Over the course of the summer both Gary and Lucy trained extremely hard. Gary Had ascended beyond his highest stage. He was now at the Perfect Face stage. As he ascended he dreamed of stalking prey in the jungle. Blending in with the darkness, and the shade. He felt that the dreams were becoming stranger and stranger as he rose. He had read that if he reached the True Self realm he'd earn a human body. He was hoping to get there before he fully turned into a cat. He was beginning to get too comfortable with the idea. It was enjoyable, but he definitely preferred having opposable thumbs. Really that's all humanity has going for it. Lucy had ascended to the Young Master stage, and was stunned that Gary had ascended before her. She chalked it up to the fact that Gary was likely A-ranked.

Lucy and Gary were on a carriage taking them north. Lucy had decided that it was time to tame more beasts. Gary was useful, but there had been situations that were a little too close for comfort. Besides, having more beasts was always better. Of course they would come with their own maintenance costs, but they would prove useful all the same. Lucy was also looking for something she could use as a mount. Much to her dismay, and Gary's delight, Gary hadn't grown any bigger after ascending. He was too small to effectively ride, and extremely unwilling. After a long week of travel they arrived at their destination.

It was a small town situated within the frozen forest. They were only going to use it as a place to rest in between tracking down, and capturing beasts. Lucy was planning to capture three beasts, as she felt that was the most she could care for at the moment. They searched the forest for a few days, but rarely found creatures of interest. There were plenty of spirit wolves, and other E to F ranked creatures, but Lucy wasn't willing to take anything below C-rank. She had gotten used to having a strong beast following her around. Eventually she did find a C-ranked creature. The Crystal Stoat was a small weasel with silver fur. It had the ability to shoot concussive blasts at its prey to stun it. Lucy spent a whole day observing it before capturing it with Gary's aid. The next creature of interest she found was a B-ranked Sleepless Moose. Indistinguishable from a regular moose, except for the fact that it doesn't sleep. Moose in general are B-ranked. She had found her steed, now to capture it without dying.

It took a lot of digging, and following, and goading, but eventually they managed to trap the moose inside of a very large hole they had dug. Gary was almost impaled by its antlers more than once. Lucy had set everything up beforehand, and performed the beast bonding ritual on the spot. The moose resisted of course, so Lucy simply kept trying. It took Three days of repeated attempts before the moose accepted its new master. It was hungry, and was having a hard time climbing out of the hole. Lucy mounted the moose, and along with Gary and the stoat, went deeper into the frozen forest. This time she was hoping to be lucky enough to find an A-rank. Sadly no such luck would materialize. She had to make do with a C-ranked Semi-Goat. A goat that was both a goat, and not a goat at the same time. Possessing the astounding ability to be both immune, and vulnerable to anti-goat weaponry. Also technically immortal. A semi-goat is mostly a regular goat, but if you kill it you only get half the meat. The rest vanishes, and reappears as a full semi-goat a short time later, some distance away. This strange ability alone grants it C-rank. All beasts have the potential to evolve. The semi-goats immortality means that it will evolve eventually. What a semi-goat turns into is seemingly random, but it's always between goat, and not goat.

Lucy was mostly satisfied with her acquisitions, and returned back to the school. The new semester was right around the corner, and she wanted to meet up with her friends before throwing herself back into a frenzy of studying. Before the school opened she put all of her beasts through rigorous training to ensure that their battle prowess was up to par. The new beasts, besides the moose, needed time to be useful. As a beast tamer her mana was a dwindling resource. In exchange for all of the beast's battle prowess she would lose a portion of her total mana to maintaining the bond. It had been relatively small for one beast, but now the connections would limit her significantly.

As Lucy made her way to her first class of her second year, a loud explosion shook the ground. Screaming and crying could be heard in the distance. It would seem that the Royal Academy had just become victim to a terrorist attack. Something like that hadn't happened since before the purges ended.