Three days had passed since team K had decided on their leader. After strenuous debates and many thrown fists, Judith emerged victorious as the one who would balance the interests of all sides. Just as Zexus predicted, there were many disgruntled members even with this ‘compromise’.

None of that mattered to the trio however. In particular, Lavenna had more important things to worry about.

Training Hall 2…

“What the fuck is this?! Are you fucking kidding me?!”

June raised her head from the weights she had been lifting upon hearing her friend’s sudden shouting. Sat on her bench, the dark-haired mage took a sip of her water through pants of exhaustion and wiped her sweat off her face and neck with a towel. She had never been the physical type, but still more than the average mage due to her life as a delver. That said, the training she had started by Zexus’ suggestion was starting to get to her, especially with the previous days’ buidup.

“Shit…my body feels so heavy.”

Sitting still for a break, June attempted to catch a glimpse of what the Kitsune was up to. After spending the past seventy two hours with said woman, the mage had grown used to the fox’s occasional tantrums, and knew that the beauty would be headed her and Zexus’ way soon enough.

“She sounds madder than usual. Should I be worried?” June asked as if she had known Lavenna for years. Strangely, it did seem to feel that way to her.

Nearby, Zexus, who was lifting his own weights more than ten times her own without breaking a sweat also sat up. His face was stoic without a hint of exhaustion, causing her to feel a tinge of envy, especially knowing the fact that he was without an Ego of his own. “When she’s really angry, she goes quiet.”

“Good to know.”

Waiting for less than a minute, June spotted the figure of Lavenna running through the rows of training equipment and towards them.

“Look at this!” The fox woman shouted, coming to a stop between them and pointing at her emblem. “Can you believe this?! I’m only ranked 10,001st!”

“I can believe it. Yes.” Zexus replied in a deadpanned tone.

June, seeing that the man was teasing his partner, decided to pile on despite knowing that Lavenna likely belonged somewhere in the three-digits. This was what friendship was all about. “That’s great. You’ve improved quite a bit.”

Lavenna scowled at the two of them, her tails flicking about in anger. “You two are real fucking assholes.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.” The mage shrugged and looked down at her own uniform. “Looks like I moved up a bit. 3025th.”

“726th.” Zexus voiced his own ranking, much to Lavenna’s annoyance.

“Glad you guys are getting actual rankings.” The Kitsune fumed as the first lights of her Spiritfire began to appear around her tails and ears. Eyes glaring, she seethed. “I’m gonna go burn down the training box…room…things…you know what I mean!”

Without another word, she stormed off, her footsteps echoing through the hall. Due to the late hour, no one aside from the three of them were there. Despite that, June still felt concerned, as she had seen first hand how Lavenna’s Ego had melted through steel walls.

“Is she going to be alright?”

“Probably.” Zexus appeared to be looking through his holobracelet. “It seems I’ve been given five hundred points.”

“Oh?” June checked her own device and found that she had an additional two hundred points. “So this is our weekly stipend? It’s not much.”

“And that’s probably by design. The fact that we get points just for existing is more than we can ask for.” Zexus conveyed, scrolling through a list of items for purchase. “Despite only defending against a single adversary in the last match, we received many more points for our efforts.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“So we should be giving our all on the matches then?”

“That seems to be the program’s intent. However, if we rush in without care and suffer an injury, then the funds required for recovery may outweigh the points gained.”

June furrowed her brows, a hand to her chin. “An awfully complex system that mirrors the real world.”

“They did say ‘everything will be assessed’. Management of resources isn’t all that surprising.” Zexus concluded.

“Speaking of resources, did you hear about some of the other teams?” The mage asked, running a hand through her ponytail. “Apparently team A and team F’s leaders have been collecting ‘donations’ from their members.”

“They’ve also made some sort of alliance, haven’t they?” Zexus recalled, lying back down on his bench to prepare for another set of lifting. She had no idea how or where he was getting his energy from but the man never seemed to tire, almost as if he were built with the muscles of Goliath. It certainly explained his ranking, that and his evidently observant and intelligent mind - and the reason she decided to associate with him.

“Apparently those two teams together amount to more than two hundred people and more teams are thinking about joining their alliance.” The mage said, a hint of worry in her voice. “That’s an overwhelming force.”

With not a change to his expression or breath, Zexus lifted the eight hundred kilograms of weights. After a moment of staring up at the ceiling, seemingly in thought, he spoke. “Judith will probably also have team K join.”

“Pretty sure she’s already talking to their leaders.” June also laid down but had no intention of lifting more sets. Her bones were creaking and her muscles were torn even if her mind was still sharp. “Will it be a problem if we join that alliance?”

“Depends on how the ‘donations’ work and what rules they wish to enforce upon their members.” Zexus said. “Besides that, probably not. We don’t need unnecessary enemies.”

She looked at him. “And if it is a problem, what are we going to do?”

“I have a few ideas.” The amber-eyed man said calmly, performing fifty lifts in a row before setting the bar back onto the rack. “The best preparation we can make right now is to grow our personal strength and accumulate points. Being on the level of someone like Vex will open many opportunities to us.”

“How very simple. I expected a more complex plan.” June teased, smirking.

Zexus merely shrugged. “No need to complicate simple things. But we do need to also grow our group’s members. ”

Just as he said that, someone had walked into the training hall. It was a shorter girl with a mane of messy dark hair and a face smeared with dirt. She looked to be on her own and headed towards them.

“That’s Avali, right?” June said, spotting the teenager with cold eyes. At a glance, the mage had to wonder if the girl had bathed herself even once in the past week. Then again, the scholar ingrained in her reasoned that the smudges on the girl’s face could have simply been a cultural thing.

Walking up to them, Avali did not hesitate to speak with crossed arms. “Why did you call me out here? Do you want something from me?”

June raised a brow in surprise at the girl’s tone and defensive posture. For all intents and purposes, it was warranted considering that the girl was three heads shorter and much smaller than the amber-eyed man. “She’s quite hostile. Did something happen between them? Actually, now that I think about it, this child’s always by herself and barely spoke a word to anyone else.”

Glancing at Zexus, she saw that the man was completely unfazed as he replied. “I’m just looking out for my own self-interest.”

Now it was Avali who was taken aback by both the bluntness of the man’s tone and words. Recovering quickly and schooling her features, the girl narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. “And what’s that got to do with me?”

“I’m sure you understand the importance of the matches.” The girl nodded. “The more teammates I can trust to do their jobs, the better.”

“And you think I’m someone worth trusting?” The slumrat tilted her head, pointing to herself.

“I don’t trust you as a person. But I trust that you would want to score as many flags as possible. Am I correct in that assumption?” Zexus said, once again catching the girl off guard.

He seemed to be pushing all the right keystones.

As the two stared one another down for a moment, the impressed June watched from the sidelines. She noticed that Avali’s air of hostility had slowly begun to die out. Soon enough, the young woman was scratching the back of her head with an expression of frustration and befuddlement.

“What’s with you…?” Avali sighed, eyeing the man up and down. “That sounds nice and all, but how am I supposed to do any of that?”

She pointed at her chest where the number 40,289 was shown. “I’m not exactly a high ranker. I don’t have strength or smarts.”

“That’s why you’re here.”

“Alright.” The girl unfolded her arms and placed them on her waist, an indication of her willingness to train. “Tell me what my ‘role’ is, and how I should go about preparing for it.”

Zexus inclined his head in acknowledgement. “Your role will be to steal the flag in the chaos of battle. You need to build for speed without making your presence more noticeable…”

The girl may not have consciously realised it, but as a bystander, June could tell that Avali had become much more honest due to Zexus’ own bluntness. It was strange, considering that all the man said was that he wanted to use her and that she would be paid in flags. The brief conversation was all very business-like, and yet the girl was now opening up even about her weaknesses.

“What did he do…? Did he say something particularly important?” June could not figure it out no matter what angle she viewed their conversation from. Hand to chin, she looked on as Zexus took the girl to a device called the ‘treadmill’, a supposed technology recovered from the Lost Empire like so many other items in Black Box.

Lost in her thoughts, June would only be snapped back to reality when a loud boom and shockwave suddenly came from her left, hitting her in a wave of sound, wind and heat. Managing to glue herself to the bench, the mage’s eyes locked on to the other side of the training hall where a circle of blue flames rushed out from the broken remains of a smaller room designed for Ego training.

“...” June watched with a blank face as the unmistakable shape of a twin-tailed woman stepped out of the ruins, her uniform tattered and burnt to a crisp.

That said, despite the horrid state her clothing was in, the Kitsune had a satisfied expression on her face, as if she had just taken the best nap in the world.

“Ahhhhhh…that feels much better.” Lavenna sighed, stretching her arms while Zexus and June stared at her, deadpanned.

On the other hand, Avali, who had found herself blasted onto the ground by the shockwave, looked across the room in shock and disbelief. Only one thought ran through the girl’s mind then. “She’s lower ranked than I am?!”