“Were you told to stop moving, apprentice?” a voice shouted at him.

  “No, instructor! Sorry, instructor!” Nar snapped back at immediate attention.

  “Then why did you stop?”

  “I… Uh. I unlocked [Vigor], instructor,” Nar said.

  The tall and dark morsvar instructor considered him for a few seconds, then grinned.

  “Well, then, congratulations, apprentice Nar. You are free to go for today,” he said.

  Nar blinked at him, not sure if he had heard him right.

  “I am?”

  “Yup. Everyone who unlocks it gets to leave early. You’re not the first one to leave,” the instructor explained. “And dinner will be soon anyways. However, if you’d rather stay…”

  “No! I mean, no, instructor! Thank you, instructor!”

  “Get out of here!” the morsvar said, laughing.

  Nar ran across the hall.

  He kept expecting someone to call him back to the groups of grunting and sweating apprentices, and made a beeline straight for the doors of the hall before that could happen.

  On his way, he passed many envy-filled looks, and he did his best to keep his expression neutral, so that nobody thought that he was gloating.

  Oh, Crystal, yes! He thought, once he had put some distance between him and the Blades Hall.

  Four miserable days. Four gut wrenching, dark, painful days! But it was the Fifth and he had done it.

  [Vigor], uh? He thought to himself, on his way to the canteen.

  For once, he would be one of the first in the party there. If not the first.

  I went through a lot of pain to get you, so you better be worth it!

  And as commanded, a window popped open before him.

  Uh. I guess you are worth it after all, Nar thought.

  Just like the Master of Blades had told them, [Vigor] was indeed somewhat similar to [Mastery], except while [Mastery] only controlled how much aura he could use at once, [Vigor] was a lot more intrinsically linked with [Stamina]. It made [Stamina] more efficient, faster to recover and it allowed him to use more of it.

  I wonder if there’s a way to know how much of my attributes I’m really using? He wondered, as he entered a lift and was carried upwards.

  The Master of Blades had told them that they weren’t even reaching 50% of their attributes' true potential, and he wondered how much he had improved by gaining those two points in [Vigor].

  If I can move this fast already, for example, what’s going to happen once I can actually fully use my [Speed]? And I’m only going to keep getting more and more gains as I level up…

  At the end of it all, could he still even consider himself to be a sapient?

  The lofty heights of the Named Few remained an unknown to him, but slowly, he was starting to gain the barest, faintest, inkling of what reaching those levels might entail…

  The thought of it was both exhilarating and a little sobering.

  Not that he was protesting the changes of course! Still, it was a thought. One he quickly forgot as the door of the lift opened and the delicious aromas of dinner kissed his nostrils.

  There were already apprentices in the canteen, though the place was still mostly quiet.

  With a grin, Nar dashed straight for the food and within moments, he had a plate bursting with some kind of white food called rice and dark yellow saucy chunks of meat and various vegetables. To top it off, he had received some sort of crispy looking things that the kitchen staff on duty had urged him to take several off.

  To his surprise, he found Viy waving at him from one of the tables.

  “I thought I was going to be first one, today,” Nar said, semi-awkwardly.

  He now realized that he had never actually spent time alone with her before, and given all that they had gone through, he couldn’t help but remember all the crazy stuff that had happened between them. Or her affinity, for that matter.

  “I guess you also got your [Vigor]?” she asked, seemingly completely at ease.

  “You got it too?” Nar asked, grinning.

  “Yes!” she said, with mock crying. “It was fucking horrible!”

  “Worst days since… Well, since the Ceremony I guess?” Nar said.

  They both burst out laughing and with that, the awkwardness seemed to melt away.

  “This curry stuff is really good!” Viy said, pointing at his plate, her eyes gleaming with barely contained excitement. “And you’ve got to try that crispy stuff! Did she explain to you the three ways you could eat it?”

  “Uh… No? It was a guy, and all he did was wiggle his eyebrows at me and tell me to take more and more of them!”

  “And he’s right! Okay! Okay! So, the first way to eat it is you can just dip it in the sauce and…”

  When Kur joined them a few minutes later, the two of them were howling in laughter, sharing stories about the horrors of both the Blades Hall and the Polearms Hall, having gone through the three ways of eating the flat, crispy and “oh my Crystal!” so delicious cream-colored things.

  “I thought we were the only one’s puking!” Viy said, in between laughter. “And having to clean it up!”

  Nar shook his head. “Me too…”

  “When you think about it, it’s kinda messed up,” Viy said, shaking her head.

  “What’s this about puking?” Kur asked, sitting down and twisting his nose at the topic of conversation.

  “I was just telling Nar about this one time a guy puked three times in one day! As punishment they made him clean everyone’s…”

  “Sounds great! But maybe after I’m done eating?” Kur asked.

  “Oh, yeah! Sorry!” Viy said, with half a grin and a half grimace.

  And then she proceeded to delight him by explaining to him how he could dip the crispy thing in the sauce and eat like that, use it as a scoop to eat with the rice and curry, or crush little bits on top of it and eat it like that as well!

  By the time the whole party was gathered, Nar had heard the three ways several times, but he couldn’t fault Viy’s excitement. Considering what she had gone through, it was good to see her so joyous and filled with life. Hopefully, someone had talked to her about her affinity.

  If not, I guess I’ll do it… Or tell Kur to do it, Nar thought, watching her laughing. Don’t want a repeat of what happened with Tuk.

  As it turned out, Mul had also unlocked his [Vigor], leaving Jul, Tuk and Gad still struggling to get it. As for Kur and Cen, as non-melee classes, [Vigor] was not required of them, and would probably unlock itself at some point in time, much later on.

  Unlocking his [Vigor] had left Mul in an extremely good mood, and whenever Mul was in a good spirit, everyone was in a good spirit.

  It was a dinner filled with excited conversation and laughter, as everyone recounted different stories of things that had happened in their respective halls throughout the week.

  They were still laughing as they reached the auditorium, where they were about to have the last class of Fifth, before the so-called weekend, which, of course, they had already been told they wouldn’t be having as rest days.

  Still, it was with high spirits that they sat down for their last and shortest class of the week, a mere one hour of what in their schedule read only as Of Beasts and Monsters.

  “Wonder what this is going to be about,” Tuk said, comfortably sitting and holding onto his visible belly. “I mean, besides the beasts and the monsters, of course.”

  “Maybe it’s about killing stuff,” Jul ventured, in a dark murmur, from Tuk’s other side.

  “Hmm… Maybe,” Tuk said.

  “Whatever it is, it’s got to be important enough for them to squeeze it into the Intro Weeks,” Cen said, from Nar’s other side.

  “I guess we’ll just have to find out,” Tuk said, closing his eyes.

  *********

  “Good morning, apprentices!”

  Nar startled awake.

  “W-What…” he mumbled, staring about him with blurry eyes.

  “Crystal…” Tuk said, just as startled.

  Booming laughter rose from below, and Nar strained his still focusing eyesight on the two figures that now stood atop the podium.

  “Wakey-wakey, everyone!” one of the figures said, clapping her hands.

  “Ouh…” Nar cried, shying away from the booming echoes.

  “Oh, my Crystal…” Cen whispered, covering her ears.

  Nar’s eyes finally cleared enough for him to make sense of who and what was standing down below, and he sat up straighter.

  The first person at first reminded him of Jul.

  Shiny, dark gray chitin-like skin. Antennas atop the head. And bright red and violet compound eyes. However, that was where the recognition pattern ended. The sapient was entirely devoid of hair, except for a set of very heavy hair-like eyebrows. It sported a pair of long, jagged mandibles, protruding from where his mouth and chin should’ve been, and it had six arms in total!

  Their arms were skinnier than Jul’s, but were longer, and had several joints. At the end of each arm, there was a skinny, but normal looking wrist, hands and fingers and all. They wore a plain, black and brown uniform, the same as professor Thim.

  The sapient scanned the room with their compound, red and violet eyes, and Nar couldn't read a single thing on those extraordinary features.

  As for the second person, they looked more like a sapient, at least as to Nar’s limited cubeplant experience.

  The woman, for he believed her to be so, was huge. She was taller and bulkier than Gad, her towering figure made even more impressive by the thick and bulky black and brown garb that she wore.

  Like the other sapient, she too didn’t look to be made out of skin and flesh, but rather some sort of rich dark and hard material composed of many different tones of brown. Her long hair grew wild on her head, and fell down to her shoulders, where it seemed to grow as well, in bright, numerous tones of green, with small pops of color here and there.

  Are those flowers? Nar thought, staring with his mouth half open. On her head… And shoulders?

  The woman clapped her hands again, and silenced the whispering and murmuring with a boom that echoed like two walls colliding against one another.

  “Alright,” she said, her voice a touch gravely. “It seems that everyone is awake, so we can get this little show on the road. You can call me Professor T’Nash, and behind me is Professor Vissur.”

  Professor Vissur waved at them with a disconcerting combination of his hands. The top left one and the right middle and bottom ones.

  “Woah…” Tuk breathed to himself. “They look so cool!”

  Nar shot him a glance as knowledge of what “cool” meant dripped into his mind.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Seriously? Nar thought. That counts?

  Sometimes it felt like there was no rhyme nor reason to whatever knowledge the System saw fit to grant him. If it were a person, Nar would’ve thought they were just messing with him at this point.

  “Today, we’ll have a short lecture. More of a chat, really, to introduce you to two of the most important theoretical classes that you will be taking aboard the Scimitar,” Professor T’Nash continued. “As you might have guessed from your schedules, both classes deal with beasts and monsters, so let’s start by talking a little bit about that.”

  Nar expected the professor to set up the screens and dim the lights, but instead, Professor T’Nash simply clasped her hands behind her back, and continued speaking.

  “The Nexus depends on materials, resources and food for its survival,” she spoke. “It gets a vast majority of these things from the Labyrinth, with the exception of food, of which about 40% of all food consumed in the Nexus is grown in large, industrial quantities in farms in the Minus. All the rest of the vast amount of things the Nexus needs are procured by us, delvers, who delve into dungeons. A few weeks from now you will have a lecture on dungeons, and will learn a lot more about them. For now, suffice it to say that a dungeon is basically a space and time that exists separate to ours, within the confines of the Labyrinth walls. You go in and out of them through special gates, called dungeon portals, and you fight and collect resources within them. And for now, that is all you need to know.”

  Nar nodded along slowly.

  So far, it sort of made sense, even if the whole “separate time and space” thing went mostly over his head, just like with the jumps and beacons. Meanwhile, the professor had stepped to the side of the podium, to make space for a blank table to rise out of the floor.

  “Right, so, inside the dungeons, and outside as well, as you will see, you can find both beasts and monsters,” she said. “And nothing’s better than seeing to understand.”

  She walked in front of the table and touched her hands to it.

  Screams of surprise sparked across the auditorium.

  “Calm down!” she bellowed, silencing them. “They’re dead. And the one on the left is not a sapient, do you understand me? These are both non-sapients!”

  “Crystal…” Cen said, peeking from behind her hands. “I thought it was a lengos!”

  “This one on the right, is a naglefir,” she said, slapping the furry corpse on the right.

  Nar leaned forward, reaching for his [Sight] to get a better look at what was effectively his first time seeing what a beast was. Professor Thim had used the words beasts and monsters before, and the System had given him a vague idea of what they meant, but he had still been very unsure of what it was that he was supposed to be fighting in the Labyrinth. Now, he was beginning to understand…

  The naglefir was some sort of hunched quadruped predator looking thing, with large green claws and a thick, rough looking yellow and green fur. Its sharp, vivid purple tongue drooped past a double row of sharp yellowy fangs.

  In a word, the beast looked deadly.

  And it’s as big as Mul, Nar thought, grimacing.

  “A naglefir is what we call a beast,” Professor T’Nash explained, running her hard fingers through the dead beast’s fur. “A beast is a creature of instincts, even intelligence and cunning. Some of them are even cruel… However, they are not “intelligent” in the same way that we are. Beasts have no language, no beliefs, no culture. They have no technology, nor do they build sophisticated homes or power plants or aetherships. A beast is ruled by hunger, and the need to procreate, amongst other instincts. Some beasts we domesticate, growing and harvesting them in great farms, ranches and the like. We get meat from them, fur, and many, many other components, the most important of which are their aether reservoirs.”

  And having said so, a pair of thick gloves appeared in her hand, which she promptly put on.

  “Now, I will show you how we extract it!” she said, in a bright, cheery tone.

  Nar frowned at the professor. “Is she going to…”

  “Oh, Crystal!” Tuk whimpered, looking away.

  “Oh no… Why?” Cen said, frowning deeply but not looking away.

  Nar watched, in a strange mix of horrified disgust and fascination, as the professor got a long, thin and sharp looking knife out of her inventory, and proceeded to cut into the naglefir with precise and expert movements. Besides him, Tuk coughed and cleared his throat amidst the wet sounds that filled the auditorium.

  Barely a few seconds in, Professor T’Nash reached her hands inside the beast.

  “Yeah, you better not look at this,” Nar whispered to Tuk.

  “Tell me when it's done, please,” Tuk pleaded in a weak voice.

  The professor pulled something out from the corpse, and producing a cloth in her other hand, wiped it clean of blood and viscera. Then, she lifted up her prize. It was a large, yellow-green looking sphere that shimmered faintly under the lights of the auditorium.

  “This is an aether reservoir,” Professor T’Nash announced. “All beasts, monsters and aethermancers have one within themselves. The difference is that for us, aethermancers, our reservoirs are like your aura cores. They’re not physical. They reside in the same space in between our bodies and our souls, and are formed jointly by us and our first bonded spirit.”

  Nar stared at the shimmering, shifting ball of vivid yellow and green in her hand with the same mix of aversion and fascination as before.

  So that thing is filled with aether… He thought. Is it like that tube we found inside those spider things in the B-Nex? But they were definitely some kind of machine, no?

  Below them, Professor T’Nash considered the aether reservoir in her hands with a thoughtful expression.

  “Now, this next part can always be a little tricky to understand, and it will make more sense when we get to monsters and in further lectures. But in essence, beasts and monsters are creations of the System, not of the Radiants,” she explained. “They too have souls, but those are shallow, inferior mockeries of our own. They cannot sustain aether reservoirs, and that’s why their aether reservoirs are created within their physical bodies instead. Beasts and monsters are born with reservoirs, and fill them exclusively with ambient aether, unlike aethermancers, which can use both ambient aether and their bonded patron’s aether to fill their reservoirs. I know this is confusing, and know that it’s an entire topic of its own… For tonight, the only thing I want you to understand is that beasts and monsters have a physical reservoir, and that said reservoir is the most valuable, harvestable component within them. Which leads us to this next body…”

  “Did you get any of that?” Mul whispered at Cen, as the professor stepped around the naglefir to approach the dead monster.

  “I’m not sure…” Cen said. “I have no idea what she meant by ambient aether.”

  Nar, at her side, shook his head in similar confusion. But as professor T’Nash exchanged a quick word with professor Vissur, he instead focused on the body of the monster.

  Like Cen, he too had thought it to be a lengos at first.

  The monster had the same stature, albeit somewhat less bulky in frame and skeleton. It had the same bald head, and a dark gray skin that matched the twins’. However, now that he regarded the dead body with more attention, he quickly picked up on the differences.

  The creature's ears were long and pointy, instead of the human-like round ears that the lengos had on them. Its nose was larger and flatter, and the skin looked thicker and more wrinkly. And pulling a little more on his [Sight], he also found that the monster only had four fingers instead of five.

  That said, to all intents and purposes, it still looked very much like a sapient to Nar. It even wore some form of cloth to cover its privates.

  “Alright,” professor T’Nash said, pulling their attention again. “This now, that caused so much shock and consternation, is a midnight goblin. It's just one kind amongst the infinite variety of these goblin pests. And they are nasty creatures, who’ll eat just about anything… Including you.”

  She reached for the goblin’s face and pulled up its thin lips to reveal a fanged mouth lined with surprisingly bright, white sharp teeth.

  Tuk retched next to Nar.

  “Just don’t look,” Jul whispered from his other side, patting his back. “It’s okay.”

  “Tell me when it's over,” Tuk breathed.

  “Now, you may all be wondering how this creature is not a sapient,” the professor continued, either unaware of, or most likely ignoring, the varying degrees of discomfort amongst the apprentices as she continued to prod and move at the dead monster. “And to add to your understandable confusion, these creatures, these monsters, they are, in various degrees and forms, intelligent. They have their own language, costumes, cultures and even art forms. They build homes that can reach awe inspiring complexity and size. They are capable of mastering complex skills and even technology, though never at our level. So what then, makes them non-sapient? Apart from being created by the System and having a physical aether reservoir, of course.”

  She looked up at the rows of apprentices, and Nar found himself frowning at the sudden seriousness in her expression. Almost fervor.

  “There are three components that make one a sapient,” she explained. “... and the three fundamentals of Sentience are thus, A homogeneous Body, An aware Mind, and a true Soul.”

  Nar was reminded of the priest and the words he had intoned to them, just outside the Gate of the Ceremony of Final Atonement, as he read from that white book.

  “These are the Words of the Holy Crystal, as set down by the Great Radiant Itself, through the hands of the very first Primarch,” professor T’Nash intoned at them. “The first rule, a homogenous body, entails that all sapients must be capable of procreating and having intimate relations with all other races of sapients.”

  “Say what?” Nar heard Kur say, amidst the general shocked hubbub that spread across the auditorium.

  “Yes. You heard me correctly,” the professor said. “In the cubeplants, you maintain a self-imposed, same race procreation rule, for reasons unknown to us all. But the reality is that we are created all and the same as sapients, and are meant to mingle jointly as one great creation. And before you ask, when two different races of sapients have a child together, that child is born to be either one of its parent’s race. Of course, some of us sapients are a bit more… Challenged, let’s say, in that rule.”

  Nar looked from Professor Vissur to her, and recalled several other, very, starkly different looking sapients he had seen thus far.

  Is she talking about the two of them? He wondered. But then, what does that mean? Are they sapient… Or not?

  “The second rule, an aware Mind, pertains to intelligence,” Professor T’Nash continued, apparently not willing to delve deeper into the confusion of what she had just said. “This means the ability to recognize each other as sapients, and to recognize the existence, authority and worship of the Crystal and the 24 Radiant Gods and Goddesses who created us. Intelligence also means culture, art, singing, cooking. It means families, careers, hobbies, and the ability to follow pursuits that will last and live on long after we are dead and forgotten. It means technology, energy, the transference of knowledge through the generations, and a complex society built around the great Radiant Hierarchy. It means, for better or worse, bureaucracy, rules and laws. Trade, finance, industry and farming, and so on and so many, many other things that you will all one day learn about. However, as I mentioned just there, these monsters do have these things, even if in a more limited capacity… What they lack, however, is awareness. Awareness and worship of the Crystal, the Radiants and the Source. In effect, they don’t know about Creation itself…”

  What? Nar thought, shaking his head and blinking at the mess of her words.

  “And with that, we arrive at the last rule, a true Soul,” she said, her voice dropping to a reverent hush. “What truly separates us sapients from these monsters is the knowledge of the Radiants and the System and Creation. For you see, monsters live only in dungeons, and they do not know that what they live in are dungeons. They are unaware of the whole of Creation that exists beyond their dungeon… And since they were created by the System, upon death, their souls return to the System to be reborn once more as monsters and beasts for all eternity, instead of rejoining the Crystal in its Everlasting Bliss as we all do. Given we’re found worthy of that, of course… Else, our place will be at hands of the Abyssal Ones, where we will be their playthings for all eternity in the Abyss.”

  Say what now? Nar thought, startled into seating up straighter.

  “That can happen?” Cen whispered. “Is that the Eternal Dark?”

  “Crystal Almighty!” Tuk breathed. “Is that something we need to also worry about now? What happens to us when we die?”

  “But we are forgiven, no?” Nar whispered. “What does that mean for us?”

  “Shhh!” Kur whispered at them, even as similar panicked murmurs spread across the room. “I know that this is crazy stuff, but just focus for now. I’ll figure it out and let you all know.”

  Nar nodded slowly, his mind still somewhat blank and tried to focus on their lecture again. Professor T’Nash seemed to be digging into the corpse of the goblin, presumably in search of its aether reservoir, and Professor Vissur was watching her. The two of them were seemingly oblivious to the quiet storm raging across their audience.

  First that whole mess about sapients and whatnot, and then this? Nar though, with a grimace. Crystal… The Abyss? Seriously?

  “And there you have it, another reservoir,” Professor T’Nash said, raising a very dark blue, almost black sphere that was a little bit bigger than the naglefir’s had been. “Ready to be used for whatever it’s needed.”

  As a resource… Nar though. Crystal, the Nexus is crazy!

  “We are the Children of the Crystal. And they are the non-sapients. The resources we need. And the sharpening wedge upon which combat classes are made stronger in order to defend the Nexus against those who continuously seek to erase it from existence,” she said, in a fervorous tone. “Of course, there are plenty of other resources and materials to gather. Metals, plants, chemicals. Things that are things, rather than living, breathing, moving and somewhat intelligent and aware creatures that beasts and monsters are. And that finally leads me to the class I teach, “Harvesting, Pathfinding and Economy”.”

  She smiled brightly up at the apprentices, either entirely missing or ignoring the air of unease and confusion lingering over the auditorium.

  “In my class, at its basics, you will not only learn how to harvest beasts and monsters and gather resources, you will also learn how to gauge their XP value, what is worth taking and what should be left behind, considering your limited time and carrying capacity,” she told them. “You’ll learn how to wear your aura dampening gloves properly, and withdraw your aura from your body, especially any part that comes into contact with the material being harvested in order to not damage its aether with your auras. Lastly, you will also learn how to plan and research for the dungeons you enter, so that you can survive and adapt to the innumerable conditions that you will face within… From mild temperate climates, to freezing dungeons of ice and scarce oxygen, we will teach you to prepare and to be ready for anything.”

  And having said that, she lifted her hand, with three, hard fingers sticking up. “At least three apprentices from every party will need to join my class, starting next week, as we prepare you to fulfill your gathering and harvesting duties to the Scimitar.”

  “Oh no…” Tuk said, looking pale.

  “The Scimitar makes a tidy and significant sum, independent from Tsurmirel, through gathering and harvesting, and you will all take these tasks seriously,” she said, with a stern tone. “Therefore, three amongst you will be trained in the art of gathering and harvesting. Make your decisions, and send me the names by the latest the night of this Seventh. Tomorrow morning, you who are party leaders will find a new feature in your Scimitar’s tab, Messages. It’s quite simple to use, and I’m the only Professor T’Nash on your list of contacts. And with that, my bit is done. Professor Vissur?”

  Nar heard a strange series of clicking noises, and a half a second later, a voice, both deep and raspy.

  “Thank you, Professor T’Nash. That was most enlightening,” Professor Vissur said, stepping forward.

  Professor T’Nash graced Professor Vissur with a smile, then got busy storing the corpses and spraying and wiping the table.

  “Good evening, apprentices. As graciously introduced by Professor T’Nash, I’m Professor Vissur,” and as the professor spoke, Nar frowned in confusion as he continuously heard the clicking sounds underneath the Professor’s voice. “Before we talk about the real matters I come to discuss with you tonight, let’s clear some confusion first, shall we?”

  And with that, his mandibles shivered, and Nar wondered if that was the equal to a smile. Or perhaps even laughter?

  “You can think of me as a he,” the professor explained. “It isn’t quite correct, but we don’t have hours to discuss the complex gender constructs and sexual compositions of the hasjk, as the vocal corded sapients refer to us as. Also, the clicking sounds you hear beneath my words are my actual speech. We hasjk do not possess vocal cords, and communicate thusly.”

  He tilted his head, and lifted a hand to touch a small, shimmering silver string around his neck.

  “This is a translator into Common, the language spoken by the majority of sapients,” he explained. “Hopefully, you will soon become accustomed to it, and it will not distract you from our classes, as they are crucial to your survival. With that out of the way, allow me then to introduce my class, that of “Slaying”. And it is exactly what it sounds like.”

  The professor clasped his four lower arms behind his back, and the other two he folded in front of him.

  “In my class, you’ll learn to understand how to kill anything,” he said, the words chilling in the translator's deep monotone. “Beasts and monsters come in an infinite variety, yes, but they are categorizable, and through categorizing we can study them, and through studying them, we understand not only how to kill them, but survive them. Therefore, my class is mandatory to all, and it will begin at the end of the Introduction Weeks. If you wish to succeed, and indeed, survive your assignments and become combat delvers, you will do well to pay attention to my class, and study exhaustively the material we’ll discuss.”

  And having delivered his speech, or warning, he turned to professor T’Nash, who was still cleaning the table.

  “Anything else to add, Professor T’Nash?”

  “Not from my side,” she said, glancing up at the stunned apprentices. “Just make sure to send me those names. Or I’ll pick at random…”

  Nar heard Tuk swallowing very audibly.

  Yeah… He can’t do it, Nar thought to himself, regarding the pale, sweaty ring tosser at his side. Maybe I should do it…

  “Alright then. Apprentices, you are dismissed,” Professor Vissur said. “Your time is your own for the night. Me and Professor T’Nash will remain here for a few minutes in case you’ve got any questions.”

  Before Nar could get up, Kur had already sprung to his feet.

  “Of course I’ve got questions!” he muttered to himself, almost angrily. “Let me through, quick!”

  Nar stumbled to his feet and squeezed himself against the hard surface of the row behind them to let his muttering party leader through.

  “I guess what happened this morning hit him hard,” Cen said, as Kur joined the small crowd of apprentices gathering around both professors. “And that whole mess… Crystal, what was that about?”

  “No idea,” Nar said, shaking his head.

  The fact that their souls could apparently end up in the hands of evil gods was seriously, quite a fucked-up thing to wrap one’s head around…

  TING!

  Eh?

  Nar checked his UI, and as expected, found that he had a new message waiting for him.

  Curious, he opened his notifications tab and his heart nearly stopped.

  The subject line simply read “From the Master of Blades”.

  With a shaky breath, Nar opened the message.

  He stared at the short message.

  That was it, that one line.

  No reason or explanation as to why he shouldn’t be joining the Harvesting, Pathfinding and Economy class, just a “don’t do it”.

  And suggest? Nar thought, frowning deeper. Does that mean it’s my choice?

  That could be true… After all, everyone so far, including K, had stressed again and again that they were building their own paths according to their own wishes, and that Tsurmirel would not push them into anything.

  However, perhaps even more important than the master's cryptic message and whatever his reasoning might be, was the fact that he had, himself, directly reached out to Nar!

  Nar had hoped against hope to catch the master’s attention and receive his direct tutelage, and what was that message if not a sign that he had succeeded?

  He shook his head.

  Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Or we’ll just get disappointed… He thought with a grimace, as he got up to follow after the others.

  There was no way for him to tell what was going to happen. But he couldn’t deny the hope that message gave him.

  He would have to wait and see.