Due to the unbearable stench, they moved their base camp to the foothills, five miles down the road. The monsters on the other side were pacified and scared enough to ignore their instincts. They wouldn't attempt to attack Earth again anytime soon. Or ever, if humanity had its say.

Robert sent a silent message to Noah asking if Andronicus was trustworthy. He sent the message in Taulusian as an attempt to add a second layer of security to it. Who knew if the experienced professor would be able to intercept the spell? But he was glad he decided to evolve that spell with a concept that greatly increased its range. He wouldn't trade it for any other.

Andronicus entered one of the portable habitats and ushered the students and the monster menagerie inside.

"Good. Now, make yourselves comfortable. I like to start with introductions. I'm Andronicus, first and last names lost to the wheel of time. Senior tenured professor at the Imperial Academy. I've proudly served our august institution for over a hundred years. My affinities are Mind or Mental, Life, and Holy. Now it's your turn. You may tell your talent if you wish but that's not mandatory."

"I'm Amanda Samson, two stars. My affinities are Nature, Water, and Earth. My talent is called super farmer, it makes any plant I grow develop faster, stronger, and overall better for its intended purpose. The plants you saw me use were all enhanced by my talent. They aren't normally that good."

Andronicus smiled and clapped his hands. "That's awesome, Amanda. They would think someone with a talent named 'super farmer' would go to a support or production position but I can see that you are a warrior as proud as any other. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. How is your tempering going along? Are you as tough as an Earth-Water Arch ought to be?"

"My stoneskin, granite bones, and hundred wet hells are all at the cusp of stage one, professor. I hadn't yet found an adequate concept for them. I also tempered with flowing river, to counter the loss of mobility from the added weight. During our last expedition, Professor Actus managed to craft me a trophy from a defeated enemy that granted me a stage one Lightning tempering. It increases my reflexes and reaction time as well as providing a passive bonus to Lightning resistance, stun, and paralysis."

Andronicus chuckled. "Good old Noah. Never change. I'm very close friends with your homeroom professor, Miss Samson. Now, what about you, Robert?"

Robert took a deep breath. "I'm Robert Blaze, two-stars. My affinities are Time, Space, Void, Mental, Life, and Fey—"

"Hold," Andronicus said. "You have six affinities?"

"Indeed, I do."

The Professor just stared for a while. Once he got over his stupor, Andronicus dipped his head. "I'm terribly sorry, I was overly rude. I have no reason to doubt you."

"I'm with him almost all the time and I still find it hard to swallow, professor," Amanda said with a laugh.

"Fair enough. Would you like to continue, student Blaze?"

"Sure. My talents are..." Robert paused to see if the professor would interrupt again. Andronicus shook his head but kept his undivided attention on Robert. "One percent in real life and fairy transformation."

"Goodness gracious," the professor gasped. "You found and bonded with a unique Prime Vestige?"

"I did."

"Which you also found or manifested during your expedition? I knew Noah returned late and had some issues on the way back but I didn't have the time to talk to him, with the tournament preparations and all. What a friend I am," he said the last part to himself. Recomposing himself, Andronicus continued. "That explains why you have so many affinities. What do your talents do?"

"One percent in real life gives me the power to access the liminal void. It's a coexistent dimension that's an echo of the real world at the edge of the true void. I can survive and move about the liminal void between instants here in the real world. I have to stay there for a length of time equal to ninety-nine times what I spent in the real world between trips."

"Oh. That's why you call it one percent in real life. Because you spend one percent of your time here and ninety-nine in this liminal void. And you said it was between instants?"

"Yes. To outside observers, it seems I'm teleporting around. Now, about the second talent, I can transform into a fairy. In that form, I can fly and become invisible. My Fairy affinity spells are cheaper and stronger. Not that I have many."

"It's an elusive affinity if I ever saw one. I don't think I can recall any mention of it," Andronicus tapped his temple. "What kind of spells did you create to use with this affinity?"

"Only one, actually. I call it Euphoria. I can trigger sensations of happiness or pleasure on targets. These feelings are so overwhelming they can subdue the target."

"I see. Never use it on a girl," Andronicus winked. Amanda sputtered and blushed, hiding her face. Andronicus ignored her reaction. "What about tempering techniques?"

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"I formed one. I named it Serendipity. It manipulates luck. While tempering, I have these bad luck episodes," Robert told him of some examples, including breaking the bus. "But it is supposed to give me good luck, once I tempered it enough."

"I've seen talents that manipulate Luck, but never an affinity related to it. And I believe the Fey affinity might hide even more secrets. You see, the more advanced the affinity's concept, the broader the range of applications. This Fey affinity might cover most of the powers associated with fairies in folklore and fiction. It could involve contract magic, Luck, and Fate manipulation as we've seen with your tempering, emotions and illusions, changing perceptions, hiding secrets, and so on. Say, do you have a vulnerability to cold iron while in your fairy form?"

That question surprised Robert. "I don't know. Didn't test it."

"We better experiment with it. If Noah is amenable to it, we might reserve a lab for ourselves, request a cold iron implement from the metallurgy department—"

Andronicus kept talking but Robert's attention was redirected by Blossom. "That old guy is speaking bullshit. You are not weak to cold iron. Why would I introduce such a detrimental vulnerability?"

Robert raised a hand. He could check what Andronicus said later in his intellect fortress as the logbook there recorded everything he experienced while conscious. "Professor, I don't think I have such a vulnerability."

"And what makes you think so?"

"Blossom, she's the unique Prime Vestige I bonded with. She can hear and see what I do and talk to me. She just said there's no such weakness in my fairy form."

"You are a treasure trove of new discoveries, Blaze," Andronicus said and became distant for a moment. "Yes, I recall one report of a unique Prime user who said he could communicate with the Prime Vestige. They often only manifest themselves during star ignitions."

Andronicus shifted his attention to Freddy. "Last but not least, you. I know you are not a student but I vow to keep your secrets to myself as well, Taulusian."

Freddy looked at Robert. Robert nodded back.

"Freddy's talent is non-detection," Robert said. "He can hide from any senses and magical detection spells. He leaves no trace of his passing and can keep his talent active indefinitely. His affinities are Wind and Illusion."

"Indefinitely? With no talent fatigue?"

"None at all. He once spent a whole month with his talent active with no detrimental effects."

"Did you test his talent under stress? I believe that he will experience talent fatigue if the party searching for him is either numerous or powerful. It's just a hypothesis, though. Sometimes, talents defy any attempts to explain or understand them. It might be the case that Freddy can remain undetected even under heavy scrutiny but we won't know until we try. For his own sake, we should conduct an experiment."

"Now, about the passage outbreak incident. Tell me everything about it. Of course, I can protect your personal details you don't wish to keep public. Look, I have a great interest in you. I wish to form a partnership with Professor Actus. He's demoted to a combat instructor but I know he is way more capable than that. He has some... political roadblocks put in his way, to say the least. I can enroll you in an honors student advanced track where I would share the burden of your instruction with Noah. Would that make sense to you?"

"We'd need Noah's feedback on the matter," Amanda said diplomatically. "But unless he strongly opposes the proposal, we are interested in having such an esteemed scholar such as you as one of our tutors."

They spent the next three hours recounting the events of the day, including the bus trip and the passage incident.

*

*

By the time they emerged from the habitat, Noah was there waiting for them.

The masked teacher stared at Andronicus. "No poaching my students again, Andronicus. I need these."

Andronicus uttered a grandfatherly laugh. "I would never. It didn't end well back then and I believe I learned my lesson, professor Actus. Your students were amenable to a partnership. I offered them an honor student fast track position."

Noah straightened his back and froze for a moment. "Are you sure?"

"Bah. Unless the Empress herself comes down here to tell me otherwise, I will do as I will, within my own code of conduct. I'd rather spend these resources on these two promises than the spoiled noble brats who had never spilled a hundred cubic meters of blood in their lives." With a grand gesture, Andronicus pointed at the blood-covered mountain ridge around the passage. "But you are not surprised."

"I have complete confidence in my students," Noah said with defiance. "To them, this is just a regular Tuesday."

Andronicus laughed heartily. "Indeed, indeed. I have no doubt about that. Commander Mei-Li, here's your report, doctored as to protect the student's privacy. Do with it as you will but if I see either you or your goons—"

"Say no more. Mr. Palmer has instructed us to take utmost care with student Blaze's information," the hulking blonde Valkyrie said.

"It's all good, all good," Andronicus stroked his bare chin. "If you don't mind, Noah and I will take our leave with our students. They are tired after a morning of travel and fighting. Student Samson here shall be named as the finder and owner of this passage for all legal purposes. I think Titania will appreciate the gesture."

Amanda's eyes sparkled. She was expecting that they would either try to steal the passage or nominate Robert as the finder to keep Samson from sinking their claws into the passage. She wouldn't let them swindle Robert, though. But on second thought, Robert was part of her retinue. Her bodyguard. It wasn't Amanda who was traveling with Robert, he was here as her subordinate. Obviously, the Academy was not interested in such definitions. A student was a student, no matter the circumstances that made them so. Unless they stopped paying the tuition, of course.

However, Andronicus just saved her a ton of headaches. She had no doubt the tenured senior professor had a lot of clout with the institution and he drafted the official incident report. Anyone trying to keep Amanda from this prize would have to fight an uphill battle, pun intended.

What if that realm was a new one? An undiscovered realm? A brand new one? That could be ground-breaking, depending on what resources it contained. Her heart thumped fast. The whole realm was wreathed in lightning storms. What if...

She could only dream.

They boarded a school hover bus that brought Noah and a few other Academy staff to secure the passage. The bus took off along the road as it wasn't really a flying vehicle.

Amanda daydreamed. She needed to contact the headquarters as soon as possible to start the takeover before the academy could send people there to explore and loot for "academic purposes". Any such activities would happen in the spirit of cooperation between the megacorporation and the academy. With the dividends split between them.