Sophia's arms rapidly wobbled as she was hand standing on two narrow wooden beams, each around eight centimetres tall. The white gems on the black bracelets on each of her limbs started to increase in brightness. As the gems' brightness continued to increase Sophia's arms' wobbling became more frequent and faster until one of her hands slipped and she tumbled onto her butt.

"I was... expecting a more meditative sort of training, not more... mana suppression training." Sophia voiced between heavy breaths, and the gems decreased in brightness. Zalroth took a sip from his soda as he watched Sophia take the bracelets off.

"I figured you would have wanted to do the fastest method, but if you'd rather do the traditional way, we can go that instead if you'd like?" Zalroth asked. Sophia nodded her head while breathing heavily and asked for a break before she collapsed onto her back.

"Right..." Zalroth said before looking over at Lola, Scarlett and Snow. The three of them were all holding small colourless opaque spheres. Lola placed the sphere on top of her head and crossed her arms before trying to meditate with her eyes closed.

"What are we supposed to do?" Scarlett asked Lola as she copied Lola and placed her own sphere on her head.

"I'm pretty sure we're supposed to put our mana into the ball until they change colour, right papa?". Zalroth took another sip from his soda and pulled another opaque sphere from his hair.

"That's one of their functions, to test a person's current maximum magic reserves, but I have something else in mind for you.". Lola and Scarlett gleefully sat up straight, and simultaneously asked what that was.

"Well, I'd like you to try and lift the Null Gem with only your mana, without the gem changing colour.". Zalroth demonstrated by raising his hand and the gem started to float while being surrounded by a cyan aura. Zalroth grabbed the gem and put it in front of the three girls as it continued to float.

"Woah!" Scarlett said as she leaned super close to the gem.

"How does that work?" Snow asked while tossing and catching the gem in her hands multiple times.

"It's because... (wait that's probably too complicated for a kid to understand). To put it in simple terms the gem naturally pushes out all the mana inside it and gravity makes more mana come out the bottom which pushes the gem upwards.". Snow nodded her head and stared intently at the gem in her hand, while Lola and Scarlett were holding their breaths and pressing their hands as hard as they could against the gems in their hands. The bizarre method of Lola and Scarlett made Zalroth scratch the back of his head.

Meanwhile, Charlotte meditated while standing on top of an exercise ball with a frown. Charlotte backflipped and landed on one hand without the exercise ball rolling. Ruby had her hands over her ears and nervously watched Charlotte train.

"What's wrong, sister?" Elizabeth asked, with a sleeping Star in her arms. Ruby lifted her hands off her ears and looked up at Elizabeth.

"I think Charlotte's angry at me," Ruby said before looking at the ground and drilling one of her fingers into the dirt. Ruby continued to glumly look at the ground and let out a sigh. Ruby felt Elizabeth place her hand on her head and patted her a few times.

"She just feels like she's under a lot of pressure, so I wouldn't worry, besides she always looks like that when she's training," Elizabeth explained. Ruby looked up at Elizabeth who gave her a neutral smile.

"Hehe, I guess so...". Ruby looked back at Charlotte as she backflipped off the exercise ball and landed on her feet. Ruby let out a sigh and curled up into a ball. Elizabeth picked Ruby up by her shirt and placed her on her feet.

"But if you're seriously worried, you can just ask her, sister," Elizabeth said with a firm yet reassuring voice.

"O...k". Ruby slowly shuffled over to Charlotte. Charlotte wiped her forehead as she heard Ruby walking towards her, and making Charlotte turn around. Charlotte tilted her head while Ruby was twiddling her thumbs.

"What's up?" Charlotte asked between exhausted huffs. Ruby repeatedly poked her index fingers together while looking at the ground.

"You're not still mad at me... are you?" Ruby asked with her hands tightly held together.

"About forgetting what you wanted to tell me earlier?". Ruby slowly nodded her head while keeping eye contact with the ground. Charlotte sighed before lightly chopping Ruby on the head with her hand.

"I wasn't mad at you, to begin with, silly and it was my fault you forgot anyway, besides we were told not to engage him anyway, remember?". Ruby, with a weak smile, somberly nodded her head.

"But if you think you need to make up for it, then could you go count all the money we received from sensei and divide it evenly for me?". Ruby confidently clenched her fist and said she can with a big smile before running off for Charlotte's tent. Charlotte let out a defeated sigh as she started to deflate the exercise ball.

"What a handful, sensei would probably just laugh if he were in a situation like this." Charlotte thought to herself before tightly gripping the deflated exercise ball.

Around the same time, Zulcrestus and the Zelkio Knight entered the airship's control room. The knight hurried over to his position while Zulcrestus walked over to the centre of the control room and crossed his arms.

"What's the situation?" Zulcrestus asked.

"We picked up two highly concentrated magical signatures, one in the Whispering Woods, although that one has disappeared now, and one in a town called Humforth, sir".

"I see," Zulcrestus replied.

"Should we send a group to investigate the magical signature from the Whispering Woods, sir?" the Zelkio Knight asked.

"No need, It was probably from... one of Callie's subordinates. Now how long will it take for us to reach Humforth?". The Knight awkwardly nodded his head before turning back to his control panel.

"It will take about three and a half hours, sir.". Zulcrestus let out a low groan as he tapped his arm. The knight started to sweat a little and leaned closer to his control panel.

"b-but I'm sure if you were to fly by yourself, you... could probably make it in eight minutes, s-sir" The Zelkio knight struggled to say. Zulcrestus remained silent, making the knight sweat even more.

"That's probably for the best send the coordinates to my helmet and raise the ship's defence protocols to level four," Zulcrestus ordered before uncrossing his arms and marching out of the room.

"Roger." The knight said before taking his helmet off, revealing he had dark skin, slightly pointy ears and black eyes, and shaking his short dark blue hair.

"That was pretty impressive Seven, you managed to hold a full conversation with a superior without passing out." one of the pilots joked. Seven told the pilot to knock it off before looking back at his control panel.

"Maybe he is scary after all." Seven thought to himself.

Zulcrestus marched through the corridors of the airship until he walked past Callie's lab and the lab's door abruptly slid open. Callie jumped out of the door and called out to Zulcrestus. Zulcrestus sighed as he came to a stop and turned around.

"Where are you off to in such a rush, Zuzu?".

"A highly concentrated magical signature was detected in a village, so I'm planning on investigating it." explained. As Zulcrestus turned to leave, Callie jumped onto his back and she rocked back and forth until Zulcrestus stopped walking. Callie leaned next to Zulcrestus' ear and whispered something, making him sigh.

"They have until I make it to the hangar door.". Callie excitedly thanked him before hopping off his back and racing back into her lab. Zulcrestus stared at the open door before he dismissively shook his head and walked off.

A few minutes later, Zulcrestus waited by the airship's hangar door and could be seen talking to an extremely bright 3d small ten-pointed star, floating in his palm.

"Understood.". The light emanating from the glowing star dimmed down to a faint glow before it floated above Zulcrestus' shoulder and remained there as Zulcrestus turned around when he heard Prima's voice. Prima continued to talk to an opaque pink sliminoid(a humanoid slime) girl, with Maroon red eyes and the parts of her eyes that would be white being a slightly pale pink. Prima glanced over at Zulcrestus, noticing he was looking at them. She quickly spun around and instantly saluted, the female sliminoid glanced between Prima and Zulcrestus before copying Prima's salute.

"Reporting for duty sir, hehe," Prima remarked. Zulcrestus nodded his head.

"At least you two seem to have a slightly better work ethic than your...". Zulcrestus noticed the sliminoid girl was staring at him with a mesmerized gleam in her eyes.

"And who might you be little one..." Zulcrsustus said with an ever so slightly relaxed tone. For a split second, Zulcrestus questioned why he felt a wave of relief flow through his body but dismissed it when the sliminoid girl began to speak.

"I-I'm...". The girl quickly glanced at the green holographic rectangle in her hand.

"Yumi the sliminoid, blep" Yumi said as she cheekily stuck her tongue out at Zulcrestus. Prima frantically wrapped her arms around Yumi's mouth and the side of her head, while profusely apologizing to Zulcrestus on Yumi's behalf.

"You don't need to apologise for her, it's not like I'm going to get mad at a child.". Prima let out a relieved exhale and let go of Yumi. Zulcrestus turned and took a step towards the hangar door's control panel but Yumi's arm raced past him and pressed the open door button, before swiftly retracting it.

"Appreciative?" Yumi asked while attempting to say it in a monotone voice.

"I suppose," Zulcrestus replied as he turned to face the opening hanger door. Yumi smiled but it shifted to a surprised one as she, and Prima, started to float while being surrounded by a teal glow. Zulcrestus stepped out of the airship, with Prima and Yumi floating close behind him. Zulcrestus activated his flight magic, stopping him from falling, followed by the group flying over the airship and rocketing off into the distance.