His new friends, Sapphire and Aerys, were shocked at how open to studying he was. Even he was surprised by how much he wanted to learn. There was a strong probability that it was because he was in a world of magic. He kept his mouth shut and started humming a rather bubbly theme song to stop the thought from slipping out. The theme ended up, by accident, being replicated by Sapphire.
They worked together when classes were mixed together. She was surprised to see how he analysed situations. His approach to observation was on par with those in experienced parties. Even his tutor was impressed at his deep interest in learning what magic was like. It turned out, with some examples from certain tutors, that there were three forms of casting; verbal cast, visual cast, and creative projection.
While he couldn’t achieve what the tutors were expecting, he found himself asking questions that some students hadn’t even thought of. Like how to recreate the strong blue flames that could cut through metal. His approach to some subjects just seemed so strange to the Scholars, but despite the odd looks, at least some of them appreciated the outside thinking.
It wasn’t until the third class, when something popped up in his thoughts while taking notes in his “Elemental Studies” subject.
‘Hey, Sapphire,’ he asked, leaning over enough so she could catch his low voice. ‘So if I apply the same thinking, if someone or at least two people with Wind and Air affinities can cast Ice spells, would the same apply for Fire and Earth?’ he tapped the short quill’s feathery end against his chin as he voiced his question while his eyes focused on the wooden chandelier.
‘I have heard of something like that, but I’ve not seen it before.’ she replied, her left ear twitching as her friend in the seat behind her spoke up.
‘Saph, you’re probably thinking of Lava magic,’ —He turned back to see a human girl with a single pigtail— ‘which is indeed under the same principle of applying two affinities together.’ she finished, her fingers twiddling with the quill in her fingers as her gentle smile informed him that she had indeed overheard his earlier question.
‘Oh, then, what about applying a core elemental affinity with a higher one?’ he pondered, as the Wind Scholar was distracted with a rowdy student in the front row. ‘Like mixing Water and Lava affinities? Wouldn’t that make something like Obsidian, or would the higher affinity cancel the lower one out?’ his questions left both of them speechless.
The two girls both took his question with attentive curiosity, until they both admitted to never even thinking about it. The girl behind his Beastal friend was Sapphire’s good friend Elysia, who gave him a small introduction. The two girls then turned back to the front after the brief introduction, during the small moment at the front, with him doing the same while noting down his question for later.
At the end of the class, he approached the Scholar and handed over his question to them. They were surprised at his approach to the combining of different elemental affinity types. After the short chat, the rest of the classes seemed to blend together. Each of the Scholars kept the classes engaging and while some of the others found some topics boring, Reiki was attentive and engaged with them. To the best that he could.
‘...So when casting a spell, we must focus on the ...’ went a simple presentation by a Fire Scholar showing the class different ways of using common and altered spells in everyday situations.
‘...Remember, the Vhandrhoen Scraema must be cut down the body, not across.’ spoke an Earth Scholar, who was teaching both a group of young children, and upcoming adventurers like Reiki himself, what to do with the mentioned plants. Plants with a purple colour that tasted like a mix of radish, ginger and garlic, which screamed for several minutes when pulled from the ground.
‘So, if that’s the case, would something like this work?’ he said, while sliding the dull knife down the body of one that had been plucked an hour earlier, but his hand moved so fast it looked like he was cutting it with three knives at once. ‘Sorry it’s so wobbly though.’
‘Yes, that’s the correct way to cut it,’ the Scholar had exclaimed, after watching his plant fall apart into four equal yet curved slices on his wooden cutting board after removing the cold-green leaves at the head of its body. ‘How did you even… never mind, I was told you’re open to everything, so well done.’ they added, before moving on to the next student.
That was a class that his friend didn’t attend, but he had thought that being able to cook with plants and meats would be a good plan for the future. Even if he might not need such a skill. He spent his time enjoying his stay at the academy. Despite his social hurdle where he spent most of his time chatting with Sapphire, he spent his time rather enjoying the little assignments and tasks that each subject gave him as homework.
His days were starting to feel dull and repetitive, when the Headmaster and the leader of the local Guildhouse, Ren Murrows, made their appearance in his “Social Expectations” subject. Sapphire was on a free break after handing in her own hard work, so she had taken the time to sit by his side. They were talking about how it was okay for their days to sometimes feel boring when Ren spoke up.
‘Hey, everyone,’ his voice carried across the room without the need for any Wind spells to enhance his voice. ‘If you’ve not heard of me, I’m Ren Murrows, the Guildmaster of one of your future Guildhouses to pick from here in the Froebel Empire. I’m glad to announce, to all of you that as of Monday, with some support from Head-Scholar Hyroel and some of our lower-rank adventurers at the Guild, you will be able to sign up for your training identification cards.’ he continued, getting a fair amount of cheers.
‘Indeed,’ the Headmaster spoke up. ‘We will at first give you some mock situations that you will be called out to do, alongside the occasional small job. Then, as part of the final stretch of your progress, we will slowly transition you all into an introductory session with different adventuring groups at the Guildhouse where Ren holds the yearly bouts between adventurers.’ he finished, his volume not as dominant as when Ren spoke.
‘Thank you, Headmaster,’ Ren bowed, with what looked like a gesture of his hand being put into that one web crawling hero’s pose and placed on the hip across from that hand. Something Reiki took notice of. ‘Right, so with this next stage…’ he continued on, holding out a thick leather book and began reading from several pages within it.
A collective sigh came from several students, including the Beastal girl and Reiki himself, as Ren went into a monologue about the core expectations for this approaching stage. After the class, he dared not speed his way after the Guildmaster, but he did want a simple clarification of what he was asked of. This attentive approach of his earned him a warm smile from Ren, who then went on to summarise what he was looking forward to seeing from everyone applying to be adventurers.
The students filtered out of their classes and shuffled their way around the campus. This happened right after a loud chime echoed down into the open court within the centre of the academy, where he had approached the Guildmaster. Despite his mental map, he was with his friend Sapphire, who had watched him discuss what he will be marked on. After a quick farewell, they found their way outside the campus grounds to a café with yellow sofas.
‘So, d’you think you should look into some of the more interesting tasks?’ she asked while taking a sip of a red coloured, blueberry-tasting juice from an ornate glass with three wooden prongs that connected at the base. ‘Or, are you going to go for something a bit more usual?’ she added with a bigger gulp of her drink, leaving a darker line on her top lip.
‘Do you really think I should go for the big ones off the bat, though?’ he replied, looking at his own cup, which was more of a bland glass filled with a deep orange colour. ‘I know that some are mock ones, but do you know which ones are real or mocked up?’ he added, looking at his friend before him.
‘… I don’t, no, but I do think you should try some of those delivery jobs they’ve listed,’ she replied, tapping at the sheet between them.
‘Hmm… Might as well,’ he said, after releasing his tensed shoulders and a deep exhale. ‘It’s not like there’s anything else to do for now…’ he added, letting his lips stretch out into a gentle smile.
After a bit of relaxing at the familiar café, Sapphire asked if there was a way to get his attention like how he did prior to projecting his thoughts into her head. Her attempts were slow, but with time came the start of some progress. His hours blurred as they had fun experimenting with how far his ability could reach. As it turned out, his ability at its current stage could only project within line-of-sight and over a distance of about two-hundred or so metres.
By Wednesday, the lecture room classes had dribbled down to only two a week. The reason was “for those aspiring to become adventurers”, so the lectures still went on as normal for those getting into other professions. Reiki didn’t feel like he had to think about them. His mind did have a bubble of worry tucked away, just in case. A small thought hidden away to learn other professions if the need arises calmed him down. Moving on from that, he was approaching a task to help a young girl get her Nykoa down from the tree. One that didn’t have a pair of Elemental or Physical wings.
‘What did you say the Nykoa’s name was?’ he asked the young elf-girl, who looked no older than a thirteen-year-old human girl when he approached her.
‘She has name of Faelfir. Please be gentle.’ she said, with a hint of broken Engali, as the deep, reddish-blonde fur of the Nykoa made it stand out against the green of the tree’s leaves. ‘Can you get her down safely? Plé'ui-na?’ she added, surprising him with her emotional slip back into her native tongue; the “Elve’n” language.
‘I’ll do my best.’ he replied, as he looked around for something to use. Which didn’t take long to do.
There were a few small planks from a market stall the day before. Some were matted and itchy to the touch, and some with a slight glaze to them that felt smooth. He looked at the tree for a few seconds, then fastened a rudimentary ladder together by using his speed to rub the edges fast enough together that they appeared to fuse. With no time to lose, he used this makeshift ladder to speed his way up to the branch, and snatched the small creature carefully by the scruff of their neck.
Before the young elf could react, he gave a gentle tug on her hands and put the small creature in them as he let his speed dwindle like a slow-leaking tap as he came back to real-time. With a big over-reaction, the young girl’s eyes widened, and she jumped while letting her arms pull the animal to her chest out of instinct to her happiness.
‘Ath~kjé, speedy man.’ she said, while she held out a piece of raw meat to the creature. ‘Ah, uhm, I give my thanks for saving my creature.’ she said, after noticing the curious expression on his face.
‘It’s all good,’ he replied, letting his mouth widen into a smile. ‘I’m guessing that “ath-ikay” word is the same as a thank you?’ he asked as he tried to log it to memory, noticing her relax a little with a smile of her own.
‘Yeah,’ she replied, stroking the Nykoa before handing him a palm full of new and dirtied Reuke coins from a small bag on her side. ‘This is for helping. Nobody else came to help.’ she added, when he gave a gentle push of her fingers, to close her hand over them.
‘Keep it,’ he said, with a hand air-patting her head. ‘Small things like this I’ll do for free if a kid’s pet, or familiar, is involved.’ his desire to help for free made her wary, when an older woman approached them.
‘Thank you for helping my daughter with her untamed familiar.’ she spoke, approaching the kid and resting a hand atop her head.
‘It’s no biggie,’ he replied, letting a natural and warm smile appear. ‘I find the small tasks great for getting to know people. Being new here, it’s probably the best choice for me.’ he added, before the young girl turned towards her mother and began describing his actions.
While initially declining the reward, he eventually ended up taking at least two Reuke coins just to satisfy both the child and the mother. This was just the start of his series of quests. They began small, but starting off with just two to three a day, he found it rather easy to complete them. Within his first week, he got to know the locals better. The young elf girl requesting him to help track down her pet happened at least once every few days since their first encounter.
As the week dragged on, he found the mundane tasks that some of the others were skivvying off from were much easier without accidentally bumping into the others. This allowed him to take part across a wider range without feeling the least bit bored by them. That last bit wasn’t entirely true, but his lunch breaks with Sapphire eventually had him revealing to her his thoughts on his progress.
‘… So, you would prefer some extra work, or something less repetitive?’ she had asked, when he shook his head in response.
‘Nah, not really,’ came his response. ‘It’s quite nice being able to interact and get to show my face around. It also gets me into the good graces of people around me if they’re ever stuck with something. I just find it a tad bit frustrating that most tasks are similar to each other and appear to occur so often.’ he added, while trying a new snack she had brought along.
‘I see. Well, I have some fun news to share.’ she said, her lips curling up.
As she explained how she was making progress in her classes, he couldn't help but notice the warm and sparky glow in her eyes. The conversation with his friend went on for about an hour, until their break was over. With his occasional reward for completing a task, he was able to get an eventual tell when one was a mock quest and when one was real. It did take a day or two for him to notice this.
The week went by with a few new tasks thrown in, to his surprise. Tasks he was doing beforehand were just simple tasks like collecting items for merchants, or finding specific resources within certain timeframes. Now, he was taking part in deliveries, practicing scouting tactics, and being able to track targets. The former being the occasional-paid quest, while the scouting and tracking ones being mock quests.
His ability to keep on top of some of the fastest Scholars made those days fun for him. Even when he found it easier to pretend to vanish from sight while trailing a target, only to be noticed waiting further ahead by an assessing adventurer. His Telepathy, being a well-kept secret, allowed Reiki to surface-scan their minds and finding a point further along their route before they had even reached it.
It had surprised him at how easy it was when it came to his telepathic surface scanning. He also rubbed his ear every so often. Just to check that his skill was indeed increasing as he kept using it. He also noticed that he had to watch his stamina point bar. The reason? At some point during one tracking experience, he had left it activated due to how slippery his mock target was being. By the time he had caught up to the target by the allocated time, it had used up almost the entire bar.
The following day, it had only recharged half-way, so started to use the ability in an on-and-off state to make sure it recharged over time. He noticed it didn’t take long for his stamina to start recharging, but that it did take a couple of minutes before it continued. His stamina points had started ticking upwards after stopping all of his abilities at one point, when he was about to lose track of the student he was to follow on that day.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Safe to say that this student was the closest, of anybody that he tracked, to getting out of the range of his Telepathy. Afterwards, after that academy’s day was over, the student came over and it was a familiar face. He remembered that the young woman was from Sapphire’s cooking class. That was when he felt his quiet side take over.
‘Heya, Reiki,’ they spoke, as their short hair swung when they sat down beside him. ‘Well done with keeping track of me earlier. Sapphire told me to bring this to you.’ they added, handing him a small wooden box with a towel-like cloth around it.
He accepted it with thanks, and tacitly gave her a smile. He didn’t say any words, but he did give her a smile of appreciation. They kept silent for a while until their own lunch break was over. Just sitting there, he kept himself from scanning her thoughts as to why she was keeping him company until Sapphire came out.
The girls shared some whispered talk, giving Sapphire a brief flush in her ears. Turning her ears away from him before he could notice their rosy glow. Sapphire’s friend hugged her to suppress their giggle at the Beastal girl’s reaction, before skipping off to their own class as Sapphire sits down beside him.
‘So, I take it she’s a close friend?’ he asked, as his friend sat near but not too close to his personal space.
‘Yeah, I’ve known her since my first year at this academy,’ she replied, swinging her tail around her hip so she could comb through the creamy-rose coloured tip with her fingers. ‘Did she… did she say anything to you?’ she asked, as her eyes struggled to keep locked onto his face.
‘No, not really,’ he said, as he finished his lunch. ‘We kinda just sat in silence together. I’m not going to pry into why you asked, as it would probably be very rude of me to do that.’ he noticed her big exhale, a sigh of relief, his mind set to respect any boundaries or private conversations she had.
After that, they sank into idle chatter. Their skin soaking in the warmth of the sun’s rays, whenever it popped out from the occasional small cloud, lulled them into a warm doziness until the bell chimed for classes to resume. They went their different ways, after he complimented the flavours and textures of the food she had brought out for him to eat with her. With their lunch over, he sped off. As he explored the city once again, it wasn’t until a few hours later that he started to feel something was off.
Just when he was thinking of finishing his practice of scouting locations. Speaking of that feeling, something came up that was about to test the strength of both his mental fortitude and patience. Upon approaching a busy intersection, he stops by a seated area near an inn, only to end up hearing some raised voices. As he catches his breath, he closes his eyes as he follows the direction of the voices. He discovers three adventurers, with other party members, arguing between them.
‘I didn’t touch anything from the shoddy lot you left on that table!’ One of them, a demon with human-coloured skin and a dragon-like curvy, single horn on his forehead beside a cracked horn stump. ‘
‘
Before he figured the scene would evolve into a fist fight, he huffed as he rubbed his cheeks and neck before he made his way towards them. As he approached, some of the public around him shot him several glances. Due to how out of energy he was, he didn’t bother to question any of it. Even after some gave him concerning glances mixed in with the confused ones.
‘Hey, what’s going on?’ he asked as he approached the three of them. ‘I’m a little tired from everything today, but if you need a mediator… You’ve got me.’ he said, looking between them.
‘That’ll be a good hel–’
‘Deal with me first!’ came the raised voice of the lioness Beastal, interrupting the adventurer who had begun turning towards him. ‘I’m fed up with how everyone keeps trying to brush this off and focus on their fancy loot.’ she added, a well-manicured hand moving to rest on her hip.
While her other hand held and gave a subtle rub of the ball of long fur on the end of her tail, the sight of her vulnerability subdued in the process. The two men, on the other hand, just looked between each other and at Reiki, before shrugging in defeat. A bead of sweat dripping down one of the adventurer’s faces after glimpsing at the now less-armoured lioness Beastal woman.
‘She’s got a strong aura about her…’ he kept to himself, as he let out a quiet rush of air, letting his fingers brush his soft fringe out of his face. ‘Okay then, miss…?’ the speedster left his reply open, hoping to get her name out of the situation to calm her down.
‘<...me first, huh?>’ she mumbled after some of the people around them began to walk off. ‘Call me Chiara, nothing like Miss Gallas or some other formal crap. Only my friends are allowed to call me Chia.’ she threw a quick gesture of her thumb over towards a table, when her eyes squint at him. ‘You’re not gonna tell me to brush it off, are ya?’
‘Okay, Chiara, let’s start with you,’ he replied, kneading the sides of his nose while slipping into his speed once again for the last time that day. ‘Let’s see…’
‘It looks like those two guys were focused on their loot more than their surroundings… What if, she took one of the items for compensation? No, that would still come across as brushing her off… How about having the one responsible apologise while giving her the choice to pick which piece of loot to give them? I get the feeling she might be a bit petty like that, but… there’s also the loot obtainment problem with her group and the other one…’ he rattled off various ideas in his mind with his superspeed processing.
After what only took the others a few seconds or less, Reiki had spent a considerable amount of time coming to a single conclusion. It took him a relative amount of time, of fifteen to twenty minutes, before realising how far it felt from ending in a win-win situation.
‘What exactly happened, Chiara?’ he let out a soft flow of air, while the murmurs of the people around them subsided into the return of white noise of the city. ‘I’d like to get the picture from your side first, then I’m going to ask for his side.’
‘I’d rather be compensated… but I’ll indulge you.’ she said after a short pause before huffing ad relaxing her shoulders. ‘I was leaning over the edge of a table, looking at some stuff my party members were pulling out of some storage bags. I was trying to stay close to the edge of the table, but I felt a hand graze across the open skin near the base of my tail. Not a nice place to be touched by some stupid loser.’ she turned to the side while stating that last part.
‘I see,’ he said, resting a thumb and index on his chin as he held his inner elbow with the other hand. ‘Well, if that’s the case, what would you prefer? I wouldn’t suggest asking for something in return from the pile of loot, as it looks like you’re already a part of that party who had earned it. –’ his comment made her look at the front of the place where it had all happened, along with one of her party members who had been near her. ‘– … So the next idea, would to be one of two things.’
He went on in detail about two choices she could pick from they would most benefit her, but to cut it short, his suggestion she had chosen was to get the guy to issue a heartfelt apology after having to drink a nasty, albeit super safe, alcoholic-smelling concoction made by one of the cooks in the kitchen of the inn. A strange, brown and purple drink suggested by one of the staff members.
One that was so awful, a rumour had spread about it. One that said it made whoever drank it so focused on the awful texture, rotten smell, and sludgy movement were unable to mask anything they said as they reacted to its potency. The guy who touched her paled white when it was placed with a clunk before him. The foul thing was placed on a small table which had also been brought out. The paper from Reiki’s world after seeing the awful drink being made. He had begun to complain about something, but a hand on his mouth stopped him and a soft whisper made him focus on what he had to do.
Chiara hadn’t noticed, but the party member beside her saw a smirk of both satisfaction … and surprise on her face once Reiki had turned away after the smell of it reached his nose. She had let go of her tail while the drink was being made. The guy had given up trying to fight the situation, and while he had given am immediate, rather emotional apology while wishing he didn’t have to drink “such a vile liquid”.
After being a bit stubborn and hesitant, she assured the young speedster that this was the best way to deal with it, he followed her inside. Gagging sounds from outside making her give a wry smirk which almost went unnoticed. Then, while the man sat outside the inn while drinking with a slow but sure approach with one of the females in the demon’s party of adventurers, the young speedster followed the rest of the two parties inside to the table that had been left unwatched by the Lioness’ party. Someone had tried looting from the pile they had left, but a neighbouring table had stopped the thieving attempt.
‘Okay, so you’re all trying to figure out who gets this loot after doing a dungeon dive together?’ he asked, a bit of energy back in his posture. ‘Why don’t you figure out who defeated what, and give them anything that came from the corpses of the ones they defeated?’
‘We tried that,’ that soft interruption before Chiara spoke came from a young lady, an elf, in an outfit which looked like it came from a certain videogame’s art style while a slight musky, yet floral smell wafted from her person. ‘But we couldn’t determine what came from which, so as the party who invited theirs, we kinda just hoarded them. Also, it’s hard to keep track of that while you’re still dealing with monsters coming after you over and over.’
Reiki noticed the elf’s eyes dart at a demon woman in the other party, before she played with the vines and tiny leaves at the end of her short staff. While he didn’t want to strain his Stamina too much, he didn’t like the idea of exposing his Telepathic capability to anyone except his only friends; Sapphire and Princess Aerys.
With a strong will, he pushed past his tiredness and focused on the loot. With the inn closing in the not too distant future, he focused on the pile while discussing the plans. Some of the loot, according to Chiara, was planned to be sold to the Guild and some useless ones in the “Forged Crafts” district of the capital. This task was much simpler, and all they had to figure out was who had the right affinities with each of the more powerful loot drops.
Some of the loot were even called Elemental Cores, because the monsters they had been fighting were literal bodies made up of those elements. He wished he had an analysis skill that could tell him more about the loot in front of him, but no matter how much he tried in secret, he could not see or learn anything except through word of mouth. Speaking of their discussion, he was able to make them split the elemental-bound loot so that, unbiased, the items would be split into a rough estimation of a sixty-forty ratio. The most loot going to the main party.
Since that was all done, but not quite dusted, he headed to the student accommodation to get a bit of well-deserved rest. Or at least some rest. After all of that, it didn't take long for the rest of his educational schedule to come towards its end. The day grew closer when Reiki would get his results, to which he began to fidget and feel the hairs on his arms raise more often than not. Also leaving him to wonder that it might be giving him more stress to deal with on top of his already busy schedule of examinations and mock situations.
The following day, in his dorm room, the bells rang again in a different pattern a few seconds afterwards. Sapphire’s ears sprang straight up and jumped to her feet with a happy grin plastered on her face. She had been asking him for some feedback on something she’d made, when her eyes lit up. He was sure a strange warmth had spread across his chest, as a slight ringing in his ears replaced the loud bell.
‘Come on, that’s the results bell for adventurers!’ she exclaimed once the final bell stopped echoing through the area. ‘If you don’t hurry, you’ll have to retake them next term!’ she added as her eyes shimmered with the light through the window.
‘Okay, okay,’ he replied, getting up from his desk while being pulled by his friend. ‘Don’t be so hasty, I almost tripped!’ he said with a joyful waver to his voice, stumbling a bit as she pulled him up without letting go of his hand.
She dragged him through the academy grounds. He felt a big smile on his face, after seeing her so focused with her ears standing to full attention. Her tail wagging over a wide area, side to side, in beat to her hasty steps. That’s when he remembered her slight discomfort during conversations just a few days earlier.
‘She must’ve been waiting to see what I scored,’ he kept to himself, enjoying having someone so eager to see what he’s capable of. ‘Might as well listen to her.’ he added, letting her pull him out of the building.
As they made their way into the academy grounds, murmurs could be heard between the various students and adventurers alike. The ones who have their exam results set for this term of the year were all huddled around a stage with a long board to the rear. The boards looked like they had wheels, but from their perspective, it was hard to tell with all the heads of the students milling around. After everyone started to stop moving around, the stage was boarded by five individuals.
Headmaster Orinko Hyroel, Guildmaster Ren Murrows, two members of staff and an adventurer with a broadsword on his back made their way to the centre, then lined up behind the podium that rose from a patch of dirt near the front. Headmaster Hyroel grabbed the sides of the podium created with some element of Earth Magic as it solidified into a stiff, stone-like material.
‘Welcome, everybody! I have news, more news, good news and I have great news. Which should I start with first?’ he began speaking, raising a finger with each thing he listed, earning himself a round of laughter from the people present.
Sapphire squeezed his hand before letting go as the opening speech by the Headmaster began. The first report was a congratulation towards several students working towards their studies being completed. The next, was having to give some others a few mentions that next year they might do better. The third one was when Sapphire bumped her elbow into him, which was something he was glad she brought his attention back to. He had been so nervous, that he had only been half-listening, hoping he wouldn’t be in the list of adventurers and students alike to come back next time.
‘... and now, on to the next thing. Students who have put in so much effort, you know who you are. I am definitely impressed to see way more than just one student pushing their limits, but almost a dozen? Colour me impressed!’ he chuckled, as he expanded on this extended attention to the outstanding students.
When the headmaster looked at Sapphire, the sound of a quick shuffle to a more upright posture and a soft hum caught the teen’s attention. Peeking to his side, he couldn’t help but reach out and tap her exposed arm to get her attention. He felt her warm layer of heat under his touch as he gave her a simple thumbs up. She giggled, before the headmaster dropped a rather interesting bombshell which caught his rapt attention.
‘Now for our outstanding adventurers-in-training, we have an interesting line-up in our Top Quartet.’ He listed a group of about seven of them, going through three names before saying the next one. ‘In last place, of the Top Quartet, stands our newcomer, Reiki Honoka. Your strong desire to learn about everything, even with your outside thinking, was a pleasant change to the boredom we sometimes get from some students.’ he added that last bit with a soft chuckle, as if giving a subtle hint to what some Scholars noticed in their lectures.
It was all a blur to him from that point onwards. Even with giving the biggest applause for him, Sapphire was surprised that he didn’t make it to the top position, but he was glad he didn’t stand out like all the other protagonists. His theory about his position was focused around his physical exam. Looking back on it, he knew he could have done much better.
Once the grading was done, the two of them both were heading out the door when none other than Ren approached them directly.
‘Hey kiddo,’ he said, a bounce in his step as a small party of people just older than the two of them stood in equal amounts on either side of him. ‘We found out that the lass in this party was watching you in the arena during the physical exam. They want to hire you as a Carrier. Whatever role that is.’ he added the last sentence under his breath for comedic effect, as all of them chuckled upon hearing that.
‘R-Really now?’ Reiki responded, feeling a bit taken aback at the sudden hiring. ‘I thought that I’d have to wait a little before being invited to a party.’ his voice was low, but not a mutter, as he tried to process what was going on.
‘Oh no, it’s not like that here,’ spoke up a young cat-woman Beastal, her ears twitching at the cacophony of people chatting around them as they turn to focus on him as her posture belayed that of her young appearance; reserved and calm. ‘We’ve been part of this new Exposure program where we can make a newbie like yourself experience a proper quest.’ she added, getting a wry grin directed Reiki’s way from the Guildmaster.
‘Yeah, so that’s part of the new role. It’s simple, but also allows for some flexibility with what you can do,’ spoke the Guildmaster, as he handed the cat-eared lady a rolled up document and a letter. ‘These are a group of fairly experienced adventurers who are looking for an extra member or two who were looking for a chance to give some F-Rank adventurers some experience as an adventurer before your legal role as an adventurer is finalised.’
‘So… it’s more like work experience for jobs, but for adventuring?’ the young speedster replied, his curiosity dulling his trembling hands enough to converse. ‘...well, count me in!’
‘Great! We’ll be looking forward to having you.’ the cat-girl replied, her tail raising while her nose twitched when her party’s leader patted her shoulder with a chuckle while leaning in to whisper in her ear as it twitched from how close he was. ‘Oh, right! We’ve gotta run now, but I’m looking forward to showing you what our party will be doing when you join us.’ her face flushed enough to be noticeable, yet it was enough to hide her reaction.
Reiki didn’t quite know what that was all about, but watching them leave left him wondering what it would be like to join them. He spent a short time after it had all finished, chatting to Sapphire. While energetic and a bit excited, enjoying how he was invited to a party of adventurers, she kept herself from expressing a more distant look during their discussion. He hadn’t noticed, but the young Beastal worried about his chances of survival.
She did try her bast to not worry about anything going wrong, as long as the party were nice and cheerful to be around. She just hoped, a silent wish toward his safety more than her own, that nothing bad would happen to him.
Reiki's finally about to become an adventurer! But what lies ahead?!