Taro looked at the materials one last time. A hundred days of hope, of trust in theories that defied everything established, converged in this moment.
"Here we go," he whispered, and began to absorb them.
The effect was instantaneous.
The crystal's brown glow spread through his veins like rivers of liquid earth, yellow earth. His beetle's markings intensified, expanding across his skin in patterns none of them had seen before, each line seeming to pulse with newfound power.
"It's beginning," Ren watched attentively. "Let it flow..."
Taro gasped as the first wave of power hit him. It was different from the previous ones, deeper, more fundamental. He could feel his beast changing, transforming at its very core.
Min leaned forward, completely still for the first time that morning. Liu held his breath, his night bat manifesting slightly in response to his tension.
The markings continued to expand, but instead of hardening into the shell plates, they seemed to merge with the earth itself, bright and yellow. The air around Taro vibrated with raw energy.
"Ren..." Taro's voice sounded strange, distorted, as if coming from underground. "I feel... I feel..."
"I know," Ren smiled. "It's happening exactly as it should."
The transformation reached its climax. For a moment, Taro seemed to glow from within, his silhouette blurring as if made of shifting earth.
Wei flipped another page of the "Advanced Compendium of Insect Evolutions," his eyes irritated from another night of intensive reading. His manticore manifested intermittently in his eyebrows like a nervous tic, responding to his growing frustration.
Five hundred and forty thousand crystals in his account.
The number kept resonating in his mind since he'd returned remembering to deposit his money and heard Finch's squeals ten days ago.
It was an absurd amount for any first-year student, but for someone with history's weakest beast...
'There must be an explanation,' he thought while reaching for another book. 'Accumulating that amount through luck alone isn't logical.'
It was the kind of wealth a veteran Silver 3 rank slightly stronger than him would obtain after about 6 months of work. Not something a child with a mushroom could achieve in 4 months.
His fingers traced the new tome's index, searching for any mention of variations with incompletely documented methodologies in digger beetles.
There had to be something he was missing.
"What if...?" Wei paused, an uncomfortable idea forming in his mind. "What if someone in the outer lands...?"
He shook his head immediately.
The odds of someone discovering a new evolution without the academy's knowledge were astronomically low.
The million-crystal reward for a new methodology was too difficult for those people to ignore...
It could be that someone working in the mines wanted to sell it themselves to their close associates... But that made it more improbable, that same person sharing such a secret with a random child...
But the doubt persisted.
Wei rose from his desk and began pacing his study. The walls were covered with shelves full of books, each one carefully selected and studied over years.
"Five hundred and forty thousand," he muttered. "In four months."
Wei stopped in front of a specific section: "Documented Evolutions in the Last 100 Years."
Not a single mention of variations in the digger beetle's evolutionary pattern.
"It's impossible," he told himself. "The records are clear. Five hundred years of consistent observation..."
But then, how to explain the crystal amount?
How to justify that a child with the weakest recorded beast was generating more wealth than students with elite beasts?
Was someone deliberately messing with him?
Wei returned to his desk and pulled out a map of the outer lands. His eyes scanned the known inhabited areas, searching for... what exactly?
A point where someone could have made a revolutionary discovery without anyone noticing?
"Ridiculous," he muttered, but continued studying the map.
The bet. Everything came back to that foolish bet.
"If he loses," Wei smiled humorlessly, "I'll have to find out where he got so much money. And if he wins..."
His skin bristled as his manticore's fur manifested, as if the thought itself was disturbing.
"No," Wei closed the book with more force than necessary. "He can't win. It's impossible for a child with a mushroom to know something generations of researchers overlooked."
But as he prepared for his first class of the day, Wei couldn't help slipping an extra book into his briefcase.
Wei crossed the classroom door, and his manticore manifested involuntarily at seeing who awaited him.
Ren sat in the front row, his mushrooms pulsing with a steady light.
Beside him, Taro seemed... different.
Wei couldn't pinpoint exactly what, but there was something distinct in the way the boy carried himself.
'So he finally decided to show up,' Wei smiled sarcastically while placing his books on the desk. 'He still has a month and a half to play fool, but I suppose he wants to advance his humiliation.'
"Well, well," Wei couldn't resist. "Has the expert in impossible theories finally decided to honor us with his presence?"
Several students laughed out of obligation, but there was tension in the air. Something in Ren's tranquil smile made Wei feel... uneasy.
"Good morning, professor," Ren responded with a calmness that only irritated Wei more. "I thought today would be a good day to demonstrate my theory about the beetle's evolution."
The classroom was half full when Ren and Taro entered.
Jin was the first to react.
"Look who decided to show up!" his voice dripped venom. "Has the rotting boy come to beg for class?"
Klein, sitting in the back with his mood still dark from his defeat, straightened in his seat. His eyes gleamed with contained malice.
"Shouldn't you be in the mines, pauper?" he mocked. "At least there your mushrooms serve some purpose."
Some students laughed, more out of habit than real malice. Others watched with barely concealed interest. The bet between Ren and Wei was known to all.
Luna, from her place by the window, stopped pretending to read her book. Her eyes followed every movement as Ren and Taro sat in the front row. Her shadow wolf manifested slightly, as if sensing something important.
"Is he really going to try it?" one of her cousins whispered to the other. "Taro's mana looks different, do you think...?"