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"You're still mastering it."
Professor Perrene's reminder was likely meant to be comforting. However, the Dust Warrior fighting frantically to succeed in his battle against Tzajave didn't find the reminder of his failure to accomplish this mastery anything but an annoyance. Perrene eventually took pity on the Dust Warrior, spelling a lock into existence to distract the mushroom looking creature. Tzajave was a creature who loved unlocking locks, even ones that had been enchanted into existence rather than actually leading to any interesting discoveries.
Sprenki guarded the entrances of other people's thoughts and dreams. The Dust Warrior would need to defeat a Sprenki too, in order to enroll in the class he most wanted to - Locks & Keys. He was tired of Alchemy, Ancient Knowledge, even Threads had lost its appeal once he had won the woven cape he now wore everywhere, on occasion finding Pymels burrowing inside it he would have to shoo away.
The Dust Warrior hadn't been actively studying magic in a long time, which was why he was struggling with mastering a supposedly small monster like Tzajave. Sprenki was going to be his final battle before he was allowed to enroll in Locks & Keys, or at least begin taking the entrance exam. The Syllabus didn't even have descriptions for Lock & Key courses, that's how new the class was, and yet the Dust Warrior had a suspicion he would flunk them his first time around.
The Dust Warrior's professor had been correct in his assessment. "You're still mastering it." still, meaning he was not yet mastering it, meaning he was still just struggling to conduct the very same spells he had learned a year, maybe a year and a half ago. The Dust Warrior had become complacent in his efforts at the Academy, had begun coasting on what he had learned rather than attempting to maintain his skills.
The Dust Warrior glanced at other classes' syllabi while he was attempting to keep Sprenki at bay. He never remembered his dreams, so the tentacled, brain-exposed monster had little to attack him with. Bone classes seemed significantly harder than the Lock & Key courses he was trying to join. The monsters looked more, well, monstrous, and while the prerequisite only entailed battling a Nitko (a creature the Dust Warrior was well accustomed to through his Threads studies), the actual 101 course involved attacking and winning against bone spiders. And dwelling on classes he was not yet taking prevented him from obsessing over the course he was trying to take, the one requiring a battle against Sprenki, whom the Dust Warrior also had yet to master. Indeed, the Dust Warrior had only battled Sprenki four times before this most recent battle.
The Dust Warrior's inability to remember his dreams, and lack of long term goals, made him a worse candidate for the Academy dwelling brain with legs to conquer. Sprenki wasn't evil, but the Dust Warrior found himself relieved when he finished his fifth battle against the Academic Library dwelling creature. However, as though thinking about them made them appear, Nitko fought each other, rolling across the floor of the Academy as though they were true kittens and not kittens of yarn and enchantment. When had the Dust Warrior gone inside? He wasn't sure. He was unsure of much, including whether or not he would enroll in Bone Magic now that he was borderline forced to complete the prerequisite because the creatures chose his Threads cape to take yet more yarn from, not content with the ball they had begun their tussle over.
Three hundred words would get the Dust Warrior far enough from the kittens that they would quit trying to take his clothes from him. His Threads cape was one of his most prized possessions, one he wore out and about even when he gone out to work with Professor Perrene, out in the Enchanted Forest where it could get dirty. He knew how to spell the garment clean of dirt and plant debris, and part of him wondered if he should just let the Nitko kittens take a square, fix the cape up himself. He didn't really want to, not when he was so close to entering two new third year courses. Not when he could now see he only had a hundred words standing between himself and the Nitko kittens leaving him alone.
Seventy six words stood between the Dust Warrior and a winning battle. Nitko was a creature the Dust Warrior had battled through to a level two Mastery, what he had been trying to do against Tzajave. Tzajave would be going home with the other fairies, including Kifka, the fairy the Dust Warrior also most wanted to get to a level two mastery. Kifka was the youngest of the fairies, a green looking friend of the other fungi such as Kinopi and Rakka, and Nerai. But the fairies would all be returning to their far away homes soon, whereas the Fungi monsters were around all year. The new monsters for the new classes would also be around all year, meaning there was no urgent necessity to complete the prerequisites now.
The Dust Warrior was safe from yarn covered kitten claws, from Sprenki trying to enter his mind, and he began walking back to his dorm room. All those words, all that effort against those whom he still had yet to Master, they made him tired. He could nap, once he sent in his report of the battles to his professors, or, well, to the Dean who would send proof of his efforts to the professors of the new classes, if he was lucky.