I stepped out into a room with a large black portal, the exit of the Lair. Relief flooded my body at the sight of it. But, I also felt guilt that not all of us had made it here. The single reward chest that was there meant that this was it; we had finished our mission and whatever was waiting for us now, we had to face it with fewer friends and allies..

  “Thank the gods,” Rober’s deep voice resonated as he joined me, carrying Sam over one shoulder. He moved to the side and laid Sam down next to the wall as Han, Robin, and Beau came through.

  Barducci, Yui, and Alphonse came down a moment later.

  In less than a minute, we all filtered in and began seeing to our wounds and injuries. I tried and failed to rouse Sam long enough for him to eat a mana bun. The healers would need to take care of him once we were out, which would hopefully be soon.

  We waited patiently for my Handler and Yui to finish tending to Alphonse. He was breathing and I could hear the steady rhythm of his heartbeat. It looked to me like he used all of his mana in one go. Whatever that skill was, it seemed to be as dangerous as Al said it was, especially if it left him in that state every time he used it. And that skill, I was certain it was one of his Storm Hero Skills. I could only imagine having a skill with that kind of power.

  Once Alphonse and Sam had been tended to and walked on their own, we gathered around the reward chest, each of us lost in our own emotions. I heard the clink of coins and the creak of leather armour; someone was nervously whistling the same note over and over again. The reward chest glinted in the torchlight, and I could see the relief on everyone's faces—we had beaten the clock, but at a great cost. Even as we stepped forward to collect our spoils, a heavy sadness weighed on us, a reminder of those we had lost.

  "Why are we here?" I heard someone quietly whisper beside me. I looked in their direction, but they had already turned away.

  Signore Barducci moved to the chest and turned around to face us without opening it. "We lost some of our best and brightest today," he said, his voice heavy with emotion and reverence. "They chose to be here because they wanted to fight alongside the Hero - they all wanted to fight for the world's future and for Al because they know he's worth it."

  He paused and let the sadness settle in our hearts.

  "But we can't forget what he did today. We wouldn't have been able to survive that lair without him. But he wouldn't have been able to get to the end without you beside him." he continued. "The importance of the Hero and supporting him should be all the clearer now. We need to remember that what we risk our lives for is worth it, and we should all strive to become stronger so that we can continue on in our training."

  With a determined nod, Signore Barducci bent down to open the reward chest.

  “Well, it seems we are going to be rather wealthy after today,” he said as he pulled out a bar of solid gold and held it out for someone to take from him. Everyone of us received two gold bars. They were heavy, by the gods were they heavy.

  Next he took out five skill stones then waved me over to identify them. It was faster than trying to absorb them and decline.

  I took the first stone and smiled. Apparently, the being that ran this lair had been listening when my Handler was telling me he always wanted an Ice Attunement. “Ice Attunement. I’m pretty sure it’s for you.”

  My Handler looked from me to the stone slightly dumbfounded. He took the stone back and it quickly broke down into dust.

  The next stone was for a skill called Water Slicer that could have gone to Han or Al. My Handler pocketed it and said he would talk to both of them later.

  The next skill stone was for Ice Manipulation, which went to my Handler, who was only too happy for the boon.

  The next two were a Spirit Attunement and Spirit Manifestation that Yui recognized as being mythic skills she’d only seen the elders of her clan possess. She was only too happy to take the stones as her portion.

  And that was the end of the rewards. Some were unhappy that they didn’t get a skill, but they were quickly reminded about their gold bars and how many skills they would be able to buy with just one of those bars. We collected our injured and made our way out. One after another. As we stepped through, the expected message arrived.

  Congratulations! Your Common Skill Dodge has improved to Advanced Rank.

  Congratulations! Your Common Skill Heat Resistance has improved to Intermediate

  Congratulations! Your Common Skill Cold Resistance has improved to Intermediate

  Congratulations! Your Mystic Skill Shadow Caltrops has improved to Intermediate

  And just as I expected, I gained improved Heat and Cold Resistance.

  The aftermath of the two losses put our lair team out of commission. The dean was unwilling to put any other first year students on our team.. Especially when that death rate included one of the lair team coaches.

  We still met at our regular class time for Lair Team but there was no lair to prepare for. The time was turned into a massive study session, most of which was dedicated to me teaching them Mana Circulation. I also used it as an opportunity to needle and spur Alphonse to train, but the encouragement wasn’t needed anymore. He had become . . . focused. He pushed himself harder than ever. His statuses all improved quickly as did his skills. It was becoming more and more apparent that his growth had accelerated again. I worked just as hard as he did, but I wasn’t growing like him. I couldn’t help but think back on Yum Kaax’s warning. If I wasn’t able to grow at the same pace as Alphonse, did that mean I wouldn’t be ready when the system came for me. Would I fail to stand up to the challenge? I eventually came to the conclusion that I needed help.

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  It was rare that I got to speak one on one with my Handler anymore. Signore Barducci was popular with his students. It seemed like Al had taken a real shine to him as well, which was all part of the plan. I was jealous on some level. I knew that he had a mission and he was doing extremely well at it. But as a result, he was difficult to reach. I made multiple attempts but someone always interrupted.

  I needed help and I knew of one person who might be able to help me. I knew it was risky. I knew my Handler wouldn’t be happy if he found out about it. But I also didn’t necessarily want to tell Signore Barducci. He was my Handler when it came to being a Shadow Agent, something he hadn’t really been able to do for the last four months. It was probably best he didn’t know about my other achievement anyway. But was it really wise to tell someone else?

  I tossed logic aside as I stood before a desk.

  “Can I help you with something, mister Belov?” the secretary asked.

  I nodded. “I was hoping to speak to Dean Weber.”

  “Can I tell her what this is in regards to?” the secretary asked.

  I frowned. I had thought up dozens of excuses but in the end, I thought the truth, or at least most of the truth, would be the right path forward. “I have a concern related to the hero.”

  The secretary frowned at me then sighed, “Wait here, I’ll see if she can spare some time for you.”

  “Thank you,” I said with a polite nod.

  She disappeared into the dean’s office and came out again a minute later. “She’ll see you in a moment. Have a seat.”

  I sat in one of the chairs and waited. A moment ended up being an hour.

  The dean closed the office door behind me when I was finally able to enter her office. “Have a seat, mister Belov,” she said as she walked past me to the chair behind her desk.

  I sat in one of the free chairs in front of her desk and waited for her to sit.

  As she moved to take her seat, she started speaking, “Now, what can I do for you? My secretary said you had a concern about the hero.”

  I nodded, hesitating a moment. “I do, but it is not about Al.”

  The dean looked at me oddly. I think it was the first time I’d ever seen her confused. “Explain.”

  I took a deep breath, letting it out slowly to stall for time. This was my last chance to back out. “I grew up poor. I was a pickpocket, a thief. I did whatever it took to survive. Then I met my Handler and he gave me an impossible task. In completing that task, I saved lives and brought down an empire without anyone ever knowing my name.”

  The dean interrupted, “Howl? That was you?”

  I nodded. “When I finished the task. When I handed over that evidence to Rugir, I earned a skill . . . and an achievement.”

  The dean leaned forward in her seat. “An achievement you say. Would you care to tell me about it?”

  “It was something called the Unsung,” I said, pausing a moment to reflect on what I’d just said. I didn’t like that I was announcing it. I didn’t feel like it was something I was supposed to do. And yet, I also knew it was the right thing to do.

  The dean looked even more interested, “I have not heard of this achievement, what does it do?”

  I pulled up the achievement and read the description for her, “You have journeyed far and your actions have saved many lives, though your name will never be known to them. You possess a Heroic Presence.”

  “By the gods, I knew it, I knew it,” the dean said excitedly. “I knew that there must have been some kind of achievement to unlock the Hero Job. But how did you hide it from me? I have seen your Job with my Analysis skills.”

  “Because I didn’t take the Job,” I answered, not feeling ashamed as I didn’t want to be a hero. I liked anonymity. Growing up a thief made anonymity my best friend.

  The dean stared at me dumbly. “You . . . you didn’t take it?”

  I shook my head. “I’d never heard of the Job Hero until this mission came up. I didn’t know it was something important. At the time, I wanted to be a Shadow Agent. I wanted to learn from my Handler. I wanted to learn about my mother, the kin who taught my Handler. After I saw Shadow Agent as an option, nothing else even mattered, least of all a Job called the Unsung Hero.”

  The dean looked disappointed and then confused, she asked, “Why tell me now? You’re not the hero, so why tell me?”

  “In the Hunter’s Run Lair, I had, uh, an encounter of sorts,” I started, trying to be vague. “An entity I met gave me some information. I was told that the system doesn’t care if I took the Job or not, it is still going to present me with the same challenges as if I had taken the Job.”

  The dean cursed, shocking me slightly, but putting to words exactly what I was feeling about the situation. “Pretty much. So, I’ve been pushing myself. I’ve taken my rivalry with Al very seriously. I push myself everyday. I put in more training time after classes are done and yet . . . and yet, I’m still falling behind him. I know, challenges will be coming my way and I need to be ready to face them. What I’m currently doing to prepare either isn’t enough or it’s moving in the wrong direction.”

  The dean leaned back in her chair and cast her eyes skyward. She sighed heavily. “You are moving in the wrong direction. If you had taken the Unsung Hero Job, it might be different, but you didn’t take that Job, did you? No, you chose to be a Shadow Agent, a Job that you have done almost no training in. You have not advanced any of your base skills, not Lockpicking, not Pickpocketing, certainly not Espionage. You learned Shadow Cloak, a skill that replaced both your Hide and Stealth skills, but you haven’t advanced that either. You’re not able to compete because you aren’t training for your Job, which means all other progress is slowed. It is only when you train your primary skills in conjunction with other skills that you’ll see an accelerated growth. And of course, you’re not training any of those skills because they’ll interfere with your damned mission!” she finished, almost yelling at me. She took a calming breath and sighed again. “Does your teacher know you turned down the hero Job?”

  I shook my head, “No. I . . . I didn’t want to tell anyone. I didn’t want to tell you. But that warning from . . . that entity . . . I knew I was growing quickly. But I’ve also seen how much faster Al has begun to grow. I’m not keeping pace with him anymore. If something doesn’t change, I won’t be strong enough to survive what the system throws at me next.”

  The dean nodded her agreement. “You’re right. You won’t be. And I don’t have the right personnel to teach you . . . well, I have one. But are you sure I should break his cover to help you if you’re not going to tell him why?”

  I winced at that. She made a good point. Her statement also suggested she knew who my Handler was. Clearly, she’d figured it out just like she said she would.

  She pressed harder, “Or, you continue as you are, hope you survive long enough to reach your next Job Day, hope that changing Job to Unsung Hero will be enough to save you, hope that it won’t be too late to make up lost ground.”

  It was my turn to sigh. My Handler was not going to be happy.