“Do you plan on attending the Imperial Academy?”

  Mercy was digging her fingernails into her palms as she asked this to Archmund.

  The Imperial Academy. Located in the Imperial City of Omnio (a very original name), it was a cross between an upper class boarding school, the Ivy League, and Hogwarts.

  Archmund had looked into it soon after he’d awakened to his memories and decided that attending sounded horrific. He’d sat through one highly annoying childhood of doing very well on standardized tests that barely translated to the real world, and he had no intention of doing it again.

  He could hardly imagine a worse way of spending his time than being surrounded by children and teenagers when he had the mind of a 30-something year old — or at least the memories, because honestly he felt genuinely emotionally unstable compared how he’d felt in his past life as an adult — even if those teenagers were the inheritors of this world’s destiny. And on top of all that, attending that school would have bankrupted his entire family.

  “I had no plans to attend,” he said, watching Mercy’s reaction very carefully.

  “Is it the money? Ten Gems of your grade and quality would cover all eight years. You can pay for it already.”

  He genuinely had no idea how this monetary system worked.

  “You need to go, Granavale,” she said, pressing her point. “Granavale County is on the map now. Your house was, if I’m being blunt, dying before this. But now? You’ll get offers for investments, for partnerships, for betrothals. You need to know who’s who and what’s what.”

  “It all just sounds so tedious,” Archmund said.

  “It is.”

  He did a double take. Oops. He’d said that out loud. On top of that, he hadn’t expected her to agree.

  “This is all I want in return,” she said, her voice dropping to a whisper. “Go to the Academy. Just attend. Promise me you’ll attend, and you’ll find no barriers to complete Granavale control over this Dungeon. Full ability to tax the loot and negotiate your own prices on Gem sales — though all Gems are regulated, so you’ll still have to go through Imperial authority. I need true allies, Granavale. I’d be a fool not to make one of you.”

  Maybe her stat sheet didn’t say that they were already allies. Maybe the stat sheets were an imperfect relationship of softer aspects of reality. Or maybe she just knew more. But regardless, it seemed that he would have to change his plans somewhat.

  He would go to the Imperial Academy, try and spend as little time as possible actually studying, make friends with everyone else who seemed like they could make his life easier, and try not to be ground down by a second bout of pointless schooling.

  In his past life, he’d seen YouTube videos about people who’d managed to cheat the whole system of college admissions. Or rather, he’d seen the thumbnails and read the comments, because it pained him to read about opportunities that he could no longer access himself.

  Essentially, those people had taken community college classes in high school in order to get college credit. Then they could immediately flip that college credit into a proper 2-year Associate’s Degree, and with that coursework, leverage a transfer or application to prestigious Ivy League colleges without needing to undergo the same application rigmarole that most normal people had to sit through. He didn’t know the details because it had, even then, been advice for a lifetime ago.

  But there was probably something similar in this world that he could exploit to the fullest.

  “I don’t suppose you can get me a scholarship?”

  She snorted. “Do you want to be a scholarship student at a school of the richest, most spoiled, most powerful assholes in the country?”

  “Put like that, absolutely not.”

  The loot from the final room ended up being close to a 50-50 split, as discussed. Although the soldiers seemed a little annoyed at having to carry all of it back up to the surface, they didn’t seem all too upset about not getting more gear, though some were a little annoyed they didn’t get all of the Gemstone armor that had crystallized. They didn’t quite see the potential of burnt rubber gear and so were happy to let him have it.

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  Archmund wondered if it might be worth setting up a materials science lab.

  Mercy slapped him on the back as they observed the soldiers start forming up in groups to bear the equipment back to the surface.

  “Consider this Imperial permission to establish a standing army,” Mercy said, gesturing at all the Gemstone Gear.

  “Using rapiers — a dueling weapon — and hand fans, something ladies hold over their mouths when they gossip.”

  Was that sexist? It might have been sexist. But this world was a little sexist. Probably. Maybe it was just him.

  Mercy snorted. “It’s a poor craftsman that blames his tools. You should be honored. Very few Houses are ever granted permission for a standing army.”

  “And this wouldn’t violate the rules against giving peasants Gems?”

  “Different rules for Gemgear — no one’s ever going to do something as horrifying as your Infrared Lance using a Gemstone Helmet. Though it’s customary for them to swear undying loyalty to you in exchange.”

  A wonderful recipe for political stability. Private armies that swore undying loyalties to their commanders. Though he suspected there was more to it.

  “What happens to those that create a standing army without permission?”

  Mercy blinked. “Well… that would be viewed as high treason, and the whole family would get annihilated overnight.”

  “Hmmm. And permission is never revoked overnight as a result of arcane political maneuvering or power plays?”

  “How are you this sharp and jaded? Seriously, Granavale. Why do you think like—me?”

  She was going to say something else, he was sure of it. Princess Angelina Grace Marca Prima Omnio still had her secrets.

  She sighed. “Well, you’re smart. You’ll figure something out.”

  Archmund had a pretty good idea. Obviously an overt standing army would be asking for trouble, especially with weapons that looked as stupid as these. But a private, covert force of respectable assassins — not people who used poisons and daggers and jumped around like idiots in the night, but well-dressed guys who used their connections to get into places where powerful people were and killed them if necessary — now that was a good idea.

  It was obviously illegal, which didn’t matter if you never got caught.

  “And — here,” Mercy said. “These are for you.”

  She dropped two Gems into his hand. One was an octahedral Ruby, like a D4. The other was a speckled gray cube.

  He swallowed. “These are…”

  His mother’s.

  “The Gems of the Ghost of All Granavale,” Mercy said, avoiding his eyes. “A Ruby, which will likely be stronger than the one you currently have. And a… Quartz, I think, that does magical shielding or energy deflection. If you ask me, if you want to train, these are safer bets than the Starbeast’s Gem.”

  He ran his magic over them. Although the Ghost of All Granavale had used them liberally, there were no traces of active magic remaining in them. That was how the magic of the dead worked — it formed and calcified as solid conduits of power within a crystal, which the magic of the living could flow through. He poured his magic into the Gem, and it flowed in easily and comfortably — a far cry from the effort he’d spent on Attuning his original Ruby to himself.

  That was another thing to practice — casting the Infrared Lance through this new Ruby instead of the old one.

  “I won’t lie,” Mercy said, “keeping you alive was a tactical burden. If you can use this Quartz to keep yourself alive, you won’t need bodyguards for every time you get in a bit of danger.”

  He nodded mutely, and immediately pulled out his Gemstone Tablet to look at what the Quartz could do for him. Mercy threw her cloak over him.

  “What’s the big idea?!”

  “I told you this was a state secret, and you’re just pulling it out in front of a hundred of my men.”

  It was a good point, but the screen was like a computer or iPad screen, so he could see it even in the darkness.

  He tapped the new entry for Quartz of Barrier (bound).

  There was a lot of potential for him left to unlock.

  All things considered, his priorities had to change drastically. He mentally reviewed his list of tasks:

  Task #1: do 100 push-ups a day for a year

  Revised Task #1: Do 100 push-ups a day. See how this changes my Strength stat.

  Task #2: Charge the Red Gem of Light to personal exhaustion daily.

  Revised Task #2: Attune the Ruby of Energy to 1000/1000 and track how this changes my stats. Attune the Gemstone sword to 1000/1000 and track how this changes my stats. Attune the Quartz of Barrier to 1000/1000 and track how this changes my stats, and create a spell for personal safety. Track psychological changes.

  Task #3: Grow the Granavale holdings to a point where he could do whatever he ever wanted.

  Task #4: Revise Task #3 upon learning more.

  Revised Task #3: Use the spoils of Granavale Dungeon to build sustainable industry within Granavale County. Personally invest in Granavale County. Gain enough influence through attending the Imperial Academy to enable this goal.

  Task #4: Unchanged.

  Task #5: Figure out the nature of life and death.

  Task #6: Find where Mother’s soul really went.

  Both unchanged.

  And a new one:

  Task #7: Get out of the debt of Mercy Stripstridecem di Omnio, aka Crown Princess Angelina Grace Marca Prima Omnio.