"Three weeks from today, we will head for the Second Layer," Professor Pure told the entire class.

His gaze was sharp, showing the seriousness of the situation.

"For those that have not opened their Dreamscapes you have a choice to make. Either you risk your life going down with us, or you fail Rising Dreamer Academy. Many of your classmates have already left the school, but I do commend those who have stuck around with hopes of opening it."

Almost half of the seats were now empty, the students having dropped out. It made me think of what I would have done in their place. Give up? Try and become a doctor to satiate my itches? Or would I risk it all and go to the Second Layer?

"For those that have opened their Dreamscapes I hope you all have been preparing for this. The places we head to are human controlled settlements, however the threat of Nightmares is always there. Hopefully you have already formed your teams and have begun to learn to work together. Along with your teams you will also have a contingent of ten Champions of the Forged Order and ten of their regular soldiers."

The three of us had not found a fourth member yet. Well I had been banned from talking to any possible teammates so it wasn't my fault.

We also haven't discussed our abilities with one another. I was reluctant because, well, I understood that others would find it disturbing.

"That is all for today, those that have not opened their Dreamscape continue to practice visualization and self-reflection. Those that have, I would get with your teams and train with one another. Mister Monty, may I see you outside for a moment?"

I flinched in surprise, but quickly got a hold of myself and responded.

"Yes Professor."

I looked behind me toward Elina and she gave me a confused shrug in response.

Professor Pure was leaning on the wall next to the door, and he waited for me to close it before speaking.

"I heard that your team is missing its fourth member, correct?"

"Yes Professor."

"Well I know of a student that still needs teammates but has yet to group up. If possible could you try and convince them?"

My mind instantly went to Cystella, as she was more antisocial than me, but she had apparently gotten permission to go solo on the final test so that was unlikely.

"Why not ask Elina?"

Despite the embarrassment of being told that I was not good at finding teammates, it was still true. I would make a terrible salesman.

Professor began to walk down the hallway, signaling with his head for me to follow.

"This guy is a bit difficult. Miss Melanie already tried to recruit him, but he refused. Professor Alyci asked him why, and he said that she was too uncouth. You however are meticulous and straight forward. Both Professor Alyci and I believe you have a better chance of convincing him."

"It's good to be meticulous," I said.

The professor looked back at me oddly.

"Yes, I can agree with that."

I met his gaze for a few moments as we walked but then shifted to the wall, inspecting the rough grain of the black stone pass by.

The way he has said meticulous and straight forward almost seemed patronizing, but perhaps I had just been imagining it. Professor Pure has only been kind to me.

Wait. Could Professor Pure be considered a friend? He was around twice my age, could you be friends with someone with an age difference like that?

Not to mention the student teacher relationship. Was it possible to be friends with someone who held power over you?

I shook my head. I was better friends with Bliss than I was the professor. She seemed to enjoy startling me, which I didn't particularly like, and would sometimes ask me for head pats.

We arrived in front of Professor Alyci's classroom and Professor Pure knocked on the door before opening it.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

The inside of the class looked quite different than my own.

For one the desks were haphazardly put next to one another, allowing friend groups to sit together.

I saw Melanie sitting with three other students playing a card game together. She waved to me when she saw me, and I gave a raised hand of acknowledgement.

Professor Alyci was sitting at her own desk, a custom gun disassembled in front of her.

She stood when we came in.

"Heyo Pure, Monty, he's over there in the back. Oi! Vit!"

In the back of the class sat a lone desk. On it was a pristine vase that a boy was wiping the non-existent dust off of with a handkerchief and white gloved hands.

The boy looked up when his name was called then stood.

He was a bit taller than average, but rail thin. His black hair was combed slick back. With a perfectly tailored and pressed uniform, along with his straight back posture made him a textbook example of a hard-ass.

He was Empyrean, but must of had some Solarian blood because his eyes were a bright yellow.

"How may I help you Professor?" Vit asked, his voice surprisngly deep with a smooth tenor.

"Professor Alyci has told me that you had difficutly in finding a team. Monty here might be able to mesh well with you," Professor Pure said, reaching a hand back to pull me forward.

Vit peered at me with his predetor yellow eyes.

"Monty Niko would not be a bad teamate as far as I can tell. However, Melanie is also on his team and she is insufferable," he said looking back to the professor.

"I can hear you!" Melanie called from across the class.

Vit cocked an eyebrow.

"As you can see she is obnoxiously loud."

I was surprised that Vit not only knew my first name, but also my last name and that I was teamed with Melanie.

Remembering my failure with Cystella I decided to try and see if I could do better.

"What will our team require for you to overlook Melanie's disruptive behavior?"

I ignored the affronted squawk from Melanie and focused on the boy in front of me.

He met my gaze for a moment, and I instinctively looked away, trailing my eyes down the far wall. Scolding myself internally I looked back to him. Sometimes it was hard to hold someone's gaze.

"I need my team to be perfect, but I know for most people that is impossible. At the very least I need you to be thorough in everything related to the task."

"I will show you my binder."

—

Vit and I sat in the library, in front of me was a binder. It was more than three hundred pages with several labels sticking out of the sides. On top it read "First Year Final Test."

Vit pulled it to himself and scanned the labels, flipping through the index quickly.

I let him sift through my binder with his gloved hands. For almost twenty minutes he skimmed the binder I had spent weeks on, no change is his slight perpetual frown.

"This is good. You have put in a lot of key information, as well as made realistic hypotheses. However you have also overlooked quite a few life-threatening possibilities."

I blinked, a bit offended.

"How so?" I asked.

"Do not get emotional, this is why cross-referencing is good. I too have learned of things I did not account for from your notes."

I had never been called emotional in my life.

Pulling up his bookbag Vit took out two binders of his own, and I could see a third inside as well labeled "Products, Delicacies and Vacation Spots."

The other two were titled "Travel and Survival," and "Tasks."

"Your binder is great for information on the environment and Nightmares. However it does not cover things such as food, shelter, or the actual test itself. I assume that you thought this would be like The Forest of Living Dreams where we had our food supplied to us and a predetermined route. However we have gotten no information at all. It is better to assume we have nothing aiding us and work from there."

I grimaced. My precious, clean, binder was now riddled in holes. The interest I held on Nightmares stopped me from focusing on other aspects of the test.

The only sound was the ticking of my watch and my finger matching its rhythm, tapping away.

Rewrite? No, with the amount of time we have left I wouldn't be able to make a clean binder. I can add notes on the corners of the pages that lead to further information later in the binder. It would mess with the flow of reading, but it would still be workable.

The most obvious answer was in front of me however. Vit was staring at me with his shining yellow eyes.

"Is this sufficient enough for you to join us? And if not can I borrow your binders to take notes of what you have gathered."

At the first sentence Vit raised an eyebrow, but with the second a slight smile spread on his face.

"Yes, I will join you. However, we will spend every day of the next three weeks either planning or training. It is up to you for Melanie and the other girl to join in on training. Should they or you be lax, I will leave."

He was quite demanding, but I would do the same thing in his place. However, I didn't need to because I had friends to team with.

Hmm, I peered at the taller boy.

"Do you have friends?" I asked.

"No. They are a hindrance for my goals."

I opened my mouth, but he quickly raised a hand to shush me.

"I do not need a speech on how I can find happiness in friendship. I am content with myself as is. Thank you for your concern however," he said firmly.

I closed my mouth and felt my face heat up slightly. That was exactly what I was about to do, thinking he was like me.

"We should begin merging our gathered knowledge tonight. Tomorrow the four of us will train with one another," Vit said.