The first floor of the Silverlight Company mainly housed consumable items, while the second contained equipment. Kanan wandered the first floor for a while, admiring the vast array of spiritual items and medicines that were available.
Most of the items were ones he had seen before. A few even caught his eyes as ones he had used in his own experiments back at home.
Coming to a corner that housed light type materials, he was amazed to see that they even had Lumishrooms, a staple of Melody Forest. The price was extravagant though, far outside Kanan's budget. Not that he needed more of them anyway, his own studies with the material had been a dud.
Moving up to the second floor, he perused the spirit beast equipment.
Most beast equipment was in the forms of things like bands, harnesses, or hats, which could be worn by the majority of beasts. However, they were mostly unsuitable for Poppy. He had considered getting her a band or something similar for her legs in the past, but it was hard to find one that was small enough for her to wear without getting in the way of her movements.
Still, just in case, he summoned his two beasts and had them look at the selection of items to see if there was anything that they liked.
Twilight seemed mostly disinterested. It was unfortunate, as Kanan had more hope on this front. As a Squirrel-type beast things like necklaces and some clothing were able to be equipped, though Twilight already had its species' representative cloak.
Poppy, on the other hand, made a surprising selection. She waltzed over to the fabric section and began carefully sifting through a box of cloth, before finally pulling out two strips of vibrant red string.
Dexterously, she maneuvered her front legs and twisted the string into a variety of shapes, playing with it by transforming it into different designs.
Satisfied, she brought it up to Kanan, a begging look in her eyes.
Chkchkchk!
Kanan looked down at her selection, grabbing it and holding it up to his face. "Cloth? You want this, Poppy?"
Chkchk! She replied, dancing around.
"Why two, though?" Kanan asked.
In response to his question, Poppy ran over to Twilight, deftly tying the string around his neck like a scarf. He turned side to side to look at the decoration, the ends of the string fluttering behind him as he moved.
Satisfied, he nodded. It seemed to have gotten his approval.
Well, at least it shouldn't be too expensive, Kanan thought. Cloth made from spiritual beast fur wasn't effective on its own though, it had to be crafted into an item to have any special effect. Still, as long as Poppy and Twilight were happy with it.
Having made his decision, he brought the items to the second floor's desk.
"Oh, Flameworm Silk! You have a good eye, customer. This silk can be used to craft heat-resistant items.
"Haha. Yeah, it's good…"
Kanan wondered what the employee would think if they knew it was just being used as a decoration.
Wrapping up his purchase, he took back the cloth and gave it to Poppy, who promptly re-tied Twilight's scarf and spun her own into a bracelet around her leg.
With that, today's little shopping trip could be considered successful, he figured. It was a shame that he had to wait for the spirit beast food but at least he would be able to get it.
It was time to get going. The exam was in two days, and he needed to get some last-minute cramming in.
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Over the next day and a half, Kanan eagerly prepared for the exam. He was brought back to his early days with Argana, countless hours spent poring over books studying. He had consulted Aurelia on what to expect for the contents of the exam, and was surprised to learn that the subjects were more varied than he had expected.
He couldn't help but feel that it was tedious. The things he was passionate about, like spirit beast ecology and breeding theory, were subjects that he was fully confident in already. So what he had to study was the mundane: Rote memorization of the names and feats of countless famous tamers, historical events involving spirit beasts, and even things like the structure and facilities of the Tamer Association. To memorize it all he ended up having to pull an all nighter on the second day, after barely getting adequate sleep the first.
By the time the day of the test rolled around he was wiped out, with dark circles under his eyes. He approached the exam venue, hunched over and looking like a ghost. Seeing a familiar face waiting by the entrance, he tapped the blue-haired girl on the shoulder, causing her to scream.
"Eek! Oh my god, you scared me. Why do you look like you've just been attacked by a Vambat?!"
"Study… more than expected…" Kanan groaned.
"Will you really be OK like that? Here, take this."
Aurelia took out a metallic can, handing it over to Kanan.
"It's a spiritual energy drink. The gimmick is that it's supposed to help you recover your spiritual energy faster, but really it just wakes you up" she explained.
Taking a sip of the drink, Kanan felt his exhaustion dissipate slightly.
"Mmm. Thanks Aurelia, you're a lifesaver."
The girl blushed. "It's not like I brought it for you, I just happened to have it on me. You've got to get going though, the exam is about to start."
Hearing her words, Kanan noticed the school staff preparing to close the gates. He rushed off, waving his arm behind him.
"Thanks again!"
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The examinees were gathered in the field in front of the school. It seemed they would be taken to the actual venue after a headcount was called.
Kanan looked around. There were about 30 students present, and most had nervous looks on their faces. The beast taming division took in about 50 students per semester, but given that this was a re-test the number of applicants was much lower. The students gathered here today were those who had missed the first test due to unavoidable circumstances or those with special backgrounds.
Most were the former, of course. Kanan supposed he could be considered a mixture of both, since "chose not to apply on time" was presumably not a valid reason to get retested normally.
Soon, a professional looking woman with long, seaweed-green hair walked up to stand in front of the gathered students. She wore a long white coat that came down to just above her ankles, which were covered by heavy black boots.
The whole getup appeared to be some kind of mix between a lab coat and a combat uniform, and combined with the lady's stoic expression it caused her to give off a commanding presence.
"Silence."
At her command the group of students fell into complete silence, so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Everyone looked up at her, awaiting her next words.
"Welcome to the Academy re-test. Consider yourselves lucky to be here. Second chances aren't something that you will always have in the future. I suggest that you use this opportunity wisely. Though if you haven't prepared by now then I suppose it's too late anyway."
A few students in the crowd audibly gulped. She scanned the group, taking note of their reactions, before continuing.
"You are now going to split into two groups. Practical beast taming students will take the leftmost group, breeding and research students will go into the right group. Line up in an orderly fashion. There's no advantage to being first so don't cause any trouble."
Kanan didn't expect that they would be split up this early. Were they going to take different tests depending on the department? He had long decided that he would enroll in the practical beast taming department, since the secret realm and school tournaments were the main appeals for him. The breeding students could technically take part in the latter, but it was rare. The former, on the other hand, was reserved for the practical taming students due to the dangerous nature of the activity.
Taking his place in the left group, he got the attention of the student in front of him, a nervous-looking boy with light brown hair and hazel eyes.
"Hey, do you know why they split us up?" he asked.
The boy looked surprised at his question. "Huh? Yeah. It's because the tests are different, naturally. The breeding department has to take a written test. The practical students will have a comprehensive examination of their beasts as well as their own cultivation."
"You're telling me that we don't have to take a written test?"
"Of course not. Your ability to raise spirit beasts is the important thing here. The research-related stuff can be left to the breeding students."
Kanan thought back to his relentless cramming, and the all-nighter he had pulled preparing for the exam. All of it was for the written test. Come to think of it, had he ever told Aurelia that he would be enrolling in the practical division?
"Damn it."