Allen awoke far quicker than his body really wanted. Sadly he couldn’t take the time to feel sorry for himself as he dove forward off the bed, dry heaving as his stomach revolted at the lack of sustenance.

“Here”

Somebody shoved a bottle at him and he didn’t hesitate. Not the safest option but right now his body just needed something and he couldn’t think past the hunger. It was only as the sugary taste of an energy drink filled his throat he realised how bad that could have been. Not that he paused in drinking it. Squeezing the last remains out of the bottle, he dropped it then immediately activated his ring, drawing in as much mana as possible to the area. His body naturally pulled in a small amount even without conscious effort, and right now he needed all the mana he could get.

“Easy. You go to fast and you really will be sick.”

Gathering his strength, Allen finally looked up and saw a battered face looking back at him. He must have shown some kind of reaction, because the face looked away

“Yeah its not pretty I know, but we don’t all have the ability to heal.”

Allen would have corrected him, but his stomach chose that moment to let out a loud rumble.

“Come on, you missed lunch but they did you something. We may not all be cultivators yet, but we do know mana exhaustion when we see it.”

Kyle reached down and pulled the still struggling Allen up to his feet, the pair making their way down the rows of beds slowly. It was ironic considering the state of Kyle's face that he was the one supporting his junior student, but in truth he was in far better shape right now. As soon as they reached the first table Allen dropped onto the bench, his face dropping to the wooden surface with him.

“Yeah. Okay. Give me a second.”

Kyle returned a few minutes later with two of their classmates, each carrying a tray. Placing one down in front of Allen they didn’t speak, just wondering off straight back to the kitchen. Cautiously Allen started eating, spooning in small amounts of the chicken soup they had served him. Mana exhaustion had the unfortunate side effect of causing the body to act like it was starving, the brain simply wasn’t smart enough to understand which energy it was out of so it hit the panic button on all of them. Therefore in situations like Allen’s you had to slowly eat food on top of filling your mana reserves. His ring was taking care of the mana issue, so all he could do was slowly sip at the provided meal and wait until his body came out of starvation mode. The whole time Kyle sat next to him, eating as well but clearly waiting, it was an admirable amount of patience which seemed to expire the second Allen finished supping at his bowl.

“Thank you for healing Priya” he said, although his voice was tight and trailed off.

“You’re welcome, however I sense a but” Allen replied, speaking for the first time now that his body had stopped trying to eat itself.

“How did you do it? You aren’t a noble, and if you came from a family of healers you wouldn’t be in this class.”

Allen shrugged “That doesn’t matter.” He held up a hand to stop the argument “It doesn’t. I helped her because I could, but if its going to cause problems I won’t do it again.”

Normally that would be a good time to get up and walk away, however his body wasn’t really up for that right now. It was also difficult to look cool when you had just passed out and still felt like it might happen again. Thankfully the small amounts of mana entering through each of his meridians were at least starting to refill his exhausted supplies. In the end he settled for leaning forward on the bench, crossing his arms so they supported him as casually as possible. It was a very good thing that his father wasn’t here to mock him right now.

Kyle frowned, his bruised and swollen eyes narrowing slightly, but it wasn’t like he could force Allen to reveal anything. As somebody who clearly had a decent level of training in cultivation and healing, he held all the power between them. “So I’m guessing you won’t teach others?”

Allen sighed “Right now there isn’t anybody to teach. You can’t work as a healer unless you have enough mana, and the few people here that have any at all are all fire cultivators.” Allen shrugged “Fire has a lot of uses but healing isn’t one of them.”

“But you would consider it?”

“Isn’t this a school?” Allen asked, pointing out the obvious “Why would I be the one teaching?”

“You saw what they are like” Kyle scowled “You need points to buy access to classes, and every time we earn enough to get anywhere, a challenge comes and we have to start over.”

Allen didn’t reply right away, instead focusing on the various rings he was wearing. Finally he looked up at the battered class leader “How did you get your technique if they restrict access like that?”

“It’s like Hood said, my mother is a second level cultivator, but independent. She earns money working private security for rich companies that don’t have the talent to be cultivators themselves. I was at the first level when I arrived, but they challenge me weekly to prevent me getting stronger.” He looked down “I doubt they would even let me sign up now if I wanted to.”

“So you plan to work with her?” Allen asked, trying to understand the man in front of him

“That was my plan yeah. But I’m pretty weak. Four years here and I’m exactly where I was at the start” he replied bitterly.

“Okay, so let me ask you this, why not teach the rest of your class your cultivation technique?”

Kyle instantly shook his head “That’s against the academy rules. We aren’t even supposed to learn techniques from our parents, my mum only got away with it because she brought permission from the royal House. When you buy a technique from the academy you swear an oath, never to teach another, never to turn against the royal family, and to always respond when called to arms defending our nation. There’s some others stuff but those are the big ones. I had to take it even though my mother taught me.”

Allen thought about that. It explained a lot, but at the same time was just plain stupid. “What about crafts, things like healing?” He asked

“Same oath, thats why I was excited about you maybe being able to teach. You clearly didn’t learn it here at the academy. Also no offence but you don’t exactly look rich enough to have brought permission from the royal’s, so I assumed it was a family technique?”

The end was clearly a question, but Allen had no interest in answering. Instead he was focussing on the best thing for the yellow class, who very clearly needed help. He wasn’t willing to teach them his own cultivation style, that really was a secret and he had sworn to his parents to not risk their family. Which left him a problem.

“I want to help” again he held up a hand as the class leader went to speak “But there isn’t much I can do. Sounds like as long as they are losing challenges there’s no point me teaching them anything. What does the academy actually do if you don’t have any points?”

“The House has to provide lodging and food, which we have. The Academy puts on the tournaments monthly, which all students have to enter. They then give prizes for each win, usually just contribution points.” He shrugged “If you win the whole thing they give more but I don’t think anyone from our House has ever won it before.”

The beginnings of an idea started to form in Allens mind “Combat training?” He didn’t react to Kyles instant negative reply, as that was what he had expected.

“Okay bring the class together same time tomorrow morning. We can start there.” He didn’t give the man a chance to argue again, mustering what strength he had left to push himself up and stagger back out the room. It was time to work on his own strength.