as scratch an itch.

"Someone help me scratch my nose!" Yin was half-begging by the time they arrived.

They dashed into the lowest floor of a tower and then shut the doors behind them heavily.

"Finally! Everyone's here!" Cooper glanced about. "That's the full forty-six members of Club Astral! The Training Camp officially begins!"

"Let me go already!" Tang Yin barked.

Cooper gave his five captors a nod and they finally released him. Yin scratched his nose with vehemence, looking around grouchily. "Fine! I'm here! So what do you want me to do?"

"Climb to the top of this tower." Cooper said, simply. "Same like all the rest of us."

"That's it?" Yin stared. "Where's the stairs."

"Right. About that… there aren't any." Cooper explained. "You'll have to ascend by pa.s.sing the trials. Also, there are no exits below the fourth floor."

"Ah." Tang Yin said. "One of those."

"What?" Gary blinked.

Cooper explained. "This is a trial tower. It's for us to learn and test out our understanding of celestial powers. On every floor there are priceless scrolls and books on Sun Magic, Moon Magic, Star Magic, and Astrology. The most basic and easiest ones are on this floor. The most powerful magics are secreted away at the topmost floor. As to how high you're able to ascend, that depends entirely on your abilities."

Gary's face fell. "So I have to study your magic to climb up every floor… all the way to the fourth floor."

"Fourth floor, minimum." Cooper nodded. "There's no other way out. Also, there's no time limit, but people tend to get hungry, eventually. We brought enough food and water for everyone to last a week, but beyond that…"

Gary gulped. He surrept.i.tiously glanced at the door they just came in through.

"And that door's sealed from the outside once it shuts. It won't open again till next year." Cooper concluded.

"So… study or die." Gary grimaced.

"Pretty much." Cooper agreed.

***

Keeping in mind Mindy's urging on s.p.a.ce magic, Gary found himself staring at Tang Yin as everyone scattered to study.

[I can't help her. Even if I started studying s.p.a.ce Magic like crazy now, sealing the Rift or finding Remian just sounds impossible for me. There's no time, and I don't even know where to start. I can't help Mindy no matter how much I want to.]

[I can't help, but… I think maybe… he can.]

Tang Yin was already a legend in Club Saturn. He was always sleeping in cla.s.s, always goofing off somewhere, never wanting to study… and yet scoring high grades in every test he ever took, whether paper test or practical. In terms of magic theory, there was one time a teacher tried to call him out and punish him for making him sleep in cla.s.s, and somehow ended up debating magic theory for the better part of five hours with no decisive winner. That teacher quit the next day.

Most importantly, he supposedly managed to open a mini-moment teleportation gate one day and dropped a water balloon on the head prefect from fifty meters away. It was barely hand-sized, and lasted only an instant, but that was all it took to leave the prefect soaking wet in front of his latest fling.

Tang Yin himself was a bit on the chubby side. He wasn't especially tall either, and had the front half of his head shaved clean for some reason, the rest of his hair tied back in a tight long braid. He was unusually fair, and while he read, his eyes darted around like hail in a storm.

As Gary watched him, he threw the scroll in his hands halfway across the ground floor. "This is rubbis.h.!.+"

"What?" One of the five captors from the 'hunt' jumped. That captor was named Alan. He'd been the one to use the Wind Whip for lack of anything better in his repertoire.

"This scroll! Everything it says is nonsense!" Tang Yin fumed. "It's saying the sun and the moon are opposites, that they balance each other out with some yin and yang magic power that orders the whole universe!"

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"That's a very old theory from the Dragon Empire…" Alan shrugged.

"Let me see." Gary went over. After a brief run through, he grimaced. "It's rubbis.h.!.+ The sun is a giant flaming ball of gas millions of miles into s.p.a.ce, and the moon is just a lump of dirt going in circles around our planet! To say that they were equal and opposite is just… nonsense."

Alan snorted. "Keep thinking like that, and you'll never get any magic done. At the very least, with so little respect for the moon, I daresay the chances of you achieving anything great with moon magic are nil."

"But science…"

"One book says it's white. Another says it's black. Who's to say what is what?" Alan asked.

"Telescopes! Aren't we in an Observatory?!" Gary shot right back. "The Night Flight of the Upper Heavens Zeppelin! The Flying Magic Lenses Recordings!"

"All of which are great for science, but useless for magic!"

"How could the truth be useless for magic?!"

"Magic is a system of belief and imagination! To demand scientific proof for magic… isn't that just a form of self-destruction?"

"Then what do you call blindly believing in falsehoods? Self-delusion?"

"Wow, it looks like SOMEBODY is well-read! If you'd just read magic books instead of those science stuff you're spouting, you'd be a top cla.s.s mage in no time!"

"Who the heck wants to be a top cla.s.s mage in nonsense!?"

"That's a rich, wealthy and highly respected top cla.s.s mage in nonsense to you!"

"Alan… do you even believe any of these yourself?!"

"No. But I don't need to believe it to make use of it!"

Gary stared at him. Then, he turned back to Tang Yin. "What about…"

But Tang Yin was already on the floor, hands clasped, eyes closed and letting out a soft snore, heedless of both his opponent and the guy who'd somehow gotten into an argument on his behalf.

***

Around that time, Remian was hanging out not too far from the Alchemist Guild entrance, enjoying some tea at a street corner coffee shop, waiting for the two hours to pa.s.s until Mu Hou's s.h.i.+ft finished.

While he sipped tea and considered money making possibilities, a ruckus started up in the middle of the street.

There were shouts. "Stop that slave! Thief!"

"Stay away!" that voice was high-pitched, fear filled and very young.

The ruckus was coming down the street, and would soon reach the coffee shop where Remian sat quietly enjoying his tea.