The following morning found Mikayla, Keldryn and Nya running laps around one of the plainer fields in Cloudscraper, under the watchful eye of one Coach Yoro. Nya had briefly explained that Yoro was their Survivalism teacher, and since they had his class on Tuesday morning, he was also in charge of supervising their group's morning drills on Tuesdays.

  Mikayla had expected to be able to keep up with her peers on the run around a large portion of Cloudscraper's campus. She was wrong.

  After twenty minutes of running at full tilt, she was huffing and wheezing, lagging a mile behind the rest of the class despite her best efforts.

  They finally competed the lap, and her legs felt like they were about to shatter into dust. Despite this, seeing that the rest of the group was already doing pushups, she forced herself down onto all fours and joined them.

  After four reps, her limbs gave out and she collapsed into the dirt.

  Nya stood and helped her up, but Mikayla stubbornly dropped back into the push-up position

  "I don't get it . . I've got Statistics . . I saw your Constitution, Nya, yours is lower than mine . . why are you better at this?" Mikayla wheezed,

  "Physical fitness is still important. Your Stats act as multipliers to your base level of ability. If your base is Chimera droppings, Stats can only do so much," Nya informed her. "Come on. Don't rush it. You can do it,"

  Mikayla groaned, forcing herself to continue doing pushups. Her arms burned with the effort.

  When she next looked up, Coach Yoro was crouching over her. He gestured, and Mikayla obediently stood and left the line of students. "Aiadon. Be honest. You didn't live an athletic life before coming to Raibalie, did you?"

  "No sir," she admitted with a groan, massaging the muscles in her arms.

  "Tell me about the life you lived before," he added, brows furrowed.

  Mikayla nodded, already too tired to really think about why he was asking. "Scholars like me live sedentary lives, with lots of paperwork involved. Exercise was just something we did for health reasons. And I wasn't very good at sticking to a regimen," she shamefully admitted. "Being smart and learned is more valuable to my society than being athletic. Sure, there are a few professional fighters and sports players who need to stay fit, but that's not much of a career. Before the past few weeks, I never needed to be in shape,"

  "Uh-huh. How's your Stamina?"

  [STAMINA: 327/2000]

  "A bit over an eighth left," Mikayla reported.

  "That's what I thought," Yoro nodded, frowning. "You're going to need a different training regime,"

  "Y-yeah?" it took Mikayla a second to process that. "I don't want to fall behind! I can handle it!"

  "Not in my class. The morning workout is a warm-up, to keep you in shape. You're supposed to already be fit. If you're pushing yourself this hard this early, you'll be exhausted when it's time for the physical classes where you'll need to be in top form,"

  ". . I suppose that makes sense," Mikayla flushed. She didn't want to be singled out like this, as the least fit of the class. It was humiliating.

  "Go to breakfast early. Get some water. I'll ask Fresco to test where you're currently at tomorrow and work out a modified plan for you,"

  Nodding, biting her lip, Mikayla left the group.

  <=====}—o

  "Was that pathetic showing really the best you could do?" Geum sneered at Mikayla as the rest of the class finally joined her at breakfast. "You're an embarrassment to our class,"

  Mikayla's cheeks burned, but she knew better than to rise to the bait. There was no good answer here. She could punch him, like she'd said she would if he asked for it, but in front of everyone like this? When he was kind of right? It would make her look spiteful and violent, and ruin her chances of making more friends.

  "Do you seriously expect to kill Kaijus if you can't even run properly? If you can't meet a basic requirement like that, you shouldn't even be at Cloudscraper, much less in the same class as me," Geum kept looming over her.

  Mikayla's eyes darted towards Nya, but her roommate was sitting at a different table and seemed blind to what was going on.

  She knew there was nothing she could say to defend herself. The facts spoke for themselves. It didn't matter if she could catch up. Making vague promises like that wouldn't mean anything to Geum.

  "How many Kaijus have you killed?"

  Mikayla looked up, surprised, as Keldryn stood and glared at Geum. His tail bristled and his ears folded backwards, a cool, flinty look filling his eyes.

  "Plenty. My father provided -"

  "Out in the field? With no one ready to intervene if you screwed up? Have you ever gone out there and killed a monster with your own two hands, with no support from your father or anyone else?" Keldryn pressed.

  "I don't recall asking you -"

  "Three juvenile Giant Rocs. Half a dozen Dire Wolves. A Mudburrow Marten. A Heart-Herb Armadillo. An adolescent Ambush Serpent. And an Ant King, along with a couple of hundred Worker Ants," Keldryn counted them off. "Those are just the ones we killed while travelling together, just the two of us. She was already level 10 when I met her, so she'd killed more that I wasn't there for, too,"

  "Yeah, right. Prove it," Geum insisted.

  Mikayla winced. This was why she'd avoided bringing up her past exploits. There wasn't anything they could do to -

  "Sure," Keldryn easily responded, unslinging his rucksack from his back and opening one of its pockets, then upending it on the ground between them.

  Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thu-thu-thunk.

  The entire mess hall went silent at the pile of Kaiju Pearls that Keldryn had dumped out onto the ground. Mikayla recognised the Pearls from the Heart-Herb Armadillo and Ambush Serpent among them. The rest were from Keldryn's own hunts before they'd been travelling together, since they hadn't been able to harvest the Pearls from the juvenile Rocs, the Marten, or the Ant King. But Geum had no way to know that.

  "My boss got arrested before I could hand in my take. I've been keeping these as a nest egg," Keldryn started gathering the glowing pink rocks back into his bag, tail swishing back and forth in a show of nonchalance.

  Geum's jaw worked, but no sound came out.

  "Maybe we should go eat," Sekki took his hand and tugged him away, and the rich boy didn't protest.

  Keldryn sat back down next to Mikayla, still surveying the mess hall for any other threats.

  "Thanks," Mikayla murmured after a moment. "I never know how to handle people like that,"

  "You're my friend. Was the least I could do," Keldryn shrugged, casting a stinkeye in Nya's direction. "More than anyone else was going to, clearly,"

  Mikayla followed her gaze, and caught a flash of guilt on Nya's face before the Yaoguai looked away.

  "Yeah . . guess not,"

  <=====}—o

  "Alright, kids!" Yoro barked once they'd all gathered after breakfast. Mikayla had been relieved to find that none of her other classmates were giving her grief over her struggle with what to them was a trivial workout. Though she wasn't too thrilled by the looks of sympathy they'd offered her instead. It only fuelled her desire to catch up with the rest of the group.

  "This class is called Survivalism," Yoro continued. "Can anyone here tell me what that means you're here to learn?"

  Several hands raised, and Yoro gestured at Sekki. "Staying alive?" the mixblood guessed.

  "Be more specific,"

  Yoro pointed at Irin next. "Taking and surviving blows," she guessed.

  "Couldn't be more wrong if you tried. There is more to the life of a Guardsman than fighting Kaijus. What else is there?" All hands lowered except for one. "Do you have an answer for me, foxface?"

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  "Living off the land," Keldryn confidently replied. "Foraging for berries, finding clean water, pitching camp and preparing Kaiju meat so that it's edible,"

  "Correct," Yoro grinned. "We've got a dedicated ranger in our class. Excellent. Yes, this is a class that is all about practical skills,"

  "When are we ever going to need any of that peasant knowledge?" Geum muttered.

  Yoro whirled around and glared at the red yaoguai. "Care to repeat that, fancypants?"

  Geum hesitated, but was too proud to shut up. "I just don't see when we would actually need to apply any skills of the sort," he defended himself.

  Yoro sneered. "Then feel free to sleep through class and flunk out. No skin off my nose,"

  Geum frowned, but knew better than to respond.

  "That goes for all of you. I don't care whether you're a noble scion or a Yevgenia. It's not up to me whether you go out into the field after graduating, or stay nice and snug at home with your expensive toys. But some of you will find yourselves out there someday, whether you plan to or not, and when you do you will not be killed by bad weather,"

  He paused, letting the class digest that.

  While she couldn't say anything for the rest of the class, Mikayla at least was completely on board. It was only a matter of time until she returned to the Kaiju Coast. Fighting off the endless monsters and searching for a way home would be hard enough when that day came, and it said volumes about how ill-prepared she was that she hadn't even thought about how important wilderness survival skills would be in that endless tundra. Keldryn had really held her hand in that regard, looking back.

  "Good. Now, you might be wondering why we're near the lake," Yoro gestured at the gentle waves of the water behind them. "That's because our first class project is going to be the Water Purification Technique. It's a necessary skill for every Guardsman who goes out into the field, because if you run out of drinking water, dehydration will kill you more surely than any Kaiju,"

  Yoro tapped the ground several times, Mana flowing into the dirt underfoot. A stone bathtub emerged from the edge of the lake, trapping a measure of dirty, brackish water within. "Everyone gather around the basin. I'm going to demonstrate,"

  As the class gathered, Mikayla idly noted that there was a clear pattern to who was positioned where. Those who were interested in learning the Technique, such as herself, Keldryn, Lydia, and - slightly surprisingly - Kaizen, were gathered close to where Yoro was leaning over the basin, while Geum, Irin and Treft were at the opposite end and visibly bored.

  A faint glow of Mana appeared around Coach Yoro's hands, spreading out and into the water. Beyond that, Mikayla couldn't really tell what he was doing - but she certainly noticed when the water started smoking. The filth and dirt within it was being shredded into particles and expelled from the water, which was visibly growing cleaner around Yoro's hands.

  She lowered her own hand into the water, slight red strings emerging from her fingers and trying to read the Technique. The Mana was swirling, like a centrifuge centred on Yoro's wrist. The water itself wasn't moving, and yet the invisible whirlpool was peeling the grime out of the water. She couldn't make out how it was working, though - her ability to sense Mana was still mediocre at best.

  "Good, Aiadon. Let me show you," Yoro's hand found hers, and the Technique suddenly came into sharp relief. With a gentle touch and a guiding hand, his cyan-coloured Mana teased out her red and shaped it into a pattern like a spiral, renewing the purification of water.

  It didn't make any sense. Her Mana wasn't moving, she was just following Yoro's instructions and holding the shape of a swirl around her fingers. The water wasn't moving either. And yet, somehow, it was as though the idea of a purifying centrifuge was being imposed on the brackish waters.

  "Alright, you've got it? Try it on your own," Yoro instructed, moving over to help Layla.

  Mikayla focused on maintaining the Technique on her own. She found that it was surprisingly similar to riding a bike; she just had to keep doing what Yoro had shown her and it kept working.

  It only took a couple of minutes of sustained effort before a blue box popped up in her face.

  [NEW TECHNIQUE SAVED: WATER PURIFICATION (FAULTY)]

  "I got it!" she squealed victoriously.

  "You did? Excellent. Faulty proficiency, I assume?" Yoro looked up from where he was now demonstrating for Kaizen.

  "Well, yeah,"

  "Good start. But keep working on it. That goes for everyone! I expect that by the third week of class, all of you will have refined this Technique to at least an Intermediate degree of mastery!"

  Mikayla winced. Techniques ranged from Faulty, Crude and Basic, to Intermediate, and then above that was Advanced, Expert and Flawless. With the exception of the Flawless skills she'd had implanted directly into her profile by Asika, she hadn't managed to get a single Technique higher than Basic. Growing her newly learned Water Purification to Intermediate in a mere two weeks felt implausible.

  She shook her head. That wasn't a helpful line of thinking. The Coach wouldn't set an impossible goal . . right?

  <=====}—o

  After lunch, Mikayla was practically bouncing on her heels, her earlier fatigue having entirely evaporated.

  "You're looking chipper. Why so excited?" Banki fell into step with her.

  Mikayla was surprised to find the tigerkin prompting a conversation, but rallied quickly. Her initial impression was that she needed to cultivate a relationship with this girl. The exuberant performer practically screamed 'social butterfly', in a way that strongly reminded her of Cat, her best friend back on earth.

  Huh. Tiger, Cat. That was a funny coincidence.

  "You heard this morning that I was a scholar back in my world,"

  "Yeppers,"

  "I was specialising in history," Mikayla whispered it like a secret, grinning. "I get to dig into the histories of a whole parallel world! It's gonna be so exciting! There's so much to learn!" She couldn't help but bounce on her heels as they walked.

  Banki blinked, then cackled. "For real? Alright then. You're probably the only one here who's so excited, though,"

  Looking around, as most of their class had stayed grouped up, Mikayla saw that she was right. Their classmates' expressions ranged from ambivalent to preemptively annoyed.

  "Hold on to that enthusiasm. I don't doubt that you shall eclipse the lot of us in short order," Nya weighed in, an evil smile exposing her fangs. "And then we can trade study sessions for favours,"

  Mikayla and Banki both cast her askance looks. The latter shook her head. "You Yevgenia types are way too intense,"

  <=====}—o

  "Good morning, everyone. As our first class, we are going to be learning about the Goliath Guard's single most important chunk of history; the Four Heroes and how they slew the Monster King!"

  Mikayla's eye twitched. She told herself to take deep breaths, reminded herself that not only would they move on to different topics later in the curriculum, this class would probably reveal to her details that Nocturnus had not known or thought to mention during the time he'd spent regaling her and Keldryn with tales of his glory days.

  It just wasn't fair that the first topic of the class she'd wanted to learn from the most was about the one part of this world's history that she already knew all about!

  

  Ah, the joys of school life. Can anyone guess where Geum's character arc is going?

  It's still technically Sunday in some parts of the world. Sorry that this chapter was a bit late, though, Mother's Day turned into an event. Ughhhhh.

  Still taking requests for the Chapter 100 special event! Give me something, damnit! Oh, and hit up Patreon!