The next day, Finn and his friends decided to go to the training field since it was weekend. They wanted to make use of every little time they had and trained so that they won't be behind the class.
Arin had earlier told them that there would be an awakening ceremony in the coming week. In the ceremony, the students who hadn't tamed their beasts will use the opportunity to do so, it was such crucial event so no one wanted to be fail on that day.
Finn understood the importance of that event, as such, he took it exceptionally serious.
As they arrived at the training field, the trio jumped straight into action.
They sat cross-legged on the grass, eyes closed, focusing on their breath. They began to gather energy from their surroundings.
The first thing they wanted to do was train their resonance.
Resonance is a mystical energy that allows tamers to harmonize their energy with a beast's own, establishing a mental and emotional connection between them. This connection makes the tamers to calm aggressive beasts, understand their thoughts and emotions, influence their behavior, and build trust and loyalty.
There are three types of resonance; passive resonance — A tamer's natural energy, constantly emitted.
Active resonance — A focused intentional energy projection.
And lastly, Emphatic resonance — A deep emotional connection, allowing tamers to sense a beast's feelings.
As they continued, Emma and Ryan centered themselves, connecting with their inner energy. They visualized a glowing core within thier bodies, pulsing with life force. After that, they expanded their awareness, sensing the natural energy around them. Emma attuned to the vibrations of the trees nearby while Ryan resonated with the earth's magnetic field.
After they were done syncing with their environment, they began to absorb the energies, after which they filtered them, and then refined them to resonate with their intentions. While Emma focused on calming, soothing energies, Ryan concentrated on strengthening, empowering energies.
The energies were then stored within their auras — surrounding their bodies with protective energized field. After these were done, they aligned their energies with their beast taming intentions. With all these done, Emma and Ryan opened their eyes ready to carry out what they have learnt.
Finn, however, struggled to replicate these processes. His energy remained scattered, unable to focus.
"I'll never get this," he said, frustrated.
"What is the matter, Finn?" Emma asked him. She and Ryan were worried about their friend.
"I can't seem to get this straight. I have tried, done everything the book says but nothing is working. I can't connect with my surroundings, can't feel anything at all. Everything is empty and confusing!" He said, he sounded very frustrated and angry as he spoke.
"Perhaps, you should rest for today. Tomorrow, you can still try," Ryan said but Finn snapped.
"Tomorrow? What if tomorrow comes and I still don't pass it? You don't understand how I feel right now because yours was a success!" He stood up to leave but Emma rushed to him and held him in his hand.
"You are misunderstanding him, Finn. Come on, you don't have to be like this—"
"Let go!" Finn grunted and flung Emma's hands away. This has never happened before so she was stunned, as well as Ryan who got up to his feet. "If you were in my shoes, will you be acting this calm?" Finn continued, disregarding the fact that he had hurt his friends' feelings. "Excuse me!" He said and walked away.
After he left, Ryan rushed over to Emma's side and began to console her. "You shouldn't blame him, Emma. He is always like this— you know, behaving all stupid and annoying whenever something doesn't work out for him."
"Yeah, you are right," Emma agreed and breathed out. She shouldn't worry too much about Finn, at least for the mean time. "We should give him some time to himself, perhaps, he'll come around sooner or later."
"Yes," Ryan agreed. Inwardly, he was planning on how to talk sense into Finn when he returns to their hostel.
After Finn had left the training field, he didn't return to their hostel, rather, he went straight to the library.
The librarian, surprised to see only him asked. "Where are you friends?"
"Busy with their stuffs," he replied with a shrug and walked past her.
"You look so down. Care to tell me what the problem is? I might as well help you," the librarian offered.
Initially, Finn didn't want to discuss anything with the lady but after thinking about it, he decided to just do it.
"I failed to master resonance after following the book's guidelines," he told her.
"Did you so exactly what was written in the book?" She asked him, sounding surprised. She had never seen a person who could not practice resonance.
"I did. If I didn't, why would I be complaining," he replied.
She thought about what the problem could be but after a long period of silence, she rose to her feet. "Follow me, there is something I'd like to show you but you must promise me that no one will hear about it."
"I won't tell a single soul about it," Finn replied and the librarian nodded and led him into the inner part of the library. There were few books there but these books were old large books.
When the librarian reached her destination, she placed her hand on one of the books there and a sudden sound was heard. Soon, the shelve began to move until a hidden entrance came into the view.
"This is the school's secret library. Not many knows about it, only a few. I am not supposed to be doing this but I am propelled to help you," she told Finn who was surprised. "You will have to go in alone while I stay here and watch out for you. I believe you will find something that will help you."
After she finished, she gestured him to go in and he did. "Good luck."
Inside the dimly lit room, Finn's gaze swept around the place, his eyes scanning for any useful thing in there but nothing extraordinary caught his eyes. There were only tomes, scrolls, and scripts.
"Seriously? Even the heavens don't want to bless me?" He muttered and with a sigh, he turned to leave. But just as he was about to head back, he heard a small sound come out from an old box on the table and out of curiosity, he walked over to it. He opened the box and to his surprise, he saw an odd-looking ring with a tiny carved horn on it.
"A ring?" He mumbled and picked it up to have a closer look but just then, the ring suddenly came to live and began to writhe itself around his finger. "What's happening?" He muttered but that was not all. As soon as the ring wore itself around his finger, he noticed that it began to fade away — it was as if it was being absorbed into his flesh. Scared, he tried to pull it off but that didn't work as he could not even come in contact with the ring, it suddenly became invisible.
After it eventually disappeared into his body, he felt a sudden sharp pain at the back of his head and before he knew what was happening, he fainted.