Policeman and the cat

25 - Ice needles

"Chilli, do you know what happened yesterday?" Ian asked as they were crossing the street.

Ian had noticed one more change except the slit pupils and teeth-- he had no body hair like he was freshly waxed for a bodybuilding competition or-- for taking a porn reel. He had needed to shave his face almost every day, now it was so smooth like he might as well be a girl. But with the amount of muscle he had and his height - confusion was unlikely, so-- whatever, really. Might as well take it as a blessing.

"Albus threw you into the lake, you were making whirlpools. If you came out, Albus shot you and you went back to make more whirlpools," Chili replied, adding that it happened till dawn came around and then Ian got tired and passed out and Neo and Lai (an apparent teen who can breathe underwater) went to get him out of the water then carried him to Neo's room. Neo was already up, so he didn't mind lending his room to them.

Urk-- he was one heck of a pain in the ass all night long. Yet Albus had been so calm and didn't seem to mind one bit in the morning and they were all genuinely friendly and nice.

Ian had no idea why August and his group were treating him so kindly and he didn't know how to repay any of it either. It was only thanks to them that he was now with Nelly, in one piece, and past something that would have been a horrible hurdle had he been on his own.

Was that how people became when they were at the top? Able to help even strange and iffy cases no one knew much about. Ian wanted to be like that as well and if it meant becoming strong, then he would do his best to get there. If he doesn't do at least this much, he wouldn't be someone worthy of all the kindness given to him.

Ian was curious about turning into a witten and he was curious about learning to use the combination shape, but right now he shouldn't waste the opportunity August had given him to learn something that would make any spell he learns later on stronger.

And so, fifteen minutes later, a librarian was staring at his eyes for a bit longer than would be polite, but she didn't say a thing and granted him advanced access, like usual, wishing him good luck.

"Wait a moment," another librarian called out. "Please head over to the guild when you are able to."

Uh-- was he in trouble?

"System shows your status has a pending update," the librarian said. "There should be more information in the guild app if you are using it."

That-- didn't sound like trouble, but it was better he checked. Ian hadn't used the application at all. He had intended to explore the application, but Kenneth captured him right after he registered and so many things followed he had completely forgotten all about it.

Ian went over closer to the staircase where the connection was still good and started the app. Really, there was an '!' by his name and pressing it popped up a window of - promotion to bronze rank pending, please head over to the guild.

"A promotion, huh," Ian let out a relieved breath.

Looked like the librarian had overheard. "Congratulations," she said.

"Thank you!" And since she had overheard - "Would it be alright to go tomorrow?" Ian asked, because it was in the opposite direction from here. It would take away an hour of studying in commuting alone if he went now.

"Of course," the librarian said and Ian went to do what he had planned and kept Paisley busy for most of the day. The content was starting to get harder and all of them had squints on their faces now, not just Nelly and Chilli. Ian had survived high school physics and had hoped not to see them ever again, but this was reeking of something along those lines, but with a different set of principles under.