Rin watched as Valder took his coat off, gently folding it and placing it on the table. It was about time, a chance to talk with him, a chance to explain what happened and get some explanations himself. But he could be polite. It's what Sophia would want right? He glanced at Sophia. She had a smile on her face, obviously happy to see her grandfather. Her hair was still damp from the shower, the collar of her shirt soaking up some of that water. She wore shorts that fit tightly to her body only coming down half way to her knees.Her shirt was an oversized T-shirt with pockets seen into the front. If she had been standing the shirt would most likely hang below the end of her shorts.

  “ Would you like a plate, Valder?” Rin asked, his voice remaining monotone. He didn't feel the need to mask his true self anymore and it was enjoyable.

  “ A plate. Hmm is that beef wellington? I know this villa wasn't stocked with anything you could have used to make that.” Valder examined Douge's half finished plate.

  “ Of a sort. I found the mushrooms growing in the gardens. My interface said they were safe to eat. The pastry dough was simple to make and you had everything I needed. And the meat is from some Tibimasese we killed a while ago.” Rin stood up leaving for the kitchen. He quickly got another plate and filled it with food. Seeing the pitcher of fruit juice Douge had made he grabbed five glasses and brought everything out. Pouring drinks for everyone. Valder without hesitation took a bite and smiled.

  “ This is wonderful, I'm impressed.” Valder said

  “ Thank you.”

  “So what do we do about the church? Will they chase Rin down?” Sophia asked

  “ No, not yet they know something slipped by them but not what. Their high priest claims the demon king himself has returned and is going to start searching the whole city.” Valder spoke in-between bites of food, cleaning his face with a napkin every time.“ Sophia, can you explain what happened and why Rin's aura is steeped with the demon king's.” Sophia started explaining everything that happened starting from when they entered the Beadbiters nest. When she got to Douge and Rin's fight with the wraith she let Rin take over. Upon hearing about Douge's Mark of the dragon Valder frowned but didn't say anything. By the time Rin finished explaining what happened on the final floor and his first conversation with the demon, everyone was done eating and had chosen to move to the couch and other lounge seats. Sophia and Liliandra sat on the couch with Rin, Douge took a lavish arm chair with a plush back. He groaned in pleasure as he leaned into the cushions. Valder chose to remain standing.

  “ I see.” Valder said, crossing his arms. “ I wasn't sure how it was going to happen but both Alverez and I had worried that skill of yours would somehow connect you to the demon king….still I commend. When faced with a chance at a life long dream or having to kill your friends. You chose your friends”

  Rin looked down at what he had done was the right thing but he had been wondering what would have happened if he went through it. Both Liliandra and Sophia placed a hand on his shoulder giving him a reassuring smile. He looked up at them and gave them a smile back. Not because he felt like he had to but because he felt it was what he wanted. It was nice and however small it was, he felt happy to have them as friends.

  “ Yeah.”

  “ As of right now I'm placing you four under house arrest. You will no longer attend school; however , I will get someone here to help resume your academic pursuits.” Valder continued. Holding up a hand he stopped everyone's objections. “ Hold on, I will explain. The church won't just chase Rin; they will be after all of you. Being in the presence of the demon King no matter how tiny the interaction is, the church will see it as corruption. Right now none of you are real adventures and don't have the protection of the administration.”

  “ Wait.” Rin said interjecting.” I thought we were adventurers. I got an identchip and everything.”

  “ Allow me to explain.” Sophia said looking to Valder he nodded his assent. “ Typically there is a sort of examination that takes place before you can become an actual adventurer starting off at village rank and working your way up. However, going through one of the five schools can assist in bypassing that initial village rank assessment. Well we're given a provisional license under the umbrella of Hunst Academy. We can take contracts as long as it's approved by the school and we have full access to administration resources. Despite all that, we are not considered even village rank adventurers yet. Typically, the school will host a final exam in which the administration will be involved. Once passed, we'll be instantly promoted to town rank.”

  “ An excellent explanation.” Valder said

  “ Wait but we have been fighting City rank monsters so shouldn't we be at least city rank.” Rin asked.

  “ No. And if I'm going to be completely honest, I hate the current raking system the administration is using. An adventurers rank does not correlate with the strength of a monster's rank typically, an adventurer of a similar rank to a monster should be able to fight that monster however ranks are not assigned on strength alone, they take into consideration an adventurer's ability to handle themselves as well as their ability to navigate the political landscapes and the various planetary governments. The adventure's administration is an interplanetary government in and of itself. It requires all of its high-ranking members to be able to hold themselves up in a court of law or any other political battles they get into. And as such, a town rank adventure might be strong enough to fight even Megalopolis ranked monsters but unable to handle themselves if they get embroiled into political schemes. It's rare but we do get those who've been promoted too fast and are unable to handle themselves in a fight with a monster of equivalent rank and end up dying.” Valder's lengthy explanation was simple enough to but Rin's mind was reeling from it. He didn't know he would have to be able to handle himself in political situations. He wasn't sure he was ready for it. Doug must have seen the genuine look of confusion on his face as he spoke up.

  “ Don't worry Rin, we can help Coach you in that aspect. The three of us have been living in a political hell for our entire life.” Liliandra and Sophia nodded in agreement.

  “ Now with that being said let me get back on topic.” Valder continued. A chair of clouds manifested under him as he sat down on air. “ We can't accelerate your education and the final exam doesn't come for another five months. However, there are another couple of options to get the four of you adventurer status as soon as possible. The first one is the four of you can take one of the monthly assessments The adventures administration holds. This will place you at village rank and you would have to work your way up but you'll be protected. Option number two is the four of you compete in the academy tournament. You will have to fight in Hunst Academy tournament first to get qualification for the Academy tournament itself. However, if the four of you can make it to the semifinals in the Academy tournament, The adventures administration will allow you to take a special assessment in which you guys can then achieve Town rank or possibly even City rank if you mark high enough. If you manage to successfully win the whole tournament, that's another option, winning the tournament. The reward for winning the tournament is a couple thousand credits but more importantly the adventure's administration sees the act of winning the tournament as a feat of strength and intelligence, they'll allow you to take the town rank exam and the city rank exam one after another.”

  “ So that's what I do I win the tournament. I'm assuming the higher your ranking, the adventures administration the higher your protection, or at the very least the more the adventures administration is willing to stick their neck out for you. Am I right?” Rin about the twinge of excitement, a tournament he vaguely remembered Valder talking about on his first day of school But he never gave it much thought. Now it was a path to his goal.

  Sophia's grandfather left shortly after his explanation of the tournament. Sophia had already known how it worked but it was good for Rin to learn it. The Hunst Academy tournament consisted of sixteen preliminary free-for-all rounds where the last man standing got a spot in the real tournament. From there it was a standard bracket tournament. upon reaching the final round both contestants qualify for the academy tournament however those that have lost previously are given a chance to redeem themselves by fighting additional matches against the other contestants that have already lost. The loser bracket consists of two separate brackets, one with the eight initial losers who lost in the first round and four from the contestants that lost their second round both of the new brackets will produced one winner who will compete against the two semi-finalists who lost their matches. From there, the finalist of the losers bracket will both secure a spot in the Academy tournament. The academy's tournament was similar to Hunst how ever with twenty contestants competing the semi-finals became an odd number resulting in a more complex loser bracket. The three semi-finalists will each fight each other once. The semi-finalist who won both their matches would be placed into one of the two spots in the finals. The remaining two semifinalist will fight one more time, the winner of the match will remain in their semi-finalist spot while the loser is placed in the loser bracket. The loser bracket is a standard sixteen fight bracket The winner of the losers bracket will get to fight the final semi-finalist in one last attempt to get into the finals. It was a brutal experience for those that lost in the beginning rounds being forced to fight more just for a chance at getting into the finals again.

  Sophia stepped out into the mezzanine over looking the inside garden below she spotted Rin absently brushing his finger through thin air.

  Rin was sat against a large bonsai tree; its well manicured branches and leaves created a calming space. He was scrolling through his notifications, something he had put off for too long. There was nothing of note aside for the single level he gained. He distributed his stat points, happy to finally have intelligence over twenty five. I dumped all four stat points into intelligence. Figuring why not since he had to use three to bring it up to twenty five.

  [Level 17]

  [ Stats: Strength 35, Constitution 13, Dexterity 10, Intelligences 26, Wisdom 20, Spirit 20]

  A new notification appeared as soon as he confirmed the change.

  [Intelligence Is now above 25. Choose a stat specialization]

  [Option 1: Advanced interface.]

  [Advanced interface improves the interface allowing for a more user friendly experience. Interface will also provide additional information based on current held records inside users storage. In addition advanced interface will grant the skill. Analyze.]

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  [Skill:Analyze allows the user to see information otherwise hidden information gain is based on intelligence. If your user's intelligence is too low compared to a target intelligence, analyze will not work.]

  That seemed like a really good hospital. Rin thought, interfacing used now wasn't too clunky. However, it had a few corks to it. A more user-friendly interface would be nice.

  [Option 2: eye of the magistrate.]

  [Eye of the magistrate will allow the use to see the core of magical spells]

  “That's it?” Rin said out loud the difference between the two in terms of usefulness seemed fairly large.

  “What's what?” Sophia had walked up on Rin while he was deep into his Interface.

  “ Huh?.oh I got to pick between two new skills basically. One is an upgrade to the interface and the other lets me see the core of a spell. I don't know how that really helps me.” Sophia sat down next to Rin.

  “Well how much do you know about spell casting?”

  “ Seeing as how I can't do it I would say none. I only know how to manipulate mana and shape it to my will.” Rin said, turning his gaze shifting to Sophia, noting again how her oversized shirt hid her shorts accentuating her thighs. He quickly pulled his gaze away to look out over the flowers.

  “ spell casting is much the same id assume. We use words of command to guide the mana to do as we want; those verbal words are laced in mana themselves and form the core of a spell when that core is disrupted it disrupts the spell.” Sophia absently picked at blades of grass as she talked.” Chant less spells still have that core. Even though we don't chant the words we still need to form them in our head and eventually it becomes like a blueprint we can call on at a moment's notice. That ability would be extremely useful against any opponent.”

  “ It's sounding like it. I think I know which I'll choose.” Rin pulled up the options again.

  “The interface ability right.” Sophia said Rin's finger stopped just above option two.

  “ Why would you think that?” He asked.

  “ Well the ability to see spell cores is amazing. It's not unique. Many high ranking adventurers worth their credit can do it in some variation so it makes no sense to pick it now when you might be able to just train up to it.” That was a good point Rin thought. If he could train to gain the ability or something similar it would be best to pick the interface.

  “ Okay I'll trust you Sofa.” Sophia glared at Rin as he selected option one.

  “ Ughh.” Sophia moaned “ Liliandra told you that she didn't?” Rin nodded as he watched his whole interface turn off briefly before it came back on. His new interface no longer looked like an internet browser screen with multiple tabs and instead was clean with a mini map in the top right of his vision just below that was a clock letting him know the day and time. At the bottom was a red bar he instinctively understood that it was a health bar. With a simple thought a transparent box that was blue on top and moved to light gray on the bottom appeared. It was his stat screen.

  [Rin Wezts]

  [Race:Humen]

  [Level 17]

  [Stats:Strength35,Constitution13,Dexterity10, Intelligences 26, Wisdom 20, Spirit 20]

  [Skill: Magically inept : Effect: Due to your body's physiology being incompatible with mana, you're unable to use internal mana. Using mana crystals as a source of outside magic grants a 25% bonus to all attacks and healing properties. Magically based attacks against you will have a 15% damage reduction. In addition,all magical buffs and healing effects will have a ten percent buff.Debuffs have a 25% reduction to effectiveness,]

  [ Skill: Artificer: Effect: Items crafted by you have a 10% durability buff, items made by you have a 25% damage and defensive buff]

  [Skill: Modifications: Notification 'The skill Artificer has reacted with the skill mark of the Void and advanced interface. Effect: Allows the user to turn raw material into crafted objects. Must match the material composition of the desired item. Warning: This skill requires twice the amount of materials regularly needed to craft: Warning.]

  [Skill: physical evolution. Effect: This skill allows for the accumulation of experience points gained through physical activities once enough experience points are gained, you will gain a level. Levels will give you stat points to be distributed amongst the stats. Strength, dexterity, and Constitution. Current stat points gain on level up two. If this skill is paired with mental evaluation stat points gain value increase from two to four.]

  [Skill: Mental evaluation.Effect:This skill allows for the accumulation of experience points gained through mental activities once enough experience points are gained, you will gain a level. Levels will give you stat points to be distributed amongst the stats. Intelligences, wisdom, and spirit. Current stat points gain on level up two. If this skill is paired with physical evaluation stat points gain value increase from two to four.]

  [Skill: Overclock:level 2:Effect This skill allows you to temporarily increase your native stats allowing for physical and mental abilities to increase beyond your current level. Once this effect ends stat will slowly decrease back down to native level over the course of one hour This skill can be imparted on magical objects allowing for mana to be spent at a dangerous rate. This skill has a twelve hour cool down if used on your self. This skill has a one hour cool down if used on magical objects. Magical object overclocking can now be used while I'm in physical and mental overclock stat.]

  [Skill: Advance interface: Effect: This is a utility skill. Interface allows access to otherwise hidden information. A higher intelligence yields better results when examining items or skills.]

  [Skill: Mark Of The Void: level 1:. Effect:This is a god skill. Skill will react and form new skills based on other skills. Mark Of The Void allows you to devour magic sources. Devouring magic sources can grant new abilities. Devouring a mana rich item will temporarily increase one stat.]

  [Skill:Unstoppable Force:level 1: Effect: Once every 24 hours you may activate this skill to unleash an unstoppable attack. This attack will deal 2 times the damage after buffs]

  [Skill:Loot:Effect: Loot will harvest resources from mana infused beings. This will result in the harvest body rapidly decomposing. Skill loot can only be used on deceased beings.]

  [Skill: Aura:Mana stabilization: Effect:create a stable mana zone around self.]

  [ Skill: Focused Training: Allows for one physical stat to be set as a focus point. That stat will gain 1 stat point for every level. Stats will be given retroactively when first selected. Focused stat can not be changed.]

  [Skill: Mapping: Effect: Creates a map of current location. Only visited parts can be seen.]

  [Skill: Analyze: Effect: Analyze allows the user to see information otherwise hidden information gain is based on intelligence. If your user's intelligence is too low compared to a target intelligence, analyze will not work]

  The skill Modifications was new Rin had wondered why his artificer skill never reacted to Mark Of The Void but it didn't matter now. He continued to explore his new interface as him and Sophia sat in silence. Sophia shifted uncomfortably being home in a relaxed environment really reminded her how bad she was at real social interaction. Yes she could and did fake it by putting on a mask similar to the way Rin did she hated being a leader she hated having this responsibility saddle onto her and for the past few months she had to be that leader she hated being she needed to push aside her constant nervousness to do what was needed. But if Rin can set aside his own mask and be himself then maybe. Sophia thought to herself before pulling out her phone and sending a message to Rin.

  The notification appeared almost instantly, the sudden ping sound making Rin jump.

  [Message from contact: Sophia Hunst. Would you like to read this message.]

  He gave a simple mental command and another notification appeared.

  [Sophia Hunst: Don't laugh but I find it easier to talk this way. I wanted to apologize again for acting like I did when we first met. It was wrong of me to judge you based on others.]

  Rin thought for a moment before replying. He found he could just think his response and his interface would type it out for him.

  [Rin Wezts: It's okay. I can understand why if I thought some random person was coming in and being introduced to take over my claim on hair to the Valders legacy I would have probably done something much worse.]

  [Sophia Hunst: Like?]

  [Rin Wezts: I have always had this motto. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Become their greatest ally and in their moment of need abandoned them]

  Sophia read Rin's message and looked at him aghast before quickly typing out a message.

  [Sophia Hunst: That's really fucked up. Are we friends? Are you going to abandon all of us in our moment of need?]

  Rin frowned and Sophia regretted sending him that message. Of course he wasn't going to abandon her or Douge and Liliandra he gave up a chance at magic to save us. Why her phone chimed letting her know she had another message.

  [Rin Wezts: Maybe I should have devoured your soul. I would still save Douge he's too handsome to die.]

  Rin was giving her a smug smile

  Liliandra stood on the mezzanine leaning against the railing. She was watching Rin and Sophia. Liliandra had a somber look on her face, her tail and ears all laid flat. She watched as the two had a conversation while neither of them spoke a word. It was clear that they were communicating somehow as they exchanged looks and Sophia would burst out into laughter. Douge who was watching a tri-ball game on the project in the living room noticed Liliandra as she sighed. The space between suit and mezzanine was just a simple set of sliding paper doors that could be easily opened to create a larger open space. Douge walked up leaning against the railing next to Liliandra and he faced her.

  “ You need to talk?” Douge understood her feelings on a basic level he could never pretend to know what she was going through and the betrayal she probably felt however she would need somebody.

  “ Why.” Liliandra said not elaborating Douge waited a moment to give Liliandra the room to think and speak.

  “Why did I fall so hard for him? It happened so fast and.and “

  “ Lili” Douge said softly. “ It's understandable he put his life on the line to save us so many times it would be hard not to fall for something like that especially when you're not sure if you'll make it home alive.”

  “ I suppose. His words were so sweet to me like honey drawing me in. I know what the demon king said was true, Rin even admitted it but I can't seem to hate him, only fall even harder.”

  “ Are you going to give up?” Douge asked

  “ I don't know. I wanna talk to my mom about it but.” Liliandra paused.

  “ With this whole church might be hunting us business. It's best we stay away from friends and family?” Douge finally turned to look at the two in the garden.

  “ Yeah.” Liliandra turned to Douge and hugged him suddenly. He was startled at first but when the sobs came in he collected himself wrapping his arms around her small frame.

  “ I think you should forget Rin for now at least. We are barely adults and there will be plenty of opportunities for us to find love. Love from someone who can recuperate them.” Liliandra didn't respond to Douge her sobs being silenced by his chest.