“Hey-hey!”

  Nar groaned and flipped to the other side.

  “Come on, man!” Kur said, shaking him. “Breakfast!”

  “Noooo…” Nar moaned hoarsely.

  “Your fault for staying up so late!” Kur said. “What were you doing anyway? The COO brought you back at four in the morning, man!”

  Nar’s eyes flashed open and he flipped back around.

  “She did? Wait… I’m…”

  “In your bed, yes,” Kur said, shaking his head. “She carried you here like a little baby.”

  “Ugh…” Nar thought, raising a hand to his splitting head.

  What happened?

  He remembered the training. Tys had been brutal, unrelenting in imparting her superiority into his body by beating him black and blue…

  No… he thought. There had been something in there… A lesson of some kind. An insight. He had been so close and then… I passed out?

  His cheeks burned. She carried me here? Ugh, for Crystal’s sake…

  “Hello?” Kur said, waving a hand in front of his eyes. “Is anyone there?”

  Nar slapped the hand away. “Yes, yes! I’ll get up!”

  “Don’t dodge the question, Nar,” Kur said, as Nar ponderously stepped down his bed. “What were you doing with her?”

  “I found her in my training room,” Nar explained, stumbling towards the bathroom. “And we trained together.”

  “You did?” Kur asked, his eyebrows knighting together. “Well, I guess that explains the bruises… I was worried you had pissed her off or something.”

  Nar snorted. “I’m not Mul.”

  And Kur shrugged at that.

  “He’s got that suppressor on him now, and I can afford to worry about the rest of you.”

  “Mul can still be annoying as shit without getting angry,” Nar said. “And when have you had to worry about any of us?”

  Kur shook his head as Nar disappeared into the bathroom.

  “You have no idea, man. No idea…”

  *********

  “So, Nar, I heard a lady carried you to bed last night,” Viy whispered across from him.

  “Tuk!” Kur hissed.

  “What?” Tuk said, looking away. “No secrets in the party and all that…”

  “What are you talking about?” Rel asked, leaning in with a smirk.

  “It was getting noisy at the party, so I left for some training and I found Tys in my training room,” Nar said, before any of them could spiral into any further tangents. “We ended up sparring, and she beat the shit out of me and carried me to bed. End of story.”

  “Oh, on a name basis, I see…” Rel said, wiggling her eyebrows at Viy and Tuk, who let out a low whistle.

  “So, you prefer them older…” Viy said, rubbing her chin. “I've been going about this all wrong.”

  “Ugh… I know you’re just messing with me, but I really don’t have enough brain for this today,” Nar said, stuffing his mouth full of porridge. “Have you heard anything about Jul?”

  “She’s awake,” Kur said. “And I saw her this morning, she’s a lot better already.”

  “Whoop-whoop!” Tuk shouted.

  “Thank the Crystal,” Cen said. “I knew she was going to make it, but it's great to hear she’s alright.”

  “I’ll check on her at lunch time again, but she’s going to be fine,” Kur said. “What we need to worry about now is our final assessment.”

  “A dungeon,” Gad rumbled. “It’s finally happening.”

  “You say that like you knew it was coming,” Mul said.

  “And I did,” Gad replied. “They’re training us to be delvers. What else would the last test be?”

  “When you put it like that…”

  “Have you heard anything about it yet?” Cen asked Kur.

  “Nothing, but I’m sure I will soon,” Kur said. “It will probably be the first thing we talk about in Leadership today.”

  “It’s nerve wracking,” Tuk said, then his frown changed into a grin. “But exciting too! I’ve heard a lot about dungeons… I mean, I don’t know anything about them, but people have been telling me I’m going to love them! Well, most of them, and if I’m lucky.”

  “Fucking useless…” Mul groaned. His tone of voice had raised and then just as quickly, it dropped.

  “That thing is freaky,” Tuk said, staring at the red circlet around Mul’s neck. “I prefer your normal crappy self. I hope you can swap to the lighter one soon.”

  Mul stared up at Tuk’s height, and deflated by the ring tosser's genuine concern. He reached at hand to the metal circle, and grunted at it. “Not any time soon. But I’m working on it.”

  Cen smiled at her brother and rubbed his back. “It’ll be okay. You’ll see…”

  “Yeah… But I forgot to turn the damn thing invisible again.”

  There was a smattering of laughter around the table, and Nar watched as the brawler made the red aurium circlet disappear. It had been a shock, to say the least, when Mul had told them, on the morning following the den, about the drawbacks of his rage path, and the need to wear the circle around his neck.

  “Change your path!” Tuk had shouted. “What the fuck, man! This is not okay!”

  “I can’t change it,” Mul said, his tone eerily rising and then cutting off into a monotone. “They would need to ship me off to the Nexus and give me some kind of Pileshit treatment for years… And I would never be able to fight again.”

  “What?” Kur whispered. “Are you serious?”

  “I am,” Mul said. “So no, I’m not changing. This is happening, and this is my choice. Do you all understand?”

  And Nar had noticed how Mul’s stare had been directed straight at Cen… And by the Crystal, her face had been quite something to behold.

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  I guess she’s come around, Nar thought, now watching the two siblings. Can’t have been easy…

  “Anyways, dungeon?” Mul asked, his voice eerily flat once more, betraying his irritation.

  “I mean, there’s nothing much we can do about it right now,” Kur said with a shrug. “We’ll need to understand everyone’s gains first, especially Viy’s and Jul’s, since your new skill is locked under suppression as well.”

  Viy nodded at Kur, and stared down at her empty plate. “Yeah… That skill was a surprise.”

  Nar’s ears perked up at that. “Are the gains out?”

  “Yep. And you’ve got a new skill?” Tuk asked the spearwoman.

  “Yeah, but it's a bit of a pain…” Viy said, grimacing.

  “It’s just unexpected,” Kur said. “Don’t worry about it, we’ll make it work. Same for Jul’s, and same for Mul when he finally gets the go ahead to use his rage and skills in combat. And same goes for everyone else as they unlock their affinities, even for me…”

  “You’ve got a new skill too?” Nar asked.

  “Yes, and it will require some… Thought,” Kur said, drawing a heavy sigh. “Leave me to think about all of the new skills for now, but we’ll need to come up with a different formation for the dungeon…”

  “Really?” Cen asked. “Are they that impactful?”

  “They are,” Kur said, nodding at Viy. “And there’s a high chance it won’t be the last time we need to change formation.”

  “Sorry…” Viy said, hanging her head.

  “Don’t be. You make the path, and the party adapts,” Kur told her. “Besides, I think we need to start thinking about setting multiple formations for the party.”

  “Agreed,” Gad said. “Different situations will require different strategies.”

  Nar nodded slowly at that. “And if Slaying and TSA are anything to go by, we’ll need a good few of them.”

  “Yes,” Kur said. “But let’s not worry about that until after the dungeon. We only have two weeks now. Probably less. Let’s focus on getting a formation that will work for us in the meantime, then see how things stand after the dungeon. I have no doubt that the gains from it will be even bigger and more impactful than the other two assessments.”

  There was a low grunt and murmur of agreement across the table.

  “Speaking of, Nar, you haven’t checked your gains yet. Can you do it now?” Kur asked. “I won’t get your updated status and skills until you do so.”

  “Yeah, of course! I'll check them right now.”

  Kur nodded. “Thanks. I need all the info for the planning.”

  Nar left the conversation to flow around him, and checked his notifications. Like the faculty, as soon as Nar opened his gains report, Kur would also be able to see Nar’s updated status and skills. As their party leader, the Scimitar had granted him the right to do so, in the name of leadership and planning.

  Alright, let’s see what we got, Nar thought, with a slight sinking in his stomach. It better be good after all that…

  Wait what? He gasped, sitting up straighter. He ignored all the massive gains that he had made in that chaos of a fight, just as Lieutenant Dov had promised they would, and with his heart pounding against his throat he rushed to check his new [Aura Infused Strikes].

  That was my only aggro, damn it! Please tell me that… Oh, and he deflated in relief as he read through the description of his news skill.

  “Holy shit!” Kur whispered. “Damn, Nar! That’s one Pile of a skill!”

  “Right?” Nar asked, his expression still blank with shock.

  “What? What is it?” Cen asked, and Nar quickly told them about it.

  “Radiants…” Rel said, her eyebrows rising almost to her golden brown hair, which was still growing at an accelerated rate as she recovered from her Yearning. “Thay’s some fucking skill, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah, damn…” Mul said, awe in his tone.

  “And the rest of your gains are nothing to sneeze at either,” Kur said, rubbing his chin. “This is all very good, and looks like everyone has made a good chunk of gains.”

  Nar nodded as the others beamed with smiles of joy, and he considered his gains window again.

  Any increase in [Mastery] was more than welcome, especially given what he had just been through.

  From 155 to 185 aura, plus the 9 extra points from my [Pathways of the Champion]… Still not enough… That’s nothing! I have almost 3000 points of aura now! He thought, scowling. If I could use all of it then…

  He clenched his jaw. Then Jul might have been there at that moment, having breakfast with them and panicking about whatever new skill or skills she had gained and the extra work that meant for their party leader.

  He shook his head. He had saved her, had he not? That should be enough to let matters rest… But he couldn’t let go of the anger gnawing at him, and of the fear of having almost lost her.

  And as for the attributes… They’re freaking awesome, he decided, almost begrudgingly trying not to be happy about them. Massive gains all around, and [Endurance] and [Might] too? Not bad… Not bad at all. But then there’s you… 5 points into [???], whatever you are, and that’s the biggest bump up you’ve gotten so far. Just what in the Pile did I do to earn this?

  24 points was not nothing. In fact, it was quite a lot of something, especially for an attribute which he still had no idea what it was, nor what it did.

  This whole blocking attributes thing is getting annoying, Nar thought. According to his master, Nar had already unlocked nearly all of the crucial attributes that would aid him in forging his path, and as for that particular [???] attribute, the master had said that there was nothing to it but to wait for it to unlock on its own. Eventually, all attributes revealed themselves, and he just had to be patient.

  But that was before this massive increase, Nar thought. Maybe the master will speak about it tonight. After he stops shouting at me for going beyond my [Mastery]… And speaking of which, no upgrade to my pathways… I guess it really was my sword doing it, and not me.

  He grimaced at the expectation of the anger he would face from his master, however, all in all, they were incredibly good gains, and he decided there and then that he more than rightfully deserved them, and that new skill, [Aura Infused Strikes], was going to be a great boost to bring into that dungeon.

  Less than two weeks away, Nar thought.

  Just a few weeks ago, the thought of going into a dungeon would have filled him with unbridled excitement. Now, all he could feel was apprehension, and concern.

  The den and the confluence had been eye opening to say the least, and they had pretty much wiped out the party’s belief that the Climb and the Ceremony were the ugliest and the worst combat they would face for a good while yet. Of course, Nar didn’t expect the “we’ve been through worse” pick me up line to work forever, but he hadn’t expected it to start losing effectiveness so early either.

  It was with a heavy mind that he split from the others, and headed to the Blades Hall. Who knew what awaited them in the dungeon, given the strength of the Labyrinth, free roaming beasts that they had encountered so far? And what could he do to better prepare himself, in order to better protect his party from the dangers of a delver’s life?