Shang talked with Viera for the next hour. She was rather bubbly all the time, but when she talked about her goal in life, her demeanor started to subtly change.
"Beast defenders are selfish people that are only interested in their own gains," Viera said with a snort.
In her mind, beast defenders were people that wanted to keep all the beasts alive.
"They only want to keep the beasts alive because they are powerful enough to resist the normal beasts. They can kill a Pest Cat. And since beasts are worth a lot of money, they want to keep their method of making money alive. Beast defenders are not thinking about the good of the normal people."
"They are selfish and entitled!" Viera said with some anger.
She had controlled her voice, but Shang could feel a lot of hatred coming from her.
This was something she felt very strongly about.
"And how are people supposed to become more powerful without the beasts' resources?" Shang asked. "Mana Sources are a necessity."
Viera snorted again. "Mages can create Mana Sources artificially. They just don't give these Mana Sources to just anyone since it's expensive."
"They can?" Shang asked in surprise.
Viera nodded. "Of course. Do you think over the last thousands of years, the Mages never tried to create something like Mana Sources? Of course they did!"
"Okay," Shang said. "What about the beasts that don't hunt humans?"
"Doesn't matter," Viera answered. "Beasts can change any second. Some beasts that have been peaceful for their entire lives can suddenly have a change of heart and kill a human. It's not a new concept."
"If we want to protect our children and the weaker people, we have to get rid of all the beasts! There simply isn't any other way!" Viera said.
Shang could feel quite some hatred emanating from Viera.
"Well, if you think so," Shang said, trying to get away from the topic.
"Yes, I think so," Viera said as she crossed her arms. "What do you think about this?"
Shang didn't like to answer that question. Viera was very adamant about defending her viewpoint, and if Shang disagreed too much, their freshly created disciple relationship might completely break apart.
"I don't really have a horse in the race," Shang said.
"A horse in the race?" Viera repeated in confusion. "What horse?"
'Seems like that phrase isn't common in this world,' Shang thought.
"It means that it doesn't matter to me. For my goal, I don't need the beasts, but I also don't really care about what they do," Shang explained.
"You don't care?" Viera asked in surprise.
Shang nodded. "Their life is their life. My life is my life. I live my life, and that's that."
Shang looked with a bit of nervousness at Viera.
He had no idea how she would take that.
By now, Shang could understand why Soran wasn't interested in starting a relationship with Viera. Some of her views were really extreme, and she was really adamant about them.
Soran was someone that liked to help and trust people, and that sentiment extended to beasts. In Soran's mind, killing all the beasts was probably something way too extreme.
"Oh, that's fine then," Viera said as a smile returned to her face.
Shang was a bit surprised, but not much. Her demeanor had more than once taken unpredictable turns.
"How come you're fine with that?" Shang asked.
"Why shouldn't I be?" Viera asked.
"Because you said that beast defenders are selfish people," Shang said.
"They are, but you're not defending beasts," Viera said. "You said you are ambivalent to the topic. So, if I were to suddenly kill all the beasts, you would only watch."
"I guess so," Shang said with uncertainty.
"See? So, everything's alright!" Viera said with a bright smile.
"She crazy," Sword said in Shang's mind.
Shang didn't answer Sword.
After some more talking, the door opened again.
When Shang heard the door open, a fire appeared in his eyes.
His first Mage!
Shang looked over and saw his future opponent.
It was a girl with long, icy blue hair. She wore light blue robes, and she carried two small sticks with crystals on them in her hands.
Shang recognized the sticks. They were scepters, and they were used as weapons until the Mage could finally afford a Focus. They obviously weren't as great as Focuses, but they did their job adequately.
For a bit, Shang was surprised that his opponent was a girl, but he quickly realized that there was no reason to be surprised.
Shang had been surprised since nearly all his opponents had been men in the past. Women were very rare amongst warriors.
However, this wasn't the case when it came to Mages. There were a lot of female Mages. After all, physical ability didn't matter when it came to Magic.
"Hello?" the Adept asked shyly. "I'm here to fight someone."
Right now, the Adept saw a powerful teacher and a scary-looking man in the room. It was understandable why she was nervous.
Viera stood up and walked to the side. Shang also stood up and stopped on the other side of the room.
The Adept and Shang were now about 40 meters away from each other.
"This will be your opponent," Viera said coldly as she gestured to Shang.
Whenever someone unfamiliar was in Viera's vicinity, she always took up this serious and cold persona, completely different from her usual one.
The Adept nervously looked over at Shang. "He looks scary," she said.
Under his mask, Shang lifted an eyebrow in skepticism.
"Will I get hurt?" the Adept asked.
"I will interfere before one of you dies," Viera said coldly.
"Okay," the Adept said nervously, "but will I get hurt?"
Viera only looked at the Adept.
The Adept nervously fumbled with her robes in discomfort. "You see… I'm not really good at fighting."
'Not really good at fighting?' Shang thought. 'Are my first opponents supposed to be easy?'
"Then, I will interfere when your Mana Shield gets broken. That should be fine, right?" Viera asked with a bit of annoyance.
"Thank you," the Adept said as she lightly bowed to Viera in thanks.
Viera nodded.
Then, she looked at both opponents.
The Adept readied her two scepters. With Viera's assurance, she was no longer as nervous.
"Start!"
