Astrid made it back to the classroom just as it ended for the day.

“What happened?” Brigitta asked as she rushed over to her, followed by Villads.

Astrid filled them in on how the meeting had gone.

“I still think Ruben is getting away with this too easily,” she said as she finished up explaining everything that had happened in the principal’s office. “Why aren’t law enforcement getting involved?”

"If they were, it wouldn't help you much," Villads said. “Ruben’s father is a powerful man here. He’d just give them a lot of money, and then they would ignore the case.”

“That can’t be legal. Surely someone amongst the city leadership wouldn’t be okay with that.”

“They’ll document the bribe as a fine, and no one will be able to prove otherwise.”

“What’s to stop him from attacking me again?”

“Unless his father talks some sense into him, nothing. You just have to be careful when he’s around.”

The conversation stopped as Astrid had no response to this. Being careful around Ruben was easier said than done. They were in the same class after all. She would have to keep her guards up at all times.

“So, are you staying this afternoon?” Brigitta asked, changing the topic. “We’re planning on doing the thing you suggested this morning. Birk gave us permission to use a corner in the bag of the training ground.”

It took Astrid a moment to realize what the girl was talking about. She had planned to go out and complete some quests this afternoon, but she really wanted to train with her new friends. Besides, it was likely that no new quests had been posted, and even if there was something on the notice board, she could always check it out tomorrow. After all, no one else was taking the gathering quests.

"Sure, I can stay.”

"Great,” Brigitta said happily. “Let’s go.”

A few minutes later, they were on the grounds with their staffs in hand, ready to start.

“How did dueling class go earlier?” Astrid asked.

“We didn’t get to duel. Birk had us read the theory book ever since you were attacked,” Villads said. The disappointment was evident in his voice.

“I’m sorry.”

“Hey, it wasn’t your fault,” Brigitta reassured.

Astrid knew she was right, but she still couldn’t help but think that she should have done something to avoid the attack. She wasn’t sure what. If only she had been stronger or faster, she wouldn’t have been caught off guard like that.

“So how are we gonna do this?” Villads asked.

“Well, if you haven’t dueled yet, you're still at full health, right?” Astrid said, looking at the girl.

“Yes.”

“Then it shouldn’t be a problem for you two to duel.”

“That would still only be one duel.” Villads said.

“If you keep attacks as week as you can, you could duel multiple rounds or go for two hits in a round instead of one to make it more challenging.

“But that’s dangerous.” The girl said.

“You would only lose slightly more than half of your health points as long as you keep our attacks weak. Then it will also heal back stronger.”

“I’m not sure.” Villads said.

“You’re trying to get to the next level, right?

“Yes”

“Then you need to be challenged, and in my experience, that means taking risks and pushing yourself beyond what you think you are capable of. It’s hard, and it’s uncomfortable.

“Well, I’m the one most likely to take that damage,” Brigitta said. “I don’t stand much of a chance against him to begin with. No one in class does.”

“A duel against Brigitta wouldn’t be much of a challenge,” Villads said. “No offence.”

Astrid thought about what to do now. How could you make it challenging when they couldn’t find a stronger opponent?”

“You could duel two opponents at once. The girl and me.”

“That’s against the dueling rules.”

“Combat magicians do more than dueling. If you get a job as a guard, the experience fighting multiple opponents at once will be beneficial.”

“There's no way I’ll ever work as a guard. I’ll be a duelist for my family.”’

“Your family needs a personal duelist? What do they do?”

“They trade with people all over Otimra.”

“And you need a duelist to do that?”

“Sometimes there are disagreements about the price or quality of the goods, so a duelist is needed.”

“So, whenever you can’t agree, you fight about it.”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“It’s only used as a last resort, and everything is done to prevent the situation from escalating to that point in the first place. Most of the time the duelist is just there to deter either part of cheating or being unreasonable.

“But wouldn’t the one with the strongest duelist be able to demand whatever they want? They could insist that a cart of half-rotten fruit was of excellent quality and demand full price.”

“That would be a lie,” he said, appalled as if lying was equivalent to kicking children down staircases. “No one wants to trade with liars. They’d just go buy their stuff from someone else.”

“So, if everyone is honest, how can disagreement even happen?” Astrid asked, feeling uncomfortable about all the lies she herself had told in the past few weeks. She couldn’t think of an aspect of her life that wasn’t shrouded in lies upon lies. If anyone ever found out, she would lose everything.

“The market is unpredictable, especially if you have to ship it to other parts of the kingdom. If many people sell the same as you, you can’t charge as much as you expected, but if no one does, you can charge more. Finding the exact price can be hard, as no one wants to pay more than they absolutely have to, and no one sells for cheaper than they have to. Other times you make an agreement in advance, but then conditions change, and you no longer agree whether the deal is valid or not. Those are the most likely to turn violent.”

“Hey guys, can we talk about something else?” Brigitta said. “I don’t want to unlock the business skill today or another day for the matter.”

Astrid was reminded of how careful most people were about unlocking skills outside of those needed for their chosen occupation. It still seemed silly to her and also a lot of trouble.

“Have you unlocked the business skill since you know so much about the topic?” She asked Villads.

“No, I don’t, and I only know a few basic things because I heard about them growing up. Since I gained the ability to unlock skills, my family has kept business-related conversations in places where I won’t overhear them.

“So, are we gonna duel or what?” Brigitta asked impatiently.

“Right,” Astrid said. “Since this is not an official duel but just training, we can make whatever rules we want. I still think two against one could work.”

“I still don’t know.” Villads said.

“My only other suggestion is that we go to the forest and fight monsters, so unless you have a suggestion yourself, pick one of mine or let's cancel this.

“Fine. I’ll fight the two of you.” Villads relented. “Lets just keep the attacks weak. Only three mana per blast. And we can go to two hits. At least on me.”

“I guess I can do two hits as well.” The girl said.

“I can go for five,” Astrid said, earning a glance from the other two. ”

“Aren’t you hurt from the attack earlier?” the girl asked.

“I have recovered some, and even if I hadn’t, I would still have more health than either of you.”

“Seems a bit unfair that you have so much extra health.” Villads said.

“Seemed unfair that you have so much extra mana,” Astrid retorted.

“Touché.”

The tree of them found their place in the dueling ring. Astrid and Brigitta on one side and Villads on the other.

Brigitta did the countdown, and they were off. Villads wasted no time casting the first spell. The girl raised her shield while Astrid ran along the periphery, closing half the distance to the boy. He cast a blast at her, but she easily dodged. Then he had to raise a shield to defend an incoming blast from Brigitta.

Astrid aimed a blast just outside of the shield range, so Villads had to move to defend against it. The girl quickly followed up with another attack, forcing Villads to drop the shield and dodge. Just as Astrid thought they had him on the defensive. He twisted and simultaneously cast a blast at Brigitta, followed a second later by another blast directed towards Astrid, who managed to dodge the spell just barely. However, Brigitta wasn’t as lucky. She hadn’t raised her shield fast enough, so the spell collided with her chest. The weak spell didn’t do much damage, and she quickly recovered.

Astrid found it impressive how fast Villads could cast spells. He quickly fired two spells after Astrid one, where she was standing, which she dodged only to get into the path of the second one. She raised her shield just in time to avoid the impact of that spell, but it greedily ate through a large portion of her mana during the few seconds she left it up. When she thought it was safe to take down the shield, he fired another spell at her, forcing her to keep it up for longer.

Brigitta moved closer, giving Villads less room to maneuver before casting a spell. Villads managed to dodge it, but Astrid was ready with another blast, aiming at where he was going. He managed to raise a shield in time to block it but got hit in the back by Brigitta's next spell.

He used the wind blast to push Brigitta off balance and cast another spell, efficiently sending her out of the duel.

Astrid still hadn’t been hit, but now she was the only target left, and she only had mana enough for one more attack. Still, this was the most fun she had had in a while. She avoided the next attack, moving in the direction of the center of the dueling ring. There she would have more room to move around, and she no longer had to worry about friendly fire accidentally hitting her in the back.

Her center position wasn’t as advantageous as it had been in the duel against Ruben. Whether it was because Villads had seen this trick before or not, she didn’t know, but he never gave her a chance to fire. He barraged her with a continuous streem of blasts that she only managed to dodge due to her higher level in running, increasing her speed. However, she was quickly burning through her stamina as well as her focus, trying to predict where the next blast would be aimed at.

She was hit in the shoulder by a blast, she didn’t have time to dodge properly, and a few seconds later one struck her in the knee. She had to come up with something fast, but Villads kept up the barrage, not giving her a chance to counter.

First, she thought that if she could get him to burn through his entire mana store, she wouldn’t have a chance. But since he had a hundred mana, she would have to dodge over thirty times. How much exactly was hard to tell as some recovery was bound to happen over that long a time period. She scrapped that idea. She had already been hit twice, and her stamina would run out long before his mana would. She had to find another way to break through his barrage.

Then an idea came to her. Instead of dodging the next blast, she ran straight at it, letting it hit her straight on. Sure, she took some damage, but the surprised look on Villads’ face was worth it. She fired a basic blast of her own as soon as she could, but she still wasn’t fast enough at casting her spells, and Villads raised a shield, easily blocking her attack. Astrid was nearing exhaustion now, and she was running out of ideas. She didn’t have mana enough for any more attacks, but she was too stubborn to surrender just because of that. She began swinging her staff as if she were casting a spell but without pushing any mana into it. Villads predictably raised his shield, ready for a blast that never came.

They stared in silence at each other for a moment.

“Are you gonna fire that spell?” Villads asked.

“Maybe, are you gonna drop that shield?”

“You’re out of mana, aren’t you?”

“No” Astrid lied

“He dropped the shield, baiting Astrid to fire, but she had nothing left to push into the spell.

She lowered her staff as well.

"Fine, I’m out of mana.” Sha grumbled.

"It's fine. I already got my levels.”

“What when?” Brigitta asked.

“About halfway through.”

“That’s amazing I’m also pretty close to leveling up now. Hey Sigrid. Do you think you can help me level up tomorrow?”

Astrid thought about it for a bit before answering. A few days ago she struggled finding things to do, and now she was beginning to feel like she had too much stuff going on all at once. Outside of classes, she had to read the book within the next few days. then there was a quest. Although she strictly speaking didn’t have to do those, as she had enough money to live for the foreseeable future, she felt responsible for doing them. After all, no one else seemed able or willing to do it. If she also had to add after-school training to her daily tasks, it might not be sustainable in the long run. On the other hand, she didn’t want to disappoint Brigitta. She was beginning to genially enjoy the girls company, and turning her down might sour their relationship. Astrid couldn’t risk that.

“Sure. We can train again tomorrow.”