It was probably at maximum one minute, but for Caroline and Jason, it was probably the longest minute of their lives so far. When the pain finally went away and all they could feel was the weariness and fatigue from enduring through the process, both of them took the second sips from the clay bottles.

The second sips did not have the gross feelings of the first sips, they were just chewy and had a light sweet taste, not that dissimilar to the taste of a single boba pearl.

A warm and fuzzy feeling filled their tired bodies with a sense of joy and comfort, and with it an overwhelming sleepiness. The last moment they remembered staying awake, was that where they were crawling towards their beds.

Both of them dreamed while they were asleep though, and their dreams were quite memorable.

Caroline’s dream was quite simple - she was sitting on the branch of a tree, with warm winds blowing around her. There were sparks and cinder in the wind, and when she looked up at the sky, she could see a distant flying figure - a bird of fire and light, with long tails and three claws roaming the sky, cutting through the clouds with its bare body as it flew. She reached out with her hand and grabbed some cinder in her hand, and she could see that the cinder was actually hair from some kind of fiery feather. And even when separated, the hair seemed to be growing and emitting orange and red light.

Jason’s dream on the other hand was a bit abstract and vague - he sensed that he was in an empty room with a high dome. There was nothing significant in the room, aside from a floating crystal shard above him near the center of the dome. When he looked up, the crystal shard projected out a beam of light to the ground near him, and shadows of people and things began emerging on the ground, like a hologram. He walked close to the shadows, and he started hearing the people’s conversation, and sounds made by the objects.

When they woke up, they were filled with a strange combination of the feeling of restoration and relaxation after a great night of sleep, and the stiffness in their bodies when they did not sleep in proper sleeping positions. And when they checked the time, it turned out they were almost late for their weekly meeting with Aimee and Thomas in the library.

“Hey, calm down. What happened?” when they came to the library around twenty minutes late and in a rush, Aimee closed her note and asked.

“Yeah, sorry, I had some sort of epiphany and passed out on the side of my bed.” Caroline sat down and said: “Almost had no time to clean up.”

“Same. I passed out right after I made it out of my personal training room.” Jason rubbed his neck: “We can let you know if you want - it’s just kinda messy. And how’s it going with you guys?”

“Mostly fine.Glenda recommended that we take the lesson offering from Professor Barnes.” Aimee nodded and answered: “She seemed kinda upset at Professor Barnes for some reason - but she still recommended it. So if you don’t mind, we would like your input on it. The martial art moves you taught us for the duel were really helpful, I don’t wanna give you guys too much trouble, but...”

“We would still like your help.” Thomas said: “And - maybe we should talk about claiming the artifacts we were promised by Professor Clarkson? We have till the end of the year, which isn’t much time. And since we wanna claim them before you guys leave, we have way less time.”

“Yeah, our audit program is already halfway done. We should at least think about what we want.” Jason scratched his head and said: “For example, what do you think you need? Has Ms. Wong told you anything?”

“Well, I want my guns here.” Thomas chuckled.

“Seriously, Thomas.” Aimee slapped Thomas’ arm with the back of her hand, then she turned to Caroline and Jason: “What do you think? I kinda think we need … well everything. Like a sorcerer’s cloak, some kind of wand, or at least a ring or a bracelet.”

“Well, I am no magic wielder, but I suspect any of those things would help you with your path of magic.” Caroline smiled and said: “Jason and I spend a lot of time doing martial arts moves and bathing in huge buckets of medicinal soup before we ever got our first artifacts. And even now we don’t have many significant things. Just our weapons and our flasks - and some pretty nasty medicine we took yesterday.”

“Don’t forget our mirrors.” Jason said: “But I think for you, Aimee and Thomas, did Ms. Grimes tell you anything? Did she give you any tips, or guidance on what you could use?”

“Nothing in particular, she said it would be highly frowned upon for her to tell us directly what to choose. She did teach us some kind of observance spell. But we need to master it first.” Aimee sighed: “It’s quite complicated, I don’t think we can come close to mastering it before the end of the year, which is why I - we, are asking for you help.”

“Oh, no worries. ” Jason waved his hand: “We can actually choose first, then we can test it. If OUR appraising skills can be trusted, then we can help you. Since we are students and your teammates, there shouldn’t be any restriction on us in providing our help that way.”

“So, what do you say? Caroline?” Thomas looked at Caroline in her eyes and asked.

“Huh? Oh, sure, why not.” Caroline was a bit distracted while she watched a tiny and barely noticeable spark of fire dancing on her fingers: “In fact, if my artifact is not a good fit for me, you guys can have it.”

“That … that’s way too generous, we can’t take that.” Thomas tried to refuse.

“Oh, please, it’s fine.” Caroline shook her head and smirked: “Just think of it as a gift from me, someone who’s earlier on this path.”