Miss. Klein watched their elated expressions and then seriously told them after they had calmed down a bit. "Remember this feeling. It will be your best motivation and drive on the path of pill refining."

They nodded in understanding. Only by creating their own pills did they realize how good it felt to be able to do so. This made them want to create better pills, requiring them to learn more about herbs and pill refining. This was even more so for Serge than for Ivan. He couldn't stop staring at the pill he created with pride and desire.

After that cla.s.s ended and it was time for the next one.

After school, the group met on the training ground. They didn't plan to go into the dungeon, but the ground had seating areas that were well suited to meet and talk.

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After everyone had sat down, Irena started the conversation by asking Greg, "So what happened?"

Greg who still looked depressed took a deep breath and then started to talk, "You know that I and Pia have known each other for a long time right?"

"Yes."

"Well, although we have started to go out with each other, at the same time we have started to drift apart. With her becoming a paladin and me being a not so good mage. This has made our relations.h.i.+p a bit shaky."

"Huh? How come I didn't see that?", Ivan asked confused.

"You don't even have a normal relations.h.i.+p but only so many weird ones, so how could you tell?", Greg shot at him.

Ivan readily agreed, "True." His relations.h.i.+ps were really weird, with none of them being even rudimentarily normal.

"I didn't see it either.", Irena agreed with Ivan's point of view.

"It's not like we have a bad relations.h.i.+p. It is just that it is more like friends than as lovers.", Greg explained.

"Oh, so she sees you only as a friend, while you saw her as a lover?"

"Mmm.", he agreed. Once again there were tears threatening to flow out of his eyes.

"Did she tell you that?", Ivan asked curiously. He still felt that something was wrong.

"No, but I could see it. She even told me that I was an absolute disappointment, who wasn't worthy to be with her. That I disgust her with how I am, how I look and how I act."

"Wow, that doesn't sound like a friend."

"No, she was always like that. If she is close to you, then she will tell you what she thinks. If she doesn't tell you what she thinks, then she is distant from you.", Greg informed them. After all, he too knew Pia for a long time.

"So yesterday she said that she wanted to break up with you?", Ivan asked, just to make sure.

"She didn't explicitly say it but what else could she have meant?"

"Maybe she just said that because she was angry? After all, you puked all over her."

"No. I know that she was serious."

"Then have you thought about the points she mentioned? Maybe that is what she wanted. Maybe she wanted you to change. How were you when you met? When you got together?"

"The same as now?", Greg answered in an unsure tone. It seemed like he hadn't thought about it. He had just taken her words as a rejection.

"No.", Serge said. "Back then you knew what you wanted, now you are just drifting along.", after saying this he once again went back to being silent, not telling them more.

"Maybe Serge got a point.", Irena said before asking Greg, "So what are your goals and what are you doing to reach them?"

Greg looked even more confused, "My goal is to be a merchant, didn't I tell you about it?"

"You did, but what does this mean to you? Why do you want to become a merchant? What are you doing in order to become one?"

In response to her questions, Greg fell deep into thoughts. The others sat there and waited for him to think it through and come to some answers. After all, these questions could only be answered by Greg himself.

Suddenly Ivan's phone rang. After taking it out and looking at who was calling him, he saw that it was Celine. He stood up and went aside before taking the call.

"Hey, how come you are calling?", he asked in a soft voice. Usually, Celine would only call when something was up.

"Hey, are you still in school?"

"Yes. Is something up?"

"Miranda asked us to come over today. It seems like she wants to take part in Lara's welcome party. Besides that, we will also have to look after the shop, which you asked your a.s.sistance to prepare. So I thought I would come and get you directly at school."

"Ok. But something came up with Greg, so this might take a bit longer."

"Something is up with Greg?", Celine asked concerned. She liked the friends Ivan had surrounded himself with, so she was concerned, when she heard that something had happened.

Ivan told her about the situation with Pia as well as their guesses on what exactly happened.

"I agree with you. I don't think Pia wants to break up with him. Why don't I ask her about it? Maybe she will be willing to talk to me about it?"

"Would you do that? That would be great."

"I'll call her while driving over.", Celine a.s.sured him.

"Drive carefully.", he reminded her, before saying goodbye and ending the call.

Even after the conversation, Greg still hadn't finished his introspection. So Ivan sat down carefully and told the others about what Celine had said. Irena agreed that it was a good idea for Celine to call Pia. She was in the best position to do so since she wasn't that close to Greg, which should make it better for Pia to talk to her honestly.

"I want to stop doing dungeon training with you guys.", suddenly Serge told them, surprising Irena and Ivan. Although Ivan knew why he had made this decision, Irena didn't. At first, she thought that Serge was unhappy with their group and that now with the problem with Pia, it may seem to him like it was best to stop training together. But she didn't need long to remember that Serge wasn't that kind of person. There had to be another reason for that.

"He wants to focus on pill refining.", Ivan told her when he saw her confused eyes.

"Oh. That's a relief. I feared you were unhappy with the group."

"Of course, not. It is great to train with you.", Serge a.s.sured her. "It is just that my fighting skills are good enough to graduate and thus it is possible for me to now focus fully on what I really want."

Irena nodded in agreement, "That's a good decision. Most people make this decision only in the third year, so you will have some headstart if you start now. Not that there are many other pill refiners in school."

"Sorry about leaving the group. I know that me leaving may mean that you will be unable to continue training like before.", Serge said while looking at them apologetically.

"Don't worry about it. Even if that is the case, it is more important that everyone is happy and able to follow their dream.", Irena rea.s.sured him and Ivan nodded.

Suddenly Ivan had an idea.

"Serge, do you want to help me with my store?"

"What store?"

Ivan explained how he met that girl Arina and how he had decided to open a store. He then told him how he thought that if they sold the pills they refined, they could get more money to get the herbs necessary to improve their skill.

Originally he had planned to refine all the pills by himself with the help of Arina but if Serge would agree to help then that would make it easier to secure the supply of pills.

Hearing his proposal, Serge was intrigued. "This sounds like an interesting idea. If it goes well it can remove our biggest problem in practicing, which is money." After all their master wouldn't give them any resources. Well, at least not as much as they really required. She always stressed how they had to rely on themself to truly improve.

"When Celine comes over, we can talk it through with her. After all, I asked her to manage the store.", Ivan said when he saw that Serge agreed to his proposal.

"But I don't have anything to invest in the store at the moment, so I will only be an employee.", Serge told him. Ivan had offered him a part of the store but he felt that since he could only bring in his skills he didn't deserve it.